I liked priest because I could play and enjoy both discipline and shadow priest. I've been craving for a change ever since Legion changes kicked in, but this just pushes me not to play it anymore on Shadowlands because shadow is NOT rewarding enough as most dps specs.
While this article makes good points, I feel like it's got a heavy bias towards what's good or bad for exclusively group content, or min-maxing damage to the exclusion of anything else. I don't think this article does much or anything to talk about things like survivability, probably because in group content you usually have a healer. Does that mean survivability doesn't matter? This is just one example, but I feel like the whole article ignores stuff like this because staying alive is apparently just the healer's job at all times, and the DPS only worries about DPS. Not a very well-rounded article IMO because of this, even if I agree that Shadow needs some serious attention from the devs.
My idea on the spec was to turn Legacy of the Void into the opt-out talent such as:Lingering VoidYour Shadowform is now tinged with Void. Increases Shadow damage by 18% (up from 10%), grants 5% haste, and allows the use of Void Bolt at any time but it now costs 20 Insanity. This gives three tuning knobs: increased damage, Haste buff, and Void Bolt cost. It makes the builder-spender rotation based on Void Bolt increasing the duration of DoTs.On the subject of DoTs: why are they such odd differences in duration? Misery is odd in that VT (the applier) is longer in duration than the instant cast. Sure the talent is a QoL talent more than anything, but 16s vs 21s is, like MB, not evenly distributed between GCs.
Devouring Plague
I would like Shadow Orbs back, but I don't think Blizz will back away from Insanity. So here's what I can think of:Mind Blast needs 2 charges, and SW: Death needs to be on the mastery. Lingering, LotV, Void Torrent, Surrender (Legion Version), and Dark Ascend (Rework to start priest @ 20 Insanity stacks) need to be baseline. Make SW: V Add the extra Insanity on crit from the Azerite trait, and buff Fortress (maybe by 5%). I'm struggling with what to fill in on the 90 row, so I need help on that (maybe make that row dedicated to changing Shadowfiend gameplay). But with the 100 row it's a no-brainer. Add Chorus (Azerite trait), Legion of the Void (Allowing for a longer Legion-like Voidforms), and Moving Shadows (Decreases Insanity generation from all abilites, but buffs Shadowform by x%. The more Insanity stacks you generate, the less your abilities generate and the more damage Shadowform does. I believe these changes to the 100 talent row specifically will maintain the theory of SPriest gameplay, but add significant choices to your playstyle that can change from boss fight to boss fight in raids, and affix to affix in dungeons. If we're going to keep Insanity, we need more options to play off it. Ramp playstyle is cool, but we need abilities that affect our ramp (like having Dark Ascend start us @ 20 stacks) so SPriests don't have to take almost a full minute to catch up with other DPS. Legion of the Void allows for a high ceiling of DPS potential, but punish you hard if you can't get high stacks. Moving Shadows will be best for dungeons, but could see play in raid fights with heavy movement/narrow DPS windows. Chorus allows for stat priority changes and an in between for the other two talents.Please critique these ideas. I've put moderate thought into how easy/hard these might be to balance, but I'm not a game developer. I don't care if you disagree with this respectively or harshly. I only ask for alternatives and tweaks to anything you don't like in this post. I want Shadow to be competitive. If that means blizz sees this post and how much people like it/hate it and base their changes around that, then so be it. I really hope blizz released Fire Mage changes first as to continue working on SPriests, because we desperately need help.
I'd be disappointed if they removed voidform like a lot of people seem to be asking, the voidform playstyle is the only thing that made shadow priest fun for me.
I'm so over the whole "void form" concept. Shadow Priests as a DoT class with DP, Orbs, etc. was a much better playstyle to me. Wrath, Cata, MoP - all were good examples of a spec that played very well on it's own without a bunch of borrowed powers to carry it. Poor crowd control, long CD on interrupt, abysmal self heals - the spec feels so weak until you can get to end game and gear it up and pile on the borrowed power. You still don't have decent CC or interrupt when out doing world content alone, but you can power through it by then...assuming you've not given up on your priest and put it on the shelf again before hitting the end game.
Wowhead.. This post is great and was well needed, I main Spriest and it's in a dire situation.. Is it possible you could have a follow up post about what changes or additions you think would improve the spec as it currently is? As well as other ideas for the spec entirely etc etc.. I feel it may be a good discussion point and hopefully Blizzard might get an insight.. I think most would agree bringing back the Mop/Wod spriest.. Thank you :)
I'm slowly becoming pretty decent in my guild raids. I was recently streaming and I had actually turned off a few guildies, them saying the rotation and the effort are just insane. I wish it was not so punishing and exhausting to play. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bring back shadow orbs. That was when it felt the best and I honestly felt bad ass with the orbs glyphed into ravens.
s2m also needs rework it should not kill a person but maybe 90% dmg as before? or WHat about this. when you die because of s2m you can self revive at the location with a debuff which lowers ur damage done by some% for some time? it would be really nice to use s2m in m+ s or in raid.
The problems, you came up with that new VB feater, make no sense because if you want it to be true you must have Mind Flay to stand pretty higher on priority list.
Thanks for taking time to reply Ellipsis. This point: