Shadowform Needs to be a Cosmetic Spell in the same way Zen Flight is a flavor spell. All it does is a 20% buff to damage and at this point it’s a legacy spell. Can you guys at Blizzard finally do the right thing for Shadow Priests and make it optional by rolling the 20% damage into the class itself?
Because there is always someone who ignores this next part, I’m putting it in bold so it cannot be missed.
I am not asking for the spell to be deleted, but simply made into a cosmetic spell and toggle that has no actual effect on the gameplay. It also would be nice if we could get some real glyphs for it that didn’t affect Void Eruption’s appearance, but since I don’t know if glyphs are even supported anymore…
I really think Shadowform should instead actually be iterated on and give some real purpose to it.
For example, see Moonkin Form…
Moonkin Form
Shapeshift into Moonkin Form, increasing the damage of your spells by 10% and your armor by 125%, and granting protection from Polymorph effects. While in this form, single-target attacks against you have a 101% chance to make your next Starfire instant.
The act of shapeshifting frees you from movement impairing effects.
The most standout feature is this…
While in this form, single-target attacks against you have a 101% chance to make your next Starfire instant.
What’s funny is that as a druid, you have multiple ways to play keep away and you are not limited to roots and snares.
But as a Shadow Priest, we don’t have those druid luxuries.
So perhaps give something like your Mind Spells have a chance to deal their full damage instantly.
So like this…
Shadowform
While in this form, single target melee attacks against you have a 50% chance to make your next Mind Spell deal it’s full damage instantly.
This would make Mind Flay, Mind Spike, Mind Blast, Mindgames and Mind Sear (if it returns) do it’s full damage instantly. This would punish melee attackers and provide mobility.
Heck even if this was a PvP talent I think that would be pretty sweet.
I made the same request last time I canceled my account, they ended up buffing Glyph of Shadow a few month later. It made sense when Shadowform prevented you from casting certain healing spells, it was a means to prevent us from off healing. At this point there’s no reason to have it as a mandatory toggle.
No, we do not want it “iterated on”. We want it to be optional and cosmetic.
People need to stop giving their “wellll ya know what would be an even better idea!!!” suggestions. We asked for it to be optional and cosmetic. There is no nuance here. Just do it already. Playing around with the GCD isn’t fun anyway when you die and have to rebuff it.
The glyph that makes it look like you fell into an oil slick or have the Uroboros virus from Resident Evil is not cutting it.
By the way, the damage bonus is only 10%— not 20%.
-head desk- It used to be 20 and now 10? Unbelievable. This is part of why I don’t play Shadow Priest anymore. In addition to constantly being kicked in the unmentioned, it is as you said. We look like we fell into Oil Slick, and Blizzard for some inane reason gave us 2 heal specs; instead of a DPS option where we could opt out of this effect. It’s worse than Furor’s old mentality that Paladins should only heal.
Agree. Frankly it comes off as an attempt to derail the thread or co-opt it. There is no nuance to be had here. We want our damage being tied to Shadowform gone, but since a few people like the spell (Why? I have no idea since original Shadowform was iconic and this current one is as bad or worse than the Ascendance ‘clown form’ design); the best solution is a cosmetic spell.
That way those that want to suffer it can, and the rest of us need not.
And then leave it at that without explaining why I disagree.
But instead I provide a similar comparison in order to highlight both what we lost and a possible solution to bring us up to modern standards.
It should be a shock to no one that when Shadowform actually had some tangible benefits aside from a simple damage percentage increase that we actually did pretty well in areas that we sorely lack in today.
We have had so many aspects either removed entirely or made null and void that we truly are a shell of what we once were.
I hope you didn’t expect everyone that responds to agree full sale with you. Otherwise, you seem to not understand that a forum is a place of multiple view points and ideas to be shared and discussed and wait for it… disagreed with. Shocker I know.
IDK why but my brain read that title as “Shadowform needs to be a cosmic spell” guessing I need sleep.
To address to topic there was a time I would of said no because Shadowform was actually an iconic ability that provided both damage and survivability benefits. Now it’s just a flat 10% buff which could easily be rolled into something else.
If they are not going to do anything with the spell, which would be lazy af, then they need to go the rest of the way and make it cosmetic. That said I would really prefer they do something with it to bring it back to it’s former glory. Seeing such a cool and iconic spell have such a sad fall from grace is just depressing.
But what you did was worse. You danced around “no” and changed the subject. You took your arms, pushed all the proverbial pieces off the table that the OP set, and took over the point of the post with your own random idea.
I’d much prefer a “no” then a why rather than a thinkpiece.
Well good thing that you don’t own or dictate the rules of how one should respond. With that attitude, you will have only yes men and brain dead simpleton responses that don’t bother to put any thought in challenging differing views and opinions.
It appears we see life in 2 separate categories, freedom of thought and controlled speech.
If you can’t see how you manhandle topics sometimes, I can’t really help you there. All I have to say is that it can come off a little pretentious. Bygones.
I’m only here to incite inquiry and ideas and get the creative juices flowing to hopefully come to an eventuality in the form of a really good piece of a puzzle or the complete puzzle itself that represents in this case, the next evolution of Priest and each of its specs to become better and more fun that it was prior. To fill in holes that seem to be quite vast in nature.
If I have to come up with new ideas or borrow from past ones or compare to similar existing mechanics then I will do so.
Iterate on ideas and strive to improve is why I’m here.
So be offended and annoyed as you and others like. Hate me if that helps you sleep at night. The ones that don’t like what I have to say are apparently not the ones the message is for. I won’t loose any sleep over it I can tell you that much lol.
At least you’re self aware. That’s a relief honestly.
Wanted to add nothing I post is about disliking you. I’m simply interacting with the posts. I can come off blunt sometimes but it’s out of love and impatience to the issues Priests face.
I’m tired of sugar coating things when the devs seem to completely ignore our class.
I just don’t allow people that seek to control others in the manner as to what and how they are allotted to say and when is the appropriate time to say it.
I speak my mind and let what I have to say in pertaining to the content of the ideas I share go where they may.
I’m not going to restrict what I say because it might upset someone’s personal space or make them uncomfortable because it challenges what they think the narrative should abide by.
If you can’t handle a discussion of differing opinions then a forum of ideas such as this is not the medium you should invest your time in.
I’ll give you a little hint on how to deal with people you wish to not deal with. Just stop dealing with them.
Stop responding to me from the beginning.
In this case, I could have just shared my idea and no one responds to it and then I move on to the next thing that pops in my head that I wish to share or challenge.
Then this back and forth would never have begun and the true derailment that I seemed to have been chastised over would have never occurred.
Or we can keep having this back and forth of this actual derailment and really see just how far we can get this train off it’s tracks.
I agree completely with the topic of the thread as well— Shadowform needs to be made an optional cosmetic. It’s outdated design and it forces players into an unpleasant and distracting permanent visual effect in order to DPS when playing this class, and provides no meaningful gameplay whatsoever.
I also agree that it’s very odd and off putting when someone comes into a thread like this and says “actually no, your opinion is wrong, what they need to do is make us use it even MORE”. Clearly many people want this to be made optional and cosmetic and have been asking for that for years— tying more power back into an outdated maintenance buff is not it.
Having a different perspective is not allowed in a forum of ideas is that it?
I know we are mostly Priest mains here but that type of thinking leads to cults and once big enough, religions.
I love playing a priest in this game, but I am far from a religious minded zealot.
The best way to defend your ideas is to provide better ones. The ideas should fight each other out and when the dust settles, the better idea rises to face the next set of challenges.
To simply demand that one side be thrust above all else without being challenged is a sign that it isn’t that strong in the first place and would crumble when faced with any sort of scrutiny.
If people are going to act like the gatekeepers of speech and spouse thou shant say x or y then I will push back and call that out.
I had a different perspective on the merits of the so forth idea and I shared that perspective.
Then instead of scrutinizing that idea, it is met with “don’t come here with a different opinion” type of mindset.
You all can pat each other on the backs and turn your nose up at anyone with a different point of view all you like. Just as I can call out such sycophant behavior in response.
That’s the beauty about such a place as this.
If that’s what you want to do then do it, own up to it. But if your not prepared to be challenged on it then you have not been paying attention.