[7.2] Legion Shadow Priest Guide and Discussion

[davesignal]

A hunter in my guild is fairly salty, and thinks guilds are going to stack all shadow priests now. Had a good laugh.

[Sinistrem]

Looking at those changes, part of me dreams of a day when sear will replace flay. It's so much prettier. Pity that one of our most beautiful spells is also one of the most worthless ones.

[Jullyx]

Can someone explain what just happened?

It seemed like the vast majority agreed that the MH nerf was called for, but overall it was a bit too rough on us. So they just revert all nerfs and buff us instead?

Ait.

[Sinistrem]

This is a buff in name only, both mind flay and mind sear do too little of our total damage for these changes to be impactful, and we still lose dispersion as an offensive cd. As for nerfs, they simply said that shadow priests need serious mechanical changes for s2m to become less dominant of a talent, so instead of doing something drastic in a hotfix they would rather wait for a real patch to mess with our mechanics.

[Cerbz]

Can someone explain what just happened?

It seemed like the vast majority agreed that the MH nerf was called for, but overall it was a bit too rough on us. So they just revert all nerfs and buff us instead?

Ait.

I'd rather them just nerf/change S2M than nerf MH.

[hugplx]

Dispersion nerf still in place. Postulate MH will stay as is until nerfing it won't make us less competitive. Maybe after a rework.

Wonder if we'll get an artifact point refund after a rework...

[Jullyx]

I'd rather them just nerf/change S2M than nerf MH.

Well, what is the difference?

[Deleted]

Can someone explain what just happened?

It seemed like the vast majority agreed that the MH nerf was called for, but overall it was a bit too rough on us. So they just revert all nerfs and buff us instead?

Ait.

It looks like it. Shadow without S2M just cant compete with other dps specs. in order to tune S2M it needs more then just Hotfixes, so we will see probly a change in 7.1. I personaly would like to see the mindspike talent to change to something else. i really like the channel feeling of mindflay :/ but it looks like mindspike will be the default for dungons now ?

[Jullyx]

It looks like it. Shadow without S2M just cant compete with other dps specs. in order to tune S2M it needs more then just Hotfixes, so we will see probly a change in 7.1. I personaly would like to see the mindspike talent to change to something else. i really like the channel feeling of mindflay :/ but it looks like mindspike will be the default for dungons now ?

Highly doubt it. It's just an awkward talent to use as you need all your globals to dot. It just puts it further ahead of LotV single target, but you take S2M for that anyway. Mind Spike simply doesn't work as a talent until it's so strong you don't do anything but spam it. Might be worth it for certain dungeon bosses if you want to cheese dps though.

[whywhatwhowhenhow]

Quick question. Does Fortress of the Mind increase the damage done by our tentacle from Call of the Void, or is it classed as a seperate entity?

Also will these buffs to mind flay buff the damage of our tentacle?

[davesignal]

Can someone explain what just happened?

It seemed like the vast majority agreed that the MH nerf was called for, but overall it was a bit too rough on us. So they just revert all nerfs and buff us instead?

Ait.

They punted, gave us some buffs aimed primarily at making dungeons less painful, and now I imagine they're going to fix it with more than just band-aids in 7.1.

[big deal]

How much haste % should we be aiming for?

[Yvaelle]

They punted, gave us some buffs aimed primarily at making dungeons less painful, and now I imagine they're going to fix it with more than just band-aids in 7.1.

Yea I suspect S2M is gone in 7.1, possibly with a full L100 talent fix.

How much haste % should we be aiming for?

How much haste is there? When do numbers end?

It's kind of a philosophic question really.

[big deal]

Yea I suspect S2M is gone in 7.1, possibly with a full L100 talent fix.



How much haste is there? When do numbers end?

It's kind of a philosophic question really.

It's just that I've been gearing up as a disc priest, and when I switch over to shadow, I feel like my haste is a little too low with the disc gear, its around 15% now at ilvl840 before getting in combat. So I'm just curious to know if I should go for lower ilvl gear which is worse in every stat but better in haste, or not.

[l33t]

It's just that I've been gearing up as a disc priest, and when I switch over to shadow, I feel like my haste is a little too low with the disc gear, its around 15% now at ilvl840 before getting in combat. So I'm just curious to know if I should go for lower ilvl gear which is worse in every stat but better in haste, or not.

You should. With 15% of haste shadow priest is close to being unplayable. Aim at 25 at least.

[Deleted]

For mythic+ do you think mind spike is now a better 100 talent?

[Menae]

It's just that I've been gearing up as a disc priest, and when I switch over to shadow, I feel like my haste is a little too low with the disc gear, its around 15% now at ilvl840 before getting in combat. So I'm just curious to know if I should go for lower ilvl gear which is worse in every stat but better in haste, or not.

Disc stat priority is Haste>Crit>Vers>Mastery if I recall correctly, so honestly your Disc and shadow gear should be very similar. Maybe not so much because ilvl is more important to disc than shadow, though.

[Gorsameth]

I'm glad to see Blizzard realized they need to do a full top down redesign of shadows scaling with MH/StM instead of quick and dirty fixes.
Here is hoping they pull it off well.

We're still utterly fucked on AoE tho, doesn't matter if mind sear is buffed by 50, 80 or 200%.

[Yvaelle]

For mythic+ do you think mind spike is now a better 100 talent?

Nope - Mind Spike is still going to be horrid.

[Deleted]

Nope - Mind Spike is still going to be horrid.

Even after the buff? I only got up to mythic+ 6 but basically s2m is just useful on the last boss, wouldnt a better spike be more useful overall?