View more than 30 screenshot submissions for the 2008 Arbor Day celebration, showing off the uniqueness of readers’ Tree of Life form and their enthusiasm about this annual holiday!Guest Post: Leveraging Shadowmeld
Published on January 5, 2009 by Vreenash
Community, PvP, Spells and Talents 
41 Comments
Or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Run and Hide”
by Vreenash of Dragonblight (US)
Shadowmeld has changed. Previous uses of this ability involved hiding from mobs while outside of combat or getting out of combat in Arena, sitting to drink, and using Shadowmeld to hide from your opponents. Now however, thanks to the powers that be, this Night Elf racial can remove you from combat and even temporarily from the hate list – permanently if you happen to be alone. We can all see the obvious advantages of Shadowmeld in a PvE dungeon setting, but you might be underestimating its full potential. Let’s consider a few additional uses:
While in a PvE dungeon setting (5-man only), use SM to take you out of combat mid-fight to:
- Drink or Eat: Even in a heroic dungeon where downtime is low, you can find yourself an 8-second quick drink (think of it as another mana pot).
- Revive: Yes, you can use our 10 second resurrection mid-battle (good luck finding those 10 seconds, though).
- Gear Change: If you have Itemrack or another gear-swapping mod installed, a Boomkin could switch over to healer if the healer goes down.
In PvP:
- If Shadowmeld is paired up with Nature’s Grasp via macro (neither is tied to the global cooldown and will therefore activate at the same time), the pursuer will drop you from their target list and will need to reacquire you. In such a situation, you will most likely be running and will break Shadowmeld immediately. The first attack after the pursuer reacquires you will most likely be an auto-attack and not a stun, thus entangling your opponent and giving you some breathing room.
- Outdoor PvP holds a cheeky benefit. If you’re being ganked, use Shadowmeld to take you out-of-combat, hit Swift Flight Form, and high tail it to the nearest bed and breakfast.
- There is currently a bug in Wintergrasp that will keep you in combat for long periods of time, even though there is no battle to be seen. Using Shadowmeld will break you out of combat so you can mount up.
- You can still use Shadowmeld to drink in Arenas, though it’s more challenging since your stealth will break once you’ve started drinking. Alternatively, you could use it in the same manner as before, running to get out combat long enough to sit and drink then activate Shadowmeld. However, given the now longer cooldown on the ability (3 minutes), you only get one shot at this in most matches.
Can you think of any other uses for this revised ability?
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I am excited that BRK is back, though!
/cry I love you, ty for everything.
I have found Shadowmeld breaks your drinking/eating, so that won’t work.
And if you’re running, you must stutter-step your Shadowmeld as you can’t use it while moving.
Bellwethers last blog post..Guest Post: Boomkin… er… Resto… er… Boomkin?… er… Resto? LFG
That’s one of those Alliance gimmicks, amirite?
/harumph
/moo
I tried it once, but it didn’t work. Guess it’s the horns. Oh well all the ladies dig the horns (except in catform)
Beathoovens last blog post..New Year’s Resolutions
I’ve been using Shadowmeld to break out of combat for a quick drink in PvP and PvE. But the best use for me is to keep myself alive when CC breaks. I used to be the raid canary (‘The druid died again – someone must have broken CC’), but now I have Shadowmeld on a panic button so the person who broke CC goes to the top of the hate list instead of me. This has already saved me a lot on my armor bill and rescued my party from a number of wipes.
Anelfs last blog post..Death Knight Quest Rewards – Hellfire Peninsula (and leveling mining)
I’ve been using shadowmeld in instances when mobs start attacking me. I shift to SM, leave combat, and the mobs turn their attention elsewhere. It’s saved me quite a few times. I’ve even been able to SM when everyone else wipes to avoid the runback (a ghetto bubble).
I love it.
One time, our guild tried a (very short) run in BWL. In the first room where the dragons have to be kited about, we had the healers in the middle. I got to watch as dragonkin ran our way… one priest faded, the next priest faded, the next priest faded … and I died, horribly. No more!
I’ve also used it to avoid a wipe. Too many mobs in a pull, tank goes down, DPS dies … I backed off, shadowmeld, and then rez’d everyone.
Alyviels last blog post..Nice Christmas Story
Well, my druid grinded her way from 75 to 78 in Zul’drak at the Argent Stand. Infinite throngs of undead mobs come their way, meaning you can bear-mangle your way through mobs of 5 at a time, or more.
However, they are rather buggy. So buggy in fact, that it is possible to attract the attention of 10-20 mobs which have been pulled by another player halfway across the field should your bear sneeze too hard. I take down half of them, but my health’s below 1k…bad situation, brother bear.
This said, what I do is stand close to one of the Argent Defenders and hit Shadowmeld. This will cause the mobs to attack the defender instead. In the meantime I heal up like crazy and I charge back in to finish the rest.
All this time the mobs never left combat, but I did. Because of this, I still get full XP and loot from them and their health does not reset. (I do lose a bit of XP for letting the defender take a few potshots).
Interesting use enough?
^_^
Natarumahs last blog post..Jinglespam, jinglespam
“If you’re being ganked, use Shadowmeld to take you out-of-combat, hit Swift Flight Form”
That’s the nice version and certainly true. Unfortunately I’m horde so it’s more like get ganked by a druid and if somehow you manage to stay alive and turn the situation around he will shadomeld and fly away to come back in 3 minutes.
For pvp that ability is a killer and not only for druids.
Hello
I found a great use of SM when i need to escape from aggro or foes (pve or pvp):
1. I cast SM (leave combat)
2. I cast Cat Form
3. then i cast Prowl + Dash for leaving zone (macro can help you)
Enjoy
Don’t know if this has been hotfixed or it’s just bugged. If the Wintergrasp battle is going on, Shadowmeld doesn’t remove you fom combat. We were going to run the vault when we lost a player and didn’t have enough to run, while we waited for a new player, the battle started so we changed to run the Sanctum instead. Our tank, a NE Druid was stuck in zone and had to run out of the zone before we could summon him.
On a different note, I play on a PvP server. Sometimes, as an herbalist, you will land to pick an herb and a horde player will attempt to gank you for that herb. I will land, moonfire, and slowly move backwards away from the herb while drawing the horde away. After a few hunderd yards seperate us from the herb, I will root, Meld, Swift Flight Form, and go pick my herb and then fly around the horde /rofl, /facepalm and KEK’ing at them. LOL Good Times!
Only one – if someone has you targetted and is casting a spell, breaking the target with shadowmeld will cancel the spell. Damn I love the new shadowmeld, should level my durid more.
Grims last blog post..Arena for All?
I mostly use it as a repair bill saver / wipe recovery accelerator in raids.
It’s also usefull in order to complete a few group quests in solo where whatever summoned NPC helps you. A prime example would be the “Convocation at Zol Heb” Zul Drak quest, where you can shadowmeld as soon as Harkoa appears to help you : the mob stays in combat, the NPC takes agro and tanks it, and you can finish him.
/bow to shadowmeld
I’ve found in raids you can escape using it but you have be the last person alive (or feign deathed/invised etc) and the boss/mobs have to be coming at you. Saved me some nasty repair costs and saved my guild some long corpse runs
Also as Cyrin said it’s a nice way to piss off horde who are trying to take the better of you ^^
Riverwishs last blog post..Winter veil achievement Walkthrough
Not to forget the use of extra mana pots during boss fights. Since Shadowmeld breaks you from combat you get to use another mana pot the next time you engage. Better used as a kind of ‘fade’ threat dump though, but if you’re OOM and used your pot/innervate already, you really need to use this option.
Doesn’t work so well against Sapphiron though…but i do enjoy shadowmelding + flight form, i can just picture the Hordey on the other side screaming in anger as another druid escapes his grasp… NIGHT ELVES FTW!
I’ve got an AoE stun! Want to trade me?
Seriously, I’m jealous. I don’t really see a reason tauren can’t Shadowmeld.
“Y’know, Tauren are born hunters. You ever see a Tauren catch a salmon out of a stream? It really is quite exciting. You ever see a Tauren stalk a python? ‘Course you haven’t. That’s because Tauren are so adept at blending in with their surroundings.”
-Tauren male /silly
See that, soooo adept.
Great minds think alike: I just wrote a blog post on this topic last night. It’s also useful as a complete threat wipe for when you pull aggro. And I use it when tanking sometimes to hand aggro to another tank.
Flyvs last blog post..The many uses of Shadowmeld
I’ve used it to:
- Drop aggro from loose mobs while someone else gets it. Sometimes only to send it to a priest standing by who doesn’t think about either fade or SM!
- Reset potion timers in some instances (not raids)
- Not die on a wipe and be able to rez people!
Atcually, from my experiences I think Shadowmeld may have been hotfixed to no longer reset the potion timer. Last time I tried it on Patchwerk it, well, didn’t work. /cry. Excellent wipe recovery too though.
Remember that while you can’t drink while melded, you can drink in forms now. I’ve used it to get out of combat, shift to cat, start drinking and using prowl to stay hidden.
Great info! I’ve often used SM to get out of combat when soloing but have put it to limited use in the instance/raid environment.
@Riverwish: I’m not sure that you have to be the last player alive/targetable. I’ve had both successful and unsuccessful attempts with SM hiding on a wipe. My main example is on Patchwork. When multiple tanks go down and its a sure wipe, you are able to run behind one of the pillars and meld. As long as no one drags Patchy to you he should reset after everyone else targetable is dead. Not sure what the determining factor is; LoS… proximity…? Anyone have firm info?
@Starkor: The extra potion may definitely come in handy if they go through with the whispered mana-regen nerf. Can anybody confirm when this can/cannot be used?
One note about SM that should be brought up. Yes it will bring you out of the fight in a lot of cases, but some bosses can still find you.
AOE attacks will bring you out of a SM. So watch that. I learned that the hard way when Instructor Razuvious broke loose, and I skittered off a corner and SM. His next “victim” was too close to me when he let out his “Distrupting Shout” and I became next on his list.
Figured I’d drop a line since it is a weakness to SM to keep in mind. =)
Bearesss last blog post..April 11, 2008 18:00:00 CST
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Thanks for posting this up Phae
Keep the ideas flowing guys. It’s good to hear the different ideas and situations you’ve all been using shadowmeld in. Here’s another one for you:
While leveling my way to 78 (still with the ground mount in northrend), there were quests that required killing a normal mob boss. They were usually in the centre of a town, camp or cave. Instead of killing all the mobs on the way to boss, just mount up and run directly to him. You’ll agro all the ads of course. When you get to the boss: shadow meld to reset adds; kill boss; mount up and ride out of there. The only difference in doing this in caves is just using cat sprint uncloaked to run in. Sometimes it’s just faster to bypass mobs
@Natarumah: Very cheeky use of SM, I like it
@Daina: Great defensive maneuver you’ve described. I can see this being used a lot in BG’s
@Cyrin: I haven’t experienced that problem. I run about two wintergrasps a day and always get that in-combat bug. Shadowmeld breaks it for me as well as other NE’s I’ve seen there with same problem, so we can mount up. Maybe a bug, bug
@Grim: Yes nothing is more satisfying than a mage casting a 6 second pyroblast, who can already taste the crit, to be denied at the last second due to shadowmeld. Muhahaha
@Aoyanagi: Yes this is true. Shadowmeld no longer resets potion timer in 5-man’s or above.
As far as i’m aware they changed it so that when you meld in a raid instance you don’t leave combat so you can’t drink/eat or reset pot cooldowns in a raid bossfight, this is why you have to be quite lucky at escaping combat in a raid situation. I did manage to escape for Patchwerk numerous times but other bosses are trickier, I think it depends really on who your fighting and what room you’re in
All these things can be done in 5 mans though.
Riverwishs last blog post..Christmas pressie
Our guild tried instructor Razuvious in H naxx and we had to try many different strategies, wiping a bunch or times because we had only 1 priest. Most of the time, i was assigned to raid healing and could heal in a corner above the arena. Whenever our tank died and he started one-shotting our raid (90k on a clothie, 30k on a tank) i shadowmelded and could start rezzing people. This was very useful, especially when the pallies ran out of reagents to DI.
Outdoor PvP holds a cheeky benefit. If you’re being ganked, use Shadowmeld to take you out-of-combat, hit Swift Flight Form, and high tail it to the nearest bed and breakfast – this is genius! Now I just need to lv to be able to use my flight form in Northrend…
my most useful use of shadowmeld was in Kara, the whole group stopped fir a break, some people AFKed in the path of trash mobs which pulled them into the rest of the group. I shadowmelded, trash runs away once everyone is dead, use my new ooc rez and everyone is up by the time they get back to their keyboards
Wise Foxs last blog post..Yimas becomes a dad!
FYI, on Instructor… You can reset him by running up the ramp that you came down to meet the last trash packs before the boss. He will chase you til he gets to the top and then run back… Makes learning it a whole lot easier.
From what I know SM never dropped you from “combat” in actual skull marked boss fights, once you got the combat pulse that was it. I didn’t realise that the resetting of potion sickness had been nerfed but I used to find it really useful while doing my first heroics at 80 before getting a bit better gear than my level 70 stuff
Great post! Damn I wish that horde druids could do this. Especially the flight form in world pvp, what an awesome ability.
You’ve inspired me to possibly make a similiar post on
http://justmytwocopper.blogspot.com/
If anyone doesn’t know that’s where I post my gold guides/hints/tips.
Cool blog and I’m going to keep an eye on it as my alt is resto
SM is still great in arenas if you can get out of your opponents’ view long enough to hit SM, go to cat (while still OCC) drink and then stealth.
You can drink and also reposition yourself for a quick pounce or a big instant heal on a teammate.
Use for kiting?
Get (plenty) threat, run like the wind with the mob chasing you all around the instance, then when things get hairy: shadowmeld. Mob runs back to where he came from, you wait wait wait then heal up, nice big healing touch or so, moment the heal hits you regain your aggro and start running to resume the kiting with a merry headstart.
Not very resto, admittedly, and I haven’t tried it yet, but reading the article made me think that this should work, no?
Sweet! I’ll use my hordie druid’s racial ability, too!
/warstomp
/cry
/corpse run
*grumble*
Nims last blog post..SMILF?
I use it when healing five man PUG’s. The hunter doesn’t know how to MD? The tank can’t hold agro? The hunter FD’s and drops agro onto me? The AOE’ers don’t keep stuff offa me? I toss a wild growth to keep everyone healed, and shadowmeld for a few seconds till someone else deals with loose mobs.
Actually SM was seen a lot on the few last pvp videos.Many feral druids used it as a vanish,using SM and prowl at the same time.SM also has the other use of vanish,making a spell cast on u fail although it has hit u.
My absolute favorte use of shadowmeld is when I mount up and have to run from point A to point B and theres about a dozen mobs inbetween. I don’t worry about aggroing them because I just pop shadowmeld once i reach point B. Its great for restos and nondps specs (ex. holy priests).
We used shadowmeld yesterday to reset Heroic VH (without everyone having to die) when one of our party members got stuck behind the doors. -.-;
gts last blog post..A request to those at level 80
You cannot drop out of combat on any raid boss using any ability unless it causes the boss to reset entirely. As long as the raid boss is engaged, you will remain in combat no matter what you do. That means hunters and rogues also cannot use feign death or vanish to reset a potion cooldown or swap gear etc., on a raid boss.
I used Shadowmeld as a supprisingly good wipe recovery tool this last weekend in The Old Kingdom. Got unexpected adds from a patrol (we were all fairly unfamiliar with the instance) popped SM when it was obvious a wipe was inevitable, waited for the mobs to reset and then started rezzing. There was much rejoicing.
Activating Shadowmeld while drinking will interrupt the drink. But now that we can drink in forms, all an arena druid needs to do is shift to cat, start drinking, and hit prowl. The plus side to this is that Tauren druids can do this as well.
It should be noted that SM does not work great if you are in direct melee combat. If the monster has a swing in progress and it hits you after you SM’d, then it will break the meld. Of if you SM, then the monster may walk over where you are SM’d, which will break your meld, if he walks directly over you.