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  1. #1
    Pit Lord
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    Whats the point of giving Disc SW:D

    Priest (Forums, Talent Calculator, PvP Talent Calculator, Artifact Calculator)
    Shadow Word: Death Discipline: A word of dark binding that inflicts [ 115% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target. Does not trigger Atonement. Holy, Shadow, Initial: A word of dark binding that inflicts [ 115% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target. Shadow: A word of dark binding that inflicts [ 115% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target. Generates 15 Insanity. 40 yd range. Instant. 25 sec cooldown.

    Am I understanding this correctly? What is the point if SW doesn't heal through atonement. There are no other offensive priest spells that do not trigger it are there?

  2. #2
    Disc Priests may still be out in the world questing by themselves and need to DPS. Or to add a touch more DPS in a progression fight. Not every tanking ability is mitigation or taunting. Some of them are simply DPS.

  3. #3
    2 reasons:

    -1: class identity

    -2: soloing capabilities.

  4. #4
    Brewmaster Depakote's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ZazuuPriest View Post
    Priest (Forums, Talent Calculator, PvP Talent Calculator, Artifact Calculator)
    Shadow Word: Death Discipline: A word of dark binding that inflicts [ 115% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target. Does not trigger Atonement. Holy, Shadow, Initial: A word of dark binding that inflicts [ 115% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target. Shadow: A word of dark binding that inflicts [ 115% of Spell Power ] Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target. Generates 15 Insanity. 40 yd range. Instant. 25 sec cooldown.

    Am I understanding this correctly? What is the point if SW doesn't heal through atonement. There are no other offensive priest spells that do not trigger it are there?
    Who knows.. They've really screwed up disc priest while buffing the other healing specs.. It' quite messed up.

  5. #5
    It should be for pvp puposes. Back in the days you could sw:d a target just before you get poly-morphed by a mage so that poly would break cause you took damage and so on.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by swunk View Post
    It should be for pvp puposes. Back in the days you could sw:d a target just before you get poly-morphed by a mage so that poly would break cause you took damage and so on.
    The description of doing this sounds a lot harder than it actually was.

  7. #7
    Pit Lord
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    Quote Originally Posted by swunk View Post
    It should be for pvp puposes. Back in the days you could sw:d a target just before you get poly-morphed by a mage so that poly would break cause you took damage and so on.
    no baseline offensive ability should only be for pvp purposes and when all of our other offensive abilities either apply atonement or trigger atonement healing this should as well.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Thagrynor View Post
    Disc Priests may still be out in the world questing by themselves and need to DPS. Or to add a touch more DPS in a progression fight. Not every tanking ability is mitigation or taunting. Some of them are simply DPS.
    name a tanking ability that has zero tanking utility. it would be like if heart strike didn't cause threat "wElL iT StIlL cAuSeS dAmAge"
    Every other offensive ability effects atonement in some way

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by ZazuuPriest View Post
    no baseline offensive ability should only be for pvp purposes and when all of our other offensive abilities either apply atonement or trigger atonement healing this should as well.

    - - - Updated - - -



    name a tanking ability that has zero tanking utility. it would be like if heart strike didn't cause threat "wElL iT StIlL cAuSeS dAmAge"
    Every other offensive ability effects atonement in some way
    A tank's job is not holding threat. It's mitigating damage. If all the tank did was hold threat they'd take the same amount of damage as any other role. Yes, the enemy usually needs to attack you for you to mitigate the damage, but the threat is just a tool used to do your job. As is damage, since a dead enemy does no damage.

    As a healer, your job is to make your friends not die before the enemy. The enemy dying faster usually helps this happen. So any damage you deal is also a tool to do your job.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by ZazuuPriest View Post
    name a tanking ability that has zero tanking utility. it would be like if heart strike didn't cause threat "wElL iT StIlL cAuSeS dAmAge"
    Every other offensive ability effects atonement in some way
    The more damage the raid does to a boss the less healing is generally required, so all DPS abilities are healing utility.

    Take mythic Jaina for example. Guilds, ours included, had resto shamans go a very offensive build because DPS was way more valueble than healing. Just needed the healing for a few moments.

  10. #10
    Mechagnome Ihazpaws's Avatar
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    There is more in wow than mythics and raiding you know... SW death is a really powerful addition to pvp, questing, soloing and dpsing.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by ZazuuPriest View Post
    name a tanking ability that has zero tanking utility. it would be like if heart strike didn't cause threat "wElL iT StIlL cAuSeS dAmAge"
    Every other offensive ability effects atonement in some way
    Threat is generated via DPS. I was talking specifically a taunt, or something that the ability specifically calls out "Causes additional threat." or some such utility. So DPS threat is a non-discussion because ALL classes generate threat via DPS. In that vein:

    Mangle and Thrash. Non-talented, these base abilities themselves only cause DPS (via direct or bleed damage). There is no damage mitigation. There is no taunt. There is no self healing. The abilities themselves are just DPS. Ironfur on the other hand is a tank/defensive ability as it is mitigation.

    The fact that SW doesn't cause Atonement healing isn't a big deal. Priests will be out in the world soloing crap.

    Given that it has a medium CD of 25 seconds and will do equal damage to the Priest if it doesn't kill the target and Atonement only transfers 50% of that damage, it would not really be worth using, especially if your damage gets high enough to do a significant chunk of your own health if you don't kill it. Even if the Atonement worked, the best you are saying is IF the Atonement worked, assuming Atonement was up on the Priest (it didn't fall off/time out as you were healing others or something), it would then only do 50% of the damage to the Priest. In many cases, especially in progression, this could potentially kill the priest which means it is much less likely to be used. So the effect of no Atonement is not that big of a deal. Maybe it would be used more if you could get Atonement rolling to at least make it half as dangerous to the Priest, but even so, it isn't that big of a deal.

    Whereas in soloing, it is much more likely to use SW to finish off mobs.

    Would it be better if it caused Atonement healing? Of course. But is it the end of the world that it doesn't? Not really.

  12. #12
    Could they have possibly made this work like it use to back in the day with getting out of cc? That would be my guess. Unless the damage is literally instant then it probably wouldnt work

  13. #13
    Warchief Lulbalance's Avatar
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    Deathing blinds and polys.

  14. #14
    What is this fascination of Shadow Word Death damaging the Priest? Why must be the only spell in the game that damages you? Can't the class for once have a normal execution ability like every other? I'm talking more of a Shadowpriest Point of View.

  15. #15

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Depakote View Post
    Who knows.. They've really screwed up disc priest while buffing the other healing specs.. It' quite messed up.
    they painted themselves in an odd corner with disc...the skillcap of that spec is miles away from all the other healers,its risky making it an overall good spec because the rly good players will just destroy,we have seen that with disc many times,plenty of top guilds have used 2 discs,resto shaman for comparison is extremly easy and good in almost all sitations,you cant rly tell the difference between a decent shaman and a rly good one

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Darth-Piekus View Post
    What is this fascination of Shadow Word Death damaging the Priest? Why must be the only spell in the game that damages you? Can't the class for once have a normal execution ability like every other? I'm talking more of a Shadowpriest Point of View.
    lol i remember in cata almost killing myself as shadow vs bosses with increased dmg taken

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Darth-Piekus View Post
    What is this fascination of Shadow Word Death damaging the Priest? Why must be the only spell in the game that damages you? Can't the class for once have a normal execution ability like every other? I'm talking more of a Shadowpriest Point of View.
    It used to be a great utility because of its self dmg. Atm its just meh pseudo ability with no real identity, which fits shadow priest's non-functioning mechanics perfectly...

  18. #18
    I loved Shadow Word Death
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  19. #19
    Using SW:D to get Prayer of Mending to jump to another target... good times.
    I'm guessing this is no longer possible? (Haven't played in a "while")

  20. #20
    For the longest time, SW was used to break CC in pvp. Not sure if it was really ever worth casting in pve. Even as shadow.

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