Welcome to theShadow Priest Raidguide for the World of Warcraft prepatch 11.0! Here, you can find tips and tricks to maximize your damage output and ensure your character is ready to top the damage charts.
Your main resource is called Insanity, which is generated by spells like Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Void Torrent and spent on your most powerful DoT Devouring Plague.
Overview
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Shadow PriestRaid
Single-Target
Excellent
AoE
Excellent
Utility
Average
Survivability
Average
Mobility
Subpar
- Shadow Priests are known for their exceptional Single Target and AoE DPS. Their damage profile revolves around hitting the priority target while having the rest of the mobs Dot-ted with Vampiric Touch and cleaving with Shadowy Apparitions and Psychic Link.
- Their toolkit includes powerful defensive abilities like Desperate Prayer and Dispersion, which enhance their survivability.
- Shadow Priests bring useful utility like Vampiric Embrace and Mass Dispel.
- However, like any specialization, Shadow Priests have their weaknesses. Shadow Priests struggle with mobility and a lack of access to crowd control.
Talents
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Single-Target
Multi-Target
AoE
Spec Defining Talents
Discover all talents that significantly alter your gameplay within the Spec and Class Talent trees. This section gives a concise overview of these talents and their applications but for a more detailed look check out the Rotation and Deep Dive sections below.
Spec Tree
- Void Torrent
- One of your strongest damaging abilities.
- Void Eruption
- The main damage cooldown, paired with Power Infusion.
- Shadowy Insight
- Chance to grant a charge of Mind Blast and makes the next cast instant. This talent directly interacts with the 2pc bonus from your tier set.
- Mind Devourer
- Free Devouring Plague procs, which synergizes well with the 4pc Darkflame Shroud.
- Idol of C'Thun
- Chance to spawn tentacles that damage enemies and generate Insanity for you.
- Casting Void Torrent guarantees a tentacle spawn.
- Idol of Yogg-Saron
- After generating 25 Shadowy Apparitions you spawn a Thing from Beyond that does damage to your target and enemies next to it.
- Mental Decay
- Allows you to extend your Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.
Class Tree
- Power Infusion
- One of your main damage cooldowns.
- Empowered with Twins of the Sun Priestess.
- Phantom Reach
- Increases the range of most of your spells by 15%
- Shadow Word: Death
- One of your main damaging abilities in execute.
- Death and Madness empowers Shadow Word: Death.
- Tithe Evasion reduces the damage dealt back to you from Shadow Word: Death.
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
Added
- Shadow Crash and Whispering Shadows
- Makes it easier to apply Vampiric Touch to multiple targets at once.
Removed
- Dark Evangelism
- Passive damage increase for your damage over time effects.
Class Tree
Added
- Essence Devourer
- Passive healing when you have your Shadowfiend up.
Removed
- Angelic Bulwark
Talent Adjustments
Listing all the changes within Class and Spec tree compared to the default build.
Spec Tree
Added
- Idol of N'Zoth
- Passive AoE damage.
- Maddening Touch
- Increases your Vampiric Touch damage and gives you more Insanity generation.
- Shadow Crash and Whispering Shadows
- Allows you to easily apply DoTs on up to 8 enemies.
Removed
- Insidious Ire
- Increases your Mind Blast and Void Torrent damage when you have Devouring Plague on the target.
- Mental Decay
- Extends your Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain when channeling Mind Flay.
- Dark Evangelism
- Passive damage increase for your DoTs.
Class Tree
Added
- Essence Devourer
- Passive healing when you have your Shadowfiend up.
Removed
- Angelic Bulwark
Rotation
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Tier Set
- 2-Set: Shadowy Apparitions have an increased chance to Shadowy Insight by 25%. The Mind Blast from Shadowy Insight deals 40% increased damage and generates 4 additional Insanity.
- 4-Set: Passively increases Devouring Plague damage and makes it so every 4th cast of Devouring Plague gives you a buff for 10 seconds that increases your Shadowy Apparitions by 100%.
Single-Target
ST or "Single-Target" refers to focusing all damage and abilities on a single enemy. This approach is crucial for maximizing damage output against bosses or specific high-priority targets in encounters.
Opener Rotation
- The goal of the opener is to spend as many Mind Blasts as possible, as well as ensuring both Mind Blast and Void Bolt are on cooldown when channeling Void Torrent.
- Use your active trinkets, Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power and racials like Blood Fury or Berserking after using Void Eruption.
Priority List
This is a general priority you aim to maintain throughout the fight.
- Keep up Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.
- Keep up Devouring Plague.
- Cast Void Bolt.
- Cast Mind Blast.
- Cast Void Torrent.
- Cast Shadow Word: Death if a target is below 20%.
- Cast Mind Flay: Insanity.
- Cast Halo (if talented).
- Cast Mind Flay.
- Cast Divine Star (if talented) -- Mainly used when moving.
Multi Target
Multi target or in some cases AoE (Area of Effect) involves dealing damage to multiple enemies simultaneously, making it effective for clearing groups of enemies quickly.
2 Target Opener Rotation
- Use your active trinkets, Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power and racials like Blood Fury or Berserking after using Void Eruption.
2 Target Priority List
- Keep up Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.
- Keep up Devouring Plague.
- Cast Void Bolt.
- Cast Mind Blast.
- Cast Void Torrent.
- Cast Shadow Word: Death if a target is below 20%.
- Cast Mind Flay: Insanity.
- Cast Halo (if talented).
- Cast Mind Flay.
- Cast Divine Star (if talented) -- Mainly used when moving.
3+ Targets Opener Rotation
- Below you see one variation of an opener on 4 targets assuming that you're playing the recommendedAoE talent spec.
- Use your active trinkets, Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power and racials like Blood Fury or Berserking after using Void Eruption.
3+ Target Priority List
- Keep up Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.
- Keep up Devouring Plague.
- Cast Void Bolt.
- Cast Mind Blast.
- Cast Void Torrent.
- Cast Shadow Word: Death if a target is below 20%.
- Cast Mind Flay: Insanity.
- Cast Halo (if talented).
- Cast Mind Flay.
- Cast Divine Star (if talented) -- Mainly used when moving.
Deep Dive
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Void Torrent
When it comes to Void Torrent there are a couple of conditions you need to consider before pressing it:
- Having at least 1 Mind Blast on cooldown.
- Having Void Bolt on cooldown (if in Void Eruption).
- Having Devouring Plague up on the target for the increased mastery benefit (If outside of Void Eruption).
Mastery: Shadow Weaving and Devouring Plague
The Shadow Priest's mastery is very important to play around. It makes it so that every DoT you have on the target increases your damage done by your mastery %, which makes your mastery management vital. Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain are up on the target nearly 100% of the time, this leaves you with the task of maintaining Devouring Plague on the target. Having as high uptime as possible on Devouring Plague is crucial to dealing the highest possible damage. During your Void Eruption you gain the maximum effect of your mastery no matter the DoTs on the target, meaning that instead of playing for uptime you can play to spawn more apparitions with your 4pc bonus active.
Spreading Devouring Plague
Spreading Devouring Plague is a DPS gain because of the mastery benefit being on multiple targets and boosts Phantasmal Pathogen. However, you only want to spread it when there's no priority target that needs to die.
- A good example of when you should spread it is on Council of Dreams or The Primal Council.
- A bad example would be spreading it on the small adds on Eranog instead of using all of your Devouring Plagues on the boss himself.
Understanding Mechanics
Rotational min-maxing is just one aspect of mastering a specialization, but there are numerous other key mechanics that influence your performance. Use the following guides to improve them.
- Pandemic
- Spell Queue Window
- Stat Diminishing Returns
Raids
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Vault, Aberrus & Amirdrassil
The current focus is on the relevant bosses from Season 4, covering important aspects such as talent specs, cooldown management, and other crucial details. For the upcoming Raid in "The War Within," you receive a comprehensive look at all the bosses in the next update.
← Scroll for more Bosses →
Broodkeeper
Raszageth
Neltharion
Sarkareth
Smolderon
Tindral
Fyrakk
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Save your Shadow Crash for when the adds spawn so you can easily DoT them all.
- Whenever you pass through the boss make sure to apply Vampiric Touch to it so you can cleave it with Psychic Link.
- Using Fade after Icy Shroud removes the debuff off you.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Utility Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Always use your Mass Dispel and Psychic Scream on the Volatile Current sparks.
Phase 1
- Call for an external or use one of your defensives if directly affected by Static Charge.
- On the Hurricane Wing you need to get Rescue or Leap of Faith from another priest so you don't fall off the platform.
Intermission
- Save your Shadow Crash for when adds spawn, so you can easily DoT them all.
Phase 2
- Stay close to the boss before Tempest Wing casts to reduce the pushback and damage taken. This ability is particularly troublesome for a priest to deal with.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Save your Shadow Crash for when adds spawn, so you can easily DoT them all.
- You can apply Vampiric Touch to people who get corrupted by the boss for extra resources.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Save your Shadow Crash for when adds spawn, so you can easily DoT them all.
- Make use of Divine Star, Shadow Word: Death or pool Insanity for Devouring Plague for when there's heavy movement.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
The idea of this defensive cooldown usage is to always prioritise your Desperate Prayer over Dispersion on the Brand of Damnation.
Boss Tips
- Always use your Desperate Prayer when soaking Brand of Damnation. If it's not available, use Dispersion instead.
- Make use of Divine Star, Shadow Word: Death or pool Insanity for Devouring Plague for when there's heavy movement.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Defensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Save your Shadow Crash for the root spawns, so you can easily DoT them all.
- Dispersion frees you from roots.
Offensive Cooldown Usage
Boss Tips
- Save your Shadow Crash for when the adds are stacked up.
- You can cast Mass Dispel when your raid has a lot of Aflames active.
- Make use of Divine Star, Shadow Word: Death or pool Insanity for Devouring Plague for when there's heavy movement.
Stat Priority
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Understand your secondary stat priority and the tertiary stats needed for optimal performance during Raid boss fights as a Shadow Priest. For more detailed information, visit the Stats and Attributes guide.
Higher Item level items are better in most scenarios. For an accurate representation of what item to equip you should use Simcraft! A static "Stat Priority" is just a starting point and can easily shift depending on your individual gear.
- All secondary stats are affected by diminishing returns. Click here to learn more!
Tertiary
- Avoidance - Great stat to reduce the damage intake of "Area of Effect" abilities.
- Leech - Provides additional healing through damage dealing. The damage of your pets does not heal you thus Leech is a great tertiary for you since most of your damage is coming from your own spells.
- Speed - Niche tertiary that can be very useful and has been proven useful in the past. Makes playing certain mechanics a lot easier.
Gear
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Overall BiS
Farmable Alternatives
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | Mask of the Furnace Seraph | Tier / Catalyst |
Neck | Torc of Passed Time | Craft |
Shoulder | Devotion of the Furnace Seraph | Tier / Catalyst |
Cloak | Vibrant Wildercloth Shawl | Craft |
Chest | Vesture of the Smoldering Serpent | Volcoross |
Wrist | Vibrant Wildercloth Wristwraps | Craft |
Gloves | Grasp of the Furnace Seraph | Tier / Catalyst |
Belt | Blooming Redeemer's Sash | Fyrakk |
Legs | Breeches of the Furnace Seraph | Tier / Catalyst |
Boots | Lifewoven Slippers | Nymue |
Ring 1 | Seal of Filial Duty | Broodkeeper Diurna |
Ring 2 | Seal of Diurna's Chosen | Eranog |
Trinket 1 | Neltharion's Call to Suffering | Echo of Neltharion |
Trinket 2 | Ominous Chromatic Essence | The Forgotten Experiments |
Main Hand | Vakash, the Shadowed Inferno | Fyrakk |
Off Hand | Trickster's Captivating Chime | Council of Dreams |
Below you are presented a good list of farmable alternatives that are obtainable outside of WoW’s weekly lockout system. While replaced in time as you progress, these offer immediate character power.
Slot | Item | Location |
---|---|---|
Head | Headwrap of the Abandoned | The Azure Vault |
Neck | Ukhel Ancestry Beads | The Nokhud Offensive |
Shoulder | Boastful Stalker's Epaulets | Catalyst |
Cloak | Fireproof Drape | Ruby Life Pools |
Chest | Blessed Ohn'ir Robes | Catalyst |
Wrist | Animated Shackles | Crafting |
Gloves | Azureblade's Work Gloves | Catalyst |
Belt | Flare-Singed Strap | Neltharus |
Legs | Crazed Traveler's Legwraps | Catalyst |
Boots | Ancient Crosswrapped Sandals | Crafting |
Ring 1 | Unstable Arcane Loop | The Azure Vault |
Ring 2 | Thunderous Downburst Ring | The Nokhud Offensive |
Trinket 1 | Spoils of Neltharus | Neltharus |
Trinket 2 | Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart | The Azure Vault |
Two-Hand Weapon | Infinite Dragonspire | Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr |
One-Hand Weapon | Spellboon Saber | Algeth'ar Academy |
Offhand | Rod of Perfect Order | Halls of Infusion |
Trinkets
Trinkets come in two varieties: active and passive. Active trinkets require manual activation and inherit a cooldown providing a temporary boost to your output. On the other hand, passive trinkets provide a more consistent boost to your stats and abilities without requiring any actions.
Active Trinket alternatives
- Desperate Invoker's Codex
- Decent upfront damage. Make sure you don't suffer from any debuff that amplifies nature damage before using this trinket.
- Spoils of Neltharus
- It alternates between the secondary stats and can be delayed for a few casts for a preferable secondary stat.
- Ashes of the Embersoul
- Strong 2 minute cooldown, on-use trinket, but has a haste penalty for a minute after use.
Passive Trinket alternatives
- Whispering Incarnate Icon
- Becomes a stronger option when both a tank and healer equip the same trinket.
- Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
- Strong single-target damage while still doing respectable AoE damage
Simcraft
To find the best combination of gear available to you or identify the best possible upgrades, visit our Simcraft guide to learn how to utilize Simcraft easily and effectively.
Embellishments
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
- 2x Blue Silken Lining
- It's a good choice if you have over 90% health most of the time and during your cooldowns.
- The optimal slots to craft on are Wrists, Cloak or Neck depending on your available gear.
Honorable mention
- Allied Wristguards of Time Dilation
- Provides less personal DPS but more overall DPS for your Raid.
- Combine it with 1x Blue Silken Lining or Shadowflame-Tempered Armor Patch.
- Elemental Lariat
- Good to use if you have access to the maximum amount of gems, and decent in multi-target scenarios especially if your Blue Silken Lining uptime is not great.
Remaining Sparks
- Make sure to apply Alchemical Flavor Pocket if you have an additional crafted item equipped to keep your food buff even if you die.
- Crafted items are 525 item level and regular items are 528 at maximum item level therefore it's not beneficial to equip crafted items outside of your 2x embellishments unless you don't have access to other high item level gear on that slot.
Enchantments
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Head | Incandescent Essence |
Neck | Tiered Medallion Setting 3x |
Cloak | Enchant Cloak - Graceful Avoidance |
Chest | Enchant Chest - Waking Stats |
Wrist | Enchant Bracer - Devotion of Avoidance |
Belt | Shadowed Belt Clasp |
Legs | Frozen Spellthread |
Boots | Enchant Boots - Plainsrunner's Breeze |
Ring 1 | Enchant Ring - Devotion of Haste |
Ring 2 | Enchant Ring - Devotion of Haste |
Weapon | Enchant Weapon - Wafting Devotion |
Consumables
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Phials
- Iced Phial of Corrupting Rage -- maximum DPS.
- Phial of Tepid Versatility -- less DPS but more survivability.
Food
- Grand Banquet of the Kalu'ak
- Deviously Deviled Eggs
Combat Potion
- Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power
- Residual Neural Channeling Agent
- Can be used while being dead if your potion is ready.
Health Potion
- Potion of Withering Dreams -- a big burst of healing
- Dreamwalker's Healing Potion -- less healing upfront but an additional small heal over time.
Weapon Rune
- Howling Rune
- Hissing Rune
Augment Rune
- Dreambound Augment Rune -- Requires Reputation
- Draconic Augment Rune
Sockets
- Skillful Illimited Diamond or Fierce Illimited Diamond -- Unique, made by work order
- Keen Ysemerald
Races
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
For min-maxing a Shadow Priest in raiding, different racial traits can provide a tremendous benefit to your characters. If this is not your top goal, picking a race that fits your style works just as well.
- Stoneform -- Dwarf
- Can dispel Magic and Bleed debuffs. Has been useful in the past on some bosses with Bleeds.
- Rocket Jump -- Goblin
- Do a small jump in the direction your character is facing.
- While in the Rocket Jump animation you are placed on a global cooldown until your character lands.
- Blood Fury -- Orc
- Strong racial for damage because of both Command and Blood Fury which lines up with Void Eruption.
- 20% reduced stun duration on you which can be useful in some situations.
- Spatial Rift -- Void Elf
- Activate to spawn a shadow traveling in the direction you are facing. Activate a second time to teleport to it.
- Maximum range of 100 yards.
- Will to Survive --Human
- You can use Will to Survive to get rid of stuns.
- The Human Spirit gives you a lot of stats this season, making it the best simming race.
Recommendation
In general it's safe to say that if you care about min-maxing your DPS you should go with the highest DPS racial. That being said the story is a bit different if it's about progression raiding. Some help out massively to speed up the progression of certain bosses. Notably Dwarf with their Stoneform helped out on Tindral Sageswift & Fyrakk the Blazing in the latest Race to World First by having easy access to dispelling yourself at crucial points of the fights mentioned.
Macros
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Discover recommended macros for Shadow Priests during Raid encounters and watch a quick video guide on creating simple macros for your character.
Macro Import Guide Video
Cursor Macros
Shadow Crash -- Casts Shadow Crash on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip /cast [@cursor] Shadow Crash
Mass Dispel -- Casts Mass Dispel on your cursor without confirmation.
#showtooltip/cast [@cursor] Mass Dispel
Mouseover Macros
Utility Macros
Addons
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Below, you see a screenshot of the author's User Interface for their Shadow Priest, outlining which addons are used and how they are utilized in Raids to make your life easier.
Addons
WeakAuras
Changes this Patch
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Patch 11.0
FAQ
Patch 11.0 - The War Within
Shadow Priest
Why do I keep dying?
Credits
Written By: Stove
Reviewed By: Soda