What can a shadow priest never get enough of in World of Warcraft? Exactly, tentacles. There will soon be even more of them.
Those who know me and my articles a little know that I have quite a fondness for the Old Gods in World of Warcraft. I love the Lovecraftian look with many mouths, many eyes, and far too many tentacles. This also makes up a large part of the allure of a shadow priest for me: the thematic alignment with the Old Gods.
In “Midnight”, Blizzard wants to further sharpen the class fantasy of the individual specializations. This means for the shadow priest that they will focus even more on “madness” and “Old Gods” – which also means overhauling some abilities and improving visual effects.
New for shadow priests will be the “Tentacle Slam”. This replaces the previous “Shadow Crash” and is essentially the opener for area damage. All targets hit by the tentacle will be afflicted with the usual shadow priest DoTs.
One then summons a massive tentacle from the ground and delivers a powerful blow to the victim. Bonk.
Tentacles afflict enemies with DoTs, fitting for the Old Gods
Unlike before, the Tentacle Slam not only afflicts the enemies at the target point and around it with DoTs, but also all enemies between the player’s character and the target – clearly, the tentacle strikes from the priest’s position and squashes everything in between.
I know that I will probably use the tentacle in 90% of cases just to bonk people when they have made some ambiguous remark.
With the Tentacle Slam, Blizzard continues what they already started in The War Within. Not long ago, there was a small overhaul of the shadow priest. Mechanics like the “Idol of N’Zoth”, where you increasingly afflict enemies with stronger manifestations of madness, have already been introduced. I find it extremely good that Blizzard will continue down this path – and it will likely ensure in the future that my shadow priest remains my absolute favorite. Thanks to tentacles.
Even if the first glimpse into the alpha suggests a few questionable decisions, such as the removal of Void Torrent (which is why the whole Void Weaver tree is currently not functioning), the developers’ goals seem good. More tentacles are always good. Because you know, that I would immediately sacrifice all of you for a kiss from a tentacle monster.
