I Think DP is Weird

To preface - a very mild complaint. Not gamebreaking by any means.

Think DP is a remnant from classic era forsaken priests. I don’t see how it fits with the spec’s current concept. Wielder of void / shadow magic doesn’t really equate to disease. Basically, we ain’t unholy death knights.

While this wouldn’t really change much of anything in terms of gameplay beyond potential cleanse implications of the spell in PvP, I do think the ability should be modified to better fit the spec’s concept. Thoughts?

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It’s a bit open-ended, but you could think of it as a Shadow ability that represents the Cult of Forgotten Shadows, which are basically the origin of playable Shadow Priests. The Cult’s founder Natalie was one of Xal’atath’s first wielders, even. There’s nothing saying a disease can’t be Shadow.

You could also think of it as a Void ability that acts like Old God corruption. They tend to look pretty diseased with eyes and mouths and tentacles growing everywhere.

It should get a new animation, though, at least. The current one’s pathetic.

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I think of the spell as a sort of “eldritch decay”. I dont necessarily see it as a biological plague or poison, but more of a madness that is all consuming to the victim.

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I really think it should just be another Instant cast DoT on a 30-second CD that resets periodically from Procs that’s soul purpose is extra DoT damage and increase effectiveness from Mastery.

In its current state, its like the entire class is build around it instead. Which makes other possible builds irrelevant. DP in its current state locks SPs into Haste Mastery, when most of our Talents are based on Procs from Crit.

Just another example of why Shadow needs a complete rework.

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Nice try to hijack the thread.

It shouldn’t be

It is

Does the spec need any?

Not an issue

Literally just Mastermind which isn’t even a proc

No it doesn’t

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk

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I like this take, but I’m not sure if it’s what they’re going for. The spell is categorized as a disease, much like the unholy death knight spells, and its source is mechanically from the forsaken, which kinda just affirms the idea that the plague is a physical one

I am on bored with the concept of the void / shadow consuming its victim. I just think it could be better captured. Something like “void infestation”, idk

Well, it’s our spender. Also, wouldn’t it be more valid to argue that an archon build is more centered around mind flay than anything else?

All due respect but I’m like 75% sure this is a troll post. I mean your DP rework is just a hot mess for a number of reason lol

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The name’s really just there for historical reasons… if they don’t want to rename it because of that, I think a tooltip change to showcase that the plague is void-based and maybe a new animation that looks like the new cosmic Void would work.

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Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what I’m driving at haha

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I feel that. My post is definitely just my head canon, but I think they’ve been moving shadow priest more toward the psychic damage themes.

We always had some mental themed spells, but theyre clearly moving away from any physical disease themes. DP seems like a hold over from the older versions of the game. A legacy spell that is recognizable.

Were most of the way there with Eldritch horror. We got the tentacles, we have the mind magic. They just need to shift the rest of the hold outs and fully commit.

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It’s good head cannon haha. Yours and shock’s re: cultist identity.

But yeah exactly. It’s our spender and it just feels a tad underwhelming and out of place. Again - not a big issue by any means. Just a nitpick that would help solidify class identity imo. Like you said, full commitment

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This post isn’t relevant to the OPs topic.

There is no shortage of threads talking about a myriad of Shadow wants and needs. You’re free to comment there.

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Wasn’t trying to. The discussion is DP is Weird.

I was adding my opinion on why I think its weird.

Unbelievably negative for no reason.

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To all those who said my post isn’t relevant… this was literally OPs words.

Why so hostile?

OP’s centered around concept, animation, and tooltip wording of DP

Not really about mechanics as you’ve focused on

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Ghuun is a Void/Shadow “Old God” - His whole point of existence is to spread a virulent blood plague of Rot - Thematically, Devouring Plague fits perfectly into category almost as if its an ability pulled from him. I know its not because hes not an OG “Old God”.

By that logic, we have capstone talents that give the impression we’ve taken lessons from the old gods and have developed some component of their magic. Argument being that capstone talents feel more appropriate to your point than the rotation’s fundamental spender.

That, I think, should hone in on the void theme more than anything else.

True, but based on what we know - Ghuun was created by the Titans as an experiment and isn’t a true Old God to pull powers from. – But that doesn’t mean his powers weren’t pulled from someone else and the Titans merely recreated him as a means to learn his weaknesses.

None of that is relevant to the point I just made lol. At any rate, seems like quite the stretch

No hostility intended.

Just stating that the OP was posting about design and theme more then mechanics.

That said, I apologize if my post came across as hostile. A lot of the priest forums have been non stop negativity and dogpiling anyone not echoing similar sentiment. It’s exhausting. I was trying to be direct rather than rude.

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DP mechanically is fine, would like it to be renamed void entropy though or something.

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