Mind Flay
| Mind Flay | |
|---|---|
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| Usable by | |
| Class | Priest |
| Properties | |
| Type | Offensive |
| School | Shadow |
| Cooldown | None/Global Cooldown |
| Other information | |
| Level learned | 10 |
| Modified by |  [Glyph of Mind Flay] |
| Improvements |  [Solace and Insanity] |
| Related debuff | |
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- "Some priests heal; others enhance. I, however, melt faces!" —Omedus the Punisher[1]
Mind Flay is a channeled Shadow priest ability. While channeled it deals Shadow damage each second and slows the target by 50%.
Contents |
Improvements
Talents:
Glyphs:
- Glyph of Mind Flay
- Major Glyph
- Use: Permanently teaches you this glyph.
Your Mind Flay spell no longer slows your victim's movement speed. Instead, each time Mind Flay deals damage you will be granted 15% increased movement speed for 5 sec, stacking up to 3 times. - Classes: Priest
- Requires Level 59
- Sell Price: 1
Tips
Mind Flay is generally the 'filler' in any Shadow priest's rotation. It deals damage fairly slowly and requires the priest to remain stationary while channeling it.
In a standard Shadow priest rotation, Mind Flay should only be used once all DoTs have been applied, and while 
[Mind Blast] is on cooldown. Mind Flay is far less effective than any of these abilities, and should be broken-off mid-cast if necessary in order to utilise one of them.
Traditionally, when taking a 'burst' approach to damage-dealing, Mind Flay was superseded by 
[Mind Spike], which dealt slightly more damage in the same space of time. However, with 5.0.4 Mind Flay now benefits from the Shadow Mastery 
[Shadowy Recall], sometimes granting the spell extra ticks. For players with around 20% mastery, Mind Flay will therefore equal or even exceed Mind Spike's damage, making the use of Mind Spike in these situations unnecessary and even disadvantageous.
Mind Flay has four main strengths:
- Its 50% snare effect makes it effective for slowing fleeing targets. This can allow teammates to reach them and finish them, or simply slow a flag-carrier's progress across the field in a battleground. Since Mind Flay has no cooldown, this effect can be channeled continuously as long as the target is within range and in line of sight. When attempting to deal quick damage to a fleeing target, by increasing the length of time that the target remains in range, Mind Flay can be considered to be far more effective in the amount of damage it deals, far exceeding [Mind Spike]'s abilities.
- As a channeled ability, Mind Flay can be used to continue to deal damage to (and snare) targets even after that target has moved out of the priest's line of sight. When a target is about to move behind an obstacle or similar, priests can use Mind Flay to continue to deal damage to and snare them for a little longer. Mind Flay's effectively instant cast also makes this possible in situations where there would not be time to cast Mind Spike or Mind Blast. This also makes Mind Flay very effective when dealing with melee classes such as rogues, who will run closely around the priest while attacking, making it near impossible to cast spells that require line of sight (
[Vampiric Touch], [Mind Spike], [Mind Blast]). Although not the most powerful attack, when casting other spells is difficult at best, Mind Flay can be used to deal constant damage. - Mind Flay has no cooldown, and in contrast to [Mind Spike], can be used in combination with DoTs. This makes it the ideal (and almost only) attack to use when all DoTs have been applied and other abilities such as [Mind Blast] are on cooldown.
[Glyph of Mind Flay] offers an alternative utility to Mind Flay's usual snare, exchanging it for a movement speed self-buff of 15%, stacking up to 3 times for 5 seconds. Each tick applies the buff (when it deals damage), allowing a full cast to apply the maximum 3 stacks. While not sufficient to justify the express use of Mind Flay for the purpose of acquiring the buff, when Mind Flay is being used regularly as part of the priest's rotation, this effectively gives the priest a constant 45% speed buff, allowing them to evade melee attackers. Since Mind Flay's snare effect is of no use defending against attackers who are already within melee range, in such situations this glyph can be considered to offer a far more useful alternative. It is also more effective for keeping fleeing targets within range than Mind Flay's usual effect, provided the priest makes use of the movement speed bonus.
[Glyph of Mind Flay] is particularly useful when dealing with melee classes such as rogues; while the attacker's movements may prevent the priest from using line of sight-dependent spells, Mind Flay can be used regardless of the target's range or position, and after 2 or 3 seconds the priest will have accumulated a 45% speed buff. The priest can then surprise the attacker by sprinting away, which with good timing will leave the attacker out of range and unable to catch the priest.
Since Mind Flay does not deal damage instantly, it is possible to use Mind Flay to pull targets from a distance without damaging them.
Notes
- Mind Flay is considered a DoT by the game instead of a direct damage spell, and therefore benefits from [Shadowy Recall].
- Receives a total of 50% of the priest's spell power.
- Its debuff has no classification, hence it cannot be dispelled.
- When attacking a Druid with Mind Flay, shapeshifting cancels it.
- Similarly, if the target uses a PvP trinket, it removes Mind Flay, due to the snare.
- Mind Flay does additional threat. This is most likely due to its snare.
- This spell is popularly referred to as the "face melter" due to the ray that usually targets the opponent's face.
Patch changes
Patch 4.2.0 (2011-06-28): Mind Flay damage done has been increased by 12%.- Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26): Should no longer lose a tick of damage when the last tick is clipped by another Mind Flay cast.
Patch 3.3.0 (2009-12-08): The range of this ability has been increased to 30 yards, up from 20.- Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20): Fixed a bug with targeting where you would not deal damage if not facing the target while channeling. Also corrected an issue where the damage from this ability was slightly delayed.
- Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Can now periodically critically hit. The spell coefficient has been increased approximately 30%.
Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Will now cause damage to targets immune to movement slowing effects.- Patch 1.4.0 (2005-05-05): Should now be affected by the Focused Casting talent.
Images
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"Melt Face" in the TCG.
References
External links
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