Shadow Priests Prepare for Lackluster PvE Damage and Little Utility

The Identity Crisis: Where Did Our Raid Spot Go?

"Go to the classic wow shadow priest discord server and you will realize that 99% of people who actually mained shadow priest in vanilla/tbc/wrath aren't happy at all. Basically we are living on hope that there is some book or class quest that gives us vampiric touch or something... We used to bring a lot of utility to raids: mana return, passive healing, a bonus magic damage debuff on our target, and an additional shadow damage debuff specifically benefiting warlocks. We’ve now lost all of that, with Vampiric Embrace being the only thing that remains."

"An Inferior Warlock": The September 30 Developer Note Backlash

"As Shadow, Priests can harness the power of darkness to deal powerful damage-over-time (DoT) but lack the full utility in that role that could be found on a class such as the Warlock."

"Yet again we can’t have nice things… in fact… we can’t have anything," wrote user `Ok_Grape_3600`. "Absolute insult to injury in Blizz’s update where they view SPriest as basically an inferior warlock... unless our damage is absolutely bonkers, then what incentive is there to take a shadow priest to a raid because we currently don’t have any of the tools that made us attractive. Honestly just adding vampiric touch alone would solve a lot of the issue. I don’t want huge damage numbers on SPriest; I just want a compelling reason for us to be considered."

"It honestly feels like blizzard doesn't know what to do with SP so they just made inferior zero utility warlock... and left it at that."

Vampiric Embrace Under Fire: 30 Seconds On, 30 Seconds Off

"Making VE 30 seconds uptime, 30 sec downtime seems to be because the talent is so frequently broken when Spriests deal good damage, it converts to increasingly OP healing as players’ stats increase, but all the other support we used to have disappeared in Forever. We offer nothing but single target damage and little windows of 30 sec group healing that might not be needed, when an AoEer could just be blasting and stunning mobs instead."

"It's only 30 seconds with a 1 minute cooldown healing which you will provide to the caster group which will not take much damage anyways, so 90% of that healing is wasted. In the end warlock will heal even more with healthstones as it can be used in a panic moment when you actually need it."

The Rotation Dilemma: Devouring Plague and DoT Juggling

"I think the main problem with Shadow currently is that we only have one dot, which is too little for a dot class. I would like to see them reintroduce Vampiric Touch, giving us two dots and then a situational one through DP... SWP and VT has been a staple for many years, and I think it really improved Shadow gameplay."

The Counter-Argument: A 1v1 PvP Powerhouse

"Spriests strengths are in one-on-ones mostly. I love doing world PvP and duels, so that's what it's good for. There's something in the kit that works against every other class with Silence for casters, Inner Fire against physical melee and ranged, various self healing methods since it's a hybrid class, and Fear for everyone... It's one of the most diverse and difficult specs to master for PvP."

"To be honest, we don't know how it feels. Sp needs a lot of levels and talents to start working, that we don't have access to at the moment," argued `bloin13`. "Sure it looks like sp has lost some of its utility, but in return they are actually a viable (dare I say good?) dps."

What Do Shadow Priests Want Before Launch?