For me, Legion had some of the best specs and for many they have always been trying to catch back up in terms of fun and feel for a class.
Legion Shadow priest was definitely one of those specs, it has gone though multiple iterations and blue has never been happy themselves with how it plays.
What made it so fun? fighting the ever demise of falling out of void form due to insanity drain. The class was well balanced for Raiding, mostly in single target boss encounter or even with add uptime which was not long enough for the dots to go out of control. and ofcourse, haste haste haste!
Problem then, mythic+ came to the scene and shadow just could not perform as it was a ramping spec and the ramp was approximately 45 seconds and maxing out at 60 seconds, without including the talent for decay of stacks lingering insanity… (everything dead and time to start again)
This meant that it could never perform, you would drop out of voidform and have to restart the rotation and never maxing your damage and having a tilted rotation in the next pull, this would be the same problem today. for example you take a big pull, everbloom on a 25 fort key. Shadow would still be ramping as the trash would be dead within 50 seconds or so.
I really think that Blue had a great spec, rather than ditching it, they should have adapted it to support m+ content.
My suggestion on a wish list.
Legion rotation was 60 seconds, you would work really hard to get to that, void torrent, mind mender had a 60 second CD. so you needed to have a 60 second rotation for it to fall back inline.
My suggestion would be to drop this to a 45 second rotation, not hard to add a talent “Mind benber and VT 15 second reduction” I also think it should be hard to get to 45 stacks, same as getting to 60 in legion. more possible with more adds.
Back in legion, you gained I think 1% haste, mastery and crit for every stack. I would buff that to 1.3% (the haste playstyle and fast rotation is what made it fun) I would cap the stacks to 45! you can stay in voidform longer but no more buffs after 45.
the next problem would be dots and the damage profile. They should be nerfed and easily spreadable. Today even in its current form shadow is frustrating to get eveything dotted. I think void bolt should spread all dots and also extended duration when cast. meaning you only apply dots once. Psycic Link should be removed and that would mean you can then buff single target damage abilities. I still think the dots should do strong damage, maybe 30% of todays strength and by the time you ramped in voidform they would once again be doing higher damage. But I dont think the dot manual spread play works so well today.
I would like to see the AOE profile being focused on Shadow apparitions. it so very fun today, watching a million come out of you. and ofcourse dots dealing a good portion to. finally I think void eruption is epic to see when playing, for example maybe nerfing it some, but every 5 voidbolts it cast again. this isnt about numbers, more fun!
We used to have a talent “surrender to madness” this would fix another issue. movement! I think that should be passive, can cast whilst moving all of the time, the challenge is in the rotation, having to move from a mechanic meant you would drop out of voidform above 40 stacks in legion.
finally, having to restart each pull, unfortunatly the game bugs out a lot when dropping combat, often taking to long, even 2 seconds would mean you drop out of voidform… therefor, you should have a spell to pause time, 99% damage reduction so it cannot be abused. insanity is paused and mindbender paused if it has been cast. going into combat, you next spell generating 50 insanity (so you can start casting again) and when casting you are unpaused. hence being able to go into the next pack sometimes ramped/
For me shadow should be a chaotic spec, just a mess everywhere. tendralls being spawned, apparitions etc.
1st talent in the tree, could be voidform, you choose between todays void form (2min cd etc) and old void form where you drain insanity and play legion. 2nd talent would be if todays voidform you can then take devouring plague, legions voidform, surrender to madness. removing devouring plague as before.
What could a CD be, for example, 3 minutes - next time you enter void form you start with maximum stacks, but your insanity drains 50% quicker, you have the aura power infusion throughout voidform,"
Just my thoughts, not sure anyone agrees with me, but wanted to share. Did anyone have a shadow priest expension where they thought it was better than legion?
