Idea: Another use for Shadow Orbs? (Healing cooldown)

[Kelesti]

So, this is something I came up with, while hiding on the Paladin boards at work (it's easier to post there on a phone than it is to mod here. )

Shadow Orbs are "great, wonderful, bland" in that they focus on two and only two spells. So much for a "secondary resource".

Now. Here's my idea to give something else for Shadow to play with.

Dark Embrace
Requires Vampiric Embrace
2 Minute Cooldown
Consume your Shadow Orbs. Your friendly target is infused with dark invigoration, gaining health from X% (per shadow orb) of your damage for 8 seconds.

Baseline it could be 6/13/20%, increased with mastery. Toss in a Major Glyph that sets the cooldown to one minute when not used on yourself, and what do you think?

[Sharaki]

With new mastery that wouldn't even be a dps loss (just one orb required to get dot damage boost). Without PvP you could remove the usage of shadow orbs

Tbh I don't like to get any additional feature added to shadow orbs, make them work for dps and leave.
What comes to some kind of VE boost cooldown, yes!

[Arlee]

That would be really neat for PvP... but I think having that ability in PvE would be sort of pointless. Also yay for a worthwhile major glyph

[Purple]

The healing would still, essentially, come from damage you dealt to build up the Shadow Orbs you'd consume with Dark Embrace so it definitely still falls within the theme of a Vampiric Healer. Essentially what the BC idea for a Shadow Priest Healing ability always should have been, rather than a Dark (and very expensive) Flash Heal that they ended up trashing in favor of Vampiric Touch.

[Sharaki]

The healing would still, essentially, come from damage you dealt to build up the Shadow Orbs you'd consume with Dark Embrace so it definitely still falls within the theme of a Vampiric Healer

Quite contrary. You would SACRIFICE damage to heal in OPs idea. Use shadow orbs to damage OR healing (of course problem is that currently shadow orbs past 1 doesn't really increase dps much, but the base idea).

So healing would come from NOT doing damage. In a same way retri paladin would use Word of Glory to heal raid member instead of using that holy power for Templars Verdict. Lose damage, heal ally. Which doesn't feel shadow priesty at all, as you said we heal trough damage

[Purple]

You get Shadow Orbs from dealing damage. You cannot use the suggested ability without a Shadow Orb. Therefore you cannot use this heal unless you are dealing damage, and it is a result of damage since you could not do it without the shadow orb created via said damage.

On the other hand it would be interesting to see a reversal of the Damage Equates to Healing set up by an active karma sort of ability, you'll recall the Death Knight strike to heal based off damage received over X.

Having an ability that uses an ally as a focus to do something similar, turning damage done to the ally into damage done to enemies around them instead and healing the ally as a result, would be an interesting mechanic.. though perhaps not terribly practical to fit into Shadow's Priority system which is always the main issue with me. It can't just be interesting, it has to fit in somehow.

Fun to type up and think of? Maybe. Practical? Either way, I still like the OP's idea.

[Kelesti]

Correct, Sharaki. Using Shadow Orbs for bonus damage, or bonus healing, making them actually feel like a pseudo resource, instead of a proc-buff on your next mind blast. Unlike Ret Paladins, using orbs in this manner wouldn't prevent you from casting Mind Blast, you just wouldn't have the "oomph" effect.

And, this is still based off of your outgoing damage, Sharaki, you do "heal through damage" instead of just "here's some free health". This just makes it targettable instead of self, and actually mean something to keep someone alive (who may or may not be you) through Vampiric Embrace.

Tell me, what's not feeling "shadow priesty" about it?

[Sharaki]

Unlike Ret Paladins, using orbs in this manner wouldn't prevent you from casting Mind Blast, you just wouldn't have the "oomph" effect.

Ret paladin can cast templars verdict on 1 HP as well. It just aint beneficial before 3 point, just like casting mindblast without shadow orbs isnt beneficial. Thus it actually prevents casting mind blast

Anyways like I said, I love the idea, just not the part where it is linked to shadow orbs (but thanks to pvp aspect that might be needed). This isn't blizz forums so I doubt it will get ingame, thou :"(

[Annesh]

I don't really like it; in my opinion it falls into the same category as the Shadow Heal we were going to get in TBC. Was it TBC? Maybe it was Wrath.

[Kelesti]

I don't really like it; in my opinion it falls into the same category as the Shadow Heal we were going to get in TBC. Was it TBC? Maybe it was Wrath.

Dark Mending. Flash Heal that uses your Shadow Damage and Shadow Crit chance. Same cast time, same mana cost.

It was replaced with Vampiric Touch.

This also is a utility cooldown, not an actual heal.

---------- Post added 2010-11-19 at 08:20 PM ----------

Ret paladin can cast templars verdict on 1 HP as well. It just aint beneficial before 3 point, just like casting mindblast without shadow orbs isnt beneficial. Thus it actually prevents casting mind blast

Using Word of Glory means they can't even use Templar's Verdict (unless they're spec'd badly and pray for a proc).

But yes, this probably will never happen.

[Lysdexic]

How about something new? I'm not convinced about it, but it took me 3.14159 seconds to come up with...

"Heal your target an amount equal to 70% of the damage they took within the past 3 seconds."

Now that's unique, and requires some skill. Unfortunately it's probably too situational and likely too overpowered.

[Kelesti]

Too situational, too overpowered, too "Oh hey Deathstrike!"

...mmmmmeh.

[Abandon]

How about something new? I'm not convinced about it, but it took me 3.14159 seconds to come up with...

"Heal your target an amount equal to 70% of the damage they took within the past 3 seconds."

Now that's unique, and requires some skill. Unfortunately it's probably too situational and likely too overpowered.

I wouldn't say unique, it is the same mechanic as Death Strike as Kel mentioned.

I would really like this to be honest, maybe a nod at "Improved Vampiric Embrace" where you can boost your VE healing while maintaining your damage, and the consumption of Shadow Orbs gives it a nice flavour and means they are useful for more than one thing.

I think I suggested something similar when they changed the VE numbers to 6%, where they could make it a cooldown instead of a passive with more healing, but this seems a lot more interesting.

[Purple]

Treating it as a sudden boost to VE in some manner has its ups and downs. Generally I like idea of sacrificing Shadow Orbs via the original ability for a non-MB/MS purpose though. Being able to increase the amount VE healed you for a short amount of time (on a cooldown) could definitely have its perks. Goes away from being a heal though, in some manners, and starts to sound more like a defensive cooldown when put like that though.

When you start applying it to different spells like that, actually, it starts to make Shadow Orbs sound a lot like the new Soul Shards. Sacrifice shard/orb for x benefit to y spell.

On the other hand it actually makes the Shadow Orbs start to actually resemble a new resource to manage. Not a horrible thing. Preferable actually. Where does it stop though?

Sacrifice orbs to gain health while dispersed? Sacrifice orbs to teleport you to a random nearby location when you fade? Sacrifice orbs to make shadowfiend turn into a jpop dance trio that causes hostile npcs/players to do a little dance for x seconds? Basically I want Shadow Orbs to act like a resource but it has to stop somewhere, the second you start adding things on it starts to sound a bit too much like Soul Shards.

[Annesh]

Dark Mending. Flash Heal that uses your Shadow Damage and Shadow Crit chance. Same cast time, same mana cost.

It was replaced with Vampiric Touch.

This also is a utility cooldown, not an actual heal.[COLOR="red"]

i meant that it occupies the same space in my mind; stuff that makes us more healers than dpsers. true hybrids are hard to sell and harder to balance; i'd rather just be a straight up dpser so i can compete with others performing the same role.

not that i don't mind being support, like for example shadow's role in tbc was awesome and unique and totally valuable and cool. i would absolutely take a huge dps loss if i knew i was providing a huge and distinct benefit to my raid. but now that roles have been homogenized to the 3.5 primary roles, i don't want to be half one, half another. that's just very ambiguous; its value is hard to pin down. so i'd just assume argue against any mechanics that caused us to take steps down that route.

[Vaeritas]

It would be neat!

[Deleted]

I think I suggested something similar when they changed the VE numbers to 6%, where they could make it a cooldown instead of a passive with more healing, but this seems a lot more interesting.

Cooldown similar to how they changed Druid's Thorns. On demand semi-powerful personal and group heal based on SPs damage with reasonable cooldown.
Honestly everything is better than the current VE. But I guess we will have to wait for the 'proper' Cataclysm for Shadows till 4.1. Whatever works...

[KresnikHellfire]

I may just be a little fatigued and this overly-excited about this idea but:

I think that's one of the best design ideas for priests I have seen in a long time !

- Fits (what I feel to be) the original design of shadowpriests
- Cooldown is acceptable and even nicer with glyph - shadowpriests don't have a great deal of peels for partners and this would be a "survival cooldown" for them.
- Makes shadow orbs slightly interesting.

Basically, I really like it. Nice work !

[Ryme]

I quite like this. I play a paladin a lot at the moment and this seems reminiscent of Word of Glory, which is one of my favourite abilities right now.