Started BFA looking to focus mainly on raids… and my Lock’s been awesome for that. Just that I’v developed a taste for m+ & can’t help feeling I’m not contributing as much as I could. Have a mage and a hunter already. Mage is fun but suffers from some of the same issues as a lock as listed below. Posting on Priest forum as i’m leaning towards Shadow… but would like help choosing.
Main issues I’m looking towards:
Mobility… would be a nice change after destro lock
Insta casts… good enough to deal with explosive week & quick shift between targets
Utility
Damage… hey. If i’m gonna give up my monster lock, cant give up my dps
AOE dmg
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
ps… may be happiest if someone tells me to stick to my lock
Mobility: Priests are literally the least mobile class in the game
Instant Casts: Explosive week sucks for all casters, none escape, not Shadow.
Utility: While Spriests have utility, we’re often underestimated. The benefit of Locks is well known. Finding groups is more about community perception of your class, than it is about reality. People like summons and cookies, no one cares about Fort and dispels.
Damage: Geared spriests are decent, but so are geared locks. For really high mythic keys the only meta is melee stacking anyways, so any caster is a bad choice.
AOE Damage: Elemental Shaman is probably the top of the choices you listed. While Spriests CAN have high AOE burst, we pay for it with multi-dot and single target damage, so that it’s often not ideal in M+ or raids.
Stick with the Lock imo - then invite Spriests to your group
I disagree. Shadow priest are way better for mythic plus than locks. They are up there as one of the best casters. Fire mage, ele shammy and s priests are in a good spot for pve. Locks are good for raids but good luck on mythic plus if its not your key
Mobility is a tricky thing. Shadow is both very mobile and horribly slow. We can move very well while dpsing (pve), especially during boss fights because void bolt is instant cast. Mind you, this is mostly at normal run speed occasionally boosted by body and soul. But shadow is NOT good at moving from one place to another quickly. No blink, leaps, teleports or sustained movement boosts. So trying to keep up with that warrior tank can be quite annoying.
Our utility is ok but not enough for groups to look for specifically. No heroism, aoe stun or rez, cc only on undead (and mobs can aggro from it), and snare is an azerite trait that isn’t used much in higher keys.
Shaman seem more about big crits and totems, and shadow is about ramp up. Not sure what’s right for you but if i were to rate my experience getting into m+ it’d be shaman, >>> shadow, >>>>>>>>>>lock.
Thank you all for the straight answers hey, locks not that bad!! but i get what u’r saying. There’s no doubting spriest dps but am a bit worried about another class with mobility issues after destro. Will try both, but I guess will try shaman first thanks again.
With the incoming nerfs to Shadow in 8.3 now is not a good time to start one.
With Ele’s lack of mobility (I’d put it in the bottom 3) and Resto’s toolkit not being very useful outside of raids I would hold off on Shamans till 9.0 too.
Looking at your checklist you’re after a Boomy.
Mobility: Best in class
Instant casts: Moonfire, Sunfire + Starsurge (which is sizeable nuke)
Utility: the only hybrid class to still have full hybrid utility
Damage: Solid in both AOE and ST and Starsurge is essentially an instant Chaos Bolt
Another nice thing about Boomy vs the options you’ve listed is that their Major Essence is easy to farm (Visions of Perfection - King Mechagon) which you use for both Raids and Dungeons. Plus it’ll give you the opportunity to explore all 3 roles should you choose to.
Probably somewhere in the middle. Auspicious spirits trait nerfed 50%, chorus by 25% and AS no longer boosted when not taking the talent. (Bug not a bug). That’s gonna hit the optimally geared pretty hard. Across the board pain and vt down 8% will hurt everyone some. It might make some other builds and traits more desired.
I’d like to see haste and crit not worth 2x int but doubt well see it this expansion.
I don’t think DPS wise there’s a big difference, both specs are very capable of doing very nice DPS for both AOE and single target, however the big difference comes in the utility department.
In terms of M+ utility Elemental is top tier, only matched by Boomkin (for ranged DPS that is). Shadow on the other hand has imo the weakest utility kit along all ranged DPS specs (or one of the weakest at least).
I think Shadow is getting a pretty big DPS nerf next patch so while I think it might still be ok for Raids I really think it’s going to make it bottom tier for M+.
Thanks all. A little sad because I started off leaning towards Shadow, but I guess may not be worth giving up a geared main to bring up a new spriest by the looks of it…
@ Elvenbane… THANKYOU!! That was great advise… started a druid after what u said and he’s already at 28. Great mobility with a fast rotation… not to mention the versatility of the class. Loving it so far.
The funny thing about your wish list is that you are describing a Windwalker monk. That was my main before I decided I didn’t like melee. Let me tell you, mobility-wise, going from WW monk to Shadow priest is like stepping off a cliff. Now that I’ve gotten more used to the bosses and with spriests getting a second nerfing, I may return.
Honestly Qisa’s kinda right and I’m also looking for a class with unique utility and decent damage. Which seems to be ww monk cuz ring of peace is one of the game changing ccs in the game.
Can someone explain to me how shadow is one of the top dps specs right now? They seem pretty weak save for those with mythic/ benthic-socket gear or perfect azerite builds.
Both specs have similar mobility. Shadow may seem immobile but there’s no mechanic shadow can’t deal with through smart movement/positioning.
Explosives are tough to deal with for any caster. You literally just NEED melee for explosive weeks. Shaman probably is slightly better via procs but you don’t really wanna use procs on bombs.
Utility is definitely a win for shaman and the reason I would say ele>spriest for m+. It’s all about shamans interrupt. Which is on a 12s cd vs 45s(30s with talent.) Ele also has ankh which provides easy death skips. Shadow has some utility but mostly niche utility via mass dispel and VE.
Both specs do good ST and AoE dmg. They just have different dmg patterns. Shadow shines in higher keys with longer fights. Ele has crazy burst dmg and can melt short lived adds. Not really a clear answer here as there are many variables to consider.
Overall I’d say ele is the winner 90% due to its short interrupt cd. I mean the reason locks aren’t great is because demo is their best m+ spec dmg wise but they lack an interrupt.
As a lock I specifically use Shadowburn talent on explosive weeks… Insta-cast… one-shots the orbs and its cd resets if the target dies… great on explosions.
Nerfed into the ground is more of a figurative thing and mostly for mythic+. Still probably do okay in raids but M+ Ele is definitely going to overtake them now. if it were just the 8% i would say that but you need to also realize that Auspicious Spirits and CoI are nerfed as well.
My biggest concern really is i only think Shadow’s multi-target is out of line but they just nerfed everything including ST and a 5-10 percent hit to ST is pretty hard.
