Shadow Priests Overpowered?

[Yvaelle]

We have lots of specs that might be considered counters when played by a skilled opponent, they are:
- Enhancement Shaman
- Unholy DK
- Feral Druids
- Affliction Locks
- Frost Mages

Played well any of these classes, at equal skill and gear, should beat us more often than not. There are definitely classes that Shadow is consistently strong against too, but that's just how the game works.

The common misperception that Shadow might be overpowered is caused by the convergence of two events, the first is in patch 3.3 resilience got a massive buff, which has the largest effect on classes that wear the most resilience - priests being a strong contender if not the leader - this cause Shadowpriests to jump from free kills to real threats, since an increase in our resilience also increases the benefit from VE survivability since it means we last longer and thus VE ticks more.

The second event was that because the existing shadowpriest community prior to 3.3 had grown accustomed to our fragility we had developed a playstyle of constant defense and evasive play - dot kiting and blowing cooldowns at the first sign of danger before running for cover. Combined with our new survivablity this meant shadowpriests could do this much more effectively, and quickly we may seem overpowered. However, I have both a geared spriest and a geared lock, and if I play my lock like I do my priest - I assure you, you would sooner call my lock OP than my priest.

[Repo123]

No I was also considering in the fact in 1 vs 1 which does not really matter today since the game isn't based around 1 vs 1. BG's imo are mostly full of under geared honor farming weaklings half the time. You really fight the skilled players in arena who are also equally geared as you.


Enhancement shamans
Unholy Dk's
Kitty's
Affliction/destro lock

Are our counter classes period. If you BG alot and tend to take down these guys easily than well your not fighting the best try arena and see the difference.

In my opinion, and I play a priest - Shadow are slighly OP"d.

Let me guess, you do arena. Arena isn't all about talent. All things being equal, sure talent will determine, but arena is NOT balanced. Comp (which would be class or spec in 1 vs 1) is the most important factor in arena. Comp only becomes less important the larger the group becomes. This is only imho. BTW not all arena players are "skilled". I've seen many in bg's that have been outplayed because they "didn't have a pocket healer" and they didn't have the proper "comp" to prop them up, but that's just my observation.

[Huurka]

Bloodlust and Haste is what makes it silly.

[DakeshiSB]

A shadowpriest in full pve end game gear with a few healers in BGs are OP, yes. But that's not the shadowpriests fault.

[Screwtape]

Lol. I can tell you as an affliction warlock you literally cannot do damage fast enough to even have a chance against a shadow priest in a duel. And even if you could get them down to half, they'd just heal themselves.

But duels are moronic. They are kind of OP in double dps twos, but that's a high risk comp, so if they can eke out a living as double dps who cares.

[Myrsky]

Considering Priests have every kind of ability (Disarm, CC, DoTs, Heals, Shields... etc) I think they do get a fair bit handed to them. When you have 30k health as a Warrior and find Shadow Word: Pain ticking for 3k+ on you it isn't very appealing...

I don't think they're OP, I just think they've been given a bit much. I mean sure they need Fear and Shields but a Disarm? Blizzard, what the hell?!

[Pally_Power]

I think Shadow Priests are only overpowered when given Bloodlust to play with. The way Shadow scales with haste is amazing, they can pull out so much damage in such a short amount of time with ample amounts of haste. Couple this with the CC options they have, and suddenly you have a playerbase screaming "Nerf!" at them.

[Dark_Widget]

im playin both shadow priest and affli lock in pvp.. the priest got alot worse gear but still preforming about the same my lock got 3300 spellpower and the priest got 2100.. still almost the same dmg output plus a silence and disarm with a horror effect + disperse and selfheal and dispells, AOE fear with lower CD an EXTREMY strong pet (shadowfiend).. the only advantage as a lock is that u got ondemand fear, oh.. and 3 of the priest's spells benefit from haste.. only 1 from the lock..

my conclusion? yea Spriests are alot stronger overall then locks (this dosent mean a Spriest win all duels against affli..)

[sealdonut]

Spriests definitely put out more raw damage than locks, but lack a lot of the utility.

[Deleted]

Of course Shadow Priests are overpowered... :
Silence, Fear, Stun / remove weapon, -15% damage from all source, dispersion.

SP should not be silenced because they will use holy spell in this case..

[Skidmore]

i dont find them OP. a very skilled one with a skilled partner can own but not OP. they can be killed by any other class. its just how u play and how they play. and also the combo u use in 2v2 3v3. havent run into any in 5v5 yet.

[Galith]

One of the reasons people are hating on S-Priests is probably just because of the teams that they are on. The amount of damage they can put out with bloodlust/heroism is insane and the teams they play are on high burst teams. Shadowpriests can probably put out more damage in a heroism than any other class, throw in silence, stun, and a partner for him and it's all over for the target.

[Huurka]

Of course Shadow Priests are overpowered... :
Silence, Fear, Stun / remove weapon, -15% damage from all source, dispersion.

SP should not be silenced because they will use holy spell in this case..

Of course Death Knights are overpowered... :
Silence, Diseases, Stun, AMZ, AMS, Slows, Death Grip.

[Weidmo]

Have to say that SP's are fucking op in pvp :P

[Devanox]

Lol. I can tell you as an affliction warlock you literally cannot do damage fast enough to even have a chance against a shadow priest in a duel. And even if you could get them down to half, they'd just heal themselves.

tbh i lose to good wrathful aff loks (partly because of my gear) good loks will stomp spriests (get them to pop dispersion and then its a full fear with dots up and a drain life in there and its game)

back to the topic, Spriests are in a good place right now. BL is what makes them seem overpowered. once you get past silence, horror, and fear bomb your left with a caster that can do damage and heal but pretty much nothing else. fear the shadowfiend or cyclone it, DONT LET THE PRIEST NEAR YOU (its not hard unless he has rocket boots like i do) and if your a healer, dispel VT it hits like a joke and theres literally no repercussions to it (other than 5k damage which can be absorbed and healed up easily)

o and heres the best part... shadow priests have the worst mana efficiency out of all the casters. Get them casting heavy and they will pop shadowfiend, keep that away from you and they will dispersion for mana. wait for dispersion to end and enjoy your free kill

[beforememory]

but, i was trying to pvp and i got PWNd
they must be OP

[Huurka]

Bloodlust and current haste scaling is the issue. This is not a problem with priests.

Thanks.

[Takanami]

Lol yea. I think its hilarious though as I have an Spriest. So I'm not complaining.

[Opeth69]

Haste has just exaggerated every caster's strenghts too much thats all the problem is. Its the same with Mages Ele shammies and destro locks, haste should never have got this high and so dmg is far higher and burstier than it was ever intended. Shadowpriests utility, silence, disarm etc are balanced the problem is dot scaling and so much of the dmg coming from simple instant casts dots, you can interrupt mages/destro/ele and kick/stun UA and haunt, but shadowpriests dmg is largely instant casts which can be overwhelming especially with hero up.Even though shadow priests oom quick, have fairly weak survivability and cc, the pure dmg they can put out overwhelms there weaknesses atm, even without hero there godly. Blizz already said haste has effectively messsed up CC and dmg in arena and theyll be changing that in cata, mainly by keeping haste/crit ratings alot lower and more balanced so enjoy the faceroll while it lasts!

[XemnasXD]

In BGs they tear through my ele shaman before i can blink. if they're in PvP gear it becomes a battle of skill even though im the underdog. PvE gear, they win no contest, just too much damage too fast with too much mitigation and CC. I don't know why people are saying Enh is a counter class. Any good Spriest and dot up and rebuff through purges so thats almost a waste of time, wolves can be feared, and they can normally just outlast any melee damage we're capable of. In areas i guess its a different story but in a BG...Enh isn't really countering anything