Never played one before but seriously considering one for Classic. Feedback and general discussion encouraged, especially by those who actually mained or played priests in Vanilla.
My interests -
Solo play, casual PvP (BG’s only, I played a Hunter to rank 10).
Casual endgame PvE. Dungeon crawls mostly, raiding ONLY if it is chill with friends.
I am a transmog whoooore (one of the best things that has ever happened to WoW IMO) and I have been thinking a lot about some of the less than fabulous looks we had to endure in Vanilla and a solution popped into my head… Shadowform! It always looks dope, would cover up any hideous mishmash I am currently stuck with, and I know it is powerful.
My one run in with Shadowpriest in Vanilla was an Undead Priest named Tad on my original server. That dude melted faces for real. He had a reputation and lived up to it. Still remember him vividly.
My one time playing a caster as main was an Afflock in Legion and I loved it, my best experience since my Surv Hunter in Vanilla. After they destroyed what I loved about Affliction in BFA I switched back to Unholy DK and love that currently. Yeah, I do love the evil spellcaster vibe.
All that said what are some of your recollections of playing Shadow in Vanilla?
Were Shadow Priests fun (obviously subjective, but humor me)?
I can speak as someone who leveled a shadow priest in vanilla. Note that the meta might have changed due to private servers and players being better these days.
shadow priests are easy to play and overpowered. In world PvP I would regularly demolish players that were much higher level.
leveling was pretty boring from memory.
group content is good because you can dps and heal depending on your group’s needs.
Shadow was a monster in PvP if done right. Your won’t get a raiding spot as shadow unless you are hard core. I’d only expect 1 shadow spot per raid and people will be competing for it
You will need to raid for gear until d2 is launched.
I would recommend you go a the spirit buff support build and get your anathema and then get some gear in bwl and then just PvP on bg launches.
Shadow had some pretty glaring weaknesses with their cc being rather limited and Face Melt was a relatively short range. Also spell lockout sucks on spreist but at least you can unshift to regular form.
I miss the original shadowform. Looked so good. Question that is probably very obvious…your shadowform didn’t extend to mounts in Vanilla, did it? Was that from a glyph later on?
My friend mains priests. He’s one of the very, very few whom I would feel comfortable and justified in describing as gifted with the class. Shadow & Holy, the man is just awesome.
Honestly, watching someone who just is so in tune with their class, is a rare and awesome thing to watch.
But to your question, in the right hands, “Shadow Mages” are wickid. He raided both as Shadow, and later as Holy. Then back and forth as the guild needed.
Planning on leveling as Shadow and if I enjoy it a ton, perhaps staying with it at 60. I’ve read that you can still get away with healing 5-mans as you’re leveling with a shadow build, so that’ll be clutch.
Much like the OP, I’ll be mostly solo with a casual approach. Almost certainly taking me several months to reach the upper ends of leveling. No plans to raid (unless I have a free night and something random comes together with friends made along the way), so mostly just dungeon crawling for me after 60. Maybe work towards Dungeon Set 1 / Tier 0.
I leveled a Holy Priest to 58 in Vanilla. Do not recommend. Took forever.
Shadowpriests are good at pvp, but have to deal with the above. They are really good when they get the drop on people, which is kind of true for every class… but more so for shadow priest I think.
But it’s harder to get the drop on people as a priest due to range and no stealth.
Healing is possible for all hybrid like classes even when not talented just need gear.
Talents improved your out put.
Mind control your enemies, leveling as ok, self heals made you die less.
Group content melt faces and heal for people was fun.
PvP kinda fun especially with shadow power gear, silence is a huge win.
They are incredibly easy to play and can 1v1 most, but require more skill around engineering use and support play in group combat. Most classes that were easy to play 1 on 1 had solid group functionality which made them more engaging.
As for the engineering use, you have no slows and as such makes it more of a challenge to land grenades, etc.
Great in disorganized PvP. Forced to mostly heal in premade PvP, mostly because they were the only viable healer over shaman which was more for utility.
Group content is great. DPS or heal in dungeons and for raids, if you secured that shadow spot, it is awesome. Though, you are most likely to heal.
Priest and Warlock have always been my favorite classes (and we don’t talk about how I was a paladin when I started playing) and I must say that Priest in general were great in vanilla (and now classic). I’ll try to answer your questions below to the best of my ability and experience:
All that said what are some of your recollections of playing Shadow in Vanilla?
Were Shadow Priests fun (obviously subjective, but humor me)? Priests as a whole were fun in my opinion. Not to mention that the Benediction quest line and staff is one of the best the game has produced to date for me (second only to Warlock Dreadstead)
How were they in PvP? 1v1 I have heard they are legendary, and they were a blast in bgs; but I was young when wow came out (14 to be exact) and sadly PVP terrified me so I didn’t really do it until Arena came out in TBC
What was levelling and solo play like? amazing, for the most part is was efficient and buttery smooth - Bubble, Dot, wand - very little down time and not super gear dependent - Possibly one of the best choices for duo-leveling with a friend; especially if they fill a gap in the priest kit (IE. AOE grinding, keeping multiple mobs tanked etc)
How was group content? Great, for group quests/5 mans you could be effective with any spec really (shadow could heal, healing priests could still roll dots) but most of what you do is Wand things, since you will tend to OOM fast as spriest; especially in 40 man raids.
Is a hybrid healer spec possible? Yes for everything but raids (most groups would request you be a dedicated healer for 40 raids and 20 man content you could really do whatever)
All in all as long you know that pre-40 you will just bubble, dot, and Wand things to death and post 40 it wont really change unless you need the slow on mind flay, I think you will enjoy it. Plus everyone loves a good priest regardless of spec. its important to remember that Classic is a slower placed game then current wow and everything is a marathon, Priest is just a really efficient and useful choice
![:smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/smile.png?v=6" ":smile:")