Shadow priest need BIG CHANGES AGAIN

I am planning to main Shadow priest because I always loved the void and fantasy of the spec since Legion . However, the spec has many problems that needs to be dressed.

  1. Shadow Crash: This skill is horrible. I am talking visually and functionally. What is worse this skill is the ONLY skill that makes us spread the dots in a fast way. Besides it has 8 limite target for some reason and long cooldown. You either make it like baseline, add a charge or use it as a insanity spender.

  2. Dark Ascension/ Void Eruption: This is actually insane. For some reason both of them have a cast time. Why? Literally the rest of the classes has their cooldowns with 0 cast time. This needs to be instant ASAP.

  3. Idol of C’Tun: There is a BUG from months ago that makes the tentacles attack targets you haven’t attacked when you kill something. This is annoying and it’s crazy they haven’t fixed this by now. This needs to be fixed like quicly.

  4. Shadowy apparitions: This skill needs to be reworked,redesigned,deleted I don’t know both visually and functionally. It looks outdated and like a filler that deals low damage and it’s still there for some reason.

  5. Silence: We have no silence/interrupts considering we are a DPS class. And having to spend talent points to get one it’s bad?

  6. Voidweaver: Honestly I love the hero talents (archon too) specially Void Blast. HOWEVER, forcing us to play Dark Ascension instead of VOID Eruption that actually goes with the spec it’s beyond my comprehension. Entropic Rift should appear in the target location instead of travelling like a missile. This looks horrible, dumb and it is not how a black hole it’s supposed to function or look.

7)Movement: Complete garbage. I would like to have like a VOID portal similar to a blink. But having to use the holy shield skill for movement it’s weird…

  1. PVP: Complete garbage part II. 0 movement skills. Dots take forever to do something Low damage overall. Anyone can avoid entropic rift by moving. No base line silence. A warrior or DK catches you and you are done.

  2. Glyphs: These are more like a visual preference. I want more VOID/ "shadow"glyphs. Let us change the color of the shield to blue void. Having a holy shield around you considering you are full darkness/void or whatever is just weird.

Being said that, i will continue to play shadow, it’s my alt but I it want to be my main. However I don’t want to bet on a class that has so many problems in terms of rotations,bugs and utility. I think the damage is actually good/ok (right now) I will have to see how it actually goes in season 1.

15 Likes
  1. Shadow Crash is fine baseline and I like that it spreads DoTs, BUT it needs to have multiple charges and shorter cooldowns - Alternatively, it could have MB, DP refund some CD on each cast to have it more often.

  2. Dark Ascension should be instant and not on the GCD. Macro popping it with PI and trinkets into a Juiced Up Torrent/Halo would be nice – Halo should be instant as well if you’re Archon. — Void Eruption is fine as a cast IF it did more. If it applied your DoTs to ALL targets affected and did more damage, I would be fine with it being a cast. Reason being: Since its a 2-min CD, macroing it with 2-min Trinkets and PI would be perfect for openers and burst phases.

  3. Agree 100% on Idol of C’Thun - I was pulling Mobs from across the Dungeon that nearly wiped us because it pulled like 4 packs of Mobs with it. This would be a disaster in M+ if you’re running IoC.

  4. Apparitions are fine, but are WAY too slow – If they were like mini-sha/voidlings that sprinted to their target and exploded dealing split-damage, that would be sick. Back when SA was meta, I can’t count how many times they were wasted by attacking dead targets.

  5. Silence should be baseline as an interrupt on a 25-second CD since its ranged, similar to Counterspell. – Then given the ‘Suffocate’ spell in its place on the Talent tree. Its basically a short stun, that deals a little damage. Make it a 1-min CD that can be used in emergencies or a filler that can generate some insanity if the target is immune to stuns.

  6. You can go Void Eruption as Voidweaver, but you’re forced into “Void Torrent” which limits what Idol combinations you can take. – I’d much rather have Entropic Rift proc off off your Shadowfiend/Mindbender – because that’s a baseline, that can be spec’d into to make it available more often and may make the Idol worth taking if reworked correctly.

  7. Movement is and has always been a joke compared to literally every other spec except for maybe DK. – My thoughts are this, give ‘Toggle Talents’ to Angelic Feather and Leap of Faith.
    – Angelic Feather (Classic): Keep as is to be used on Allies
    – Angelic Feather (Alternative): Self-casted Only - Increase Duration by 2 seconds and Movement speed by 10% ( 7-seconds /50% MS)
    – Leap of Faith (Classic): Pulls Friendly Target to You
    – Leap of Faith (Alternative): Pulls You to a Friendly Target - 2 Charges

  8. PVP - Changes above will help, but without significant buffs to DoTs, Movement, CC, Interrupts, and reliable dispel protection, SP will always be a target for Melee to manhandle with very little punishment. – SPs have to cast nearly all of their heavy hitters, which makes them unbelievably easy to Interrupt. Plus, reliable self-heal has been gutted.

  9. Glyphs: Untapped Oil Well of Monetization from Blizzard – If they put a team of developers on creating Cash Shop Glyphs that allow players to personalize their characters more would be HUGE. I’d prefer they’d just give it back to Inscription – Voided Out Shadow Priests, Blood Knight Paladins, Frosty-boi Death Knights, Fire/Lightning/Ice Themed Evokers — The opportunities are endless for the customability of this idea.

On your final point: Shadow Priest is my main, luckily I found a guild that will deal with the numbers in hope that iLv scaling and future tuning will iron out some of the concerns. PI, Mind Soothe, Mass Dispel are sadly our biggest attractor for M+ and Raids. At least we have that going for us, despite it feeling terrible.

4 Likes

Did you play when Feather provided an 80% speed boost? Don’t ask for such a small buff when historically it was so much stronger.

1 Like

To be fair, it was 80% for the ladder half of one expansion.

It was originally created at a 60% Buff, I agree we should just go back to the OG. In my opinion 80% is a little much with 3 charges – I’m fine with 80% as well, but we all know it was only nerfed because people whined that it was OP in PvP on WSG.

So, lets make it 50%-base and 70% self-cast.

I think it would be a nice feature if you can stack your feathers to increase speed. That way you can balance out the speed boost with a more powerful boost with less available uptime.

Similar to how Druids using Ironfur and how it stacks with itself which increases your armor per stack but each charge has its own duration.

So with Angelic Feather, you can spend up to 3 GCD’S using feather to gain a total of 120% speed for a short duration but then you need to wait a bit for the charges to recharge,

Obviously can still increase the base value of speed to something like 50-60% and maybe if its too strong for base Angelic Feather then perhaps the stacking speed effect can be included into Oracles Divine Feather as an option.

Then to balance out with Body and Soul, That would suppress your movement reduction to 100% (normal) while the shield holds as a response to being slowed nonstop.

This would then provide unique identity for both our movement increase speed spells instead of them doing the EXACT SAME THING lol.

1 Like

Interesting Idea:

  • Immune to Slowing Affects while under the effect of Body and Soul.
  • Casting Angelic Feather on a target removes root effects.

Here are my thoughts to this list…

  1. Shadow Crash: Remove it entirely… It has so many issues that in order to resolve them would make it into a completely different spell… so instead, just use other mechanically better spells to apply Vampiric Touch on multiple targets with option below…
    • Halo (Baseline): Make Halo Baseline and then have it interact for each spec. For Shadow, it can apply Vampiric Touch with Whispering Shadows Talent. Then you can put Cascade as a choice with Divine Star for extra AOE capability.
    • Cascade (Baseline): Keep Halo where it is as a talent and just add Cascade as a baseline spell instead that can then have its own spec specific mechanics added on. For shadow, make it Apply Vampiric Touch and the added benefit is that since it bounces, it can then bounce to new targets that were pulled AFTER you already used the spell. So you can preemptively use it and not be punished if new targeted are added a bit later.
    • Unholy Nova: Baseline or slot it into a choice node with Holy Nova. This deals its damage instantly without a traveling projectile already which is currently the primary reason for the issues regarding Shadow crash.
    • Dark Void: Similar to Shadow crash but it deals its effect instantly without travel time.
    • Void Eruption: Detach it from Voidform and you now can see your cool visual effects from it more often and it servers a purpose other than just padding damage.
  2. Dark Ascension/ Void Eruption: Dark Archangel (Predecessor of Dark Ascension in Cataclysm) did NOT have a cast time. Void Eruption since its inception DID have a cast time. I am pretty sure the justification of Void Eruption having a cast time is because it deals damage. If you decouple Void Eruption with Voidform then using your damage cooldown would have no reason to NOT be instant cast since it doesn’t deal damage. I think we are paying that forced to cast tax with Void Eruption dealing damage.
  3. Idol of C’Tun: I thought they fixed this bug? Well if not, then yup… expect that fix in the next major patch update lol.
  4. Shadowy apparitions: I would love if Idol of Yogg-Saron was redesigned to make Shadowy Apparitions deal AOE damage (like 15% of it’s primary damage) on impact like Banelings from Starcraft 2. I would also like for Shadow Word: Death to Spawn a Shadowy Apparition for each target with Shadow Word: Pain on them when it deals damage. Doing this would create more opportunity to spawn more Shadowy Apparitions via direct control over your actions instead of a passive thing that spawns and just does what it does.
  5. Silence: I am on the fence here. I don’t mind that you have to spend a talent point to get and that only Shadow has access to it. But I also wouldn’t mind if it got moved over to the Class Tree.
  6. Voidweaver: I think both Voidweaver and Archon are designed from a poorly designed class/spec trees and could be so much better if the base trees were treated with a proper redesign/rework. Ideally for Shadow, Since Dark Ascension is already catering to Non-Periodic damage, then make Voidform to enhance only Periodic damage and rework mastery to enhance Mind spells instead of our dots restricting our damage done (mainly AOE situations where you cant dot everything). This would create a clear identity for each cooldown and then Voidweaver can go the route of leaning into Periodic damage and Archon to be Non-Periodic damage.
  7. Movement: At the end of the day, each spec of Priest is still a priest. So you will have crossover to some extend. Just like how warlocks each have different flavors of demons per spec but they are all still demons. I think it fine for utility speeds to be either Shadow or Holy as we are still a Priest. So regarding aesthetics, I personally don’t think its that much for a concern. But regarding mechanics, what your asking for is basically Door of Shadows which would be fine to receive. But I also think something like Spectral Guise can fulfill something like a blink of sorts and/or to escape/avoid being hit/targeted regardless how the wow devs think on that spell with their post saying it dropping target frames is why they don’t want us to have it because… other classes already do that enough. Such a pitiful excuse.
  8. PVP: Yup, PvP to me went downhill bigtime with the introduction of the Legion Voidform redesign. Still suffering to this day… We lost Instant cast and high damage Mind Spike, Mind Blast, Cascade and Spectral Guise in addition with nerfed version of Angelic Feather. The good days of PvP were a decade ago lol.
  9. Glyphs: I would personally rather be given the Druid and Warlock barbershop treatment where they have multiple forms/demons they can pick and choose from at the barber. So it would be cool for Priests to pick the color of your spells and/or effects they give off. Add all the versions for Shadowform/Voidform into this system alongside other options for other spells.
3 Likes

I would actually just prefer to roll the removeable of root effects into Fade with Phantasm talent.

I think Phantasm removing only snares is not that powerful when they can be applied by so many classes either via being spammed or passively. But roots are something that is not as often widely used from passive effects.

So either Phantasm removing roots is added or it only removes roots and Body and Soul is used to ignore snares.

Ideally, I would make Phantasm remove both Snares and Roots and then merge Body and Soul with Angelic Feather in a choice talent and with their identity being either faster movement or movement reduction suppression, you choose what you want more.

I would think Angelic Feather would be mostly used in PvE and Body and Soul for PvP if they had the identity as I suggested above.

We’ve been posting the exact same thing since season 2 of Dragonflight.

-Our talents have no synergy, Shadowy Apparition needs to go away forever.

-Our only source of aoe is locked outside a 20 second cd, just merge VT into SW:P and make it AoE baseline for shadow. There no reason for it to be 2 diferent spells anymore, it’s a relic from a time when dots were powerful and VT needed a cast time, now they exist only as a debut to trigger procs and mastery.

-Turn Shadow Crash into an AoE spender that deals full mastery damage and can proc a free cast like mind sear used to but in this case it’s instant so no chance of getting interrupted. Put Shadow Crash on a choice node with Psychic Link.

-We have no mobility, pvp is hellish turret punching bag, perma interrupted and locked out of shadow spells.

I’ve given up on my priest after 3 expansions, back to Frost DK for me.

1 Like

Phantasm used to make you immune to snares for the duration of fade. For some reasons they brought the talent back at a fraction of its initial power.

Where have I heard this before? I member when Halo was instant. Void eruption used to be instant in PvP. PI/MD gutted and nothing given back.

1 Like

I do no want to see shadowy apparitions go away. I love the look of these and it’s part why I play spriest.

Why have them gone? What harm are they

2 Likes

This is one of the worst recommendations I have ever seen, and that is actually saying a lot. You want to remove one of the coolest and most flavorful part of the class that has been belove by damn near everyone who has played the class since it was implemented.

If anything Blizzard should be looking to design around and adding to Shadowy Apparitions as oppose to removing. Being able to summon more, perhaps making them explode for AoE damage, hell let them stack a debuff that turns into a root or horror effect after X hit you idk, but you sure as hell don’t remove it.

As for the rest of shadow it needs either one of two things.

1–To be reverted back to when Insanity wasn’t a resource to be spent but instead to be built and maintained. The spec still holds a lot of the mechanics integral to that playstyle and reverting it back would be the healthiest thing to do with it’s current design imo.

2–If they insist the class must have a resource spending playstyle then redesign the thing from the ground up. I am talking all new abilities, resources, mechanics, absolutely everything so that the spec is actually designed around it instead of trying to shoe horn insanity into a spender playstyle it was never meant to be.

I think its due for a needed tune up, both mechanically and visually. – I think it would be sick if Apparitions were changed into the Orbs that Xalatath shot into Khadgar in the opening quest Cinematic. – Think about it, you trigger a Void Orb and they manifest out of you, hover for about half a second, then shoot at the target at super speeds.

2 Likes

I think you can modernize it sure but I wouldn’t want to completely change it so drastically. That sounds more like a new ability that would be cool to have as oppose to a redesign of Shadowy Apparitions.

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Bring back Cascade !

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stop this madness

I’d kill for a couple glyphs.

-Showy orbs
-Shadow ravens
-…shadow clowns? (Only partly joking)

1 Like

My Idea for Glyphs:

  • Shadow Orbs that represent stacks of Mind Blast
  • Shadow Ravens as an Alternative look to the Orbs
  • Shadow Word: Shield - Gives PW:S a shadow/void appearance
  • Plain Levitate - Removes spell effects from Levitate to have a more “Xal’atath Style”
  • Dark Angel’s Feathers - Changes the appearance of AF to Shadow
  • Void Apparitions - Changes Shadow Apparitions to Void Orbs
  • Shadow Mend - Changes the appearance of Flash Heal to Shadow Mends
  • Shadow Infusion - Changes PIs effects to Shadow effects
  • Leap of the Faithless" - Changes Leap of Faiths effect to Shadow

Edit – Here’s a few more I just thought of:

  • Dark Pursuit - Changes the appearance of Angelic Feathers to a shadow orb - gain the appearance of Levitate during its effect.
  • Raven Apparitions - Changes Shadow Apparitions to Dark Ravens
  • Wraith of Yogg-Saron - Changes the Faceless-One summoned from Idol of Yogg-Saron to a Void Wraith.
  • Hallucinations of C’Thun - Changes the Tentacles summoned from Idol of C’thun to Shadow Apparitions that resemble the character which channel Mind Flay / Mind Sear
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I want to see if they even listen to class needs before we even attempt asking for Glyphs. Can’t distract them too much

4 Likes