1. #1
    Deleted

    New to shadow priest. My concerns

    Hi all,

    Recently got a priest to 110 and having enough fun. Until I tried some mythical and mythic plus and I am struggling after coming from unholy DK. I feel like I would be better refilling to another range DPS for my guild. I worry about myself in raids as well with huge ramp up and punishment for moving around for mechanics during voidform to keep stacks.

    Currently if there are mass aoe in m+ I shadow pain and flay them and roll dots as misery specced on longer living targets. Am I more beneficial on tyrannical weeks and that's my lot?? Just concerned whether there are better ways to perform in mythic plus.

    Concerning raid movement, anytime I need to soak or move for mechanics I just try save that time to refresh dots if needed and void bolt stutter step and execute phase I use death as well.

    Is there anything regarding movement anytime n rais you can help with. I contemplated keeping dispersion as the pause on voidform. But, I usually keep this for soaking g and stuff. Is body and soul best or can I use the void form speed increase talent for move coverage in void bolt movements etc??

    And am I single target 2-3 target cleave bot for m+??? Am I going to be rejected when they see I am shadow during m+ pug sign ups??!

    Any advice or help is greatly appreciated. I've looked at how-to priest guide and it's nice but not sure about movement and mythic plus as I haven't read it there.

    If I haven't seen something in the how-to priest I do t mind a point t into the direction of its easier.


    Thanks is slot!!!!

    P.S. I enjoy playstyle, just don't want to gimp myself before investing time on my hopefully new Spriest main. Cheers!!

  2. #2
    Deleted
    If you have the option you should play another range class if you find them fun. Shadow are a niche class and unless you're really invested into it practically any other range class is objectively a better option for overall performance.

    Your overall damage in m+ will always be on the low end compared to other classes unless you're running high keys. Yes you will be declined from m+ unless you have higher ilvl than the other people signing up.

    As for movement in raids you're pretty much fucked. Stutterstep if you can, but in reality if you need to move a long distance and don't get lucky with void tendrils your dps with plummet. Only upside to raiding is that your execute phase is really good

  3. #3
    Yeah, Shadow is pretty garbage at the moment, it's not just you. Long ramp up time, crappy single target, any unexpected/extended movement absolutely kills your dps, etc.

    Shadow really only excels in places with 2+ targets that are alive for more than 25-30 seconds.

    In low M+, yes, you will be below the tank on trash. Shadow is much better suited to higher M+ where trash is alive for longer and you can effectively multidot and refresh them all with void bolt.

  4. #4
    You've pretty much summed up the spec's lot in life, which is what led me to roll away from the spec as well. Very niche spec that will indeed suffer in most M+ scenarios until very high keys where trash is long-lived. Movement options in raid settings are generally limited to the options you've mentioned. You have to work rather hard in both of these situations and likely won't keep up with many other specs due to the design of Shadow's toolkit, imo.

  5. #5
    Deleted
    Sounds rather u fortunate. Just transferred faction to raid with friends guild with shadow. Albeit we don't plan on doing cutting edge just a few mythic kills per progression maybe at best.

    Why was there shadow on world first kills. Are those shadow priests really skilled? Or is shadow priests execute phase that desirable.??

    Appreciate feedback was just wondering if it was me not grasping it well enough. I don't really have cash to transfer my hunter at 110 realms right now but I feel slightly tempted when I get paid to do it now, with all the feedback here.

    A shame as well. As I enjoy getting more stacks in voidformwith more haste and such. Just got new ring legendary as well xD. Maybe a sign to stick with it. Although I don't know if shadow priest have a better history with nerfs/buffs, in relation to keeping Spriest as main for future content

  6. #6
    We really aren't as bad as people make us out to be, although it's true we have the weaknesses we can still do fine, it's just that we are a fairly unforgiving class to play so small mistakes can cost you a lot of dps. We shine on hard content where stuff lives for a long time but do become weaker on farm, although shouldn't be as bad as it was in nighthold as our current single target is better than it was there.

  7. #7
    Deleted
    Shadow is one of the top ranged specs in high M+ and mythic raids in my opinion. You can see shadow in high M+ logs and also in top mythic progress guilds. Life as a shadow is just alot harder and more complicated than most other ranged dps. You need to play the spec alot to learn all the tips and tricks, and it will then get better. One of the biggest weakness shadow has is mobility. When ever you need to move more than few GCDs, risk of DPS dropping alot is high. Another one is ramp up time.
    After all, this is just my opinion. I really enjoy the playstyle and I'm pretty dedicated to rise up my performance level, even tho I'm not really skilled and I'm raid leader. I have arms warrior alt only 10 ilvls behind and I have chance to reroll to it for mythic raiding. It is tempting but arms is totally OP and got everything that shadow does not, high burst and great mobility. Otherwise, I would not even think about rerolling.
    Sorry if it got messy, typing on my phone with tiny screen. :s
    Last edited by mmoc2d11dd7182; 2017-07-19 at 06:55 PM.

  8. #8
    Shadows biggest glaring weakness is the fact our damage comes on the backend, while the majority of classes damage comes on the frontend. We take awhile to ramp up, but once we do we go ham. For ToS we're pretty good for majority of the raid and bring some excellent DPS to the table. Yes we do have some movement issues, but outside of bad play they aren't an issue in ToS at all.

  9. #9
    Deleted
    Gonna stick it out since I'm having fun on it, and I suppose that's probably most important. Got my first 2 legendaries within 3 hours played so I'll take that as a sign haha.

    Only thing that's annoying me gameplay wise is tab targeting for multi-dotting. Seems to only cycle through like 2 or 3 targets even when there is like 8 mobs. Settings fix maybe? I know they messed up tab targeting at so e point in legion but, I remember in WoD I didn't have any issues tab targeting as it just cylced through all mobs within the area in combat, or so it appeared lol.

    Thanks for input glad I'm not just being a bit daft about my gameplay ������.

  10. #10
    I dont think shadow is that bad tbh. But i feel like shadow is very unforgiving compared to other classes. You really have to get perfect voidforms and reach 50-55 stacks VF before you do any dmg, and you have to reach that in every VF. Problem here is, if you mess up your timings on Mindbender and your voidform the entire fight is kinda ruined for you, and i really feel the dps loss is too much just for making 1 mistake. Like others also have said, you really have to work for your dps and that can sometimes be a little bit frustrating.

    And i feel your concern about Mythic+. Im trying not do do anything below 14-15 since i just feel like im totally useless, and the group could probably get a better dps. But shadow is pretty good on higher mythics. Really good AOE stun, Mass Dispel and valuable spells that can help you in certain situations, Dispersion is good, Shadowmend can also be good if the healers is struggling a bit. But you really need some good trinkets in mythic+ before you see some good dmg

  11. #11
    If you're really good at shadow, and you're able to stick with raids and high level mythic keys, you can make it work. I routinely do the most overall damage in a mythic +15ish, especially on fortified weeks.

    You also have to accept Shadow's weaknesses, and be prepared for disappointment because Blizzard seems to like the broken place we're at.

    Shadow is a very niche spec. Its extremely backloaded design means the spec only works in challenging content, like new raid tiers and very high level mythics. Only in these environments do fights last long enough for our damage to ramp up. So the easier the content you do, the shorter the fights will be, and the worse you'll perform. For this reason we're the only spec in the game that scales backwards with gear, relative to our teammates. It's a very backwards, and in my opinion, poorly thought out design.

    It means we feel foolish and bad for ever daring to step foot in a Timewalking dungeon, for example - you'll literally do like twice as much damage by going Holy and spamming Holy Nova. I'm not kidding. You can't carry a low-geared friend through low-level mythics, because they'll be carrying you with their actually good class. Wanna do LFR? You may as well go AFK on trash, because your contribution just won't matter. The hunters and warriors and mages and warlocks will blow everything up before you even get your dots rolling. Hell, same thing goes for trash pulls in current tier heroic raids - don't bother helping on aoe trash pulls. Your niche is bosses. Blizzard didn't give you aoe abilities, so they clearly don't want you to help.

    And then even on real raid bosses, the design narrows us down even further. Even though bosses last long enough for our damage to reach its peak, that peak is still consciously tuned low compared to other specs on any boss fight that doesn't fit our precise niche. Single-target boss, or a lot of big but brief aoe? We're in the bottom five. Lots of medium-health adds? Lower middle. It's only on the precious few raid bosses per tier that present us 2-3 targets to keep dotted for long periods of time. This is the only time we ever get to feel truly strong.

    And that's just the nature of the beast. If you're okay with all this, and remember that yes you can do pretty damn well on those high level Fortified mythics, and only if you're a truly awesome player, then by all means, jump right in. But to me it's a bad, bad design and needs to change ASAP, and yet Blizzard clearly doesn't think so, because PTR patch after patch go by with zero shadow attention. Blizzard has never seemed to care much about the spec, and there's no indication that they ever will.

    Yes I am bitter, and yes I wish I'd invested 8 years into a different class. But I'm also stubborn, and I'm proud that I'm able to do so much with so little. People are surprised when I top damage on certain things. They wouldn't be very surprised if I were a good class.

    For you or anyone else? I'd definitely advise you to stay the hell away.

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