Shadow Priest DPS Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible Raid Guide — Season 4

Below, you can find class and spec-specific advice for every fight in Aberrus. If you are looking for a general overview of the Raid that is not spec-specific, check out our dedicated Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible guides.

On this page, you will find Shadow Priest specific information to deal with each boss in the Aberrus raid. These are not complete encounter guides but specific tips for doing the bosses as a Shadow Priest.

This page assumes that you already understand most of the mechanics of each encounter. These can be found on the full raid guide, so what is contained here are details specifically tailored toward Shadow Priest and how you can deal with each fight as best as possible.

All recommendations are progression-based tips and will not necessarily be the best for an overall DPS ranking.

Shadow Priest has several defensives that you should plan to use and rotate throughout mechanics. You should opt to use the smaller cooldown spells often as needed with incoming mechanics and save bigger cooldowns like Dispersion for large incoming damage.

• Flash Heal with Protective Light talented.
• Power Word: Shield for a small absorb.
• Fade with Translucent Image talented.
• Desperate Prayer
• Dispersion

As a Shadow Priest, you want to generally sync up your cooldown together. The typical sequence for cooldowns is the following:

1. Use Nymue's Unraveling Spindle if equipped.
2. Shadowfiend or Mindbender
3. Use damage-only trinkets like Belor'relos, the Suncaller if equipped.
4. Void Eruption or Dark Ascension
5. Power Infusion
6. Other on-use trinkets like Spoils of Neltharus

Note that with Shadowfiend, it does not sync nicely with certain cooldowns, but you should still plan to use this on cooldown. For more information, check out the rotation page.

In addition to the general rotation, you want to keep in mind that your goal is to use your cooldowns as often as possible during an encounter. With that in mind, your secondary goal is to use them at the correct time.

I highly suggest using some Addon or WeakAura to track the estimated time to die of your target/boss target. Method Raid Tools has this as an option if you are already using this addon. By tracking time to die, if you know that you can only fit one more cycle of your cooldowns in before the boss dies, you can choose to hold these cooldowns to better line up with Twist of Fate, Bloodlust, or any other mechanic that would make burning cooldowns better.

• For this boss, we suggest the single target build.
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• Use your smaller defensives for Wings of Extinction.
• Plan for smaller defensives for Hellsteel Carnage at 80%, 60%, and 40% health.

• No specific timings to mention.

• Make sure you carefully plan your movement ahead of time. You should plan to get future mechanics before they happen so you are prepared.

1. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
2. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
3. Spoils of Neltharus
4. Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
5. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)

For more information, please refer to our Kazzara guide.

You must be 50 yards away from the second boss to avoid double-stacking the debuff. Our AoE from Psychic Link has a 40-yard range, so realistically, you will not treat this fight as a two-target encounter on progression. In addition, once the boss transitions, it is pure single target, so your build here will be similar to a traditional single target boss.

You can play this in the middle, but likely not worth doing on progression due to the large amount of damage taken. If you plan on doing this, you can simply swap out Dark Evangelism for the one point in Screams of the Void, or you can also play the Void Eruption version if you prefer that. Both of these builds will be great for maximizing overall damage.

• Full Single Target: BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAJBAAAAAAAAAAAAIkiDQSSLtIJJRkUgUIJJRaRAiQKSLkEUQC
• More 2 Target in Phase One ( Dark Ascension): BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASkEAAAAAAAAAAAAgQaOAJJl0IJJRSSBShkkEpFBICpItQSQBSA
• More 2 Target in Phase One ( Void Eruption): BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAJBAAAAAAAAAAAAIkmDQSSLtIJJRkUgUIJJRaRAiQKSLkEUQC

This is a very small difference between builds, the main change is if you can stand in the middle or not during Phase One. The difference in builds is roughly .33% increase swapping from the Full Single Target variant to one of the other choices.

• Use at least one small defensive or even Dispersion if you get targeted with Umbral Detonation. Dispersion has an extra benefit giving you movement speed to run out further.
• Use a small defensive when soaking Gloom Conflagration.
• Pop a defensive if you are not topped before Blistering Twilight goes off on you if targeted.

• On progression you will typically save Bloodlust for the start of phase two. If this is the strategy you are doing, you will likely hold your second use of your cooldowns to make sure you have them all back for Bloodlust.

• If the tanks are swapping the bosses for the raid, try to re-dot just as it goes out of range for a bit more overall damage.

1. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
2. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
3. Spoils of Neltharus
4. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)
5. Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge

For more information, please refer to our Amalgamation Chamber guide.

For LFR, Normal, and Heroic, this boss is mostly a single target, with some adds that will spawn in a single phase. Once you get into Mythic, roughly half of the fight will become 2 target sustained cleave. On top of that, there is a common strategy where you Mass Dispel the debuffs and spawn several adds. Because of this, I would strongly suggest using Shadow Crash.

• LFR/Normal/Heroic - BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASkEAAAAAAAAAAAAgQaQSSJtDIJJRSSBShkkEpRgICpItQSQBSA
• Mythic - BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSAAAAAAAAAAAAACaQSSJNSSSSSSBShkkEpRgICpItQSQBSA

• Use a small defensive when targeted with Rending Charge as you move out.
• Save a small defensive for casts of Violent Eruption. Consider using Vampiric Embrace for this as well.

• Typically, you will use Bloodlust at the start of the second boss. Depending on when this is happening, you should save offensive cooldowns to have them at the start of Bloodlust. For most groups, this will be roughly a minute into the encounter, so you should save your cooldowns for this.
• Save cooldowns if the target will be dying soon; there is downtime between bosses depending on the difficulty, which can waste cooldowns if used at the wrong time.
• Make sure you save Shadow Crash when you dispel the stacks of the buff on allies. This will spawn adds that you want to quickly take down.

• The remnant adds that spawn typically will just need Vampiric Touch applied, and then you go back to tunneling in on the boss. If they duplicate, it will live long enough for Devouring Plague to tick; You can fully swap if needed.
• Coordinate with your healers and raid on when to use Mass Dispel to get rid of Unstable Essence.

1. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
2. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
3. Spoils of Neltharus
4. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)
5. Tome of Unstable Power (if this procs on the adds congrats on your parse)

For more information, please refer to our Forgotten Experiments guide.

For this fight, you can decide whether you want more add or more boss damage. Both builds will perform well regardless; you are just choosing where to add a bit more.

• Single Target with Shadow Crash - BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSAAAAAAAAAAAAACaQSSJNSSSSSSBSjkkEpFBICpItQSQBSA
• More Add Damage - BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECiEAAAAAAAAAAAAgQaCJJt0IJJJRSBSjkkEpFBICpItQSQBJA

• Use a defensive when soaking Catastrophic Slam.

• No special considerations.

• Shadow Crash should be enough to handle DoTing for this encounter, but be sure to manually DoT adds that do not get hit with Vampiric Touch.
• Make sure to swap to Magma Mystic when it spawns fully and cleave off of this mob. Outside of this, I would suggest spreading Devouring Plague when using Distorted Reality.
• To perform our AoE rotation optimally, you ideally want to funnel your damage into the highest-priority adds. If they are all even, pick the mob with the highest health. Rough priority for most strategies is Magma Mystic > Obsidian Guard = Flamebound Huntsman > Boss > Zaqali Wallclimbers.
• Ideally, you should stand more than 25 yards away from Obsidian Guard adds to avoid getting hit by Scorching Roar.

1. Tome of Unstable Power
2. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
3. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
4. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)
5. Pip's Emerald Friendship Badge

For more information, please refer to our Assault of the Zaqali guide.

• Standard Single Target: BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAJBAAAAAAAAAAAAIkiDQSSLtIJJRkUgUIJJRaRAiQKSLkEUQC
• More Defensives: BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASkEAAAAAAAAAAAAgQaQSSJtDIJJRClQJFSSSkWECiQKlIkAFIB
• You can choose to drop a small amount of Mindgames damage and swap out Shattered Perceptions to get Angelic Bulwark. Additionally, Manipulation and Leap of Faith can be dropped for Unwavering Will and Angel's Mercy. You will need to swap the Dominate Mind point out for Sheer Terror for pathing reasons.

• I would suggest using Dispersion when targeted with Searing Slam. This will make it easier to move out while also reducing damage taken.
• Use a small defensive when soaking Doom Flames. You only need one player per circle.
• If you are soaking Charged Smash, you should use a small defensive if you are not topped on health.

• Try to save Vampiric Embrace for Elder's Conduit intermission.
• Depending on your kill time, you should consider delaying your 4-minute cooldown set to line up with the potion reset at 5 minutes. So you will use 2-minute cooldowns at 0/2/5 minutes. The fight hard enrages around 6:30, but most groups will kill it before you will get full value out of that last set of cooldowns.

• No special considerations.

1. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
2. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
3. Spoils of Neltharus
4. Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
5. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)

For more information, please refer to our Rashok the Elder guide.

Generally speaking, you should try to manually DoT the adds as they spawn, but if you can group than quickly, you might get more value out of taking Shadow Crash and Whispering Shadows. However, grouping them is much more difficult on Mythic, so I would not suggest taking those talents on that difficulty.

• BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASkEAAAAAAAAAAAAgQaEJJl4ASSSkkUgUIJJRaRAiQKSLkEUgE
• If you are struggling defensively you can either drop Silence or Dark Evangelism to pickup Mental Fortitude.

• You will need to pop a small defensive for Blast Wave if you are not topped on health.
• Use a small defensive when targeted with Unstable Embers.

• Consider saving Dark Ascension for each set of adds to push those down faster.

• Make sure to track and pay attention to add spawn times. These are a top priority to kill ASAP, and the faster you can DoT, these targets , the better.
• Adds should spawn shortly after you pull, so likely worth saving your damage until after these have been dotted.

1. Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
2. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
3. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
4. Spoils of Neltharus
5. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)

For more information, please refer to our Zskarn guide.

• For this boss, we suggest the single target build.
• BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAJBAAAAAAAAAAAAIkiDQSSLtIJJRkUgUIJJRaRAiQKSLkEUQC

• Use a defensive for Molten Spittle, consider using Dispersion if you need to run far away to drop the puddle as it expires.
• You want to use at least one defensive for every cast of Igniting Roar and Overpowering Stomp.
• When soaking Magma Puddle, you might need a defensive or even a quick Flash Heal to get a combo heal + defensive.

• Depending on your kill time on progression, you might find it better to delay cooldowns to line up with your second potion. As you get more gear, this will become less relevant on future clears.

• For Igniting Roar, you might want to ask a local friendly Evoker to help Rescue you to maintain more DPS uptime.

1. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
2. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
3. Spoils of Neltharus
4. Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
5. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)

For more information, please refer to our Magmorax guide.

• To handle fighting the small Aberration adds in the later part of the fight; I suggest running Shadow Crash and Whispering Shadows. This will be a small hit to single target damage, but you are useless on these adds without this.
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• Get a defensive running for each Umbral Annihilation. Try to save the bigger defensive abilities for the later casts, as the damage will ramp.
• Pop a small defensive right before you go into a Sundered Reality before a cast of Ebon Destruction.

• Typically, you will pause damage in phase 1 as you transition into phase 2. Because of this, you will want to hold your second use of 2-minute cooldowns for immediately after the stop damage part ends. If you react quickly enough, you should be able to use on cooldown for the rest of the fight and still have everything for lust around 6:15.

• If possible, tunnel your damage onto the adds when available over the boss. When the boss hits 35% with the adds active, he reduces the damage he takes by 99%.
• When allies go hostile, be sure to avoid casting spells like Shadow Crash on them as to not friendly fire.

1. Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
2. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
3. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
4. Spoils of Neltharus
5. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)

For more information, please refer to our Neltharion guide.

• To easily DoT the adds on this boss, I would suggest running the Single Target + Shadow Crash setup.
• BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSAAAAAAAAAAAAACaQSSJNSSSSSSBSjkkEpRgICpItQSQBSA

• Use a defensive before soaking Mass Disintegrate or Searing Breath to remove Oppressing Howl.
• During Glittering Surge, you will likely need a defensive if you are not topped on health.

• You should plan to come up out of the Emptiness Between Stars phase as you are ready to pop your cooldowns. This haste will go perfectly with our cooldowns. Get 10 stacks of Astral Flares and then come up ideally soon after your cooldown becomes available.

• Ideally, you should not remain at high stacks of Oblivion. Consider going down to the Void phase if you do.
• Use Mass Dispel to coordinate dispels of Infinite Duress to knock back the raid.

1. Umbrelskul's Fractured Heart
2. Neltharion's Call to Suffering
3. Ominous Chromatic Essence (All Allies)
4. Spoils of Neltharus
5. Whispering Incarnate Icon (At least a Healer or Tank)

For more information, please refer to our Scalecommander Sarkareth guide.