WoW demon Cortyn was fed up with the shadow priest in World of Warcraft. But then the tier set came and changed everything.
Even though my first real character was a fire mage, I have always been a “priest main” since the launch of “The Burning Crusade”. I liked the idea of a shadow priest, especially the story behind it always appealed to me. I enjoyed the playstyle, I liked being the “mana battery” in Burning Crusade and later just a pesky DOT machine.
The shadow priest definitely peaked in Legion. The playstyle was fast, comparatively complex, and the abilities felt really great after the rework, plus we had our “knife” Xal’atath, for whom we were happy to kill everyone.
Shadow priest became increasingly strange
But with Battle for Azeroth, I received my first real setback. The class became slower, the abilities somehow no longer worked well together, and the playstyle I loved so much with Legion was gone. With enough tempo, you could compensate for that at the end of the expansion – but the same problem arose in Shadowlands.
And honestly, that drove me nuts. In boss fights and fights with few enemies, it is quite manageable to be a useful member of the group, I can keep up well with the other DPS.
But as soon as it comes to fights with 6, 7, or even more enemies, I have to rotate like crazy if I want to keep up.
Yes, I know. Some will now say: “But DPS is not everything, don’t focus so much on it.”
But I can’t. For me, it is part of the enjoyment of the game to be a good group member who fulfills their part of the requirements. If I fall far behind other DPS classes, it annoys me. It gnaws at me, no matter if it is due to the current balancing or my playstyle. I am well aware that not every class can be on top in every situation, but if I fall too far behind, it robs me of the fun of the game. I am too ambitious for that and also enjoy having to perform. I like the feeling of knowing: I have fulfilled my part here. I actively contribute to the group’s success. I am useful to the team.
The current dungeon affix “Encrypted” doesn’t help either. Because 2 of the 3 floating runes that some groups have, I am not allowed to attack. This means: “Tabbing through and dotting everything” is not possible. I have to manually click on each mob or its nameplate to not be the fool who killed the Wo-relic in a boss fight.
What annoys me the most is that in situations where I fall behind with large groups of enemies, I know (and now demon hunter fans should cover their ears or eyes): If I simply switched to my demon hunter, I would only need to press 5 buttons and could easily keep up. Eye laser, fire aura, rush through the enemies, reduce cooldown of eye laser and repeat until everything is destroyed.
Actually, I wanted to delete my priestess and let her sit at least until the next addon.
But then my tier set came.
The shadow laser made everything better
Because I was quite lucky with loot in our raid, I got the 4-piece bonus of my set fairly early.
And to be honest, that changed everything for me.
For those who don’t know the bonuses:
- 2-piece bonus: The use of ‘Devouring Plague’ has a 40% chance to grant ‘Dark Thoughts’.
- 4-piece bonus: When you consume ‘Dark Thoughts’, your shadow is animated after a short delay and deals all enemies within 10 meters of your target ~3,000 shadow damage over 6 seconds.
A “Dark Thought” is a buff that allows me to cast a Mind Spike (a direct damage attack) without a cast time and not have to wait on the cooldown. Once “Dark Thoughts” is triggered, I immediately have a Mind Spike ready.
With each of these instant Mind Spikes, “my shadow is animated” – and wow, this effect looks cool. A big black shadow rises from my character’s back, lingers for a second, and then starts firing a black beam at my current target, dealing area damage.
Just the visual effect is magnificent. A big shadow ghost “spawns” from my character’s back. The already ancient spawn animation of these creatures fits so wonderfully, that it’s almost eerie. It looks as if this being is carving a way to freedom out of my Draenei’s back, enjoying a moment of its freedom and then firing the death laser.
Additionally, the “shoulder shadow” is not limited to 6 seconds. If I manage to consume multiple “Dark Thoughts” in a row, the shadow will also stay longer. I have already managed to extend the shadow’s timer to 12, 18, 24, and even 30 seconds.
And that feels immensely satisfying. The tier set has solidly compensated for one of the biggest drawbacks of the shadow priest, namely its lack of mobility. Not only can I cast an instant Mind Spike much more often – and move a few meters to avoid effects – but my shadow Klaus from the shoulder also keeps casting, whether I stand, run, or dance.
In fights with a single target, the shadow makes up between 9% and 11% of my damage – sometimes more, sometimes less. In fights with many stacked enemies, it can even climb to up to 15%.
The only downside is that the tier set hardly changes the playstyle of the shadow priest. While other classes suddenly have to use new rotations or priorities for their abilities, the shadow priest essentially does exactly the same – just the difference being that “Mind Spike” occasionally lights up more frequently and wants to be thrown in.
But that’s okay. Because the feeling of gameplay that arises solely from the presence of the shadow spirit rising from my back makes up for it clearly.
I feel powerful when the spirit bursts forth from my character and fires its black death laser at the enemies, even when I have to dodge an ability or get stunned in the interim of a boss monologue. The shadow spirit doesn’t know breaks – and it seriously does a great job.
If Blizzard brings similarly strong tier sets with cool effects in the next expansion, I will probably remain loyal to my priestess for a long time. Because this tier set alone has ensured that I want to continue playing her at least in this season.
So please: More of that. A lot more.
Have you had similar experiences with tier sets? How do you like the bonuses of your class?
