Shadow Priest Think-Tank

[Ozo-emerald-dream]

Regardless of how much you like or dislike the current state of shadow priests, what small or large changes do you think could suit it?

Please be specific & constructive. If you think an ability or talent should be removed completely, for example, please describe what you think could replace it. If you think certain abilities should be tuned, explain why. If you have an idea for a new talent or ability independent of what’s already on offer, that’s cool too- let’s hear it!

If possible, avoid picking apart other’s ideas, and instead focus on presenting ideas that are more creative/ compelling than those you think are flawed. I’m hoping we might get some interesting takes out of this thread- we’ll see!

[Shieldbaby-thrall]

I would love if I could get a glyph or something that removed the dust trail that follows me everywhere.

To be honest, I’d be the happiest if I could hide shadowform entirely and still do the same DPS. I wish it was more of a cosmetic toggle than a mandatory state.

[Azulla-magtheridon (Azulla)]

I tried to design this a certain way knowing blizzard would not remove void form. I would like it gone as much as the next person but I was trying to be as realistic as possible.

Shadow priest

General:

Mastery - increases damage of your periodic damaging effects (including channels) by x%, also gives them a y% chance to tick an additional time for full damage

Insanity: shadow starts with a baseline insanity cap of 40-50, instead of 100.

Mind blast rank 2 - increases crit chance of your hard casted mind blast by 40%, increases it critical damage by 10% (so shadowy insight isnt TOO strong and actual casting is still rewarded)

Vampiric touch rank 2 - vt period damage effects restore x% mana to you and party members (group utility, helping your healers)

Void bolt and void eruption have a shared cool down, both instant cast, can use either to enter void form, both do bonus damage when used to enter void form.
Void bolt extends dot duration on single target by 3-4 sec
Void eruption extends dot durations by 1 second on all targets hit within 8-10 yards of main target (can’t decide if this should be affected by AoE cap or not)

Void form baseline increases all damage done by 15-20% (in addition to shadowform damage increase), also increases haste by 20-25%. No ramping stat or damage during voidform.

Shadow word:death - two charges baseline, damage increases by 20% and generates 15 insanity on targets below 25% hp. When used on targets above 25% hp, damages you back for the same about after a 1 second delay.

Shadow fiend - greatly increased insanity generated by attacks, attacks also slow targets by 50% (stacks multiplicatively with mind flay) and apply shadow vulnerability, increasing shadow damage taken from ALL sources by 2% stacking 5 times. (Change applies to mind bender as well, insanity generation would be 1/3 of that of shadow fiend, still more than current however).

Fade rank 2 - removes all roots and movement impairing effects, and makes you immune to them for 4 seconds

Inner focus - melee attacks against you cause you to take 5% decreased damage from all sources (stacks twice), and makes you immune to spell push back effects. Lasts 10 seconds, can only activate once every 30 seconds.

Vampiric embrace - toggles on/off (not on gcd), when on, all direct/channeled damage you deal heals you for 20% of damage dealt, and allies for 10% of damage dealt. Drains x insanity per second while on.

Remove void bolt rank 2

Talents

Tier 1:

Shadowy insight stays same (ie. swp ticks have 15% chance for instant mind blast) , new effect, instant mind blast does not incur mind blast cool down.

Fortress of the mind: all mind and void spells have their damage increases by x%. Insanity gen increases by y. If used with surge of darkness, insanity cost of proc is increased proportionally.

Shadow word void: 2 charges, decrease cast time and cool down from original mind blast

Tier 2:

Sanlayn - increases healing done by vampiric embrace to your allies by 30%, insanity drain increased.

Tier 3:

Twist of fate is baseline

Dark void removed

Shadow crash moved to t3, now applies sw: pain to all targets hit.

New talent - reverberating shadows: mind sear ticks causes targets with damage over time effects to pulse for damage equivalent to the dot ticks in a 3 yard radius. Affects only up to 4-5 targets with dots on them.

Tier 4:

Mind bomb no longer replaces psychic scream

Psychic horror lasts 4.5 seconds, costs x amount of insanity, cool down reduced to 30 seconds

Talent - Improved silence - cool down reduced to 20 seconds, interrupts spell casting and locks out school for 5 sec, blanket silence lasts 3 sec.

Tier 5:

New talent - Chorus of insanity - each point of insanity you have increases your crit chance by x%

New talent - Channel Darkness: while channeling abilities, your damage over time effect durations tick down at half speed (aka dots will last 50% longer)

Tier 6:

Lingering insanity removed

Void torrent: deals something like 400-500% spell damage over 4 sec, castable while moving, only useable at 100 insanity (70 with legacy) or in void form. Pauses insanity decay.

New Talent - Mass Hysteria: void form damage aura reduced to 10%, haste reduced by 10-15%. All periodic damage effects and haste are increased by 2% per second within voidform (legion style ramping)

Tier 7

“New” talent - Surge of darkness - final tier talent; your vampiric touch damage over time effects have a 15-20% chance to proc surge of darkness, stacks up to 2 times, allowing void bolt or void eruption to be used outside of void form. These spells deal 10% increased damage per damage over time effect on the target (from the priest on Casting these spells costs insanity (equivalent to what they would generate normally in vf). ie. this will be the non-void form playstyle talent.

New Dark Ascension (passive) your insanity cap is increased to 100, and you can enter void form any time after passing 65 insanity.

Remove stm

New talent still needed, WIP

PvP general

Pvp talent - Thought harvester: increases mana restored to the priest by x%, Fear from dispel effect no longer dr’s.

Pvp talent - void shell: when power word shield is broken, the breaker takes damage equivalent to the size of the absorb.

Remove greater fade

Pvp talent - spectral guise, same as it was in MoP, also increases your move speed by 50%

Pvp talent - masochism: attacks against you generate insanity

Void origins removed

Driven to madness removed

Glyphs:

Glyph of old shadow form

Glyph of old (legion) void bolt (because it looks better)

This framework of changes accomplishes the following:

1. A baseline void form playstyle with immediate rewards for entering void form, no additional ramp other than getting into it. Base line low insanity cap will let you go in and out of void form very quickly, (I envision 5 to 15 second void form windows max)
2. A way to evolve the void form play style to the more preferred legion mode that some enjoy
3. a way to play without void form and more direct damage spells and procs/dots like spriest from Cata/MoP/WoD.

[Aneurysm-nerzhul]

Modifying Void Form / Insanity.

1. Clarity of Power: Combine aspects of Clarity of Power from WoD into Void Form.
   • Make Mind Blast have a shorter Cool Down and become instant cast (while in Void Form).
     • This will grant much more flexibility in movement in addition to not being at risk of spell lock out. This is a slight tweak that helps both PvE and PvP without being seen as overpowered.
2. Insanity Generation: Make Mind Blast grant enough insanity that with 2-3 casts alone, your able to get into Void Form.
   • This in combination with other sources of insanity generation, will allow you to get into Void Form very quickly. Thus shortening/removing ramp up.
3. Burst: Give Mind Spike back as either baseline or a Talent. Mind Spike would cost/generate 0 Insanity, so using it will cost insanity build up time or will cost Void Form sustain time as the trade off is either short Void Form windows with Burst OR Sustained Void Form Windows with little to no burst. Then allow as a talent to proc instant cast Mind Spike.
   • This will allow the burst potential for short CD instant cast Mind Blast + Proc instant cast Mind Spike + Shadow Word: Death. You would only get the Mind Blast Instant cast in Void Form so you can still have a little burst outside Void Form but a lot more Burst inside Void Form. I would also say Void Form should grant some x% more damage to make these hit hard and see a noticeable difference.
4. Insanity Management: Give talents that let you alter the way you generate Insanity and control Void Form up-time.
   • Mind Blast: Talent that makes Mind Blast generate twice as much insanity but increases the insanity drain by twice as much.
     • This allows for more fast paced in/out swapping for short burst fights.
   • Dots: Talent that makes dots grant Insanity at the cost of them doing reduced damage.
     • This makes you less focused on dot damage as they are just a tool to feed you insanity. This could make staying in Void Form easy with multiple targets and still being useful on just 1 target.
   • Vampiric Embrace: Talent that either adds on or converts the leech effect from Vampiric Embrace to generate Insanity.
     • This allows a massive burst of insanity when used if VE is a cool down and/or if VE is a passive + CD, then the passive could give you a trickle amount of insanity as well.

[Arcoholic-arthas]

I want a way to empower mind flay/sear. Mind sear is our only regular AoE spell and when I think of shadow priests and the old god/void theme on general mind flay is the first spell to come to mind but it has no interaction with our kit.

I hate that everything exists to generate insanity that is spent passively. The theme of the spec has a lot of potential but falls short.

[Aneurysm-nerzhul]

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.

[Yvaelle-lightbringer (Yvaelle)]

The most important thing they absolutely MUST do is remove all the long ramps from Shadow. Any system they implement which retains the long ramping mechanics will inevitably spiral into the same mess that both Legion and BFA experienced.

Below are my two proposals, depending on whether they are willing to revert to a Shadow Orb system (the best solution IMO), or whether we are constrained to keep Voidform & Insanity.

1. Here’s my pitch for a Shadow Orbs system:

Shadowpriests can accumulate up to 5 Orbs.

Builders:

• Mind Blast - generates 1 Orb
• Shadow Word: Death - generates 1 Orb

Spenders:

• Devouring Plague - spends 3 Orbs - single target DOT
• Void Torrent - spends 3 Orbs - single target, short duration, channel
• Void Eruption - spends 3 Orbs - burst AOE damage and applies Shadow Word: Pain (remove Dark Void talent)

Then I’d add a whole talent row of builders, such as:

• Coalescence - passive - Generates 1 Shadow Orb every 12 seconds, reduced by haste
• Domination - passive - Critical Mind Blasts & Shadow Word: Deaths generate 2 Orbs, and you can now hold up to 6 Orbs at a time
• Archangel - 90s cooldown - 18s duration - grow black wings, generate 1 Orb every 3 seconds, and you can cast while moving

This gives us multiple ways to both build and spend Shadow Orbs. Talents and borrowed power systems are much easier to design without creating unintended exponential consequences. Damage is consistent regardless of encounter duration, and so easier to tune numbers up/down.
Making design and balance easy means Shadow will consistently be good, rather than trash/overpowered.

2. Here’s how to keep Insanity and Voidform, while still resolving all the problems:

• All long ramps and stacking mechanics removed: Mass Hysteria, Voidform Haste, Lingering Insanity, Chorus of Insanity, Auspicious Spirits
• Mind Blast now has 2 charges, baseline
• Void Bolt Rank 2 deleted

Mastery: Madness redesigned:

• For each insanity you generate and spend, you have an accumulating 0.5% chance to spawn a Void Tendril. Void Tendril channels Mind Flay on your current target, damage increased with Mastery.

Shadowform redesigned:

• No longer increases spell damage by 10%
• Grants 15% haste

Voidform redesigned:

• No longer increases spell damage by 20%
• No longer grants stacking % haste
• Voidform grants 30% haste (replaces Shadowform’s 15%)
• Maintaining Voidform drains Insanity at 5 Insanity per second
• While in Voidform your spells no longer increase your Insanity
• Insanity generated during Voidform instead multiplies spell damage (1 + Insanity) * Spell Damage

Shadow Word Void redesigned: Deals 20% more damage than Mind Blast per cast, generates double Insanity on critical strikes (Whispers of the Damned azerite), no longer grants an additional charge (now baseline)

Auspicious Spirits removed, replaced with:

• Face Melter new Mind Flay can be cast while moving and deals increased damage, but you no longer gain Void Bolt while in Voidform

Lingering Insanity removed, replaced with:

• Tendrils from Beyond new While in Voidform, your mastery proc chance is doubled from 0.5% per Insanity to 1% per Insanity interaction (generate or spend)

Death and Madness redesigned: Shadow Word: Death can now be cast on targets above 80% health, and below 35% health

Surrender To Madness redesigned: 3m cooldown, 30s duration. Allows you to cast while moving. Marks a single target for death, while a target is marked you generate 100% more Insanity from all sources. If the target dies during those 30 seconds, you retain increased insanity generation for up to 45 seconds (from cast), from all sources. If the target survives for 30 seconds, you die. Horribly.

[Ozo-emerald-dream]

@Shieldbaby-thrall

I would love if I could get a glyph or something that removed the dust trail that follows me everywhere.

To be honest, I’d be the happiest if I could hide shadowform entirely and still do the same DPS. I wish it was more of a cosmetic toggle than a mandatory state.

Yes! Especially the dust trail. I thought I was the only one. Currently reading through the rest of the posts as well, a lot of interesting/ thorough stuff here.

[Zoido-emerald-dream]

My thoughts on ideal changes to the spec would be something like this:

Keep the insanity bar, but have it be spent as if it were shadow orbs on a big, single target damage spell. You can only use the spell when your insanity is at least 33% or higher, and the amount of insanity spent increases both the damage, and cast time of the spell.

In SL, Replace Power Infusion (when spec’d into shadow) with Void Form (new spell), a 3-ish minute cooldown buff- 20% spell damage increase for 20 seconds, and Mind Blast and ticks of Mind Flay have a chance to stun the target for 1 second while in Void Form.

Trade off Shadowfiend (not a fan), and increase cooldowns on dispels in exchange for moderate buffs to Power Word: Shield, Shadow Mend, and increased dot damage.

<3

[Synah-sargeras (Synah)]

I had an idea a while ago to have shadow form turn into “shadow buddy” via glyph.

Essentially your form gets condensed into a lil shadow ball that follows you around. You look normal and that’s about it.

[Balawa-exodar]

A thousand times this. Everyone else gets to have fun with transmog, shadow priests just get to be a purple blob!

[Buttrpants-moon-guard]

the only feedback is revert the changes in legion back to WoD. job done.

[Blackmourne-aerie-peak]

1. Replace void eruption with something that’s actually cool.
2. Make Body & Soul, Last Word and Psychic Horror all baseline.
3. Vampiric Touch should be castable while moving.

[Zuldumar-malganis]

The numbers below are in context of the levels of mastery points found on gear ilvl 465-475 (so if you geared for mastery to be around 1200-1800). Also, no more Voidform or insanity resource; return to mana. Lastly, Devouring Plague returns as a baseline skill that has the tooltip from the days of Burning Crusade.


Possible new masteries:

[Begin first mastery proposal.]
New Mastery: Shadow Attunement
All damage over time and channeled spells have a [10 + ((mastery points) * 0.018))]% chance to deal damage an additional time every time it deals damage for [35 + ((mastery points) * 0.005))]% of the total damage they would normally deal.

Additionally, your Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague are not dispellable.
[End first mastery proposal.]



[Begin second mastery proposal.]
(Two new spells and two new passives affected by the following mastery.)
New Spell: Caress of the Black Empire
40 yd range
Instant (1 minute cooldown)
Call upon the power of the Black Empire to terrorize your target, causing [250% of Spell Power] Shadow Damage over 1 minute. Only applicable to one target.
(Damage from Caress ticks every 3 seconds).

New Spell: Rite of the Black Empire
40 yd range
1 sec cast
Consume up to 75 stacks of Void Worship and release the target from the Caress of the Black Empire, inflicting the remaining damage of Caress of the Black Empire plus all damage sacrificed by allies that participated in the Void Ritual.
(The target does not have to have Caress of the Black Empire for this to be cast on them.)

New Passive: Void Ritual
Each ally within 20 yds of a target affected by Caress of the Black Empire will suffer [10% of Spell Power] every 3 seconds. This damage is an offering to the Black Empire, generating one stack of Void Worship for the leader of the rite, the shadow priest.

New Passive: Void Worship
Each stack of Void Worship increases all secondary stats by [Void Worship * (0.10)]%.

(2) New Mastery: Harbinger of the Black Empire
Your Mind Flay, Soul Flay, Mind Spike, Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Pain, Shadow Word: Death, Mind Sear, and Devouring Plague all have a [33 + ((mastery points) * 0.005))]% to generate
1 stacks of Void Worship.

Additionally, increase the Shadow Damage contributed by stacks of Void Worship when using Rite of the Black Empire by [25 + ((mastery points) * 0.012)]%.
[End second mastery proposal.]

Open to criticism, but not budging on the removal of Insanity resource and Voidform.

[Baelorien-stormrage]

All of the quality of life honor talents for PVP should just be baseline:

Void Origins - making void eruption instant cast.
Driven to Madness - gaining insanity when attacked and not already in void form.
Psychic Link - Free cleave on vampiric touch.

These are already live and could just be made baseline to make the class feel better.

[Gorgalith-emerald-dream]

First, I think visuals are important.

I miss the blue “lightning” that once was mindflay, and would love an option to use this animation (maybe even a new updated version :D)

As mentioned by someone else, I would like more shadowform customizations. Maybe this could be similar to the new druid animal form customization in SL. I personally dislike the purple smoke and would prefer options to remove it.

I really liked the ravens and would like to see them return in some way, even if shadow orbs do not.

I need more time to think about class mechanics. Give me time and I will return to this forum.

[Xyndrus-area-52]

I made a separate post for this, but it fits here as well.

Two things shadow had lacked since the implementation of void form are:

1. Player agency/decision making during VF
2. On-demand ST burst/priority damage

An idea initially formulated on the Priest discord by “Jibie”, which addresses these shortcomings is outlined below.

A talent or ability, perhaps a modified “Void Torrent”, which is/becomes available, at a Voidform “stack” threshold, be it 30, 35, 40, or whatever is decided upon, which can be activated on a target and would use/drain Voidform stacks for additional/on-demand apparitions to swarm the target at the cost of 1 ghost per stack. It could either be cancelled by the player at any time, or just spend a predetermined amount of stacks for an equally predetermined amount of ghosts, for the duration of the channel.

It would also serve as a nice opportunity to add some interesting functionality to one of our rather uninteresting talent rows and just spice up the Voidform gameplay outside of the three-button set rotation it has mostly been for a few years now. The ability to forgo its use to maintain steady damage to your target(s), or sacrifice some of your VF power stacks for a quick burst of bigger damage, could be an interesting option in several modes of play.

[Glastian-deathwing (Glastian)]

I don’t trust Blizzard to make sweeping changes, as much as I want Wrath/Cataclysm era SPriest back. So here’s a simple set of changes that at least let’s us do multiple forms of content.

1. Void Bolt can now be cast outside of Voidform. It’s Insanity generation is untouched, though it’s cooldown is increased to 5.5 seconds outside of Voidform

2. Void Origins is Baseline [Void Eruption can be cast a instantly]. Void Bolt transforms into Void Eruption at the 90 Insanity [60 Insanity with Legacy of the Void]

3. Mind Blast is now be cast instantly while in Voidform

4. Focused Will triggers off of all damage.

5. Bonus: Talent-Replaces Dark Ascension.

Clarity of Power: Replaces Voidform. New Spell Learned: Mind Spike: Mind Blast is now cast instantly, and has it’s CD reduced by 2 seconds. Void Eruption costs all remaining Insanity to cast.

What these changes do:

1. It cuts down our ramp up time drastically. It also lets us do considerably more damage pre-Voidform, and in-between Voidforms. We are balanced around the very height of Voidform. So there’s zero balancing need for the class to be so weak the rest of the time.

2. This just needs to happen. It’s a waste of a PvP talent, and it’s needlessly clunky and awful design without.

3. This still lets us stutter step at the same intervals as BfA-Legion.

4. This increases our survivability a fair bit across all modes of content. We used to be fairly tanky in the past, and I’d love to have that part our class come back.

5. A very ambitious request. This brings back a means of circumventing Voidform entirely. I’d sooner hit Surrender of Madness than Dark Ascension, but Surrender seems to be Blizzard’s pet talent that they want us to use always and forever. It also provides a means to be competitive in PvP, letting us front load our damage, while making us both harder to lock out, and more mobile. PvP also benefits from the additional stutter step between both Voidbolt and Mind Blast.
   Again though, this talent coming back is an ambitious request.