Shadowlands: Consolidated Priest Feedback (What does and doesn't work)

Classes Priest
1

Originally this thread was created to tally how long it would be in the Alpha cycle before Priests heard anything at all about the changes their class would receive in Shadowlands. As of 06-24-20, I am happy to say that after 74 days, Blizzard finally spoke on the matter; though much more is needed.

I think I also speak for much of the Priest community when I say all of us are ready and willing to help Blizzard in testing, and smoothing out the concepts they want to use to make Priest different than Warlock. Please continue to keep us updated with info so we can help you make this class the best it can be before the Shadowlands launch.

Going forward, I am transitioning this thread into a dialogue on Priest Feedback and what Priests feel does work, and does not work. The hope is that this information will inform the Developers and help them to polish the Priest class in a way that provides meaningful and fun game-play for both old Priests and newcomers.

I keep the original text below the line, merely for the sake of archival purposes.

Original Post’s Body:

Well it has officially been MANY a week. Because no meaningful discussion has been made, I will be updating this post until Shadowlands launches so that the player community can have an idea of exactly how many Blue Responses, or actual updates were given during the Alpha/Beta process.

Maybe the neglect a lot of us feel, isn’t the developers intention. I seriously doubt that it is. But at the same time, even saying nothing at all can cause unrest. There’s a saying “The silence is deafening”.

When the community is being very vocal about the issues they see
 and it’s met with ongoing silence, it can lead people to think that their concerns simply are not considered with the same priority as other classes. I encourage the WoW Devs to work with us and break this cycle.

Here is the Priest, Class Changes Thread for Alpha.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/feedback-priest-class-changes/490697/26

While like every other class it was set up at the time the Alpha began officially; It’s worth mentioning that in the same span of time multiple classes have gotten several issues resolved and received a great deal of attention from the Developers.

This is a issue I saw play out in the Warlords of Draenor Alpha and Legion Alpha as well, and is a major reason I and several other players often feel certain classes are of a higher importance to Blizzard.

Maybe this is an incorrect assessment to make, but it is hard not to when some classes get masses of Cosmetic Glyphs during an expansion patch, but other classes are seemingly disregarded even when the ‘theme of the patch’ fits them.

I can’t reliably say one way or the other if it is or is not the developer’s intention to create such disparity, but I have to point out in the interests of fairness; that Mage received multiple iterations of their Water Elemental during the Nazjatar patch.

Unfortunately by contrast Shadow Priests, or perhaps better to say; Priests as a whole have received nothing during what is supposedly the absolute ultimate Old God Invasion, the long awaited Nya’lotha Patch. It is disheartening and rather telling when one considers that Priests didn’t even get variants of their rather useless Shadowfiend, while the assets existed for several simple glyphs.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/feedback-druid-class-changes/490706/33

I’m not asking the Developers to report in to us daily on things. That isn’t even remotely feasible or something that should every be deemed normal. Yet at the same time, a little statement or check in from time to time for Priest players who are genuinely apprehensive about their future place in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, would certainly go a long way.

It would to making Priests feel like their at least being heeded or in the que for actual discussion if a Developer were to say something to the tune of: “Hey Priest players, we’re doing/testing some stuff internally based on the feedback. We can’t discuss it yet, but we will before it’s set in stone for launch.” or “Right now our testing is on X / Y, but we’ve read your concerns and are discussing it!”

Unfortunately, everything has gone silent since Kaivax initial post.

Some news guys? Even bad news is welcomed at this point.

64 Likes
2

My priest has essentially been benched for some time now, BFA healing being torture at the best of times, and I don’t have any intention of picking it up again in the near future. Shadowlands looks a bit bleak as well. I don’t really think they “get” what priests want.

I’ve set up my druid to heal for Shadowlands. Cleared quest log and bags, and it is sitting ready to go for the day it becomes live. A little early maybe, but for me BFA is washed out and finished. Better luck next go.

More feedback on class changes would be really nice. They’ve promised us as much, and it is incredibly minimal right now.

18 Likes
3

It’s still early in Shadowlands Development, so anything “Could” happen, but in all likelihood nothing will.

Holy Azerite traits were all passive and made literally no impact on gameplay. They increased the healing of some of our spells by a pitiful amount and increased the Holy Word CD reduction by 2 seconds. That’s literally it. No thought or effort went into them.

Disc Azerite traits were all so bad and so poorly thought out that we used Shadow traits. It’s hard to convey how disappointing it is that the best Healing Azerite traits were designed for Shadow


And then there’s Shadow, it’d take too long to go into it, but it has been a massive dumpster fire since it’s rework 4 years ago. Band-aid fix after Band-aid fix and they still haven’t managed to make it more than a gimmick. And it seems they are dedicated to Voidform, despite 4 years showing they are not capable of making it work.

So am I hopeful, nope. I want to love Shadowlands, as I stuck through BFA knowing that they were rushed to release it, but I honestly have lost all hope by now.

39 Likes
4

well, all we can hope for is that more changes are coming down the pipeline since it’s early Alpha, but with Blizzard’s track record


12 Likes
5

There is a rumor that they’ve been silent because they are waiting to drop a massive reveal / surprise revamp.

This would especially bode well for shadow.

I know, I know - it is unlikely. Staying positive, hope to see better days for the priest!

16 Likes
6

That’d be neat, but since Ion specifically came out and said there were no major class changes planned that hadn’t already been announced, I doubt it. I don’t think he would have said that if there were surprise re-vamps coming.

9 Likes
7

When did he say this? Wasn’t it well before the Alpha launched? If so, then is it not feasible that no reworks were intended, but after feedback some could have come through?

I’m also not hopeful, nor do I think they will do anything, and I will likely swap to Mage or something next xpac, but it IS possible, is it not?

3 Likes
8

Good thing, we’re not asking for a class ‘change’. We’re asking for a reversion to the class that existed before that sort of thinking became the company’s supposed watch-word. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say “Please. The next time you think you want to revamp something
 DON’T.”

I don’t honestly expect anything however and I’ve already decided on the class I will play.

It’s a Mage.

(Edit: 5-25-20): I’ve changed the name of said Mage, due to some robust doxxing that I endured recently. I think I’ve figured out who was responsible and why, since they went off on a server smear campaign as is their speed.

I actually do, seeing as I have quite a number of likes, while you have hrm.

Well
 Here’s one on the house kid.

16 Likes
9

I’d love to see some solid priest changes - like giving us a way to achieve mythics without being shamed away from them. Give disc a way to play through unpredictable damage too. Because any other healer can. We have to work 10x harder to achieve the same result so that seems a little unfair. High skill level should equal a high reward but as it stands it doesn’t.

14 Likes
10

Yes. Doing mythic+ as a shadow priest sucks, no one wants to play with one!

17 Likes
11

You actually speak for no one but yourself.

Edit: Haha, what? When do likes translate to you speaking for anyone but yourself? Oh man, 11 Likes, in a Priest subforum, predominantly by people who have and will upvote anything that speaks negatively about Shadow Priest or Voidform. Get over yourself.

2 Likes
12

from the numerous posts on this forum I’m pretty sure she speaks for us. Also


If you don’t play shadow and don’t care about it why are you here? what would you know about playing the spec in M+ when you only heal?

30 Likes
13

I disagree that Discipline needs to “work 10x harder for the same result”, as I think Disc’s proactive output is second to none, but I would like to see more ways to deal with unpredictable damage outside of Shadowmend spam.

1 Like
14

Devs don’t read the class forums, they read the “In Development” forums. Holding a protest here is like holding a protest against the mayor in your backyard - it won’t be seen by the one you’re trying to reach. Unless you’re just looking to vent your frustration with others? I do that sometimes.

15

You are absolutely right. However, Shaman lost maelstrom and Balance lost astral power. I don’t think it would be a stretch if they removed insanity :smiley:

7 Likes
16

I do, because both of those mechanics/resources aren’t as deeply integrated into the spec as Insanity is for Shadow Priest.

To put it another way, it’s like trying to make Hunters use Mana again instead of Focus. You can’t just rip out Focus and put Mana back in because everything revolves around Focus, from the spells, to the talents, to the pets, etc. It’s not a 1 to 1 exchange of resource and balancing Hunters around Mana again would be a huge endeavor to get it even to the place it is now, much less in a better balanced spot. Hunters are intrinsically tied to Focus now in a way that Shaman’s aren’t with regards to Maelstrom, etc.

17

It was in an interview. https://www.wowhead.com/news=311952/liveblog-of-the-shadowlands-sloot-interview-with-ion-hazzikostas

There are no plans for another large drop of additional class changes. They wanted to drop large changes and revamps early so there is plenty of time to get feedback and change things.

I do think that still leaves plenty of room for changes, just not a complete overhaul. Just replacing a bunch of boring talents would give the specs a new feeling without having to re-do the entire core design of the spec. Also I imagine legendary effects being back will offer some new interesting changes as well.

1 Like
18

in other words more borrowed powers that we would need for the spec to feel decent.

watch them bring legion artifact passives, azerite gear , azerite essence (lucid dream), and corruption gear effects as the new legendary effects.

8 Likes
19

I do wish the baseline specs just felt great without any specific piece of gear. At least with SL legendaries they aren’t the RNG cluster of fail they were in Legion. At least the way they introduced them made it seem like they were going to be more easily specifically acquired.

20

The question regarding that is: How do you quantify what feels “great” for a spec?

It’s a question that can only ever have subjective answers (e.g: I think Holy feels good as-is, but Disc, at least in its current BFA design, feels like Schism is mandatory). Not only that, but there wouldn’t even be consensus on what exactly would need to be changed (talents, addition/removal of spells, etc.) in order for that particular spec to feel good.