Shadow Priest Leveling Guide From 1 to 70 for TBC Classic

Last updated on May 21, 2021 at 15:25 by Abide 4 comments

On this page, you will find our level-by-level Shadow Priest leveling guide for TBC Classic. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Priest leveling guide. We also have a Holy Priest leveling guide and a Discipline Priest leveling guide.

1.

Shadow Priest Level by Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 70

Shadow is the recommended leveling spec for Priests. Shadow Priest has a hard time leveling early on, as you have a very limited selection of spells. This spec involves plenty of wanding and waiting for DoTs to kill mobs.

2.

Leveling Talents

Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

  1. Levels 10 - 14: 5 points in Wand Specialization IconWand Specialization.
  2. Levels 15 - 19: 5 points in Spirit Tap IconSpirit Tap.

Wanding is a major part of your damage early on, so Wand Specialization IconWand Specialization is worth getting for a while. Spirit Tap IconSpirit Tap is great for additional Mana regeneration, reducing how often you need to drink.

  1. Levels 20 - 22: 3 points in Shadow Focus IconShadow Focus.
  2. Levels 23 - 24: 2 points in Improved Shadow Word: Pain IconImproved Shadow Word: Pain.
  3. Level 25: 1 point in Mind Flay IconMind Flay.
  4. Levels 26 - 29: 4 points in Improved Mind Blast IconImproved Mind Blast.

Shadow Focus IconShadow Focus gives us some much needed spell hit rating, reducing the amount of resists we get. Improved Shadow Word: Pain IconImproved Shadow Word: Pain is a huge increase to our Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain damage. Mind Flay IconMind Flay greatly increases our kill speed and even slows mobs down.

  1. Levels 30 - 31: 2 points in Shadow Reach IconShadow Reach.
  2. Levels 32 - 34: 3 points in Shadow Weaving IconShadow Weaving.
  3. Levels 35 - 37: 3 points in Focused Mind IconFocused Mind.
  4. Level 38: 1 point in Shadow Weaving IconShadow Weaving.
  5. Level 39: 1 point in Vampiric Embrace IconVampiric Embrace.
  6. Level 39:Respec out of Wand Specialization IconWand Specialization and put 5 points into Darkness IconDarkness.

Shadow Reach IconShadow Reach is a great utility talent that increases the range of your Shadow spells greatly. Focused Mind IconFocused Mind helps a bit with your Mana problems. Shadow Weaving IconShadow Weaving increases your damage dealt to a target the longer that you are attacking it and Vampiric Embrace IconVampiric Embrace can be used on high health targets that will live for awhile.

It is recommended at Level 39 to respec out of Wand Specialization IconWand Specialization and put those 5 points into Darkness IconDarkness instead.

  1. Level 40: 1 point in Shadowform IconShadowform.
  2. Level 41: 1 point in Shadow Weaving IconShadow Weaving.
  3. Level 42: 1 point in Improved Mind Blast IconImproved Mind Blast.
  4. Levels 43 - 44: 2 points in Shadow Power IconShadow Power.
  5. Levels 45 - 49: 5 points in Misery IconMisery.

Shadowform IconShadowform greatly increases your leveling speed as it increases all Shadow damage dealt and reduces physical damage taken. Misery IconMisery gives you another 5% increase damage done. With the rest of our talent selections, we finish off some earlier choices and select a couple filler talents.

  1. Level 50: 1 point in Vampiric Touch IconVampiric Touch.
  2. Levels 51 - 55: 5 points in Wand Specialization IconWand Specialization.
  3. Levels 56 - 58: 3 points in Improved Power Word: Shield IconImproved Power Word: Shield.
  4. Level 59: 1 point in Martyrdom IconMartyrdom.

Vampiric Touch IconVampiric Touch is another very strong DoT ability in your arsenal. This returns 5% of your Shadow damage dealt back as Mana to you and your party. We grab Wand Specialization IconWand Specialization again, as it gives us a nice damage boost when wanding. Improved Power Word: Shield IconImproved Power Word: Shield helps reduce our damage taken when shielding.

  1. Level 60: 1 point in Martyrdom IconMartyrdom.
  2. Levels 61 - 63: 3 points in Meditation IconMeditation.
  3. Level 64: 1 point in Inner Focus IconInner Focus.
  4. Levels 65 - 69: 5 points in Blackout IconBlackout.
  5. Level 70: 1 point in Shadow Power IconShadow Power.

Meditation IconMeditation and Inner Focus IconInner Focus help immensely with your Mana issues. Blackout IconBlackout is mostly a filler talent, but offers very nice utility by stunning mobs and reducing the amount of damage you take overall.

3.

Leveling Rotation

  1. Wand low health mobs down to conserve and regenerate Mana.
  2. Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield yourself if you will be hit a lot by the mob you are about to pull.
  3. Vampiric Touch IconVampiric Touch on high health mobs.
  4. Smite IconSmite to kill things.
  5. Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain on high health mobs.
  6. Mind Blast IconMind Blast on targets that will not die from wanding.
  7. Smite IconSmite a few times until you can kill with wanding.
  8. Mind Flay IconMind Flay once or twice to lower the mobs health to "wanding range".
  9. Shadow Word: Death IconShadow Word: Death high health targets if you are not low HP.

Early Shadow Priest levels are very lacking in damage. You will be spending most of your time using Smite IconSmite, Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain, and wanding to kill mobs.

Mind Blast IconMind Blast helps speed things up a little with its high base damage.

Mind Flay IconMind Flay becomes your filler/spammable spell. It has a very low Mana cost, helping you kill things much more easily. Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield will prevent you from getting your channel spell casting pushed back when damaged.

Shadowform IconShadowform greatly increases our damage output and even reduces our damage taken. By this point, we should have good kill speed and sustain.

Vampiric Touch IconVampiric Touch gives us another massive damage increase, doubling the number of DoT spells we have. This also returns 5% of your Shadow damage dealt back to you as Mana, helping further increase your sustain.

4.

List of Trainer Skills to Buy

Training spells can be rather expensive, especially if you try to learn every spell available to you. Here we will give you a list of your top priority spells that you will want to train, so you know which ones you can avoid and save some money.

5.

Changelog

  • 21 May 2021: Page added.
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