SP idea - A way to not feel bad by not being in or timing Voidform perfectly

[Keilvog]

I thought of this design:

• Void bolts would stack a buff on the player that would increase mind blast + mind sear damage up to a significant amount (like 50-100%). This buff would last for 1 min (or so) or until you get back to void form. The max stacks would be obtainable on the first ~20secs of voidform (something that wouldn't be achieved w/o some effort, but still done most of the time).

There would be an extra reason to stay in void form and time it well (stack the buff) but it would also feel good once out of it (less hasty but more bursty) and it wouldn't be so frustrating if it wasn't perfect. You would not keep the voidform haste once out of it. You would want to stay out of voidform longer if you landed a perfect one before.

It would also be much less frustrating in PvP situations when you can’t optimally maintain your voidform. While also having a more bursty period (you could even have a talent for MB to have 2 stacks).

• You could talent for the buff to last only ~10 secs but have stronger stacks (which could increase MB+MS damage up to 300%).

To really reward those who manage to time their void form well. Or once you get enough haste to do so. Or for specific, continuously non-interruptive fights. Or for those who just enjoy the voidform freneticism.

Thoughts?

[Relapses]

I prefer the better option: Remove Void Form and figure out a way to make Shadow work that doesn't involve drastically changing the way the spec plays every fucking expansion.

[Malix Farwin]

The option i would have chosen would of been to Remove Void Form. I'd rather not keep experimenting with it for a third xpac in a row.

[Daedius]

Sick of Void Form...

[Pregnant Orc]

I'm not sure it will help being in Voidform feel any better.
* As I understand it you'd stack up during Voidform but get the effect once you leave it. This will make being in Voidform less appealing since the big burst is only available outside of it, even though you need to be in it to stack up. What you want is to get past Voidform and back into Shadowform to gain the effect.
* If you could build and consume stacks while also in Voidform it would be extra punishing to loose Voidform early as you'd loose out on the extra 10% damage boost from Voidform. If there was only a cap on how many you could have rather than how many you could generate that would also hurt falling out early if you could push past the time it takes to cap by consuming the excess.
* It doubles down on Shadows biggest weak point in all forms of content that is not raid bosses. The ramp up. You'd ramp up the DoTs to ramp up Insanity to ramp up Haste and Damage stacks. With the boost to damage being so large we'd have to move damage from the rest of the kit into it to not scale off into overpowered territory. This means feeling even weaker before finishing one Voidform cycle.
* The above point will hurt extra while leveling or farming when you have to move between places to compete for mobs with other players. Some people would rather level a farming alt to not deal with a cast time opener, now with this we have an opener lasting longer than most elite encounters before we deal full damage.

* Voidform is anathema to the Shadow spec and its DoT focus as it focuses on doing anything in its power to have you not have to interact with them, locking you out of interaction with the skills doing roughly 50-60% of your damage from spells you cast (disregarding passive talents (like Shadowy Apparitions), Corruption effects and other non interactables). Voidform needs to go as it does not work with the Shadow kit. If we did not have Vampiric Touch and SW:P but rather only one Deep Wounds style DoT it might work better but doing that we turn it into a worse form of Fire mage with less control of their Ignite.

[Keilvog]

Thanks for your comment.
To be really honest, I wouldn't mind at all the removal of Void form for good and going back to something similar to Orbs. In fact, I'd prefer that, but I just have my doubts that blizz will go that further back on the class design.
I think you understood my idea for the most part. But one of the feelings I was going for with this design would be that the player could be comfortable out of void form for at least 1 minute (or more), he would only need to do a decent void form phase first (that part I agree with you, that the ramp up would be slow). Afterwards, farming, leveling and thrash clearing would still be fine because you'd have the extra damage (which includes Mind Sear).

In any case, its a fresh idea that would for sure require some tuning. I just find the whole void form frustrating to play and would like something nice once out of it.