No cooldown, cost 50 insanity.
Whispering shadows baked into shadow crash
Swaps position with psychic link.
New passive learned at level 20, insanity sets to 50 out of combat instead of draining to zero.
Psychic link requires shadow crash to function, shadow crash doesnt require psychic link to function, it makes sense for shadow crash to be the core of shadow aoe and be a baseline spell as every single aoe damage source we have other than shadowfiend splash damage is bottlenecked by this skill causing a complete collapse in shadow aoe gameplay if the skill fails for whatever reason as the recovery will take 20s.
Apparitions, dots, idols, psychic link etc all rely on shadow crash hitting.
This also adds some tuning levers to balance shadows aoe other than everything being based on psychic links ratio, you can buff the flat damage shadow crash deals and it wont affect anything other than aoe.
This also brings vampiric touch back into the single target rotation and gives both skills clear use cases.
This would create far more wins than losses for the spec and round it out very well.
Then give it buffs?
I didnt suggest removing psychic link but rather swapping its position in the tree with SC where SC is mandatory but aoe only and psychic link is an option for high aoe fights but not single target.
It used to be just a nuke and its direct damage has over time been progressively removed to the point people forget it ever had direct damage.
Its damage could be equal to devouring plague and it wouldnt be used in single target because of mastery or apparition spawn, thats a high cap for its baseline damage.
Id be happy to see aoe builds that favor either DP with psychic link or shadow crash.
I suggested a while that Shadow Crash should be turned into a powerful spender that gains full mastery benefit despite dots on targets, effectively replacing mind sear but without the possibility of getting interrupted. However, it should not be a requirement for psychic link, rather on a choice node with Psychic Link, giving the option between cleave or burty AoE. Our dots require a baseline aoe application, and Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word Pain should just be merged into one spell at this point. It was a mistake to turn Shadow crash into a means for dot application, it ought to be a fast moving burst that targets all enemies within 10 yards of the target.
Blizzard had been trying to tune our numbers, as if that was our issue. The problem is our class mechanics simply don’t work for modern wow and require an overhaul, we are locked out of doing any AoE if Shadow Crash is on its 20sec cooldown, it’s not fair to use raid dps numbers as an argument that our class is doing fine, it doesn’t reflect the reality of being powerless in short fights and massive adds spawns.
Don’t even get me started on mobility and pvp but that’s another story.
Fix the class mechanics first, then tune the numbers, not the other way around.
I really like the fact that shadows aoe and single target rotation are the same. Having shadow crash buffed to the point of being the superior aoe option would force people who don’t like it to play it. While also making our aoe subject to all the wonkiness of shadowcrash.
It would also mean shadow loses its passive cleave, and is forced into aoe button spam, which every other spec already does. The passive cleave is kind of shadow’s niche tbh. Nobody else has long range passive cleave like we do. Even affliction locks don’t
It was necessary to keep dot specs viable in M+. An environment that requires fast damage on multiple targets. Otherwise we’d still be stuck with manually applying dots to each mob.
On the flip side, having direct aoe spells that aren’t tied to dots would mean we essentially become a non-dot spec in aoe. We would actually lose part of our core spec identity just because of high target count.
Shadow crash, psychic link, and passive cleave are the best way to preserve shadows dot centric identity while also making it viable in fast paced aoe such as mythic+
I’m aware of this, which is why I suggested our dots should have an AoE application built in. Shadow crash is just not an efficient way to go about it. It’s Radius is small, cooldown too long, missile speed to slow and requires 2 skill points to spec into. It’s currently the only game in town and it shouldn’t be.
No dot spec has passive aoe dot application. They all have cooldowns or resource cost. You won’t get free aoe application.
It actually is considering what the alternative is. Look at affliction. Spec feels like hot garbage because of the way their dot application is designed.
Those things can all be changed individually without the need to overhaul the spec into a boring run of the mill aoe spammer.
This idea that shadow should always have multiple options and designs is why the spec is so poorly designed now.
All these clashing ideas smashed together into one talent tree while trying to be balanced against each other but also maintain differences is how shadow got to the awful “Build your own priest” philosophy.
It hasn’t worked since SL and I doubt adding more would make it any better.
We also have to consider we’re getting a MASSIVE aoe boost in TWW via Voidweaver talents. The void rift hits like a truck, combined with void blast cleaving via psychic link, shadow is actually looking decent for aoe.
I really think bringing back Mind Sear is the best solution and it being a choice node with Psychic Link is the most optimal location.
However, I think the version of Mind Sear being a spender created a lot of annoying issues where you can easily waste resources often similar to how you can easily waste the cooldown of Void Torrent when you use it right before a mechanic happens that causes you or forces you to move or if you get stunned or interrupted in any way shape or form.
So I think Mind Sear should be its base cost no resources but deals base very low damage.
Then further down the line we can have talents that change how Mind Sear works in that it can create the version where it consumes resources to deal massive damage.
Just spit balling some ideas here but there could be a talent somewhere where it causes your Mind Flay and Mind Sear to consume resources and deal massive damage while also having talents that make their channel time very quick to reduce the chance to be interrupted or they can be baked into the same talent.
I’ve been playing Elemental Shaman a bit recently and they have a clear gameplay style choice where you can lean more so into dealing damage with Lightning based spells or Fire based spells with talents that clearly support one or the other.
I think if shadow had more gameplay choice talents that steered away from things like Mind Flay and Mind Spike enhancing talents needing to work for both spells and more so the direction of Periodic vs Non-Periodic damage spells as already alluded to with Dark Ascension only enhancing Non-Periodic spells then we can have interesting talents that can focus on one type of damage or the other as you can actually have talents that benefit only “channeling” type spells which could push your gameplay to be more focused on spells like Mind Flay, Mind Sear, Void Torrent and Idol of C’Thun where as you can turn Psychic Link to really focus on enhancing your Non-Periodic spells only and have other talents that affect only those spell types.
If taken that route, you can get your preferred playstyle option without it feeling awkward and forced.
Because if the argument is about balancing then that’s a poor argument at this point because across the board the talents are more focused on preferred playstyle first and balancing later as no matter what balancing will always be a work in progress but having the choice of gameplay style will do a lot more good than harm.
Just give us a 30 second CD or so Mind Sear. Lowish damage or maybe it could do more depending on the # of targets? I hate dotting every little whelping or using nova even. I like our cleave profile and everything just would love something for the little baby adds/huge pulls.
Then your stuck with it being useful only sometimes and if used at the wrong time then you are sitting there waiting or if you get punted or knocked up or stunned or spell locked etc. right when you used it, you just wasted the cooldown.
It should not be limited with a cooldown at all. Only via a talent option aside from Mind Sear itself should give it the optional gameplay of it dealing a lot more damage but cost resources to do so.
Then to keep it separate from competing on single target with Mind Flay, tack on this line item to Mind Sear…
Deals 100% more damage when it deals damage to 3 or more targets.
That way you would never use it on single target as Mind Flay should just be default better and then it leaves Mind Sear to be default better on group AOE.
Not other class is entirely dependent on having dots on adds in order to do AoE either, also our mastery and procs revolve around it. You’ve obviously never heard of Death Knights, especially Unholy which by the way, not only have AoE dots, but have many othe means of dealing AoE damage outside of having dots.
Your argument makes no sense, you keep talking about “class identity” and saying we are supposed to be a dot spec but that’s just your opinion and even if our damage was only dots, we still need a means of reliably applying them, if anything, more so than any other class. When someone tries to fixe our mechanics you make up vague reasons as to why they are wrong.
Hell, shadow crash used to just be a burst cooldown, mind sear used to be our aoe back in the day, there was a time we could spread SWP with mind sear. There are so many better ways to do this, having zero options for AoE outside of the current shadow crash design cooldown is just bad design and the majority of priests agree.
Even if you can cast while moving, it will still be canceled if you are out of range. So knock backs will cut it short still. Then spell locks and stuns and I will assume knock ups would still cancel the cast.
I use Void Torrent currently not out of love but because it’s so strong. But every time I use it I am thinking to myself that I hope I used it at the right time as it happens often enough to keep thinking about it when I am forced to cancel it to move out of a mechanic or I get knocked back or knocked up or pulled in or stunned or feared or silenced or interrupted by something.
So having a cooldown just like Void Torrent will feel so bad, especially if it also cost resources to use only to be a complete waste in both the ability itself and resources and then whatever potential synergies exist that we’re unable to be active since it was cut short.
So no, casting while moving will not be the solution you think it is.
So stating common encounter mechanics that force you to move around and/or put you compromising situations resulting in prematurely ending a channeled spell with a cooldown is not going to be a problem?
If you are casting a spell that has a cooldown but is not a channel then you either complete the cast and the effect is realized or you get interrupted before the cast goes off which means you can just attempt to cast it again when you get your next available moment. So you don’t loose anything, you just get delayed.
But this is not the case with a channeled spell that also has a cooldown as if you get interrupted either at the beginning or in the middle of it etc. you loose out on the rest of the channel effect and have to wait until the cooldown is over to attempt to do it again.
The fact is that dealing with a channeled spell that also had a cooldown comes with a major risk factor and it would be even worse for a dedicated AOE spell as it would be extremely difficult to gauge the correct time to use the spell as it might be better to use before or after you intended in order to maximize its effect and reduce the chance that enemies take reduced damage or it gets interrupted prematurely.
It simply is a horrible idea to mix both a channeled spell and attaching a cooldown to it. It being also an AOE spell and costing resources is just extra reasons to realizing it being such a horrible idea to implement.