How come Shadowform is still so expensive?

[Raptorg]

New Mechanics:

Shadowy rage: Everytime you bash your keyboard or screen because you have been, disoriented, stunned, incapacitated, silenced, interrupted, slowed, rooted or snared while in Shadowform, you gain 30 shadowy rage, the more shadowy rage you have, the lower the mana cost on your shadowform, power word fortitude, divine spirit or greater heal(<-wat?).

This effect may only be consumed in Shadowform.

0-20 rage: -20% mana cost.
20-40 rage: -25% cost.
40-60 rage: -50% cost(lol inconsistancy)
60-100 rage: -75% cost(sorry, we got bored)

[iGREASE]

New Mechanics:

Shadowy rage: Everytime you bash your keyboard or screen because you have been, disoriented, stunned, incapacitated, silenced, interrupted, slowed, rooted or snared while in Shadowform, you gain 30 shadowy rage, the more shadowy rage you have, the lower the mana cost on your shadowform, power word fortitude, divine spirit or greater heal(<-wat?).

This effect may only be consumed in Shadowform.

0-20 rage: -20% mana cost.
20-40 rage: -25% cost.
40-60 rage: -50% cost(lol inconsistancy)
60-100 rage: -75% cost(sorry, we got bored)

QFT.

Haha.

[Abandon]

New Mechanics:

Shadowy rage: Everytime you bash your keyboard or screen because you have been, disoriented, stunned, incapacitated, silenced, interrupted, slowed, rooted or snared while in Shadowform, you gain 30 shadowy rage, the more shadowy rage you have, the lower the mana cost on your shadowform, power word fortitude, divine spirit or greater heal(<-wat?).

This effect may only be consumed in Shadowform.

0-20 rage: -20% mana cost.
20-40 rage: -25% cost.
40-60 rage: -50% cost(lol inconsistancy)
60-100 rage: -75% cost(sorry, we got bored)

That sounds pretty awesome, I would love a permanent -75% cost of shadowform when I am in PVP. And trust me, it would be permanent.

[dascia]

To the OP, you completely seem to forget that Moonkin and Tree of Life are talent based, druids can't pop into these forms if they don't have the required talents for them and it's impossible to get both forms at the same time.

[Deleted]

As i know sform is talented too.What you meen?

[Piscesthepally]

Now look at Druids, the have 2 shapeshifts that rely on mana.
Moonkin and Tree of Life.

Moonkin form increases armor from items by 360%, all raid members within 45 yards get 5% spell critical strike chance, they have a chance when they crit with a spell to regenerate 2% of their mana instantly and when they shapeshift they remove all Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects on themselves.
While Moonkin form is active you cannot cast restoration spells, except for Remove Curse.
It costs 22% base mana, 10% lower than Shadowform(for those who can't do the math)

Tree of Life increases healing received by 6% for all raid members within 45 yards, reduces 20% mana cost of all healing over time spells.
Also removes all Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.
Costs 28% base mana and cannot cast balance spells excluding couple of spells.
(Next patch: Tree of Life gets 260% more armor from items, base mana cost reduced to 13% but no longer reduces the mana cost for HoT spells)

Shadowform: 32%
Moonkin: 22%
Tree of Life: 28% (13%)

So now, I'll let you decide, is this fair?

ugh.. yes it is 100 percent fair - you are not druids - blizzard doesn't want to balance you around a shape shifting play style. All druids rely on shifting, it is the whole point of being a druid.

[Belisarius1987]

ugh.. yes it is 100 percent fair - you are not druids - blizzard doesn't want to balance you around a shape shifting play style. All druids rely on shifting, it is the whole point of being a druid.

And shifting is the whole point of a Shadow Priest.

[Abandon]

And shifting is the whole point of a Shadow Priest.

No it's not. If it was then we would be encouraged to switch, and obviously we are not. Also, Shadow Priest is not a class, its a spec. Our class is not based around switching forms, theirs is.

[Belisarius1987]

Look at it this way - if Shifting wasn't the point, then we wouldn't be able to shift in and out at all.

[Abandon]

No. That's just stupid. The priest class is not a class that bases every tree and a lot of trainer abilities around switching to different forms. Priests have one form, in one talent tree, quite far down, that they can obtain.

[CSJenova]

Look at it this way - if Shifting wasn't the point, then we wouldn't be able to shift in and out at all.

Granted, balance and resto have slowly begun to move away from being required to shift in and our for fairly common roles, ie dispelling poison/removing curses, so that argument holds less water than it used to as a moonkin should now be able to achieve all their necessary raid roles without shifting out of moonkin.

This is assuming healing is not needed, in which case either the shadow priest or the moonkin can/will need to shift out.

The point Abandon is making is that the druid class is centered around shifting forms. Granted, "reality based logic" is silly as well, from a fantasy perspective, it makes sense that a class that is constantly shifting forms despite their role in the raid would be more adept at it then a class that only shifts forms under 1 of their roles they can fill.

I agree that the discrepancy is a little silly at this point in the game, but it is probably a remnant of when trees and moonkin had to shift out anytime they needed to cast certain abilities mid raid. I could be completely wrong as my spriest is low level. Did abolishing diseases and dispelling magic used to pull you our out of shadow form? Please don't interpret this as a flame, just trying to explain from a different perspective how what Abandon is mentioning is different from what you are mentioning. Shifting isn't the point of being a shadow priest in the same way that shifting is part of being a druid.

[Abandon]

Dispel Magic never put you out of Shadowform, none of the Discipline spells do. Abolish Disease and Cure Disease used to but that got changed when Death Knights arrived.

[CSJenova]

Dispel Magic never put you out of Shadowform, none of the Discipline spells do. Abolish Disease and Cure Disease used to but that got changed when Death Knights arrived.

Thanks I knew discipline spells didn't, but my spriest is 55 and leveling with my wife so I don't really pay close attention to which was in which school. Maybe in 2 years when those toons reach 80 I'll figure it out :P

[Sindershock]

Shadowform, as everyone knows, is the bread and butter for shadowpriests.
It gives us +shadowdamage, -15% physical, increases our DoTs damage by our crit chance and reduces our threat (Next patch: -15% all damage and dots crit). But the downside is that we cannot use holy spells, thus making us unable to heal ourselves or others.
It also costs 32% base mana (1161 mana for an UD with Shadow Focus)

Now look at Druids, the have 2 shapeshifts that rely on mana.
Moonkin and Tree of Life.

Moonkin form increases armor from items by 360%, all raid members within 45 yards get 5% spell critical strike chance, they have a chance when they crit with a spell to regenerate 2% of their mana instantly and when they shapeshift they remove all Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects on themselves.
While Moonkin form is active you cannot cast restoration spells, except for Remove Curse.
It costs 22% base mana, 10% lower than Shadowform(for those who can't do the math)

Tree of Life increases healing received by 6% for all raid members within 45 yards, reduces 20% mana cost of all healing over time spells.
Also removes all Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.
Costs 28% base mana and cannot cast balance spells excluding couple of spells.
(Next patch: Tree of Life gets 260% more armor from items, base mana cost reduced to 13% but no longer reduces the mana cost for HoT spells)

Shadowform: 32%
Moonkin: 22%
Tree of Life: 28% (13%)

So now, I'll let you decide, is this fair?

For one, Shadowform gives a MUCH bigger buff than Moonkin or Tree form (in terms of DPS increase and defense) The moonkin 5% crit strike bonus isn't a unique buff, it's shared with Ele shamans and I think Mages?. The 360% armor buff is to account for the fact that they're using leather with no shields/parry/block/heals etc and caster HP.
Secondly, Druids are supposed to be the masters of shapeshifting, Priests aren't, so it's natural Blizz wants them to be shape shifting more.