From a Warlock - how is s-priest?

[discoslice]

I like Affliction (it's about to get nerfed) and I've messed with a 102 S-Spriest also, seems fun and engaging. What are you thoughts? Are s-priests with maxxed traits and some legendaries awesome-sauce or not?

Also, I'm curious - when you s-priests aren't s-priesting - do you do discipline? holy? or play another class.

ty.

[l33t]

No, stay with your warlock, SP is in very bad state at the moment and it looks like it will stay there for at least two patches.

Also, since you're curious... when I don't spriest, I play real dps dealing spec, like a rogue or a hunter. It feels very nice for a change raping everything in 1-2 gcds, which is absolutely not achieveable when you play spriest. I find that I play my shadow priest only in raids currently, only because its my best geared character and my raid team can't afford losing even more rdps. If not for that, I'd switch to any melee/hunter in a brink of an eye without any hesitations.

[Fleckens]

Shadow is pretty much the most multidot focused class in the game right now, so if that is what you like it is a good choice. However at the moment we don't really have any good single target or aoe damage like warlocks do, and overall we are weaker than warlocks even after their nerf, outside of very niche situations.

[dmfg]

It's a fun spec to play even on single target with a resource system that's very different from any other class. If you like multi dot then there's plenty of that.

However if you are actually asking about getting bigger DPS numbers and not gameplay, you are barking up the wrong tree.

[Thaylen]

I want to be offended with l33t having such a negative perspective but damn if he isn't right. Like him, when I'm not playing spriest I play other dps alts like hunter, rogue, paladin, warrior, etc. And it is just STUPID how much easier everything is with the other specs out in the real world. It is night and day different and very easy to become resentful at how slow spriest is since all our damage is in the back end.

Even in raids this xpac I've hated life because the only times we shine is on bosses and IF they are dying. If it is a progression boss and you aren't getting it down to 25%ish at least, your dps sucks compared to other front ended builds. We were completely reliant on StM at the the end of the fight (still are for some fights if you really want to push out deeps) and ToF. On trash, we are so low we don't even show on the charts unless you change talents and trinkets specifically for trash - Which is stupid (but I still do it to avoid tears).

I've said in another thread that I miss Halo or Cascade. Something quick and bursty for the mass quick dying trash. If they'd at least give us that back like in MoP I'd quit eyeing my wrists between bosses.

[Archaea3]

Don't listen to debbie downers who only play shadow cause it was OP during EN. I find it to be genuinely fun whether we're first or middle of the pack. I mained a warlock forever until switching to priest in legion. Warlock is more about the dot timers, knowing when to refresh on each target. It takes a lot of concentration to not mess up. Priest is more about speed and execution of your rotation. We are not as dominated by BIS legendaries as other classes. I use almost all of mine on a regular basis depending on the situation. Wrists/belt/shoulders/twins ring/sephuz/helm all have their place.

Shadow is less fun the easier the content. We do lack burst so any keys <6 you're not gonna be able to do much. Raids and higher keys we shine a little more. On farm content surrender to madness is a fun alternative.

I did disc for 5-mans then my guild needed an off-healer so I switched to holy for raids. I never had the gear/ap/skill for raid healing so now I'm back to disc for 5-mans.

[starji]

Speaking as someone who switched from Aff to Priest (more for healing in raids, but I still go shadow in Mythic+), Aff is better on live.

Shadow has some cool stuff that makes Aff drool. Misery for fast dot application, a little bit of burst with Mind Blast/Void Bolt (Aff has zero unless you take haunt), a 30 second cooldown stun with Mind Bomb. It's also got the cool Old God mythos going for it. Also if you can handle healing, you can go holy for quick LFR and heroic queues.

Aff on the other hand does more damage on live and is less affected by movement, has a ton of self heals that make it great for general open world stuff including soloing the tough rares, and better default aoe (and much better talented aoe) than shadow. I always felt invincible on my warlock.

Aff is easier to gear for too. I'm pretty sure Aff's love affair with mastery isn't as brutal as Shadow's haste requirement (minimum 10k haste).

I don't say this to totally put you off switching. The dps rotation for shadow is challenging in a different way than Affiction's is. Where affliction is all about maintaining dots on all the available targets, and making sure not to over-cap shards, the Shadow rotation is about maximizing void form uptime and planning movement so you can sit and dps at the right moments. They're both challenging in different ways (though screwing up on Shadow is a bit more punishing).

Going into 7.2.5 though, who knows what will happen. Aff is getting its second overhaul this expansion, losing Soul Effigy (which makes me sad, but I think I'm the only one who liked that talent), and a de-emphasis on Malific Grasp (which is what's been making Aff so OP recently). Shadow hasn't really been mentioned, but its still early in the PTR process and may get a numbers pass too.

TL;DR: Shadow is fun, but I miss my lock.

[Deleted]

Are s-priests with maxxed traits and some legendaries awesome-sauce or not?

Also, I'm curious - when you s-priests aren't s-priesting - do you do discipline? holy? or play another class.

Legendaries doesn't make a difference to me, I've mained a SP since Vanilla, so in my book, they're awesome.

I've split my priest gametime between Dungeon Healing with Holy, LFR stuff with Disc and everything else as Shadow. When not on my priest, I play whatever I feel like at that moment. I don't play a class or spec because it's similar to this or that other class or spec, I just... play it.

[Thaylen]

Don't listen to debbie downers who only play shadow cause it was OP during EN.

Don't lump me in this. I didn't like SP in EN either even though we were OP because I didn't like the StM playstyle. And I've mained a SP since MoP when I started seriously raiding. I also mained (on a different server with different guild) a warlock throughout MoP so I know both classes fairly well. If anything, I'm a debbie downer because I DID play shadow before EN. I loved the MoP rotation and spellbook and then they fucked with it for WoD unnecessarily and they fucked with it some more in Legion. If they'd quit breaking shit that isn't broken and focus on fixing the shit that is broken, it would go a long way in my book.

Unfortunately when they have class specific designers, what are they going to do? It is their job. They aren't going to just say "Well everything is working well with my class so I guess I'll put my feet up on the desk today". They are structured to have continuous change whether it is needed or not.

[Deleted]

If you play a lock or a mage there is no way you'll ever like SP. Why? Because you are used to REAL dps casters that can do high damage and are versatile in every possibile situation of the game (st, mt, aoe, burst). Shadow is only good in RARE cases and, like thats not bad enough, it gets much worse with time since the more gear people get the shorter the fights are, multi target fights become always more single target, and thats the death for shadow.

DONT listen to those saying "hey but shadow is fun to play!!" because thats the most retarded argument ever. Why? Because Shadow keeps changing every time. In Wod shadow started as a single target spec with COP, then in the 2nd tier it went back to multi dot spec, then HFC we went back to single target with archimonde trinket spec. This exp they added voidform and insanity. So its not like shadow has always the same playstyle which is fun, it changes every time.

The real reason why most of us play shadow is that we probably started priest as main and its like football... the team you pick when you're young, you stick with it even when you're old. Even if that team sucks ass.

[discoslice]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Yeah, I know Warlock/Mage will always (and should) have one spec in the top 5 of damage dealing - since they are pure DPS. Maybe I can ask a more pointed question - so between Affliction Warlock and S-Priest - they are both DOTters - but what is the difference in playstyle? I assume you need to swain everything as an s-priest (kinda like Corruption). Also, you guys heard affliction is getting a pretty big nerf with Malefic Grasp going down to 30% dmg from 70%.

Seems like S-Priest (should be) in the middle of the pack DPS-wise.

[davesignal]

I've mained Shadow since late Wrath, and I'm almost 100% on switching to Afflock. Going from a priest to any other DPS makes you realize how much of an afterthought Shadow really is in both lore, flavor, and actual in-game effectiveness.

[Deleted]

It's impossible to answer that because even affli changes a lot. I mean, now affli is BY FAR the best spec single target in the game, but it hasnt always been like that in the past, so who knows what blizz has in mind in the future (probably wants people to play destro).
What you know is that if you play a lock you are pretty much sure that overall in the whole expansion you'll always have one spec that is very good in something (raids/m+), you dont have that with shadow. Also considering TOS is a lot more single target oriented than NH, and right now shadow is bottom (with balance) on ST, i think it would be crazy to switch to shadow now. Most of us dont do it because we farmed a lot of traits and legendaries.
The only reason to go shadow is if in the upcoming ptr (and live) changes blizzars shows us some REAL love.
But considering that the How2priest staff post they made on WOW forums is now on 8 pages and a blue has yet to write anything at all, it pretty much shows how much blizz cares about shadow.

[Ilir]

SP sucks and will always be. Blizzard doesn't listen to the players, they go through with stupid as fuck talents and we end up with a broken STM in 7.0.

Don't expect anything for spriest until 8.0 when they will decide to revamp the class without listening to the players at all.

I mean, they gave SP a T20 centered around their most useless ability : shadowfiend.

[Relapses]

Playstyle is fun but the damage is pretty meh. I've played Moonkin and Warlock in both MoP and WoD prior to this and I kind of wish I had mained Warlock instead. Mostly I'm just salty I bought into Blizzard's "we'll fix Shadow this time for sure" bullshit for the third time since I rolled this toon in Cata.

[Grannos]

I have been playing shadow as my main spec since December, but I've been a priest main since Firelands (2011 when I joined my current guild). I was never good at shadow, but we had some pretty awesome healers this expac, so I was asked to pickup Shadow if I could and make the transition. I've enjoyed it so far, but everyone is right, unless you can get like 3 targets to dot the entire fight, our DPS is poop, and the stat management game is whack as hell.

All in all, I enjoy shadow alot, my only other 110 is a Guardian Druid, so I imagine I will feel like some of these other folks if I ever leveled a "real" dps.

[discoslice]

Dang, I enjoy it's playstyle -- too bad about the DPS though coming for Mage or Warlock. thanks all. Whatever happened to the Cascade/Halo talents? Didn't they used to work as an Spriest?

[l33t]

Dang, I enjoy it's playstyle -- too bad about the DPS though coming for Mage or Warlock. thanks all. Whatever happened to the Cascade/Halo talents? Didn't they used to work as an Spriest?

Prune happened. Same as with feathers and life grip

I seriously fail to understand what's to enjoy in shadow's playstyle. A gcd-locked caster is an abomination, and everything you cast hits like a wet noodle, even oh so fabled artifact ability. We have no real dps cooldown. Our tier set bonuses suck. Our talents are no-choice cookie cutter build for everything. Hell, even our artifact is useless small invisible dagger - compare that to evil epic soul ripping scythe affli has...

I am playing Shadow since TBC, and trust me, my biggest sorrow is that I didn't switch to warlock that countless times, when I had the chance. I hate myself for creating priest back in 2008 and being so connected to this class after 9 years of playing the game that I am unable to switch it to a normal class that actually has a compelling gameplay and is not forbidden by developers.

[Ilir]

I do like the Sp playstyle in Legion... well i've always liked SP gameplay, maybe it's just because I'm attached to the spec. But yeah, when the devs don't listen to countless feedback about how a talent is so broken the entire spec relies on it to be good.... and then they decide to gut the spec because of said talent... you come to realise they just don't give a fuck.

Shadow is the only dps spec, you can't just be like "oh it sucks, lemme respec". (i dunno about moonkins and feral... i know moonkin is suffering while I don't see any feral around)

You see every rogue spec getting some love, you see destro and aff getting looked at, you see mage spec getting looked at, arms is getting buffed etc etc

and then you see SP and you're like "oh right, no changes planned".

I mean it's pretty clear they regret making a priest dps spec.

[Rogalicus]

I am playing Shadow since TBC, and trust me, my biggest sorrow is that I didn't switch to warlock that countless times, when I had the chance. I hate myself for creating priest back in 2008 and being so connected to this class after 9 years of playing the game that I am unable to switch it to a normal class that actually has a compelling gameplay and is not forbidden by developers.

Well, the grass is always greener on the other side. As a guy who rerolled from Warlock I absolutely adore Shadow as a fast and intensive DoT spec — pretty much what I always expected from Affliction. Warlock may be appealing as a class, that always has a good performing spec, but reality is more cruel — all 3 specs have a narrow niche, in which they don't even excel. Pair it with probably the most uninspired and badly designed gameplay this game has ever seen and you'll hate your life for rolling Warlock.