First of all, this post may refer to certain events shown in the mini-movie uploaded on WCM: http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=108131
It seems that previous to every single patch/expansion in WoW, I grow tired enough of my Priest to almost quit - However, I usually manage to hang on by levelling another character in the process for the sake of having something to do - This time it was no different, with the bulk of my time spent making 3 x Battleground movies highlighting Shadow’s struggle in PvP as well as levelling a Mage for fun, waiting for 3.1 to come around so I could sink my teeth into the new changes promised by Blizzard.
I avoided PTR like the plague, and held off on reading updates and notes, purely because of my past experiences of classes always end up as “We will give you X, Y, Z” but by the time the changes comes through, they’ve been changed to “A, B, C”.
So, it’s nearly the 6th day of 3.1 and what else is there to say? Loving it!
- Shadow now allows for our DoT’s to Crit.
- The range of ‘Silence’ has been increased.
- Spirit is now a Base spell for all Priests, regardless of spec.
- Dispersion now removes all Snares and renders you immune to further Snares for the full duration.
- Improved Devouring Plague - Now inflicts a percentage of it’s total DoT damage as soon as you cast it, as well as having increased Damage Over Time.
- ShadowForm now reduces damage from ALL sources by 15% - Not just Physical Damage.
- Divine Hymn has been revamped from it’s old AoE Stun + HoT into a ‘Smart’ channel heal. Hymn of Hope also revamped, increasing mana gained and adding +20% Maximum mana for a short period of time.
- ShadowFiend - No longer has high resistance to attacks, though it’s HP has been upped to about 15k, hits harder and can phase/teleport to a target on demand - Attacks restore mana ‘regardless’ of the state of the target, so even if you use it against a bubbled opponent, you will still regen mana per ShadowFiend ‘Hit’.
- Vampiric Touch now inflicts damage if dispelled, similar to Unstable Affliction though considerably weaker and without a silencing effect.
- Shadow Word: Pain restores 5% base mana to the caster if it’s dispelled.
- Psychic Horror - On Demand 3 second Stun//10 Second Disarm on 2min CD — (LoS Required)
Naturally, Psychic Horror is the most anticipated change of the lot, seeing as SPriests suffered the major problem of horrible mobility against Melee. The forums had been awash with complaints about PH being upped from 1min CD (Old PTR) to 2min (Official), though any ShadowPriest worth their weight in salt would have regarded this is an expected change and won’t be put off by it in the slightest.
Also please remember that the large majority of the changes are greatly dependant on talent choice - We don’t get this bundle of changes rolled into one as most are granted by uses of talent points, such as Shadow Affinity (Mana restored on SW:P Dispel) etc
As soon as I had the patch installed, I charged headfirst into the Battlegrounds to try out the changes… It took a short while to settle on a spec that suits my playstyle but I chose to convert back to my old Imp.Mana Burn spec and made sure I had enough room for most of the new changed talents to try them out, and boy was I happy.
Apart from the occasional bug or ’strange occurance’ things are pretty solid so far, though regarding PH, I’m not sure if it’s a bug or just lag in general, but there seems to be a 1-second delay between casting PH and the effect itself - For example, if I cant PH on a target, they wont enter the 3sec stun for anything up to 1sec after I’ve cast it… Initially I was put off by this, though after some testing I realised how this could infact be quite a nice opportunity for manufacturing life-savers and escapes… For example, in the movie linked above, during a kiting session vs Rogue & DeathKnight, the Rogue was without Clos and sprinting after me… I knew the next move would be a Gouge or Kidneyshot so a second before they reach me I cast PH. During that 1sec delay they Gouged me, then entered PHorror 3sec Stun, which easily allowed me 3seconds to wait out the duration and gain more distance, thus saving Trinket for Blind or further stuns… Sadly I didn’t predict it would happen that way and hastily trinketted anyway, but with some practice it could definately turn up with some uses and adds a bit of flexibility seeing as it’d require pin-point accurate timing to do it without the delay… This is most likely a bug, so I won’t be suprised if it’s fixed sometime in the future.
There’s been a lot of debate about the Disarm effect, also, with 90% of Priests on the forums casually claiming that it’d encourage every melee to ’simply wear a weapon chain’ to reduce the effect by half (5seconds) however they seem to forget that Weapon Chains not only remove any Enchants on the weapons, so I strongly doubt that anyone is going to be rushing to the AH for Weapon Chains that remove their favourite enchant so that they suffer half the duration of something only Warriors/Rogues/ShadowPriests can do.
PH also has no effect on Feral Druids bar the 3second Stun, seeing as Ferals do not attack using a weapon in Feral forms, so keep that in mind when a kitty-cat comes nibbling on your heels.
The damage reduction in Shadowform is noticeable to anyone wearing decent gear, though a lot of people laughed at the change initially as they where used to being one/two shot by casters thanks to wearing toilet paper… People are quick to forget that this change also effects certain nieussances such as Ret Paladins / DeathKnights considering they inflict partial magical damage as well as hit you with sharp objects, so branding this change as useless is staple of inexperienced Priests who take everything at face value. It’s a big plus in overall damage mitigation in long fights from all damage sources and a welcome change indeed.
I could rant on all day about situational / static benefits of the changes, but let’s just say I’m 100% happy so far with testing - The one constant problem that remains is, as always, our Mana. No amount of talents are going to save ShadowPriests from being heavily mana inefficient on their own in any scenario where they are attempting to nuke - At the same time, we have the most mana restoring abilities in comparison to others, thanks to Dispersion on top of ShadowFiend (Me being a Blood Elf with Arcane Torrent is also a hugely noticeable benefit thanks to it’s mana restore, as well)… Going from what Arena Priests have been saying, it’s pretty hard not to go oom in a long fight assuming you rotate these abilities well, excluding outside sources (totems / innervate etc) so this only really applies in typical fights where you’re chewing on cooldowns like a bag of skittles. The changes to Hymn of Hope also help here, seeing as the mana regen has been increased and also increases your maximum mana by 20% for a small period of time, allowing for a nice boost if used well, for either you or your party, if you’re willing to leave ShadowForm to perform it.
Critting DoT’s allow for ShadowPriests, such as myself, who do not focus on Spellpower to still inflict moderate damage… This also helps with Devouring Plague (Improved). My Priest has around 1770 Spellpower so with or without Shadow Weaving they crit very often, with some of them ticking for up to 1500-2200 at a time (crit)… Improved Devouring Plague (when cast) hits the target for the equivelant of a DoT tick the moment you use it, and there have been many fights (With 5xShadow Weaving) where it hit for up to 2.2k the moment it’s cast it on a target, which may not seem like a lot but considering SPriests have very very few ‘Impact’ moves (MindBlast/SW:D), this can be a big help in keeping pressure up and gaining a little healing out of it in the process… Also, Critting DoT’s will, obviously, be a huge benefit on any target with Vampiric Embrace, so it’s a huge plus.
Dispersion Snare removal / immunity is very nice in general, but far sexier for any ShadowPriest with Engineering rocket boots to really add an edge to it as an escape / preventative / defensive tool rather than a plain mana restore, especially in Arena where we are still likely to be the Number 1 target on the HitList.
It’s not all roses, though, as we suffered a big hit thanks to the new changes to Fear… The damage threshold for a target under the effect of Fears / Hex etc have been greatly decreased and on a number of occasions I had people instantly break out of fear thanks to a DoT critting at the exact moment I cast it - It’s a noticeable hinderence but something we can adapt to and work around, though it’s a needed change seeing as Warlocks/SPriests would be formiddable with increased Fear Threshold and any form of critting DoT’s.
Im considering swapping my SW:P Glyph for that of Fade or Dispersion (Most likely Dispersion) and I’m struggling to choose wether I want to swap out Shield/Dispel Glyph for the other… 15 second CD on Fade would be amazing for melee fights, though I’ve managed well enough without it for now… However, reducing Dispersion CD to in arounds 2min (3min without it) would ensure that there’s always a nice rotation between Disp / Fade / PH / PS for overall defense and, of course, mana regen… Here’s hoping I make the right choice as I fully intend to get stuck into arena as soon as possible, assuming those interesting ideas that where pitched to me recently actually transpire.
Whatever happens, all I can really say is, I’m loving the changes to Shadow and I sure hope all the other Priests out there feel the same ^^
