I’ve been playing off and on since BC and my shadow priest has always been my main. When the Legion prepatch hit and I first tried out the insanity and voidform mechanics it sure did feel strange at first. But I stuck with it and it soon became one of my favorite aspects the game has ever had. In a sea of classes that build and spend a resource; Shadow was now extremely unique and, in my opinion of course, massively fun. It was exhilarating during EN days to hit 90 stacks with StM and top the meter for a few seconds (then die, horribly). Yeah they nerfed that into the ground but the root gameplay of squeezing a few extra seconds out of each VF was fun. Yeah sure, I didn’t “pop off” at the start of a boss like everyone else, but I could live with that since I knew my numbers would always catch up a minute or so later.
BfA had a rough start since we lost several class powers from the artifacts and it was a bumpy ride throughout. But hey, a lot of classes had it bad during BfA. In the end with the essences and other late-expansion features it felt fine. Right now I actually like it a lot, big pulls in M+ especially feel great.
But then we now have the same problem, the class relies on “borrowed power” from expansion features. I would think the solution should be to work those “borrowed power” abilities into the base kit. Personally my main suggestion would be to bring back Mass Hysteria in some form. Or make Lingering Insanity baseline and replace that talent with something similar to Chorus of Insanity (tuned to not be too dominant of course).
But no. Instead you just hit the nuke button and awkwardly try to turn the most unique spec in the game into another boring build-and-spend dps. If I wanted that I could…play one of the other classes? Shadow priest is right now very unique. No other class plays the same way. I say let the people who want that gameplay reroll and leave us who like VF alone.
So please Blizzard, DO NOT destroy the single most unique class in the game and homogenize classes even more.
5 Likes
Voidform gameplay destroyed itself… we don’t need a ramp mechanic cause it doesn’t work… instead of asking to be reversed you should be asking to give something more for LotV talent. There is where the horrible mechanic goes.
29 Likes
I mean this new build which thank you blizz. Sounds like it will actually work in all game play. Where as before Void form really only worked out well in raids. Maybe some high mythic plus situations. But every where else it felt bad to play. I am so excited they did this. Just hoping to get beta so I can test it out!
23 Likes
If you like that play style you can still play it if you pick the Legacy Of The Void talent, but to be honest these changes are great and I will be playing a priest as an alt coming SL
8 Likes
Um, I think you should see it in action first. I was having a difficult time choosing which class to level in SL, but not anymore. Going full spriest main this time. First time in a long time. Maybe this will change people’s view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2bqA7yVwVw
9 Likes
Thank you so much Zareline for sharing the vid link!! SPriest looks even more amazing now than from just reading the notes. It looks like a ton more fun too. Super excited for these changes and I can’t wait!
7 Likes
It’s fun. I’m not someone who can sit here and explain why it’s fun or why it works because I’m not that intelligent when it comes to that.
But I can say that Dotting up 6 targets then popping void eruption, void bolt, mind blast, DP, void bolt again, the new ability threat applies all your dots then mind blast and another DP is really fun because it sends out about 20 ghosts at your targets. It’s fun to sit there and watch a wave of ghosts maul your targets.
3 Likes
Can’t test it since I don’t have Beta.
But I have seen many videos and looks quite fun tu be a dot class again and watching so many ghosts flying around doing damage, it looks amazing.
5 Likes
Unique doesn’t mean it’s good.
WoW rewards killing priority targets. A dps profile that rewards more dps as time goes by cannot work in this game engine. It’s because the mechanics become more and more deadly just to let you shine.
Risk wiping the group so you can do PHAT damage? That’s pretty…selfish.
This is doubly true when Blizzard adds more ‘story mode RP’ transitions into their encounters where voidform gets dropped (and you start over again).
Borrowed powers is just a way to offset this huge negative.
What you like is the feedback from voidform where it feels like you are doing more damage as time goes by due to increase haste…and that’s fine. But the four year experiment is finally over.
It’s time to move on and try out the new spriest.
22 Likes
Nah homie. Played Shadow since WotLK (mythic raiding) through first tier of BFA. Legion shadow, while fun, didn’t feel like a spriest at all. It became a voidbolt turret, which basically I could have gotten that feel from playing a mage. I lost interest, and eventually left the game. After seeing these changes, I resubbed and am getting ready for the new xpac. BEYOND excited.
If you want to keep shadow how it is, try Legacy of the Void talent, or just play a mage lol You’ll get the same feel.
15 Likes
While I can understand how it sucks for people who enjoyed the “new” Shadow Priest, you have to understand that this what you are feeling was also how a lot of Shadow mains felt when their spec essentially got removed for no good reason and turned into something completely different.
I think this is the right direction to take, I agree the current rework might feel less “unique” in terms of playstile but I have a few counter arguments to that too:
“Unique” alone doesn’t mean is good, there were a lot of issues with voidform, while I don’t think it’s impossible to make that kind of mechanic work, they certainly failed in their attempts so far. At some point enough is enough and to continue to go down that path is just alienating Priest players who don’t have another DPS spec alternative within the same class.
If they want to experiment with such a “unique” but difficult mechanic to balance, or create niche specs, then by all means, just either add it as a new class/spec or pick a class that has more than one DPS spec so at least players still have alternatives.
14 Likes
I like voidform and was more on the #keepvoidform bandwagon. It was a unique system compared to all the other dps classes. But I also understand the flaw and limitations voidform had and why people hated it. While I am sad to see the current voidform go away, I’m still excited to try out the new iteration of shadow priest and how they function, especially in dungeons where current voidform had its problems. All I want is for the spec to feel good to play, no matter if I’m raiding, doing mythic + or pvp.
4 Likes
or we could just like, not have voidform since it was useless in most of the games content. in theory it sounded like a cool idea, but it never worked. the only times it was relevant is when it scaled out of control. it was impossible to balance.
5 Likes
I’m trying to feel sympathetic for the people who loved Voidform but I just keep remembering being told to ‘deal with it’ and ‘just reroll if you don’t like it’ when Legion came around and my main of ten years was reworked into something I hated.
After playing the Shadow changes on the beta for a few hours I can finally say that I am excited for an expansion launch.
So… yea no. Sorry but I don’t care if you or anyone else liked Legion/BFA Shadow Priest. I hated it and I can’t wait to see it gone for good.
30 Likes
yup thats my biggest problem with the voidform crowd. its like hang on, my character that ive played for over a decade just essentially got deleted. pretty hard to ‘just reroll’
10 Likes
just reroll dude 4head haha lmao uwu tentacles knaifu xd
I can’t wait for Shadowlands.
6 Likes
