Shadow Priest DPS Easy Mode — Shadowlands 9.0.5

This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.

Shadow Priest has evolved into a more modern builder spender spec that specializes in damage over time (DoT) effects. At a high level the spec mostly revolves around keeping your DoT effects up on as many targets as possible while also building Insanity to spend on spells that cost Insanity. The rest of this page is dedicated in getting you to that goal in the easiest way possible to reduce the demands of the specialization at the top end of play without causing a large drop in numerical output.

If you are completely new to Shadow and need more information on the abilities available to you, you can check out our Spell Summary page. There were a lot of changes to Shadow Priest going into Shadowlands, so it might be helpful to read that page just to see what all is different!

These choices are optimized for ease of use. Although some talents might offer marginally higher gains when played perfectly, these same talents often result in damage losses when utilized by many players. The talents recommended here aim to present the best setup that has very little punishment for unfamiliarity or mistakes.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul
• Level 30: Misery
• Level 35: Last Word
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

If you are looking for the absolute best talents for Shadow, which do not compromise on performance for ease of use, you can find a more in-depth analysis on our full talents page below.

Note that, in Dungeon content it is recommended that you swap Misery for Searing Nightmare, as Searing Nightmare excels in that environment for larger pulls in dungeons. For all other types of content we suggest you use Misery as you are starting out.

Currently, you will want to prioritize stats as follows:

1. Intellect;
2. Haste = Mastery;
3. Critical Strike;
4. Versatility.

Typically, you will be looking for Haste/Mastery pieces, but because of the strength of Intellect, having Haste with anything at a high item level will be a good place to start.

While the stat priority for classes is normally the same for both the Easy Mode page and our full guide, subtle differences can still occur. If you want to see the full explanation of the stat priority, as well as the absolute top choices for the priority, head to our full stats page below.

Before you start combat make sure you have Shadowform active and use Mind Blast to start combat.

1. Keep Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch applied on all targets. Note that with Misery, you should always use Vampiric Touch to refresh either of these DoTs, unless you are moving.
2. Spend Insanity on Devouring Plague.
3. Cast Mind Blast whenever available to generate Insanity, or use while channeling Mind Flay if you have a Dark Thoughts proc.
4. Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target is below 20% HP, or if you are on the move.
5. Cast Mind Flay to generate Insanity if there is only 1 target, or swap to Mind Sear if there are 2 or more targets.
6. Cast Shadowfiend/ Mindbender right before entering Voidform.
7. Cast Void Eruption to get into Voidform with at least 35 insanity to begin your 15s of burst damage.
8. When in Voidform
   1. Activate Power Infusion to gain a burst of Haste; generally speaking, you should use this on cooldown.
   2. Spend Insanity on Devouring Plague. Your goal here is to make sure you do not waste Insanity by going over 100, so cast this often.
   3. Cast Void Bolt whenever available.
   4. Cast Mind Blast whenever available and when Void Bolt is on cooldown.
   5. Cast Mind Flay when there is nothing else to cast, cancelling it whenever there is a higher priority spell available.

For a more in-depth priority list and all the edge cases for the rotation, check out the full guide to fully master the rotation.