Quick Thoughts – MoP Patch 15640 Changes

UPDATE: Fixed an error about Mindbender and Shadowfiends inline.

Quite a large update was released today for the Mists of Pandaria Beta, including a lot of interesting changes for Shadow Priests. Here are some highlights (and initial impressions):

  • Void Shift isn’t a talent, so all Priests will now have it. I expect this to act as a new pseudo-tank cooldown when they take a large hit and have some sort of “must heal $VALUE of health in one spell casts to remove effect” capacity.
  • All three options for T6/L90 (Cascade, Divine Star, and Halo) have all had their damage nerfed heavily.
  • There is going to be some competition on the T3/Level45 talent position. Mindbender is effectively a second replaces Shadowfiend, except it returns 2x the mana per hit and does 2x the damage per hit. Having to choose between it, our old friend Archangel, and strong newcomer From Darkness, Comes Light is going to be a tough decision that will probably come down to specific fights and fight mechanics to determine which is superior.
  • The change to Twist of Fate makes it a front runner for the T5/Level75 talent in multi-doting situations, especially those where adds die quickly or have focused death orders (Maloriak, Madness, Beth’tilac).
  • The nerf to Vampiric Touch isn’t unexpected, especially since it is the new primary source of our mana regen (and will be OP in multidot situations). Trade offs have to be made, and this is one I will gladly take (as opposed to being OOM).
  • Our T14 set bonuses are straight DPS gains. The 2P T14 Bonus increases the damage done by Mind Flay by 10%, while the 4p T14 Bonus increases the duration of Shadow Word Pain and Vampiric Touch by 3 seconds (AKA 1 tick). The 2P bonus will likely make our choice in the T3/Level45 talent tier easier since From Darkness, Comes Light has the potential to be a large mana drain if it procs often, but more importantly any time you are casting Mind Spike is a time when you could have been casting Mind Flay with an extra 10% crit chance. The 4P T14 bonus also plays in to this nicely since those extra 3 seconds means (roughly) 1 extra cast / 3 extra ticks of Mind Flay before you have to refresh DoTs.

4 Responses to Quick Thoughts – MoP Patch 15640 Changes

Leave a Reply to Blackmorgrim Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *