I wish to make a third character for PvP, and this would be my old priest from WoD that I might level to 80.
I have several questions to ask:
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Is Shadow good? I heard from someone while questing that she says that shadow priests are quite weak this expansion. As I quested with her, I noticed that shadow’s damage in killing mobs is extremely low. While questing on my warlock with her, my warlock destroys mobs in a few seconds but she’s still slowly ramping up damage. I also noticed from PvP that Shadow never makes it to the top 3 in BGs.
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Is Holy priest viable for PvP? One reason why I’m thinking of leveling an Evoker instead of a priest is that Evoker seems to have 3 viable PvP specs. Last time I played priest in WoD, Holy is just a gimmick and is not good for PvP. How have things changed now?
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Disc probably is still quite good. How is it for PvP now?
Thanks all.
2 Likes
Shadow is good, it can be VERY rough at times when youre being focused as pretty much everything is casted but you can do good damage while you are not being focused. It really needs its teammates to peel for it though, otherwise you may feel like you just cant do anything with a couple melee sitting on you.
Idk much about holy but i hear its through put isnt really good right now. Probably not as good as disc for PvP.
Disc is one of the best and most played healers currently.
If nobody ever tries to attack you, you can do some decent damage. And by decent I mean still below every single melee, who will just burst you down in seconds while keeping you in a stun- and interrupt-lock.
Melees are ridiculously tanky as well. I’m in full PvP gear and I just put all three DoTs on a Rogue, just to see how much damage they would do. His health bar literally didn’t move down from 100%. Our DoTs are doing so little damage that they are basically just damage buffs for our other spells due to our mastery. Pretty much every class will just passively heal through them.
4 Likes
Shadow is long past its height in terms of capability that WoD offered.
It’s been a complete mess ever since the Legion rework. It hasn’t found a solid footing as basically everything is in a state of throw a bunch of crap at the wall and see what works.
We are in a perpetual testing period to see what and how shadow should play as as its focus is all over the place so it’s a challenge to get a solid central vision for what it should do and its core strengths as over time it has just become weaker in just about every aspect with no update as to the plans for a complete overhaul in refining the positives and strengthening the negatives even though it was admitted over 2 years ago by the devs that more work is to come but has yet been made it to any form of announcements let alone implementation and testing.
If you want to play for strength alone and don’t have much interest in the fantasy and thematic nature of it then pretty much any other class will offer better alternatives.
3 Likes
This is the sad truth. If I had interest in another class, I’d have swapped long ago as my favourite thing to do in wow is casual BG’s. Shadow is in a rough state for gameplay for someone like me, but it still has an unmatched theme. We are a bit like an antique household appliance. We look interesting but serve no purpose in the modern world.
3 Likes
Disc is the strongest spec for pvp right now.
Holy is apparently awful.
Shadow is certainly “viable”, but that is about as far as i’d go with it. You would certainly have a better time in the game playing literally any other ranged caster spec (except maybe demo).
1 Like
Just found this on Reddit, someone making points on how awful shadow feels in PvP especially against a Death Knight.
Did one of you is post this? Or is this someone outside the community here on the forums that are experiencing the same issues that are the core of what we all talk about here?
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldofpvp/s/hXsW5SSoni
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Be me as a warlock feeling extremely frustrated with how useless i feel when focused and how squishy i am.
-started leveling a spriest.
-trying not to cry.
7 Likes
Unless you plan on making it your main and really learning it and sticking with it, it’s really not worth it at all.
Shadow is notoriously always out of balance because our utility is strong. Blizzard can’t seem to make up their minds about shadow. Are we support/hybrid? Are we dps? At this point know one really knows what shadow is at its core.
Other dps classes will passively heal more than for what you’re spending gcd’s on. Other dps classes will passively dispel more than for what you’re spending gcd’s on. Other classes dots tick harder and other classes bursts are stronger with much easier setups.
Shadow is pretty tanky, but there’s many other dps who are just as tanky, never mind the fact that they’re passively more tanky than shadow, despite shadow spending gcds to be as tanky as we are.
If you like having a lot of situational cd’s, never having an easy win and enjoy a challenge every single arena match, this class might be for you. The wins feel great because you outplay, but the losses are really frustrating because you’re very dependent on your team mates needing to cater their playstyle to support you and your role
3 Likes
I have seen shadow priests do obscene damage in battlegrounds and they seemed to have more tools to live than warlock while just being passively tankier. But from what im hearing from you, yall are in the same boat. I really dont know what to play at this point.
2 Likes
I just want to get 1600 for the token, and I’m having an absolutely awful time in solo shuffle. There are so many interrupts and micro ccs available to other classes, especially melee that they can just push them with disregard because they have 5 more. I get stunned for 1-2 secs over and over again from the DR. Then, you manage to get a cast off, and your dots just get dispelled. It’s very disheartening.
Shadow priests always seem to carry the nerfs forward with complete disregard for how the game has changed. Having to cast so much with no reward - mindblast hits for what 200Kish? PWShield is paper thin, flash heal is paper thin, no mobility, dots do nothing. Same issues for 10 expansions. I’m very frustrated currently.
If you want an easy ride in BG’s and you’re not too attached to your class, just play a marks hunter right now.
2 Likes
It’s all pad damage and basically inconsequential. If you look at the damage breakdowns of the priests on your team in BG scenarios like that, youll see things like psychic link and maybe spirits doing the majority of their damage. Tepid spread “pressure”.
2 Likes
gotcha thanks for the replies
Once upon a time, one of the features of being an sp or Aff lock was that you would double the damage of every other class in a bg. This was because half that damage was substantial dot damage and the other half was competitive single target damage. If you’re spreading dots around and cleaving but only just barely getting top damage, there is something wrong with the tuning and your likely dealing about 50% of the single target damage you should be doing.
Its very viable for disc. Very fun too.
Shadow priest is not bad at all but not the best either. The issue is they just cast too much and priest hasn’t gotten enough utility to keep people off of them while their mobility has also fallen pretty far behind after hero talents were introduced.
There isn’t really a reason to play an spriest over an aff lock for example, aff locks dots are better, it has more instant procs (shadowbolts), it has more mobility, etc. It can be good if they reduce some of the casts spriests have or give them the ability to get away from people quickly or move while channeling with more abilities with maybe some interrupt protection outside of precog. The way the game has gone in the last few years makes specs that have to cast a ton not great.
Holy priest is okay, but not great. Gameplay is fun, healing is just on the weaker side. Damage is eh as well.
If you can’t get out pressure as a warlock, you aren’t going to have a better time on Spriest. Warlock has tons of difficult to master mobility, priest mobility is W key.
1 Like
I’m having a BLAST as disc in pvp right now. Solo shuffle, epic bgs solo, epic bgs in premade of various sizes, etc. The hero talent that gives you like 4 poms with PW shield is just /chefskiss imo. I can top, or be near top, almost every bg.
yeah because disc is overtuned right now. You not only do obscene healing/shields you actually have decent burst damage. Burst damage that my useless drain life cant heal through.
I dunno about that, I was getting clowned by holy priests and resto shams at the start there. I guess we’ll see.
I’ve seen an affliction lock doubling the dps of the next highest person too