So I was just reading the class changes for 8.3 …
What, in Gods name, are they doing to shadow priests??? I mean talk about destroying a spec. They are even nerfing our DOTS and… leaving the locks fine??? 
Spriest DOTs are terrible as it is… So at least we have the crit bonus from COI right… Nope. they are nerfing that by 25%!!! - Guess who will be shelving it for the next patch!!
Ok
Shadow is STRONG at the moment.
But yes…they are destroying my offspec.
Will still be on of the best ranged for raids, will still be decent in m+, you will still be able to do your daily wqs and log off just fine.
What I meant when I said terrible was our DOTS. Overall we are in a good spot but this ultra nerf is just insane…
They look ok on the PTR, the nerfs are likely preventative measure. May potentially hurt M+ at worse then but then again Void Form design has left much to be desired in general.
9-12% on single target.
18-25% on fights similar to queens court.
No spec in the game can currently take a 10% single target nerf with how well tuned pure single target currently is outside of WW monk.
Spec’s still fine unless you’re actively competing against another person of equal skill for your raid spot, but it’s definitely a very heavy handed nerf for raids, M+, and PvP, when we were only strong in raids.
It also does nothing to address any of the core problems with the spec’s balance or design, not that we expected any, just throwing that in the mix.
EDIT: Some brief myth dispelling.
“Shadow’s dots are strong”: No. They aren’t. What are strong are shadowy apparitions, coupled with the Spiteful Apparition trait. While you can view these ghosts as an extension of our dots, it’s not the actual SWP and VT ticks that are really doing the big cleave damage. Shadow’s dots have been nerfed every single tier to sort of “Counteract” the trait interaction that is finally getting fixed. If you don’t have those traits right now your cleave / aoe damage is awful.
If anything, with the outlined trait changes. I was expecting a small dot buff, for reference on single target our dots are starting to fall behind the random azerite procs from essences with this nerf.
It’ll be fine dude. If they were leaving the game static while putting in these nerfs maybe you’d have a point. But the game isn’t static. Base ilvl is going up by 30. The CoI nerf will be offset by all the extra crit rating you get passively on gear. Multidot cleave fights are prevalent in Nyalotha. These nerfs are just preventing spriests from scaling out of control. We’re still going to be extremely powerful, just like we are now.
I appreciate the enthusiasm but the COI nerf isn’t offset in the slightest from raid testing, and the multi dot fights that do exist in nyalotha (Outside of drest agath) are stacked cleave, or priority target which much more favour specs like DH, frost DK, and Destro Warlock.
What I’m saying is that the sky isn’t falling like everyone seems to think. People read patch notes and seem to think that the class is totally unplayable and will only do a quarter of the dmg it did before the nerf. Which is total nonsense. A well played spriest will still be every bit as powerful as it is now. They did the exact same dot nerf to us going from ToS to Antorus. It worked out fine then, and it’ll be fine now. I agree the CoI nerf is a bummer (is it 25%, I thought it was 33%) but is not the end of the world.
How do you know it isnt? Those nerfs are not small, they are GIANT. I am espeically talking from a PVP point of view that this will kill the spriest.
Idk. The TC community repeatedly told everyone the sky wasn’t falling going into EP and yet everyone continued to cry wolf, and the TC community / those doing raid tests got it right. From everyone I’ve spoken to / worked with, and my own personal findings this time around seems to be the reverse.
Shadow will be fine for heroic, less progression focused mythic guilds, and those who are in a position to play mostly whatever they want within their guild.
However,
Hard disagree.
I am really confused about our DOTS nerf, I mean, anyone who plays the Spriest knows our dots are close to useless now. Its more of a filler. That one has me scratching my head… But alas, I will just shelf it for 8.3 PVP…
The dot nerf is indeed the head scratcher. The damage was already almost all coming from apparitions.
Tell that to other specs that got destroyed in different patches over the years of this game. It’s not a bad thing to bring up the concern so that it can be a priority to look at on PTR and test so that it doesn’t end up too heavy handed.
What they’re doing is forcing those of us that don’t care about raid and would rather do mythic+ to reroll.
Since rogue seems to be their favourite this expansion, that’s exactly what I’m doing. rerolling rogue.
LOL, Rogue has been their favorite since the game started. If you PVP, you know what I mean…
CoP made spriests so fun that in Legion they had to shove in some silly ramp-up mechanic and include a suicide skill to indirectly suggest spriests to reroll something else.
I guess I will never understand how they decide these things… Maybe because I am PVP but you have Rogues that have all that control over others AND insane damage, Completely broken Druids topping damage in BGs trumping everyone by 10m (yes 10m)… Yet… Spriests are the problem?
This has to be a PVE thing which I know takes priority…
Slight aside. Shadow should be dumpstering balance druids in random BG overall damage.