The current state of Shadow Priest is great, but not great enough to change public perspective towards them. Spriest has had very bad reputations the past 3-4 expans? People simply do not want to give Shadow a chance anymore. (Okay, this is a little bit of ranting because I got constantly declined from pug groups whereas my rogue/dh friends got invited to high keys easily with 200+ rating lower than me)
I remember running a HoV with a pug group where I just casually walked by a pat while the other 4 players were (stupidly) waiting for the pat to past - they were so confused and almost yelled at me for pulling that pat. I simply laughed and said: You guys probably never run with a shadow priest before yeah? But seriously, the average io in that group was 2.6k, and they had 0 clue what a mass Mind Soothe is, proved that how ignorant people are towards shadow.
That’s just the tip of an iceberg of what shadow can do. We got a very long interrupt cd? No problem, just let the casts go off and I will dispel/mass dispel them! Big damage incoming? No problem, let me pop my Vampiric Embrace and healer can relax! Forgot to clear your thundering? No problem, let me yank you over to me with Leap of Faith! PI! Everyone wants that slice of PIe but nobody want to love Spriest! And I can go on and on how Mass Dispel can save lives (cough cough Vex in AA, and the last boss of TJS, Mana Saber in Court)
IMO, to fix shadow’s bad reputation, Blizz should make shadow a God tier for at least a season or so. This will encourage people to start inviting shadows to their group so that they will have a chance to learn what shadow can do. We shadow priests deserve a lot more love after being neglected for so many (WoW) centuries!
Spriest is great, it’s my favourite dps if I can fill other 2 with aoe cc or at least 1 enhance shaman for its monstrous aoe cc.
The main issue with spriest right now is it has no AoE cc, which is quite mandatory this season.
1 Like
They do have some, not great, but can certainly be helpful.
Psychic Scream which can be upgraded to having lower cd or semi-quasi AoE stun. Void Tendril which is essentially mass entangle - except using tentacles!! Dominant Mind (the new Mind Control) has some very niche use (for example, you can MC the adds on the first dragon boss on NoK and then completely ignore them)
1 Like
I dont know and wont speak for previous expensions about Shadow Priests. But Blizzard screwed up big time on shadow priests in the launch of the expension. They were WEAK, and that WEAK rubbed off on everyone that even if we got buffed 2 times now, they still wont take us. Getting into a 14 key with 399 i level where i over gear it feels like that item you’ve been farming for 4 days straight and finally get it. Our AoE is amazing right now, i’m still trying to work on ST, but it doesn’t feel as strong as broken rogues, arcane mages, hunters, Demon hutners. Rogues are actually broken. 2 weeks into launch and a rogue friend already got his KSM. He quit right then lol, as for me i just got my KSM 2K rating i.o and i lost track of how many weeks its been, 5? 6?
Now i don’t have that group that logs on at a certain time to clear keys together, nor am i a female streamer that brings all the boys to the yard to run keys with. Pugs life is a rough life, and blizzard didn’t help us being so late fixing our class. Most Shadow priests gave up, but i’m a stubborn son of father, i’m only now starting to enjoy my class.
3 Likes
Expecting a priest’s scream ? If a anyone thinks a spriest’s scream is a reliable source of AoE cc then he must be new to this game.
The last thing in this game that you can expect to happens is a spriest or ele shaman runs into melee range and cast fear/thunderstorm.
1 Like
Scream is bad, what people mean is Psychic Horror, Shadow tree. It stuns them for 4 seconds. I’d rather say it makes no sense to have 45 sec cooldown on an interrupt. But then again, nobody relies for us to interrupt every time, thats nice.
That’s not a nice. That means they either
decline you on spot or are very sure that they have enough cc to deal with all situations.
Ill let that sink into Dev’s mind. And yeah you are right. It’s a + and -.
In dungeons, you play 5 yards away from the melee. I would hardly call that running in.
No they didn’t. Good spriests are doing fine and shadow is definitely s or a tier for keys this season. I’d still be playing mine if guild didn’t need a mage
Eh, scream is not that hard to get value out of because of the range. It’s inconsistent because it’s target capped at 5. If the pull is large you aren’t even guaranteed to interrupt the target that needs interrupting.
Yeah, shadow priest slaps in keys. When I play with them, having quad PI lets you rip through trash. The healing from VE is also incredibly strong.
Compared to other classes, shadow’s utility is incredibly niche and often hamstrung by things like target caps that no other class has to deal with. Yes, we get some good things like mass dispel, but they’re not good in all keys/weeks, whereas other classes get niche utility plus a whole bunch more utility that’s always great in every key, plus mobility on top.
As shadow I feel like I am always trying to discover ways to try and make our utility useful, vs other specs where it’s just obvious and you don’t have to do anything fancy. I don’t get the “oh thank g, mass dispel/mind control/dispel/cure disease works well on this mob/boss, maybe i’ll be desirable for this key” moments playing other classes. Eg when i’m on my mage, I always bring desired utility like lust, tons of cc, shorter interrupt, spellsteal, etc. Same on druid, shaman, rogue—pretty much any other class i’ve done keys on.
I don’t think things are dire since we do good really good damage right now, and I don’t have much trouble getting groups. But there’s no question there’s a utility deficit vs other classes/specs when it comes to M+ that means you basically have to create a group comp around shadow or be highly coordinated.
And yet…its in shadow tree so most of sps dont even spec it because it will eat up your troughput talent down the line.
Same for shorter disperison, shorter cd silence.
The upper part of the tree need some serious changes.
While i generaly know which mobs or casts you mean…i dont like how you downplaying this…because it is a big ! issue thats with shadow since this game came out. You just cannot play with boomkins, playing with mages and mm’s isnt optimal either…And this eons long cs interrupt is single biggest reason i dont invite shadows almost ever.
I mean you cannot dispel oneshots from trash around elemental in nokund for example…and theres more. No lust no cr …whatever…but no reliable kick is a big oof…atleast for me.
Yes, after we got buffed twice and the 10.0.5 changes. but imagine how many decided to play meta class instead before 10.0.5? Lots of people quit during those times becaues shadow priests were simply trash.
I’ve been trying to do Raids aside from mythics and in raids we’re either not invited or kicked because we can’t do 50K dps on heroic Rasz with the meta classes. Bosses before Rasz are no issue.
The entire reason why i decided to play Shadow Priest is because my X guild suggested that we needed a shadow priest. I just didn’t know how bad they were then. But yeah, it’s a cool story.
I hope they keep modifying shadow priests until Meta tank/healers/dps minds change about shadow priests.
Most of the good players now a day are streamers playing shadow priests who can easily get people to carry them in their meta groups.
I just got to 2041 I.O and i’m pugging just about every key.
They were behind in ST but they def were not trash.
Stop lying
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/31#boss=2607&difficulty=4
Meta isnt why you arent getting invites.
Good players dont need carries.
I pug most of my keys as well. this isnt exclusive to just you.
I personally feel, at least in pvp, Spriest is in an odd state. It feels decent in rbgs, but something just feels off, especially in arena.
I wouldn’t mind if they reworked shadow’s entire tree, like they’re doing for retribution pallies at this point…
2 Likes
I feel like since the nerf they’re just garbo…In solo you’re the 1st target and just getting trained 5-6 rounds. RBGS if you are taken and don’t have to form/lead your own group then you can do average dmg, but why take a sp when you can take double of almost every spec? rogue/dh/warr. Teams will take a lock over SP just for rocks
Only thing since the nerf that I’ve been able to do ok in is arena and I’m basically relying on a rogue to do everything…
1 Like
Guess I kinda agree… these are Shadow’s biggest issues IMHO:
- Does not have Bloodlust
- Does not have Battle rezz
- Cannot tank.
- Is not God Tier DPS.
That’s a lot of things not to tick before getting however many slots are left. Yes, some can cover 2 of those in 1 role, but once you get your tank, your brez, your bloodlust, then grab a Demon Hunter or Rogue DPS… you could very well be competing for 1 last flex spot in most groups.
And most will probably just take another DH or Rogue… because while Shadow does very good damage, they aren’t God Tier.
IMHO: If you don’t bring mandatory utility, you basically need to be able to blow anyone out of the sky damage wise who does. Sadly, that’s not the case.