16 April 2009

What the patch notes didn't tell you

Mind flay now correctly applies one stack of the shadow weaving buff per cast. How tedious. As if we weren't slow enough to get moving to begin with.

Honestly, I don't understand Blizzard's approach to shadow at all. They seem perfectly willing to acknowledge and address the bugs of other classes and engage in conversation about them on the forums. Why then can't we have a similar dialogue about pain and suffering?

As our glorious leaders don't seem to read the European forums, let alone comment on them, if you're in the US and feel like prodding for a blue post on this — or any other — issue, please let me know how you get on.

Merlot, by the way, is currently stuck in Naxx. Just about every instance going was bugged to hell last night. Ah, the joys of patch day...

Edit: if the anonymous commenter below is correct, mind flay is actually applying one stack per tick. If that's true, it will take approximately the same time to get the buff to five stacks as before. This makes me very happy and very annoyed at the same time. While it would be better than one stack per cast, according to the strict interpretation of shadow weaving, this would still constitute a bug. My point in all of this is that the mechanics of shadow in several ways do not deliver what the official documentation promises, and we really need an open dialogue with Blizzard to try and get to the bottom of it.

7 comments:

Leigh said...

Logged on last night for a few mins before the champions league pub expedition and got my dual spec sorted. Didn't DPS anything so haven't seen the changes but fixing that "bug" is annoying. Seems we have no viable third glyph why not make a glyph that simply applies X number of stacks of shadow weaving. Hell they done it with mages for scorch so now they have to cast it twice to get 5 debuffs and can then press their magic frostfire bolt button repeatedly!!

What spec did you run with in the end? I went with 13/0/58 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbhZZGxfVRfzffqczAo:hqiVzm)

We are doing Ulda 25 man tonight so might respec tomorrow depending on the amount of damage that causes spell interrupts. Might juggle the points from imp fade into it. From what I have been reading tanks are taking a lot more damage so i'm most likely going to be in the MT group for VE to act like a rolling renew, looks like the content has pidgenholed us into imp VE :)

Merlot said...

You know, that might actually make a viable mind flay glyph IF they ever get around to giving us a 30-yard baseline.

I'm at work so can't link my spec right now, but on the iffy talents I went like this:

• One point out of improved mind blast to keep inner focus (my slow reactions and dire frame rate render it useless anyway, and the crit chance is a nice small boost on devouring plague now)

• Zero points in shadow affinity — I'm being brave about it. Only got one boss down in Naxx last night before the crash but threat seemed ok.

• Two points in veiled shadows to be on the safe side — if I find I'm not using shadowfiend every cooldown, I'll move them out.

• Two points in improved shadowform, just for the pushback protection. It's a luxury, but I like it.

• Zero points in improved vampiric embrace. I will miss the personal healing but I don't think it's worth it for the raid. Seriously, how much hps can we put out per target? Maybe 200-250 in Ulduar? If tanks need that to survive, or healers even notice it, there's something seriously wrong.

Leigh said...

I find myself the same with Imp MB, I have 500 haste for some reason to maintain the hit rating and have a solid amount of crit. So if i went 4 or 5 points it wouldn't bother me too much.

You should be grand without shadow affinity and if you get threat fade actually works lol :P

On fights like Archimonde back in MH VE was brilliant for healing a tank and really helped out the healers. Same with Sartharion and any attempts at multiple drakes in OS. My VE is about an average 350 HPS per party player (excluding myself as we get more healing) and can only go up as my gear gets better. For me the utility is worth it especially on AOE style fights and the lack of other viable PVE talents.

Merlot said...

350 hps is 7000 dps on a single target. Are you really putting out that kind of damage? I'm even crapper than I thought if you are...

Anonymous said...

Actually, Mind Flay now applies one stack of Shadow Weaving per tick of damage, instead of two stacks on the first tick. Just FYI.

Leigh said...

Lol no way am I (or any shadow priest I hope!!) near that kind of mark!!!


I was checking my WWS from a recent run and read it wrong, i put in the average tick not the HPS equiv.

My personal HPS for VE is 374 from imp VE. Average for others in my party was ~230 HPS.

On some bosses my VE was ticking for as high as 990...which is quiet nice.

Sorry for getting your hopes up for 7K face melting.....maybe next patch :P

Merlot said...

@Anonymous. Really? I guess I wasn't watching close enough then, thanks for the info.

@Leigh. That's more like it!