Before we get started, just letting you all know that, while I do have history in pve, I primarily do pvp.
Separate Voidform and Void Eruption: Let Void Eruption be an instant aoe(possible insanity cost and/or short cd?) that with Searing Nightmare talent to apply our dots(or even just Pain) to targets hit, and have Voidform be instant, like an overloaded shadowform, and just have it require x insanity, where the more insanity spent, the benefit is stronger - this way, it could still be used immediately if needed(for the sake of pve/m+. Also, Currently, Void Bolt replaces Void Eruption on cast, while Kyrian covenant’s Boon of the Ascended’s Ascended Blast replaces Mind Flay - What if we had Void Bolt replace Mind Flay, and Eruption be replaced by a Shadow/Void Nova of sorts(while in Voidform? (I see what you tried to do blizzard, Boon of the Ascended was the Voidform we weren’t given )
Being the original leech class, I’d like to see more done with Vampiric Embrace and Void Shield(pvp talent): Possibly remove Vampiric Embrace as a cd, and make it into a permanent leech buff(like we had waay back when), or for Void Shield, I’m thinking something along the lines of what warlocks have(Soul Leech/Demon Skin), and removing regular Power Word: Shield from shadowpriests. (For the sake of pvp, this should also make up for some of our awkward squishiness, being an immobile caster.)
Being a dot class, our dots don’t feel very impactful right now, so: How about adding a build-up mechanic, that procs off dots, or Mind Flay(possibly with more stacks on crits)? That would then be consumed by Mind Blast for additional damage(or other).
For a class with an insanity theme, we don’t feel very… insane: Our insanity at the moment is just sitting there, spent only by Devouring Plague. In Legion, we had a mechanic in which we grew stronger if we could keep insanity above certain threshholds. Balance Druids(Eclipse) and Arcane mages(mana management) have delved somewhat into this, I’m thinking something could be done with this, for our Insanity(ex. movement speed, haste, damage reduction, that would then start to turn sour, if we go too high, and then let us have options other than Devouring Plague as spenders, that would then let us manage or mitigate our venture into insanity.
Quality of life talent changes, and utility for pvp and pve…: Mind Trauma is right on theme with what(I at least feel) a shadowpriest wants to be. I would like to see this talent(possibly slightly reduced) made baseline(which would also give an actual purpose to using tickle-flay. Void Origins(pvp talent) baseline, refer to point 1. that I mentioned earlier for Void Eruption/Form. Psychic Horror, in pvp(perhaps with the exception of few specific teams), this talent is absolutely mandatory, and in pve, it has little use, if at all - this too could be made baseline, and then possibly have Dominant Mind(talent), or Psychic Voice(talent) take it’s place. Lastly, Psychic Link(talent), this too could easily be baseline, to help a little with our lack of aoe.
Shadow Crash, it could be so much more, but it’s just not: As it stands, I don’t know a single priest that actively likes the ability - it’s currently being used as a filler move for weak aoe, or as insanity generator - Thoughts on letting it apply dots to targets it hit? would again help a little with getting going when faced with aoe scenarios… (that, or bring back cascade)
Pvp: Greater Fade and Dispersion are indeed powerful defensive options, but both also effectively crowd controls ourselves - Dispersion let’s us move around, but we cannot cast anything in it, and in Greater Fade, we cannot take hostile actions - Suggestion, Remove Greater Fade from shadowpriests, and replace it with “Incorporeal” which would either give us a flat damage reduction, or give attacks a passive chance to outright miss us(I mean… we’re already made of shadow…) and then make Intangibility(talent) baseline, and possibly replace the talent with something like a shadow version of Angel’s Mercy that instead of affecting Desperate Prayer, affected Dispersion. Lastly, I don’t know about you guys, but while I do like the idea of having illusory pets as shadowpriest, I don’t have any particular like for Psyfiend(pvp talent), so I’m thinking we could get rid of that, and have the mortal wounds debuff be applied on Devouring Plague instead.
Special mentions: Surrender to Madness(talent): While I really like the idea behind this ability, something that outright kills us, while not granting equal power to compensate, just doesn’t feel that good(100% insanity generation sounds good on paper, but even with that Devouring Plague is incredibly underwhelming…). Let the cast while moving part apply to regular Voidform(yes, I went there), and then have the actual Surrender to Madness(talent) act something like what Voidform did in Legion, where it starts rapidly draining insanity but stacking a power buff of some sort depending on how long you can keep it going(obviously not as strong as in legion, which got ridiculous in the end.)
For possible complete reworks, maybe in 10.0: Pet class?
New mastery based on current set bonus: Let us spawn illusory minions
that helps us on aoe or single target based on spell used(similar to current demonology). Or, evolving on the idea of current Surrender to Madness(talent):
Make it a playstyle? Our abilities cost health, but also return some(health management?).
(Thanks to user Quátin for some of the ideas)
I’m no mathematician, and I’m definitely no scientist, so do let me know if any of my ideas sounds like the ramblings of a madman(heh). Thoughts?
Lots of good ideas in here. Illusory minions aoe’ing the target was what I hoped tier 4 was when I read it, but now there’s a spiteful shade stuck on my head. I don’t see priest as a pet class, but I can definitely see illusions/hallucinations working for this.
Spending health is fine (blood magic??) but not like the damage from SW:Death since it is sometimes a massive crit that kills me, unpredictably :'D
I for some reason can actually see us function a bit more like a blood dk with powerful self healing (maybe because blood is my go to when shadow is in the gutter). Moving us in closer to the enemy while slashing at them with shadowy vampiric powers. But that would probably be better suited for a 4th spec
But in general I wouldn’t mind seeing us move away from some of the 5 different spec identities shadow have, shadow, void, mind, vampiric and plague. Putting all focus into 2 of those identities, could potentially remove the spec confusion and help the dev hone in on what we are and what we can do. With that, there would be several ways to go about the spec, but I would personally like to see Vampiric - mind or plague combo
I’m the type to fangirl over the void/mind/madness side of the shadowpriest, and would love for the direction we’re going in to be headed towards us making our victims gradually more insane(debuffs and build-ups in various forms?). But I’d honestly be happy with just about anything, as long as our identy isn’t split between multiple spec identities, as you said.
As I also touched a bit upon in the post, part of what I enjoy about the Spriest
is the madness aspect - so it’d be kind of interesting if we made the enemy see “real” illusions
Yes that is truly simple, but in reality it’s not that simple.
Voidform in it self isn’t bad, the problem is that it’s 2 spells and a CD tied to a single button, the best solution there would be separate all functions into their own spells.
As for the dot’s, I agree that they need more damage, but the problem there is spread cleave, blizzard have said that they really don’t like spread cleave, and I see the logic behind moving away from it, due to there only being 3 specs that can really do it. The solution here would be to make them mass applyable baseline, and add in something that modifies how our abilities interact with the target. Or there’s always the the simplest solution to the dot problem, DELETE them.
they should delete void form in it self you push it and its gone after 10 secs. Whats the value in a thing you use for 10 sec and also you got to cast for 1.5 sec?
dot’s deals damage at lest.
Not even retribution feels this backwards they just push wings and bom you go loads dps in 1 second.
They could buff so mind sear did searing nightmare as a passive when you mind sear targets.
Even monks whose the lowest dps at the momment feels better in cleave. They just push their spinning crane kick bom top dps in aoe same with warlocks hellfire.
As I said it’s 2 attacks and a CD baked into one button, if they made all 3 things separate spells, the cast time would be on eruption, which could then become an aoe spender, VB potentially gone or merged into MB or it should replace DP as our ST spender. And then lastly VF as an instant cast CD with a nice flat 20% additional damage for 15 sec, and if it keeps a relatively short cd it would be a pretty strong short interval burst CD. I would probably give it a min CD as to make it line up better with our other CDs, and that way it would have a 25% uptime, and having it that way would benefit us for both aoe and ST.
And removing the buff side of it, would only hurt us even more. Because if we have no on demand damage increase, we would probably be invited into m+ even less due to not being able to nuke down trash packs. And going back to static dps should be a no go for you, seeing as the last time we were static, we were a absolute bottom tier spec
And why did you feel the need to bring whining into a productive post?
Considering shadows 3 targets cleave is the worst blizzard are not thinking at all that much and this is at 282 ilvl https:// www.noxxic. com/wow/rankings/dps/real/3/282/dps
and this is for 252 ilvl https:// www.noxxic. com/wow/rankings/dps/real/3/252/dps
No that’s you. It needs to be SEPARATED into individual abilities rather than being 3 in 1! Removing it will flat line our dps, and that would kill us even more in this burst based meta we’re in
You’re finally starting to understand what I’m saying I see. But on top of that I want Void Eruption to become an aoe spender, and have that take the cast time, while VF takes the CD. And I would probably move Void Bolt into DP’s place
And that’s where eruption would be a great aoe spender
They just need to change Searing nightmare’s name to Erupting nightmare and make it passive and apply both dots
And then some overall major tweaks to our proc stuff, which I would say just change Apparitions to proc from any shadow damage and Dark Thoughts procs be for a free spender ability instead of a free mind blast, and add mind blast to the ability list that can proc it
I get it. You’re a broken record. Embrace the Void wiggles tentacles
I don’t know where the hate is coming from, probably that it was a later addition but this talk brings nothing. Just make it an option in specs, along with some more cool void magic. I have lots of ideas. They’re mostly about tentacles.
And if, in 10.5 super DoT plague priest spec becomes more viable than void bolts everywhere I will probably spec for it and remember the extra tentacles with fondness.
)
