Before I start yapping, tldr
I think we need to start from scratch, stop digging and haning up on old designs and finally give Shadow the identity that Blizzard has been talking about all along.
But more importantly, how happy are you with this version of SP? What would be your favorite style or design choice?
I first played a priest during Cataclysm when I was in the end times dungeon and met Archbishop Benedictus.
One of his quotes has stuck with me ever since: “There is no good. No evil. No Light. There is only POWER!”
From that moment on, I knew: yep, priest it is.
When the major class reworks came with Legion and shadow was connected to the Void, I fell in love with it right away because I’ve always been a huge fan of cosmic horror.
Unfortunately, it feels like not much has been done in that direction since Legion, and I get the sense that it’s holding the spec back design wise.
We’ve all been part of those endless discussions about which version of Shadow is the best to play
- Wrath
- MoP
- WoD
- Legion
But ultimately, the goal can’t be to revive some old design, cram it into the spec and make it somehow work. Instead, Blizzard should start from scratch and if that means iconic spells need to be renamed (which has already happened to some extent) or removed, so be it.
Take Vampire Touch, for example, does it still fit the theme? What purpose does this spell serve? It’s a DoT, but the damage isn’t the main focus, instead, it partially activates our mastery and AoE.
Same situation with Vampire Embrace, it doesn’t really sound like Old Gods or Void.
Here are a few examples of what I mean with new spells / ideas
Utility:
- Confusion: Enemies in area have a X% chance of dealing reduced damage and hitting their allies instead (not for full damage, of course, lol)
- Rift: Opens a portal that x players can use to teleport between two points (Warlocks would be mad, but why can’t we steal from other classes? Mages did it too)
Defenses:
- Null shroud: Absorbs damage and heals the priest, replaces PW:S
For AoE, move away from Psychic Link passive cleave and maybe use something else like Mind Bomb a debuff that can be charged up with our damage and can be triggered by us with a recast, make Psychic Link a DoT that you can placeon on a mob, the more madness you spent, the more targets you can hit / damage will be transfered.
Maybe decouple Entropic Rift, from Voidtorrent and have it feed madness to open a gigantic black hole.
But enough rambling, please excuse if things sounds a bit weird, english isn’t my first language. I’d also like to hear your thoughts on this: What would your ideal Shadow Priest look like?