AoE - Shadow is frustrating at best

Classes Priest
1

I have only played to +11 with other classes, so my experience is somewhat limited.

When it comes to encountering a pack of adds in a dungeon:

With my BM Hunter I have an INSTANT and no CD, Multishot. Could not be simpler. If I see a pack in the distance I press one button and my group (myself and the two pets) go into Cleave mode. No CDs, no restrictions, no ramp up. Use as often as you like, whenever you like.

With my Prot Warrior, I have 5 to 7 unique abilities, with a CD each, but which I cycle through going from pack to pack. I have Shield Charge, Ravager, Shockwave(Sonic Boom), Spear of Bastion, Thunderous Roar. I also have the bread&butter Thunder Clap, Demo Shout, Revenge etc. So first pack I Ravager, next pack I Shield Charge, next I Thunderous Road, next pack I Shockwave, next pack the CDs are back up. If you see what I mean.

With my Guardian Druid, unlimited Swipe and small CD Thrash. Can’t be simpler.

With my Shadow Priest I have nothing good.

I can do Dark Void + Deathspeaker + Pain of Death. Dark Void on 30 secs CD, and then very random SW:Death procs. By the time SW:D procs, the tank has already finished the dungeon and gone to bed.

A better way is Misery + Shadow Crash + Psychic Link. Much better, except Shadow Crash is a joke of a spell as it requires reticle placement and it is like a Hunter’s trap. By the time the projectile has landed, many times the mobs have already gone. Plus it is very awkward to have to place reticles for bread&butter spells. And it is on a 30 sec CD and there is no alternative to cycle through.

The filler is Mind Sear but at a ridiculous 50 Insanity, and by the time you are ready to Mind Sear, once only, the mobs are almost dead. Tank has moved on to the next pack.

Please get the person who designed the Prot Warrior to spend a few weeks to redesign the shadow priest.

PS: this is not about numbers. You can make Mind Sear kill the whole dungeon in one shot, this is not what I am asking. It is about flow. Please look at the Prot Warrior to learn how it should be done. Or, if you are feeling generous, look at the BM Hunter.

5 Likes
2

Shadows aoe was very easy to understand in Shadowlands it feel smooth you instant proc Searing night mare and Mind blast while channeling Mind sear you get a Living shadow on your back whom did loads of damage.

Now its just blizzard dev team who don’t have a clue on what to do with the class anymore i’ve given up on them even trying to fix this specc anymore people says they dont want a passive padding their meters yet blizzard adds a passive that is suppose to padd the meters [Psychic Link]. This season sucks as shadow compared to season 4 of Shadowlands.

The Dps meters on logs are just people mass pulling and doing PL builds on trash not bosses.

Season 4 of shadowlands is the best state shadow has been in since wod at best.

Blizzard sadly don’t build on it since the 1% playerbase and streamers decides what we should play and this is the state of shadow at the moment I’m unsubing.

If blizzard doesn’t rework shadow in to something more fun or revert mind sear I don’t see this class being fun anymore.

This is true for this expack.

1 Like
3

I agree that mindsear aoe feeling clunky BUt imho opinion this is one of the best spriest ever been. I really did not like the SL spriest with SN it felt really clunky aswell for me.

Righrlt now PL is pumping in aoe aswell and I must admit Im happy with spriest.

A change to MS would be nice but other than that I feel like a complete shadow priest again.

4

It’s the difference between a DoT class and a direct damage class.

I don’t really know what you’re expecting.

I’m sure Thellanah will jump in with the usual whine but shadow is streets ahead of where it used to be in terms of speed of ramping up. You used to DoT your heart out just in time for the pack to die. Now you cast shadow crash and you’re well on the way.

1 Like
5

I am not comparing the spriest to what it was back in 2004 or whenever, I am looking at the class now.

If I am to compare selectively, just like you did, I remember the time where I could Mind Sear the whole screen - where is that SP gone?

To give you another analogy of this lunacy in the design, since you did not see the BM Hunter example, imagine if Starfire ONLY cleaved if the target is DOTed with Stellar Flare!!! This is what the spriest has to do, DOT targets with a slow cast spell (VT), then use ST spells to cleave off from. Other classes just press a button.

There is Dark Void which DOTs with SW:P - but they have made it so that Psychic Link only cleaves off of VT! Change Psychic Link so it cleaves off of SW:P and then we may have a way to spec out of the most idiotic Shadow Crash…

6

You shadow crash and that applies VT to 8 targets. Do you manually DoT them all?

7

No, but Shadow Crash is a stupid spell, which I want removed (or changed). It requires reticle positioning. There is a sister spell, in the same spec tree, called Dark Void - no reticles! In addition Shadow Crash is slow. You got to ask the tank not to move too much…

Misery + Shadow Crash + Psychic Link (+ Tormented Spirits) is the only viable AoE path.

Dark Void + Deathspeaker + Pain of Death is another AoE path, but SW:D procs very little.

Mind Sear is prohibitively expensive, by the time you can cast it, the tank is already two screens away.

There are others complaining about “numbers” but this is about rotation, flow, not numbers.

8

Mind Sear should cost mana and be baseline, not talent. This will fix the spec.

9

Mind sear costs the same amount as devouring plague. It costs the same as starfall and it costs less than earthquake (Obviously these are not direct comparisons because each spec has different resource economy, but it’s close enough to make a point)

Tormented spirits is worthless.

If things are dying so fast that shadow crash is literally too slow to dot pulls then every other caster is in the exact same boat. The only specs that deal burst AoE that early into a pull are melee and MM hunters.

Shadow Crash cd is prohibitively long for lower content, and the spec is overly reliant on it for AoE I agree, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with mind sear.

10

You cannot do that, because then your only spender is Devouring Plague which is strictly ST. You got to have a way to dump Insanity in an AoE situation.

11

Unlimited Starfire which cleaves. While waiting for your astral to fill up.

Unlimited and instant talented Sunfire which cleaves. While waiting for your astral to fill up.

Talented Moonfire, unlimited and instant, which cleaves.

Also, BM Hunter, it is called Multishot which cleaves (clearly) and then enables pets cleave. Instant cast, you AoE from the word go.

12

While i understand the problem with shadowcrash and mobs dying too fast, this will sicnificantly be less a problem, the higher keys you go.

Heck, even when i want a warm up +18 key i sometimes get mad because everything dies too fast. Playerpower now is insane and we are a ramp class.

A lot of ppl whish to play this one, but its very very bad compared to

this one. And even this, you never ever want to talent into tormented spirits. Auspicious ghostys are the way to go.

The “flow” gets 100% better, the higher keys you play. This is why we struggle in the beginning of every expansion but it still continues.

specs does NOT need to be functually the same. Its boring, SP is fine how it is. Blizzard will never recover from their fear to buff our main dots, so they found quite a good way to buff up our damage.

13

That would efectively delete any small utility we have left my dude.

No you cannot. Dark void is useless and death cleave isnt used anywhere besides maybe pvp.

That wont ever happend. If it mass aplies vt…Its raw damage and insnaity gen is useful even in ST…so ye you won spec out of it…ever.

14

But that mind sear back then did no damage at all… i agree with you that it still need a change but atleast its doing dmg now

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Shadow Crash > Void Torrent > Mind Seer > then everything else to build up for another mind sear. Shadow’s aoe is amazing since the latest buffs. I think this mind seer is amazing, feels great to press.

Also just wait a sec with shadow crash, halo as a filler while the tank groups them up.

17

Its ok if you dont have to move every second global due to some bs on the ground etc. Thats my biggest pet peeve with aoe atm. But the numbers are there.

18

Yh but thats the same with every spec (except BM hunters). Some are better with movement than others but everyone suffers from it (except BM hunters).

I can’t play windwalker anymore after being so frustrated on council, standing away from the boss waiting for lightning circle things to spawn 4 secs after the timers said they will, watching all the casters chucking spells while im effectively afk.

19

htt ps://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/994413362257612820/1073595066603544616/my_ideads_after_drangonflight.jpg

Heres my idead for the rework after DF :stuck_out_tongue:

20

I almost agree about SC - make it targeted, yes, cost insanity? No, it already has a 30 sec CD. The insanity spenders are Mind Sear and Devouring Plague. A warrior has “big gun” 1.5 mic CD abilities, the cost is the 1.5 mins. In general mana, rage, energy etc are for your every-day spells, and the long CD spells are “free”.