Mind spike: Why the extra threat?

[Omedon]

When I see a single target "DPS power" with "high amount of threat" attached to it, the only explanation I can think of is "meant for PVP". *Examples that come to mind are searing pain and frost shock.

Is this the case for mind spike? *Or is the threat augmentation meant to make it a "shadow spec only" ability due to shadow's innate threat dampening (unless that's gone now too... can't open the talents on the phone).

Haven't had the chance to experience the practical application of mind spike, so for those who have, what's the deal here?

[Reefiis]

When I see a single target "DPS power" with "high amount of threat" attached to it, the only explanation I can think of is "meant for PVP". *Examples that come to mind are searing pain and frost shock.

Is this the case for mind spike? *Or is the threat augmentation meant to make it a "shadow spec only" ability due to shadow's innate threat dampening (unless that's gone now too... can't open the talents on the phone).

Haven't had the chance to experience the practical application of mind spike, so for those who have, what's the deal here?

From what i understand its a move meant for pulling something off a healer or dying player, or kiting a mob around during a fight. Not an expert on the concept of these moves, but thats what it seems to be from past posts. But it could also be used if the tank has a good space of threat on the target between you and him to up damage temporarily.

[Luneward]

As above, probably. Something meant for ranged tank type fights. Also likely so that the Shadow Priest can't just recklessly spam it in heavy movement fights and instead has to get back to their normal rotation at some point. The damage isn't supposed to be high enough to make that an attractive option, but I really haven't had any time to tinker with SPriests on the PTR yet.

[Omedon]

I really wish copy-pasting on my phone wouldnt generate random asterisks... Seems only to happen for MMOC.

[Tustavus]

It could possibly be for a ranged tank situation, which would be pretty awesome, especially considering the damage reduction from Shadowform, and being able to pick up Inner Sanctum for even less spell damage taken.

My thoughts are that Blizzard is using the extra threat to discourage a Shadow Priest from trying to fit Mind Spike into the already full enough Shadow "rotation."

[Rude Hero]

I'm not sure what the purpose is. Abilities like Heroic Strike and Death and Decay have always had that "high threat" tag, and people still use them in regular rotations (either single-target or aoe, obviously). This modifier isn't going to change anybody's rotation.

I guess it could be considered utility for pulling mobs off of healers or an added oompf for ranged tanking, as someone else mentioned.

[Deleted]

Usually they do this to stop people from spamming a spell constantly. They've said they don't want Mind Spike as part of the main rotation and pretty much just for very short fight durations (or ads on bosses).

[Spasme]

maybe we'll have to tank on some encounters .... like mages and locks have done in the past

[zsun]

Blizzard stated that they don't want Mind Spike to be included into our normal rotation. The purpose of Mind Spike is to provide some burst when our ordinary ramp up rotation is not feasible. Examples include adds need to die fast, such as Saurfang adds, or Marrowgar bone spikes.

This is Blizzard's way of saying we don't want you to use it in your normal rotation on boss fights.

[Deleted]

Kind of annoying, anyway. Not a good idea to give a cool new ability and then limit your reasonable use of it. It was like that on Mind Blast, back in Vanilla days...

[Deleted]

Shadow priest tanks for certain fights? anyone?

[Deleted]

Shadow priest tanks for certain fights? anyone?

You mean like disc priests spaming Mind Spike?

[derevka]

Its really there just so we don't have SP's spamming it and only it. Its to force diversity in your rotations. They dont want SP's stacking MS to store a 'max stacked debuff on the target', pop it with MB and repeat. For a short while on Beta, that strategy worked better than introducing MF to your rotation. *but again, that was before they increased MF's base dmg.

[Deleted]

Blood Prince council, anyone? High aggro spells could be very handy there, make your hold on Keleseth even firmer. Especially on an instant-cast, so the kiting nature of that fight becomes easier. I won't be surprised if we see more mechanics like that one again, as it was very good fun, and a pleasant change for Shadow spec.

[Sackman]

Kind of annoying, anyway. Not a good idea to give a cool new ability and then limit your reasonable use of it. It was like that on Mind Blast, back in Vanilla days...

Kind of annoying I can't use everybodies ability all the time. Whats the point in an ability if I can't use it everytime all the time.

[Deleted]

Blizzard stated that they don't want Mind Spike to be included into our normal rotation. The purpose of Mind Spike is to provide some burst when our ordinary ramp up rotation is not feasible. Examples include adds need to die fast, such as Saurfang adds, or Marrowgar bone spikes.

This is Blizzard's way of saying we don't want you to use it in your normal rotation on boss fights.

Marrowgar adds are a good example, considering SPriests have ramp up time on dps due to dots and no instant nukes. If you have one of those idiot tanks or melee dps that get aggro (Pally Tanks for example) Spriests won't pull off fast (at least in my experience...) and this would be a great help for that.

[Deleted]

I'm just asking this, because I'm not sure:
Is the DPS throughput of Mind Spike comparable to the one of Mind Flay?

Because as far as I recall, Mind Spike was meant to be the spell for some special situations and the high amount of aggro it's producing could prevent players from using it over Mind Flay.


For the rest, I agree with the before mentioned tanking purpose. Just take the fight against the Blood Princes as an example, where shadow priests are a great class to tank Keleseth with. As far as I know, grabbing orbs is way easier using spell damage over physical. As in Cataclysm Blizz wants to deny tasks, that can only be fulfilled by a single class (yes, I know, that other classes are very well able to tank Keleseth, too), they may give us the possibility of playing around with aggro (which wasn't an issue for shadow priests before - at least not in WotLK -, if I recall correctly) without the mobs being reduced to spell aggro. Bof. Sorry I can't get any clearer. =/

All this is especially interesting, when it comes to using Mind Spike complementarily with Fade.

[Zka]

Shadow priest tanks for certain fights? anyone?

I used to tank the head at Mimiron

[vitabis]

Very easy.

Mind spike is a spell you use when a mob is dead in 5-10 seconds. easy rotation, quick build up, high burst.

Mind spike is not a spell you are going to use in your dps rotation against a boss, that's why the high threat is there for. If you complain about the high threat then they are going to nerf it in another way.

It will to some extent divide the good from the bad priests. "good sustained damage" vs "ahmahgad, i can has moar damage, tank keep threat > dead priest"

[Thrayne]

Anyone know how much threat it pulls? Can three be casted + MB w/o pulling aggro?