Which Spriest class fantasy is more appealing to you?

[Amunrasonther]

#1: Old Gods - Losing our sanity to gain power - Void - Tentacles.

#2: Vampiric - Stepping into the Shadows (Shadowguise) - Mind manipulation - Ravens

[Djriff]

I like a bit of both, but definitely lean towards the 2nd option.

[Deleted]

2
/10chars

[Deleted]

Whatever, but please NO TENTACLES

[deviantcultist]

I left the game for a year now and the Old God/Void Shadowpriest is the theme I always I asked for and never got it. As usual in this community, the majority disagrees with me and if Blizz backs off their Old God class fantasy, I will quit the game for good and permanently.

Sorry guys, but Mind/Void/Insanity is a lot more like a psychic class than Halloween fan service like vampires and ravens. For once, don't let the community destroy another promising thing. As it is now, Disc is losing lots of it's shadow theme that was promised, don't return Shadow back to simplicity.

[shanthi]

I voted for the second. Old Gods are interesting, but I feel insanity (while interesting in theory) is a dead-end concept mechanically...anything that might truly entail going insane (risk of turning on your allies, ridiculous power but inability to control it, etc) is obviously not going to work in any group setting, which is what MMOs are built on.

Meanwhile, vampirism and shadow magic have a nice evil atmosphere to them and fit really well with our dark aesthetic (typified by current Shadowform). The very idea of Shadowform should suggest that we are the very avatars of the shadow. Holy priests as the avatars of the Light (though, the "Light" manifests itself differently for different races), shadow priests as the avatars of the Shadow and discipline priests carefully drawing on the powers of both. I'd much rather that they had gone deeper into that type of design for priests.

[Deleted]

Voted for #1.

For me personally the priest class is not only about the concept of light and shadow, but also the power of will, spirit and mind.
While a holy priest for example represents a pure spirit and deep devotion to the Divine, a shadow priest dives into the twisted madness of his/her mind to derive power from the Void.

The step from shadow to void feels natural imo, and old god - tentacles are a nice touch

I don't understand why "mind manipulation" is only listed in option #2 though, as it is stated in the Legion Class Preview: "Shadow priests fully embrace this opposing polarity, their faith equally resolute as their holy counterparts—but focused on shadowy magics and mental manipulation."

Sorry guys, but Mind/Void/Insanity is a lot more like a psychic class

I absolutely agree. This is what distinguishes a shadow priest from the other dps casters and makes them unique.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

i like the old god void version better

- - - Updated - - -

Voted for #1.

For me personally the priest class is not only about the concept of light and shadow, but also the power of will, spirit and mind.
While a holy priest for example represents a pure spirit and deep devotion to the Divine, a shadow priest dives into the twisted madness of his/her mind to derive power from the Void.

The step from shadow to void feels natural imo, and old god - tentacles are a nice touch

I don't understand why "mind manipulation" is only listed in option #2 though, as it is stated in the Legion Class Preview: "Shadow priests fully embrace this opposing polarity, their faith equally resolute as their holy counterparts—but focused on shadowy magics and mental manipulation."



I absolutely agree. This is what distinguishes a shadow priest from the other dps casters and makes them unique.

this is what a shadow priest should be power, there is no good no evil no light there is only POWER

[Dyra]

Less tentacles. More ravens. XD

But in all seriousness, I do prefer the idea of gradually sapping an enemy's health to augment my own, all the while screwing with their mind causing them to damage themselves.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Less tentacles. More ravens. XD

But in all seriousness, I do prefer the idea of gradually sapping an enemy's health to augment my own, all the while screwing with their mind causing them to damage themselves.

i think its more of mentally destroying them instead of say this.

[Deleted]

I'm totally fine with the void as power source, however toying around with the Old Gods and insanity just don't work out lore-wise IMHO. And tentacles? Really? Disgusting.

[Juicebox]

I liked the old Shadowpriest fantasy. But, and it's a big but, the lore was non existant.
The void is basically the same as what we had before; a lack of holy light. Shadow used to be about the lack of a divine power.
It still is, but instead of the old thing where we just drew power from a lack of a divine presence, we now draw power of the opposite; the lack there of. The Void.
We gain strength from that source no one knew existed before. Well, no one but us.

This new direction they created for Shadow Priests already existed, but it's as if they gave us the lore to understand how it works.

Perhaps Shadow Priests understood that the old gods drew the power from the Void before...
But even if we didn't, we have known for a long time that this source of power is strong, and it is to be utilized in battle.
And once you can utilize it in battle for a positive gain, a Shadow Priest becomes so much more than just a Priest.
We become a being that isn't afraid to cross the line of what's good or bad in the benefit of making the right choice.



I'm totally okay with that. It means the old gods provides lore for us as well, which is much needed.

[Sharkcrap]

I think option 2 is more directed at dreadlords and their demonic ways, (except they have bats instead of ravens) Which has a blurred line between shadowpriests and affliction warlocks.Whilst option 1 is directed at the old god them, which i believe is going to be the direction blizzard takes them because if we look at this http://media.mmo-champion.com/images...leSample-4.jpg . It shows shadow is opposite of light (which is the holy spec) and is related to old gods and such.

[Deleted]

Old God, Void, Vampiric, Mind Domination...
But as a Lovecraft fan i voted for old gods!

[deviantcultist]

Lovecraft

Exactly this. That reference is what makes Shadow special theme-wise. It is depressing when people deny progress of the spec and want it to stay as a shallow/generic gothic cliche.

[Deleted]

Lovecraft

Exactly this. That reference is what makes Shadow special theme-wise.

Well exactly this is why I don't want that for a player class, as it would turn the Old Gods into something shallow and generic.
If any random shadow priest can muck them about freely they go from something the Titans failed to deal with to glorified shadow elementals that any warlock should be able to banish.

[Alanar]

I see shadow more as broad word in the archtype

- Void priest
- Raven priest
- Vampire priest

These could all be easily achieved throught cosmetic glyphs.

Glyph of ravens is an example, this could work with a lot of spells.

I never realy felt as an Void priest.. no spells realy looked like anything of that.
So 2nd option hands down.

[deviantcultist]

Well exactly this is why I don't want that for a player class, as it would turn the Old Gods into something shallow and generic.
If any random shadow priest can muck them about freely they go from something the Titans failed to deal with to glorified shadow elementals that any warlock should be able to banish.

Keep in mind that our powers as player chars progress over the course of the game. If you keep track of how the classes change over time, you will notice that they have evolved not only in terms of level cap but also as fundamental themes. Shadow priest was....basically nothing, more like a non-canon antithesis of the stereotypical cleric-like priest. Now Priest represents the light/shadow duality of the universe, be it Naaru-Holy, Old God/Void - Shadow or Pragmatism (Discipline).

To sum up, as long as it's well done, I see nothing bad in classes going overboard with exaggerated themes/powers like the case of Shadow wielding Old God/Void powers.

[DramatikMan]

I have nothing against this new Old God fantasy lorewise, but I'm going to truly miss all those cool visual effects that were a part of the previous fantasy:
- toggleable Shadowform (if only for /say "This is what true darkness looks like!" macro with /cast Shadowform as the next line, rest in peace roleplaying)
- shadow orbs and ravens (not defending any part of the gameplay, but visuals were awesome)
- dark level 90 talent row (Dark Halo, one of the best AOE blasts I have seen in this game, Dark Cascade was nice too)

Farewell, things that kept me playing my Shadow Priest since BC, this is a video game after all.

[Deleted]

mix of both?

I like mind manipulation that leads your enemy to go insane? shadow words have been the thing that's made me love shadowpriest this long. You're literally telling them to feel pain and they do, tell them to die and they just give up. good stuff.

If they want 'void' to be the spell school that is used to influence minds then that's cool. If that leads to a link with the oldgods (cos they're doing the same thing) then np. I do want to avoid our power COMING FROM old gods though. It shouldn't be any different to fire mages + ragnaros or warriors and 'nameanymeleebossinthegame'.