Earth vs Shadow after patch

[Dragon Master]

So, I am an HM 11 Destroyer main. I was wondering what everyone's opinions on shadow vs earth are now since the patch supposedly made Shadow viable. I'm trying to decide which element I should be working towards getting the accessories for. As far as play style is concerned I prefer how shadow feels, but I don't want to choose something if either now or in the future it is going to be objectively worse.

 

Right now from what I understand, shadow is slightly better than earth if you have bt gear. What are all of your opinions on which would be a better choice to aim for?

[Laosduude]

I don't feel like throwing up dirt with an axe, if there was a shovel skin, perhaps.

[Slokky]

I play in shadow. Allready before the path i had more dps than earth destros(bla bla earth is better, yeah yeah on statick dummy).  Now after the path boost is very very good, but you need do the BT. And shadow speck is changed, before it was focused to maitain wrath uptime now your main damage is galeforce(so infinite energy and heal).   

[Laosduude]

I feel Destroyers element types are pretty close enough to each other to the point where just pick what you enjoy nowadays lol. Not like some other classes where one element is far superior than the other.

 

But no doubt, shadow is ahead when you are BT geared if you're wondering about numbers

[Krebs]

I quit destro after the patch and rerolled (HM 13 shadow destro with max gear including bracelet). I gave up because lots of annoying things about destro: Shield unbreakable gone, axe sweep knock up gone, etc, you have to spam F after every second RMB to do maximise dps, have to use damage stomp with no resist.

Those reasons along with lack of party usefulness made me quit destro after a year of playing it.

 

Shadow just became annoying after the patch. Literally have to time yourself so you're hitting the F key after after 2nd RMB. If you want more DPS you need damage stomp but its not practical in many scenarios because there's frequent CC or mobs moving. Destro got stronger, but far from the strongest class. It's still below average.

[Raeven]

9 hours ago, Krebs said:

I quit destro after the patch and rerolled (HM 13 shadow destro with max gear including bracelet). I gave up because lots of annoying things about destro: Shield unbreakable gone, axe sweep knock up gone, etc, you have to spam F after every second RMB to do maximise dps, have to use damage stomp with no resist.

Those reasons along with lack of party usefulness made me quit destro after a year of playing it.

 

Shadow just became annoying after the patch. Literally have to time yourself so you're hitting the F key after after 2nd RMB. If you want more DPS you need damage stomp but its not practical in many scenarios because there's frequent CC or mobs moving. Destro got stronger, but far from the strongest class. It's still below average.

Well said! Destroyers used to be fun and average class to plan.. Now is just a garbage class.  SPECIALLY in pvp.  

[Slokky]

10 hours ago, Krebs said:

I quit destro after the patch and rerolled (HM 13 shadow destro with max gear including bracelet). I gave up because lots of annoying things about destro: Shield unbreakable gone, axe sweep knock up gone, etc, you have to spam F after every second RMB to do maximise dps, have to use damage stomp with no resist.

Those reasons along with lack of party usefulness made me quit destro after a year of playing it.

 

Shadow just became annoying after the patch. Literally have to time yourself so you're hitting the F key after after 2nd RMB. If you want more DPS you need damage stomp but its not practical in many scenarios because there's frequent CC or mobs moving. Destro got stronger, but far from the strongest class. It's still below average.

You have iframe on the shield now bro. 

no axe sweep is very sad (

All classes are spamming F, now we too. Always beter than anicancel.

def stomp in PVE  rly? rly?????

 

[Figorix]

Did anyone actualy run any comparison?

I'm baleful st6 (i belive axe has no bigger impact here), all pinnacle accs, no badge atm (farming triumph tokens sucks :/ ) I tried to compare both builds dps and it seems THE SAME to me. I went to training room vs fire lord, tried dps during fury (so earth build 3 lb, rb, f, lb rb lb rb etc and for shadow lb lb f, lb lb f etc until boss was killed) and i after few times i got almost the same average. I also tried without fury, just earth ac vs shadow rb spam (mighty cleave and galeforce included) and i also got almost the same results. 

HOWEVER when i asked some "pro" des, they said they got about 10-15k DESCREASE on shadow build... I have no *** idea where does it come from! I dont think such diff comes from badges, because shadow has nice badges too. 3 sec wrath vs 0.5 cdr on each eradicate seems balanced to me. Are they "dumb" enough to try both with earth accs? Or mb after years of earth ac they can't ac galeforce? I wanna know, but no matter how i try, the seems the same to me. One thing i have in mind is ac fast enough, to do more than 1x lb rb in the same time as 1 eradicate... BUT i literally made macro just to test how fast you can go with earth ac and if i try to go faster, i miss almost all of my lb (game shows 100ms ping, but every other game says 45 :S some ppl told me BnS has bugged ping indicator and i agree with it). 

 

I'm starting BT raids soon, so i'd really want to know how viable is shadow Des. I feels better to play and it's not that tiresome because you don't ac. If anyone has informations about future of shadow des, please share with us :) 

[Slokky]

13 hours ago, Figorix said:

Did anyone actualy run any comparison?

I'm baleful st6 (i belive axe has no bigger impact here), all pinnacle accs, no badge atm (farming triumph tokens sucks :/ ) I tried to compare both builds dps and it seems THE SAME to me. I went to training room vs fire lord, tried dps during fury (so earth build 3 lb, rb, f, lb rb lb rb etc and for shadow lb lb f, lb lb f etc until boss was killed) and i after few times i got almost the same average. I also tried without fury, just earth ac vs shadow rb spam (mighty cleave and galeforce included) and i also got almost the same results. 

HOWEVER when i asked some "pro" des, they said they got about 10-15k DESCREASE on shadow build... I have no *** idea where does it come from! I dont think such diff comes from badges, because shadow has nice badges too. 3 sec wrath vs 0.5 cdr on each eradicate seems balanced to me. Are they "dumb" enough to try both with earth accs? Or mb after years of earth ac they can't ac galeforce? I wanna know, but no matter how i try, the seems the same to me. One thing i have in mind is ac fast enough, to do more than 1x lb rb in the same time as 1 eradicate... BUT i literally made macro just to test how fast you can go with earth ac and if i try to go faster, i miss almost all of my lb (game shows 100ms ping, but every other game says 45 :S some ppl told me BnS has bugged ping indicator and i agree with it). 

 

I'm starting BT raids soon, so i'd really want to know how viable is shadow Des. I feels better to play and it's not that tiresome because you don't ac. If anyone has informations about future of shadow des, please share with us :) 

Earth have only bigger boost during  rage and warlock buff. Don't listen to them. Before the patch  a big part of  "pro earth"  literally  didn't how to realise a good shadow roration, now is more clear. Just let me take 8 peaces from BT   and i will post a good comparation. 

 

ps Play how you want. 

pss Bt with pinacle? an baleful 6? 

[Figorix]

8 hours ago, Slokky said:

ps Play how you want. 

Well, when you play class already labeled as "no dps" i'd rather stick to the best build. If that was possible, i'd LOVE to use both, but then we have element based accs so... kinda have to choose. 

8 hours ago, Slokky said:

pss Bt with pinacle? an baleful 6? 

I've joined an educational group where our main goal is to teach ppl mechs. Every group wants experienced ppl, but this one takes only unexpirienced and teach them, so gear requirements are low, but we also have 900ish ap ppl that cant join raid because they are not experienced... 

 

Why go legendary accs when you can go BT :D 

[TJXX]

Shadow and earth aren't far off from each other and both have their pros.  Earths burst is WAY higher than shadows, but shadow does more sustained damage and you can move.  The badges for shadow seem better than the ones for earth right now, and I think for solo play it could be slightly stronger if you had the BT mystic badge and the magnum soul badge.  Here's the comparison with my current stats, I did get a pretty large lag spike during the earth parse that dropped my dps down by 2k.  My earth build also has the advantage of the badges helping it more than they help while using shadow.

[Figorix]

@TJXX

Great job man! I'd just want to make sure about 2 things here:

1. Zakhan earing you used is only earth or have you swaped it to shadow for second test? 
2. Primal force soul badge doesnt work at all with shadow build or it give any benefit?

Anyway, this definately shows shadow build availability! Again thanks a lot for this comparison. 

[Slokky]

Can do better just need  optimize rotation. 

[Figorix]

This badge though :D 
And this is all without sb too (unless you guys found they way to bring wl with you :P )

But i honestly didnt expect execute to deal so much dmg, even with BT ss. 

@Slokky With BT badge your rotation is: [rb, rb, f] right? And during fury it's [lb lb f]. I'm kinda curious, do you hold lb/rb or do you press it 2 times? I tried both and it seems that pressing is slower, but it might be something with me ping... Seems odd to me that holding is faster. 

[Slokky]

@Figorix I need to test many things. Now with 8 peaces from BT  all is changed.  

Fury + stomp + rb rb f  better boost i think. 

Execute you need to use for reset willpower time. 

Wrlock fuff lb lb f 

 

Or i need to rb rb f just all the time?  +70% galeforce dear god xD

[TJXX]

8 hours ago, Figorix said:

@TJXX

Great job man! I'd just want to make sure about 2 things here:

1. Zakhan earing you used is only earth or have you swaped it to shadow for second test? 
2. Primal force soul badge doesnt work at all with shadow build or it give any benefit?

Anyway, this definately shows shadow build availability! Again thanks a lot for this comparison. 

1. I have both an earth and a shadow earring.

2. It gives it a very small benefit if you use wrath during fury, which really doesn't seem to be any better than just using eradicate.