Mists of Pandaria Classic Shadow Priest Rotation and Cooldowns
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Shadow Priest in both single-target and multi-target PvE situations in Mists of Pandaria Classic. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS.
Shadow Priest Rotations
If you have not already, we recommend reading the
Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each
spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of
the topics discussed on this page. While Shadow
Priest is not the strongest DPS out there, it
has a very fun and active playstyle, and excels ahead of the rest whenever a fight
has multiple targets to apply damage-over-time to.
Shadow Orbs
Shadow Orbs remain as a passive, and are still a staple part of the
Shadow
gameplay. Now you will generate 1
Shadow Orbs passively every 6 seconds,
and an additional orb each time you use either
Mind Blast or
Shadow Word: Death. These
Shadow Orbs are consumed to increase the
damage of
Devouring Plague greatly, giving you a builder-and-spender
style of game play to enhance your damage.
Shadow Priest Single-Target Rotations
Single-Target Rotation
The Shadow rotation largely revolves around keeping your
damage-over-time debuffs applied at all times, and managing your
Shadow Orbs,
which need to be stacked up and spent to enhance your damage. You should always
have
Shadowform active while DPSing as
Shadow.
Mind Spike Use on pull only with the pre-pull timer.
Shadow Word: Pain Apply and maintain on your target.
Vampiric Touch Apply and maintain on your target.
Devouring Plague Use only when you have 3
Shadow Orbs.
Mind Blast If you have less than 3
Shadow Orbs.
Shadow Word: Death Can only be used on enemies at or below 20% health; use if you have less than 3
Shadow Orbs. This should always be used twice in a row.
Mind Flay Deals additional damage while
Devouring Plague plague is applied to a target. Use as a filler wherever your rotation has gaps. Cancel the channel if a higher priority spell becomes ready, or a DoT must be re-applied.
Shadow Priest AoE Rotations
Shadow Priest has a varying
rotation depending on the amount of targets you are facing. Below you can find
the recommended AoE rotations depending on how many enemies you are facing.
Against Two to Four Targets
This is where you will excel above all other classes, keeping damage-over-time up on multiple targets at a time. When facing 2-4 targets that will live for at least 15 seconds, follow this rotation.
Shadow Word: Pain apply and maintain to all targets that will live for the duration.
Vampiric Touch apply and maintain to all targets that will live for the duration.
Mind Flay use as a filler if
Devouring Plague is up on a target.
Devouring Plague Keep this applied to the target with the most health; remember that it can only be on one target at a time.
Mind Blast if you have fewer than 3
Shadow Orbs.
Devouring Plague when you have 3
Shadow Orbs.
Shadow Word: Death use on low-health targets to get 3
Shadow Orbs.
Mind Sear or
Mind Flay to fill if mobs are stacked or not.
Against Five Targets
Against 5 targets specifically, you will still want to maintain Shadow Word: Pain
and
Vampiric Touch on all targets before using
Mind Sear. Nothing
else is worth using here unless you need to move.
Shadow Word: Pain apply and maintain to all targets that will live for the duration.
Vampiric Touch apply and maintain to all targets that will live for the duration.
Mind Sear on a friendly melee target, such as the tank, to AoE all enemies.
Against Six or More Targets
Things are much simpler when fighting larger groups of enemies, simply use
Mind Sear on a target, ally or enemy, in the middle of the group of
enemies to AoE them all down.
Cooldowns
Shadow Priest has limited
cooldowns available to them, but luckily Priest has many to offer for the raid.
You will use most of your cooldowns for yourself when needed, either to increase
damage dealt or reduce your damage taken, but Mists of Pandaria add a couple of
new tools to your kit.
Void Shift 5-minute cooldown. New to Mists of Pandara, this swaps your health with the target. After swapping, if either player is below 25% of their maximum health, they will be healed to that amount. This is great for saving someone who is about to die, as long as you are safe too!
Vampiric Embrace 3-minute cooldown. Causes you to heal yourself and nearby injured allies for 50% of all single-target Shadow damage dealt. The healing is evenly split between all injured allies and lasts for 15 seconds. Great for helping to top the raid up after major raid-wide damage.
Dispersion 2-minute cooldown. Reduces your damage taken by 90% and restores 36% of your Mana back to you. Typically you will use this to negate a raid mechanic, but the Mana restoration can also be utilized to keep your Mana high.
Power Infusion Tier 5 Talent Choice; Can only be used on yourself now; 2-minute cooldown. Grants you a self-haste and mana-reduction buff that also increases your damage dealt.
Shadowfiend 3-minute cooldown. Deals decent damage and restores 3% of your maximum Mana every time it attacks. You will want to use this on cooldown for the increased damage, as you do not need the Mana it gives.
Hymn of Hope 6-minute cooldown. This restores 2% Mana to 3 nearby allies with the lowest Mana overall and increases their maximum Mana by 15% temporarily. Ideally you will want to use this cooldown in conjunction with other Mana-restoring cooldowns, such as
Shadowfiend, as the temporary 15% increase to maximum Mana amplifies the effectiveness of abilities that restore a percentage of your Mana pool. Try to coordinate this with your other raid members.
More MoP Priest Guides
More Mists of Pandaria Spec Guides from Other Classes
MoP Dungeon Guides
MoP Profession Guides
This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.