Iirc shadow has often been a bit of a hybrid dot/cast spec. The idea that our dots are maintenance for heavy hitting MB or Flay isn’t the worst thing imo. It’s a playstyle some might find enjoyable.
That said, generally when I play shadow I like having my dots feel threatening, and pushing most of our damage into hard casts or channels means we’re vulnerable in PvP.
It’s not the worst design I’ve seen in my time playing priest since Wrath. But it’s not my favorite.
my 2 cents on the matter
Shadow does decent damage but we just need a method of getting it off, Door of Shadows & Void Origins added to the spec would fix this issue for the most part. And wouldn’t really impact that spec in M+ / Raid. The overall damage of the spells will still be the exact same where I do believe the spells cast time are the length of 1 GCD anyway.
The difference in PvP is that its stoppable where as that 1 GCD doesn’t matter as much in PvE.
The other thing would be just to clean up the 2 point talents in the Shadow tree and allow us to pick up more options. Now obviously this would have implications in PvE and PvP damage but currently we’ve got 8 talents that are 2 pointers, 9 if you include the fact that shadow crash is broken up into 2.
Maybe nerf Psychic Link and bit and allow us to pick up a few more talents, and allow people to built out there Spriest more than an VoiT and MF:I Bot.
I seriously think that gaining 2 talents in the middle section and 2 talents in the lower section would make Spriest feel more fun to path out.
Also make silence baseline.
Even if we got all the talents in Shadows tree, nothing actually changed up how you play. They are all just passive damage enhancements.
Things like instant cast cooldowns is more in line what we need, yet we currently have no capability to obtain those.
As I mentioned above, Destro warlocks get rewarded with instant cast Incinerates when being attacked. We need something along those lines that actually grant more opportunities when being attacked.
Yet for Shadow, you are deprived of opportunities when being attacked which is why it’s so easy to shut down Shadow because we basically require free casting to make a thing happen be it the enemy ignores you or your team provides you that window.
I mean if we can’t have instant cast Mind Spikes from procs due to PvE reasons then have a talent that grants it via when being attacked by melee.
We just need more ability to do things when being trained on but instead we actually double dip on both loosing the ability to cast nuke spells as well as our dots on the target getting removed by a dispel or running out the clock of their timed duration which forces you to recast them instead of a nuke spell which just keeps this back and forth going preventing you from ever actually getting going and becoming a genuine threat.
Door of shadows had a cast time. How would that massively help with our dps?
I do believe what I said was
I think that creating 30-40 yards between people allows the caster to be able get some damage off. It doesn’t need to be an instant teleport for it to be very valuable.
My opinion stems from having played a venthyr shadow priest back in SL and I don’t remember door of shadows being particularly useful except in skipping mobs or reaching higher places.
I’m not saying we don’t need some more mobility, I just don’t think door of shadows is the pick.
I mean back in SL the go-to pick most of it was Night Fae due to getting mobility and 30% dam reduction, and CDR.
Thematically I don’t see soulshape ever coming back to priest.
And also lets be clear Door of Shadows was never meant to be anything similar to shimmer. But a way for Priest to from point A to point B. other than walking across the open.
It will probably have little outcome on a map like Ruins. But on maps like Bala it does have a z axis component there.
What’s you’re alternative then that would be a realistic change.
Two options off the top of my head.
Could be an inverse of Leap of Faith. Either its own ability or a glyph. You pull yourself to an ally.
A version of the void elf ability. sending a shadow on the ground and popping up wherever it is when you reactivate the ability. Not as much a travel, but more of a juke.
Again, these are just off the top of my head. But either of those feel about right to me.
Generally I don’t mind priest mobility as it currently is, though i won’t turn down extra burst movement. I think the pain comes from how often we have to channel or hard cast. And as I’m writing this, even an ice flow or spirit walkers grace, type skill would be great.
So similar to Xal’atath in the new TWW Cinematic where she is just coming out of the Void looking hole in that mural surface?
Could work… Be similar to Warlocks Demonic Circle.
A bit like that yeah. Except when you cast it you only have about 10 seconds to reactivate.
Keeping it fresh, since monk and warlock already have the set teleport location.
I hate those type of timer specific spells where you need to use within a certain amount of time as you can just be stunned and CC long enough to prevent you from getting it off at all.
This is the same weakness we have in casting our damage out to do anything meaningful.
So the adjustment I would make is this…
You cast the Void portal at a location and instantly port over or within 3 seconds it will automatically port you.
Then perhaps an additional effect via a talent that would then force you to return from where you casted it after 10 seconds of porting but you cannot move outside the bounds of the void portal rift thing… Similar to how warriors got that spear thing and death Knights abomination limb etc. or rather, if you move out, you can’t report back. But if you stay within that circled Void area, then it will port you back after a bit of time.
So basically how it would work is you toss it at location via targeting circle like Shadow Crash or Mass dispel.
Then you port instantly or shortly after.
Then after 10 seconds from porting, if you are within the void portal circle area, you are ported back to where you were. Otherwise if you exit the circle, you don’t port back.
That means if you play keep away at your own discretion or if you are slowed or locked down, you will automatically be ported in the hopes of escaping whatever is locking you down without you needing to actively cast the report aspect.
I love that idea. That way the void elf racial still has its own thing. But the priest version is stronger due to it being class specific.
Though now that I read it again and think about it… It’s basically just an instant Door of Shadows again which is probably too powerful and I even added a return effect.
So if anything, I think you have to require a timer of a few seconds before you actually port. But you can still port back if you stay within the area of the port automatically after like 10 seconds.
Issue with that is does it affect spell interruption?
I’m thinking it would be terrible if it did.
So it needs to act like Shimmer where it won’t break a spell cast. Only though if the target gets out of range during the transition.
So if I were to write it, I suppose it would look like this…
With talents like Phantom Reach, it imo would both enhance the range you can place this spell and make it so your casting range will be less likely to break due to the changing of range to your target while casting when you get transported.
Anything but door of shadows… we already have almost 0 instant casts and another thing to get interrupted would be brutal in PvP
huhhhh??? lmao, DP hasn’t truly clapped since WoD.
Regardless, DP is one of our hardest hitting skills currently.
Trip stacked it still hits pretty good.
Personally I hate this ability. Generally we are only going break distance for a moment. Relocating ourselves to our teammates just sets us up for getting cleaved.
And while I understand the desire of having an instant ability I don’t foresee that happened because we aren’t even able to get Void Origins added back to the game.
So why not just go Void Elf? but also I don’t think they are going to completely design an entirely new spell this late in the beta cycle. Though I’d be down for anything.
My point is that Door is something that is already in the game and would be less difficult to add compared the design of a new ability.
Any major changes to our kit aren’t coming through until at the earliest, a .5 patch. It’s too close to launch.
Like… When are they going to nerf MW Monk’s dispells? They just seem to casually dispell DoTs all game with little to no punishment, not only that but you have to wait before you can even put up DoTs again…
People always stack MW in RBGs too which makes people not even want to take SP
And like others mentioned SP needs to set up their dam. And getting trained all game can make that very difficult. Why do we have to take so many steps setting up damage modifiers to make DoTs stronger? That’s way to much setup to get things going, especially with how button bloated SP gets