Shadow priest Artifact tree - How much did i screw up

[spaski 2]

Hi, 

First time posting here, mostly been creeping about.

So i main shadow priest in Legion and i went straigth for the recommended 2nd major trait and then for the 3rd recommended trait. my weapon is as of now i think level 20? perhaps 21 im not entirely sure. 

So to my question, how much did i screw up? how massive is the trait that i was supposed to go first according to the shadow priest guide here on icy veins? 

[Pandacho 286]

Hello,

I'm not playing shadow priest but would try to answer in terms of the general Artifact building :)

Firstly, I'm not sure I understand what made you think that you screwed up somewhere. To be on the Artifact level 20/21 right now is completely fine and shows that you invest in your game seriously. Most people that are playing every day are now somewhere between 18-21 traits.

Secondly, you can see exactly how many traits you have in the left upper corner of your Artifact - there's a number in a circle.

And third, whatever you did, right or wrong, don't panic. We are supposed to fill all the traits eventually so there's no big deal even if you went first for some other than recommended by the guide trait.

The only thing I would advise though, DON'T reset your artifact traits to rearrange them according to a guide: the reset cost is huge (it's dynamic and costs you the amount of AP you spend on you current trait) and will really put you behind for all the time already invested.

[spaski 2]

Thanks for the fast reply, the reason im not sure is because im stuck in school at the moment and dont have an opperunity to check i remember leveling it up yesterday but i just dont remember if it was from 19 to 20 or from 20-21, and yeah the time ive spent sofar in this expansion is probably unhealthy but cant say anything else other then that i love it so far.

And shadow priest are absolutley brilliant as a class ! i just feel abit dissapointed i fucked up the trait path because i see priests everywhere with this trait so im guessing there is some kind of logic behind it. I basically read up on everything but the artifact tree before the expansion came out. And now its going to take quite some time to get to that trait for me. 

Obviously in the long run ill be just as strong as everyone else but for now if i match up with a priest thats on my skill level i feel like i lose everytime.

[Siiana 1]

Hey,

I also screwed up my traits. At the start of Legion all I knew is that you could respec artifact traits, but not the cost (figured it was gold or free) and so I just kinda went with whatever. I ended up going for the wrong golden trait (Sphere of Insanity) and also wasted two points into death's embrace, where we are supposed to go last.

Now here are my two cents. When I asked people for advice, most people told me the same thing as Pandacho did above. "Don't respec, you'll get everything eventually anyway and that AP is completely wasted". So I stuck with it, kept on adding traits to try to salvage my spec. But when the artifact costs started ramping up I realized just how long it would take for me to reach something like Mass Hysteria. I had put 6 traits in the wrong slots and the risks were high for me to not even get Mass Hysteria, our best trait, by the time raids were out.

So I talked things over with a shadow priest from Serenity and we agreed that a respec was actually the right choice. I sacrificed 14,4k Artifact Points and have yet to regret my decision.

You can look at it this way: if I were to not respec, I was essentially 6 artifact traits behind everyone. Sure, I had my traits somewhere else, but in very less-than ideal spots. If I did respec, I was simply 1 artifact trait behind. Yes, eventually I will fill out all my traits and I will never see those 14,4k AP again - but in the grand scheme of things it's not that much. Isn't it going to cost us millions to fill out our entire artifact anyway?

The decision to respec of course varies so much depending on person to person - it depends on how far into your spec you are, how much you screwed up, and if you're even going to raid (at least on a somewhat serious level). But if you currently don't have Mass Hysteria and don't think you'll get it before raids start I would seriously consider respeccing before buying into the whole "We'll unlock everything eventually anyway" argument. It will take months to fill out the artifact weapon, and if your current spec puts you several points behind the most important traits, that is many many weeks of raiding with a gimped artifact weapon.


TL;DR: Screwing up your artifact spec puts you several points and weeks behind the ideal spec. Respeccing only puts you one trait and a few days behind.

[Valks 2,373]

5 hours ago, Siiana said:

TL;DR: Screwing up your artifact spec puts you several points and weeks behind the ideal spec. Respeccing only puts you one trait and a few days behind.

This very much also depends on where you are in the tree and how many points you have invested. It also heavily varies on which traits you do/do not have compared to the BiS build. Some people mess up a bit, some people just click randomly and get completely the wrong build. 

I would definitely suggest that people let others review their case.

[Siiana 1]

9 minutes ago, Blainie said:

This very much also depends on where you are in the tree and how many points you have invested. It also heavily varies on which traits you do/do not have compared to the BiS build. Some people mess up a bit, some people just click randomly and get completely the wrong build. 

I would definitely suggest that people let others review their case.

Yeah I addressed this in the last paragraph before the TL;DR. Sounds to me like OP wont reach mass hysteria before the raids and that might be the deal breaker - but honestly, I don't know exactly how much of a DPS loss it is and if it validates a respec. Someone would have to crunch some numbers to figure that out.

Edited September 16, 2016 by Siiana

[Valks 2,373]

7 minutes ago, Siiana said:

Yeah I addressed this in the last paragraph before the TL;DR. Sounds to me like OP wont reach mass hysteria before the raids and that might be the deal breaker - but honestly, I don't know exactly how much of a DPS loss it is and if it validates a respec. Someone would have to crunch some numbers to figure that out.

I know that the calculations have been done for a few classes, no idea if it has been for SPriest though. I'll take a look and see if I can put one on the forums in the future.

[spaski 2]

thanks for the great response Blainie and Siiana

[Valks 2,373]

On 9/17/2016 at 5:11 PM, spaski said:

thanks for the great response Blainie and Siiana

That's what I'm here for! If you have any other questions, you only need to ask!