Ok guys, I have to admit that I think we got a pretty abysmal Q&A. There's probably a bit of bias in that statement, on my part, but the entire thing felt rushed. Many of the questions couldn't have been gleaned from the questsions being asked by priests, and had to have been generated internally. Even with these kind of "softball" questions, the answers were often flat out bizzare. Now, I tend to be a bit conservative in my forum posts, and I'll even stick up for Blizzard when they deserve it. In this case however, I really feel let down, not just by the answers to the questions we got, but also from questions that should have been answered but weren't.
So, let's start with some deep analysis:
Q: Where do priests fit in the current scope of things, and where do you see them from this point going forward? What makes them unique?
I'm not going to post GC's full response to this question, it's way too long, and frankly not really all that relevent. These first two questions in each Q&A really seemed like wasted space in my opinion, though they'd make excellent first drafts for updated class descriptions on the WoW website, during the charater creation process, and in the manuals.
Q: What makes a Shadow priest effective in a raid environment versus a PvP environment?
Ghostcrawler: Shadow priests have some start up time to get all of their DoTs going before the damage really starts coming in. This is easier in a boss fight that lasts for several minutes and harder in a really dynamic PvP environment.
Javaed: And we're off to a bad start. The question itself is a little vague, as it could be interpreted as either: What makes a Shadow Priest effective in a raid environment? What makes a Shadow Priest effective in a PVP environment? OR What makes a Shadow Priest effective in a raid environment but innefective in a PVP environment. Considering the overall tone of questsions from previous class Q&As, the first set of questions was probably what as intended.
A poorly phrased questions aside, the answer was really odd. In particular, I'm suprised by how brief of an answer was given. When I first read this question, I expected a quick description of our PVE and PVP abilities. I didn't expect anything I'd actually find informative, but I might glean some helpful insight into how the devs actually view our talent tree. Instead we got a brief answer that amounts to "You use DoTs, and your damage output has a ramp up time. This may result in PVP problems."
Q: Since a lot of the damage a Shadow priest does builds with damage-over-time (DoT) spells, are you concerned about them being well-rounded enough to do adequate damage in shorter PvE encounters, 5-player dungeons, or in the Arenas?
Ghostcrawler: This is a long answer.
First, we want a certain amount of class diversity. We try to make sure that everyone’s single-target dps is comparable to that of similar specs or classes, and we try to make sure that most damage specs can do some amount of AoE damage. But we don’t obsess with say slow group pulls compared with say fast single-target pulls to make sure everyone’s damage is comparable in every situation.
Second, if the pulls are really that quick, nobody is counting on your dps to begin with. What I mean is that if you are pulling and killing groups of mobs faster than every 20 seconds, then the extra damage you might or might not bring isn’t really an issue because stuff is just collapsing anyway. On the other hand, if the pulls take 20 seconds, then you should have plenty of time to get your DoTs up before stuff starts to die.
Third, there is an issue of player skill here too. If your group kills the skull first every time, then maybe you want to DoT the third or fourth mob in the group so that you do have the benefit of time elapsing. DoTs just work differently. The Enhancement shaman by contrast can be at 100% on one target, then switch and be at 100% on the new target instantly. Not every class or spec can do that and class diversity would be a little boring if they could.
Fourth, the issue that we think is most problematic is found in the Shadow talents. Many of them say basically "while your DoTs are ticking." This means in situations where the DoTs can’t tick (say those very short PvE fights, or sometimes in PvP) you are doubly punished since now those talents aren’t pulling their weight. The Shadow tree could benefit from more talents that affect all damage and not just the DoTs.
Javaed: Ok, a little bit of background for you non-Priests who might read this post. It has been pretty well shown by many of the top Shadow Priests that our AOE damage capabilites far exceed our single target DPS capabilities. In a nutshell, when there are many targets to attack all once we rock the DPS charts, when there's one target to focus on and especially when that one target needs to die fast, we perform very poorly.
So, GC starts out by stating that the DPS Classes and Specs need to be somewhat different from one another. We could infer that the differences between our multi-target and single target damage output is something that makes us unique. I'd like to point out though, that GC has specifically stated in the past that they do not balance the classes around AOE damage output, but rather work on making sure single target DPS is roughly the same. He repeats that very statement here, but does not actually address the issue of Shadow Priests being significantly behind on DPS output in fights where there is only one target to fight.
He then spends a perplexing amount of words describing situations that only arise when fighting Trash Packs. Few, if any, of these situations actually pertain to boss fights. Freya, in Ulduar, may be one example that he's alluding to in this second point. What amuses me is that this fight is one that's often pointed to as a reason Shadow Priests are perfectly ok, but GC is basically saying the output we bring on the large packs of mobs presented by this fight doesn't matter
Now, as to his third point. This is possibly the worst advisce I have ever heard being given to DPS. Let me set you straight. If your raid leaders gives you a specific kill order, there is a reason for that kill order. Often times, we're focusing on a particular mob to kill, as if that mob doesn't die quickly, the chances of the raid wiping increases drastically. Multi-Dotting is a method some players of various classes use to inflate their raw numbers, but frankly it is a bad idea. In my own raid experience, I've seen players get removed from raid groups and even guilds when they don't follow their raid leaders instructions. Listen to what your raid leader tells you to do, if you have a specific objection bring it up, and if you're over-ruled do as you're told.
As for the fourth point, please take an actual look at the talent tree. In my opinoin, this point is a straw man. On the whole, our talent tree has a pretty even spread among all our damage spells, with one exception. I'll discuss this exception a bit more later on.
Q: Is it too easy to dispel DoTs right now?
Ghostcrawler: In a word, no. Priests of all specs used to benefit a lot more from “junk” buffs and debuffs to “protect” their spells than we typically allow these days. We just didn’t think that was an aspect of the game we really wanted to promote. Realizing how dependent Shadow is on DoTs though, we did recently buff the backlash from Vampiric Touch so you get some damage even if it is dispelled.
I’ve referenced a few times our desire to make the dispel game more fun and less frustrating, especially in PvP. Dispels shouldn’t totally negate your class abilities.
Also remember that all types of damage will be reduced to the current DoT level in 3.2 against targets with resilience. This means that overall the contribution of damage done by DoTs should go up
Javaed: To be honest, I was actually pretty satisfied with this answer. The "dispel game" is something that's complained about pretty universally and really needs a significant overhaul. For now, we're being given some minor buffs which should help us out a bit, but like everybody else, we need to wait until Blizzard has the time to actually implement something brand new.
Q: Are the developers happy with the functionality of Dispersion and is it considered to be an adequately valuable final talent in the Shadow tree?
Ghostcrawler: I think the key word here is “final” talent. Players have developed an expectation that the 51-point talent should be the best one in the tree; and for damage-dealing trees that means it’s expected these final talents do more damage than anything else the player has. That’s not really the way we design the trees though. Dispersion is a very valuable spell -- nearly all Shadow priests take it. It’s one of the best “not going to die now” spells in the game. Early on there was a perception that it was a PvP-only spell since it didn’t buff damage, but really it gets a lot of use in PvE as well (and not just for the mana regeneration).
Javaed: I actually like this spell a lot. In my opinion, much of the complaining directed towards this spell is baseless and often comes from people who would be performing poorly even if Dispersion were turned into some kind of suped up "I Win" button. Ghostcrawler does go a bit over board in this depiction of the spell though, as he fails to acknowledge the significant bugs the spell suffers from. First, in PVP, it does not reduce damage from dealt from periodic effects that are already on your charcter. Nope, it won't save you from Warlocks, thought it's pretty good against melee.
In PVE, many of the boss abilities that might deal you massive amounts of unavoidable damage just happen to be period effects. Guess what? The life-saving aspect of this spell isn't exactly useful in raids. Now, it's a great spell for rapid mana recovery, in fact I rarely have to sit down and drink to restore my mana for the 5 seconds required between trash pulls. And frankly, Shadow Priests are over powered when it comes to personal mana regen. We generally don't need to use this spell for regen on boss fights (though perhaps we should). Until this spell can actually be used to save your life in PVE encounters though, it's going to continue to be underwhelming to those of us that don't PVP.
Q: Would you consider removing the cast time for Mind Blast to make it a more desirable direct-damage spell given that it already has a cooldown?
Ghostcrawler: No. We’d be more likely to mess with the damage rather than the cast time. Obviously if the spell was no cooldown, no cast time then Shadow priests would not ever cast anything else -- it’s a great spell. So the trick is to keep it powerful while giving the player space to cast all those other Shadow priest spells as well. We honestly don’t want too many more instant-cast spells. That suggestion keeps coming up to handle interruptions in PvP and having to move in PvE. But we don’t want you to be able to opt out of those situations -- they are supposed to be challenges. If you’re looking for high direct damage with no cooldown, Mind Flay is supposed to be that spell.
Since this question was asked, I suspect, we have announced the healing debuff component to Mind Blast as well. That’s a nice PvP buff as well as making the spell in general more attractive.
Javaed: This is a bit of an odd question for GC to respond to, as it lacks context. This question usually arises as a means of either buffing us for PVP or as part of some idea to increase our Single Target DPS output in PVE. Either way, the suggestions people attach this question to have tended to be rather poorly thought out.
Now, pay attention to part of GC's answer, "Obviously if the spell was no cooldown, no cast time then Shadow priests would not ever cast anything else -- it’s a great spell. So the trick is to keep it powerful while giving the player space to cast all those other Shadow priest spells as well." Does that sound kinda odd to anybody else? Well, here's some additional context. A completely different question that often crops up is "Could the Cool Down period applied to this spell be removed or reduced, so we can cast it more often for higher DPS?" That's the question GC is actually answering in the sentences I pointed out. Now, I have to agree with this point. If the 5.5 second cool down period between each Mind Blast cast were removed, we'd never cast Mind Flay again. I do have to question how much time was actually put into answering this Q&A though, when GC pretty obviously has answered the wrong question here.
Well, it's either that, or GC is somehow imaging we'd be able to cast Mind Blast and nothing but Mind Blast, despite the fact there is a built in mechanic that forces us to use other spells. As for the comments regarding Mind Flay, this spell is most definately NOT high direct damage. It is high damage, split into three intervals with a significant amount of time between each interval. In terms of total damage per spell cast, yes the damage is high, ranging from 6k to 7.5k for well geared players, and before considering crits. When you consider actual amounts of damage dealt per second, however, the contribution from this spell is low. There is a reason why this spell has such low priority in the Shadow Priest casting sequence.
Now, the PVP Mind Blast buff, in and of itself, is a pretty nice buff. However, it is very hard to actually pick up the talents required to get the buff in a typical PVP build. Some have said impossible to get them, while others have said we can grab the talents by sacrificing survivability and mana regen talent. However, those later talents are needed for aspects of PVP where we're struggling right now WITH the talents. Some significant changes to the talent tree need to happen before we can really benefit from this buff.
Q: As many players report that Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch lack viability in PvP settings and Vampiric Embrace tends to generate too much threat in PvE settings, are there any plans you can share to improve the functionality of these spells?
Ghostcrawler: Vampiric Touch does a lot of damage. I’d disagree that it lacks viability, and we even buffed the backlash damage a little more. I don’t think the possibility that a spell can be dispelled should be synonymous with lack of viability. It takes a little bit of set-up time to get all of them working in PvE and PvP, but that’s actually something we’re trying to push more classes and specs into instead of going to just instant, burst damage everywhere.
We can look at the Vampiric Embrace threat. That’s not feedback we hear often. Shadow priests pulling off of tanks doesn’t seem to be a widespread problem .
Javaed: Back in BC, both Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch were significantly stronger than they are now. VE was an amazing PVE mechanic, but franly was too strong to make the transion to a new expansion. The spell desperately needed to be completely reworked, but instead was simply nerfed. As things stand now, the healing from this spell, in a PVE environment, is significantly beneficial to the Priest that cast it, and only to the Priest that cast it. (An exception is possible by placing 3 or more Shadow Priests in the same group, as multiple instances of VE do stack.) Vampiric Touch was once the DoT that dealt the most damage, and also brought a very strong, and unique group mana regeneration effect. It is no longer our strongest DoT, and the mana regeneration effect has become Replenishment, something completely different. A big gripe of mine is that neither of these spells actually feel Vampiric anymore.
The VE threat issue is legitimate, but situational. I'll post more on this later.
Q: How about increasing the range of Mind Flay?
Ghostcrawler: The glyph improves the range at the cost of the snare, which seems like a reasonable trade-off. We have discussed bumping damage and range, or possibly just removing the snare loss. It was put in as PvP protection early on in Lich King, but at this point we don’t think it would be a problem if the glyph just bumped the range without the penalty. It’s probably too conservative a glyph.
Javaed: Ok, this wasn't the answer I wanted to hear, but frankly this isn't a matter of very serious concern. The base range of offensivle spells and ranged attacks tends to be 30 yards, especially when these spells or attacks account for a significant amount of a class' damage. Mind Flay accounts for about 40% of a Shadow Preists total damage, but has a base range of 20 yards. The short range was a requirement back in Vanilla WoW, and through BC, due to the fact that Mind Flay also applied a 50% slow effect on targets being Flayed. Coupled with the fact that back then we could actually use Fear mechanics to keep people CCed while we attacked them, a 30 yard range on Mind Flay would have been far too powerful. For PVE, you can pick up Glyph of Mind Flay to gain an extra 10 yards of range, but the snare is reduced to 10%.
We're in a different era now though, fear locks are basically impossible. GC has even admitted that the fact that the Glyph effectively negates the slow probably isn't needed for PVP balance at this point. So I have to ask, why does such an important part of the Shadow Priest arsenal have to use a glyph to have the same range as every other comporable spell in this game? Honestly, I can only think that it's to save development time for other matters. Especially when you consider that making the 30 yard range base-line would require a complete reworking of the Glyph. As I've said, this really isn't all that important a matter, but it is one of many aspects of the spec that just seem odd and poorly thought out.
Q: Since Shadow priests focus solely on dealing Shadow damage, do you feel that they can potentially be crippled more easily than other casters who can focus on dealing considerable damage through multiple schools of magic?
Ghostcrawler: It’s just a feature of the class. Paladins have a lot of the same issues. We have discussed giving Shadow priests a Frost spell to use solely in emergency situations like this, but its niche would be only for school lock-out periods. We don’t want Shadow priests to be doing multiple types of damage overall. Now making it easier for Shadow priests to drop Shadowform and switch to healing or even Holy damage is something that we’ve mentioned lately on the boards. We could reduce the mana cost or the like.
Javaed: I really thought that this question came from far left field. I read a lot of posts regarding Shadow Priests, on both the official forums and other forums. While I've seen this suggestion occasionally brought up, it tends to get shot down rather quickly. I can understand the desire for some way to combat the common melee action of spell interrupts and school lockouts. Frankly, I think getting a new Frost spell that's only useful in this situation would be stupid. I don't want a highly situationaly spell that exists only to negate a method Melee PVPers handle casters. If Melee DPS really does have far too strong of an advantage over casters, I'd rather see new mechanics that can be used offensively against Melee, or for those melee abilities to be nerfed.
I do like the idea of making it easier for us to drop Shadowform to use our Holy spells more often. I'm just a bit suprised, as the devs have seemed to be dead set against such a change for most of this game.
Q: Shadow Word: Death was once a spell that priests used frequently in PvE, but has basically dropped off their bar. Are there any plans to improve this?
Ghostcrawler: We think Shadow priests have enough spells to manage as part of their rotation, so we don’t want to necessarily go back to them using it on cooldown. One thing we considered was having the backlash not fire if used on a target within Execute range. Another fix we’d like to make would prevent the backlash from being affected by boosts that improve your damage, as is typical during boss encounters -- your damage would be inflated without the risk of you one-shotting yourself.
Javaed: So, in the interest of full disclosure, getting SW:D buffed is a bit of a crusade of mine. This spell has completely fallen by the way-side this expansion, and under peforms both in PVE and in PVP. It needs to be seriously re-evaluated, and I'm sad to see GC brush it off. One thing I'd like to point out, this spell benefits the least from various talent choices. There are many talents that specifically increase the damage output of our single target spells that specifically exclude SW:D. Mind Melt actually improves every single damage spell except for SW:D. Why is this spell excludes so?
As for the issues of not casting this spell on CD, and not making our rotations more difficult to manage, I personally would like to see this spell have some kind of fun, interesting mechanic applied to it. Once you've mastered the timing of the Shadow Priest rotation, it just becomes repetative. Give us something semi-random, but reliable over the long term. Some kind of opportunity that presents itself, that leads to a DPS gain if we recognize and take advantage of it.
Now, preventing back-lash damage from beeing boosted by damage or crit damage multipliers is an interesting buff. However, it seems like a lot of waste effort to go through if you're not going to make the spell desirable to cast on such fights in the first place. We don't use the spell becuase the spell doesn't significantly increase our DPS. The fact that we could accidentally kill ourselves on Hodir doesn't really need to be addressed until the first issue is resolved.
Q: Have you considered providing a talent to increase the duration of Shadowfiend as a mana regeneration mechanic for longer boss fights?
Ghostcrawler: Priests don’t seem to have much of a mana problem on long boss fights, and our boss fights are not really all that long. You are supposed to run out of mana at some point. We’d be more likely to reduce the cooldown than increase the duration if it got to be a problem, since the duration would buff Shadowfiend damage as well.
Javaed: Well, it's the last "Shadow" question, and it's really more of a healer question. Healers want infinite mana, the devs want healers to have to risk running out of mana. Honestly, I side with GC on this issue, except for when a boss fight is kicking my butt =P. Now, strickly as a Shadow Priest, I would appreciate the DPS boost of Shadow Fiend lasting longer, and I kinda would like to see the little guy come into play more often. Overall though, i'd rather have my DPS reworked through other means.