Since I began my journey into World of Warcraft all those years ago my main character has been a Priest. I don’t really know why, other classes just didn’t appeal to me as much as Priest did and when I found my way into the Shadow spec there was no going back for me. I’m not going to drone about how we’ve spent vast periods of time as the underpowered class nor am I going to gloat about the times when we were overpowered, instead I’m looking ahead to the changes in store for the next patch, 6.2, which might as well be called an expansion now after all the content we’ve covered from it.
A fellow Priest called Twintop took to the Blizzard forums to break down exactly where Shadow Priests stand at the moment and going into 6.2 in a really in cool post which you can read here. He goes on to talk about the different talents available, the glyphs, secondary stats and tier bonuses and if you’re interested in getting the most out of your SPriest then it really is worth a read. He summarizes by saying that balancing the class is going to be a lengthy process that will more than likely run over into the next expansion.
In response to that post, game designer Celestalon discussed how certain SPriest talents cause problems and are perhaps under tuned and goes on to say that they have been retrospectively thinking about Shadow Priests recently finishing with these comments:
“I’d like to talk a bit more about Shadow in general; the big picture, not so much about these specific concerns. We’ve been retrospective lately about where Shadow has come, and how much it truly fulfills its intended fantasy, gameplay style, role, etc. Shadow Priests should be the masters of the shadows cast by the light from the Holy Priests. In terms of lore and fantasy, they should focus on the powers of the Void. However, they’re still Priests; they know that what they’re dabbling with is dangerous, and have to try to go as far as they can without going *too* far. Pain, Insanity, Darkness… These are the tools they use on their enemies, and even a bit on themselves. For the future, we’re looking at ways that we can adjust their gameplay to feel more viscerally “Shadow Priest”. We think some things have worked well (like their DoTs), and other things have worked not so well (like Shadow Orbs). It’s too early to announce anything specific at this point, but we can tell you that there are very significant changes coming to Shadow in a future patch, that we hope will better capture the fantasy, while providing unique gameplay. We’re reading all of your feedback, and taking it into account when making these changes.”
It certainly sounds like there are big plans for the Priest class in future Warcraft expansions but we’re going to have wait a lot longer than patch 6.2 to see most of them. Do you play Priest? Or do you play a class that you think needs a bit of attention, let me know in the comments below!