Shadow priest going forward

[Rita-velen]

I have a small wish that the halo or divine star/mindgames and shadow word death all got passives that do their equivalent in exchange for the control like power word life got. I would also like some way for fade to become permanent and passive maybe make the fade cd reduction talent 10s each rank and the second rank just makes it permanent and passive, and make phantasm baseline so there are no more root effects ever and instantly dispels the entangling affix. I would also like vampiric touch to be instant cast (and also the talent that makes VT apply SWP baseline). I also want the void torrent to get a passive alternative node that is equal in power and be castable while moving.

[Youssif-malganis]

Some great ideas here, I’d love to add some more.

Make psychic link a choice node to bring back mind sear. Mind sear can be a 2 in one version of Mind Sear and Searing Nightmare, spreading out Shadow word pain to all targets near the main target.

Shadow crash should only be 1 talent, but it should share a choice node with Dark Void. I don’t care about casting an ability that will work 100% of the time.

[Dasserlond-ravencrest (Dasserlond)]

@Auttø-area-52

• Void star: throw a Void Star forward 30 yards dealing a low amount of damage. Coming in contact with an enemy inflicted with Vampiric Touch causes an explosion, that deals low damage and spreads Vampiric touch to enemies within 5-10 yards. 15 second CD. (Works with Misery)
• insert cool name here: Expel a ring of void energy around the caster dealing medium damage and applying Vampiric Touch to all targets hit. 30 Yard range, 40 second CD. (Works with Misery)

While I agree Shadow Crash is a bit clunky at times, I have to disagree with your alternatives.

1. Void Star:
   Sounds awesome, however! It would mean that I would have to position myself just right to get it to hit the max number of baddies. With SC I can cast it while my toon faces any direction and even while moving. I think I would rather have the movement abilities over spending an extra 3 second of dps time to get myself situated.

2. Insert cool name here:
   Again, I would have to make sure my toon is in the proper place to cast it rather than casting SC while running around like a chicken with its head chopped off from the fire bombs. Also, would you really want it for such a large range when you are out in the world doing dailies and trying not to pull those elites? If it doesn’t have a large range, that means I would have to stand in melee to cast it on a boss or trash mobs. Not too fond of that idea either.

What Shadow Crash needs is the one thing priest have been begging for since it was brought into the talent tree: an extra cast. Let us have the ability to cast it 2 times with a shorter cooldown. Not like it does an overpowered amount of damage on its own. (it does hardly any damage) Also with the new S3 set, if I understand it correctly, we have to actually cast SW:P separately from SC. to get the 4 piece to consume whatever it consumes.

Your arguments are sound, and your concepts are close to what we need. I feel, however, the simple fix of 2 casts of Shadow Crash with a shorter cooldown would fix most of the animosity towards the talent.

[Auttø-area-52]

@Dasserlond-ravencrest

It would mean that I would have to position myself just right to get it to hit the max number of baddies.

The explosion damage isn’t the goal of it. The priority would be for the spreading of DoT’s.

As for Halo it would probably be less value but in some cases it would still be used. Think battle grounds / Larodar adds, Gnarlroot… just about any raid fight where you’re not in fear of aggro’ing too much.

@Dasserlond-ravencrest

the simple fix of 2 casts of Shadow Crash

While id settle with just having two stacks of it. It doesn’t change the multiple issues that the spell has.

[Xyzåäö-tichondrius]

If they made MindFlay Shadowfrost aswell it would be less of an issue in PVP and they wouldn’t need to overly balance its dmg output to make it not overpowered.

Bring back Damnation.
Make Phase Shift 2 seconds duration.
Buff insanity generation from Vampiric Touch and Buff Shadow Word: Pain damage by alot.
Bring back Mind Sear as a choice node with Shadow Crash. Make the secondary node apply SW:P on Mind Sear ticks ///// and Increase Shadow Crash damage by 250%
Hence removing dot application from Shadow Crash making it a fun damage ability again, and giving a choice between faster dot generation with Mind Sears in conjunction with using Misery to apply dots manually, or speccing out of it?

Make shadow apparitions trigger from Shadow Word: Pain.

[Felforsale-illidan]

@Caelestya-moon-guard

This is just my tinfoil hat theory, but I think you guys need to accept that Blizzard has no interest in balancing dps classes (and only a marginal one in balancing tanks and healers). The game has been out for ~20 years. I am hard pressed to believe they don’t have the data to tune everything within a relatively tight band (~5-10% of each other or something). They want things to change season to season so that the game feels “fresh” and people keep paying for subs as they level the new meta specs.

Finally, someone believes as I do.

[Xyzåäö-tichondrius]

Yeah sometimes it feels like the balancing buffs/nerfs are intentional unbalancing.
Another hint also is that we have to wait so very very long before actual new balance changes come out it’s like being led on constantly.

[Felforsale-illidan]

yep, and what could drive people to constantly hop on the gearing treadmill with minimal effort by blizzard more than constantly changing what are the meta specs? it’s actually very smart of them if true.

[Giza-hyjal (Giza)]

Dude, I’m just now seeing this topic, but I made a thread on the arena forums just last night and I said almost word for word, some of the things you’re saying. Crazy