I’ve found myself playing a lot of destro this expansion after being a spriest main since wotlk devoutly. I just don’t think it’s fun anymore unfortunately. It’s extremely clunky and ineffective. You’re either using misery with VT spreading dots for smaller groups, or completely ignoring dots as a whole and spamming SN which is the only real effective AOE the class has and yet you’re majorly penalized for taking it because misery allows you to manage your dots and cast your other direct damage spells. If you take misery you’re going to not deal enough damage if you encounter a mob of reasonable size which is frustrating because you have NO decent AOE except when you sacrifice an incredibly important tool. It doesn’t feel meaningful and fun making this choice. Instead, it feels like I’m being set up to fail?
Don’t even get me started on how the mastery wants you to play misery and not SN to begin with.
I think there’s a real balancing issue with shadow’s current (and past) designs. Let’s say your DoTs were powerful enough that you’d want to spread them every target in a large m+ pull (i.e., making Misery viable). The result would be that shadow would be so OP in single target that no spec could compete (as it has been in past expansions). Alternatively, making them hit less hard but still having the spec largely DoT oriented feels bad and tends to lead to underperformance in an m+ setting (though still decent in raid / ST). The only way I can see them getting around this is an overhaul of what they want shadow to be - are we a DoT spec? A burst spec? Being a kind of hybrid makes each cast feel inconsequential.
Let’s say your DoTs were powerful enough that you’d want to spread them every target in a large m+ pull (i.e., making Misery viable). The result would be that shadow would be so OP in single target that no spec could compete
I get what you’re saying, the thing is there’s no reason it has to be like this because a solution is readily available: Blizz could simply do with dots what they already do with aoe by making them deal reduced damage beyond a certain number of targets. That way, dots could be strong and useful in both single-target and multi-dot scenarios without being absurd in multi-target.
This would also be much more sustainable than doing what they did in Legion, where they nerf our dots every tier.
I agree, this hybrid scheme is not working currently. Maybe it could be fixed, but currently with building haste still and voidform not being the same it is just SO chaotic trying to simultaneously deal with managing dots and going through your “rotation” which is really just utter chaos and has no real flow.
Yeah, I agree with it. Although shadow priest does decent damage in single target, it’s really awful in multi targets in M plus. Blizzard can simply count the numbers of shadow priest and I barely see them in M plus. My main is warrior and I am playing shadow priest as well. You can modify the Talent Sear Nightmare. Deal instant damage on those energy around and afflict Pain and Vampiric Touch to them. This can solve the AOE problem and does not affect single target. Can you do that Blizzards? Thanks!!!
Why not make a passive talent that increases the damage of your DoTs by a % for each instance of that DoT currently active. Up to a certain number of each. This wouldn’t do anything in single target but could scale up to a number Blizz chooses. Probably 8.
Also yes, Shadow seems like a bunch of ideas from different specs squished all into one. It’s a little bit too chaotic.
Too many short cd spells that conflict with each other — Mindblast, Void Bolt and Devouring Plague all feel uncomfortably aligned during Voidform, you inevitably lose a cast of something or overcap insanity. If you use the conduits that gives free Devouring Plague procs or the Void Bolt procs or gods forbid both…it’s just too much. And when you have all these competing spells, Mindflay gets pushed out almost completely and they of course designed some procs and legendaries around Mindflay so it’s all an awkward mess. They’re forced to have the tier set give Dark Thought procs in an alternative way because you’re not casting Mindflay, but it’s a shame that the set couldn’t be focused on something more interesting if the base kit was more cleanly designed.
I think current shadow is a step in the right direction they’ve just gotta figure out how to work out the pain points.
It’s long past time for Mind Sear to be deleted from the game. It had a place in Wrath of the Lich King, but that was years ago give or take. What we need is a spell that serves the same fire and forget AoE function as Rain of Fire, and Blizzard.
I’ve suggested in countless Betas now since we were “given” Insanity (great trade for Shadow Orbs, btw… 
) and even earlier when we had Shadow Orbs; some sort of target reticled AoE that worked like an inversed Ring of Peace.
Basically the spell I proposed was called Black Hole, and it would rip create a singularity / hole in reality at the fixed point. All creatures in the reticle would be slowly dragged toward it and damaged.
What did Blizzard do? They made the Talent Phantom Singularity for Warlocks.
Honestly it’s not too much to ask for something besides Devouring Plague to spend Insanity on. I’d of abandoned Priest long ago, but I know the minute I did go Lock; that’s when Blizzard will change the spell idle to the hunched over default caster poise that Warlocks are ‘supposed’ to have.
For me Affliction is a little bit too far on the opposite end of the spectrum. It barely has anything going on lol. The tier set procs are good but unfortunately not permanent as of now.
I wish Shadow had an aoe version of devouring plague. Whether it’s an actual short term high damage DoT or something like you mention that would just be multi-hit but not channeled, anything that would allow us to focus more on DoT management and less on all these random overlapping burst spells
Well you need to ask what an AoE is at it’s core. It’s a spell that does damage to many enemies in a area of effect, usually multiple times so it is doing Damage over Time. Thus one could argue that Blizzard and Rain of Fire ‘are’ DoTs. Merely DoTs you can get out of some of the damage of, by running out of the area of effect.
While an AoE DoT would be interesting, my worry is that it would be OP because the AoE component wouldn’t be negated. But then they gave Seed of Corruption to Warlocks so maybe it’s alright as long as one is the correct class.
Mind Sear wasn’t introduced until WotLK.
Well HOPEfully the new talent trees can alleviate some of this. I feel naked without Misery but the AoE is so poor (aside from SFP).
For some reason I have a memory of a Shadow Priest friend using something I thought was Mind Sear in Caverns of Time. Must of been Mind Flay then. That aside, the point still stands however. It’s a trash tier spell at this point and has been for a while.
Shadow received a rushed overhaul from a dev who was already on his way out of the door because they were fully intending to continue “Void Form” going into Shadowlands. The result is… this.
Frankly I would have preferred BFA Shadow with some improvements. I know that’s not a popular opinion 
I lowkey agree 
Void Form was unique and I loved seeing all the little ghosts flying around. It just needed improvements! For example, I would’ve loved a glyph to replace the tentacles with dark angel wings while in void form.
It’s pretty garbage atm. I wish they’d make Mind Sear target capped and increased the damage and that Searing Nightmare just applied both dots to targets it hits instead of doing damage.
I’m sick and tired you guys
Been playing shadow since BC and I’m still hanging on to the hopes that one day, it will be viable. Single target is great but the rotation became so awkward with all these free instant casts. AOE is still garbage, searing nightmare is the most boring thing they’ve ever done. I honestly preferred the old BFA spam misery and then void form to keep the dots refreshed.
It doesn’t feel like one single mechanic in our spec was designed to work with the rest. I’ve genuinely never seen or experienced anything so clunky and oppressive to play, from my experience with it in Mythic+.
Dark Thought proc? Better stop everything you’re doing and hit Mind Blast to proc the only viable legendary in the game and get a big stupid ghost (blocking half your screen in many situations, requiring awkward camera angles to even see the environment) which will autoattack any enemy you target (including breaking CC if you tab target something for only a split second).
Casting Devouring Plague directly works against staying in Voidform, which is so disgusting and absurd as spec design that I can’t bring myself to say anything about it that doesn’t involve cursing out whoever is responsible.
Misery is the only playstyle with any kind of flow to it that makes sense for what shadow priests have traditionally been like. Yet anything below a +20 Fortified keystone, Misery and Auspicious Spirits are virtually unplayable, seeing as oftentimes the setup of dotting every trash mob, casting UN, casting VE, casting Mindbender and starting your rotation means your spirits literally will not reach trash mobs in any signficant number before they die, or are on death’s door, if there’s a surv hunter or destro warlock (or any other actual, non-trolling dps spec) in the group. You’re instead limited to blowing PI, VE, Unholy Nova and Mindbender and spamming Searing Nightmare just to have any hope of competing, which feels like the most unfun, uncreative and boring use possible of those cooldowns, and leaves us with garbage, tank-level damage outside of CDs or massive pulls. God help you if you have DPS who insist on killing Vy.