Shadow Priest

Overview

Talents and builds

Level 60 build

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Raid build

The raid build moves 5 points from Power in Light (2), Holy Precision (1) and Blackout (2) to Twin Disciplines (1), Improved Mind Blast (1), Shadow Reach (1) and Early Demise (2).

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Key talents

• Shadowform1/1Assume Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 10%, reducing the Mana cost of all Shadow spells by 50%, increasing the critical strike damage bonus of your Shadow spells by 100%, and reducing Physical damage taken by you by 15%. However, you may not cast healing spells while in this form
• Darkness5/5Increases your Shadow damage done by 10%
• Shadow Weaving3/3Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to increase the Shadow damage the target takes from you by 2% for 15 sec, stacking up to 5 times
• Vampiric Embrace1/1Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 20% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 30 sec
• Improved Mind Flay2/2Each instance of damage of Mind Flay deals 20% more damage than its previous instance of damage
• Mind Flay1/1Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 63 Shadow damage over 3 sec and slowing their movement speed by 50%

Improved Mind Blast still cuts Mind Blast’s cooldown and holds 4 of its 5 points: the current client folded Shadow Affinity out of the tree, and the threat point it used to take goes here. The engine measures each of those points at no damage in this build, so the point moves to Mental Agility, taken at 3/3 (a mana-cost cut on Smite, Holy Fire and instant casts, measured by the engine as a real damage gain). Silent Resolve’s point (a threat talent, zero damage) and both points in Early Demise go to the same place, and the freed Shadow points go into a second rank of Improved Shadow Word: Pain (6 extra seconds of Shadow Word: Pain duration), which the probe credits as a clear damage gain. Early Demise, which raised Shadow Word: Death’s critical strike chance below 20% health, is no longer taken: the engine measures it at zero damage in this build. Power in Light, Holy Precision, Improved Power Word: Shield and Blackout hold their ranks: the engine has no code path for them, so this site cannot measure what they are worth and the build leaves them alone. This build measures about +6.9% over the previous spend in our level-60 search run.

Point allocation runs deep into Shadow to reach Shadowform at the bottom of the tree, 33 points, with the remaining 18 in Discipline: Inner Focus (1 point) is a required pick alongside the Meditation talent’s mana regeneration while casting — it’s the free, empowered Mind Blast cast this build’s Rotation section calls out below, so it has to be taken for that line to be legal, not just Meditation. Open the planner at /planner?class=priest to build this out.

Rotation and priority

The core loop this site’s simulator plays: keep Shadow Word: Pain up on the target unless the fight is close to ending, since refreshing it late would waste most of the remaining damage-over-time value. Keep Devouring Plague up too; in Forever every race learns it, not only Undead. Its 24-second cooldown lets you reapply it as it expires, and in Forever its ticks crit like Shadow Word: Pain’s. Use Inner Focus on Mind Blast whenever it is ready, then cast Mind Blast on cooldown, ahead of Mind Flay: it is the bigger hit for its cast time, and Shadowform halves its cost and doubles its crit bonus like every other Shadow spell. Shadow Word: Death comes next, on cooldown rather than saved for the last 20% of the fight; it costs you 30% of your maximum health in backlash each cast, so let your healers know. Mind Flay fills every other global. Mind Flay needs its talent taken, since Forever gates it behind that pick rather than granting it as a baseline trainer spell (see Talents and builds below for when to take it while leveling). Wand only when nothing else can be cast: a wand shot cannot start during the global cooldown, so it never fits between spells. Reordering this way, Mind Blast over Mind Flay and Devouring Plague kept up, was worth about +12% at the time of the audit. The raid build still carries two points in Wand Specialization: wand shots no longer fit between spells, so those points do almost nothing, but moving them measured under 1% and the build keeps them until a larger change comes along.

Stat priority

1. 1Spell power
2. 2Shadow power
3. 3Hit
4. 4Critical strike
5. 5Intellect
6. 6Spell haste
7. 7Spell penetration

Best in slot

Because bonus healing gear in Forever now also carries a fraction of bonus damage, some cloth pieces itemized for healers may carry incidental value for Shadow that they wouldn’t have in 1.12 — worth checking case by case rather than assuming.

Enchants and consumables

Races

• Human
• Dwarf
• Night Elf
• Undead (Recommended)
• Gnome (Recommended)
• Troll

Undead is the Horde pick: Will of the Forsaken. Gnome is the Alliance pick: Escape Artist and Expansive Mind.

Professions

Community convention for Shadow Priests favors Tailoring for caster cloth stats alongside Enchanting for weapon and gear enchants, the same combination general caster practice recommends across classes.

Leveling

Outlined: points added in this level range.

Shadow is the strongest leveling spec for Priest by a wide margin: its damage-over-time kit provides both offense and self-healing that Discipline and Holy, built around supporting other players, don’t have solo.

Take Mind Flay’s single point the moment it’s available at level 20, ahead of the level-60 build’s own point order above. That order maxes Shadow Focus, Blackout and Spirit Tap first for a level-60 raider’s hit and threat needs, but a leveling character walking those same points in sequence doesn’t reach Mind Flay’s row until several levels later — and until then there is no ranged filler at all beyond the wand, since Forever moved Mind Flay out of the baseline kit. Grab the 1-point prerequisite first, then fill Shadow Focus/Blackout/Spirit Tap and the rest of the tree behind it.