Shadow Word: Death Tricks

[Deleted]

hi folks,
just saw the new hydra video with all that Shadow Word: Death tricks to avoid CC like sheep, blind, scatter etc.
i was wondering if that spell really meant to be used that way or is it just a very smart usage of a spell that blizzard didnt created it for.

and do you think blizz may fix it someday so that the dmg the priest get from cant break any cc?


ps:
i apologize for my bad english ;)

[FieryBull]

They probably didn't create it for that purpose, but they certainly know about it. So no, they'll most likely never remove the ability to break CCs with it, since it's a very important part of our class now.

[Brusalk]

Not to mention somewhat difficult to pull off in an actual arena.

[Yvaelle]

We've been doing it since Vanilla, so they know - they accept it as a measure of skill (as it is).

[Biggles Worth]

Not to mention somewhat difficult to pull off in an actual arena.

Yeah I was thinking that too. Just pulling it off is badass!

[Endeavor]

They probably didn't create it for that purpose, but they certainly know about it. So no, they'll most likely never remove the ability to break CCs with it, since it's a very important part of our class now.

This, I only managed to Death Blind and Scatter two or 3 times and in those games we won. Predicting it is extremely difficult, but it becomes somewhat easier at higher ratings (2200+). I know that sounds weird, but it seems like that at higher ratings, there is a time and place when people scatter/repent/blind. At lower ratings the cc's come more random.

Oh, here's a nice macro by the way.

#showtooltip Shadow Word: Death
/cancel aura Divine Aegis
/cancel aura Power Word: Shield
/cast [nomod] Shadow Word: Death
/cast [mod:shift, target=focus] Shadow Word: Death

You can also use alt or ctrl as a mod, depends on what you prefer or existing keybinds. You can also add Illuminated healing(?), the Paladin version of Divine Aegis.

[Deleted]

Doesn't the backlash still break CC through absorbs?

[Fabio]

Doesn't the backlash still break CC through absorbs?

Yeah I think they fixed that with last (? or one before) patch, so that absorbed damage now also breaks sheep, blind etc

Previously this macro was a godsend.

[ophion1990]

Not to mention somewhat difficult to pull off in an actual arena.

Yeah, I agree that pulling it off on blinds and scatters is hard so its fine as it is. Although using it on poly is nothing special, with the cast time increase poly got in cata its not too hard anymore.

[Vampiroth]

There are other tricks with it too like timing sw:d to get mana back on yor'sahj right before blue takes all your mana away. Working as intended.

We aren't the only class that can pull off tricks like this, you can use hand of sac to remove cc that breaks on dmg as well.

[Deleted]

i think its smart usage, i used shadow word death to break cc like that for ages now, though its usually pretty hard to do in arena, no idea how you would do it to break a blind or scatter, would have to have really lucky timing i guess.

---------- Post added 2012-03-17 at 01:05 AM ----------

We've been doing it since Vanilla, so they know - they accept it as a measure of skill (as it is).

pretty sure you didnt have shadow word death in vanilla, it was a TBC spell.

[Pikapika]

We've been doing it since Vanilla, so they know - they accept it as a measure of skill (as it is).

Since vanilla, you say?

[Yvaelle]

I was a warrior in Vanilla, finally went Shadow in 2.0 when they broke rage generation - so that would have been the introduction of Death

[wampus]

if they ever get rid of SW's cc break effect i will quit playing priest! its too much fun deathing scatters and blinds. You can predict when a rogue is going to blind by standing out of range of blind, they must run towards you to blind and then you try to SW. Most of the time you wont get it but there will be times when you will and it is orgasmic.

#showtooltip Shadow Word: Death
/stopcasting
/cast [@target,harm] Shadow Word: Death
/stopmacro[harm]
/targetenemy
/cast Shadow Word: Death
/targetlasttarget

there you go just mash it when you think they will CC you

[Metsrock112]

I'm sure it was not originally intended for the spell to work that way but once people figured out that it could be used like that blizzard probably decided to leave it for those who are smart enough to utilize it much like Paladin's Hand of Sacrifice.

[Worshaka]

We've been doing it since Vanilla, so they know - they accept it as a measure of skill (as it is).

That is pretty amazing... considering SWD didn't exist until TBC. It's orginal incarnation was a 6 second cooldown and it did such amazing damage that it was nerfed after spriests were the top of the DPS charts in Kara.

Admitadly the 1K dps we could do in Kara scaled to an amazing 1.6K or so in Sunwell, compared to other classes going from about 800 dps to up to 3K in some instances.

[Flashforcash]

it is a TBC spell, and it got nerfed a short time in wotlk, where it wouldnt be able to break poly anymore. Then the entiry pvp community came to blizzard and forced them to change it back, and they did ^^

[spontanity]

Also works on hunters who launches traps beneath u in a stun (if theres a cap between stun and trap), but any sane hunter would scatter -> trap :P

[Doggyballs]

It's quite easy to predict Polys if you have nameplate castbars on or use Gladius.
Like someone mentioned above, Blind is a bit trickier but if you stay way out of range and when they pop sprint > run to you you can death. It doesn't have to be the target castig the CC on you either, just as long as it does damage to you.
Scatter is the hardest to predict imo. But if you can LoS the hunter as much as possible, when he's trying to get to you, you can predict it quite well.

DKs unholy frenzy breaks CC aswell but that can be dispelled. Someone mentioned SoC which works really well as it can stop rogues sapping you. There are a lot of these lil 'Tricks' that seperate good players from great players.

[worsthitmanNa]

They broke it a couple times annd then fixed it so they want the spell in game. They even buffed shadow word death so that the damage worked with absorbs. One of those things that makes the game really fun.

---------- Post added 2012-04-19 at 11:28 PM ----------

Soc? hand of sac works kind of the same.