Overview thoughts
- I really enjoy this new direction of shadow. But I see a lot of stuff going on that I think needs to be cleaned up a bit / pulled back / smoothed the edges out.
- With not having access to beta, this is the best I can put together regarding my thoughts / first impressions and ultimately the goal as to how the overall playstyle of shadow should be while keeping as much as the current spec as possible in order to prevent a massive amount of extra rework.
- I am only listing things I want to highlight and or change / remove.
Button Bloat
- Desperate Prayer - Removed
- Power Infusion - Removed
Conclusion: Reduce button bloat & not needed with current toolkit
Spec chunkiness
Casting spells while channeling - Removed
Conclusion: I think its very clunky and not needed to lump in casting while channeling. It also removes the ability to be mobile with instant cast spells.
Edit:
I wanted to add that if a spell is “required” to use while channeling, then I think that’s perfectly fine.
I just take issue with casting a spell during a channel when it can be cast outside of the channel as then it would be a DPS loss if you DON’T cast it in a channel which then artificially nerfs our movement capability.
Mastery
Dark Thoughts becomes new mastery
- Devouring Plague - Baseline affected by Dark Thoughts (15%)
- Shadowfiend - Baseline affected by Dark Thoughts (15%)
Conclusion: Having Dark Thoughts affected by Mastery allows it to be a fun and interesting mechanic that lets the player control if they want more haste for faster spells, mastery for more procs (which increases Insanity generation), crit for more damage and possible spell mechanic interactions (Auspicious Spirits spawns 2 etc.)
Insanity Builders (Baseline)
- Mind Flay
- Mind Blast
- Void Bolt (only available in Voidform)
Conclusion: I want our insanity generation to be “impactful” and therefore should be locked behind spells with CD’s behind it and our Mind Flay / sear filler.
Insanity Builders (Talents)
15
40
- Auspicious Spirits
- Shadow Crash
45
50
- Surrender to Madness (double insanity generation)
DPS Empowerment (Baseline)
- Dark Archangel (Similar to Voidform but without access to Void Bolt & is not tied to Void Eruption)
- Shadowfiend (Attacks are affected by Dark Thoughts)
DPS Empowerment (modification)
- Void Eruption / Voidform - Moved into Legacy of the Void
DPS Empowerment (talents)
- Ancient Madness (Empowers Dark Archangel now since that is the baseline DPS CD)
- Legacy of the Void - (Replaces Dark Archangel & no cooldown or reduced by Void Bolt by 5 sec.)
- Surrender to Madness (no change)
Closing Thoughts:
Rotation / flow
- With Dark Thoughts being Mastery, this allows the spec to start off a bit slow but with more haste and mastery will allow for more proc chance from mind flay / sear on targets with dots and the baseline amount in Devouring Plague.
- With Dark Thoughts affecting Devouring Plague, this allows you to get procs without having to turret with Mind Flay / Sear but also “increase” your proc chance when you are using Mind Flay / Sear on a target with dots and furthermore with DP on that target as well. This is very much needed when you have to be on the move in situations like PvP and M+ while still having access to procs without it baked into all dots making it scale out of control.
- I wanted insanity generation to be “impactful” in that its primary generation sources are locked the CD of spells. This makes it so you don’t feel bad pressing buttons that don’t generate insanity because its more impactful behind CD spells.
- I wanted to remove button bloat in the form of Void Bolt from the baseline spec and only accessible for builds that needs a lot more insanity in LOTV and S2M.
Power Infusion is our first real cool down in literal years man. And with our new CD design instead of ramp design scumbag raid leaders can’t demand we give it to them or their friends - that thing is getting lined up with my Voidform EVERY. TIME.
Its a boring CD imo and as you mention, if its “able” to be used on someone else, then its a failure as our DPS CD.
As I Mentioned, we have Dark Archangel. It affect our spec interaction by increasing all damage done & resets MB CD and adds an additional charge.
We also have Shadowfiend, with Dark Thoughts affecting it, it can also help proc instant cast Mind Blast procs in addition.
3 Likes
It’s usable on someone else to make it an option (think healers, who are support by nature, casting it on their favorite dps). It is literally the nerfed heroism on a 3 minute cooldown. The only thing better would be a button that just gave us a flat % damage increase lol.
ummm…???
The new Voidform includes a flat damage % increase.
The Dark Archangel baseline ability is basically exactly like Voidform except that it doesn’t have access to Void Bolt.
So Shadow gets Dark Archangel, Holy and Disc get Power Infusion.
I don’t understand the problem.
2 Likes
You just don’t get it. We need CDs because we are now a CD spec, regardless of how people like it. Even the people who wouldn’t shut up about Shadow Orbs have finally shut up (most of them) because they realize Insanity is functionally Shadow Orbs now. You just want old abilities or PvP abilities mainlined into PvE - not going to happen.
What you should be asking for, if you just like the aesthetic, are Glyphs. We really could use some more.
We currently have CD’s in beta. But that doesn’t mean we have to keep all of them.
We will have 2 DPS CD’s in Voidform / Dark Archangel and Shadowfiend.
Why do we need more then that?
4 Likes
It’s bloat. We don’t need it. You know why the GCD changes are awful? Because everyone is clogged down under so many actives.
We have Voidform and Shadowfiend, we do not need a 3rd.
3 Likes
That’s only true if their CDs are aligned in such a way that they’re meant to be used together. At present, you can throw them all out together, yes, but after that you should be using them on CD, not hoarding them. The current amount is fine and frankly I’m just sensing some “waaaah I liked the broken way voidform used to work because I deluded myself into thinking a broken, impossible to balance design was high skill”.
Evidence has shown that you get more substantial DPS increase when you “stack” DPS CD’s on top of one another. More so over the coarse of a fight when you use them all independent as there CD’s come off CD.
This is a fact that has been proven countless times.
That means, the more CD’s you have available to play with, the more your overall damage will be balanced around all those CD’s being stacked. Which results in more Hill/Valley DPS situations. Something that Shadow should mostly avoid. Its nice to have a little bump, but not to have to rely on it.
3 Likes
Not sure I agree with all of these suggestions, I definitely do think Desperate prayer and PI could go.
PI eats up valuable damage budget, and we have already fixed our cooldown issue with Void Form becoming an actual cooldown, a very unique one at that.
As far as Desperate Prayer goes, I’d rather have the current defensives be stronger in their own right. Shadow actually had quite a few defensive plays, they just need to be impactful, that’s all.
2 Likes
yeah, but thats not a good thing. as a shadow priest i do not want to have a heavy reliance on cooldowns, i want to enjoy consistent damage. this is how it’s been historically. i’m ok with 1 or 2 dps cooldowns (shadowfiend, void eruption) but nothing more. also with the haste increase being taken out of voidform, it just feels bad having it divided into a second button that doesnt even line up with your shadowfiend OR your voidform. just bake PI into voidform or make it a talent but don’t give it to us baseline because its simply not necessary.
4 Likes
No, I hated Voidform. I also hate juggling CDs. It doesn’t feel skillful or cool, it’s just another chore that I have to use weak auras to solve. A chore that eats up our power budget. All the other specs rely on their stupid dps CDs, and I’d welcome a means to avoid that as much as possible. You think a DPS cd is a mark of pride; I say it’s arbitrary and boring, that only serves to make the central gameplay less impactful even as it bloats my action bar.
1 Like
How has it been “historically” when we were literally the only ramp class in the game?
Vanilla wow release date.
Legion Release date
SL Release date
1st Era of Shadow (Vanilla - WOTLK):
- Shadow was “Historically” a dot and cast spec. It never had a builder or spender or a resourcing decaying mechanic.
- Lasted 6 years and beloved spec
2nd Era of Shadow (Cata-WoD):
- Shadow was “Historically” a Build and Spend spec (but more like a mini CD spec) in additional to a dot and cast spec.
- Lasted 6 years and beloved spec
3rd Era of Shadow (Legion-BFA):
- Shadow was “Historically” a ramping damage, resource decaying/draining stressful and broken in most content headache of spec.
- Lasted 4 years and filled with issues and nerf every major patch.
Conclusion:
Overall, Shadow has “Historically” NOT been a ramping damage spec. It took you x time to go 100% then you maintained that. It didn’t reset unless you drop out of combat for a decent amount of time. With Voidform in Legion-BFA, you got your DPS reset constantly when Voidform dropped out.
4 Likes
Shadow has historically been a sustain dps. It’s only been a ramp dps for the last 4 years and thankfully it is not one again.
3 Likes
because for 12 years we had no big cooldowns and dealt sustained damage. then it was ramp-based for 4 years. im pretty sure 12 is bigger than 4
2 Likes
That it. That’s the description that I keep missing.
I dunno… Recently I’m hearing 2+2=5 
We’ve also dabbled in dps CDs (Dragon Soul) though we’ve always maintained our trademark high sustain, and instead had weaker CDs.
2 Likes