A few thoughts after playing Shadow from launch and seeing current changes in PTR:
Pathing
I would like to see a few pathing changes in the spec tree to better facilitate branching out from what seem to be predefined nodes you generally always want. As an example, something like Dark Evangelism and Maddening Touch swapping places would be good to try out on the PTR. This would potentially open up more pathing options in the bottom of the tree to choose from and diversify with, along with potentially freeing up some points to move around in the middle of the tree dependent on the situation.
On the same note, pathing to Nzoth is difficult right now for the situations I would be interested in taking it. Currently it’s locked behind mostly ST talents (new PL changes with Void Torrent could change this?) so pathing through ST talents to what looks to be strictly a cleave/AoE option feels awkward.
Dark Ascension/Void Eruption
To be frank, I came into the expansion not liking the idea of DA. Non-peroidic damage seems to go against what I would think is the playstyle of shadow, even though I know that’s not entirely true. While I’m not in love with the spell, I’ve honestly grown to like the cadence of playing a 1-min class that combines your Mindbender/DA and focusing more around ST spells that playing DA brings.
Having said that, I don’t think I like the spell itself as a replacement to Void Eruption, but just the cadence to the spec that it brings. This makes me think that seeing a change to the spell/choice node in PTR would be interesting and could relieve some of the awkwardness when using DA. For example, I would like to see Void Eruption be the central CD you play around, and the choice node could be something like either extending your VE (like we do now with spending Insanity), or adding a non-periodic damage increase component to VE and reducing it’s base cooldown (like DA currently does for the spec).
On the note of DA and using Void Torrent, I don’t like how un-intuative it is that you would want to use VT within DA. Currently it’s the optimal usage for VT as the additional crit chance provided from Ancient Madness is so strong, but for new or even familiar players that do not fully understand this interaction, its very easy to think you would want to never cast VT within your DA window since DA does not augment VT directly. Just my 2 cents, as I’m not a theorycrafter and there are MUCH smarter people than me who discover and play these interactions.
Specific Talents
Shadow Crash as a spell has mostly been fine, I haven’t been bothered much with the hard 30 second CD. While having it hasted would be nice, It’s biggest issue for me has been for multi-target situations, such like at the beginning of bigger pulls in M+, when there are a lot of targets I would like to DoT immediately. I think I’d rather have something like 2 charges or a talent that allows you to cast it again within 5 seconds for reduced damage (but still applying VT to your targets). Perhaps changing Unfurling Darkness would be a good route to go for a quick and dirty fix, though I’m admittedly unfamiliar with how strong UD is in PvP.
Pain of Death feels underwhelming, and I’m not sure if its just a tuning issue or more fundamental. Nevertheless, having it as an option in the bottom of the tree feels like it will never be taken at it’s current value/playstyle.
Idol of Nzoth, ignoring the pathing issues, has a fundamental problem of scaling extremely poorly in ST interactions. While that might be the “tradeoff” and fine from a design perspective, all other capstones currently provide decent benefit to ST, making this feel like a non-choice in those encounters (or even potentially M+ unless the AoE was flat overtuned). Adding some sort of ST component, or even some sort of interaction with DP, would help alleviate this concern.
Whispers of the Damned seems too low value for the points required, along with it competing against other talents such as PL or Dark Evangelism.
Mind Spike with Surge of Darkness feels… meh to play in Raid/ST, not the worst talent but just adds a bit of button bloat. Surge procs hit like a truck, alleviating a bit of the concern for it, but my two biggest gripes are that you really only play this in raid (with DA), and the fact that you HAVE to take Surge of Darkness. I’m not sure what the general consensus is in the community for Mind Spike/Mind Flay playstyles and choices, but I wouldn’t be opposed to this talent changing on a fundamental level.