OK this makes more sense. I assumed spriests would only pop DA on 3 stacks of surge and do something like Spike>Spike>Spike>MB>Mindgames>Vtorr>Spike for however many procs of surge you got +1>Damnation>MB to manage the mastery. Or try to game it so Void Eruption+first void bolt landed inside the window. My problem was that it was gonna overcap insanity in that window badly since we still have very little way to spend it and Devouring Plague IS a DoT effect.
It would on primary target yes.
But the damage can be carried across targets with VT and SW:P.
Basically it sounds like how it worked in Cata. But the difference is that you can now psychically extent a portion of that damage through to all targets with VT and SW:P. It sounds awesome.
Cata we got massive burst window during DA. It sounds like it can be again if you so choose.
Some things here:
Publik mentioned on Twitch yesterday that Void Torrent does not benefit from Dark Ascension because it has ticks of periodic damage, like Mind Flay. I havenât tested this though.
Yes, DPâs dot effect doesnât benefit from DA. There is the initial hit which counts as direct damage, though, and that does benefit from DA. So maybe there is a way to game this inside the DA window by casting DP to avoid overcapping, then cast Mindgames and Mindblast to benefit from the mastery damage boost you get from DP. That way you can still benefit from the dot damage of DP somewhat, while having the initial hit of DP being boosted by DA.
Is there a scenario where DA and Voidform are synced so we can get as many benefits in that window?
If such a thing happens I think most people would say the tree has failed. People have been providing feedback that they want more sustain, less burst, and less cooldown stacking.
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It seems like DA needs to be spaced further out from Void Eruption so the two cannot be taken together. And DA likely needs to be buffed for people who want to take it as their primary damage CD.
Destruction locks donât have a filler AoE.
Yes, iâve been following the scene, but considering DA, Voidform, Idol of Yâshaarj, shadowfiend, SFP and ancient madness are all in 2min cd (considering that we can lower shadowfiend to 2min with Fiending Dark - or using bender for guaranted uses), it is hard not to think this all wouldnât become the 2min shadow gameplay rotation we already are familiar.
That being said, Iâm sad Spriest lost Living shadow.
Really pretty bummed out that Shadow Covenant appears to be an afterthought in the new Discipline tree. Not only were there not enough shadow spells to fill out a proper SC rotation before the changes, now there are even less options with the shadow versions of Divine Star and Halo being removed and Shadow Mend being put on a cooldown.
And now the dark version of Penance is on a choice node with extending SC duration for some inexplicable reason. What good is having a longer duration for SC if thereâs even fewer shadow spells to utilize? Iâm really trying to give the benefit of the doubt here, but I just donât see it.
I was really excited to have this build be a higher dmg/lower hps tradeoff option in M+ situations, but I just donât see it working now. You just run out of things to cast.
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Yup, donât even have Mind Sear for filler, nor Shadowmend for filler anymore since thatâs on a CD too lol.
And they made the Balance In All Things talent, which basically accomplishes what Shadow Covenant does, but itâs all the time instead of a short duration, and Shadow Covenant actively works against it.
Within the context of all their changes, they either should remove Shadow covenant, or build wickedness into it somehow. Or just⌠It empowers your next X shadow spells, etc. Thereâs just nothing to cast in this window otherwise.
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Spike can be your filler with psylink.
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Mind flay should be available for disc on the class tree.
But is is not an AoE filler/builder like sear is right now. We are moving from being insanity capped at aoe to not having insanity at aoe
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They can tune the spender to be stronger if the resource is more scarce.
I think thatâs less a case of âWe need an aoe builderâ and more a case of âWe need more consistent insanity generation outside of cooldowns and less in cooldownsâ
2 Likes
It seems a bit counter productive having to heal yourself in order to create a -15% damage reduction. Defensives should be instant cast as theyâre pressed in emergencies like Desperate Prayer.
If PWS is more powerful than Iâm assuming Blizzard wants you to pre-PWS yourself before damage bursts as your defensive ability.
So a whole -5% damage reduction ability just seems kind of pointless.
I did some thinking about how Mind Spike, Surge of Darkness and Mind Melt are designed and laid out. I think I came up with a good shuffled approach to fix the issue of Mind Spike becoming a âtrapâ talent that requires other talents to fit into the spec.
Keeping all talents in the same places, I would suggest:
- Mind Spike changed to:
"1.5 sec Cast, Blasts the target for [Shadowfrost Damage], but extenguishs your shadow damage-over-time effects.
Your Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague damage have a chance to cause your next Mind Spike to not consume your damage over time effects and be instant, stacks 3 times."
-
Surge of Darkness - Would now read âInstant cast Mind Spikes deal 50% more damage.â
-
Mind Melt - Would now read âMind Spike reduces the cast time of your next Mind blast by 50% and increases the critical chance by 50%, stacking 2 times. Lasts 8 seconds.â
Youâll find with this, the power is mostly the same but this fixes 2 major issues. The first, Mind Spike no longer has any dependencies to âplay nicelyâ with the rest of the spec.
Secondly, Mind Melt would now have a throughput component and would work out to an auto-crit mind blast on 2 stacks, as youâre clearly intended to cast your instant Mind Blasts at 2 stacks.
As a side benefit, if you like Mind Spike and donât want to focus heavily on buffing your Mind Blast through other talents, you have more control over your build by omitting Mind Melt.
Does anyone else have thoughts on this?
2 Likes
Took a look at the Shadow tree today.
Top row looks pretty smooth so far. Theyâre bringing back Shadow Orbs and Mind Spike. Lots of pretty powerful choices early on between -15s off Silence and getting the improved Dispersion ability. Iâm not sure why they pushed VE up to the general tree as Holy really canât make much use out of it at all.
On the middle row I have more questionsâŚ
- Mental Decay â Each Mind Flay cast extends the duration per tick or cast? Seems like a good way to keep Mind Flay relevant.
- Psychic Link â 40 yards? Holy crap. You could tag people through pillars during arenas.
- Void Torrent / Shadow Crash â This is like the Searing Nightmare problem all again where you have to choose between better AOE damage at the expense of better single target damage and vice versa. Although Iâd probably pick Shadow Crash just to quickly reapply VT.
- Maddening Touch just looks like absolute juice. Multi target situations youâre going to get flooded with Insanity if you use Shadow Crash.
My opinion on the middle row is that I honestly have no clue how these abilities are going to weave into Shadows playstyle. You have abilities that boost your dot damage and others that boost your mind blasts. At the end of the day the sims are going to tell us whatâs best for what.
Bottom rowâŚ
- I like that theyâre trying to make Mind Flay more relevant and interesting inbetween cooldown ramps so youâre not bored out of your mind waiting for cd resets.
- Does Void Eruption / Void Form not give you a 20% damage boost anymore?
- The bottom of the tree has the same complaints that I have about Holy with there being a lot of 2 point sinks so youâre limited on what abilities you can even get.
Pretty much once again I have no clue how these new abilities are going to play out without testing them. Overall the Shadow tree looks much better than the train wreck that we had before.
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I totally forgot about this, maybe this is our new way to get insanity at AoE by a meaningful way without being lame like just spamming sear.
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So, yeah. The Holy Priest tree looks pretty good so far. Only major complaint I addressed above is that they seem to have forgotten that Holy Word Salv is a raid mandatory pick like Divine Hymn + Symbol of Hope so making it a bottom tree ability basically means you always have to pick it. Our damage is going to drop through the tubes in M+, but the question is how theyâre going to balance healer damage next expansion. Right now itâs all over the place.
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