Shadow word Death: Backlash Damage.. too high

[andybiggs]

So yeah, im a shadow priest.
So ive been raiding a lot of 10 and 25 man regular mode raids, blackwing descent, bastion of twilight, and throne of the four winds...

To be completely honest i think that the backlash from having pretty good gear when using shadow word death gives too much backlash damage..

This makes sense in PvP in my opinion, not going to argue there, i also do see the point of it in PvE but it just seems to me that it is hitting too hard in PVE.

Our dps substantially goes up when using this ability (espiecally twice in a row with glyph, crits ect.) this is an ability that i enjoy using and if i am in an encounter where im at low health, it becomes a huge hazard to make the most out of my execute phase. Every other class gets a dps increase during execute phase no matter what, but us shadow priests must be careful to not destroy ourselves with shadow word death.. i just think the backlash damage for pve should somehow be nerfed.. thanks for reading and post comments on what you guys think!! Open to hear what you all have to say, not saying this is the only way! Thankyou.

Oh yeah almost forgot... im dreading going into some of these heroic mode raids

[Crutches]

destro locks have no execution phase? and fairly sure druids dont either, could be wrong.

[andybiggs]

I know they don't.. but they do consistent dps lol.

Like a warrior in execute phase has no drawback to his execute phase and can act on it 100%.

Where as a shadow priest cannot if they are low health depending on fight mechanics, thus not taking a full 100% advantage from the execute phase like ALL OTHER CLASSES THAT HAVE EXECUTE PHASES. Sorry if i worded that badly the first time.

[Maharishi]

Every other class gets a dps increase during execute phase no matter what

While I don't disagree with your particular premise, this statement is not close to correct. Only about half of all class/spec combos get any type of execute.

I think, however, that blizzard likes the mechanic, as it's risk/reward that requires thinking. Spriests are hardly the only class who have to occasionally sacrifice DPS due to mechanics.

[personn5]

Don't think shaman get an execute button either.

[Annarion]

Maybe it's just my low gear levels, but I don't find it to be too high anyways. Usually crits around 15-20k, damage reduction is 40%, so on a lucky crit of 20k, you take 12k. I have 120k in raids. Certainly if you're at low health, it's not that wise to bring yourself lower, but Blizzard likes you to actually think about the buttons you press.

[andybiggs]

yeah but we sacrifice in other ways as well, not just this phase and im trying to compare it to other execute phases is all for other classes that have these. Just seems a bit more rough, i dont mind though with the next patch cus were getting a mind blast buff but... I don't see using shadow word death that much when my guild starts heroic modes, or even some of the last tier bosses. Just doin sum thinkin

[Deleted]

Classes are different? some tank, some heal, some dps, some dps have execute phase. some are ranged, some are melee. Classes are different.

[Bonsaii]

destro locks have no execution phase? and fairly sure druids dont either, could be wrong.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=80319

Its not huge but you save combo points and energy.

[andybiggs]

ok but what else do warriors, or any other class with an execute phase do but dps? please let me know if im wrong here i dont know 100%. (mayb druid tranq )
but us shadow priests have this drawback for execute phase (unlike other execute phases) and we use other abilities during the fight that lower dps like "Divine Hymn" and/or "Hymn of Hope"

[Maharishi]

but us shadow priests have this drawback for execute phase (unlike other execute phases) and we use other abilities during the fight that lower dps like "Divine Hymn" and/or "Hymn of Hope"

On the other hand, you do not suffer nearly as much as other classes from movement. There's no point arguing whether one particular aspect of your class is equal to others. Spriests are doing well overall in DPS, and buffing their execution phase would just make them OP.

[Ricecooker]

I personally have had crits for over 40k on bosses and on halfus with all 3 drakes up I've gotten to the point where I fear using my execute ability. One SWD can crit for over 100k on halfus with dark evangelism up and my SP trinket. If I hit 2 crits back to back I die if I do it right before staggering roar I can often be killed by it. While I agree that not all classes get executes there are plenty who get them and add 0 risk to themselves. Fire mages for example at 35% deal 12% additional damage with no backlash. the point is our dps is balanced around our execute much like many other classes. so when we are unable to use our execute due to health issues chimearon for example. Do i have a fix for it no but i definitely agree that our risk/reward is to high.

[tackklee]

There should be a draw back to all 'execute phases'. Mindlessly spamming execute for the last 25% of a raid boss would be pretty dumb.

As a warrior, our draw back is 1) rage starved, and 2) execute is actually lower damage per rage than say raging blow. Personally, I spam until I get my 5 haste stack and then prioritize other skills.

[andybiggs]

that is my point exactly, thankyou ricecooker.. just wanted to see what others thought.

[Deleted]

I have quite often experience 50k+ crits with procs up and dark archangel, and that is even if you don't take gimmick fights into account. I would have to agree that it was much more troublesome after 4.01 where you could basically 1shot yourself on fights like Icehowl, Twins and Bloodqueen, because the healthpool was much smaller and there was no cooldown on sw:d past 25 %..
Honestly I don't know if the backlash has to be changed, but I still think our self heal is waayyy to low. Devouring plague heals are nice, but Vampiric embrace should heal ourselves much more.. not as much as it did in the end of wotlk, but it should be much higher, especially <25 % hp.

[Archimand]

while i dont play priest i think the damage should be limited to lets say 5-10% of your hp max so you cant crit yourself to death :P

[Lao_tzu]

Love the way that most people here have completely ignored the question from the OP and just pointed out other classes that don't have an execute phase, *roll eyes*

I think were the only class in WOW that has to be careful in our execute phase, I must admit I've nuked myself a couple of times in ICC 10 heric modes whilst getting a bit trigger happy on the move.

Currently I haven't been raidin but during heroics I often pop PW:Shield on myself if the healer is not a priest - yes it screws my mana but its a bit of a lifesaver, don't really need top dps in heroics.

In raids I dunno - probably won't be viable because you will lose more dps shielding then you would gain from spamming DWeath. Hopefully when we start raiding (soon) we have a regular Disco priest that i'll bribe to spam PW:S on my during the execute phase hopefully this will help.

I wouldn't want to see it nerfed (or the blacklash damage reduced) because I like the mechanic, seems very apt for the character/class style. Just gotta watch those procs whilst spamming it.

[Deleted]

Well... I have a good relation with healers of my guild, so even eating double 50k hits every 10 seconds in execute phase on Halfus is not a problem at all. However it's a bit retarded we can't use our execute freely, without real drawback, like pretty much all other execute classes can. After all our DPS is balanced around it and some gimmicks or simply healing-heavy fights make using execute inadvisable or even impossible.