Posts with tag mind-sear-buff

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. The first time you read Fox Van Allen's shadow-specced Wednesday version of Spiritual Guidance, it might make you mad; the next time you read it, it might make you sad. But you'll be glad, baby, once you've found shadow is the power that makes the world go 'round.

What's the most tragically under used part of the shadow priest arsenal? Mind Sear, hands down.

Mind Sear, you see, is an old friend. It was a regular part of our rotation in Wrath heroics. When Cataclysm came, though, it suffered a significant nerf in power. You could argue the nerf was needed -- the game was changing, and the developers wanted us to approach heroics in a different way. Arguably, Mind Sear was a bit too powerful.

It seems that Blizzard may have nerfed Mind Sear just a little too much, however. It just received a buff in patch 4.0.6, and it's slated for another in patch 4.1. Did Blizzard go too far this time, though? Not far enough? And what does the buff mean for the way we approach heroics?

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Each Wednesday, the shadow-specced Fox Van Allen takes the helm of Spiritual Guidance, giving the world a brief respite from the not-so-evil machinations of his nemesis, Dawn Moore. On days that are not Wednesday, Fox is available for childrens' parties.

I'm a big fan of where shadow priests are right now in Cataclysm. We're able to churn out highly competitive damage in just about any fight. Combine that fact with our damn near legendary survivability, and it's hard to imagine why anyone would even think about playing another class.

In the interest of full disclosure, though, shadow priests aren't quite perfect. The spec has some small issues, and by now, we're all pretty familiar with what they are. Shadow priests have to suffer a terribly underpowered AoE, a limp mastery stat, and a weak Mind Blast. The good news: Blizzard game developers are taking a stab at fixing every major problem with shadow priests in the upcoming patch 4.0.6. The even better news: Shadow priests are getting some added bonuses that we didn't even ask for.

That's right: The best is getting even better.