I mostly agree with you, the new version is however a straight upgrade in all circumstances over its predecessor, this isnt a high bar but it’s something.
I was in the process of making a large feedback post so it can go here. I like some stuff conceptually so ill go over that first.
This set clearly does not seem to be designed around single target dps, it looks like someone asked something along the lines of “what are the class fantasy/playstyles for spriest?” Then made the t1 set bonuses out of the face melty single target playstyle and the t2 set around the aoe multidot/rot playstyle which is pretty cool, it doesn’t really work but I like the idea.
It also tries to take a dead talent row and make it useful, in a raid environment the first 5 talents for spriest provide nothing of use at all. This takes the more pve oriented talent and tries to make it actually provide a bonus rather than being a completely useless tax to get to the rest of the shadow tree. It also doesn’t work especially well (better now but still not great) but again, it is a cool idea.
2pc bonus: It’s fine I guess, makes SWD fit quite nicely into the 6 set t1 rotation assuming you have 40% crit.
IF however the set was designed to be playing around having an aoe/multidot focus then it is really bad, the SWD rune is a purely single target rune AND sits on the same slot as Mind Sear, our big aoe spell, which kind of ruins the idea of it being for an aoe build.
If I were to change this to fit within the rest of the set bonus identity either give something to mind sear or move Voidzone to a different slot so it doesn’t compete with despair and give it something.
4pc bonus: It does nothing… Spriest already struggle to spend mana, spirit tap providing more mana regen on the mana battery class is just kinda weird. This either NEEDS to do something else as well or it should be baked in with the 6 set bonus or vice versa, preferably the latter.
1% chance per talent point is fine for aoe fights, still doesn’t feel great waiting for procs especially on single target, it is a 64% chance to get 1+ procs over a 1 minute fight on single target now. Per the wording of the second part you do get spirit tap whenever a target dies with swp on it no mention of needing to give experience or getting the killing blow (tested and works like this on ptr) which makes getting the buff prepull for speed clears pretty reliable and on fights with regular add spawns.
6pc bonus: The 10% damage buff will still have zero effect on damage over time spells unless you recast those spells while you have the buff so saying all shadow damage gets a 10% buff is a bit misleading as a 10% (or even 20%) damage buff to DoTs probably isn’t worth losing the snapshot buffs from pull ( Power Infusion, Trinket, Inner Focus).
So this is, for the majority of players who stop and drink/buff before a pull, a 10% damage bonus to mind spike, mind blast, shadow word death and Mind Sear/flay. Mind flay wont be used, if you want to use it use t1 bonuses. It is decent on multi target fights I think at 3+ targets it will be better than just using t1 set bonuses, if you are using shared pain and mind sear.
The Worst part with this set is the addition of Spirit to tier gear seemingly at the cost of crit chance compared with same slot pieces from tier 1, despite the fact that spirit only provides mana regen on a class which struggles to spend mana. If there was any sort of useful scaling from spirit (spellpower is simplest or increased proc chance of spirit tap/damage buff or something please) then it would make sense but without it its just completely wasted stat allocation.
TLDR: I like what i think are the ideas behind the set bonuses but not the implementation.
2set is fine unless the set is meant to be geared toward aoe/multidot then bad.
4set bad as a standalone bonus, but fine if lumped in as part of 6 set.
6 set can’t compete with t1 bonuses but actually does something now which is a nice start.
Why spirit on gear if no useful spirit scaling?