I just have to vent for a second

Classes Priest
1

Grab a snack, it’s a long post

I saw a video of the new Void Shield Discipline Priests are getting and while it’s not the main issue of this post (although I have to ask why the hell Disc gets Void Shield before Shadow does because wtf??) it really brings up a LOT of frustrations I’ve had with shadow for a long time.

I just… Ugh. I just FOR ONCE would like to be excited and hyped for Shadow changes in a new expansion. and yet again, here we are with barely anything cool to talk about or look forward to.

Still rolling with Vanilla era spell animations, still can’t levitate without sparkles (even though Xal’atath makes it very clear it’s possible), still don’t have strong utility, and still have a major CD that barely does anything.

The bar for improvement is nearly on the floor and you guys still can’t seem to jump over it.

Every expansion I get hopeful it will finally be the expansion where shadow becomes fun, fluid and interesting to play. Or at the very least it will finally get a theme that is cool and interesting. And every time it’s the same disappointment and feeling like the bare minimum was done just so no one can say you didn’t work on shadow.

Visuals are still terrible. This was THE expansion to finally move away from purple smoke, tentacles and eyeballs, and what did you do? Created a ton of awesome sleek blue/black void visuals and handed them to demon hunters… :expressionless_face: Even rigged them up with borrowed mage/warlock cast animations just to make it work.

People have been screaming for shadow to move away from the Old God theme for years, and here is the perfect chance, but nope. It goes to a melee instead

Entirely glossing over the fact that SHADOW PRIESTS KNOW MORE ABOUT XAL’ATATH THAN ANYONE

There is literally no one better suited to harness her powers against her than us. Why the hell would a demon hunter know anything about the void? Let alone how to control it

Shadow priests have been delving the void for like 10 years now, but suddenly demon hunters are the experts on it?

This whole expansion reveal has been so disappointing for shadow priests. It was the time I thought FOR SURE we’d get some really cool stuff, possibly a redesign, or at the very least a really cool void themed overhaul with those blue/black void animations we’ve seen in TWW. But no, it’s just a giant platter of more the same, with some salvaged old animations on top and passed off as if they’re new.

It’s to a point I don’t even bother with my priest anymore. I just get angry and frustrated that the class is still languishing in disrepair, with no good theme, while an entirely new void spec can be pulled out of thin air and given to a class that has absolutely ZERO connection to the void.

How is that not supposed to feel like a slap in the face? How are we supposed to look at the Devourer spec and simultaneously think you truly did all you could for shadow priests?

I’m just so beyond frustrated and disappointed. I hate the old god theme, and seeing all these amazing blue/black animations that are so sleek and cold looking gave me hope maybe shadow could move in that direction. Especially since Voidweaver has already opened the door. But then to watch it all be handed off to Demon Hunters was just absolutely infuriating.

I’m not saying they don’t deserve or shouldn’t have another spec, it’s more the frustration that clearly Blizzard CAN make visually appealing and cool void themed abilities and they just don’t for shadow priests. Even though we are, and have been, the premiere spec on the void and that kind of magic. I just feel nothing but disappointment, frustration, and honestly now resentment about what Blizzard has done (or rather hasn’t done) with shadow

Thanks for listening to/reading my rant. I just had to get it off my chest

10 Likes
2

I’m not an SPriest player, but I also am feeling so beyond frustrated right now.

I’ve played WoW since 2005 and I don’t think I’ve been as frustrated with the just blatant disregard for the player base. There is so much feedback being given on every single class thread, and it’s just completely ignored. Just about every single class has at least 1 spec that’s just gutted beyond belief and not fun. Some classes have 2, and some classes like Priest imo has no good specs. Holy is so boring now, Disc feels awful with the loss of Shadow Covenant and the choice node between barrier and Pentinence, and shadow just sounds like a nightmare.

At this point, I hope midnight crashes and burns and sub numbers plummet. Maybe then we might finally be listened too.

2 Likes
3

Well said. I really don’t have anything to add. It is just so beyond frustrating.

This was the first character I made back in BC, and for the first time, I may not be maining him going into an expansion.

Let’s double down on tentacles instead of the void. What a freaking joke.

3 Likes
4

Not just double down but let’s not use any new animations either. Tentacle slam isn’t a new animation, and the void apparitions just have voidform tentacles glued to their heads

It just feels so low effort. Especially when demon hunters are over there zipping around with a brand new shiny void spec, complete with new void animations AND blizzard went out of their way to make sure their void spec has no traces of fel in it

Yet we can’t even get the freaking sparkles off of levitate :expressionless_face:

5 Likes
5

Some have, some want absolutely nothing to do with the cosmic space garbage given to demon Hunters.

You mean that character who was literally imprisoned by the old gods, and when we first found her provided us with Voidform(tentacles) and the whole surrendering to the madness of the void which is all entirely old god flavored?

I could go on but you are literally giving multiple reasons why the old god direction for Spriest is entire justified.

That said I do agree it feels very low effort and lazy for the actual class design, way spells look and interact. The class, as a whole, needs a complete and total redesign from the ground up, but shadow needs to be embracing the old god elements of the spec and throwing the stupid cosmic space garbage in the trashbin where it belongs.

1 Like
6

A very small some. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone truly arguing for this. In fact a lot of the feedback is something along the lines of “shadow was better before all the old god junk”

Not really. Xal’atath may have been imprisoned by them but she’s never once used any of the powers of old gods. Everything we’ve seen from her is cold cosmic void. Probably based on the void lords as she seems to be playing somewhat beyond old gods.

Additionally, back then the void hadn’t been truly or thoroughly explored, and much of what we have seen up to now is just an extension. The tentacles and eyes are still void based, and behind that power is cosmic void. The connection is very much there.

And since you bring up surrender to madness, does it not make sense that after nearly a decade of delving into the void, shadow priests would move beyond tentacles and eyes and into the deeper cosmic void?

7

I don’t think it’s such a small amount of people.

I, personally, don’t like the cosmic void theme that much. Void Blast is fine, Entropic Rift is really cool but that’s it. I’d hate to have as much cosmic stuff going on as Devour DH.

Old-School Shadow > Old God Theme > Cosmic Void Theme.

We’ve been asking for the OG Shadowform for a long time. I enjoyed Shadow Orbs / Ravens and dark wings (Dark Ascension) as well. Much more than Voidform and certainly much more than some flashy cosmic void whatever.

8

I honestly forgot about ravens, they were pretty awesome.

I’ve always thought part of the appeal old school shadow had was that it wasn’t fully explained. Back before it got tied to the void, shadow was just a dark mysterious caster. Not quite evil, not quite good, and relatively unknown. Like this sort of “forbidden” magic that people didn’t talk about or simply weren’t aware even existed. Like an untapped source of power only a few had discovered. It was great

Personally I wouldn’t mind going back to that if it was an option, although I doubt Blizzard ever would because they’d have to undo all the old god junk priests have tied now. In all honesty I just want away from the old god theme. It sucks and Blizzard can’t seem to get it right. I want off the ride. Which is why I want the cosmic void theme. It can’t be worse than shadow smoke and tentacles. At least it looks nicer

9

Not really. Ask yourself, what is a priest? A priest in both real life and WoW terms is a faith leader who leads people in worship and service of a higher being. Be it Naaru, Elune, The Light, and yes Old Gods it makes far more sense for the classes to be reflective of this nature than simply harnessing some random cosmic power source, which is pretty much what demon hunters are.

It makes sense demon hunters would find a way to channel void power, it does not make sense for Priests to channel random power without a godlike entity behind it.

10

I think the old god theme fits more with the original vision of shadow priest. If you go back and look through the abilities priest have had for damage theyre sort of “mind magic”. Mind control, mind blast, mind flay, psychic scream. Shadow words making targets feel pain causing damage. They’re all about manipulation and psychic damage.

The old god theme fits more with that style. They primarily effect the world through manipulation, tricking the minds of their followers and victims.

Much of my frustration with Shadow comes from long time mechanical deficiencies that go unanswered. Movement or reliable utility that isnt super niche for instance.

My primary frustration comes from their lack of communication more than their design choices. Whether I agree or not with their direction, what I want most is to understand their thought process.

4 Likes
11

I think the only ranged dps that made out ok was ele sham but I am not a whammy player so not really qualified to say.

Blizzard in the past said it themselves.. it doesn’t feel good going into a new expansion and loosing your abilities. I can only surmise they don’t play their own game or just don’t care. It’s going to take us voting with our wallets .

And I really wish those YouTube personalities would stop praising the new stuff. It’s clear they don’t play priest as a main and find any way possible to praise terrible design.

12

I am sorry you feel this way I and many other silent voices feel the same. I’ve been fighting for this for silent voices like yourself for years, expansion after expansion.

Unfortunately no progress, our voice just get overshadowed by those who are complicit by just having big numbers on screen.

Maybe one day things will change but at least for now, since tww, I have let go of my priest as protest. I hope others will do the same. Only numbers now will get their attention at this point

13

As far as thematic appeal for priest go, shadow is the only correct one. It is the main.

Void and old gods should be the toppings, icing on the cake.

We should have access to it and be able to use it. But it shouldn’t eclipse shadow.

Shadow is primary

Void form shouldn’t eclipse shadow

You can rework shadowform and make it cooler

I even made a design where shadow form is something you trigger frequently instead of a press and forget

Creativity is only limited by the end user and the desire and want to go beyond.

My point: they don’t care and they know the community will be happy if we just do big dmg. Our graphic and animation will be hindered because of this too

14

Shadow is Void.

Void is Shadow.

Should there be glyphs and other cosmetic options for people who prefer the Catalysm-era Dark Archangel stuff? Absolutely. But please stop pretending shadow magic never had any connection to the void. It’d be like people acting like it was wrong for Holy to start picking up Naaru aesthetics.

15

What angers me about the “We give it to Devour DHs instead” is the fact that they said: We cant balance Voidform.
Then they go and give pretty much the entire foundation of Voidform but makes it fun and make it work.
Insane

1 Like
16

Well it looks fun, but I suspect itll ultimately have the same problem we had back in legion.

17

But looking at it currently its alot more fun than Legion Voidform was.
The rampup is noway near what we had in Legion.
The buildup with the “Shatter Star” ability is also more rewarding than what we had in Legion.

Its just the fact that they could make it work. But they made it work and gave it to Demon Hunters.

18

That is subjective. I gave it a shot on Beta and it felt and played like garbage to me. Running/dashing around collecting souls felt like a chore that only exists because “mobile class must dash around” and reminds me of all the issues Demon Hunters complained about with momentum in the past as well.

I’m sure there are plenty of people who will enjoy it but I sure won’t be. What made Shadow in Legion feel good with voidform was the fact the immobile turret class could actually move while casting on top of the added haste making everything feel frantic like you where trying to control the surge of power Voidform gave.

That felt good, while running around like a chicken with your head cut off looking for all your little trash orbs in the ground not so much.

19

Whether or not it “felt good” to play.
Its still something that works, Legion Shadow was either super strong, or felt short on the ramping part.

The point is they made it work with Devour, which means that they could fix it. But they did and gave it away.
And Shadow still sits where we always sit in Alpha/Beta unfinished, underdeveloped.
They took every good change from two weeks ago and just took it away.

Im all for the “ghost” part of Shadow which they seem to focus on, but then they need to scrap the old stuff away to actually make it the “core” of Shadow instead of this mess we have.

20

I didn’t enjoy it because its another class that they tried to cater to everyone – meaning both close range and far range players – aka envokers.

I felt like the melee and mid-range design was unnecessary, should have just been full range, but w.e

You can play it full mid-range, but now you lose some spells that are designed for mid interaction.

just not my cup of tea