World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Talent Preview - Priest

[Aneurysm-nerzhul]

(Disclaimer: I am only sharing my ideas as a high level / broadly thinking of how the abilities interact with each other. Anything regarding number tuning I did not really consider, Ill let Blizzard balance as they do should any of my ideas be considered).

Class Tree

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Another attempt to clean up the Class talent tree.
I tried to give more utility by bringing back spells we had in the past and moving some from Shadow Tree since its pretty bloated

Changes…

Row 3

• Removed Purify Disease talent
  • Make Purify Disease Baseline
• Added Mind Bomb / Psychic Voice Choice Talent (Moved over from Shadow)
• Removed Mind Restrain talent
• Added Mindful Words
  • Mindful Words
    Within 5 seconds after casting Mind Blast, your next Word spell effect is increased by 20%.
• Removed Masochism (This should be included with Shadow Mend)
• Added Shadow Crash (Moved over from Shadow)
  • Shadow Crash
    Hurl a bolt of slow-moving Shadow energy at the destination, dealing Shadow damage to all targets within 8 yards. 30 sec cooldown.

Row 4

• Removed Power Infusion
• Moved Twist of Fate to (Power Infusion) location
• Removed Taming the Shadows (This should be included with Shadow Mend)
• Added Phantasm
  • Phantasm
    Activating Fade removes all movement impairing effects and prevents your movement speed from being reduced for 5 sec.
• Added Paralysis
  • Paralysis (2)
    When you critically hit with your Mind Blast, you cause the target to be unable to move for 2/4 sec.

Row 5

• Added Vault of Heavens to be a choice with Leap of Faith
  • Vault of Heavens
    Leap of Faith instead causes you to leap to your target, and has 2 charges.
• Added Void Tendrils (Mind Control location)
  • Void Tendrils
    Tendrils come out of the ground under up to 5 enemies within 8 yards, immobilizing them for 20 seconds. Killing the tendril cancels the effect. 30 second cooldown.
• Combined Shadow Fiend & Mind Bender into a choice Talent

Row 6

• Removed Cleric’s Armaments talent
• Moved Angel’s Mercy to (Cleric’s Armaments location)
• Added Inner Focus as a talent
  • Inner Focus
    When activated, reduces the Mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.
• Moved Mind Control to Dominant Mind location

Row 7

• Removed Tools of the Cloth talent
• Moved Light’s Inspiration to (Tools of the Cloth location) & changed from a (2) point talent to a single point talent
• Added Angelic Bulwark talent (replaced Twins of the Sun Priestess)
  • Anytime a damaging attack brings you below 30% health, you gain an absorption shield equal to 30% of your total health lasting for 20 sec.
    This effect cannot occur more than once every 90 sec.
• Added Spectral Guise talent
  • Spectral Guise
    Your shadow blurs into the darkness, leaving your true form behind. As a shadow you are stealthed, but remain in combat. Lasts 6 sec or until your true form is hit by 3 direct attacks.
• Moved Dominant Mind Control to Puppet Master location

Row 8

• Moved Puppet Master to Mindbender location

Row 9

• Removed Light’s Inspiration
• Removed Crystalline Reflection
• Moved Power Infusion to Crystalline Reflection location
• Changed Power Infusion
  • Power Infusion
    Infuses the target with power for 20 sec, Increasing Healing done & Reducing Mana cost from spells by 25%.

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Shadow Talent Tree

Key Features…

• Cleaned up the top section to reduce bloat & move some utility to middle section.
• Moves some talents to class tree.
• Added new talents from past iterations of shadow.
• Removed some talents.
• Changed how some talents work to make them more interesting or more in line as a “class” talent.
• Organized the bottom section to give it a more “defined” path for various playstyle options.
• Playstyle options are set up in such a way that its improbable for much if any cross play talent picks between the key playstyle defining talents. This will make balancing self contained within each playstyle and relatively easier compared to the shotgun approach of current implementation of the bottom row talents.

Playstyles Paths…

3 Primary paths for each playstyle option.

• Clarity of Power & Auspicious Spirits on the left side of tree.
  • Left side is for quick fights & multi dot fights for those that like that style similar to Warlords of Draenor.
• Dark Archangel & Insanity with a mix of either left and right sides choices.
  • Playstyle with a little mix of many things but is akin to the traditional playstyle before Shadow Orbs or Insanity / Voidform redesign.
• Voidform playstyle on the right side of tree
  • Current iteration of Shadow / Voidform style of play.

Another attempt at cleaning things up.

Changes…

Row 2

• Moved Fortress of the Mind from row 3

Row 3

• Moved Unfurling Darkness from row 4
• Moved Psychic Voice with Mind Bomb to Class tree.
• Moved Devouring Plague from Row 2
• Added Thought Harvester & changed it a bit to interact with Shadow Word: Pain as not much SW:P interaction in the tree and its possible to not have Vampiric Touch when picking this talent.
  • Thought Harvester
    Shadow Word: Pain has a 20% chance to increase the damage of your next Mind Sear within 20 sec by 150%.

Row 4

• Moved Death and Madness from row 3
• Moved Psychic Horror from row 5
• Moved Hallucinations from row 5
  • Added Silence to the list of spells

Row 5

• N/A

Row 6

• Moved Vampiric Embrace from row 4
• Moved Unleash the Shadows from row 9 & Added an AOE modifier to it
  • Unleash the Shadows
    Vampiric Touch critical strikes have a 5/10% to create a Shadowy Apparition. In addition, your Shadowy Apparitions now explode for 50% additional damage within 5 yards when they hit there target.
• Added Mental Anguish talent
  • Mental Anguish
    Increases your Mind spells damage by 20%.
• Added Searing Contagion as a choice talent with Damnation
  • Searing Contagion
    Your next Mind Sear will spread all your damage over time effects up to 8 targets. 60 second cooldown. Shadowy Apparitions reduce the cooldown by 1 second on hit.
• Moved Dispersion from row 4

Row 7

• Moved San’layn from row 5
• Added Mind Melt talent
  • Mind Melt
    Increases your Mind spells critically strike chance by 3/6/9%.
• Moved Living Shadow from row 10
• Moved Eidolic Intuition from row 10
• Removed Malediction
• Added Insanity talent
  • Insanity
    Casting Devouring Plague transforms your Mind Flay spell into Insanity for 5 seconds. Insanity’s damage is double that of Mind Flay.
• Moved Abyssal Knowledge from row 9
• Moved Intangibility from row 5

Row 8

• Added Mind Spike talent
  • Mind Spike
    Blasts the target with Shadowfrost damage, but extinguishes your Shadow damage-over-time effects from the target in the process.
    Mind Spike also increases the critical strike chance of your next Mind Blast on the target by 30%. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Changed Mental Fortitude to make it a more attractive talent
  • Mental Fortitude
    Healing from Vampiric Touch when you are at maximum health will shield you for the same amount. Shield cannot exceed a certain value, based on Talent Rank. Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague healing is increased by 50/100%.
• Moved Sanguine Teachings from row 9 & made it a more attractive talent
  • Sanguine Teachings
    Vampiric Touch & Devouring Plague deal 15/30/45% additional damage based on your current health percentage.
    • For example: at 100% HP you get 45% more Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague damage. But at 50% HP you get 22.5% more damage. At 10% HP you get 4.5% more damage. The idea is this is a good talent if you can keep health as high as possible for as long as possible.
• Moved Rot and Wither from row 9 and changed to a refresh instead of extending dot duration effect
  • Rot and Wither
    Mind Flay and Mind Sear damage has a 50/100% chance to refresh Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.
• Moved Void Eruption from row 5

Row 9

• Added Surge of Darkness talent
  • Surge of Darkness
    Your Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch have a 10% chance to make your next Mind Spike instant, deal 50% more damage, and not consume your damage-over-time effects. Up to 3 charges.
• Added Clarity of Power & Auspicious Spirits choice talent
  • Clarity of Power
    Your Mind Spike, Mind Sear, and Shadow Word: Death deal 40% additional damage to targets not affected by your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch. Also reduces the cooldown on Mind Blast by 3 sec and makes it instant cast.
• Moved Auspicious Spirits from row 6 & changed changed it to synergize more with other talents
  You shadowy Apparitions have an increased 10/20% chance to critically hit and generate 3 insanity.
• Added Dark Archangel talent (I want to have my Dark Archangel wings again).
  • Dark Archangel
    Increases your haste by 5% and the damage done by your non-periodic Shadow damage abilities by 20%.
    Lasts for 18sec. 90 sec cooldown.
• Moved Hungering Void & Surrender to Madness choice from row 6
• Moved Void Touched from row 6
• Moved Void Torrent from row 7
  • Void Torrent (Added a extra damage component & increased Voidform duration based on how many dots on target)
    Channel a torrent of void energy into the target, the periodic rate of all your damage over time effects is increased by 300% for 3 sec and increases Voidforms duration by 3 sec per damage over time spell.

Row 10

• Removed Void Apparitions (needed to remove spells that are not that compelling and this fit the bill)
• Moved Mind Devourer from row 8
• Moved Insidious Ire from row 8
• Added Shadow Power talent
  • Shadow Power
    Increases the critical damage of your Shadow spells by 10/20%.
• Merged all the Idol talents into new talent Idol of the Gods
  • These “procs” I think should only occur during Voidform and maybe only 1 proc can be active at a time.
• Moved Ancient Madness from row 7

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Additional Notes:

• Purify
  This ability SHOULD be baseline for all 3 specs. As a Priest and more specifically as a Shadow Priest, it should be our niche as the only DPS that can have an instant cast Offensive and Defensive Dispel Magic ability. We already have Mass dispel, why is having an instant cast version so bad? I don’t buy for balancing purposes. That should just be the way it is when facing a Shadow Priest.
• Prayer of Healing
  This ability should be baseline. We as priests should have an on demand group healing ability. We don’t need fancy ones that Holy and Discipline have, but we should still be capable at a baseline level to heal up a group. Had this since early level in Classic.
• Power Infusion
  I changed Power Infusion to be more of a “healer” cooldown in that it increases healing & reduces mana cost. This makes it good for Holy and Discipline, not so much for Shadow. We did just fine without a cooldown type of ability before back in WoD and prior and we can just have more power built into our damage from base level to prevent scaling issues later on with crazy amounts of Haste coming from 1 buff. Still have the Voidform DPS cooldown option for those that want it and Dark Archangel.
• Death and Madness
  I really enjoyed the WoD version of Shadow Word: Death. I would prefer that version over current version.
  • Death and Madness (WoD version)
    If your Shadow Word: Death fails to kill the target at or below 20% health, your Shadow Word: Death’s cooldown is instantly reset. Damage increased by 250% to targets below 20% health.