Shadow Priests finally get love in the Wrath beta
by Alex Ziebart 
Sep 2nd 2008 at 2:30PM
While it won't fix all things, it's definitely a start, and a good one: Mind Flay's coefficient will be raised by roughly 30% "to start," and it will gain the ability to crit. Yes, that's right. The coefficient will be de-gutted, and it will benefit from crit. After months of nothing, this is like a ray of sunshine from the heavens. Koraa also mentions that they'll be looking at the rest of the Shadow tree, but states that most people agree the tree itself is fine, the issue is the Shadow spells themselves, which I will more or less agree with. While some new spells would be nice, the class is plenty functional with what they have assuming the numbers will be tuned properly, and our gear matches up with that.
Hopefully we'll be seeing the new and improved Mind Flay in the next beta build, but it may take a little longer than that since it will be a complete rebuild of the spell. As soon as it's in, I'll be back here raving about it, I promise.
Filed under: Priest, Analysis / Opinion, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jewbanks Sep 2nd 2008 2:35PM
Holy Shadow Batman its about time they do something to allow shadow dps to scale.. this is such good news
Nick Sep 2nd 2008 2:51PM
And the shadowpriest community breathed a sigh of relief...
I'm really glad they finally listened to us and are reworking spells from the ground up. Talents can't solve everything.
Mykeys Sep 2nd 2008 2:49PM
Nothing could have made my day/week be better than this news.
Trennon Sep 2nd 2008 3:02PM
Congrats, shadows... back to your rightful aggro whore status. My tank rejoices, for his taunt will be resisted yet again for the sake of your scaled dps.
Seriously though... bout time, eh?
popeguilty Sep 2nd 2008 3:14PM
Maybe we'll get lucky and Fade will finally become useful for threat management.
Patecatl Sep 2nd 2008 3:19PM
Aggro whore? I've never been called that before. I was getting used to "mana lackey."
teck Sep 19th 2008 8:45PM
you must use bad tanks or poor spriests, as i have never had an aggro problem. Any proper raiding spriest will knows to take the talent to reduce aggro. not to mention i have raided up to 8/9 BT and never pull aggro. Most times its a mage who ice blocks and the aggro jumps to someone else.
Vaughany Sep 2nd 2008 3:21PM
This makes me so happy.
Adam R Sep 2nd 2008 3:01PM
You hear that?
That's the sound of all the shadow priests in the world "wooting" for their future raid spots.
FoSho Sep 2nd 2008 3:03PM
Good! Im glad to hear shadow priests are getting some love. I hope warlocks are soon. Hell....if mind flay can crit now, I hope affliction gets some type of crit out of a dot, even if its just drain life.....afterall, DK dots can crit. /jealous
Dana Sep 2nd 2008 3:03PM
For you locks out there, a blue post also said they'd be giving Affliction the same treatment. As someone who plays both a lock and a shadow priest, I say hallelujah!
Clasifyd Sep 2nd 2008 3:41PM
BRB Cleaning up pants
I can only hope you're right. Dot-crit would be lovely, and we'd actually be able to USE a lot of the reworked caster gear in WotlK. Yeah, SB crits were great, especially with Imp SB, but your average Affliction lock pre-T5 would hardly ever have space to trade out spell power for spell crit.
The only thing I see bad about this (and not meaning to be Debbie Downer) is in PvP. Resilience already works against DoTs, so will it work double duty on DoT-crits?
Patecatl Sep 2nd 2008 3:18PM
*Whew* So, I don't have to respec to Holy/Disc after all? Nice!
Now I have to get some +crit on my gear! :D
Doc X Sep 2nd 2008 3:21PM
This is very good news. Now, three more things and I'll be overjoyed...
- Remove charges from Inner Fire
- Improved Fade dumps some portion of aggro permanently
- Last, but definitely not least, MAKE DIVINE SPIRIT TRAINABLE LIKE EVERY OTHER FRAKKING BUFF IN THE GAME! (or reduce its cost down to 11 points and make it comparable with Kings if Blizz really wants to force us to dump points into Disc to get it).
Midaki Sep 2nd 2008 4:25PM
Seriously? I have NEVER run out of charges for Inner Flame before the timer ran out on it. Just keep up your Power Word: Shield. But yeah, you're definitely right on Divine Spirit and Fade. Though, now that we can't heal while we kill, hopefully we'll get more than just that.
Ornament Sep 2nd 2008 11:41PM
Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Sanctuary are both talents.
crsh Sep 2nd 2008 3:31PM
I guess I will be the whiny bitchy priest here.. Scaling and critting MF? Nice enough, but this indeed ought to be only the beginning. Let's not forget we are losing our unique raid utility, and I doubt they'll make us a viable straight-up DPS role like, say, a warlock.
my2cents Sep 2nd 2008 10:11PM
Although I'm overwhelmed with joy at the mindflay change, I totally understand what you mean. But this change proves that Blizzard is listening, which was the big concern all along. If they're willing to listen about this, I am (once again) confident they will address our other concerns. Keep in mind, of all the possible changes to spriests, letting mindflay crit has probably been the most commonly suggested, and the most commonly shot down. I had given up all hope of them ever letting it crit. So this is a very good sign indeed!
spriest Sep 2nd 2008 3:32PM
make the new mind flay pink
Daelock Sep 2nd 2008 3:41PM
Finally.
But, does that mean other channeled skills, such as Warlocks' Drain Life will also benefit from +crit?
Flames incoming.