Is shadow the worst its ever been?

[ttylol]

holy shit this q&a

> excessively explains every answer
> shadow finally mentioned
> just says "keep an eye out"

truly the black sheep

[Weeps]

I've been casually gearing up my Spriest in hopes that 8.1 will be SAGA (Spriests Are Great Again).

[Waynebrady]

I've been casually gearing up my Spriest in hopes that 8.1 will be SAGA (Spriests Are Great Again).

lol so far on the PTR there is just a 5% (or 10%) buff to Void Form. Good luck with that.

[qactuar]

lol so far on the PTR there is just a 5% (or 10%) buff to Void Form. Good luck with that.

Because the big 8.1 changes aren't in yet, obviously.

[Deleted]

Because the big 8.1 changes aren't in yet, obviously.

Are you sure?

Ion never said that the classes were not complete in the Q & A in which he said certain specs needed to wait for a patch to get adjustments, just that some of them needed to be adjusted and looked at still.

[Foolicious]

Pretty sure. Not even voidform got buffed. Only the latest hotfixes were applied.

They made it very clear they want to touch up on a lot of classes including healer and tank balance and pvp talents.
Ele shaman and feral changes are the exception and were probably only pushed out early to please their communities.

We can start worrying when the first bunch of class changes arrive.

[sd2400533]

Disc priests have a high skill ceiling but are over excelling at many of the high end content right now with the potential to outperform other healers while doing good damage. This is something the team is looking at fixing.

If they nerf Disc while not buffing shadow, I am going to abandon this game, no joke.

[KaPe]

While I'm sure that you leaving the game would be a great tragedy, Disc performance has nothing to do with Shadow. Nothing says they have to buff one while nerfing the other, except their individual performance.

[Deleted]

While I'm sure that you leaving the game would be a great tragedy, Disc performance has nothing to do with Shadow. Nothing says they have to buff one while nerfing the other, except their individual performance.

We hear this stupid argument almost every day.
Priest is our main. If shadow sucks, we're either forced to deal with it, or respec. Only disc is similar to shadow in a way that we can dps while not being completely useless. Holy is a pure healing spec. Rerolling doesn't count.
So yes, disc being nerfed has everything to do with shadow being bad. Disc is our backup spec.

[Ambereldus]

I think its unfair to compare Disc OR Holy to Shadow with regards to dps. Their damage is only supplemental to their primary role; keeping the party alive. Sure you can just go ham on DPS, but you're still taking a 25-50% performance hit on your overall damage. They simply aren't competitive in that area, and its a good thing they aren't. If you want to switch from DPS to healing because the spec feels bad, thats your prerogative, but buffs/nerfs to healers do not affect dps rankings.

Shadow needs help, that's pretty much a given at this point. However, buffs/nerfs to Disc should be judged in comparison to Holy and the other healers, NOT to Shadow.

TL: DR - Stop that, Disc is a healer.

[Relapses]

Shadow needs help, that's pretty much a given at this point. However, buffs/nerfs to Disc should be judged in comparison to Holy and the other healers, NOT to Shadow.

TL: DR - Stop that, Disc is a healer.

Tsulong begs to differ!

(You're right, though)

[KaPe]

Tsulong begs to differ!

(You're right, though)

Tsulong was carried by Mistweavers and Guardian Spirit.

And what kind of idea is "backup dps" anyway? If people consider Shadow too weak to play with, they wouldn't allow same person to use Disc as a "backup dps". That was never its' role, not in Vanilla, not now. Whatever issues Shadow has are completely separate from both Disc and Holy.

[Relapses]

Tsulong was carried by Mistweavers and Guardian Spirit.

Oh, I know. I actually played Holy for our kill. I DPS'd Night phase and healed the Day phase. Fun fight, one of my favorites.

And what kind of idea is "backup dps" anyway? If people consider Shadow too weak to play with, they wouldn't allow same person to use Disc as a "backup dps". That was never its' role, not in Vanilla, not now. Whatever issues Shadow has are completely separate from both Disc and Holy.

It's a dig against people saying things like, "Guess I'll just play Holy/Disc and DPS." And they're right. Playing a spec outside its intended scope is kind of like complaining that you want to heal raids as a SPriest. Shadow has enough issues without muddying the waters with the problems of Priest's other specs.

[Ophenia]

And what kind of idea is "backup dps" anyway? If people consider Shadow too weak to play with, they wouldn't allow same person to use Disc as a "backup dps". That was never its' role, not in Vanilla, not now. Whatever issues Shadow has are completely separate from both Disc and Holy.

My guild lacked someone for a Mythic rekill, so I was asked to come. They had all their healers, but they still preferred having me as Disc than Shadow (and I preferred too), because as Disc, you'll still be able to deal a reasonable DPS, while being able to Luminous Barrier / Angelic Feather / Rapture spam / Pain Suppression anything to save someone or the raid.

While as Shadow you're only able to pitifully DPS, and you're basically useless for anything else.

[Deleted]

Tsulong was carried by Mistweavers and Guardian Spirit.

And what kind of idea is "backup dps" anyway? If people consider Shadow too weak to play with, they wouldn't allow same person to use Disc as a "backup dps". That was never its' role, not in Vanilla, not now. Whatever issues Shadow has are completely separate from both Disc and Holy.

Who's talking about "backup dps"? I'm talking about playing a spec that isn't complete trash. What do you want to play, when shadow does bad dps and the playstyle is outright broken, suggesting you stay in voidform as long as possible, while in a lot of situations it's a dps decrease? You have two choices, either you play disc, or holy.

Or don't play at all, is that what we should do? We're playing our class, not your game where we can reroll to fotm every month. Maybe we don't want to and the only remaining option is taken away from us.

[steristumpie]

Guys relax.
I found out what Blizzard fucked up.
They accidentally renamed shadow priest to affliction warlock.

Just boosted a lock. Went affliction. Talented drain soul.
Its pretty much exactly what I've been expecting from shadow. In fact, the entire play-style mimics good old WoD shadow.

And we got WoD demonology (Build up demonic power, enter demon form, be useful for a few seconds, exhaust demon form, hit like wet noodle till demon form is up again)

With this discovery, and the incoming disc nerf, and binding heal on holy being unusable in 8.1, there is no reason left for anyone to play priest ever.

[sourlol]

If you people are so dense that you can’t understand what a spriest main means when they say they feel compellled to play disc because shadow is so bad, then there is no point to having a conversation.

No one is says disc dps is superior to shadow, or that we earn our raid spot with disc dps that we can’t with shadow.

What they are saying, is they are priest mains. Thy don’t wish to reeoll. Thy want to play a priest. Typically, disc/holy and shadow are different roles, fulfilling different play styles and attracting different players. However, shadow is so bad you often can’t get a spot. So, as you are a priest, that leaves you with disc and holy. Despite both being healing roles, there is greater similarity between disc and shadow than shadow and holy.

In the days of dual specs, disc would have been my offspec.

The viability of disc, as it relates to a spriest, is only relevant when shadow itself is non viable compared to other ranged dps specs. That is the case currently. My own opinions on the state of disc aside, if you nerf disc to the point where the only viable priest healing spec is holy, while not budding shadow. There is no role or quasi role to fill for the many priests who consider themselves first and foremost as ranged dps.

[KaPe]

It's still a poor argument. Disc perfomance is not and should never be tied in any way to Shadow. It's a completely separate issue and one that is - like usual - making Holy "useless", despite being in one of the strongest states it has ever been. Just because Blizzard is waiting for who-knows-what with Shadow fixes doesn't mean they shouldn't deal with currently the most overpowered healing spec. It fully deserves the nerfs it's getting, just like Shadow needs the buffs/changes that are still missing. I fail to see how keeping Disc in its' current state would benefit Shadow - if anything, it makes things worse, in the usual "your other spec is overpowered, you should not be buffed" way some people think.

[Velerios]

As long as the class designers are competent, Shadow Priest is in a good spot. That means: there is no hope for shadow to be good in this expansion!

[Fascinate]

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/...9647823#post-1

Told you shadow orbs werent making a comback.

This is half of what i expected to happen, i really wanted to see some heal mechanic after you get a killing blow on a mob.