Shadow Priest Battle for Azeroth SUGGESTED Changes

[Aggrodesiac]

You don't see it come up because it's not a realistic solution

What makes you say that? These threads are always filled with unrealistic expectations, but there is a precedent for the solution I provided since there is already a history of separating a spec with identity issues into two unique specs - Feral Druid becoming Feral and Guardian.

While I agree there's very little chance it happens, it certainly isn't outside the realm of possibility, seeing as it's basically already happened, and seeing how it would be an intelligent way to being to address everyone's issues with current Shadow Priest.

Don't you people get sick of writing these same fanfics every single patch/expansion? You figure 15 years of none of your stupid shit happening would be enough to discourage the time wasted on this crap.

Don't people like you get sick of unnecessarily shitting on people's thoughts and opinions in these kinds of threads? Just move along man, if you don't want to participate in what can be some really cool and thoughtful discussion, then go flame people on Reddit or something.

[zito]

What makes you say that? These threads are always filled with unrealistic expectations, but there is a precedent for the solution I provided since there is already a history of separating a spec with identity issues into two unique specs - Feral Druid becoming Feral and Guardian.

While I agree there's very little chance it happens, it certainly isn't outside the realm of possibility, seeing as it's basically already happened, and seeing how it would be an intelligent way to being to address everyone's issues with current Shadow Priest.



Don't people like you get sick of unnecessarily shitting on people's thoughts and opinions in these kinds of threads? Just move along man, if you don't want to participate in what can be some really cool and thoughtful discussion, then go flame people on Reddit or something.

Feral before the split was literally already split, it was already built as 4 tree's so they actually just made it into 4 trees for simplicity sake. When it was 3 trees the feral tree was divided into 2 sections left side guardian right side cat. With legion they actually wanted to REMOVE some specs because of overlapping but felt the backlash would be too great - it's why demon hunter only has 2 specs.

Thinking shadow priest getting another spec is unrealistic, blizzard has already decided it so. Asking for it is the must absurd over the top suggestion when anything else is less complicated and more reasonable.

[Aggrodesiac]

Feral before the split was literally already split, it was already built as 4 tree's so they actually just made it into 4 trees for simplicity sake. When it was 3 trees the feral tree was divided into 2 sections left side guardian right side cat. With legion they actually wanted to REMOVE some specs because of overlapping but felt the backlash would be too great - it's why demon hunter only has 2 specs.

Thinking shadow priest getting another spec is unrealistic, blizzard has already decided it so. Asking for it is the must absurd over the top suggestion when anything else is less complicated and more reasonable.

My point is still sound - a spec had identity issues, and they made it two specs. Did I ever say that I thought this would happen? No, but I felt it was more reasonable than completely overhauling every single ability Shadow has currently, and simply splitting the spec into two DPS specs and pulling from aspects of the class that have already existed. Is it unrealistic to think it will happen? Absolutely. Is it an unrealisitc solution that could potentially solve many problems for DPS priests? Absolutely not.

You must be a blast at parties.

[zito]

My point is still sound - a spec had identity issues, and they made it two specs. Did I ever say that I thought this would happen? No, but I felt it was more reasonable than completely overhauling every single ability Shadow has currently, and simply splitting the spec into two DPS specs and pulling from aspects of the class that have already existed. Is it unrealistic to think it will happen? Absolutely. Is it an unrealisitc solution that could potentially solve many problems for DPS priests? Absolutely not.

You must be a blast at parties.

Feral never had an identity issue. It was literally already 4 specs, they actually separated them down the line just to make it simple. So no your point isn't sound or reasonable. Go to the main forum if you think it is and see where everyone says no

[RsinRC]

Everyone is entitled to their opinions and viewpoints. With that said let's try and keep it on topic.

They already have their spec design and for roughly 3 xpac blizzard has made the last tier of shadow their "subspec" within the spec to change how it plays. Maybe in the distant future but right now im pretty sure they're staying the course and will do minimal changes to the talents if legion's beta taught us anything.

Imo, rn the talents that need an overview are Dark Void, SWD, Lingering Insanity, and Body and Soul. Less but still important Mind Bomb will be for the most part useless in M+ and San'layn seems like the choice which leaves us with mobility issues.

[Aggrodesiac]

Feral never had an identity issue. It was literally already 4 specs, they actually separated them down the line just to make it simple. So no your point isn't sound or reasonable. Go to the main forum if you think it is and see where everyone says no

So angsty, this one.

The numerous folks I played with back in the day that were Druid mains would vehemently disagree with you. I was merely offering up what I felt was an interesting alternative to the discussion in this hypothetical thread, but since trying to have any kind of reasonable discourse with you is a lost cause, I'll bid you adieu.

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Everyone is entitled to their opinions and viewpoints. With that said let's try and keep it on topic.

They already have their spec design and for roughly 3 xpac blizzard has made the last tier of shadow their "subspec" within the spec to change how it plays. Maybe in the distant future but right now im pretty sure they're staying the course and will do minimal changes to the talents if legion's beta taught us anything.

Imo, rn the talents that need an overview are Dark Void, SWD, Lingering Insanity, and Body and Soul. Less but still important Mind Bomb will be for the most part useless in M+ and San'layn seems like the choice which leaves us with mobility issues.

Not sure when I was ever off topic - I was trying to discuss a very hypothetical scenario that could hypothetically help address many issues current Shadow Priests have, in this very hypothetical suggestion thread, and even backed it up by stating a somewhat similar situation in the history of WoW set a precedent for separating out a spec to take advantage of making each of those identities unique and useful, and I got flamed for it. Was I claiming I believed this would happen? Was I saying I'm the end all be all of WoW knowledge? No to both, obviously, but was instead trying to present an interesting approach to what could benefit DPS priests.

I agree completely with your talent assessment and maintain that I think there is a serious identity crisis with Shadow Priests at the moment, and what I'm seeing from BFA isn't inspiring confidence that they're getting it figured out.

[ace007007]

the class is not made to aoe do anything if you want to multi dot go affliction lock. shadow priest is a hybrid class that can be supportive with its cc, heals. and single target burst, if for pvp 3 targets easy to dot dot tap dot dot or if its bosses where you have 2 bosses at once dot dot tap dot dot done. you guys are complaining about basically farming quests.

[zito]

So angsty, this one.

The numerous folks I played with back in the day that were Druid mains would vehemently disagree with you. I was merely offering up what I felt was an interesting alternative to the discussion in this hypothetical thread, but since trying to have any kind of reasonable discourse with you is a lost cause, I'll bid you adieu.

First off if anyone is angsty it's you for trying to personally attack someone. This thread also might be hypothetical but it's also suppose to be reasonable. Your delusion of druid back in the day is not justification on adding a 4th spec to shadow, it's the opposite. It's not reasonable, it's not realistic and blizzard has already been openly against adding more unnecessary specs

so try again

[Caladia]

the class is not made to aoe do anything if you want to multi dot go affliction lock. shadow priest is a hybrid class that can be supportive with its cc, heals. and single target burst, if for pvp 3 targets easy to dot dot tap dot dot or if its bosses where you have 2 bosses at once dot dot tap dot dot done. you guys are complaining about basically farming quests.

No one is a "hybrid" spec anymore, especially us since we offer shit support to our team. Our self-healing is low, our group healing is low, our interrupt is almost the longest in the game, and our only "cc" is a talented short stun that can't even be "on-demand" as it has a delay before its even applied. I don't PvP, so I can't accurately provide input for that. But considering the way our spec plays, I can't really see anyone enjoying it while being tunneled 100%.

Your last sentence is so, so wrong though.

[Aggrodesiac]

First off if anyone is angsty it's you for trying to personally attack someone. This thread also might be hypothetical but it's also suppose to be reasonable. Your delusion of druid back in the day is not justification on adding a 4th spec to shadow, it's the opposite. It's not reasonable, it's not realistic and blizzard has already been openly against adding more unnecessary specs

so try again

ZZZzzzzzz....

When was I attacking you? I provided reasonable and eloquent responses to you as you continued to come back to tell me how wrong I was, and I simply provided more thoughtful responses and attempted to bring logic and some historical evidence that could potentially substantiate my hypothetical solution. Again, do I think this is ever going to happen? No, but like many of the other suggestions in this thread it was me attempting to express a thought and opinion on an interesting way to pursue making Shadow Priest better. If you think I was attacking you, then I really don't know what to tell you.

I'm done with you, my guy.

[kalaratic]

- death needs to go back baseline and instead prune whatever idiot thought it needed to be a talent
- dark void is the dumbest dot spread idea i've seen next to how the twins ring works now, delete it
- void eruption's cast time should not be longer than it is now just to make lotv a more attractive talent, that shit should have been instant cast since day 1 (fuck void origins)
- vamp embrace should be reworked to not be either good or shit depending where we are in voidform
- mind blast 2 charges baseline
- void torrent deleted, fuck this 4 second channel
- twist of fate baseline, actually embrace the execute niche instead of stripping it away from us
- give bender the pet bar back so we don't have to deal with this mentally challenged penguin waddling from target to target with no control
- make shadow crash apply pain to every target hit
- don't backpeddle on dot duration and void bolt extension again, we said this was shit the first time
- rework shadowfiend, it just doesn't work with shadow anymore

honestly they could be lazy as fuck and bring the old 90 row from mop/wod, just have each target hit generate insanity and it would still be better than some of the talent rows we have now. the spec needs new buttons to hit like those, it's pretty pathetic we're going to be bolt -> blast -> flaying for 2 more years.

[zito]

You must be a blast at parties.

ZZZzzzzzz....

When was I attacking you?
I'm done with you, my guy.

It's a clear insult directed towards me, if your done with me stop quoting me and instead of attacking people put more effort into your suggestions so that they might actually be taken seriously

[Kilee25]

WoD imo introduced the possibility of shadow becoming three very different versions of shadow. I don’t think I will ever get closure on why they even let the idea go through, but at the time I felt it was setting a precedent for shadow evolving into two different specs with different play styles and areas of focus. I would have welcomed this with open arms.

However, it seems to me that someone at Blizzard was very unhappy with the fact that shadow could have two, or even three, viable play styles. And so in Legion they basically killed every play style but the proc-happy multidot manic version, then amplified it up to 11 with the void mechanics. After that happened, I have no hope that shadow will ever be anything other than some derivatives of what it is today. Maybe if there’s a complete changeover of the current design team, someone will allow the old direction to be explored again.

My point being that before legion happened I would’ve said having a 4th dps spec was a reasonable dream. Post-legion, it’s barely even wishful thinking. I think the current version of shadow was Blizzard’s response to anyone who liked something different. They doubled down on the non st, non ae, non burst cd elements. That to me is a clear statement that shadow is meant to only be played one way, and one way only.

[worcester]

- dark void is the dumbest dot spread idea i've seen next to how the twins ring works now, delete it

Dark void is going to make us viable dps in m+ Who needs void eruption to do damage when you can make it apply a 14s dot instead.

- void eruption's cast time should not be longer than it is now just to make lotv a more attractive talent, that shit should have been instant cast since day 1 (fuck void origins)

But then how are we going to notice all that effort they went to make us floaty animations.

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three

Void Entropy best talent 2k14

[RsinRC]

Dark Void in its current form is a pain in the ass. You mb on cd, vt everything but you are missing out on swp damage (no synergy with AS, SI, VB has a shortened dot extension in bfa, StM or basic dotting). Misery does a way better job and it's on the same tier. It's awkward as well in practice as most of your swp's falls off (shorter duration than live + losing damage by waiting for your next VF) while still having to reapply vt. There is not a clear niche unless there are low-med health pack adds but by the time you cast VF other classes has already fuck shit up. The only talent this works well with Dark Void is LotV but you're still having to re apply vt anyways which leads back to why not misery.

An ok solution would be for Dark Void to also refresh pre applied vt' s on targets in the given radius.

[davesignal]

Dark void is going to make us viable dps in m+ Who needs void eruption to do damage when you can make it apply a 14s dot instead.


But then how are we going to notice all that effort they went to make us floaty animations.

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Void Entropy best talent 2k14

I liked Void Entropy. Managing that thing on multiple targets felt like it was the closest to pure Shadow that we were going to get. Unfortunately, Blizzard went the opposite direction, down the path of shattered wrists and spammy direct damage bullshit.

[Aggrodesiac]

It's a clear insult directed towards me, if your done with me stop quoting me and instead of attacking people put more effort into your suggestions so that they might actually be taken seriously

At this point I'm actually kind of cracking up about how weirdly frustrated you are with what was initially a thoughtful, if not incredibly aspirational, suggestion.

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WoD imo introduced the possibility of shadow becoming three very different versions of shadow. I don’t think I will ever get closure on why they even let the idea go through, but at the time I felt it was setting a precedent for shadow evolving into two different specs with different play styles and areas of focus. I would have welcomed this with open arms.

However, it seems to me that someone at Blizzard was very unhappy with the fact that shadow could have two, or even three, viable play styles. And so in Legion they basically killed every play style but the proc-happy multidot manic version, then amplified it up to 11 with the void mechanics. After that happened, I have no hope that shadow will ever be anything other than some derivatives of what it is today. Maybe if there’s a complete changeover of the current design team, someone will allow the old direction to be explored again.

My point being that before legion happened I would’ve said having a 4th dps spec was a reasonable dream. Post-legion, it’s barely even wishful thinking. I think the current version of shadow was Blizzard’s response to anyone who liked something different. They doubled down on the non st, non ae, non burst cd elements. That to me is a clear statement that shadow is meant to only be played one way, and one way only.

I could not agree more, and that's exactly why I suggested it in this thread initially. I think that if I could Wormtail into some develeper's ear, I'd tell them to go back to the direcetion they were going in WoD, give Shadow those very distinct feels, and then just completely separate out this Insanity Priest into something new. Sure, I make it sound simple and doing that would require a great deal of effort, but in my mind it's not outside the realm of possibility. A boy can dream, as I said, haha.

[zito]

At this point I'm actually kind of cracking up about how weirdly frustrated you are with what was initially a thoughtful, if

Again for someone who's done your still quoting me and still not providing anything reasonable

[Aggrodesiac]

Again for someone who's done your still quoting me and still not providing anything reasonable

You're literally bringing nothing positive or productive at all, just making yourself look like a jerk. Just go away, dude.

[Ophenia]

Dark void is going to make us viable dps in m+ Who needs void eruption to do damage when you can make it apply a 14s dot instead.

Misery is far more useful than Dark Void.

Dark Void gameplay on a pack, 2 solutions :
1- Apply VT on all targets, spam Mind Sear to reach 65-100 insanity, then Void Eruption to apply SWP. => You will lose a shitton of damage and insanity due to the fact you'll not have any Shadowy Apparitions and simply by not having SWP for the first few seconds of each pack. Plus, if you apply VT before Void Eruptioning, then why not just pick Misery ?
2- Don't apply any DoT, spam Mind Sear until you reach 65-100 insanity, then Void Eruption to apply SWP, then apply manually VT on each target. By this time, you'll likely have to refresh a few SWP (14sec duration and Void Bolt only refreshing 2 seconds). => Vampiric Touch has always been our hardest-hitting DoT, this is a complete waste of DPS.

Thus, Misery. Misery is a complete no-match for Dark Void, whatever the situation. The only situation where Dark Void might be interesting is the case where you don't care about DPSing additional targets on a raid boss, so you just want to apply SWP to benefit from the Shadowy Apparitions without wasting GCDs. But that implies that all these targets are stacked with the boss.

Misery currently already makes us somewhat viable in Fortified dungeons if there isn't any WW Monk or Boomkin in the area.