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  1. #1

    What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    Seeing as each class only gets 2 or 3 new abilities in WotLK, each one of these new abilities should have a definite purpose. If it's just going to be spellbook filler then why waste the developer's time making these new abilities at all?

    A long time ago Ghostcrawler commented on shadowflame, explaining that's it's useful because "It does shadow and fire damage." The fact that this is completely stupid put aside, what kind of damage it is doesn't change the fact that's its damage, and piss poor damage at that.

    What then is the purpose of shadowflame?

    The purpose of shadowflame is the snare. Then why does the spell have no purpose unless glyphed? If that's its purpose, it should be the baseline effect.

    The purpose of shadowflame is to do AoE damage. Why waste developer's time making a new aoe spell that's completely inferior to seed of corruption and rain of fire's DPS? Warlocks do more aoe damage single target nuking each mob at a time than shadowflame does.

    Why does Blizzard nerf warlock survivability because "warlocks are not supposed to be melee tanks" then give them a 5 yard range spell? Are they ranged or are they close ranged? Make up your mind.

    Why was shadowflame's only redeeming quality, conflag'ing off shadowflame, nerfed to hell in 3.1?

    Why is shadowflame's damage such a joke? I'm not talking bad damage like it needs a 15% increase, I'm talking bad like increase its damage by 100% and maybe I'd think about using it.

  2. #2

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    I have often wondered these same things myself. The only 2 times I use this spell are the following:

    -My partner (rogue) and I are attempting to burst something down in an arena match, the target has under 2k hp, and I dont feel I have enough time to get a searing pain or shadowbolt off, so I blow shadow flame hoping that the 1k damage will be enough to help drop them before a heal comes in. This is a last resort and it rarely works because shadowflame's damage is so weak and its cone is so finicky to even land.

    -When aoe farming, i'll pop it to detonate my seeds (lets face it, they'll detonate eachother in about 0.5 seconds anyway, it just speeds up the process).

    This level 75 talent is completely worthless compared to the awesome talents other classes got (Frostfire bolt, Mind sear, Tricks of the Trade, Lavaburst, Enraged regeneration, to name a few). Some of them are situational, but all of them are at least useful.

    It can only remind me of that OTHER worthless AoE spell we have which only has one purpose... be the only emo class that can kill themselves to save durability without having to use an ability on another player or mob (shadow word death, DI, etc.)

  3. #3

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ofmanv


    Why does Blizzard nerf warlock survivability because "warlocks are not supposed to be melee tanks" then give them a 5 yard range spell? Are they ranged or are they close ranged? Make up your mind.
    MAGE??....

  4. #4

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    Hell fire and shadowflame have very little use.

  5. #5
    Mechagnome
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    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    It has a cool effect though. ;D

    And I like it as a finishing move with a /burp macro just for style.

    Guess it's just purely cosmetic.

  6. #6

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    i found pretty useful in pvp as a destro lock.
    Shadowflame on a melee and conflag after, or to pop out a noob rogue vanishing without running away.
    Destrovs warrior is the perfect example. the fear is pretty lame against so you have him sticking on you for a lot, shadowflame+conflag while you wait for shadowfury/teleport can do some nasty damage and proc aftermat giving you the time to escape.
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  7. #7

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    I used it in low level instances to clear everything with one spell. I just wondered around picking up mobs until I had a whole wing and then grouped them up and cast shadowflame. The cone is affected by the rule of 8 but the dot is not, so a few moments later I would have a great big pile of bodies to loot.

    Being able to cast Conflag without the risk of being interupted is good as well, but is more for the daze then for damage.

    Other then that. I dunno. You got me. Maybe Blizz felt that we lacked an instant cast damage spell that you dont need to spec into. And then they felt it needed to be limited or go against the overall theme of the class... and now, Im reaching.
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  8. #8
    The Unstoppable Force Mayhem's Avatar
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    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    it´s good to burp on your average paladin in the group, everytime the cooldowns ready
    Quote Originally Posted by ash
    So, look um, I'm not a grief counselor, but if it's any consolation, I have had to kill and bury loved ones before. A bunch of times actually.
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  9. #9

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    Every class seems to have their set of bizarre aspects that make no sense and just feel like you're being teased/mocked by the developers. Shadowflame/hellfire are the warlocks' (ok and shards, and shadowburn, and infernals?)

    I don't know what they thought shadowflame would bring to the class. If it were "shadowflame" damage, and worked on shadow or fire-immune mobs in a method similar to FFB, I guess that would at least be one thing. As-is, it's just this bizarre little spell that has very little use. No, not every spell has to be useful, I guess... But if they couldn't think of an L75 spell that would be interesting.. Well, it makes me fear for the future of the class.

    I've tried to think of how to present this issue to Blizz. I know it's been brought up repeatedly, but as far as I can tell it shouldn't need to be 'sold' at all. The spell is obviously just boring, lame, weak, etc. Conf on it hits for like 1k? Oh yay, an immo tick. Surely we are blessed.

    Really, I would just like to see it actually defended. I don't think it can be done. I think the spell, especially when compared with other class' new LK abilities, is extremely lackluster. By "Actually defended", I mean that some significant reason for its addition is presented. Certainly there are times you can use the spell, but I can't think of any where it's an interesting new functionality.

    Quick rundown of the L75/80 abilities received by other classes, and a short comment about whether the ability has power or at least personality.

    DK:
    75: Empower rune weapon (provides emergency responsiveness to the class, works reasonably well with dps cooldowns)
    80: Army of the Dead (plenty of personality, though I think its actual utility is low-ish. There is an EJ thread about raid-tested uses for this, though.)

    Druid:
    75: Savage roar. Feral-only is lame, but it single-handedly makes cat dps possible.
    80: Nourish: enhances healing versatility in a way that boomkin/feral also find useful. Fixes a gap in heal style.

    Hunter:
    75: Master's call: Seems mostly pvp, but could be situationally effective in pve.
    80: Freezing arrow: Significant new functionality, although hunters are quick to downplay it. At the very least, debateably useful.

    Mage:
    75: Frostfire bolt. Adds an entire new spec! This will have interesting talent interactions for the rest of the mage class's existence, I think. Potent, and fills a gap when frost and fire are shut out by immunities.
    80: Mirror image: Has plenty of personality, and provides a spec-agnostic damage cooldown. Some novel pvp applications as well. Extra threat-affecting cooldown as well.

    Paladin:
    75: Shield of righteousness: damage spell for holy/prot, allows paladins to tank and have exceptional threat. Even ret can tank thanks to this.
    80: Sacred shield. A hot-like spell, finally. Interesting for all three specs, though more some than others.

    Priest:
    75: Mind sear, an aoe ability! And a solid one, which remains target-centered (For better and worse). Very notable addition to the SP arsenal.
    80: Not sure which spells are currently in, but the hymns provide novel healing mechanics to an already versatile class.

    Rogue:
    75: Tricks of the Trade: Now rogues can MD? This changes the role of rogues dramatically. Entire new mechanic to play with.
    80: Fan of Knives. Extremely potent, interacts with many abilities. Huge addition to the class.

    Shaman:
    75: Lava Burst: finally a new school of damage! Creates an actual rotation for elem, as well as burst.
    80: Hex: Hi, now our class has CC. This is a huge change.

    Warrior:
    75: Enraged regeneration: A scaling self-heal for a melee physical dps class? Have seen plenty of characters' lives saved by this.
    80: Heroic throw.. An actual solid ranged ability for the class. Plenty of uses.
    Oh and recently for the hell of it, L71: shattering throw. Raid dps cooldown, breaks bubbles, what's not to love?

    Warlock:
    75: Shadowflame? Expensive, thin cone, weak instant. Upside is you can conflagrate it. Downside is that that's generally a huge waste of the cooldown, since you aren't going to use the backdraft while you're in melee (and if you weren't in melee, you could probably immolate.). If backdraft hasted fear? Maybe then we'd be using this.
    80: Demonic Circle, interesting, neat mechanic. At least one of our two was good?

    So really.. Are -any- other 75s this lackluster, even nearly so? Someone's gotta have the worst, but why is ours so painfully bad?
    </ramble>

  10. #10
    Deleted

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    Well, its pretty useful although I thought the same at first. In PvP mostly obviously.

    I thought it being useless at first too but as destro, you can use conflag at its DoT, so with a melee on you, thats pretty much the only way unless you want to risk getting kick, pummel or just wasting 2.5s.

  11. #11

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    its instant. cast it, then rain of fire. surprisingly you can do both at the same time! brilliant i know

    I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every Panda that wouldn't screw to save its species
    http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Illidan&n=Sinders

  12. #12
    Deleted

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mysmere
    cast it, then rain of fire. surprisingly you can do both at the same time! brilliant i know
    how exactly with a 1.5sec gcd?

  13. #13

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    I was hoping then glyph of shadowflame get changed in future.Insteed of slowing efect to have stun or dezorientired ability for 2-4 sec.this will help us survive in PvP much more against melee classes(particulary invisible classes).Undead rogues are very hard to beat as it is (wish alliance side have some racial ability making you immune to stun for 6-8 sec) and this would help as bit more then slowing effect.

  14. #14

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?



    Why was shadowflame's only redeeming quality, conflag'ing off shadowflame, nerfed to hell in 3.1?


    Ok hold on so I cant conflag of the shadow flame debuff anymore wtf is the point of this bitch than make it atleast hit hard or always crit or some shit and increase the range for gods sake I'm trying to burn a DK with that shithes spamming me with hearstrikes and my shit dont even land.

  15. #15

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    /cast shadowflame /cast deathcoil /cast conflag. kite kite kite shadowflame demon cricle conflag kite kite kite....


    WIN^......for pvp neway

  16. #16

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    I've found a few uses for it in pvp...

    in Warsong Gulch its great to throw it on a flag runner so the rest of the team can catch up

    I've added it to a burst castsequence macro for a little extra dmg when I have someone in my face

    Its great to throw it on a hunters pet or DK ghoul to buy yourself some time

    It kills bloodworms (assuming you find a dk specd with them still)

    sometimes you can get lucky and pull a rogue or druid from stealth

    But yeah without the snare its trivial unless you can get a kill shot with it... which is funny and sad at the same time.


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    Nerf teabagging!

  17. #17

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    your missing the pve use?

    Demon spec on aoe pack ...
    run to the pack --> shadowflame on 4-8 mobs ect --> trigers almost instantly Molten core, and finish it of with Rain of fire.. this makes topping AOE DPS the easiest ever!

  18. #18

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rukadare
    your missing the pve use?

    Demon spec on aoe pack ...
    run to the pack --> shadowflame on 4-8 mobs ect --> trigers almost instantly Molten flame, and finish it of with Rain of fire.. this makes topping AOE DPS the easiest ever!
    How many demo PvE (or PvPer) are there??
    think first...

  19. #19

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    ignoring your silly remark about the thinking part :-* the point beeing almost anyone with molten core is demo/hybrid,

    Thorim arena fight.. loads of aoe? i think so.. im using a 0-40-31 spec ill throw in a Shadowflame every 20 sec to keep up another 10 % dmg increase on my aoe through Molten core..

  20. #20

    Re: What is the purpose of shadowflame?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rukadare
    ignoring your silly remark about the thinking part :-* the point beeing almost anyone with molten core is demo/hybrid,

    Thorim arena fight.. loads of aoe? i think so.. im using a 0-40-31 spec ill throw in a Shadowflame every 20 sec to keep up another 10 % dmg increase on my aoe through Molten core..
    And Affli
    or PvPer?
    look other's almost all of them have so use in PvP.

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