For Shadow Priests, there are some new features in World of Warcraft. Some things are good – but much still needs improvement.
With Patch 11.2 Spirits of K’aresh, everything revolves around the Void, and this benefits a class that has a special affinity for this cosmic power – the Priest. In their Shadow specialization, there is a small rework to remove the most pressing issues and to try out some new ideas.
Some of the ideas sound quite cool. The overhaul of the “Capstone” talents, that is, the various Idols of the Old Gods, sounds really interesting and significantly more sensible than the previous versions.
What will be improved? Basically, Blizzard is addressing many of the “pain points” of Shadow Priests. The most important new features include:
- Shadow Bolt now has 2 charges and only a 15-second cooldown, but now only affects 6 targets with Vampiric Touch.
- Mind Spike is being removed. Mind Flay will become mandatory.
- Activating Voidstream transforms the spell into Void Bolt for 20 seconds, a new spell that hits the primary target and all nearby enemies.
- The final talents (the Idols) are being revised to be useful in more situations. In particular, the Idol of N’Zoth is now often powerful.
What is still not so good? The community quickly noticed that although the new talent tree contains many good ideas, it seems undeveloped and unfinished in some areas. For instance, the Shadow Priest still has many “2-point talents” for effects that only cost one point for other classes.
Also, the Shadow Priest remains one of the few classes that has to make a stark choice between “damage” and “utility” when selecting talents – unfortunately, this will not change even with the rework. Other classes and specializations (like the Paladin) have received much better reworks, where individual talents interact more smoothly.
For many, it seems clear: Blizzard needs to go back to the drawing board.
Cortyn says: To be honest, it’s still not perfect. The rework feels a bit half-hearted since some abilities just don’t fit together anymore. The spell “Dark Ascendance,” which increases the damage of non-periodic spells for a few seconds, feels quite out of place without the existence of Mind Spike. Because Dark Ascendance increases the damage of non-periodic spells, and those are only Mind Spike, Void Bolt, and Void Bolt. All these abilities have cooldowns, so you can only use a fraction of Dark Ascendance effectively.
Overall, I am looking forward to the rework, as the current state was more about playing out of duty and less for fun – which at least gave me some cool experiences in Zelda. I hope that the Shadow Priest will reclaim its status as my favorite class, even if Blizzard needs more than one attempt to do so. As long as they are still trying, I am optimistic.
Maybe the new tier set will help too – it has saved the Priest in the past.
