Priest - Shackle Rework

Classes Priest
1

Here’s the one change I would like to see as a priest (mostly this would help in pvp, but i believe pve could also benefit if cc is actually happening again in dungeons/raids) with Shackle.

I mean i have it on my bars, i have it key bound, and I’m starting to wonder why. Can we not make this spell more relevant by making it useable on at least humans and undead? Now if your using it in PVE and i’m completely off base, i apologize, but, when i went through a key rebinding i saw this spell and i wasn’t even sure if it was worth putting it on my bar (other than torghast).

Shammy’s with better healing output and better mobility have Hex and earthbind, and capaciter totem.

Pally’s with stun & bubble, and strong healing out put in their own right, Freedom.

Monks have Paralysis, leg sweep, and much better mobility (but their healing suffers and really needs a buff. I actually thing this is the one healing class with an actual need for a buff to their healing).

And of course druids have better mobility, clone, mighty bash and roots.

I’m sure i missed some for one or more of the classes spells here.

I’m not saying priest are in a bad place in pvp, but would a rework to shackle really op us? What I would like to see if it treated like roots, but breaks on damage.

Holds a target in place, but allows them to still attack. I’d probably stop there, but if you really wanted to add just a bit more, you could add a slowing effect after shackle broke for a small period of time (maybe even offer the slowing effect as a pvp talent only too for holy & disc though [the weight of the shackles slow you by 30% for 2 seconds]).

These are just ideas to make a useless spell maybe a bit more useful. I don’t think this makes priest overpowered as it’s not a complete shutdown either. The class can still attack, I’d make it able to be dispelled, and it breaks on damage. It’s like a lesser roots in my mind.

I understand there will be people who call this a stupid idea, and i understand not everyone will agree. I also understand there are people who think priest are OP in pvp, so not everyone will like this. But currently as disc and holy i have 2 spells that I can use to peel dps off myself. one is Aoe granted, but it’s also a longer CD that breaks on damage and can be dispelled. I get that one chance (unless my teammates peel for me) to get LOS and start my kiting. The other is MC, which I’ll be honest i need to work on using more often, but it’s longest of the healers cc’s cast time (hex 1.7 & cyclone 1.7, MC is 1.8).

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It would be great if it were, say Shackle Evil, and worked on the same mobs as Turn Evil for Paladins. It has its place, I use it in Arena on Death Knight pets from time to time, but if it could stop Demons at least, it would be far more useful.

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All priests have Mind Control and Psychic Scream. Holy and Shadow also get a stun. And then we have Thoughtsteal. Silence for Shadow. Disc/Holy can talent a knockback.

Adding another CC would basically make us CC gods.

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that’s where my problem lies, i could use it on a DK pet, or i could be using mind blast or mind games on a target. The trade off doesn’t really seem to lean much in favor of Shackle as it stands now.

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Back when I used to pvp i remember shackling DKs when they pop lichborne

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I remember those days. There was a time when priests could shackle undead players too.

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Mind control is useless because it shares dr with the only comp that ever works with disc priests which is RMP, so that just leaves disc with a single fear and you afk while it’s on CD around a pillar while every other healer has usable CC chains.

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Just call it shackle and let it work on all humanoids and beasts, at least. Like hex.

But really I wouldn’t remind if they removed it altogether (along with psychic scream) in favor of a much better CC option.

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I had this whole thing typed out, but i couldn’t reply because i needed someone else to say something, so i’ll try to replicate it, but the 2nd time around is never as good.

1st let me say i appreciate your insight as it’s easy to overlook how much cc shadow has and forget how a little change like this is a big impact for them. And to make sure I understand correctly, the concern would be too much cc given to the priest (mostly shadow spec) basically makes them a better cc mage right?

2nd just to make sure I’m very clear here. I’m not really expecting this to happen, and I’m not really calling for a priest buff, even though it really looks like I am. I would prefer Blizz spends time bringing out of balance classes into balance (Mw Monk needs a buff, some damage classes need a nerf, and so forth). Those are priorities imo.

But just to continue the conversation, I do see what your saying, but what your saying is mostly that Holy & Shadow would have too much CC (mostly shadow).

So here’s my amendment to counter this, is that maybe shackle doesn’t need to be a core priest ability. what if shackle was only given to holy & disc. You could than only make it a “root”. After that make the slowing ability idea as a pvp talent for disc and holy. That being said it’s a lot more than i originally thought, now we are reclassifying abilities.

So after i wrote that i realized with the way Bliz has wow set up, why not just make shackle humans a pvp talent for Disc (and if you wanted to holy).

I continue to say holy even though they already have so many cc’s is because as it stands they are not viable in pvp outside of larger bgs (and even then), and i like the way priest classes are (pve healing, pvp healing, and shadow), i’m not advocating for a holy pvp buff.

So moving into the CC portion, you mentioned priest would be CC gods if given this, just to kind of pit this against other healers (because I’ve changed my narrative for this to be given to holy & disc only).

If this was the case, and we made Shackle humans a pvp talent only for disc & holy. Here’s how it would stack up (excluding pallys because to be honest I just don’t know enough about them other than freedom, stun, bop, big heals).

Disc priest would now look like this for cc - AOE Fear (30 sec cooldown if talented), Mind Control (still loose control of yourself, to control another char), and a root that breaks with any damage. and if we talented an aoe knock back (but you lose your 30second reduction of your aoe fear), lastly thoughtsteal if pvp talented.

[thoughtsteal isn’t used by every priest, and this at least would make you choose between thoughtsteal, shackle or another pvp talent]

Holy would basically be the same, but include a stun.

Shaman currently have the following: Capacitor totem (8 yard stun after 2 seconds), Aoe slowing totem, hex, single target slow, interrupt, and on top of all of this they get a strong mobility spell. They can talent down the cooldown of the capacitor totem, or grab a earthbind totem.

Druids would have root, cyclone, aoe slow (vortex), if talented (stun or aoe root).

Monks just need a buff, the have paralysis, an aoe knock back if talented, they really are the healing class that needs the most work.

The other thing all 3 of these classes have though is very strong mobility (shaman’s probably the weakest of the 3 in this), where priest have almost 0.

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MC is not useless. It literally wins games. Don’t know how many times I clutch MC’d the dps or healer when we’re about to burn down the last guy. Remember one time I accidentally MC’d the wrong person and they were at 4% and our dots ended up killing them either way. lol

It’s fun to use in BGs with throwing people off of cliffs. It’s the only CC ability ingame that lets you reposition people.

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I don’t think MC is useless, i admittedly could be better about using it, but it’s also the longest cast (I believe). Cyclone is 1.7, hex is 1.7 and MC is 1.8. I know it’s only .1 difference, but we all know that can matter. But i do think MC is very situational, and you can only use it when you know your team is safe and not needing heals for an extended period of time. Which in this current meta can make it very difficult because burst damage is so so so strong.

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I mean sure you can get wins here and there on 2s with random comps but when the use of a certain spell is an actual huge detriment to the best comp the spec can form, I’d call that borderline useless.

You are actually helping the enemy if you ever MC with a mage and or rogue in your party.

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Hex has a 30s cooldown and you know it’s coming when it’s off cd so you usually work around it. If you get frogged you run into melee range and most melee classes will cleave you and break it. It’s the easiest cc I’ve found to counter, but it’s usually your fault for letting the shaman run loose.

Mind Control can be kicked. Double interrupt teams are annoying, but I just keep baiting them to kick my Mind Controls so I can switch to heal spells. Or the other way around. You just use it when you’re able too, but when you’re MC’d with no cds you can’t do anything about it.

Cyclone is the one you have to watch out for.

The biggest problem I’m having in arenas is countering the stupid 30k+ instant deaths burst specs that are rampant. You can fight against healer + dps teams and have amazing 5-10 minute back-and-forth matches, but then have matches that last 20s because your partner gets globaled.

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Resto Shaman in 2s have chain cast that on me.

https://www.wowhead.com/spell=343198/hex - Rank 2 reduces it to 20 seconds
https://www.wowhead.com/spell=204268/voodoo-mastery - Reduces it to 0 seconds.

But this does explain why Enhancement and Elemental Shaman are less spammy with it. I just always assumed it did not have a CD. But most Shaman I encounter in 2s are Resto.

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To me i wouldn’t mind having 1 more CC or something as Disc. I was playing with a lock last night in 2’s and he kept asking me what CC’s i have, when you spell it out, it’s a bit sad. Either way I struggle with using MC, so I’m already hamstringing myself with half of my CC’s. Everytime I go for an MC my partner starts to drop, or i get interrupted (or both).

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Mind Control is good to spam to [try and] get your Shadow School locked out rather than your Holy School… if you’re Holy. Seeing as Shadowmend is Shadow, though, I can see not wanting to lose access to that.

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17

I’d agree that they should do something with it because its in a quite disapointing state rn (Very niche use due to only undeads and most of them are just immune either way). Also the animation of the shackle is great and its a shame that we get to see it in action so few times.
I like the Shacke Evil idea, just add a cd to prevent spamming to avoid being too op (which i doubt it would be without it to start with since most of our ccs are either situational/conditional like mc or require you to go melee being a squishy ranged class and either breaks easly or spreads mobs away). I mean, in comparison with other classes cc repertoire like shamans/druids we would still be miles behind, but would be in a more confortable position to help wich ccing priority targets.

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I just feel like priest is a victim of its own history as a class… we’re saddled with a lot of super niche crap that’s left over from Classic that for whatever reason either the players or the devs are fans of and go out of their way to defend as useful with edge cases… whereas other classes over the years evolved and just got straightforward abilities that work.

Shackle Undead was cool when undead were everywhere… now it’s not. Mind soothe was cool back when skipping was some amazing new concept… now it’s not especially needed. Having an AoE fear was OK when having any CC was a huge feature… now it’s a dangerous ability too often.

You can make up uses for these things, and they have their uses, but other classes and specs just have better, more reliable options to do the same jobs.

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