Why does Shadowform still exist? A stance that you never turn off and that doesn’t change player skill usage in any way is a stance that should not exist.
SPriest should just get a 10% damage increase and have Shadowform changed into a completely cosmetic toggle. I hate having it ruin transmogs while offering nothing in in terms of gameplay.
Yeah at this point there’s no reason for it to exist other than past fantasy reasons
While I do like OLD shadowform, forget this new purple fart cloud, it would be nice to have a cosmetic option to toggle if you want to use it or not like you mentioned. I feel the same way about moonkin form as well.
Tbh we just need more cosmetic options in the game period imo. Whether it’s to get rid of something or add in some flavor.
I rather Shadowform become meaningful again instead.
Relegate Voidform to LOTV talent and baseline our DPS CD in Dark Archangel that gives us wings as the extra look / visual on top of Shadowform.
Then give us back Flash Heal and remove Shadowmend so we can cast something besides PW:S if we get locked out of shadow. Shadowform should be dropped out of when using Flash Heal but while in Shadowform, we should get passive physical damage reduction.
The old shadowform was simple but also unique and just worked. Lets see a return to that.
It used to give like 200 armor until WoD.
Shadowform was ruined because of voidform.
It used to do more than just buff damage, but now it’s just a cosmetic option that buffs you by 10%
It exists because certain communities or players wanted the ability to see their mogs / play out of shadowform for rp reasons.
Shadowform was made the default state of shadow in early legion and was quickly changed to a toggle after a torrent of complaints from various rp and story focused players. As well as just people who want to look at their character.
Shadowform is already a completely cosmetic toggle. You can toggle it off for cosmetic reasons, like RP or showing off a transmog. Any time you’re getting in combat, it goes back on.
Now, are you asking for the ability to play Shadow while not in Shadowform? That’s not likely to happen. The Devs have commented more than once that one of those design principles that players often overlook is visual identification. That you can look at a player model and immediately derive some information about their class and spec, without having to resort to tooltips or inspections. This sort of immediate character recognition is important for both play immersion and PvP encounter response.
So Shadow Priests are purple shadow blobs because that’s what players know to look for to identify a Shadow Priest. It’s a bit circular, but that’s why you’re not going to get the option to play Shadow without it.
I mean…true.
Back in vanilla, the Shadow Form meant you went “deep Shadow” and weren’t in a hybrid spot, I’d argue similar to Balance Druids.
But when Blizzard had the “brilliant” idea of relegating “the most-picked talents” to being baseline in the spellbook in MoP, it also nerfed the fun of realizing your class’ full potential through sniping those talents.
And so here we are, 8 years after MoP, scratching our heads as to why certain spells and abilities that you once had an emotional connection to (because you worked so damn hard to get those talent points) are now just automatic gimmes.
Which then further interrupts the idea of “class fantasy” so much that you really begin to question the esoteric nature of “class design”.
And further still, what does the purpose of Shadow Form mean outside of it’s in game…(turns and heads down the Cathedral’s corridor mumbling about “apparent non-sense”)…
/sits in rocking chair in the corner
/mutters about kids these days
/sings softly “the rocking chair blues”
In all seriousness it was representative of many things and had massive (at the time) benefits to be in it…unfortunately a lot of that has been lost in the name of “balance” and “streamlining”.
It would be nice if they at least put the armor buff back on it as well as keeping the damage buff.
Maybe adding a description page laying out the lore of a given spec to the spell book would be neat for explaining the class fantasy and…I wish to the Light there was another way to put this…the value of certain legacy spells or stances like shadowform. By the light it hurt to say that…I’ll go back to my rocker now.
/hobble
Shadow Form used to be meaningful. You could only cast shadow / discipline spells while in it and you had to drop out to start casting holy spells (i.e. heals).
Now it’s just literally just a VFX on your character because you can cast your entire arsenal while in Shadow Form. Also, it doesn’t make sense for some races to have a shadowform.
It used to look really cool. Now it looks like you slid through a giant blue berry and I hate it.
I feel like we just got a massive rework that people were asking for, and now we’re being picky asking for changes to Shadow Form and the name of Devouring Plague and stuff.
Like, just leave Shadow Form as it is and if anything, ask for a glyph that gives you options similar to the Glyph of Stars for Balance druids. Otherwise, leave the form as is. Personally, I love shadow form, and while a less amorphous blob of VFX would be fine, I’d never want to give up the shadowy faded out look.
It’s one of the oldest parts of Shadow Priest, it’s a cool/unique visual, and there’s no good reason to get rid of it. Druids have to be in their forms to do damage, it’s not going to kill us to be in our form.
No it isn’t, it gives a 10% boost. Try reading the post you reply to next time. It only turns on in combat provided you use certain skills. And if it were actually cosmetic you could be in combat, have its bonuses, and not have it on. You see the distinction?
I meant that turning it off is a cosmetic toggle, because unlike when Shadowform lockout you out of certain spells there’s zero reason to have it off besides cosmetic reasons. Shadowform is considered the default and leaving it is the unusual state.
It’s like worgen. They can change to human form as a cosmetic toggle, but any time they’re in combat they’re expected to be in worgen form. Shadow is in about the same state.
What stat changes does Worgen form give? It’s not the same at all, especially since historically Shadow was an actual stance. It’s an ugly vestigial design remnant that should be corrected.
In both cases you’re compelled to be in a certain form in combat. For worgen they’re automatically put in worgen form in combat, while Shadow is threatened with the loss of 10% damage if they’re not in Shadowform. The existence of human form worgen or non-Shadowform Shadow Priest is an out of combat RP thing.
The alternative is that Shadowform is automatic and permanent, not that you can turn it on or off freely. No one has stances anymore. Not Warrior, not DK, no one. (Well okay, maybe Druids kinda sort, but there’s always someone who has to be the exception.)
I agree with the glyph idea. I had been thinking about that too, since they announced the new awewome SPriest changes. Like for druids, you can look lkke a chicken or use a glyph to not look like a chicken. It would be great to have a glyph that would give players the choice to look like purple cloud or not look like purple cloud.
For me, I would take the glyph because I do want to be able to see my toon. I’m going to be a Nelf SPriest and with all the new appearance options, I want to be able to see her. Ive worked hard for the transmogs ive had and have a lot of awesome memories hunting them; id like to be able to see those as im casting or in the middle of combat. Im not here for shadowform to be taken away, but for players to have a choice on how shadowform manifests for them!
All I’d like is a glyph, the turns off shadow form completely, and replaces it with the shadow ravens effect that we had for a while. I think that would solve most people’s problem with the new purple blob shadow form.
We also need a glyph that returns the original shadow form visual to us. They haven’t made any updates to chainlightning in 15 Years. They can afford to give us these 2 glyphs after what We went through I think.
Last but not least, as other players have said, we are entering a period of extreme customization for the game finally. It is not wrong to ask for the ability to turn off The ever silly looking Boom chicken, or shadow form so as to enjoy those new visuals.
I just want my old shadowform back via glyph or something. I hate the new visual with a burning passion.