I love the options available to disc.
Please take a look at this, priest devs <3. This feedback is incredibly well thought out and he is absolutely right with everything.
The tree has so much potential, but it needs a lot of work. Genuinly youāve done a good job with it by laying the foundations, and i am looking forward to you fixing it based on our feedback.
Below is my own feedback with focus on shadow priests.
General take away:
- The tree is too top heavy, and we are forced to take too many abilities without having a choice, which leaves us with very few points to play around with in the bottom rows (compared to other spec trees).
-Having to choose so much between utility and damage (ie. Dispersion) isnāt fun and seems counterintuitive to your design philosophy of seperating utility and damage.
Priest class tree feedback:
Love what you have done with pi. The position of this talent solves a lot of issues with the spell itself, and the subsequent twins talent is placed perfectly.
For shadow you are very locked into what loadout to pick in this tree. There isnāt much choice at all. We just go for mindgames and shadowflame prism and then we are basically out of points. Can be seen as good or bad.
Shadowflame prism is nice, but i know that a lot of people really dislike it and now are forced to play it baseline. Maybe keep it, but change this talent into a ātwo-choiceā talent, so people can opt out of using it if they want?
Specific shadow talent tree feedback:
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Mind sear and devouring plague should be swapped on the tree. It makes no sense that mind sear leads into utility spells. There are also situations where it would be nice to opt out of, such as pure single target.
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Currently we would never take dispersion, because it is not in a āforcedā position, and it will compete with damage talents (therefore will rarely be taken). It should be treated like power infusion, and get a similar position on the tree or be moved into the priest class tree.
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Being forced to take shadow crash and void torrent to access the lower rows makes no sense when the talents below has nothing to do with these spells. There is no synergy, and no way to opt out of these spells if we dislike them.
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Searing nightmare needs to be removed or reworked. It is not a fun spell. I doubt anyone likes it. First of all, it is required to channel mind sear to use it. Second, you just spam it with no thought.
I would rather see a new spell that either applies dots or spreads dots in aoe situations. Put more of a focus on vampiric touch and shadow apparitions for aoe for shadow. Shadow apparitions is just fun to maintain, and it synergies well with many talents in the tree. -
Some of the bottom talents regarding shielding yourself and getting damage from that isnāt fun considering shadow word: death will break the shield constantly. They should be removed entirely.
If your aim is to stop us from taking multiple āidolā talents, then you can still accomplish that without forcing us to take boring talents and making them all 3 steps. Please look at this again.
Wish we can create polls hereā¦
So Iāll just ask instead.
What approach to aoe do YOU think Shadow should take in 10.0?
- Mind Sear
- Mind Sear + Searing Nightmares?
- Ramp up procs with Psychic Link Mind Blasts + Shadowy Apparitions
- Getting Halo back
- Getting Divine Star back
- Other (add your spell idea interaction)
Not going to include Cascade as an option because blizz obviously wants to never return to it sadly.
I think Shadowās aoe should be both thematic, and have interactions with its kit. Searing Nightmare does neither.
Spirits, on the other hand, check both these boxes.
My ideal shadow aoe rotation is some form of vt mass application ability, into psychic damage and a constant stream of spirits.
That is to say the foundation of the rotation, I think that halo/dstar/cascade would complement any form of aoe, and need not be mutually exclusive to a solid foundation.
Also bring back Thought Harvester.
Where are you seeing a 30 second stun? Psychic Horror is 45s cd. Itās not like other specs canāt rotate their CC.
Excellent feedback!
Soā¦Shadow Covenant in this version really just seems like a single-target burst (or āpriority burstā since Wicked Star will cleave) that youāll do every 45 seconds in an M+ environment. I say 45 seconds because youāll probably hold Shadow Covenant for Mindgames (45s CD) rather than using Shadow Covenant on cooldown (30s CD).
Assuming a build that supports it, For 11 seconds, you can do 25% extra damage with - and the rotation will probably go like this - Shadow Covenant, Schism, Mind Blast (use this earlier so the CD of Mind Blast can reset while you still have Shadow Covenant up), Penance, Mindgames, Divine Star, a second Mind blast, and Shadow Word: Death. No more Mind Sear for Disc in Dragonflight, FYI.
If youāre trying to burst while healing the group your rotation will probably adjust by simply adding a Radiance right before Shadow Covenant (both Radiance and SCov are mana-intensive, btw). So it would go Radiance, Shadow Covenant, Schism, Mind Blast, Penance, Mindgames, Divine Star, Mind blast, Shadow Word: Death.
If you donāt take Embrace Shadow to extend Shadow Covenant by 4s (and also not get āDark Penanceā), you would just cast Radiance, Shadow Covenant, Schism, Mind Blast, Mindgames, Divine Star, Mind blast, Shadow Word: Death. Youāll have 9 seconds where Shadow Covenant and Schism effects overlap, and both effects will likely end within half a second of each other.
At this point, Iād probably go for this build in M+: https://www.wowhead.com/dragonflight-talent-calc/AABcQEEQmYmBRASQgJCAQBQABhOVVZWAhJVgFACAEBA
If I went full Scov/Schism, Iād have to give up things like
- Shining Radiance (20% more radiance healing)
- Revel in Purity (spreads more Purge the Wicked) , or
- Castigation (extra Penance bolt)
To me, thatās not worth an extra 4 seconds of burstā¦at that point, the group is probably healed up, or you may need to move for mechanics after doing 9 seconds of straight casting, etc.
would love better psychic link support, make shadow crash apply VT to targets hit so you can start casting a bunch of mind blasts and apparitions to the targets. maybe something like the WoD prismatic focus mages had where we summon a void to single target DPS and recast to set it all off.
The fact that I can make a shadow priest build without selecting Devouring Plague, Vampiric Touch, or Searing Nightmare should illustrate how wrong this talent tree is. You can make a spec that has NO spenders and select all of the talents that interact with Vampiric Touch all without taking the talents themselves.
I know they said that some weird specs could be created but this means the spec wouldnāt work at all.
Balance on the other hand, gets Starsurge for free and can select Starfall as an easy 1 point offshoot from going down the right side of their tree where some of their more single target abilities are at.
Mindflay, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch should all be baseline. Vampiric Insight, the new defining mechanic should be the first point in the tree. Or they at least need to move things around. Devouring Plague could swap with Mindsear to allow us to open up a path with a skill we will 100% need all of the time.
Silenceā¦ Where to begin. If you look at the Discipline talents, they have a new talent called Wickedness. If you take this with Divine Star you get an AoE silence that lasts 2s that is on a cooldown of 15s. Yes Silence lasts for 4s but I assume that Divine Star will silence on the way out and the way back, potentially giving you close to 4s of silence. Meanwhile Shadow has to spend 2 points to get silence, it only silences 1 target, and then itās on a 30s cooldown.
IDK if I agree with this. In M+ I donāt even think the standard build will even be taking mindgames. If you want damage, SFP is the better capstone to shoot for. But even if we were taking Mindgames, I donāt think itās worth holding Scov for outside maybe boss fights. Wicked star is going to take any Scov damage-boosting priority in M+ for most the dungeon.
Honestly in M+ I think Scov is more positioned the same as it always was - very good for Shadowmend, probably not a ton of use for the damage it provides otherwise because mana is a concern. The biggest thing Scov has going for it right now is probably Penance, actually. Disc is already specced such that their penance in raid is doing more damage than Mindgames consistently. Buffing that another 25% is pretty nuts.
Shining radiance is absolutely worth giving up. The current conduit is 80%. No chance am I spending 2 points on 20%. I donāt think thereās any meta build that is going to take that.
If youāre going to use Scov at all, it doesnāt make sense to not be able to use penance in its window (which you wonāt without Twilight Corruption).
My best guess for what will end up being the more meta build (or at least what Iāll be running when Iām seriously pushing): https://www.wowhead.com/dragonflight-talent-calc/AABcQEFQmImBRASQgJAgEBQABhOVVRSQhJVkFQCAEBA
or this:https://www.wowhead.com/dragonflight-talent-calc/AABcQEFQmImBRASQgJAgEBQABhOVVRWQhIVhBECQEBE
Depending on how useful Iām finding Scov. If itās not feeling like my damage is getting much of a boost with it, harsh discipline is going to be a MAJOR boost in dungeon. Itās basically constantly guaranteed tier piece TPO.
Already made some posts on the general forum thread, but thought iād also post some of them here.
For the Class tree:
The class tree offers significantly less options for Shadowpriests compared to Holy or Disc priests, primarily because the left side offers no damage value, with zero utility. The right side offers damage via Shadowflame Prism, and utility/damage via Mind Games, and Dominate Mind as a rather potent CC.
As far as healing priest are concernced, the class tree offers practically no real benefit over what Discipline currenty has, at least holy gets access to more damage options via the mindbender line. Utility wise, itās virtually the as live.
All the utility you could imagine to be given to all priests, that is Silence, Psychic Horror, Dispersion, and even Vampiric Embrace (i.e. Natureās Vigil) are stuck in the shadow priest tree.
Shadow tree bullet points:
- Too many utility talents that compete with damage options: Vampiric Embrace and the two locked talents, Improved Silence, Dispersion, Psychic Horror and Intangibility are competing with damage talents. At best, the only talent here youāll ever pick will be Dispersion.
- The second tier talents are too restricted. Three points are locked into the VE talents, 2 into Shadowy Apparition talents, and 1 into Monomania. You then need another 3 points to unlock one of the Idol choices (and iād argue many people want them, because they are the shiny new stuff).
- The last tier in the talent tree is too point heavy. If you pick any Idol, you only pick any of the adjacent final talents. If you pick the middle talents, you canāt max out Eidolic Intuition. If you reduce Sanguine Teachings and Abyssal Knowledge to two points, you can choose two idols, or you can choose one idol and two the adjacent two talents (and have one spare points), or you can choose the three middle talents. The idols do not synergize in any way, so it doesnāt seem to be much of a balance problem.
- Shadow Crash and Void Torrent are mandatory picks to advance to the last tier. Yet these are talents that have zero interaction with the remaining talent tree, and are even disruptive to the general gameplay loop. They should not be in a place where they lock advancement in the tree.
- Mental Fortitude and Sanguine Teaching seem like a nice idea, but with all the damage going out, shields will likely never be active. Iād argue for changing Mental Fortitude to always generate a shield on VT tick, not just on max. HP.
- Surrender to Madness can not and will never compete against Hungering Void, and the value of a mere 100% more insanity (when we likely will be drowning in it), will never be worth the risk.
- Void Touched is out of place and counter-productive to Monomania/Abyssal Knowledge, while on the same path. Monomania wants maximum MF uptime, Void Touched costs MF uptime. Iād put Fortress of the Mind in itās place.
- Death and Madness: As the tier 1 is overloaded with talents, iād like to see this moved to the general priest tree instead of Improved Shadow Word: Death. Add mana regen to it, and itās something all priests could see value from.
- Low chance talents: Void Apparitions, Unleash the Shadows, Rot and Wither are all very low chance talents (3-5% for the last two). For Unleash, iād remove the crit proc to keep the value constant over an expansion, for Rot and Wither, iād just go for a much higher proc chance to get a consistent DoT extension.
- Idol of Nāzoth likely needs a death-protection on the target (as in explode all stacks when target dies)
Random ideas for improvement:
Tier one improvements:
- Swap Vampiric Touch and Mind Flay.
- Have Psychic Horror replace Psychic Voice in the choice node.
- Move Shadow Crash and Void Torrent in the spots of Vampiric Embrace and Dispersion (Shadowcrash left, Void Torrent right)
- Put a new damage talent in place of Improved silence, maybe Thought Harvester from the Conduits. Weāre VT focused after all.
- Move Death and Madness with Mana regen in the priest tree, instead of improved SW:D.
General idea is to move the utility in mandatory spots later on, while there imo is a benefit of having a choice between Mind Flay and Mind Sear. To alleviate that, Shadow Crash is on the left side (with Mind Flay), and Void Torrent is on the right side with Sear, to allow some minimal AoE options, if you choose to forgo one or the other.
Tier two improvements:
- Move Dispersion and Vampiric Embrace in the spots of Psychic link/Void Touched, with their improvement talents to the left/right.
- Move Psychic Link one spot down, replace Void Touched with Fortress of the Mind, and move it one spot down.
By putting Dispersion and Vampiric Embrace into more mandatory spots, you will be able to take them. Sparing one singular point for their improvement can be a reasonable option then.
Tier three improvements:
- Reduce the 3 pointers to two points
- Mental Fortitude is not tied to max hp
- Unleash is a flat % chance
- Rot and Wither is a higher % chance with lower duration inrease.
I think this is intentional, and paired with an unusual amount of utility points leads to Shadowās trees having the most total point count by a large margin.
I donāt think it is healthy for tree design to lock keystone talents under a 6 point requirement just so that you canāt have multiple of them. I would suggest either reducing the requirement for Idol paths to either 4 or 5, thereby allowing multiple Idols. Or combining the Idols into a choose 4, instead of two mutually exclusive choose two, since that is in effect the same result without having unnecessary point bloat.
PoH needs love badly. Thereās literally no reason to use it. More expensive than CoH, cast time, does less healing? Iād rather manually apply renews. IDK if the branches revolving around it in the holy tree are worth taking.
As someone who plays holy a lot, I love the mana regen talents. However there is a lot of fluff in the holy talents which doesnāt allow us to try hybrid builds. If a talent doesnāt improve a previous spell then it should be taken out imo.
Iām picking up what your putting down.
Iām digging your suggestions.
Here it is visualizedā¦ (ignore the bottom portion as those need a lot more work imo)
Here are some ideas (with Visuals) for some AOE options.
Not sure what type of mechanics to attach to them if any.
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Dark Star (Talent)
3 second Cast
50 Insanity
Summon a Dark Star to crash into your enemies dealing X Shadow damage causing their spirits to wail out in agony dealing X Shadow damage over X seconds.
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Void Devastation (Talent)
Channeling
50 Insanity
Summon a Void Devastation at your targeted area, dealing X Shadow damage over X sec.
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Void Blast (Talent)
2 second Cast
25 Insanity
Blast your enemies in a cone in front of you for X Shadow damage.
Void Blast Visual Aid
Or like this
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Shadow Blast (Talent)
Instant
40 Insanity
Send a ball of Shadow in front of you dealing X Shadow damage to all enemies hit. 8 yrd radius.
For this one, think of Gotenks Ghosts from DBZ where they explode on contact.
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Howling Wraiths (Talent)
Your Shadowy Apparitions now explode when they reach their target causing X Shadow damage within 8yrd.
I kind of hate the new shadow tree, as it coerces a false choice between a viable AoE build or a viable single target build. All the power Shadow currently has seems to be made baseline in the Priest tree instead? Likeā¦ What? I thought that āclass treeā was mostly for utilityā¦
I also donāt like that for Discipline there is one baseline buff for Power Word Shield and it is in the Priest tree (I donāt count Atonement duration as a buff to PWS).
The Holy Fire talents look neat in the Holy tree thoughā¦ Overall, feel like this is worse than the Druid implementation, maybe on par with Death Knight but not as interesting.
Iāve already seen fews problems that hope will be fixed so far.
And I also have few sugestions that could help improves the trees a bit.
-First
there is a huge inequality between the trees weāve seen so far :
DK
Blood 30/49
Frost 30/45
Unholy 30/46
Druid
Balance 30/47
Feral 30/46
Guardian 30/45
Restoratio 30/43
Priest
Discipline 30/53
Holy 30/46
Shadow 30/55
I understand its impossible to perfectly balance things out but so far Disc and Shadow have way too much than other by a large margin. And also I feel like they didnt follow the DK/Druid way and it is really clumsy and heavy. While on druid and DK you can take 2 opposite row on the final one it is impossible to do for priest. Why because there is too much choice in the previous options by ALOT.
In the previously mentioned classes you often chooce between 3 option and one or two row of 5/6 choices. While the Priest (Disc/Shadow) mostly are rows of 5/6.
I think Priest need to free some spaces on the trees. Lots of choices should be baseline with the ability chosen and not be part of the Tree as an augment.
Ok now few things that come to mind that would need change for the priest of each spec. And positive change.
Disc
1-Contrition. Should be reworked for Healing and dmg dealed. (If healing add more heal to target with atonement/ If dealing dmg grant small shield for target affected by atonement) Beeing limited to healing only is kinda annoying and limiting its effet by alot.
2-Shadow covenant. Really glad to see a rework that still allow the use of holy spells but with reduced effect. Now would be nice to see its oppsite option added to the tree. Maybe as a new version of Power Word Radiance. Cause lets be honest its a bit of a weak spell.
3-Power Word Barrier. Its an iconic ability I know. But seriously I do think it need a rework compared to other Long cooldown other healers has. I would suggest and option similar to the old talent in Legion (The shield that afftected the whole party) But still keeping the 25% dmg applied. Instead of forcing a zone. All other healer has party range long cooldown except for Disc priest.
4-Twilight corruption. Its a nice thing to turn Penance shadow dmg during Shadow covenant to get its buff. But does it also keep its healing as Shadow like Shadow mend. Otherwise its kinda weak if you lose its healing effect during Shadow Covenant window.
5-Lenience. The 3% dmg reduction should be a given at this point and being added to atonement or to up its position in the tree.
6-Indemnity/Solatium. Duration incrase by only 2 sec is really low. And why does it have to be 2 point. Why not make just 1 bubble that does both. I understand the part where one side it more shadow and the other more holy. But its kinda why the tree is too heavy.Also 2 sec is way too low. The need to add either Atonement as an aura or a 15sec incrase like the old PvP talent.
7-Wickedness. I really love the idea but there is 2 thing that come to mind that would be an issue. First does it turn its regular dmg/healing shadow during Shadow Covenant window too or not. Cause if it doesnt whats the point of having reduced dmg/healing to gain incrase Over time dmg. Second thing I see is everyone will pick Divine star because the 2sec silence possibly 4sec silence is way too strong compared to Halo cooldown reduction. I think what Halo need to be picked would be to have the effect of unholy nova also added (Target hit during that 6sec period also heal its attacker)
Thats what came to mind for Disc.Let me know what you guys think.
Holy
Holy doesnt have much point its similar to the other classes weāve seen. But one of the main problem is. Its really bland. Most of its choice are boring except for the addition of few thing that are back. But its tree seem to turn way too much into Holy Word reduction. Which isnt bad but seem to be the only possible gameplay.
So for my suggestion/worry.
1-Prayer of healing. I feel like in the past few xpact this spell heal way too low for its mana cost. Yeah with Prayer circle it get better but most player will still prefer using 1 big single heal over that low group healing. One option could be to add a passive to trail of light or Prayer circle making the mastery on this spell double. It would fix quite alot.
2-Cosmic Ripple. I feel like I should also affect Chastise. I also think it shouldnt just do healing but also have a little bit of dmg. It would make Holy priest do some dmg passively via healing/ Reset of chastise also. which would help the via few scenario (M+/Raid/Dungeon/PvP)
3-Binding heal. They changed it in 9.2 cause it wasnāt picked/used and they bring its old version back. I feel like no one will pick it. Why cause its useless and its not even blocking the next row so why pick something that useless.
4-Surge of Light. I got nothing agains this one except they chose to put it into the dps side of the tree. again no complain here. Just the dps side of the tree seem to be focused on Holy Fire. so I was thinking why not make surge of light affect either flash heal or Holy fire. It would make a nice combo with Empyreal blaze passive.
5-Runes (Healing/mending/fire) Like I do understand but really cant we just have 1 bubble affecting all 3 indead. And use 2 bubble for something else more interesting. Right now in leggo in Shadowland does all 3 so why in DF we have to pick 3 point to get 3 while other classe get leggo effect for 1 point only.
6-Resonant Words. I feel like Ripple and the same way as this one in Shadowland I feel like adding a dmg bonus on Holy Fire would make it better. That conduit only affecting healing I always found it was annoying. Give the player the choice not just Heal/Flash heal. Add Prayer of Healing and Holy Fire. Limiting it to 2 Single healing spell while we have an AoE healing and Dmg Holy word feel really weak to me.
7-Lightwell. I have few concern about this one. I like the spell dont get me wrong but there is many wrong thing about this version. The 10yard radius is way too small. if you want to keep that make it so if the player reclick we can move the lightwell. Similar to shammy totem back in the day. Second wrong this it only affect 1 player under 50% hp instead of taking big dmg like before. Third its a 3min cooldown. So too me it feel like it should be similar to Spirit link totem. Make Lightwell a second long cooldown group heal instead of all version it used to be. Make the lightwell heal the party in 10 yard radius for few sec with a 3min radius. Or make the lightwell similar to the Naaru during Legion. Make it copy your spells. But reduce its cooldown by half. Otherwise most player wont even bother picking it except for few player who just miss it.
8-Divine Words. Glad to see a version of chakra back. But one of the reason why it was good back in the day was its passive buff and I feel like they should of done that instead of giving an effect for 15sec every 1min. Its still a low cooldown but its not why Chakra was good.
Its mostly what I think need change for Holy. Also its the classe with the lowest choice amount all 3 + spec. And most of the choice arent that interesting. Like add some old legendary/ Tier effect/ BFA azerite Power like they did on the other classe.
Shadow
I cant really speak for shadow as I tend to avoid it cause it aint really fun to me. But like disc there is too many bubble for each row and the only interesting choice are on the last row but its impossible to pick multiple like other classes/specs which make Shadow really weak I find. And to make it worse its the spec with the most bubble so far.
One think I also noticed in shadow it seem combo option are in 2 opposite side of the tree which make it quite weak also
Thanks for posting the picture, close to what i imagined.
My general idea was to also reduce the maximum number of talent points in the Shadow tree. It currently has 55 talent points that could be spend. The second highest next tree has 49 (Disc has 54, thatās imo also too much). And the imo best way to achieve that is to remove talents that likely wonāt be picked, and reduce the biggest point sinks.
Thatās why i would move Death and Madness to general priest, removed Improved Silence (move Thought Harvester there), reduce the 3 pointer to two points, and got rid of Void Touched (there are just no points for it).
And even then, iād probably still reduce some talents in the final tier to one-pointers, most likely Unleash the Shadows, and Rot and Wither, because they seem rather weak overall, and just to cost-ineffective as two pointers.
Trying to fix a few talentsā¦
Sanguine Teachings
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Sanguine Teachings (3pt) (Current)
While shielded, Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague deal 5/10/15% additional damage.
Adding a passive Vampiric Embrace effect.
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Sanguine Teachings (3pt)
Your Vampiric Embrace now has a passive effect allowing 5/10/15% of all Shadow damage dealt to heal you.
In addition, While shielded, Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague deal 5/10/15% additional damage.
Boosted damage while is Vampiric Embrace active?
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Sanguine Teachings (3pt)
Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague deal 5/10/15% additional damage while under the effects of Vampiric Embrace.
Boosted damage based on your current life percentage?
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Sanguine Teachings (3pt)
Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague deal 5% additional damage while your health is at or above 30/60/90%.
^ Wording is odd but basically if your at or above 30% HP, they do 5% more dmg. 60% HP is 10% more dmg. 90% is 15% more dmg.
Mental Fortitude
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Mental Fortitude (2pt) (Current)
Healing from Vampiric Touch when you are at maximum health will shield you for the same amount. Shield cannot exceed a certain value, based on Talent Rank.
Increased damage as long as shield holds
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Mental Fortitude (2pt)
Healing from Vampiric Touch when you are at maximum health will shield you for the same amount. Your Vampiric Touch Damage is increased by 5/10% as long as the shield holds. Shield cannot exceed a certain value, based on Talent Rank.
Rot and Wither
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Rot and Wither (2pt) (Current)
Mind Flay and Mind Sear damage has a 5% chance to extend Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain by 2/4 sec.
Refresh instead of extend
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Rot and Wither (2pt)
Mind Flay and Mind Sear damage has a 50/100% chance to refresh Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.