[7.2] Legion Shadow Priest Guide and Discussion

[Annesh]

You are all here talking about how good is the belt and I just dropped fucking Prydaz. Now I have Norgannon's and Prydaz. Basically I wasted two "bad luck protections" and it's like having 0 legendaries. I already have a 890 haste-crit neck with socket so it's also even more useless.

Sorry I have nothing useful to say and I just wanted to vent a little bit.

My condolences, friend. My first leg was the belt and my second was Prydaz. So I feel half your pain? Lol

[Naga Coatl]

My condolences, friend. My first leg was the belt and my second was Prydaz. So I feel half your pain? Lol

The thing that irks me is that even after the buff, Prydaz's legendary power basically is 'more stats', like a big titanforged epic instead of a legendary. I don't need the shield while doing solo content, and in m+/raids it basically is a legendary with benefits reaped by healers who will have to heal me less, not really me. Sure I'll have free shields but I'm not sure I'll feel it.

Norgannon's instead it's just plain horrible in my opinion.

[Arachnofiend]

Norgannon's is a great legendary, but not for Shadow. The effect is pretty wasted on a spec as free to move as Shadow, far better for a spec like, say, Demo Lock that loses dps if they have to move at all.

[Naga Coatl]

Live Norgannon is horrible because it's extremely unpredictable, in my opinion. Even without StM you are usually mashing skills anyway, so when this thing procs chances are that you'll waste it on a MF/MB used rotationally. It gives no real control on when to use the movement, so it's difficult to exploit.

Post 7.1.5, I don't know. 8 seconds seem a lot to me, often mechanics require movement and readjusting positions, even due to party members coming near you when they shouldn't for example. I don't think 'stand still for a long time' mechanics have worked well in WoW so far.

[Jullyx]

Norgannon's is a great legendary, but not for Shadow. The effect is pretty wasted on a spec as free to move as Shadow, far better for a spec like, say, Demo Lock that loses dps if they have to move at all.

Might actually not be that bad in dungeons with Misery next patch.
If only they didn't nerf it to standing still for 8 sec instead of 5...
Would be a lot cooler if it didnt trigger once you started moving, but instead once you started moving while casting. Might have been too strong though. Not that I would have wanted it.

[Deleted]

What are your thoughts on Nighthold Tier 2 piece bonus and Misery sync?

You can effectively DoT, every, every add that will spawn and gain Insanity.

[Gorsameth]

What are your thoughts on Nighthold Tier 2 piece bonus and Misery sync?

You can effectively DoT, every, every add that will spawn and gain Insanity.

You want to dot things anyway, Misery doesnt change anything, it just saves a global per add

[2Dee]

My condolences, friend. My first leg was the belt and my second was Prydaz. So I feel half your pain? Lol

Seph -> Belt -> Twin's ring (aoe dot). It was a solid 2 months before I got the belt after my first legendary

[Mystique5022]

I got the Boots>Prydaz as well, it sucked.

[cardinail]

So, is there any consensus on the state of shadow in 7.1.5? I played shadow in the past expansions, but now I am disc cause i CBA to play StM, too stressing for me to enjoy, and I mostly play mythic+ dungeons anyway. Got boosted yesterday in MoS and tried shadow, I was below the tank and maybe 40% of other DPS overall... Probably the reason why we only got 2 and not 3 chests.

So the question is - will we be viable in Mythic+ in 7.1.5 or should I continue with rerolling to shaman?

[Syenite]

Prydaz, useless ring and helm if vampiric embarrassment reporting for duty. Really hating this random system with a passion by now... get lucky or be obsolete....

[Crysake]

So, is there any consensus on the state of shadow in 7.1.5? I played shadow in the past expansions, but now I am disc cause i CBA to play StM, too stressing for me to enjoy, and I mostly play mythic+ dungeons anyway. Got boosted yesterday in MoS and tried shadow, I was below the tank and maybe 40% of other DPS overall... Probably the reason why we only got 2 and not 3 chests.

So the question is - will we be viable in Mythic+ in 7.1.5 or should I continue with rerolling to shaman?

Just because you're not capable of playing shadow now doesn't mean he's not viable in mythic+. 7.1.5 will not help you if you refuse to learn the spec.

[Deja Thoris]

So, is there any consensus on the state of shadow in 7.1.5? I played shadow in the past expansions, but now I am disc cause i CBA to play StM, too stressing for me to enjoy, and I mostly play mythic+ dungeons anyway. Got boosted yesterday in MoS and tried shadow, I was below the tank and maybe 40% of other DPS overall... Probably the reason why we only got 2 and not 3 chests.

So the question is - will we be viable in Mythic+ in 7.1.5 or should I continue with rerolling to shaman?

The consensus is that you're just bad. I did a maw 13 as shadow yesterday and our usual top dps crashed for about 7 minutes and we still made the timer. While I'm not rocking the meters I'm frankly sick of shitters blaming the class either directly or indirectly. Go roll a shaman and get out of here would be my hope.

[dmfg]

In high mythic+ (high being relative to your gear), shadow is definitely solid even on live. I'm still about 10% behind FH/hunter/monk but that's almost all from a handful of big aoe pulls.

However, if you're 2 or 3 chesting, you'll be a lot further behind.

[cardinail]

This was maw 6, and shadow is horrible for such cases. This was just my experiment, and I only did it to remind myself that shadow is still so bad, but please entertain me how you do more than 70% of the damage of Monk/DH/Shaman while 3chesting mid-level mythic+.

So I will have to wait and see myself if anything improves in 7.1.5. StM is horrible

[KablenTom]

This was maw 6, and shadow is horrible for such cases. This was just my experiment, and I only did it to remind myself that shadow is still so bad, but please entertain me how you do more than 70% of the damage of Monk/DH/Shaman while 3chesting mid-level mythic+.

You getting boosted in a MoS+6 doesn't really reflects how they preform compared to other classes, assuming you were getting out geared as well.

Shadow does better the higher the mythic+ you do. I normally run my mythics with SP/Mage/WW monk and can easily compete with them in +10 and higher. The lower the key, the lower DPS we get as the fights don't last as long. We lack the burst AoE that other classes bring.

[Nyel]

Shadow does better the higher the mythic+ you do.

This is an important factor and should be always mentioned.

Shadows are highly dependent on equipment and stats. They're maybe one of the classes that can't deal good amounts of damage with just "okay" equip. Shadows in lower Mythics are pretty underwhelming. The issue here is mostly the high amount of AoE damage you need for trash pulls and that's a thing where SPs don't shine. I have the legendary ring and with it you fare better in AoE but you still can't reach most other specs - that's okay if only ST would be strong but it isn't when your equip is lacking e.g. haste.

Shadows become pretty strong when their equip has the right stats and high itemlevels. Compared to many other specs, Shadows are mediocre at best (when you favor the equip issues) but can get really amazing in the right place and right time.

The whole StM topic is another thing why Shadows didn't fare that well. I have high hopes for 7.1.5 and I really think we become better, especially when our equip is not optimal (due to the changes made to how our damage is distributed).

[Djriff]

Re: Arcanocrystal. It is without a doubt stronger than legendaries, but that has to do with the fact that secondary stats are worth far more than int to us. It is getting a slight nerf as are all stat stick trinkets with the secondary stat scaling change, but it'll most likely still be the best.

Re: Mythic + In +3-5 you won't be able to see the big damage shadow can do because you won't have enough time to ramp up. Conversely at ~+7 and above I regularly do 600k+ on trash packs. You just have to use your CD's on trash and know when it's better to dot and not to dot. There is a stigma out there that shadow sucks in mythic + which is definitely not the case once you get to higher numbers.

[2Dee]

Shadows are highly dependent on equipment and stats. They're maybe one of the classes that can't deal good amounts of damage with just "okay" equip. Shadows in lower Mythics are pretty underwhelming. The issue here is mostly the high amount of AoE damage you need for trash pulls and that's a thing where SPs don't shine. I have the legendary ring and with it you fare better in AoE but you still can't reach most other specs - that's okay if only ST would be strong but it isn't when your equip is lacking e.g. haste.

Shadows become pretty strong when their equip has the right stats and high itemlevels. Compared to many other specs, Shadows are mediocre at best (when you favor the equip issues) but can get really amazing in the right place and right time.
.

Agreed, we are extremely gear dependant. I'm 890 with optimized stats and the only reason I'm top dps in 7+ mythic is because of the legendary ring. I'd be a lot lower without it.

[danieltang34]

Imo shadow is good in 10+, bad in 2-6, possibly good in 7~9 if the other dps aren't good
But it really comes down to the aoe capability of your team and the dungeon
Arcway is probably the worst since you can't do much on slimes, rats, mana wyrms, spiderlings and all the single mob pulls, But we really shine on 3~4 mob pulls
Just make sure you pull with full insanity and exit void form before the mobs die then double death to prepare for the next pull. You can easily double your dungeon dps this way