wow Major Changes/Revamp for Shadow Priests in the Shadowlands Beta

[Starym 3,801]

 

It seems the Russian leak was true! Here come the massive Shadow Priest class changes, includin g a Void Form revamp, more Devouring Plague tweaks, new spells, changes to basic spells, a new passive, baseline spec changes and a lot more!

Shadow Priest (source)

Greetings,

We’ve heard your feedback on Shadow Priests and spent some time performing more extensive changes to the spec – including changes to baseline skills and talents. Most importantly, we’ve taken a deeper look at Void Form.

Voidform

Along with Insanity, Void Form was introduced in Legion as a central component of a Shadow Priest redesign that explored the fantasy of tapping into dark, mind-twisting void magic for temporary power. From a gameplay standpoint, this was expressed as building up Insanity, entering Void Form, then battling against decaying Insanity to prolong your time in this powerful state. This design has not been a clear winner for several players as we often receive feedback that people do not enjoy fighting the resource decay in order to inflict reasonable damage. On the other hand, we also hear from people who enjoy Void Form but feel it is not transformative enough. Over time, the design has proved problematic and Void Form uptime has dominated the spec, going far beyond our original intention. Now, any talents, items, legendaries, etc. that do not feed into Void Form are considered undesirable. We want time in Void Form to feel more impactful and as a result, we are limiting the time you can undergo the transformation by applying a cooldown. By default, the ability will no longer have the decaying resource mechanic, but that gameplay will be more appropriately placed in the redesigned talent, Legacy of the Void , so that players can have the option to choose the “legacy” feel of Void Form.

Devouring Plague

Feedback suggested the duration of Devouring Plague was too long. While we reduced the duration from its historic 21 second duration to 12 seconds, we agree this still feels too long so we’re reducing it further to 6 seconds. We’ve also fixed bugs that prevented Devouring Plague from scaling with Haste or Critical Strike and we’ve also increased its damage.

General Gameplay

We’re introducing a new passive called Dark Thoughts that adds a baseline proc in the rotation which we feel spices up the general rotation. We want damage over time effects to matter to Shadow Priests, so we’ve made it so Dark Thoughts and other mechanics interact with that core theme.

Talents

We’ve gone through a number of talents and made adjustments in an effort to make choices a bit more competitive in a variety of situations. Unfurling Darkness and Psychic Link support Shadow Priests multi-dotting strength, while Damnation and Surrender to Madness provide tools for Shadow Priests to quickly burst targets down when the encounter demands it.

Lastly, we want to spotlight the new talent, Searing Nightmare. Searing Nightmare can assist Shadow Priests in situations like Mythic+ where higher sustained AOE could be useful.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and your unending passion.

Baseline Changes

• Void Eruption ’s cast time is reduced by 40%.
• Mind Blast reduces cooldown of Mind Blast by 7.5 seconds (was 7 seconds).
• Shadow Word: Death no longer generates Insanity.
• Shadowy Apparitions re-designed – When you use Mind Blast, Devouring Plague or Void Bolt you also create a shadowy version of yourself that floats towards all targets afflicted by your Vampiric Touch dealing Shadow damage. Critical Strikes will cause two Shadowy Apparitions to be created.
• Voidform
  • Now has a 90 second cooldown and now increases damage by 20% and lasts for 15 seconds.
  • Voidform no longer reduces the cooldown of Mind Blast, but now refreshes the cooldown of Mind Blast and you gain 2 charges while in Voidform.
  • You no longer gain Haste every 0.5 seconds while inVoidform.
• Devouring Plague
  • Devouring Plague ’s duration reduced to 6 seconds and damage increased by 50%.
    • Developers’ note: Lowering the duration of the damage over time effect to make it punchier so that sequential Devouring Plague’s don’t overlap (accounting for potential overflow).
  • Devouring Plague will now properly critically strike.
  • Devouring Plague is now a level 20 spell.
• New Spell
  • Dark Thoughts (Passive) (Level 16) – For each of your damage over time effects on the target, your Mind Flay and Mind Sear have a 2% chance to instantly add a charge of Mind Blast, causing it to be instantly cast, and allowing it to be cast while channeling Mind Flay or Mind Sear within 6 seconds.
    • Dark Thoughts can stack up to 5 times for situations where the Shadow Priest will proc many in a short time.

Talents

• Tier 15
  • Shadowy Insight has been removed.
  • Shadow Word: Void has been removed.
  • Death and Madness is now available on this tier.
  • New Talent: Unfurling Darkness – After casting Vampiric Touch on a target, your next Vampiric Touch is instant cast and deals 155% SP Shadow damage instantly. This effect cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds.
• Tier 40
  • New Talent: Psychic Link – Mind Blast deals 60% of its damage to all targets afflicted by your Vampiric Touch within 40 yards.
• Tier 45
  • Lingering Insanity has been removed.
  • Dark Void has been removed.
  • New Talent: Searing Nightmare – Instantly deals Shadow damage to all enemies around the target and afflicts them with Shadow Word: Pain . If the enemy is already afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain , Searing Nightmare deals double damage. Only usable while channeling Mind Sear .
  • New Talent: Damnation – Instantly afflicts the target with Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague free of cost. 45 seconds cooldown.
  • Void Torrent – No longer pauses your Insanity while used, but now refreshes the duration of your Shadow damage over time effects on the target while its channeling.
• Tier 50
  • Dark Ascension has been removed.
  • Legacy of the Void re-designed – Voidform no longer has a duration. However, during Voidform your Insanity will drain increasingly fast until it reaches 0 and Voidform ends. Void Form increases spell damage by an additional 5%.
  • Surrender to Madness – Reduced to a 90 second cooldown.
  • New Talent: Ancient Madness – Entering Voidform increases your critical strike chance by 30% for 15 seconds, reducing its effect by 2% per second.

PvP Talents

• New Talent: Lasting Plague – Increases the duration of Devouring Plague by 6 seconds.

All Shadowlands Class Changes

Death Knight	Mage	Rogue
Death Knight 9.0.1 Class Changes	Mage 9.0.1 Class Changes	Rogue 9.0.1 Class Changes
Demon Hunter	Monk	Shaman
Demon Hunter 9.0.1 Class Changes	Monk 9.0.1 Class Changes	Shaman 9.0.1 Class Changes
Druid	Paladin	Warlock
Druid 9.0.1 Class Changes	Paladin 9.0.1 Class Changes	Warlock 9.0.1 Class Changes
Hunter	Priest	Warrior
Hunter 9.0.1 Class Changes	Priest 9.0.1 Class Changes	Warrior 9.0.1 Class Changes

[durdyenglish 298]

wowzers... seems like a decent start

[JLS07 2]

OMG... Finally !!  @Starymthank you so much for the post, and thanks to Blizzard for such an amazing changes. 

[Dejo93 1,023]

I hope they finally fix it

 

Also, is it just me or is it always the Russians or the Chinese that come up with these leaks?

[miggfo 12]

Well, this is disappointing, although it could be worse. While I'm glad the real void form is still around, now it is less fun because it wont have insanity/VF related talents accompanying it (lingering insanity, void torrent's pausing effect, etc... was excited for baseline SWD doing good damage and generating insanity) and no longer has escalating haste so it is much less rewarding feeling to stay in it.

Back to being a generic caster spec- put on dots, react to procs and hit things on cooldown and dump devouring plague occasionally. May still be decently fun, but nothing special at all.

Edited August 5, 2020 by miggfo

[Steveson 193]

2 hours ago, miggfo said:

Well, this is disappointing, although it could be worse. While I'm glad the real void form is still around, now it is less fun because it wont have insanity/VF related talents accompanying it (lingering insanity, void torrent's pausing effect, etc... was excited for baseline SWD doing good damage and generating insanity) and no longer has escalating haste so it is much less rewarding feeling to stay in it.

Back to being a generic caster spec- put on dots, react to procs and hit things on cooldown and dump devouring plague occasionally. May still be decently fun, but nothing special at all.

You do realize that this Voidform-based rotation was one of the reasons Shadow Priests sucked all these years since Legion rework?
It's not fun and comparing the dps to other classes like Havoc DH or BM Hunter (who are way easier to learn and to play as than SP) Shadow Priests were deep in the garbage bin.

[miggfo 12]

12 hours ago, Steveson said:

You do realize that this Voidform-based rotation was one of the reasons Shadow Priests sucked all these years since Legion rework?
It's not fun and comparing the dps to other classes like Havoc DH or BM Hunter (who are way easier to learn and to play as than SP) Shadow Priests were deep in the garbage bin.

"Sucked"? Maybe for you. It was fun as hell for me, outside of open world- although open world got much better in late legion and in BFA.
 

As for DPS, Shadowpriest's DPS history has been quite good, what sort of selective memory do you have? Out of 8 patches - 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, etc - they were top 5 DPS for at least 5 of them, and for most of those they were top 3 if not #1. That's *phenomenal.*

 

Ultimately, balance isnt the most important thing to me, especially since banking your class choices/class mechanic evaluation on balance is just rolling the dice on something ephemeral- although the dice have been in shadow's favor, which goes against your point. After playing lots of MMOs, having a unique, fun design is what I value. Pursuing higher and higher void stacks has always been fun and interesting for me and is very context sensitive- you have to adapt to the boss- rather than being rote. Being rewarded with more and more power(haste, crit, etc) for lasting longer is satisfying, nuanced and exciting. The new shadowpriest has no defining mechanic, it really seems like just a bunch of dots and cooldowns slapped together. It can still be alright, but so far it is below average for a DPS design in WoW.
 

Lastly, this isnt related, but would you mind replying back in this previous thread?  I would like to hear about exciting DPS designs in ESO like you mentioned, because I am aware of basically none.

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by miggfo

[Steveson 193]

2 hours ago, miggfo said:

After playing lots of MMOs, having a unique, fun design is what I value. Pursuing higher and higher void stacks has always been fun and interesting for me and is very context sensitive- you have to adapt to the boss- rather than being rote. The new shadowpriest has no defining mechanic, its just a bunch of dots and cooldowns slapped together.

"Unique" does not automatically mean "Good" you know. The only people who like SP at it's current state are masochists.

Also i see that you are a very familiar knobhead from before. So now it's obvious there is no reason trying to talk any sense into you.
Bye bye

 

[Seksi 208]

This is a full and deep rework. People who love the current void form / chasing high stacks mechanic will hate it, people who hated it will love it, or at least enjoy it more.

[Asakash 22]

So, if I get it correctly, there will only be a single target ressource spender? That would be boring.

I'm one of those, who really liked the current void form. The changes, however, don't sound too bad to me, it just get's a bit more generic.  

[durdyenglish 298]

14 hours ago, Dejo93 said:

I hope they finally fix it

 

Also, is it just me or is it always the Russians or the Chinese that come up with these leaks?

They have really focused hacking groups, it would seem.

[durdyenglish 298]

1 hour ago, Asakash said:

So, if I get it correctly, there will only be a single target ressource spender? That would be boring.

I'm one of those, who really liked the current void form. The changes, however, don't sound too bad to me, it just get's a bit more generic.  

Legacy of the Void talent will allow you to retain some elements of the current, live build.

[durdyenglish 298]

5 hours ago, Steveson said:

"The only people who like SP at it's current state are masochists."

To be fair, it fits with the spec theme.

[Teufel 331]

If it finally gets priests one good spec in M+ - good for them.

[Asakash 22]

21 minutes ago, durdyenglish said:

Legacy of the Void talent will allow you to retain some elements of the current, live build.

True, but the question is, will it be good? If it's the best option, then it won't change much, if not nobody will use it.

Blizzard will never get, that most players, at least if they don't play casual only, will choose what's numerically the best, and not what is the most fun.

[durdyenglish 298]

5 hours ago, Asakash said:

True, but the question is, will it be good? If it's the best option, then it won't change much, if not nobody will use it.

Blizzard will never get, that most players, at least if they don't play casual only, will choose what's numerically the best, and not what is the most fun.

Pure simulation exists in a vacuum - players will/should choose the talent that practically works best for them, whether that is in regards to throughput or gameplay mechanics. Personally, unless a talent is absolutely garbage under-tuned (which is unusual as most optimal talents are really only 2-3% better, at best, from others on the row), I never pick a talent that forces a gameplay style I don't prefer.