The new Misery
by Eliah Hecht 
Aug 31st 2008 at 2:00PM
Many Shadow Priests are not feeling very good about the state of the class in LK right now. Yes, buffs to DPS are promised. But a lot of our utility has tanked, from Shadow Weaving not affecting other players, to Vampiric Touch being dialed down and given to other classes, to Misery. It's sad, but amusing that a talent named Misery would get nerfed this hard.
Currently, in live, Misery gives 1/2/3/4/5% increased spell damage for all players against targets affected by your Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay, and Vampiric Touch. Pretty sweet. As of the latest beta version, it's +1/2/3% spell hit for all players against targets affected by the same spells. The reason this is especially bad (besides that the last two ranks of the talent were removed) is that most casters are hit-capped when they raid, which means that additional spell hit doesn't help them at all.
So either players are going to start gearing assuming Misery will be up – which defeats Blizzard's stated goal of making it so no class is truly essential for a raid – or Misery is going to be worthless most of the time (outside of leveling maybe). This seems like a good case of a broken talent, and so I have every hope that it will get addressed during the beta. But as of right now, Misery is pretty miserable indeed.
Filed under: Priest, Talents, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jewbanks Aug 31st 2008 2:08PM
Yea.. they already have something like this with ele shamans and draenei.. but I never expected to have those hit buffs available so I geared past them.. This was pretty much the norm that I think most people did this.. though I did have one piece of gear to trade out that dropped hit for crit..
So I think youre right it makes no sense for blizzard to homogenize everything and then give this buff that if expected its necessary, otherwise its useless.
this is dumb
Nathan Aug 31st 2008 6:45PM
What I don't understand is why Shadow Priest's are now considered (pretty much) a separate class that deserve's it's own review. That deserves a spot in a Raid just for them.
They're still priests with 3 talent trees to select Talent's in.
Affliction Warlocks are'nt considered separate from other warlocks. Their DoT's still don't scale with gear, despite Death Knight's getting a talent that allows their DoT's to crit. You don't see entire WoWInsider posts on Affliction alone.
I just don't get why Shadow Priest's are somehow considered separate from Priests and deserve their own WotLK review just for them.
Varlyn Aug 31st 2008 11:34PM
@Nathan
Because Holy and Shadow Priests have completely different functions in a raid. Healing vs DPS/mana return.
Discussion and theorycraft for Holy spec priests usually have no relevance to a Shadow spec priest whatsoever.
Almyrian Aug 31st 2008 2:13PM
Well it could help those who don't have their last few points in hit rating.
Aurigo Aug 31st 2008 2:17PM
yes it could help with spell hit (the last few), but we already have a spell hit talent for ourselves, and in the end 5% dmg will most likely be more useful for the raid, as opposed to everyone gearing for a spriest to be in the raid.
Jewbanks Aug 31st 2008 2:20PM
Yea 3% is a good deal of hit too.. So itd be to much for me to not have in case there is no SPriest, but it makes me sad to waste so much free hit...
garuktaag Aug 31st 2008 8:21PM
I see the change from +dmg to +hit to be a positive game design - it's introducing options and alternative paths to the same end result. If it remained as +dmg, then raids would expect and demand that Misery be up because it would always be useful, but with +hit it's more situational .. your farming runs won't use it, but progression raids might, especially if you have a few trainees along.
Andelorn Aug 31st 2008 9:44PM
Shadow priest Misery is up at any time the priest has DoTs and Mind Flay on the target which should be 100% of the time, so it's not a case of 'putting it up'.
MM Aug 31st 2008 2:23PM
As a destruction warlock, I have gear sets for 1% hit (draenei in the party), 4% hit (draenei shaman in the party), and no hit. Hit rating from Misery frees up hit rating on the caster's gear, allowing them to switch out for a piece of gear with less spell hit but more of other stats.
The problem arises when all the casters get so much hit rating they are maxed out at all times. However, this only occurred in BC at the very end of progression. But considering that even destruction warlocks get a spell hit talent in WotLK, and that the spell hit cap is being lowered, spell hit rating will probably become a much less desirable stat than it is on live. What effect this will have on Misery's usefulness remains to be seen.
Nick S Aug 31st 2008 4:58PM
The end of progression? You mean Karazhan?
MM Aug 31st 2008 6:58PM
If you're a destruction warlock using 202 spell hit on trash mobs in T5 content, you're gimping yourself.
Nova Aug 31st 2008 2:27PM
I know this is off topic, but any chance we can get some analysis on the state of Warlocks in beta soon?
Shanic Aug 31st 2008 2:34PM
While although it is true that Blizzard won't require any particular class, they will design raids assuming you have every buff on that big list of them.
Which, since Misery is shared with Improved Faerie Fire, does mean they can assume all raids have that by default.
Hoggersbud Aug 31st 2008 3:03PM
It sucks. +Dmg is a flat out buff. +hit? Too situational. It basically relies on classes not being able to gear up properly, and I just don't like it.
Plus it'll be nearly useless outside of raids.
th4tba5t4rd Aug 31st 2008 3:09PM
You missed the fact that Improved Fairy Fire gives the exact same 3% to hit. Right now, Shadow Priests have absolutely nothing to bring that is not done by other classes, if nothing else is changed.
Jewbanks Aug 31st 2008 3:14PM
is imp faerie fire spell hit too? I didnt know that
Ves Aug 31st 2008 3:26PM
"Shadow Priests have absolutely nothing to bring that is not done by other classes"
Every spec has absolutely nothing to bring that is not done by other specs. Although it is retarded of Blizzard to let Shadowpriests bring only a maximum of 2 things when as a Boomkin I could potentially bring 5 plus Rebirth and Innervate, although bloat means doing so would make us even more OOMkin that ever before.
Phoenixblight Aug 31st 2008 3:22PM
In the beta Hit% will cap at 9% so anyone who isn't at that percentage really needs to question why they are raiding. I, for one with my Spriest will not be speccing with misery if this is the case.
Jewbanks Aug 31st 2008 3:22PM
Whats the difference in percentage hit of a 72 and a 73.. or an 82 and 83
frank Aug 31st 2008 3:24PM
From MMO-Champion:
"Misery (Tier 8 ) changed to 3 ranks and your Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch spells also increase the chance for harmful spells to hit by 1/2/3%."
The key word in that being "also increase" not "instead increase".
Perhaps MMO-Champion is wrong but it's not as bad as you seem to think.