Shadow BFA Datamining

[Ophenia]

Honestly though i would love the coming soon to be a mind blast talent, a certain clarity of power talent. I really wish for it as theres nothing else in that row that benefits pvp much and a shadow version of infusion is just depressing, i hate infusion more than ToF. CoP in that tier would make my day. Seriously making mind blast instant may sound crazy in todays garbage spec but it would actually bring back more time to flay/sear, solve mobility issues in both pve and pvp and just be an alround quality of life improvement for general stuff like trash in dungeons and allow me to actually glyph my shadowfiend again.

My money is on the new talent being yet another attempt at Mind Spike.

This Coming Soon™ is on the "Haste" row (MindBender is passively here to extend the Voidform a bit longer than ShadowFiend could do), so... Why not a Sephuz-like talent (passive haste with haste proc when we do something) ? That would be a solid choice for Mythic+ content over MindBender or Lingering Insanity imo

[Deleted]

This Coming Soon™ is on the "Haste" row (MindBender is passively here to extend the Voidform a bit longer than ShadowFiend could do), so... Why not a Sephuz-like talent (passive haste with haste proc when we do something) ? That would be a solid choice for Mythic+ content over MindBender or Lingering Insanity imo

Honestly hope not, i am not a big fan of flat out haste buffs, i think they are trying to de-emphasize the whole haste is king thing though, seeing the same thing with havoc demon hunters only wanting and caring about crit.

Sephuz was nice to have and all but i don't think it's the solution to our problems in m+ neither is cop mind you i am just hopeful. Mind spike could be another but honestly it's hard to work in mindspike at all anymore, it worked with cop but what can they make it do that is not either a mindflay filler replacement or another mindblast? its only real use would be to avoid full silence lockouts if you get shadow locked

Truthfully though i expect it to be something pretty boring like 100% chance call to the void, MAYBE a pvp talent moved to the baseline talents like psyfiend or something but i am not honestly expecting much from it, outside of the 2 charge belt talent i am not all that excited about our talents.

[Alanar]

Honestly hope not, i am not a big fan of flat out haste buffs, i think they are trying to de-emphasize the whole haste is king thing though, seeing the same thing with havoc demon hunters only wanting and caring about crit.

Sephuz was nice to have and all but i don't think it's the solution to our problems in m+ neither is cop mind you i am just hopeful. Mind spike could be another but honestly it's hard to work in mindspike at all anymore, it worked with cop but what can they make it do that is not either a mindflay filler replacement or another mindblast?

Truthfully though i expect it to be something pretty boring like 100% chance call to the void

Call of void yea.. this is gonna be it fer sure..
Please let it be spectral guise!!!!!

[Deleted]

Call of void yea.. this is gonna be it fer sure..
Please let it be spectral guise!!!!!

As much as i would love spectral guise to be back i highly doubt it would be guise, since guise is already a talent in the game they would have just made it spectral guise straight up rather than the coming soon placeholder, i would love to be wrong.

Competing with mindbender and lingering seems pretty poor on paper but with shadowfiend giving insanity and lingering insanity not looking as good now with the less haste from voidform stacks and the general we don't stay in voidform as long i actually would not mind it being in that tier at all. There would be a "choice" in that tier from a raiding pov, you would choose from

• Getting back into void form faster
• Longer voidform (though this wouldn't work as well with the cd since void forms are shorter overall it seems so every second? voidform)
• Raid "soaking" utility (do they even consider things like guise, feign death, vanish etc working as intended when they could remove a mechanic if you were

targeted?)

It should be a baseline spell for shadow priests however and i think we might finally see it back as a pvp talent, even though it is badly needed for general stuff like being stuck in combat because of stupid sharding and phasing stuff.

[Valette]

This Coming Soon™ is on the "Haste" row (MindBender is passively here to extend the Voidform a bit longer than ShadowFiend could do), so... Why not a Sephuz-like talent (passive haste with haste proc when we do something) ? That would be a solid choice for Mythic+ content over MindBender or Lingering Insanity imo

Extending voidform will be next to pointless in bfa, so I hope not

[Ophenia]

Extending voidform will be next to pointless in bfa, so I hope not

I think it will not be pointless. Less punishing, yes probably, but if it is pointless, then it totally contradicts a lot of talents. Especially Void Torrent which only purpose is exactly to extend the Voidform. So that's even worse, if Voidform is a lot less important (what I would totally agree with #CrappyDesign), then Void Torrent shall be redesigned or it's a complete waste of a talent row.

It should give something else to be really viable. I don't know, maybe some kind of interaction with our procs, like +100% crits on DoTs for the full duration or whatever.

[Valette]

I think it will not be pointless. Less punishing, yes probably, but if it is pointless, then it totally contradicts a lot of talents. Especially Void Torrent which only purpose is exactly to extend the Voidform. So that's even worse, if Voidform is a lot less important (what I would totally agree with #CrappyDesign), then Void Torrent shall be redesigned or it's a complete waste of a talent row.

It should give something else to be really viable. I don't know, maybe some kind of interaction with our procs, like +100% crits on DoTs for the full duration or whatever.

The thing is. They want to move away from us being such a ramp heavy spec, which they've pretty much solved by removing mass hysteria aswell as halving the haste we get per voidstack (Currently we get 1%, in BFA we'll get 0.5%). This means our damage output at the start of a voidform is next to equal to our damage output at the end of our voidform. What matters now is voidform uptime to get access to voidbolt and the reduced mindblast cooldown.

Of course; longer duration would mean more uptime, but it doesnt seem worth it to invest much into duration anymore. Especially seeing they've increased our drain dramastically. By 40% if Im not mistaken. Its much more important to get back into voidform fast.
But its alpha afterall. Things might, and probably will, change to some degree. But its pretty evident that they dont want long voidforms anymore, which makes sense.

[Ophenia]

Of course; longer duration would mean more uptime, but it doesnt seem worth it to invest much into duration anymore. Especially seeing they've increased our drain dramastically. By 40% if Im not mistaken. Its much more important to get back into voidform fast.
But its alpha afterall. Things might, and probably will, change to some degree. But its pretty evident that they dont want long voidforms anymore, which makes sense.

Well then that completely contradicts the point of keeping Void Torrent in the game at all.

[Valette]

Well then that completely contradicts the point of keeping Void Torrent in the game at all.

Yup. As its currently on alpha. Torrent is barely worth casting over our base rotation

[Sorshen]

I know they want to keep the void form style, but I'm kinda sad didn't they give the talent option of staying in shadow form with a constant damage buff (like edge of insanity, the pvp talent) and maybe a synergy with Shadow word: Void - so that the rotation doesn't become too simple. I absolutely dread void torrrent and surrender as lvl100 talents.

[qactuar]

The thing is. They want to move away from us being such a ramp heavy spec, which they've pretty much solved by removing mass hysteria aswell as halving the haste we get per voidstack (Currently we get 1%, in BFA we'll get 0.5%). This means our damage output at the start of a voidform is next to equal to our damage output at the end of our voidform. What matters now is voidform uptime to get access to voidbolt and the reduced mindblast cooldown.

Yeah, they removed our ramp by doing just that, removing it. We didn't really get any buffs to our baseline damage, so all that really happened is our potential got reduced. In light of that, how are we going to stack up against other classes in situations where we used to make full use of that ramping benefit? I honestly don't know and am wondering.

[Valette]

Yeah, they removed our ramp by doing just that, removing it. We didn't really get any buffs to our baseline damage, so all that really happened is our potential got reduced. In light of that, how are we going to stack up against other classes in situations where we used to make full use of that ramping benefit? I honestly don't know and am wondering.

Numbers can always be tweaked and fixed. The bigger problem is that the rotation on alpha just feels bad. 16second void forms just feel underwhelming. Falling out early because of mechanics wont be as big a deal anymore, but it will still feel just as lame. Our damage might turn out good, but the gameplay will still feel like crap And dont get me started on the fact that we need to re-dot single target and it being impossible to keep both dots up on multi target.
Utility and survivability is just as bad. Dispersion is becoming super sad without the artifact traits, VE is still very stupid (it constantly heals targets at 99% hp instead of your dying friend at 5%) and mania loses a lot of value cause we barely ever will be at 100% insanity. Mass dispell is becoming a 45sec cd and still costs tons of mana AND blood elves will partly take our job on dispelling enemy targets.

[kran1um]

Numbers can always be tweaked and fixed. The bigger problem is that the rotation on alpha just feels bad. 16second void forms just feel underwhelming. Falling out early because of mechanics wont be as big a deal anymore, but it will still feel just as lame. Our damage might turn out good, but the gameplay will still feel like crap And dont get me started on the fact that we need to re-dot single target and it being impossible to keep both dots up on multi target.
Utility and survivability is just as bad. Dispersion is becoming super sad without the artifact traits, VE is still very stupid (it constantly heals targets at 99% hp instead of your dying friend at 5%) and mania loses a lot of value cause we barely ever will be at 100% insanity. Mass dispell is becoming a 45sec cd and still costs tons of mana AND blood elves will partly take our job on dispelling enemy targets.

I agree with this when I was testing last night, voidform seems to go out too quickly then the build-up takes a bit longer, and when in voidform you have the initial aoe burst and voidbolt does minimal damage - for me if you are trying to get into a form that bolt has gotta do more than shadow word pain to make it worthwhile to be in form, in bfa the only reason to be in form is the initial aoe burst, then im just using flay and blast - bolt is so underwhelming, unless 450 is normal.

[BetrayedOf52]

I am happy to have Leap of Faith back, that is the only change that ever really bothered me while trying to play shadow. Ill adapt to anything, but that one bothered me.

[Jervaise]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Shadow Word: Pain as the new talent -.-

[Ophenia]

Blue :

Having said that, we're close to finished with the changes to the rotations and the look and feel for most specs. We’ve still got a few changes coming soon in the Beta to Unholy Death Knights, Frost Death Knights, and Protection Warriors.

Hurr Durr it's only Alpha it will change

No it will not, enjoy !

[kalaratic]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Shadow Word: Pain as the new talent -.-

i think vampiric touch should be a talent instead. it has a cast time so it means i can't move and cast it which adds depth to the rotation. i think it's also a great option for those of us who want to double down on the strength of multi dotting.

[Deleted]

i think vampiric touch should be a talent instead. it has a cast time so it means i can't move and cast it which adds depth to the rotation. i think it's also a great option for those of us who want to double down on the strength of multi dotting.

[twistedmynd]

I haven't been in this forum for a while.

Shadow over the course of alpha hasn't changed too drastically. Void eruption is frankly the most noticeable change (with talents oc).

I've really noticed the spec's fragility more than ever. I haven't felt this made of paper in such a long time. Basic questing feels like a struggle. I haven't even struggled with questing or even failed to handle 4+ mobs at all times since Burning Crusade.

[ceall]

I haven't been in this forum for a while.

Shadow over the course of alpha hasn't changed too drastically. Void eruption is frankly the most noticeable change (with talents oc).

I've really noticed the spec's fragility more than ever. I haven't felt this made of paper in such a long time. Basic questing feels like a struggle. I haven't even struggled with questing or even failed to handle 4+ mobs at all times since Burning Crusade.

Maybe that's because the starter gear on beta sucks balls.
AFAIK a mythic raider (970+) will go into bfa with ilvl ~280 or so, whereas the starter gear is around 180?
Leveling will be a breeze going out of Legion, compared to beta (before character transfer).