Hi there,
I have had some ideas in regards to SP percolating for some time now and I am ready to share them.
Lets start with the slight rework, we all hate shadow crash in its current state dont we ?
I would suggest to remove the cd on shadow crash altogether, make it cost insanity instead and possibly increase its damage per target hit, what this would achieve is give us a different kind of game play based on the amount of targets, rather then playing almost exactly the same in ST and AOE which gets dull very quickly.
Or an idea similar to what Aneurysm has put forth: shadow crash removed and its place taken by void eruption but without the void bolt part attached to it which I think is redundant and adds unnecessary bloat in ST rotation, so it would look something like this you keep the cast time on it and have it require 50 insanity so it would become a AoE spender further separating AoE game play from single target and giving us so much fun and cool animation used more often.
Now the dark ascension would still be a primary cd but in place where void form now is I would do a choice node that would modify how dark ascension works.
1st choice would be increasing non periodic damage and the 2nd choice would be increasing periodic damage, further adding some build diversity depending on the preferred game play and type of content, one would be better for Tyrannical weeks while the other coupled with nzoth would be better for Fortified weeks.
Now as to the dot application part since shadow crash would operate differently I have 3 ideas based on how much blizz wants us to be casting:
Go straight to idea nr 4 as 1 and 2 and 3 proved to have some unintended issues.
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Remove whispering shadows talent ( dots applied via shadow crash ) and mental decay talent, bring back dark void talent functionality and merge it with misery so it would look something like this: first cast of vampiric touch generates 10-15 insanity and applies vt and swp to 11 nearby enemies 10-15yd range 15s CD. Now what this does is eliminate the frustration of applying dots via slow moving ground targeted spell and moves it to actual dot application spell while also giving some more incentive to cast vt every 15s even on single target simply for that insanity gain ( preserving dot application through non instant cast game play which was once core thing for shadow but now lacks some depth to it since the game has changed ) and freeing up 2 talent points that finally could be used for some utility like mental fortitude or psychic horror.
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Now this option would lean more on unfurling darkness, so again remove 2 talents mentioned above and slightly rework unfurling darkness making the second cast of vt be instant and apply vt and swp through misery talent to nearby targets ( 10 ).
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This option would lean more on old school kind of game play giving even more incentive to applying dots manually, again remove those 2 silly and unnecessary talents and rework unfurling darkness to something like: first cast of vampiric touch on any target instantly splashes 30% ( would obviously need some tuning as to not become op ) of total vt and swp damage to nearby targets and debuffs target with unfurling darkness for 15s preventing spamming this on any single target. Now what this option would do is totally change the game play back again to being a dot applier first and foremost while still being able to keep up with damage on short living packs.
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Lets take Aneurysm`s idea ( with my own spin on it ) of Cascade being the primary dot spreader but not dot applier.
The difference is you have to manually dot main target 1st which accomplishes having to manually dot every so often.
Then lets place the initial spell in general priest talent tree either as a 3rd option in a place with divine star and halo or replace one of those.
Then lets add as a choice node with misery a talent that would build up on cascade reducing its damage and cd to 10s ( so the ability is used primarily for dot spread rather then pumping dmg ) Now what this does is as follows:
1st of all it gives a all round solution for dot spread no matter what situation be it long fight, short fight doesnt matter since cd is so short, it still requires you to manually dot once every 15s on main target which is what blizz wants us to do anyway.
Now as for Mental Decay it can have a new and better purpose rather then being a silly band aid, new functionality could be: when you apply vampiric touch or shadow word pain it deals instantly ( 20-30 % ) of its total damage 15s cd ( unique per target )
How all of this combined would look like is you either pick up misery for pure single target or a council type of fight with only few targets alongside Mental Decay.
This would provide a bit of extra dmg every 15s making doting and redoting not be seen totally as a waste of time and outdated game play.
Meanwhile In a m+ or high number of targets kind of situation you would pick a Cascade talent instead of misery.
This would give you an ability to spread your dots easily but still require you to dot main target and with mental decay alongside it you would not feel bad about having to dot the main target or re dot it every 15s since it would provide some extra dmg on the 1st manual application but not on the spread itself.
Now on to the QoL part:
First since we most probably are going back to having a s2 tier set in s4 that means we are losing on insanity gain therefore we need a revert of change as to how shadowy insight works ( making it again give an extra charge rather then reseting remaining cd )
Secondly I would double the amount of absorb from pw:s, double the cd and double the speed movement buff duration or the amount meaning either 80% movement speed for 3s or 40% for 6s from body and soul.
What this does is provide slightly more survivability while giving a more incentive to pick void shield talent which is almost never picked as the pw:s is so small that it almost always gets insta depleted, also mental fortitude shield should be able to go higher then 10% of max hp 15-20% would be fine.
Third making Idol of Yogg-Saron be manually activated upon reaching certain stacks, how many times has this ability procced when the pack was nearly dead or actually dead making it useless is beyond me, just let it be triggered by lets say swp at 25 stacks and give players some more control over it for crying out loud.
And lastly make our capstones more impactful. Now this would prolly have to be done in next xpac as it would require more balancing then the other changes proposed.
Basic intention would be to shift more damage to capstones making them do something rather then being just some slight boosts or fillers.
Idol of C 'Thun would be the rng one making us do some exceptional dmg when rng favors for ppl who like that game play.
Yogg Saron and Y 'Shaarj would be the more consistent ones while N`Zoth would be the aoe / m+ one but I would remove the target cap and damage cap completely.
Please let me know what you guys think.
