Shadow Priests received some fairly heavy-handed damage and utility nerfs headed into Patch 10.2 of Dragonflight. Our Shadow Writer, Ellipsis, discusses all the recent changes and how this will likely effect the spec in Season 3.
Shadow Priest Guide
This Public Test Realm (PTR) is a testing environment for the content coming with the Dragonflight: Guardians of the Dream update.
Dragonflight: Guardians of the Dream Update Development Notes
- PRIEST
Power Infusion Haste reduced to 20% (was 25%) and duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
Developers’ note: Power Infusion has proved to be too impactful due to how it stacks with cooldowns on specializations that excel at dealing damage in a short window. We’re reducing it’s duration and amplitude to balance our burst classes and keep them more in line with steady-state damage dealers.
Shadow Word: Death now deals 8% of the Priest’s maximum health in damage when it fails to kill a target instead of the backlash damage being based on damage dealt.
Tithe Evasion now reduces Shadow Word: Death damage dealt to the Priest by 50% (was 75%).
Shadow Word: Death backlash damage is now reduced by damage reduction effects.
Mass Dispel cooldown is now 2 minutes (was 45 seconds).
- Developers’ note: We’re reducing the frequency that Priests have access to Mass Dispel as the value of the spell is exceeding the value of other utility at its current power level and cooldown. We’re looking to allow for more situations where magic debuffs are applied to multiple players without having a Priest trivializing the intended difficulty of the mechanics.
Improved Mass Dispel is now a PvP Talent and reduces the cooldown of Mass Dispel by 60 seconds (was 20 seconds).
Improved Mass Dispel.
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