Classic Shadow Priest DPS Spell Summary

This page will tell you all about the important spells that you have access to as a Shadow Priest, explaining how they work, and how you might want to use them. Please note that some spells are only available when chosen in the talent tree — they will be indicated as such if they are.

Mind Blast is a powerful spell with a 1.5-second cast time, though it has a very high threat modifier attached to it. You need to be careful with your usage of Mind Blast to prevent stealing aggro from your tank.

Shadow Word: Pain is a DoT which does a good amount of damage. You usually want to keep this up at all times because it is fairly Mana efficient, except on some raid bosses if it causes problems with the number of debuff slots.

Mind Flay is your primary damage dealing spell.

Shoot is the ability that attacks with your wand. This can potentially out damage Mind Flay if you have a great wand but poor gear and as it costs no mana its vital to have this ready for those low-mana situations.

While your primary purpose in a raid is doing damage, particularly in PvP and on occasion in dungeons, you will be throwing heals out for your group and yourself. For a complete run-down of the healing related spells check out the Healing Priest spells page.

Power Word: Shield applies a shield to your target which absorbs damage and stops any damage from interrupting your spellcasting. Your target is affected by Weakened Soul once shielded, which prevents you from shielding that same target again for 15 seconds. Interesting to note is that you can cast this while in Shadowform because it is classified as a Discipline spell and not a Holy spell.

Power Word: Fortitude is a buff which increases the Stamina of your target. This is a great spell which should ideally be kept up on everyone in your group at all times. At Level 48, you first learn Prayer of Fortitude, which has the same strength as Power Word: Fortitude, but affects the entire party of your target at the cost of 1 Holy Candle.

Shadow Protection increases the Shadow resistance of your target. This is incredibly useful whenever any Shadow damage is going out and so should be kept up on everyone in your group whenever that is the case. At Level 56, you learn Prayer of Shadow Protection, which has the same strength as Shadow Protection, but affects the entire party of your target at the cost of 1 Sacred Candle.

Inner Fire is a personal buff which increases your armor. It has 20 stacks that are expended whenever you take melee or ranged damage hits. Keep this up all the time, as it makes you quite a bit tankier as a cloth wearer.

Inner Focus reduces the Mana cost of the next spell you cast by 100% and, if it can critically strike, increases the chance that it will deal a critical strike by 25%. It has a 3-minute cooldown and is a pretty good button for both DPS purposes, typically with Mind Blast to utilise the additional critical strike chance. Note that this spell can only be obtained through picking this talent in the Discipline tree.

Silence is a talent in the Shadow tree which interrupts a targets spell casting for 5 seconds. This is an incredibly powerful tool in PvP with a 45-second cooldown.

Fade causes your threat level to be significantly reduced, making it a useful button to press at the start of a pull to help your tank get threat easier, or use it whenever you have already pulled aggro off of your tank.

Cure Disease removes a disease from a friendly target. At Level 32, it should be replaced by Abolish Disease on your bars, which does the same thing, except it also keeps trying to dispel a disease from your target every 5 seconds for 20 seconds.

Dispel Magic allows you to dispel harmful debuffs from friendly targets, or to dispel beneficial buffs from enemy targets.

Mind Soothe reduces the range at which mobs will aggro you or your group members. This makes it easier to sneak past certain individual mobs or mob packs if you so desire.

Mana Burn drains Mana from an enemy target and deals damage to them based on the Mana drained. This spell is incredibly useful for PvP, as it allows you to significantly increase the rate at which your target goes out of Mana.

Mind Control allows you to control a humanoid target (including players!) for up to a minute. This is especially useful for PvP purposes and can be fun/useful to use in PvE as well.

Psychic Scream causes you to fear targets around you for 8 seconds on a 30-second cooldown. Psychic Scream is a fantastic tool for PvP primarily and should be used to get targets out of a fight or to help create distance.

Shackle Undead allows you to crowd control Undead enemies, which makes them unable to cast, move or attack. Any damage breaks this effect.