Favorite Shadow Playstyle

[Quack27]

I would like to focus on feedback for core rotational gameplay. I did not consider utility in this (not that it isn't important, it's extremely important) it's just something i want to discuss separately from core rotational gameplay in another thread.

I left out Vanilla and TBC not because i don't think people enjoyed them (i definitely like the idea of a "support" dps with the TBC mana battery style), but because i do not see a world where those playstyles have a realistic chance of returning.

The four styles i did choose seem to reasonably translate into today's game (albeit with certain tweaks), and are also very different from one another.

Cataclysm-I have seen a lot of people call this the golden age of shadow, and it seems to be the oldest playstyle that could possibly still translate.

MoP- A lot of people talk about wanting those shadow orbs back, and that is certainly a playstyle that would translate today. Having a completely different resource from Cataclysm and Legion makes this a unique playstyle to include.

Clarity of Power- While not as popular as other iterations, there are certainly people that really enjoyed it, and it definitely fits the criteria of being a very unique playstyle compared to the other options.

Voidform - This is of course a very unique playstyle from all the other choices, with a lot of players really embracing the playstyle, and a lot completely hating it. I chose Legion instead of BfA because most people seem to feel that Legion was the better iteration of this style.

[Boricha]

Spriests didn't become mana batteries until TBC. They were the most mana burdened dps in all of Vanilla lol. I would vote for MoP Spriest.

[Quack27]

Spriests didn't become mana batteries until TBC. They were the most mana burdened dps in all of Vanilla lol. I would vote for MoP Spriest.

Nice, i did not know that. Everyone always talking about that as being the original design, so I assumed it was vanilla.

[Niwes]

Nice, i did not know that. Everyone always talking about that as being the original design, so I assumed it was vanilla.

lol no. sp was only there for one reason: buffing warlocks after that they stand around oom most of the time

[bluesock]

Where is the WotLK option, that was the best iteration of shadow priest yet.

[Quack27]

Haha, and i was so excited to play one in Classic. Guess I'll have to wait for that TBC server.

[Niwes]

imo best spriest was in MoP. as a lot of specs, like surv hunter etc. MoP did a lot right, before that horrible nonsens pruning with WoD started...

[Quack27]

Where is the WotLK option, that was the best iteration of shadow priest yet.

I have never really heard many people advocate for it. Typically it's mana battery then skips to cataclysm.

What was unique about the Wrath gameplay that you enjoyed so much?

[Linri]

i really enjoyed the orbs playstyle

however, i can see why they changed it haha

[Deleted]

Thinking back through each expansion I find myself realizing that the periods I enjoyed shadow most was when the emphasis was on DoT damage and buffing those DoTs, rather than DoTs facilitating other abilities/resource.

[Quack27]

That is very good feedback, thank you.

So how did you feel about Voidform with Mass Hysteria? Mass Hysteria made dots extremely important, however primarily in that end of Voidform window as opposed to being consistently strong.

[Kilee25]

BC->Cata->WoD (CoP)->MoP are my favourites, in that order.

[wombats23]

I have never really heard many people advocate for it. Typically it's mana battery then skips to cataclysm.

What was unique about the Wrath gameplay that you enjoyed so much?

mind flay clipping and refreshing dots perfectly was really engaging. it was this odd mix of extremely satisfying when done properly while also stupidly punishing for doing too early (since this was before pandemic was a thing). add dot snapshotting to the mix and well, you have an enjoyable dot class.

that sort of thing definitely wouldn't be acceptable for today's standards, especially considering how much more involved raid mechanics have become. but since raid mechanics were relatively simple to understand and execute, it made all the small good plays you made across the entire encounter really pay off.

MF:I in MoP and CoP with MF:I both felt like good recreations of that sort of playstyle but in a more modern way. void bolting just doesn't have the same appeal as that.

fwiw i still voted for MoP though. MoP had shadow feel like it evolved every tier thanks to new talents (or talents becoming viable thanks to fight mechanics) where as WotLK was pretty much the exact same throughout (except i think with the ICC tier bonus you could have dropped MB from your rotation.) i also didn't play during WoD so unsure how that would have affected my voting.

[Jedimindtrx]

I have never really heard many people advocate for it. Typically it's mana battery then skips to cataclysm.

What was unique about the Wrath gameplay that you enjoyed so much?

IDKY you wouldn't include the older versions.

As interesting as this poll is, it would more interesting to add all the iterations of SP from Vanilla, BC, Wrath, and separate Legion's VF and BFA's VF. That way, you can see what is more in favor over time the more people vote.

Here's why I'd choose Wrath.
Wrath: Ofc nostalgia, but also you had the instant PoM, divine hymn, renew, fh, manaburn, plus same utility as today. IIRC Mass Dispel didn't have a CD either. This was the Devouring Plague version where it can only be one target, your kill target. Also SWD can be used outside execute, less damage, damages you back. Passive regen ofc. You were a complete priest. Numbers were ranged from terrible to good during expansion. I remember ICC trash, all you did was mindsear and just top meters but adds dots to the MSear mmmm. Also the tier bonuses were nice as well, had to look them up again though, just passive dmg and crit increases.

[Deleted]

I also look back fondly on tiers where our support/utility was in a good place. Siege of Org for example, the healing from halo/star was noticeable (malkorok?) and void shift and grip remained 'feel awesome' when used well. VE in WotLK and generally being the tankiest ranged was also pretty good, taking soaks on ulduar council or healing a group in last phase anub'arak for example.

I do look back fondly on WotLK - MoP and I think a lot of that is because the GAMEPLAY focused on DoTs, the importance of snapshotting buffs and refreshing at precise times. The removal of snapshotting and the introduction of 'pandemic' removed a HUGE part of what I considered shadow gameplay, it made no real difference to the base gameplay but lowered the ceiling dramatically.
That said, shadow had issues in WotLK, namely the ramp up time, that I don't miss at all. I think that's also a large part of the reason I never really connected with void form, it felt like a reintroduction of the downsides of WotLK shadow that we'd moved away from.

I also find it hard to separate some of the playstyles from the lore. When I started playing shadow it was all about the mind, mind blast/flay/control and shadow words. In my mind that made us psychological warfare. We were just bullying mobs until we could just tell them to die, the lore equivalent of 'kill urself noob'. There were always issues and mixed identity there, vampiric stuff and plagues should never have been part of our toolkit (imo). The introduction of void / oldgod stuff moved away from how I thought about my Priest. Whilst I understand why they did it, it still took part of the spec away from me.

I don't think we've ever had a perfect tier for gameplay or lore. Each tier, however fun, has had it's gameplay issues and/or balance issues. And it's always hard to really LOVE a spec in a tier when you're bottom of the meters, however well it plays.

[bluesock]

I have never really heard many people advocate for it. Typically it's mana battery then skips to cataclysm.

What was unique about the Wrath gameplay that you enjoyed so much?

It was the best (and last) dot based playstyle it had. It all went down hill from there when they tried to make it a shadow mage rogue with combo points, then we had the horrific mess that was mop and the utter trash cop playstyle. I guess the natural conclusion to that is the voidform.

[kaelix1]

Cata version was the best in my opinion, adding the dragon soul Tier rotation style was the best times for me as SP by far

[ceall]

Cata version was the best in my opinion, adding the dragon soul Tier rotation style was the best times for me as SP by far

This 1000%.

I loved how i could compete with mages, locks and rogues (with legendaries) while I didn't have it.

[Daedius]

When we had Shadow Orbs, easily.

Loathe Voidform.

[kaelix1]

This 1000%.

I loved how i could compete with mages, locks and rogues (with legendaries) while I didn't have it.

I had the legendary and a personal DI, while numbers wise SP where one of the best DPS classes back then what i loved about that version of SP was how smooth the class fell

I sincerely don't understand why Blizz fell the need to keep remaking classes, at this point in wow history each spec had a time where they fell perfect, why change something that works? change the numbers so each spec have times to shinny but leave the class fantasy the same if they cant get better then that