Originally Posted by
Annesh
No, really.
Hear me out.
(think of one of those movie trailer announcer guys while reading this)
In a world...
Where every class and their dog's mother's kitchen sink has crowd control...
One class...
Is left alone...
okay no really what if shadow got Sleep, like priests had in the classic beta, except deep in the shadow tree?
At its strongest it could be a straight up spammable CC to rival even Sheep. At its weakest it could be more like Repentence.
Before you cry nerf, there's plenty that can be done to make it balanced and fine. Make it share DR with fear, take away our Psychic Horror or Mind Control or something else.
I'm not actually interested in discussing the balance issues of it quite yet, because yes I realize that at this point in Wrath it would push shadow way, way over the edge of reasonable power, but this is Cataclysm we're talking about, where the entire game is changing, and things are likely to be completely different.
Consider that, in Cataclysm, a single Balance druid will be able to silence a HUGE cluster of enemy casters for a full 10 seconds or until they get out of the beam (which still takes a few seconds). Consider the immense, dramatic effect that one Balance druid can have in a rated BG, and tell me you doubt that the balance of things is not shifting wildly enough to think about introducing big new mechanics like this.
The balance of Shadow having strong ranged single target CC in Cata is so highly debatable that, for right now, I'd rather just explore what other people think about whether it fits or not.
So here's what excites me about the idea:
1. It's unique. No other class has any kind of sleep ability that's usable on humanoids, except Wyvern Sting, and that's different enough not to seem like a ripped-off ability at all.
2. It fits in with the class lore. Priests - and shadowpriests in particular - are the wielders of psychic and mind powers. It makes sense for us to be able to put people to sleep. Call it Shadow/Power Word: Sleep if you want to, though just Sleep would also suffice. AND, priests have actually already had it, once upon a time, so that makes even more sense.
3. It adds something truly new to the spec. Shadowpriests justifiably complain that we have played exactly the same since Classic. Fear, PWS, dots, Silence, Mind Blast, Mind Flay. Now and then we get something new that doesn't really change much. After five years we have a total of three new toys, none of which alters the playstyle significantly - Vampiric Touch (just a new dot), Dispersion (unique and solid defensive cooldown), and Psychic Horror (pretty neat long cooldown short duration lockdown ala death coil).
Other classes change dramatically from expansion to expansion, each getting a whole pile of neat new toys to play with. I won't list any unless I have to, because I don't want to look like a spoiled kid who only got two toys while Billy got three, but I doubt any other spriests will disagree with me on this point: I would really love to get something truly new and interesting.
Ok, I am now ready for your flaming. You may proceed.