Shadow Priest Think-Tank

Classes Priest
6

If Void Form / Insanity mechanic was scrapped / tossed.

Return to form: Pre-Legion Shadow Priest playstyle.

Baseline:

  1. Shadow Orb Generator: Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Death & Auspicious Spirits (if talented) generate 1 Shadow Orb.
  2. Shadow Orb Consumer: Mind Spike: Mind Spike consumes all shadow orbs and its damage is increased by 20% per Shadow Orb Consumed. Casting Mind Spike on a target with your dots will strip your dots away.
    Consuming Shadow Orbs increases the damage for all Damage over Time spells by 20% for 15 sec.
  3. Mastery: Mental Anguish: Increases the damage of your mind spells by 20%
    • This combination of Shadow Orb Mechanic & Mastery make it so dots will always have a set% bonus damage as to prevent from going crazy/overpowered and thus be nerfed while making your single target abilities scale higher over time and creates a synergy/ebb and flow between single target spells and dot spells.

1st Talent Tier: Movement Utility

  1. Spectral Guise: Your shadow blurs into the darkness, leaving your true form behind. As a shadow you are stealthed, but remain in combat. Lasts 6 sec or until your true form is hit by 3 direct attacks.
  2. Phantasm: Activating Fade removes all movement impairing effects and prevents your movement speed from being reduced for 5 sec.
  3. Body and Soul: Power Word: Shield increases your target’s movement speed by 40% for 3 sec.

2nd Talent Tier: Defensive Utility

  1. San’layn: Reduces the cooldown of Vampiric Embrace by 45 sec and increases its healing done by 25%. In addition, provides a passive 5% healing from shadow spells.
  2. Intangibility: Dispersion heals for 50% of your maximum health over its duration and has 30 sec reduced cooldown.
  3. Faithless: Each time you cast Power Word: Shield on yourself, the next melee attack received will spawn a Dark Archangel behind you and will slash in front of you rooting every enemy with a 5 yard cone area and causing them to take 10% increased damage from your shadow spells for 3 sec.
    • This is an idea I had and I worked it into being triggered via self buffing of Power Word: Shield. Its intent is to grant space from being melee zerged in PvP and can work well when gathering mobs up to aoe/chain dot etc in PvE.

3rd Talent Tier: Offensive Utility

  1. Psychic Horror: Terrifies the target in place, stunning them for 4 sec. 45 sec cd.
  2. Paralysis: Mind Blast Critical strike causes paralysis on the target, rooting them in place for 4 sec.
  3. Last Word: Reduces the cooldown of Silence by 15 sec.

4th Talent Tier: Mind Spike Playstyle

  1. Harnessed Shadows: Talent that makes Mind Spike spread your dots to other targets within 5 yards at 1 orb per target instead of consuming your dots. Mind Spike looses its enhanced damage from consuming shadow orbs.
    • This allows for quick dot spread at the cost of mind spike damage.
  2. Surge of Darkness: Your Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain damage has a x% chance to cause your next Mind Spike be instant, and deal 50% additional damage. Can accumulate up to 3 charges.
    • This allows for more burst potential.
  3. Physic Link: Mind Blast & Mind Spike deals 20% of its damage to all targets afflicted by your Vampiric Touch within 40 yards.
    • This allows more cleave potential when using a more single target castable spells playstyle.

5th Talent Tier: Shadow Orb Generation

  1. Death and Madness: Shadow Word: Death deals 20% more damage and can be used on targets above 80% health and below 20% health.
    • This talent allows more Shadow Orb Generation via Shadow Word: Death & harder hitting Deaths for burst.
  2. Auspicious Spirits: Your Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch critical strikes spawn an Auspicious Spirit to attack the enemy. Upon dealing damage, each spirit grant 1 Shadow Orb.
    • This talent allows your dots to help generate Shadow Orbs. But only on CRITIAL strikes. Else it would just flood you with Orbs and be OP.
  3. Shadowy Insight: Shadow Word: Pain periodic damage has a chance to reset the remaining cooldown on Mind Blast and cause your next Mind Blast to be instant.
    • This allows you to generate more Shadow Orbs from your core builder and allows you to be more mobile as it becomes instant cast.

6th Talent Tier: Damage Enhancement

  1. Power Infusion: Infuses you with power for 20 sec, increasing Haste and spell power by 20%.
    • This is a good raw power opener CD.
  2. Twists of Fate: After damaging or healing a target below 35% health, you gain 10% increased damage and healing for 8 sec.
    • This is a good sustained damage and healing passive.
  3. Thing from beyond: Your shadow Fiend CD is reduced by 5 sec each time you cast Mind Blast. In addition, you gain 5 shadow orbs each time he attacks.
    • This is a major Burst CD.

7th Talent Tier: Gameplay Type (this is a more focusing of how you choose to do damage as shadow)

  1. Devouring Plague: Gained the spell Devouring Plague, it does heavy instant damage and damage over time while healing you for 20% of the damage done. 5 sec duration. It costs Shadow Orbs to use and Each orb consumed increases its damage by 20%.
    • Taking this talent will move you away from castable single target damage and more towards damage over time primary damage source.
  2. Dark Archangel: Consuming Shadow Orbs increases the damage of your damage over time abilities by 25% for 6 sec. In addition, your Mind Flay deals 100% additional damage. Duration is increased per shadow orb consumed up to 18 sec.
    • Taking this talent will make Mind Flay a primary damage ability while granted the ability to enhance the dot damage of Shadow Word: Pain & Vampiric Touch.
  3. Clarity of Power: Your Mind Blast, Mind Spike, and Shadow Word: Death deal 40% additional damage to targets not affected by your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch. Also reduces the cooldown on Mind Blast by 3 sec and makes it instant cast.
    • Taking this talent will drive you more towards single target castable spells for more burst gameplay.

Notes:

Mind Sear: I personally think Mind Sear should be removed and this is why.

  • With the ability to do multi-dot AND a spammable channeling AOE ability, those 2 sources of multi-target damage would need to be balanced around eachother. I think its more healthy for the spec to focus our multi-target damage on strictly dots.
  • If anything, make it a PvP ability only for those searing allies getting enemy out of stealth trick.

Shadow Word: Death

  • This should reset its CD if it doesnt kill an enemy (up to 1 reset).
  • This spell should not do damage reflection baseline. It should only do that via PvP talent.
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