According to most players, shadow priest is one of the most fun specs since it was reworked in SL but to me it is the most boring and unperforming dps spec. Why?
Performance
- It has one of the most complex and inflexible rotation. Sometimes you do not even know what to press. Too GCD intense for little to no reward
- Mind flay and mind flay feel awful to cast. Mind Flay is laughable and obsolete in a game that requires you to move every 0.2 seconds And even if you do, you KNOW you’re losing DPS by casting it so it just feels horrible.
- So many buttons to press but none of them feels impactul. Devouring plague is a joke and it is probably the most boring and undertuned spender of the entire game.
- No burst. Mind Blast should hurt but it doesn’t. Devo plague overwrites itself so even if we manage to have a ton of resource to spend. If a SP has a ton of extra resource they just … keep devo plague up with 100% uptime, which they can do anyway lol.
- No mobility
- Worst AOE of the entire game. I mean who has worse AOE than shadow priest? I dare you to tell me another class.
- No utility. Priest does not have lust, does not have health stones, does not have summons. Lol… pathetic, you cannot even compete against boomkins, mages and warlocks they have overall a better kit and utility.
Aesthetics
- Shadow form looks like a purple fart and it is disgusting to see it.
- After a while It get tired to listen the spell voices animations: “uahhhohhh uahooo ahhhhh” OMG… sometimes I mute my laptop when I play shadow
t’s just horrible. A horrible mess of a spec that butchered what was once awesome. To be honest I prefer the old shadow priest from Legion. At least voidform felt unique and badass and we had decent AOE via void eruption. Now we are just a cheap affliction warlock who is a “builder and spender” dps spec with boring spells.
I would like to read your opinions. Is shadow priest fun? why is it fun?
2 Likes
It used to be but not now. The extremes you need to go to in choosing to give up your healing for Shadow spec, or DPS for Holy are far more than you are required to do with Druids or Paladins. If Shadow had a little better healing and Holy did a bit more damage, they’d be fine.
5 Likes
it’s adequate i guess. in m+ it’s a lot more work than most other specs for average (or worse) results.
They need to give shadow a flight form like Druids have. Something like a Vampire Bat.
1 Like
Personally I like them and shadow form, my only complaint is I wish Void Form didn’t have the tendrils….other then that I enjoy playing my Shadow Priest Alt 
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But you shouldn’t pick a class on others opinions, example I dislike Holy healing, to me it’s so lackluster but I have a friend, who exclusively plays Holy Priest cause she absolutely loves it.
What might be boring to some, may be the best fun to others, I’d say give it a go, get a feel for the spec and rotation, don’t worry to much on what others say, In my guild we have a Shadow Priest that absolutely pumps in raids and m+.
Class/Spec performance is only limited by the player, trust me.
Edit: I was actually thinking of maining Shadow Priest in 9.2 but I love my Shaman and Warlock to much… they take the bulk of my time.
I have yet to see a single person say they enjoy Shadow. I thought I would but I can’t stand it. I like the insanity idea but not the implementation of it all.
Why are there seriously only 3 abilities you can spend insanity on? Why can you cap it so easily on accident? What is even the point?
1 Like
and why is the only aoe spender something you have to talent into 
4 Likes
I hate current SP.
Too GCD intense for little to no reward. Mind Flay is laughable and obsolete in a game that requires you to move every 0.2 seconds, and you rarely even have free globals to cast it. And even if you do, you KNOW you’re losing DPS by casting it so it just feels horrible.
Mind Blast should hurt but it doesn’t. Devo plague overwrites itself so even if we manage to have a ton of resource to spend, our damage caps out because of that. Other classes are rewarded for getting a ton of resource with a ton of damage. If a warlock gets a ton of shards you can expect a facefull of Chaos Bolts, but if a SP has a ton of extra resource they just … keep devo plague up with 100% uptime, which they can do anyway lol.
AoE is pitiful, m+ performance is pitiful. It’s a DoT spec with DoTs that don’t even hurt? Burst is bleh even IF you manage to set it up and pretend you don’t have carpal tunnel.
It’s just horrible. A horrible mess of a spec that butchered what was once awesome. Give me back 2 button Mind Spike WoD build over this.
6 Likes
Forgot about that.
I feel like Shadow is the same as the argument against FF14 Black Mage. You have a timer on your fire phase you have to maintain by casting specific fire spells. BLM mains refer to the process as a skill floor, not a skill cap.
Shadow Priest feels like a skill floor type class. You mash whatever comes off cooldown hoping you don’t clip something else or get a proc. It’s just chaotic. Which kind of fits the whole idea of insanity, but still… come on Blizzard.
1 Like
you’d have to play it. we alll have our likes and dislikes.
I find it fun in pvp. but not pve.
since more into pvp…that works for me. pve I cast fear and have 5 mobs scatter off I am irking some people as the goal was tank pulls, aoe on them to hit all 5.
pvp…I pop same fear, people scatter and whatever target they were about to gank hard maybe lives longer. Yay me…support to the rescue. Also clears buffs off so in say ashran I can do mind attacks for offence and clear buffs off Rocky (only have the VE s. priest).
You catched my feelings precisely
Going from my boomie to my shadow priest is depressing.
It doesn’t help that my priest is my worgen that I was excited to make a scarred albino, which I can’t even view in shadow form. I’m considering just leveling him as disc.
I have a boomkin and I feel the same. They can do everyhing better than shadow priest. There is no point to bring shadow over balance in mythics/raids
2 Likes
Worse aoe hm? Feral.
That was easy.
Also isnt an insanity spender actually playing spreist rather then any other range dps?
No, I think shadow priest has worse AOE than feral 
Shadow priest and affliction warlock which were the real “dot” spec in wow, now they have the worst iterarion of the entire game. It is sad.
I would like to listen a player who tell me why is shadow priest fun?
God no, especially with how many times Blizz has fiddled with my favorite priest spec and failed. Bring the Pandaria version back.
1 Like
Devouring plague feels like an extra button that was put by there just for the sake of having an extra button.
Other than that, it seems pretty good to me. I generally don’t play it due to the AOE woes.
I wouldn’t call shadow fun in its current form. I’d call it adequate in the sense that it does damage…. But in terms of actually being fun it’s a no for me. Super bland and nothing special about it, all while having some pretty low group utility. Damage is meh, aoe is horrendous, you basically walk everywhere when everyone else runs, have no good utility except mass dispel on burst weeks… yeah, it’s bad.
Voidform shadow was so much better. I thought the rework would be more fun but after playing it for over a year, it’s not
I miss voidform and it’s simplicity. It was pretty straightforward but also required a lot of nuanced gameplay to maximize it. The new shadow is definitely a downgrade in terms of gameplay… for me at least