It because they want us to ****ing heal. Plain and simple. I HOPE they don’t let Shadow roll out as a broken trash heap, but if their metrics are showing a decline in healers, the nasty reality is our class is the only one with TWO healing specs. I played as Disc for 2 months in this last patch just to get the gear I needed to be shadow again (being 100% gear dependent to do well sucks).
As for some classes being of higher importance - Druid has always been the favored child. They are the class that can literally do every role and have been actively ripping off other classes since classic, often doing a better job in the process. Then Blizz has to worry about making sure their baby low-skill Hero classes are pampered (DH and DK). We’re the red-headed step children man.
If we don’t have the ability to heal ourselves effectively and we’re squishy af with almost no mobility or cc, then our dps needs to compensate for it. At present on the Alpha SPriests can’t pull more than 2 mobs without seriously being under threat of death and even 1v1 you’re going to lose a big chunk of HP.
And then there’s SW:Death, which doesn’t generate insanity, does almost no damage and HURTS you when you cast it. Like, why does this exist? This is an actual NERF.
you know what’s funny people literally said just make the talent baseline. like the only thing we asked not to be changed about the spec and simply be baseline gets gutted severely to the point where i highly doubt anyone would use it outside pvp(to break cc) and that’s if people even pvp as shadow.
It’s still a dps increase (Just) in the one GCD where you have a mind flay that isn’t followed by a void bolt, and both charges of SWV are on cooldown. This comes up maybe once every 12 GCDs, assuming you didn’t have anything else better to do with your time.
That is until mastery outscales it (Because its still not buffed by mastery, but really our mastery is a whole other mess in itself) and it becomes literally worthless.
While they’re bringing old things back it seems like you could give Shadow form 15% DR back since it used to have that and maybe vamp embrace could go back to being a constant passive at a lower % (or a low % passive self only + a higher % active group cd). Shadow was always supposed to be a tankier caster since it wasn’t very mobile.
I never main shadow but it sucks not even wanting to use your DPS spec soloing. Not because you’re opposed to changing specs when soloing, but just because you hate the spec and it doesn’t actually feel better soloing than your healing specs.
People call this a protest. It’s not. A protest would indicate a belief that change will come. I’ve said many times I do not have that much faith in such changes are actually happening. As a matter of fact, I feel Blizzard’s silence could be classed as a form of “rope-a-dope”. Play the silent treatment and wait the clock out till beta, then toss a bunch of tiny band-aid fixes to mollify the masses.
No this thread exists to simply to document exactly how many (if any) responses we get over the Alpha and Beta, how much they actually listened to player feedback; and most importantly of all how often they act on the feedback given in comparison to other classes.
As Annesh, Yvaelle and others who have done Alpha with me in the past can attest, most classes have in antiquity received a lot more dialogue than Priest has. I also encourage Blizzard to break this cycle, and for people to be vocal about the changes we want.
Some ideas on what the solution is, might be things I dislike, other ideas I might like; but regardless of what my fancy is, there is no ‘incorrect’ idea. Opinions. Everyone has one. That’s the beauty of this thread however.
The purpose of this thread is not about me as an individual in this thread. It’s about the Priest class as a collective whole, and a simple request for ‘some news’. Even if it’s news we completely hate. It’s also about providing a place we can continue to voice our thoughts. My only request is that we all be civil, and remember there is another human being on the other side of the screen when you reply to a post. I know it’s hard sometimes and a lot of us are frustrated, but lets try.
I’m not 100% in agreement with this, I think buttons that are pretty much “press button on cd” are pretty terrible from a design pov, but I do feel this way about swd in particular. It just doesn’t serve a purpose.
Unfortunately this is going to be the answer, not just for Shadow either. Blizzard is to reliant on this borrowed power game play for their content. The whole game is built around it now. Makes me sad to even type that.
“Protest” was a poor word choice on my part, but the point stands. The devs don’t read this subforum, so I don’t see the point of voicing thoughts or making requests where they will not be heard. Unless the point is not about being heard by Blizz, but about either venting frustration, feeling not so alone in that frustration, gathering frustration for a further, as-yet-unnamed purpose, or working out incomplete ideas. And I totally understand all of those. It’s just confusing because you’re phrasing it as if it is a request to Blizzard. I’m just saying if that’s so, Blizzard won’t see it here. The point of documenting thoughts is to ultimately share those thoughts with someone who can do something with them, isn’t it?
Only alpha testers can post on the official forums and many here have encouraged people to keep an eye on that post and leave a like on the comments they agree on. this is what we can do.
This record is not simply for Blizz to see but the rest of the community and player base. It’s to hold them accountable for there claims. they said with conviction at Blizzcon that the player base voice is very important and if we wanted something to change we have to be vocal about it. they also claimed that they will be listening carefully to the community (which you can gather from the priest forum is not true).
all we ask is for our concerns to be addressed and not negated because “Blizz and the devs know better” we also are sick and tired of relying on borrowed powers for our spec to feel decent and viable.
Borrowed power should be to give an alternative playstyle or flavor not become a requirement.
with that said i personally am optimistic because even though they have not yet listened to the community and replied to the official post its still 3 weeks into the alpha and there is still time for them to change things
I never said that I like that this subforum isn’t read, or that I think Blizz is doing a great job at communication. I am as intensely frustrated as you. I am just pointing out that people who feel ignored will only feel more ignored if they are led to believe their voice will be heard by Blizzard here when it won’t.
I understand I’m just saying let everyone vent in case some devs happens to pop on the forum and see the wall of posts complaining about Voidform mechanic.
With all this being said i have to say i’m reasonably optimistic because not a single anima power from Torghast yet has to do with void from other than one that makes Mindblast generate more insanity if it crits.
I think it’s a bit unusual for something that is the highlight of the expansion and a place where the devs can try all sorts of absurd anima powers not to have one single one that has to do with vodiform.
they could’ve of easliy made one where you stay in vodiform for forver but the stacks are limited to 20…or one where if you stay out of vodiform you get an x amount of bonus damage…you see where it’s a bit unsual that the core mechanic of the spec is not even addressed.
this could be totally that the devs didn’t bother making anima powers for voidform which with the amount of work they put in it I highly doubt it…
I’m just saying something ain’t right in the water.
I said above I absolutely understand if it’s just for venting. Venting and feeling understood by others is all GOOD. By all means, people should continue posting if it helps them feel better. Sorry I wasn’t clear about that.
omg i was agreeing with you didn’t mean for it to read aggressive at all, I apologize if it did.
also while you are reading this what do you think of the whole Torghast thing. Isn’t suspicious that not one single anima power has to do with voidform?
I have no interest in Torghast tower, and I’m generally trying not to get attached to what may or may not happen in Shadowlands. I’m happier not spending time worrying about something I have no control over.
One thing is clear. Blizz is heavily trumpeting Torghast as “THE” feature of Shadowlands. Just like Garrisons for Wod, Artifact Weapons for Legion and … for BFA??? lol anyway, its going to be a core part of SL experience. If they don’t make it viable to solo for every DPS spec at least, then that is a MASSIVE failure.
In order to make a Priests ONLY DPS spec viable to solo with in there, MASSIVE changes in the form of Anima powerups will need to be introduced if they don’t fix the core issues with the spec.
To be honest though, I see them having a hard time making any reasonable cool and unique ways to make Void Form enjoyable even in Torghast. I think the base restrictions of the spec itself will rear its ugly head (As I think recently they just found out) and I think if not for the massive outcry from the players, the challenge of making Torghast FUN to do for a Spriest WHILE keeping Void Form current iteration will force them to do massive core changes.
Also,
I’d like to point out the MASSIVE amount of liked posts in the Priest Alpha Class feedback thread concerning the sad state of Spriests and all the issues and outcry to ditch Void Form.
Many Posts over 100, 1 is over 300 and more close to the 100 range. Compare that to other classes like Druid for example, your looking at 100 for the TOP post and down from there. Most of classes hover around the 20-30 range.
So if Priest feedback outnumbers 3-1 of not 10-1 and we STILL don’t see changes. Blizz will show true colors in terms of what they think of Priest.
