The many uses of Shadowmeld
Phaelia's got a guest blogger over at Resto4Life who's extolling the many virtues of Shadowmeld, definitely one of the more OP of the racial bonuses after the big change with the Wrath release. Previously, the spell could only be used out of combat, which made it very useful for, umm... hiding while AFK? But with the change of letting you use it in combat as a temporary threat wipe, the skill really opened up to be extremely useful for all sorts of things. If you're a Night Elf and you don't have Shadowmeld on your action bars, it's time to put it back.Flipping on Shadowmeld has its disadvantages (almost any action takes you out of stealth and puts you back into combat), but if you need to duck out of combat for a quick drink or a quick change of gear, you can do it. And it can easily buy you some extra time to summon a mount or get away from trouble if you happen to be in PvP outside. And while it's not quite as powerful as Vanish, you can even use it in the Arenas to drop out of combat (hidden, as when you start drinking you'll lose your stealth), and grab a few seconds of drinking before you get brought back into the fight.
None of these uses are exactly gamebreaking -- the Shadowmeld action is pretty fragile, so you're going to have to be fast if you want to put that second or half second of dropping out of combat to good use. But when time is short and you've got to use every little ability you have, it's important to have Shadowmeld around. Ducking out of combat for just a moment might be just the boost you need.
Filed under: Night Elves, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, NPCs, Buffs
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Xonate Jan 8th 2009 3:19PM
It does sometimes. I know some of my nelf guildies have had good luck with that, which is sort of an unfair bug, in my opinion.
Aerimos Jan 8th 2009 3:37PM
Yes, it does. I can hit shadowmeld, pop my mana potion which breaks shadowmeld and I'm back in the fight. Even better, shadowmeld has the same length of CD as the potions, so 2 minutes later, it's rinse and repeat time. It's as if "potion sickness" never darkened my doorstep.
Scott Jan 8th 2009 4:01PM
This was hotfixed so that it no longer resets cooldown or even drops combat in a raid. You may be able to drop combat if you are the last one standing and you hit shadowmeld and the boss can't find you, but it doesn't reset the potion cooldown in a raid any more.
moya Jan 8th 2009 3:18PM
i tried using shadowmeld to run away from a beserk rasuvious going apesh*t on everybody. yea...he has stealth detect. $%#!
Killer Jan 8th 2009 3:56PM
I have used my shadowmeld on Razuvious and most times it works. If I have a couple seconds to run to the other side of either of the railing that surrounds his little fighting pit I 100% of the time survive. When I don't have the time to move I usually end up at the top of the ramp closer to the wall, I survive 50% of the time give or take.
Shadowmeld for a tank is a great way to get back at the annoying melee dps in your group during a boss fight. /chuckle
TheKarmaPolice Jan 8th 2009 3:18PM
"And while it's not quite as powerful as Vanish"
So are you saying that shadowmeld works only one fourths of the time instead of half the time?
hey-ooooh
Hendrata Jan 8th 2009 3:19PM
My favorite: in BG, you can be a warrior, shadowmeld to guard a node, and when someone is capping it, Charge
(it's also more fun to wait a few seconds to make them think that no one's guarding it)
syco Jan 8th 2009 7:14PM
YES. Shadowmeld->Charge is also very potent against hunters.
Ice Jan 9th 2009 8:17PM
I like this more
Go to point. Meld. See lone hordie trying to cap flag at AB. Wait while. He runs away like most players do..and tadah. Cap the flag and get free bonus points.
Thats of course my tactic. Since im not 80/70..epic filled unstoppable killing machine.
Hokuto Jan 8th 2009 3:23PM
I used it a LOT while leveling my druid and DK to avoid unecessary mobs. Run in (or dash, as a druid), get to where you want to go, shadowmeld, no more mobs!
That works wonders on my solo Strat runs too. For example, running from the 3rd ziggurat to the bombers' area, just dash away then shadowmeld to get rid of all the mobs you aggro'd, without having to worry about dodging any on your way.
Horris Jan 8th 2009 4:05PM
In my experience, it doesn't work that well in Strat because the ghouls in there can see through it and just keep hitting you.
MarkA Jan 8th 2009 4:26PM
Mage's invisibility works in a similar manner, though it only lasts a few seconds. I use it to be able to sit and drink sometimes in the middle of endurance fights.
Brad Jan 8th 2009 3:26PM
I love how y'all mention the rogue's vanish for stealthing, but you have forgotten to mention the mage's ability to use invisibility (works better for arcane mages). I can drop all aggro and combat by simply hitting invisibility. Arcane mage invisibility is much much greater than shadowmeld because what are you going to do when you take that step forward... me, I'm going to run into the unaggroed boss and scare the entire raid to pieces (been doing this since Karazhan).
Kyrren Jan 8th 2009 3:31PM
So...
The raid's wiping. You're a Night Elf (let's assume not a rezzing class, so rogue or warrior or somesuch). Would this macro work?
/cast Shadowmeld
/Outfitter toggle Birthday Suit
Or would that not work for some reason? I haven't played my 70 Nelf since pre-3.0. Seems pretty sweet to me for saving repair bills.
Hokuto Jan 8th 2009 3:46PM
On a raid boss it won't take you out of combat but *will* take you out of the mob's aggro table. So you can shadowmeld on a safe spot and, if you don't get hit by some random AoE, you'll most probably survive a wipe.
Just don't try this on Thaddius. If anyone survives the fight on a wipe, by Shadowmeld or DI for example, the entire raid will stay in combat until everyone dies. Again.
Coravax Jan 8th 2009 3:35PM
I have found that one of the greatest uses of Shadowmeld is to keep other people from ninja'ing your nodes. There have been several cases where another player would try to ninja an herb or a quest item while I was stuck in combat, and I'd Shadowmeld, removing myself from combat and making the mob attack them. This gives you ample time to grab your node and rub it in their faces.
Either Jan 8th 2009 3:39PM
I have used it for this more than I have used it for any other reason. It's awesome.
Ormtaz Jan 8th 2009 3:57PM
Since I went through all the trouble of grinding mining/bs on my NEDK, I have found the change to shadowmeld FANTASTIC just for this purpose. And when the one-hit mining change goes into effect, this tactic will be even more handy since the chances of getting an extra pat while SM is on cooldown is very small.
The only problem I have had with shadowmeld is accidentally hitting it while tanking an instance. Hilarity ensued of course...
Will Jan 8th 2009 3:34PM
it is extremely annoying when a NE pops this in the middle of a crowded Battleground.. you can't re-target them unless you had set them to focus. Definitely buys them time to drop from your target for 2 seconds while they resume shooting at you as a hunter.
I've lost to many hunters on my mage because of the extra 2 seconds they got out of this ability.
http://www.wowconfidential.com
Sorcefire Jan 8th 2009 3:40PM
The most effective use of this ability I've found is for a quick aggro dump (even if temp) when running 5-mans. As a boomkin I can crit some big hits and cause a lot of spike aggro on a mob. I just hit Shadowmeld and let the tank pick up the mob again and go back into the fight. It's something of a crutch since I'm working on getting better at controlling the spikes, but still is helpful.