Tips for using the new Shadowmeld wisely
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 15th 2008 at 5:00PM
One of the topics we talked about indepth on last Saturday's WoW Insider Show was the racial ability revamp that Blizzard did in the latest beta patch -- I said that I wasn't even under the impression that racial tweaks were on the table, but apparently Blizzard still doesn't think they're done, and it looks like they're using those abilities to build in a lot of baseline things like threat reduction and resilience against movement-impairing effects.After all the dust settled (there was one more revision in the works, and there may be more so far before the patch goes live), it looks like Shadowmeld is going to be getting one of the aforementioned threat reduction tweaks: Night Elves will be able to kick in Shadowmeld instantly and even while in combat every three minutes, and it will drop (though not wipe) threat, cancelled on moving. This adds, as Phaelia notes, a few new wrinkles to Night Elf gameplay -- not only will NE Priests have a new aggro "pause" (since the aggro doesn't actually disappear, all that will happen is that they'll have to wait for the tank to grab enough aggro to get focus back), but soloing Night Elves will have a new way to dodge a pull gone bad, and Druids who happen to be pulling in raids will be able to end a bad pull early, hopefully without wiping the entire group.
Pretty slick for just a racial ability. As always, this may change before the beta ends (originally, this was a Human ability called The Fall of Humanity, though Blizzard wisely decided it didn't work too well as that), but this extra functionality might give NEs an extra panic button when they need to switch threat around fast.
Filed under: Night Elves, Raiding, PvP, Tips, Analysis / Opinion, Patches, Priest, Hunter, Druid, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bryan1187 Sep 15th 2008 5:09PM
Alright!! Awesome for Night Elf Hunters!
Frz Sep 15th 2008 5:20PM
Won't this ridiculously good for rogues as it gives them a free chance to restealth if used appropriately?
Jasperwind Sep 15th 2008 5:24PM
Something to actually look forward to in Wrath. Now I might play my Night Elf Rogue some. Who knows, maybe even level him to 80.
Dulock Sep 15th 2008 5:28PM
This will be awesome for my Night Elf Fury Warrior. Finally a "kinda" threat drop.
smcn Sep 15th 2008 5:29PM
Here's to hoping they disable food/water in Arenas. Shadowmeld-drinking is cheesy enough as it is.
eroch Sep 15th 2008 5:51PM
Don't you have to be drinking/eating before shadowmeld is used anyway? Not a game changing thing and now they can only use it every 3 minutes. Or is it you can only use it 'in combat' once every 3 minutes and use it normally every other time?
David Sep 15th 2008 5:30PM
Maybe it's just me...but does it seem like Blizzard is giving Nelfs, Humans, and Belfs a lot of nifty racial ability advantages while leaving all of the other classes in the dust with not-all-that-much? I mean, sure, the extra chance to avoid a certain school of magic is nice, but it seems like the Night elf 3% chance to be missed in physical combat, plus faster corpse runs, plus this...seems a little OP.
Maybe it's just me QQing, though. :P
rrrrarr Sep 15th 2008 5:51PM
No, I wouldn't call it QQing.
I think the changes they're making can be considered rather inconsistent. Overall I thought the racials weren't unbalanced. I do understand the need to fix the belf mana tap/arcane torrent racial though. Otherwise though, I'm not sure why any certain race needs significantly buffed racials. I always thought they were relatively equal in usefulness but significantly different in where and when they were useful.
Now I'd have to say that night elves probably have the best racials out there overall. Before it really depended on other factors quite a bit.
warhammer Sep 15th 2008 5:52PM
It's rubbish. You can't move (like before) but this is an in combat ability.
For PVP it's practically worthless except to detarget you, which anyone decent is going to be able to retarget you immediately anyway. Oh were did that Night Elf go that I was hitting? Of course, he's right where he was before.
And it doesn't allow casting to continue so not a very good agro tool for your priest. Hope nobody needs healing.
To top it off it's basically the human racial they felt wasn't good enough for humans. Why not give it to Night Elfs then.
The old ability had a lot more uses than this does (but then I solo a lot where it is soooo much better).
And to David, it's 3% nature resist. It's 2% I think for the hit penalty. Plus, I can't remember getting back to my corpse a few seconds quicker being particularly useful. (Night Elf corpse zerg?)
RFLX Sep 17th 2008 9:48PM
Said pretty well. Night elf racials in my eyes have actually been nerfed now. It's not like you can shadowmeld drink IN COMBAT now, you may only shadowmeld, considering you DON'T have faerie fire on you. You can only cover your drink with a shadowmeld once every 3 minutes now instead of 10 seconds like before. The only situation I see this new shadowmeld being useful for my rogue is stopping a polymorph cast on me once every 3 minutes, if I'm a decent distance away from them heh. A joke of a racial when compared to the other 'Use' racials. WoTF, Stoneform, Escape Artist, AOE Silence, Blood Rage, Berserking.
I would like to see the cooldown lowered considerably, maybe 30 seconds, and require you to be near an actual shadow in order to use it.
The -2% chance to be hit isn't even as good at the +1% dodge we have now LOL? the -2% hit is MAYBE decent for a NE priest who has Elune's grace active, for 22% or w/e it is, maybe 17%. Problem is in WoTLK that -2% chance to be hit, along with other similar talents and the like are easily countered with +hit items, which you will have anyways unless you enjoy seeing auto's/specials/poisons/spells missing.
Faster corpse runs! Wooo after you kill the NE with your superior racials it gets to run back faster increasing the chances for a res timer, and allowing you to gain more honorable kills for the day. And completely nullified in arena. Maybe it's slightly useful for raiding, you get to start drinking 10 seconds before the non night elves of the raid, grats on being the raids #1 rebuffer, though you still have to wait for the rest of the raid to be ready before you can kill that boss!
riftsrunner Sep 15th 2008 5:52PM
I would love another drop to stealth for my rogue. But knowing blizzard it would actually be a shadowmeld and not a stealth mechanic. (Took me until my mid-20's to realize the difference between the two. I thought shadowmeld allowed everyone to move and be invisible until a priest friend informed me otherwise :-D)
Badge Sep 15th 2008 6:11PM
"(originally, this was a Human ability called The Fall of Humanity, though Blizzard wisely decided it didn't work too well as that)"
what makes that a wise decision? My human lock begs to differ.
Beau Sep 15th 2008 6:13PM
You say this can be a way to repair a pull gone badly.
So how does the reset mechanic work?
If a druid overpulled, and shadowmelds, mob resets, and the druid pops back out, shouldn't he automatically repull?
If the mob isn't repulled, could this be a way for NE Priests to have wipe protection? IE all hell has broken loose and so priest SMs and waits for reset, then pops back out and starts rezzing?
I just don't understand how the 'threat return' works here.
Erbodie Sep 15th 2008 6:15PM
That makes Night Elves a very interesting choice as an Alliance DK race: shadowmeld + great looks + quickness (reduces the chance to be hit by melee or ranged attacks by 2%) + nature resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Nature spells by 3%
Aurix Sep 15th 2008 6:19PM
If you are the final/only person on the threatlist when using this racial, it removes you from combat and resets the pull.
Eversor Sep 15th 2008 6:30PM
I like the current Shadowmeld to be honest. I don't want to change 10 sec CD stealth to a 3 min CD Vanish. So this sort of seems more a nerf to me, at least for solo play. For raids, yeah, might be useful.
Zali Sep 16th 2008 10:19AM
Is it 3 min CD always??? Or just in combat?
pudds Sep 15th 2008 6:31PM
The shadowmeld changes are fine, but man, the human pvp trinket has *got* to go.
Chris Crocker Sep 15th 2008 7:35PM
"LEAVE RACIALS ALONE! WAHAHAHA! =("
CJRush Sep 15th 2008 8:23PM
^ This please
kthxbai