State of Shadow, 8.1 Edition


TL;DR of the below text:Shadow doesn’t have enough strengths to make up for the weaknesses it has. Execute and multidotting aren’t nearly as strong for us anymore, and our weaknesses from previous expansions (such as single-target or AoE) haven’t been improved enough to compensate.Shadow Word: Death becoming a talent was a mistake.Too much of our AoE comes from our talents, and they do not synergize with our kit well at all.Baseline AoE is weak, boring, and unintuitive. Mind Sear keeps you in Voidform longer which goes against the goal of getting out more Void Eruptions; the problem is that Void Eruption is tied to entering Voidform.Shadow’s mobility is quite bad right now, with our only mobility options coming from our talents. We don’t really have anything meaningful to offset our weak mobility, either.Shadow’s survivability is not in a good spot right now. Losing our artifact made Dispersion too weak considering the downsides it has.Shadow Word: Void fixes Mind Blast and Void Bolt coming off cooldown at the same time, but we have to invest a talent point to fix it when Fury and Beast Mastery have had this fixed baseline.Void Torrent made sense in Legion, but is in a bad state right now. It needs to be designed with Battle for Azeroth Shadow in mind.With the 8.1 PTR going live soon, we of WarcraftPriests thought it would be good idea to, once more, outline some of Shadow’s most pressing issues as a spec and why its current iteration is generally not regarded very highly at the moment. While we realize that a lot of these problems are fairly deeply rooted and thus require a complete rework of the spec to truly fix (something that will not happen in 8.1), they are still important to include to get the full picture of why the spec is the way it is now.1. Voidform & InsanityVoidform represents the core of how Shadow is supposed to play as a spec, and Insanity dictates how this core plays out in practice. Right now we have a ‘build’ phase while we are inside Shadowform, where the goal is to get to 60 or 90 Insanity, depending on your talent choices. Once we reach these thresholds, we enter Voidform. Voidform can be described as our ‘spender’ phase, except we don’t actually have anything to spend our Insanity on. Instead, our Insanity constantly drains and the goal is to fight that drain by generating Insanity, with the drain constantly increasing and inevitably causing you to drop out of Voidform. This is the basic idea behind Shadow’s gameplay; generating Insanity to get into Voidform and stay in it as long as possible. The problem we ran into in Legion was that the player was harshly punished for dropping out of Voidform early, since its design rewarded the player for staying in Voidform for as long as possible with a stacking Haste buff and stacking DoT damage buff. This created a great deal of ramp up for the spec and generally made it suffer in content outside of raids. However, the basic principle of rewarding the player for being able to stay in as long as possible was the right direction with how Voidform as a mechanic was designed. There had to be a significant reward for staying in, otherwise the existence of the ever increasing Insanity drain would feel more like an artificial barrier and not something you could fight and overcome.In Battle for Azeroth, Voidform was deemed to be too punishing and the reward for staying in it for as long as possible was severely diminished. While this alleviates one problem, it created another one at the same time - that problem being that Voidform, which still has the same design behind it that it did in Legion, now feels like an empty husk. If your car has a faulty engine, simply removing the engine does not allow your car to run better. You either replace the engine with a different one, or you fix the faulty engine and then put it back in. A lot of what made Voidform what it was in Legion was removed, but nothing was added back in as a replacement. The result is that there is a clear disconnect between what the game expects you to do and how it actually feels as a player. You are supposed to still care about staying in Voidform for as long as possible, yet the reward for doing so has been reduced to the point that the whole thing can feel pointless. The fact that a big chunk of Voidform’s reward is now Void Eruption, which causes you to enter Voidform in the first place, is rather telling. This is also why a talent like Surrender to Madness doesn’t see play, as the value of Voidform stacks is low for Shadow, and so one long Voidform isn’t much better than multiple, shorter Voidforms. Dark Ascension and Legacy of the Void do a much better job at increasing Voidform uptime and don’t have a downside attached to them like Surrender to Madness does.With Voidform’s current design, the lack of an actual payoff in Battle for Azeroth feels jarring. While simply going back to the way it was in Legion isn’t a solution either, there surely exists a happy medium that doesn’t necessarily involve adding a ton more ramp up to the spec. There are several ways to add rewards to Voidform that don’t involve ramp up, such as a static damage increase like it had in Legion, a Sphere of Insanity/Psychic Link-type mechanic, or a flat haste percentage increase to name but a few simple things.2. Strengths and WeaknessesShadow’s strengths as a spec in Battle for Azeroth are hard to define. Things like execute and AoE are found in our talent tree, yet they don’t enhance what’s there as a baseline but rather give us the ability to do those things in the first place.2.1 ExecuteExecute has long been a niche for Shadow, and while this isn’t a classic strength or weakness for a spec like single-target or AoE is, having it certainly did the spec a lot of favours over the years. Before Legion launched, execute abilities were pruned across the board. Shadow Word: Death and Execute were deemed to be the only baseline execute abilities allowed to stay for the respective specs. They were said to be crucial to the spec’s identities. Unfortunately, it seemed that the devs couldn’t find a good way to make Shadow Word: Death as crucial to the spec in Legion as it was in previous expansions. Nevertheless, it was still a nice button to fit into the rotation, sniping adds still felt fun and the extra mobility it provided was very welcome. None of this was a problem with Shadow Word: Death per se, the spell was just tuned to be weak and its resource generation was low unless you took Reaper of Souls, where it actually felt like it could mean something for your stack count.Shadow Word: Death was subsequently removed as a baseline ability in Battle for Azeroth. We still believe this to be a mistake, as it stripped Shadow of the execute niche it had for years and got rid of a spell that was incredibly iconic to the spec. It feels like it was the victim of one expansion where it got treated badly. Being put into the talent row where it competes with AoE abilities just feels awful, especially when it basically didn’t get changed or improved from the Legion version. The spec didn’t really get anything in return either, all that happened is that Shadow lost a part of its identity. Its damage profile wasn’t improved in any way, shape, or form. In fact, Shadow Word: Death is currently a common pick in Uldir because it is great for priority targets (Vectis adds, Fetid Devourer adds) and adds execute to the spec. Several encounters also happen to have vulnerability phases that line up well with execute. We have to talent into a strength that was available to the spec before baseline - this feels absolutely awful.If the spec had actually become a more consistent damage dealer, not relying on execute as a crutch as a result, then that would have been acceptable. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The sad fact is that in Uldir, Shadow relies on the execute niche as something relatively unique to bring to the raid. It’s the only thing we have that somewhat sets us apart, even though there are still numerous specs that can do it just as well, if not better, with strengths in other areas. Except this time around we have to pick a talent that used to be a baseline ability since TBC in order to say we even possess that niche.2.2 AoEShadow’s baseline AoE rotation is dull and contradictory. Mind Sear generates more Insanity the more targets it hits, which allows you to use Void Eruption faster, but once you’re in Voidform there is no actual benefit to staying in; this while Mind Sear’s design promotes staying in Voidform for as long as possible. Rather, you want to exit Voidform so you can trigger your next Void Eruption as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, there’s no way to accomplish that besides not casting anything, which is generally not worth doing. The problem here is that Void Eruption is tied to entering Voidform; Void Eruption is far too important for our AoE to be so uncontrollable for the player. It is not realistic to expect the player to actively delay going into what’s supposed to be the highlight of the spec, just because they feel, by delaying, they’ll do more AoE through Void Eruption. Moreover, it’s not healthy gameplay to even tempt the player to think it’s worth not casting Mind Sear (or generating any Insanity at all for that matter) just to drop out of Voidform, regardless of whether it is actually worth doing or not.Shadow has to spend 3 talent points to gain additional AoE: Dark Void/Misery on the 45 row, Shadow Crash on the 75 row, and Dark Ascension on the 100 row. Note that these do not augment our existing AoE, they simply add new AoE buttons to the spec or in the case of Misery, makes our multidotting somewhat on par with Balance and Affliction’s baseline. Without these additional talents, Shadow’s AoE is almost non-existent. This sucks, especially on the 45 and 75 row, where our AoE and execute talents are competing against one another. For raiding, execute potential is the only thing the spec has going for it right now, so you will often be forced to pick that for progression. When we take the AoE talents, it’s not like that gives us some unique edge over other specs; it really is nothing special. Investing 3 talents into improving AoE should make you feel powerful whenever AoE is happening, but this is unfortunately not the case. Numerous specs have better AoE without even having to invest into talents for it, as well as generally having more interesting AoE design that not only makes sense but is also fun to play.Aside from numbers, our AoE feels incredibly disjointed. We have all these AoE buttons through our talent tree, but they are just individual abilities. They don’t synergize with anything, they don’t feel particularly powerful to use, and after you’ve used them your damage drops quickly because our sustained AoE (read: DoTs) is weak.2.3 MultidottingMultidotting is not a part of Shadow’s baseline AoE toolkit as we do not have the ability to efficiently apply them to a large group of mobs without investing a talent point to do so. At best you can consider our DoTs to be a part of our baseline cleave toolkit. As a comparison, Seed of Corruption makes it fair to say that Corruption is a part of Affliction’s AoE, and that Sunfire is a part of Balance’s AoE.Alongside execute, we consider multidotting to be the other major strength the spec had going for it in previous expansions. Antorus favoured multidotting immensely on numerous fights and one can assume that this is the reason the devs decided to nerf DoTs across the board for all three major DoT specs. This hurt Shadow more than it did the other specs as Shadow has to keep track of its DoTs more, leading to more DoT refreshing, while Shadow has no built in convenience to apply DoTs like Balance and Affliction do. While we have Void Bolt to help extend the duration of our DoTs, the lack of haste across the board and reduced DoT timers mean that the player still has to pay much more attention to DoTs compared to Legion. This was an intended change, however, this just illustrates that it is not just the damage of our DoTs that affects whether or not multidotting is a worthwhile niche to have.2.4 Single-targetShadow’s single-target being on the weaker side is a recurring theme for the spec over the years, with some tiers as exceptions. The logic here, presumably, was that you’d want to bring Shadow for its strong multi-target damage and so its single-target damage had to take a backseat as a result. This can be considered a fair balance of strengths and weaknesses if that was actually the case right now. As it stands, Shadow’s single-target is among the weakest in the game and where in some previous expansions add spawns could allow us to funnel more damage into the boss despite having weak pure single-target (be it through Twist of Fate or a talent such as Auspicious Spirits), we don’t really get to do that now either.When we consider the fact that our two most valuable niches (multidotting & execute) have been effectively neutered, the spec needs to be able to do at least middle of the pack single-target damage in order to be considered. This is technically just a matter of tuning, but the narrowing of our niches makes it a matter of design too as damage sources have shifted around as a result.3. MobilityBroadly, we've tried to define areas in which specializations should excel (single-target, cleave, AoE, spread, clumped, burst, sustained, etc.), and areas where they should lag behind. We've restored some unique tools like Tremor Totem or Soothe, and are open to adding more going forward as needed. Philosophically, there should always be a reason why a group is happy to have X class/spec present, and situations where a group says "man, I really wish we had a Y to deal with this." At the same time, it's essential that classes have weaknesses, or else everyone ends up too similar to one another. Elemental Shaman is intended to be a less mobile spec, for example, while Hunters overall have mobility as an explicit strength. So when we receive feedback that a less mobile spec wishes they were more mobile, frankly, that's working as intended. But that only really works if you feel like you have offsetting strengths, envied by other classes, that justify the reduced mobility. And it certainly doesn't help if we aren't communicating that vision of what strengths and weaknesses are intended to be. We know that we need to do better there.Source: https://ift.tt/2NEYtkL part from Ion’s AMA stuck with us because out of all the DPS specs, Shadow is one of the least mobile of all. Our only way of increasing our mobility is Body and Soul or Mania from the talent tree, and they are rather weak mobility at that. Shadow’s mobility was even nerfed going from Legion to Battle for Azeroth, both directly through a reduction to Mania’s movement speed, and indirectly through multiple shifts in damage sources which leave the spec needing to stand still more and with less opportunities to cast meaningful instants to buffer movement. The most notable damage shift that causes this is Mind Flay being a much bigger part of our single-target damage now,What does Shadow have to compensate for having this little mobility? We genuinely don’t think there is a satisfactory answer to that. We don’t even really know what Shadow’s intended strengths and weaknesses are supposed to be, so focused feedback can’t be given as to why that may or may not be true. What we can say as to how it feels is the following: Shadow does not feel like its strengths outweigh its weaknesses at all in any content. Mobility is but one of those weaknesses.4. SurvivabilityShadow’s survivability took a big hit in Battle for Azeroth, the biggest reason for which is the loss of our artifact weapon. We lost Thrive in the Shadows, which caused Dispersion to heal you for 50% of your maximum health for its duration, From the Shadows, which reduced Dispersion’s cooldown by 40 seconds at 4 points, and Mental Fortitude, which caused Vampiric Touch overhealing to grant you a shield for up to 4% of your maximum health.Dispersion feels like a weak defensive because we lost those traits. Its downside of effectively silencing you for 6 seconds doesn’t feel right in relation to its benefits. Not being able to cast is something that fits immunity spells such as Ice Block, but doesn’t fit a 60% damage reduction. It needs to do more than just that for the downside to be acceptable.Another telling sign that our survivability is weak is that Shadow is currently almost forced to spec into the PvP talent Edge of Insanity, which enforces a playstyle of literally never going into Voidform. You lose the 10% Physical damage reduction that Shadowform gives you when you go into Voidform, and the damage gain that Voidform gives is not worth that survivability tradeoff. The player is not rewarded enough for wanting to go into Voidform and in this case even gets punished for it; this is rather symbolic for the problems Voidform faces right now.5. Shadow Word: VoidOn May 24th, 2018, Seph said the following in regards to Raging Blow for Fury:Having 2 charges baseline felt better, as a version with either a 6 or 7.5 sec cooldown but no charges meant it collided with Bloodthirst's cooldown very frequently, which did not feel good. Additionally, charges on Raging Blow is sort of the only actual resource you manage on the spec, since Rage is technically a resource but only spent on Rampage and nothing else.Source: https://ift.tt/2DnRO9I you replace Bloodthirst with Void Bolt, and Raging Blow with Mind Blast, that post essentially describes the exact same problem Shadow has. Mind Blast comes off cooldown at the same time as Void Bolt so frequently, that it makes the rotation even more frustrating than it already is. Void Bolt and Mind Blast are our two most important abilities of what is essentially a 3 button rotation (the third being Mind Flay), so having to delay one in favour of the other frequently just feels bad. Mangaza’s Madness fixed this problem in Legion, and in BfA Shadow Word: Void fixes this problem. However, Shadow Word: Void is a talent and so in order to fix what is objectively a core problem of the spec, we have to invest a talent point. When Fury gets the exact same problem fixed for them baseline, it makes you wonder why Shadow has to spend a talent point to do so. Shadowy Insight, which is on the same talent row as Shadow Word: Void, is practically unplayable because you can’t have two charges of Mind Blast without Shadow Word: Void, and Shadowy Insight basically requires that in order to have any chance of being viable.6. Void TorrentVoid Torrent is but a remnant of Legion Shadow’s design. There is no additional value from it stopping your Insanity from draining in BfA, aside from getting 2% extra haste out of it. It stopping Insanity drain is a necessity, not a benefit. This could be changed by turning Void Torrent into a spell that additionally generates Insanity. This could actually make it extend Voidform in a meaningful way. At the same time, if you lift the restriction of having to be in Voidform to use Void Torrent, you get to choose whether you want to use Void Torrent to get back into Voidform quicker, or whether you want to use it to extend your next one. The extra flexibility would also allow it to be better used as a way to damage priority targets, such as on Vectis or Fetid Devourer, to create a better distinction between Void Torrent and Mindbender.7. ConclusionShadow faces a number of problems right now that hurt how fun the spec feels to play as well as hurt its numerical viability. Voidform and Insanity limit the design space as to how and when the spec does damage, which in turn also decides how the spec feels to play. This is something that you can’t truly fix in the middle of the expansion, although there are a couple of ways to alleviate it, which is what we hope to see from Blizzard in 8.1. Shadow’s strengths and weaknesses should be taken another look at, as the spec’s strengths are almost non-existent as a baseline; there is a severe lack of direction as to what the spec is allowed to excel at. If Shadow is to turn into a jack of all trades, then there is a long way to go to accomplish that.The problem of Mind Blast munching has been around since Legion, and we have two workarounds to fix what is a core gameplay issue in the form of Mangaza’s Madness and Shadow Word: Void. However, this is not something that should be fixed through a talent or legendary, but as a baseline. Beast Mastery hunters had a very similar problem in Legion and they had it fixed; Fury had a similar problem and they had it fixed. Hopefully, it’s now Shadow’s time to get it fixed.Having low mobility is probably intended for Shadow, however, what is our compensation for having this low mobility? This should probably be taken another look at. It does not feel like the lesser mobile specs generally have an edge over the mobile specs at all. Survivability is something one might expect to be good when a spec is expected to have low mobility, but this isn’t really the case for Shadow unless you spec for it in PvP and completely neglect the core mechanic of the spec, Voidform.Finally, we hope that Shadow gets some love in 8.1 in the right areas. The best course of action after Battle for Azeroth is probably to just rework Shadow again, as at this point, it’s probably fair to say that the way Voidform/Insanity work right now do not make for a good core for a spec. Until then, there are a number of ways to improve Shadow that do not cause (too many) problems in other areas and we hope that Blizzard finds the right ways to accomplish that. Thank you for reading and remember to keep suggestions or feedback in general constructive.