Shadow 'til I die

[nyc81991]

So I could be wrong (I didn't play a DoT class in Vanilla) but I think there was a limit to how many debuffs / DoT's could be on a boss at a time. Which makes it a lot harder to justify Shadow Priests. I'm sure raids could get away with one though.

[MatadorMedia]

Shadow dominates in PVP but expect to get destroyed by everyone until you get high spell power gear. You can raid as Shadow spec to keep the debuff up for Warlocks but you will probably still actually be healing and not dps'ing.

[Niwes]

I always think of this when people had Shadow in Classic ;D

First: This is just great !

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That's actually TBC not Vanilla. In Vanilla SP's went oom.

Second: This.

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Third:

On topic: Listen to that ppl. If you are not a super tough guy, with enormous patience and time, you will have no fun. You will stop playing your shadow faster than you can say „omg these guys were so right“.

someone said: „if you play casual pve...“. wrong. its classic. there is no „casual pve“.

there are a few 40 ppl rosters (even less since its 2019 classic and not 2005) on ONE realm. no matchmaking. no crossrealm. super hard raid lead facts. of a raid lead that have to find and keep 40 ppl organized and rolling. of the few ppl even ready to hard commit themselfes to that. there is NO room for any shit. „casual“ not exists in classic. there are raids (and only a very few ppl will dedicate them too), and there ate dungeons, that are 2-3 hours long and failers or inefficient spots will get replaced instantly. thats it. outside of that you can look at play the AH or farm or quest. thats it. you will be super sorted out and you will not get far with shadow, i guarantee you.

literally EVERY shadow i known in 2005-2007 was ALWAYS heal in dungeon. 90% of them rerolled to another supporter (cleanse shaman or nothing, cause ret pala was 10mins of 3hours raiding) or dps class (mostly), if heal priest spots were full, after they started more serious raiding. otherwise they just hadnt raided. and THIS was 2005 when there was maybe 3 times more raids and serious raids accessible than the once that will be accesible 2019.

just calc it: if you were lucky 2005 you got 1 shadow spot in a raid with 39 other spots. lets say the realm had 15-20 semi successful raids (2/3 dead bosses). 2019 this will be 5 raids (max) per realm. these are 200 persons with 4-5 shadow spots. do you REALLY think you are 1 of that 4-5 on your realm ? then go shadow. otherwise just do not do it.

so, listen to that ppl. what they say is true and will be factor 10 harder once classic release. and tbh, i strongly believe you will be one of the 49 persons out of 50 persons, that will stop playing classic soon anyway.

if you wanna level shadow to level 50 or even 60, do that. if you really can dedicate yourself to classic longer than 2-4 months (what i strongly not believe), do not play shadow.

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So I could be wrong (I didn't play a DoT class in Vanilla) but I think there was a limit to how many debuffs / DoT's could be on a boss at a time. Which makes it a lot harder to justify Shadow Priests. I'm sure raids could get away with one though.

half the raids had 1 shadow spot. i once known a raid that had 2 for a short while. the other half had none or rotated one into for specific bosses. and i was only semi hardcore. we were just third on realm and sometimes fifth.

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till you die.. in 5-10 seconds... ok then

i will even more precise this for you:

oom after second 3, killed by rogue after second 5.

[HulkSmasher]

roll Shadow and go for rank 14. Screw the raid nerds and their lame specs

[Niwes]

but to be honest here:

op is totally ok. no offenses here.

but the reality will be: when ppl start understanding that they kill all mobs for the first 20 levels with a ward, they will very soon move away from priest and classic in general.

90% of the discussion here with some illusions of some players are that completely useless, because most of all that thread owners will fade after a short time forever anyway.

[Zanguru]

What was a pure pvp build?

Not allowed to post links yet but " ?talent=#bxMGsuZZVMGdctot " (replace the fragment into your link accordingly) , this is the optimal spriest pvp spec.

Shadow is a blast to play in vanilla, you just need to find a guild with an open spriest spot and you'll have a great time playing the game.

The raids will simply be you spamming mindflay to maintain shadow weaving , no room for dotting on bosses ( debuff slot limitations) and mindblast generates a lot of threat so I wouldn't recommend using that even if you had the mana, you won't need to leave shadow form or heal tbh but you will be tasked with dispelling a lot which isn't so bad ( since it's something to do ), although you do get to dot up and use full rotation on trash or adds etc depending on the encounter/location, so it's not fine.

To be fair, most classes are 1-2 button spamming in raids anyway, so the only thing you'd be missing out on is higher dps , but hey it's no big deal really, because you will spend very little time in raids compared to your time spent in the world doing quests/grinding or pvping, all of which are amazing as a shadow priest.

Even while leveling shadow is a blast, I'd definitely recommend going shadow, you also get the option to go disc/holy if you're ever bored of shadow.

[LeGin Tufnel]

Chaps - can I just point out, I did actually play Vanilla WoW. But as holy. I swapped to Shadow at the start of TBC.

I levelled as holy. It took fucking ages. It was my first MMO! I had no idea what I was doing but it was great fun for all of the reasons much of this sub forum is dedicated to (sandbox, immersion, community etc.). Apart from TBC, Vanilla remains my favourite incarnation of WoW. I appreciate the pointers, but can we have a little less of the "you won't last 2 months", please. I quit WoW with well over /played 300 days.

The guild I ended up in at the end of Vanilla had a massive roster, so there was no real commitment required apart from some of the core guys. But it was a 'casual' raiding guild in terms of nights spent raiding. We only saw a bit of AQ40, let alone Naxx.

My question was more directed at people who had actually played Shadow in Vanilla. So, my understanding is that Shadow Priests:

pve = a very unique disc/shadow utility build of which there should only be one in a 40 person raid, definitely not full shadow build
pvp = great fun at higher levels and massive potential as gear gets better

Which I’m not sure suit what I want to do. So…. to conclude, I think I’ll probably either heal as holy (and get my Benediction, which I never managed) or roll a ‘lock. Just was never that keen on pets.

[Dergiab]

Ask about this on another site. MMOChampion is filled with wannabe tryhard world firsters, people with the mindset of 2004 and anti-vanilla trolls.

[FelPlague]

But just not sure about rolling Shadow in Classic.

Sure, if I had a lot of 'lock friends in my guild who bribed me with free consumables.

Anyone want to convince me (casual pve, casual pvp) to roll Shadow? Any die hard face-melters going to do it for the lore rather than the dps?

/wand

Pvp= Sure go shadow
Dungeons= sure if you want, you may have abit of a hard time
World stuff/leveling= no, just no, if you are playing a priest no matter what, sure go shadow for world stuff, better then a healing spec, but if your choosing a class, choose another class
raids= nah, shadow will literally be impossible till the debuff limit is increased, and even then you will be competing with a ton of people for slots.
at launch and until i think phase 5?
you will be FORBIDDEN from putting up dots, as sunders, frost shocks, ignites, shadow mastery, curses, etc ALL need to be able to be put on the boss.

[Irian]

It depends on your faction. If you're Horde, go for it, especially if you like PvP.

Otherwise, as far as raiding goes, like others have said a disc build that incorporates partial shadow talents is a better fit for raiding. Something like this 32/0/19 build (sorry if I got a few points wrong, it's been a looong while so if someone knows of a better build they can correct this) is way more useful to a raid than a full shadow build. Disc with a side of shadow can provide some awesome utility, offheal decently and just generally provide more for the raid than a full shadow build can, and many raid groups brought at least one disc/shadow build priest to apply PI and give the shadow vuln debuff.

[therealbowser]

Unless you were raiding Naxxramus, it largely didn't matter what your spec was, especially if you went enough down the tree they needed you to perform in raids to perform adequately.

In vanilla, most healers were shadow primarily so that leveling wasn't horrible and they healed just fine. You need to unlearn everything you've been taught for the past decade from players who obsess over what spec you are.

[Cempa]

But just not sure about rolling Shadow in Classic.

Sure, if I had a lot of 'lock friends in my guild who bribed me with free consumables.

Anyone want to convince me (casual pve, casual pvp) to roll Shadow? Any die hard face-melters going to do it for the lore rather than the dps?

/wand

It is a fantastic PvP spec, a well played shadow turns the tide of any group PvP. When our guild started BWL, we got a R14 Shadow Priest to join our raids ... I must admit it was really hard for him .. Even though we liked the guy and accepted him, he felt as if he was being carried and switched to healing in PvE.

I'm simply sharing a personal experience and not judging a spec at all in PvE, I also realize that guilds did bring x1 SP to raids.

[PavelGolub]

Till you get consumed by "CHANGE TO HOLY" crowd.
If the game is released as I understood it and first stage is 8 De-buffs you wont be taking any slots as a shadow priest and just spam Mind Flay.
You dont have the "mana dot" in vanilla either so its a great pvp spec but in pve its like playing boomkin, waste of resto possibility.
I am sure some guilds will let you play w/e specs you want and just have fun instead of forcing meta but they will be pretty rare in the first progress stages and even those rare guilds won't progress much at first due to the Hybrid Tax.

If you are going to play PVP then go UD and you are a beast once you get some gear.

[Dekkers]

i think you run out of mana in raid

[Gungnir]

Was thinking about going Undead Spriest in classic (I started as a shaman in TBC)... I will do PvP almost exclusively.

HOWEVER, I think I have seen a few threads saying that undead are overrated and trolls are underrated. What are the thoughts here? The idea was basically that Devouring Plague is too much mana and too easily dispelled with addons (especially in BGs); and shadowguard is great for extra blackout procs and hex of weakness is harder to dispell and mana-efficiently spamable with a lower rank verison...

Then of course there is WotF versus berzerking as well...

What ya think??

For PvP? Undead is still far superior.
They're basically setting a scenario you'll rarely be in, which is coordinated group PvP.

Also, berserking almost never comes into play at all besides at the base buff level, which is 10% cast speed.. which isn't enough to warrant being a troll.

[Cempa]

Chaps - can I just point out, I did actually play Vanilla WoW. But as holy. I swapped to Shadow at the start of TBC.

I levelled as holy. It took fucking ages. It was my first MMO! I had no idea what I was doing but it was great fun for all of the reasons much of this sub forum is dedicated to (sandbox, immersion, community etc.). Apart from TBC, Vanilla remains my favourite incarnation of WoW. I appreciate the pointers, but can we have a little less of the "you won't last 2 months", please. I quit WoW with well over /played 300 days.

The guild I ended up in at the end of Vanilla had a massive roster, so there was no real commitment required apart from some of the core guys. But it was a 'casual' raiding guild in terms of nights spent raiding. We only saw a bit of AQ40, let alone Naxx.

My question was more directed at people who had actually played Shadow in Vanilla. So, my understanding is that Shadow Priests:

pve = a very unique disc/shadow utility build of which there should only be one in a 40 person raid, definitely not full shadow build
pvp = great fun at higher levels and massive potential as gear gets better

Which I’m not sure suit what I want to do. So…. to conclude, I think I’ll probably either heal as holy (and get my Benediction, which I never managed) or roll a ‘lock. Just was never that keen on pets.

When you put it like that I say go for it, every raid will have 100% x1 spot for u.

[bluesock]

Which I’m not sure suit what I want to do. So…. to conclude, I think I’ll probably either heal as holy (and get my Benediction, which I never managed) or roll a ‘lock. Just was never that keen on pets.

If you don't like pets SM/DS exists as a lock.

[LeGin Tufnel]

If you don't like pets SM/DS exists as a lock.

Was that a common build? I'm kind of drawn to afflic because of DOT management, which for me was the core of it up until I quit. I just have awful memories (don't we all) of one lock always pulling trash with his imp or whatever it was.

It's an interesting topic. In the knowledge that certain specs will be underpowered (unless they tweak numbers - has there been any info about this?), will anyone bother persevering with a spec apart from the love for it / lore / whatever.

[bluesock]

Was that a common build? I'm kind of drawn to afflic because of DOT management, which for me was the core of it up until I quit. I just have awful memories (don't we all) of one lock always pulling trash with his imp or whatever it was.

It's an interesting topic. In the knowledge that certain specs will be underpowered (unless they tweak numbers - has there been any info about this?), will anyone bother persevering with a spec apart from the love for it / lore / whatever.

I didn't play lock but it was either that or DS/Ruin that was played and that did pretty well, not sure which one of them it was though.

They have been pretty faithful to Vanilla so I don't think they'll tweak numbers. Players would stick to what they'll like, I'm sure they'll be a lot of oomkins running around. And most people will be casuals and wouldn't care about cookie cutter builds, mmo champ and forum players in general are very small percentage.