Well, the Shadow Priest spec has officially earned the title “Only Priest Spec Available for Testing” which means we have a lot to discuss! Today, we’ll be going over most of the systems changes that will affect how we play Shadow in the upcoming Legion expansion. So without further ado, let’s hop right in and discuss how Shadow appears to be shaping up so far, shall we?
Shadow priests offer some similar gameplay to Affliction warlocks, keeping a number of DoTs active on targets at all times while filling the rotation with lighter attacks and bonus procs. However, the Shadow priest lacks the complexity of the Affliction warlock's range of options, having a much simpler and tighter rotation. Priest: Shadow Weaving Curse of Shadow and Curse of the Elements are notable as they lower a boss' magical resistance, increasing the DPS casters can do the boss. Some classes can apply unwelcome debuffs, such as Mortal Strike or DoTs, so players should generally avoid those abilities in groups.
What’s happening to our current spells?
Let’s begin with a rundown of some of the spell changes that currently exist in the alpha. For starters, Blizzard has once again gone to the chopping block in the name of ability pruning and we’ve lost some spells that many of us have gotten used to by now. In addition to our only healing spell being Shadow Mend, we have also lost
Update: Levitate has been added back in!
What else is different? For starters, our DOTs no longer generate Insanity. The only baseline spells that do so are Mind Flay, Mind Blast, and Shadow Word: Death (but only if the target dies). To compensate, Mastery is now solely built around DOTs: it increases the damage of Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Touch, and Void Bolt. This allows Shadow Priests who favor DOT builds to focus on Mastery which, to me, feels a little odd. I’ve always been a fan of Haste for DOT builds, but this solution does address the possibility of multi-target fights being dominated by insane Shadow Priests.
One more thing: I should also mention that Shadowform currently doesn’t exist in the alpha. We’ve been told it’s just a bug, but there’s been a bit of confusion about whether or not the visual will come back as well, or if it will just be a passive damage aura for Shadow-specced Priests. Until we find out more, and because I could write an entire article on Shadowform’s importance, I’ll keep it brief: the visual effect for Shadowform should never be removed. Period. Make it an optional glyph; make it purely cosmetic — but whatever you do, do not make Shadow’s visual distinction only available while Insane.
Our new talent tree
In addition to the above spell changes, our talent trees have received a major overhaul. Very few talents will look familiar and the ones that do have either been changed or moved to a different tier. Our talent choices now offer us four new spells (Shadow Word: Void, Shadow Crash, Power Infusion, and Surrender to Madness) plus three “upgrade” talents (Mind Bomb, Mindbender, and Mind Spike). Now, keep in mind: this is the alpha. Any and all of this could change tomorrow. That being said, there are a couple specific talents and overall design choices I feel are worth discussing.
Let’s start with Masochism. With Insanity as our only resource, it has the potential to make Shadow Mend spammable with almost no downside — if you’ve got any Insanity, it will drain; once you hit zero Insanity, though, you’re still free to spam it. While in and of itself, this isn’t necessarily overpowered, its placement in a tier with two other movement-speed increasing talents feels… odd. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing an entire tier built around support spells, with movement options limited to glyph slots.
Moving onto the next tier, there are some ups and some downs. The upside to this tier: each talent feels like it belongs in a tier with the other talents. Do you want a more powerful CC? Do you want to use it more often? Or do you want a pseudo-pet for the duration of Dominate Mind? Thematically, the talents works excellently. So what’s the downside? Mind Bomb. I love it as a more powerful AOE stun — absolutely love it! But it feels more like a glyph than a talent to me. It adds a cast time to Psychic Scream and also reduces the duration of the CC. Sure, overall it may be more effective, but I’ve never viewed talents as a “gain some, lose some” system. It’s still a very appealing talent and my complaints may be my own, but it felt like an odd approach.
The next talent I’d like to talk about is Void Ray. In theory, it’s a nice way to “passively” increase Mind Flay damage; however, the short duration on the talent makes it almost a requirement that you constantly be casting Mind Flay to keep the buff up — two casts in a row of any other spell and you lose the buff. This not only doesn’t play well with other talents — (Need to cast Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Void? Not in a row! How about Void Torrent? Bye-bye, buff!) — but it also is incredibly susceptible to latency issues.
Next shout out goes to Shadow Crash. While the ability itself is still up for debate (they’re not kidding when they call it “slow moving”) I want to bring attention to this spell because it’s one with a distinct and noticeable visual. Vb wont read dmg. I’ve already talked about my hope for more visible spells, and this is exactly the kind of spell I was talking about. As a bonus, this spell is taken straight from some of the bosses we’ve faced in the past. It’s always felt like Shadow-based enemies get cooler looking spells than we do but Shadow Crash is a prime example of bringing some of that love to us Shadow folk and I hope to see more of it.
And lastly, this wouldn’t be a discussion of talents without talking about Surrender to Madness. Personally, I think this talent is a standout and I commend Blizzard on something this bold. I don’t think every talent needs to be “safe” so long as it’s still competitive, and I would love to see more “out there” choices for everyone. This talent lends itself to an offensive battle resurrection, which is rarely, if ever, seen nowadays. I’m incredibly excited to see videos of raids that would have otherwise wiped at 1% if not for a lone Shadow Priest surrendering to the madness within to take down the boss. I sincerely hope this talent doesn’t get taken away by the time Legion goes live.
Overall, I like where the talents are headed. There are a few outliers, but the general design seems to not only encourage unique choices around a similar theme (the level-15 and level-75 tiers especially) but also a few talents that seem to synergize well across tiers (Fortress of the Mind/Void Ray, Twist of Fate/Reaper of Souls, or even the one-two-three punch of Fortress of the Mind/Shadowy Insight/Mind Spike).
Putting it all in action![]()
So, how’s this all feel? I’ll admit, DOTs not generating Insanity doesn’t quite feel right to me. I get that there were certainly risks associated with that option, but if our entire gameplay is being designed around a new fantasy of slowly going insane, then I shouldn’t feel like Vampiric Touch/Shadow Word: Pain being cast on ten enemies at once does absolutely nothing to push me in that direction. Whether it be a debuff required to be on the target (a la the original Vampiric Embrace) or a severely reduced rate of Insanity generation, it would feel much better if DOTs did something to provide Insanity.
The second big issue I have with the current playstyle is the Insanity rotation. The idea is to cast Mind Blast more often, fill with Mind Flay, and use Void Bolt to refresh DOTs. Void Torrent does add a bit of uniqueness to the rotation, but with a 1-minute cooldown, it will likely be used once per Insanity phase, if that. I like the design behind this rotation (big hitter, filler, cooldown) but it doesn’t quite feel interesting enough to me. I would like it if Insanity felt like an expansion of our abilities rather than a simplification of it. Yes, it’s cool to do more damage. But the way we do more damage could certainly feel more engaging. I would love to see an additional spell that can only be used during Insanity, such as another DOT (cough Devouring Plague cough) or one that offers expanded synergy with Mind Blast.
Lastly, the removal of Devouring Plague takes away a lot of the passive survivability we had before. It’s hard not to feel like the best route to surviving right now is a mix of offensive spells with a lot of Shadow Mend sprinkled in. Adding a Devouring Plague-like DOT during Insanity (COUGH COUGH) or increasing Shadow Mend’s healing amount might help this. For now, our self-healing feels a bit low.
None of this is to say Shadow feels bad right now! It’s actually quite fun and the gameplay changes promise to reinvigorate the class in a way that really hasn’t ever been done before. And of course, all of this only scratches the surface on what the Legion alpha has to offer for Shadow Priests. We’ve still got class hall features, artifact lore, and the artifact talents to discuss. All in good time, however.
Until then, always remember: sometimes, a little madness is a good thing.
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Hiroim is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted usually as a supporting character in Hulk books.
Publication history[edit]
He first appeared in Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #92 and was created by Greg Pak and Carlo Pagulayan.
Fictional character biography[edit]
Originally, Hiroim was a Shadow Priest, dedicated to the story of the Sakaarson — he who would unite the people of Sakaar — and trained to join the other Shadows. However, for his blasphemy of daring to dream that he could be the Sakaarson, he was expelled from the order. He was then chosen to be the personal guard of the Emperor of Sakaar, and to uphold an alliance between the Shadows and the Empire. He broke this vow however, when the Emperor ordered Hiroim to kill his adolescent son, due to the belief that he would bring ruin and devastation to Sakaar (a prediction that ended up coming to pass).[1] For breaking that oath, he ended up in the Empire's gladiator training school, the Maw, where he fought alongside such other warriors as Miek, No-Name the Brood, Korg and the Hulk. After two victories in the arena — during which their teammate Lavin Skee was badly injured —, having heard the stories of his allies, Hiroim formed a Warbound pact with them, vowing that they would always stand together. Having been freed from their obedience disks by the Silver Surfer, the Warbound went on to vanquish the Red King, Hiroim concluding that the Hulk was the true Sakaarson (although he briefly thought that the Surfer might be the Sakaarson).[volume & issue needed]
With the destruction of Sakaar following the detonation of the shuttle that brought the Hulk to Earth, Hiroim absorbed the powers of all the Sakaar Shadow Priests as he was the only one left, and he accompanied the Hulk to Earth to wage war against the Illuminati. During the subsequent conflict with Earth's heroes, Hiroim defeated Luke Cage during the Warbound's initial attack, but was in turn defeated by Doctor Strange when the sorcerer called on the power of his old enemy Zom. Hiroim is missing his left arm[2] due to Doctor Strange's attack.[3]
Following the revelation of Miek's treachery that Miek had allowed the destruction of Sakaar, the remaining Warbound surrender to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. They manage to escape during tremors caused by Manhattan Island breaking up due to the damage the Hulk had caused. Channeling the rock-based powers of his fellow Warbound Korg, as well as Earth hero the Thing, Hiroim is able to 'heal' the damage before he and the others depart, escaping into the sewers.[volume & issue needed]
During the World War Hulk Aftersmash: Warbound series, Hiroim and his fellow Warbound confront S.H.I.E.L.D. agents while attempt to protect a badly wounded Elloe Kaifi. Unfamiliar teleportational technology take all the Warbound and agent Kate Waynesboro to Nevada. Hiroim is not found with the others, as he had been separated by the Leader. Basing the two in a seemingly abandoned factory, the Leader uses Hiroim's powers to create a gamma-dome encapsulated environment called 'Gamma World'. Kate and the Warbound are trying to save him but the deadly shields go up despite their efforts. Hiroim eventually sacrifices himself to stop the Leader, and transfers his old power to Kate. Before his death, he was briefly able to rebuild his form, with an intact left arm, out of extant rock, channeling the full might of his Oldpowers.[1]
During the Chaos War storyline, Hiroim ends up returning from the dead after what happened to the death realms. He ends up helping the Hulks in fighting Abomination and the forces of Zom and Amatsu-Mikaboshi. The issue also shows that Hiroim and Korg were in a homosexual relationship.[4] While Hulk fights his father Brian Banner (who is in the form of Devil Hulk), Hiroim tries to exorcise Zom from Doctor Strange. This fails, but Zom is exorcised when Marlo Chandler taps into Death's powers.[5]
Power and abilities[edit]
Like all the Shadow People, Hiroim at his base, natural state possesses physical traits slightly superior to the human maximum, and ages more slowly after reaching adulthood at the age of 13. He possessed the enormous strength of a trained Shadow Warrior and could lift up to one ton.[6] Beyond this he has received quasi-mystic training as a Shadow Priest, and is an experienced warrior, strategist, and philosopher. After the deaths of Caiera and his people he inherited the stone-based 'Oldstrong Power', drawing power from the planet itself, enabling him to turn his body into immensely hard and strong 'mystic rock'. Further demonstrated talents include sensing and unravelling powerful mystic wards cast by Doctor Strange, and limited control over the earth, as seen when helping to keep a massive chasm from destroying Manhattan Island.
Other version[edit]Marvel Zombies Return[edit]
In the fourth issue Hulk, along with the Warbound, reach the moon in hopes to start World War Hulk but instead meet Zombiefied versions of Giant Man and the Immortals. In the battle Hiroim is eaten by one of the Immortals.[7]
What If[edit]
Hiroim was featured in two 'What If?' issues.
In other media[edit]Television[edit]
Film[edit]
See also[edit]The True Alpha Shadow Priest Dmg DownloadReferences[edit]The True Alpha Shadow Priest Dmg Download![]()
External links[edit]Shadow Priest Classic
The True Alpha Shadow Priest Dmg 2
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