There should be a second charge and uncapped aoe application.
Shadow crash needs a cd reduction per target it misses.
Something like for every target not hit reduce cd by 3 seconds. So if shadow crash only hits 5 targets, cd will be reduced by 9 seconds.
1 Like
Bandaid solution.
This is just treating a symptom of the disease. Itâs not an actual cure. The real underlying problem still persists.
Shadowcrash is a fundamentally flawed spell on a mechanical level. It is a horrible spell to use and relay on when it comes to dot management.
Instead, using a spell like Cascade or Unholy Nova would be a much better delivery system to interact/spread dots. Those 2 spells have guarantee delivery mechanic as it targets the target and not the terrain.
Then simply have a talent that reduces the cooldown on your dot spreader spell by 1 second per applied dot effect upon target death (short form combat / targets dying quickly). Then a talent or choice talent that makes Shadowy Apparitions extend the duration of dot effects by 1 second on hit.
So you can choose long form combat with dot extension or short form combat with more uptime on dot spreader use.
Letâs treat the illness, not the symptom.
3 Likes
Ya sure, I would be happy with either choice. My suggestion would require much less effort from the devs and I kind of like shadow crash as itâs unique to spriests.
Shadow Crash is unique in what way?
The travel time?
The targeting of terrain?
The graphical effect of a slow traveling shadowy looking missile object?
None of that is a good reason to maintain its place in Shadows Toolkit.
Itâs issues far outweigh any positive features which I would argue only 1 exists and that is the ability to shoot it behind an object like a pillar and hit targets slightly out of line of sight. But that is really only useful for PvP and its such a niche situation that I donât think should weigh down the entire spec for such a limited use case situation.
The only reason people even mention Shadow Crash at all is because of its ability to affect targets with Vampiric Touch which is only a Dragonflight feature as Shadow crash has existed for multiple prior expansions and was always a forgettable talent and never taken because it just offered damage with all the issues it has today but to a lesser degree because you only lost out on damage, not dot management capability.
Attaching Vampiric Touch to Shadow Crash is just a quick shoot at the hip move. It came down to the wire in DF Beta and they just slapped it together because it was there and ready to easily code that up vs actually do things better and use a different spell that was a much better suited spell that they could have pulled from many other sources. Heck, even Dark Void would have been better to attach Vampiric Touch to.
The fact is that the Dev that was in charge of Priest in DF Beta left as did the previous 3 each of the last Shadow Priest development cycles leaving the rest to just work with what was available and do as little imagination and work as possible and to just get it out the door and ready it for launch.
Shadow Crash is just lazy development with half fast ideas.
Lets not encourage them to do further lazy Band-Aid fixes. Lets actually fix the class/spec as its been sorely lacking for far too long at this point.
2 Likes
I have been playing Spriest and Unholy DK lately and Outbreak is absolute God tier for dot application compared to Shadow Crash. Kind of hurts to go back to priest after doing a few unholy dungeons.
This seems really nit-picky tbh. Fade and manual dot with VT while tank pulls then SC â DA â Torrent like a normal spriest.
Most pulls require additional dotting anyways, why send crash before the tank is planted? Seems like a good way to pull threat and get one shot.
Itâs an obnoxious excuse for AOE and I donât think itâs nitpicky at all.
1 Like
This is essentially what Iâve been wanting. What I would want is:
Each tick of Mind Sear applies 3 seconds of VT and SW:P on up to 8 targets (prefers elites), up to a max 21 seconds. No CD on Mind Sear.
This would make it so you can choose to only apply a shorter duration for short fights, or apply max duration over two casts of Mind Sear. (Each cast of Mind Sear has the initial damage plus 3 ticks, so 12 seconds per cast)
There would be a balance where, at about 4 targets or less, you would want to tab target, and anything over that, two full casts would be faster than tab targeting applying it.
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Honestly, most ranged caster need a rework, itâs really unfun to have to wait for keys on 20+ to actually become a valid dps. Why are ranged classes so tedious to play, with spriest having shadow crash thatâs a gamble if the tank decides to move or not, balance that takes 3h to ramp up hoping that things donât die to fast and Iâll not even start on affliction.
Itâs not fun at all that being ranged is an excuse for poor design when you have melee that can blast faster than I can cast a skill. Casters also have important skills on cooldowns that make no sense, as an Spriest you always have to ask your self, do I use shadow crash again or are things gonna die faster than my cooldown for the next pack of mobs
2 Likes
If they let you automatically VT every mob in the immediate area the damage VT itself does would need to be put into the floor.
Dot spec players want their dots to deal damage, then there needs to be opportunity cost to applying those dots.
1 Like
This is a bad argument. Shadow Crash essentially does this already on 8 targets when they are grouped. There are mechanical issues with Shadow Crash but the tuning is already in place for VT to be on essentially everything without having to mouse over(or tab through) every mob. The only time this tuning matters is in uncapped mega pulls and they can restrict the # of targets you can spread to or apply scaling to the dots after a # of targets.
2 Likes
Correct! The argument against AoE dots on demand are always vague and philosophical as opposed to functional. Iâll just copy paste my previously suggested fix:
-Misery should be changed to merge the properties of Vampiric Touch into Shadow Word Pain and make it AoE cast. This would make our dots instant cast and remove buttons bloat. Thereâs literally no reason for me to have SWP on my action bar at the moment. Keep the 8 target limit so Psychic Link doesnât become OP.
-Shadow Crash should be changed to an AoE spender with a faster missile fired at a target instead of on the ground, give it full mastery bonus damage. Put it on a choice node with Psychic Link. Let players choose focus target cleave style vs stronger AoE.
-Mental Decay should increase the duration of dots on enemies near the target as well like Shadow bolt.
-Alter the numerical value of our Mastery so that half is provided by Shadow Word Pain and half from Devouring Plague.
-Change Catharsis(PvP) so that it deals a baseline damage but has a 20 second refresh and only let it deal the extra damage on main target, otherwise it would be OP if it remains as is. Removed Unfurling Darkness.
so many times I fired it then asked myself âWhere the fock did it go?â
Why not have it a bit like Epidemic? A talent with a CD that makes whatever is on your current target spread to everything within x yards.
I put SWP and VP on my target, hit the key (currently my shadow crash) and it spreads to all enemies withing 10 yards. 20 sec cd. Problem solved.
1 Like
Then Blizz needs to not gate our AoE behind having DoTs on the targets. DoTs should absolutely do meaningful damage rather than just being an enabler to do damage.
Right now, DoTs are enablers that have an absolute trash application because they also do decent damage. If Shadow Crash worked as is, but we were also able to do decent AoE without DoTs, then Shadow Crash simply becomes a DPS cd.
It all revolves around our Mastery. They could give us tools to use for AoE that hit targets with full mastery similar to Voidform, or they could uncouple Mastery from our DoTs. Make it a personal stacking buff with a max cap and duration that works off Mind Blast or something.
Wanting DoTs to do meaningful damage and also wanting to do meaningful AoE are two separate things that are unfortunately, very intimately tied together right now. Which is the issue when it comes to designing Shadow Crash.
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This would be the best fix honestly, the skill is not the real issue, itâs the fact that it moves so slow and is really easy to just miss because of the tank. Itâs not good design when all your damage is on a skill with a long CD that you can so easily miss
1 Like
Replace shadow crash with Dark Void. Have dark void apply both dots
Done
Shadow aoe is fixed
(As fixed as it can be without altering the spec)
2 Likes
As long as it doesnât come with the 30sec CD again that would be an option
Literally this, simple easy solution, Iâve been saying this since they removed Dark Void and this Shadow Crash fiasco become more upfront.
2 Likes
Just make crash go really fast, or even instantly.
I still prefer crash over tab targeting and manually casting dots.