Shadow Priest DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.2
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Shadow Priest in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.
Shadow Priest in Mythic+
Shadow's playstyle in AoE is very similar to single target, relying on
interactions from those single target abilities for cleave damage through
Psychic Link. The trick will be managing DoTs with
Shadow Crash
or supplementing that with your manual casts of
Vampiric Touch.
Without this, you deal substantially less Aoe damage.
The video version of this guide is also available if you would like to watch along as I talk about Shadow Priest.
Dungeon Pool
The dungeon pool for Dragonflight Season 3 includes the following dungeons:
- Atal'Dazar
- Black Rook Hold
- Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall
- Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise
- Darkheart Thicket
- Everbloom
- Throne of the Tides
- Waycrest Manor
To learn more about what talents to pick to counter specific parts of the dungeon, check out the sections below.
To help out in gearing this season, be sure to check out the gear guide.
Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+. We recommend importing these strings directly into your in-game talent tree for easy swapping! These builds will be the baseline for every scenario in Season 3. Check out the section below to go into detail on which builds make the most sense for you.
Dragonflight Mythic+ Talent Builds for Shadow Priest
Triple Idol Build with Dark Ascension for Shadow Priest
General purpose build that will work for almost any key and affix combination. Consider using this version on standard dungeon pulls or ones where you cannot chain pull. It also does very well in pure single-target scenarios.
This build uses Idol of Y'Shaarj,
Idol of N'Zoth, and
Idol of C'Thun with
Dark Ascension.
Strengths
- Great single target.
- Uses three Idol talents to be more versatile.
- Gives you a mini-burst of damage every 1 minute between your casts of
Power Infusion.
- Great synergy with our new tier set for Season 3.
- Performs well in almost any key environment.
Weaknesses
- Less AoE potential when full cooldowns are up compared to
Void Eruption.
Build Options
- You can choose to swap to
Mastermind for about 3% more single target compared to
Screams of the Void, which specializes in more Overall/AoE damage. The version with Mastermind prefers running
Mind Spike.
Distorted Reality and
Mind's Eye are extremely close together; feel free to use whichever you prefer. I would suggest starting with Distorted Reality until you get more comfortable with the spec. When swapping between these, the build stays exactly the same, although Mind's Eye generally does better with Mind Spike.
- If you prefer
Mind Spike just drop
Voidtouched and
Mental Decay to pick up
Mind Spike and
Mind Melt. This choice is mostly preference, and both perform well.
- Check out the section below to see the various flex points in these builds.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
Triple Idol Build with Void Eruption for Shadow Priest
General purpose build that will work for almost any key and affix combination. Consider using this version on more heavy pull count dungeons or when you chain pull packs often with cooldowns. Should end up doing well in higher-key scenarios in coordinated groups when you pull around your cooldowns.
This build uses Idol of N'Zoth,
Idol of Yogg-Saron, and
Idol of C'Thun with
Void Eruption.
Strengths
- Best AoE potential build if you can line up cooldowns with big pulls.
- Uses three Idol talents to be more versatile.
- Great for top-end key pushing, especially when doing larger-than-normal pulls.
- Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall -
Fortified
- Throne of the Tides -
Fortified
- Waycrest Manor -
Fortified
Weaknesses
- Single target is quite weak.
Tyrannical weeks in general
- Requires more coordinated pulls around your cooldowns.
Build Options
- You can choose to swap to
Mastermind for about 3% more single target compared to
Screams of the Void, which specializes in more Overall/AoE damage.
Distorted Reality and
Mind's Eye are extremely close together; feel free to use whichever you prefer. I would suggest starting with Distorted Reality until you get more comfortable with the spec. When swapping between these, the build stays exactly the same.
- In addition to normal flex points, this build can also choose to
play without
Ancient Madness. Ancient Madness is the same effect regardless of cooldown you pick, which makes it significantly weaker for
Void Eruption builds, putting it in flex point range. I would run Ancient Madness anytime you know that you are always pulling big around your cooldowns, otherwise try one point in
Phantasmal Pathogen.
- Check out the section below to see the various flex points in these builds.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
Single Target + Shadow Crash Build for Shadow Priest
This build is aimed at maximizing single-target damage while
still having Shadow Crash.
It does particularly well in dungeons where it is hard to chain-pull
packs with deadly bosses, especially on
Tyrannical weeks.
This build uses Idol of Y'Shaarj and
Idol of C'Thun
with
Dark Ascension.
Strengths
- Top tier single target while still having
Shadow Crash.
Tyrannical weeks in general
- Atal'Dazar -
Tyrannical
- Darkheart Thicket -
Tyrannical
- Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise -
Tyrannical
- Waycrest Manor -
Tyrannical
Weaknesses
- AoE options are more limited, but still decent with the base kit.
- Throne of the Tides
- Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall
- Black Rook Hold -
Fortified
Build Options
- Max Single Target:
Dark Evangelism x2 and
Phantasmal Pathogen x2
- Average Overall:
Maddening Touch x2,
Dark Evangelism x1, and
Mental Decay x1
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
Shadowy Apparitions Build for Shadow Priest
This build specializes in maximizing damage with Shadowy Apparitions
for more raw AoE damage. This is a version of what was typically run
during Season 2 with the previous Set Bonus.
When using full Season 3 gear and the new set bonus, this build is on average
2% worse in terms of overall damage, and about 4% behind in pure single
target compared to the Triple Idol Void Eruption build. Looking at
specifically AoE environments, you can start to see increases
at 6+ targets over other builds, but the problem is this is typically not enough
to offset the loss in single target.
This build is only suggested for people that are confident with the
Void Eruption playstyle in coordinated groups. While you can
still run this build with the Season 3 bonus, most players will
see better results on average with the other builds.
This build uses Idol of N'Zoth,
Idol of Yogg-Saron, and
Idol of C'Thun (only with Season 2 Set Bonus) with
Void Eruption.
Strengths
- Great AoE damage revolving more around
Shadowy Apparitions that scales well with high target count environments.
- Can run a version of this that is preferred when running the old Season 2 set bonus.
Weaknesses
- Single Target is significantly behind, especially without full cooldowns.
- Extremely anti-pug group friendly.
Build Options
- This build strongly prefers running
Mind's Eye over
Distorted Reality.
- If you prefer
Mind Flay, just drop
Mind Spike and
Mind Melt to pick up
Voidtouched and another flex point of your choice. The rest of the build stays the same.
- Check out the section below to see the various flex points in these builds.
Use the below import string for the version best suited with the Season 2 set bonus ONLY:
- BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECCBAAAAAAAAAAAAIOQaCJJNtIJJJRCINSSSkWEIiQKSLkEUQC
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
These builds can generally pick between Mind's Eye or
Distorted Reality
depending on what you want to build for. Check out the dedicated section below to
learn more.
There are a few options with these builds that I go over in detail in the sections below to further optimize your build.
Build Guide
Below is rough guidance; use the details below to see the full picture.
- Still using the Season 2 4-piece bonus? Use the
Shadowy Apparitions build Season 2 Version
- Big/Chain Pulls or High Keys: Triple Idol with
Void Eruption or
Shadowy Apparitions build
- Standard/Smaller Pulls with more Single Target: Triple Idol with
Dark Ascension
- Tyrannical/Boss Damage focused: Single Target +
Shadow Crash build
Tyrannical Talent Suggestion
On Tyrannical weeks, I would suggest starting out with either
of the Triple Idol builds.
If you find that you want to index more into a single
target, then utilize the Single Target + Shadow Crash build.
This setup will give you about 3% extra damage in single target (see the chart below)
at the cost of AoE damage by dropping
Idol of N'Zoth, depending on the key.
Fortified Talent Suggestion
On Fortified weeks, I would strongly suggest using either of the Triple
Idol builds, depending on the dungeon. This
will give you the great overall damage for almost every key.
Flex Points
With our dungeon builds, you have a few filler points you can shift around in either of the base builds to tweak your build for what you are looking to specialize in. With any build, spend four of your talent points in any combination of the below options. Use this as a rough guide. Options at the top of the list will generally net you more DPS.
Dark Evangelism - Overall
Maddening Touch - AoE
Mind Devourer - Overall
Phantasmal Pathogen - Single Target
Mental Decay - Single Target
Mental Fortitude - Defensive
Silence - Utility (only in coordinated groups should you consider dropping this)
If you start pushing high-level keystones, I would highly suggest using
Mental Fortitude for enhanced survivability. The damage loss to run this
talent is typically worth the extra defensive power gain if you also need
Silence.
If you need more utility or defensive talent points, I would suggest dropping
the flex points in this rough order: Phantasmal Pathogen >
Mental Decay >
Mind Devourer >
Maddening Touch >
Dark Evangelism.
Mind Spike vs. Mind Flay
Most builds listed on this page can be run with either Mind Flay
or
Mind Spike. The difference in almost every scenario is quite marginal,
so feel free to pick the one that suits your playstyle better.
Starting in Patch 10.2, you are only getting procs of Surge of Insanity
for every other cast of
Devouring Plague so you are much less pressured
to fit in casts of
Mind Flay: Insanity or
Mind Spike: Insanity
into the rotation without fear of overcapping. On top of this, change
they also gave more compensating buffs to Mind Flay: Insanity, making it
very competitive even with
Dark Ascension.
Another note to keep in mind is that Void Eruption builds usually
prefer to play with
Mind Flay.
Mind's Eye vs. Distorted Reality
Distorted Reality and
Mind's Eye are both competitive options
inside of Mythic+. Distorted Reality makes it worth to spread
Devouring Plague
in AoE for more spread out damage, while Mind's Eye gives you more single-target
priority damage during AoE encounters. Distorted Reality also has slightly
more single-target damage compared to Mind's Eye, depending on the build.
This means that both choices are viable for any Mythic+ key, regardless
of affixes. You have to make the choice about where you want to optimize your damage
and how you want to play. These options are close enough together to be considered
a purely preference choice, although Distorted Reality will likely
be the easier option to execute for most players.
Something to note when using Distorted Reality is that you will also get
increased value when running
Mind Devourer, which can allow you to spread out
more
Devouring Plague based on procs. This is not a required pairing, but something
to note when deciding where to put your flex point talents. Typically, those points spent
on Mind Devourer are moved to
Maddening Touch with
Mind's Eye builds.
DPS Breakdown
Use the following chart to understand the difference when taking Distorted Reality
over
Mind's Eye. These numbers are taken from the average of
Dark Ascension
Triple Idol setups.
- Single Target: ~0.3% decrease over
Mind's Eye
- Two Target: ~2.8% increase over
Mind's Eye
- Three Target Council: ~1.3% increase over
Mind's Eye
- DungeonRoute Overall Average: ~1.7% increase over
Mind's Eye
Single Target Breakdown
The following lists a rough breakdown of single target damage with our various
builds. I have included this to help you make your decisions on what build to play,
specifically on Tyrannical, where you want single-target damage.
Cooldown | Type | Difference |
---|---|---|
![]() |
Full Single Target | 0.00% |
![]() |
Single Target with ![]() |
-1.8% |
![]() |
Triple Idol with ![]() ![]() |
-7.6% |
![]() |
Triple Idol with ![]() ![]() |
-7.9% |
![]() |
Triple Idol with ![]() ![]() |
-8.8% |
![]() |
Triple Idol with ![]() ![]() |
-8.8% |
![]() |
Triple Idol with ![]() ![]() |
-9.5% |
![]() |
Triple Idol with ![]() ![]() |
-9.8% |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
-12.3% |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
-12.9% |
You should make many choices in our tree depending on your group's needs, the type of damage that works best for that key, and the actual key level and affixes.
Note that the talents recommended above are specifically for Mythic+. Check our main page below for a general overview of Shadow talents.
Specific Dungeon Talent Choices
Dungeon Selector
Dungeons | Affixes |
---|---|
Atal'Dazar | ![]() |
Black Rook Hold | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall | ![]() |
Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise | ![]() |
Darkheart Thicket | ![]() |
Everbloom | ![]() |
Throne of the Tides | |
Waycrest Manor |
Based on the selections above, you should run the following class talents:
Shackle Undead
Check out the full list below to see more specific suggestions.
Full List of Utility Talents
Our utility talents do not always need to be taken but have certain spots in dungeons where you will want them. The below should act as a list of utilities you should have for each dungeon.
-
Atal'Dazar
- Can take
Shackle Undead to help control the patting undead mobs on the right side of the instance.
Purify Disease can be useful for getting rid of
Lingering Nausea on Vol'kaal.
- Can take
-
Black Rook Hold
- Consider taking
Shackle Undead to help as an extra stop or to control certain packs. Most mobs in this instance are undead.
Mass Dispel
Soul Venom off the tank cast by pulling the spider stairway.
Soul Blade cast by Ghostly Retainers if pulling more than one at a time.
- Consider taking
- Darkheart Thicket
Purify Disease can remove
Darksoul Drain cast by the Tainted Bloodseekers.
Mass Dispel
Despair cast on the tank by Dreadsoul Ruiners.
Festering Rip cast by the Shade of Xavius.
-
Everbloom
Dominate Mind has several good use cases here (see below).
Mass Dispel can get allies out of
Glacial Fusion but this should not be needed for groups familiar with the dungeon.
-
Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall
Mass Dispel
Bloom cast by Timestream Anomaly.
Sheared Lifespan cast by Chronikar.
-
Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise
Mass Dispel
Corroding Volley cast by Infinite Twilight Magus.
- Can also be helpful to dispel off the second
Spark of Tyr cast without waiting for the healer to get both. Just make sure the group is topped first
Infinite Burn cast by Infinite Riftmages.
Bloom cast by Timestream Anomaly.
Chronal Burn cast by Infinite Keepers.
- Throne of the Tides
Mass Dispel can be used to dispel
Lightning Surge cast from the Naz'jar Tempest Witches. You can also use this to dispel
Flame Shock cast by Erunak Stonespeaker. Generally, both of these can be handled by the healer so not a required talent choice.
Purify Disease can be used to dispel all stacks of
Wave of Corruption off of a single player.
- Waycrest Manor
Dominate Mind has several good use cases here (see below).
Purify Disease can be used to dispel
Infected Thorn cast by the Thistle Acolytes. In addition, you can use this to help dispel
Virulent Pathogen during the Lady Waycrest encounter.
Mass Dispel can be used to easily clear off a set of
Spirited Defense buffs on enemies should you miss a kick.
Affix Talent Choices
The following talents are suggested to run for every key that you run with the corresponding affix.
-
Afflicted
Purify Disease
- OPTION:
Power Word: Life can do a large chunk of healing to help get rid of the mob, but typically not enough to fully break it.
-
Incorporeal
Shackle Undead
Dominate Mind also works, but since it has a cooldown would suggest still taking
Shackle Undead
- OPTION:
Psychic Horror
-
Entangling
Phantasm
Improved Fade
-
Sanguine
Psychic Voice
- OPTION:
Sheer Terror
-
Bursting
Mass Dispel
Improved Mass Dispel
-
Spiteful
Psychic Voice
Void Tendrils
Dominate Mind
- OPTION:
Psychic Horror
For Afflicted and
Incorporeal, it might be useful
to use a mouseover macro to make dealing with these mobs faster.
- #showtooltip
- /cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Purify Disease
- #showtooltip
- /cast [@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Shackle Undead
For more information, check out the specific Affix section below.
Shadow Priest Mythic+ Rotation
Both the single-target and multi-target rotations do not change in Mythic+ content. For more information about the Shadow Priest DPS rotation, refer back to the Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities page.
Opening on a Multi-Target pack in Mythic+
With all the ways our kit has to do damage, you might need clarification on what this looks like in a Mythic+ scenario. This section is not aimed at covering every scenario, but just the common ones with the suggested Mythic+ talents.
Before I show the starter, here is the TLDR/easy version of the AoE priority in Mythic+, see the rotation guide for the full priority, but use this as a starting point if you feel overwhelmed.
-
If the pack is big enough, you should strongly consider using your
cooldowns. Getting as many casts of your cooldown without losing uses of it
or not having it for a boss is the biggest point of improvement most players
can make in dungeons. This includes
Void Eruption/
Dark Ascension,
Power Infusion, and
Shadowfiend/
Mindbender.
-
Use
Shadow Crash to get your DoTs rolling. If this is on cooldown as you pull the pack, you need to do your best to DoT as many targets manually as possible while weaving in other spells.
-
At this point, your highest priority is maintaining DoTs. You should pick
a main priority target to funnel in your
Devouring Plague into. When talented into
Distorted Reality, you can instead spread it around to targets that will live long enough as you get Insanity.
-
Use spells to generate Insanity, like
Void Bolt,
Shadow Word: Death, and
Mind Blast. Get these on cooldown quickly so you can blast with your bigger spells.
- Use spells like
Void Torrent and
Mindgames to do small burst damage.
-
Before resorting to filler spells like
Mind Spike, you should first make sure cooldown spells like
Halo or
Divine Star are used.
-
Fill with
Mind Flay or
Mind Spike, depending on your build.
Example starting rotation for a mythic+ pack (anywhere between 3-8 mobs):
-
Cast
Vampiric Touch on any targets as the pack is being grouped up with
Fade (see below).
- Cast
Shadow Crash to put up DoTs on targets once everything is grouped.
- Cast
Shadowfiend/
Mindbender.
- Cast
Mind Blast to get the cooldown reset before going into
Void Eruption. Skip this if the pack will not live long enough to get your full
Voidform out or if you are using
Dark Ascension.
- Cast
Void Eruption or
Dark Ascension and then
Power Infusion when the cast finishes. Depending on if you want to save for the boss, you would also use your combat potion here as well.
- Continue with the rotation as normal.
Note if the pack has more than 8 targets or they are too spread for
Shadow Crash You should do your best to pull with the tank by using
Fade to not get aggro but still putting your DoTs up as the pack gets
pulled.
If you are looking for a mere detailed setup with different talents, please check out the rotation page.
Creating Burst Damage as a Shadow Priest
Occasionally, in dungeons, it can be worth breaking from the standard rotation in order to facilitate bursting down a priority target. In this section, I will go over the options you have for these cases as a Shadow Priest.
In the standard talent build, your best spell for burst damage is
Void Torrent. If there is ever a high-priority target, you want to make
sure you have
Void Torrent for every one. Typically, you will combo this together with something
like this:
- Pool up max Insanity before the target spawns you need to burst.
- Cast
Vampiric Touch as it spawns, or time
Shadow Crash to land as it spawns, if possible.
- Dump all Insanity into
Devouring Plague.
- Cast
Void Torrent.
- Cast
Mindgames.
Your burst will be even better if you are just performing your normal
rotation inside of cooldowns (especially at the start of them with Ancient Madness),
but the above sequence can be done outside of cooldowns if you prepare enough.
Additionally, you can consider selecting the Voidtouched talent in
place of a Flex Point (see below). This allows you to bank up an extra 50 Insanity
for more
Devouring Plague casts. While this is usually not the talent
to take if you want overall max damage, it can provide more burst if that is more
important to you.
Finally, you can consider using on-use damage trinkets to get even more burst. Since Shadow Priest scales so well with secondaries, we typically do not like on-use damage trinkets, but there are a few to consider that might be worth it if you are looking for burst, specifically at the cost of overall damage.
Belor'relos, the Suncaller (AoE)
Nymue's Unraveling Spindle (Single Target)
Shadow Priest Utility
Shadow Priest supports the party by providing extra
healing, an AoE fear, offensive and defensive dispels, and a potential
single-target stun if you pick it as a talent. Additionally, Shadow has a
unique form of crowd control in the form of Mind Control. We also have
access to
Mind Soothe and the only stamina group buff in the game with
Power Word: Fortitude.
Due to the sheer amount of options the spec has in terms of utility, it is critical that you adjust class talents before every key you start to make sure you are optimizing utility when needed or taking more defensive options if you do not need the utility.
Baseline Utility Spells
-
Power Word: Fortitude gives everyone in your party an extra 5% Stamina, which provides a unique boost to help survive some of those hard-hitting abilities.
-
Mind Soothe provides an interesting alternative to
Shroud of Concealment that might help your group skip past a more deadly Mythic+ pack, depending on the available space. This is changed to be an AoE cast ability that works on all mobs within the 10-yard radius on a short cooldown. Creative uses of this can make routing a key much easier.
-
Fade has a few good pieces of utility to call out, the most important being the aggro drop mechanic. If you find yourself getting aggro over the tank on the pull, you can use
Fade to bypass this drop easily and continue with the key. With the
Translucent Image class talent, this also turns Fade into a small defensive. With
Phantasm this becomes an easy tool to break
Entangling.
-
Psychic Scream fears all enemies close to you for 8 seconds, but damage can break this early. Psychic Scream is primarily used as an AoE interrupt in dungeons.
Class Utility Talents
-
Twins of the Sun Priestess is by far the biggest piece of utility in the class tree, effectively giving your group an extra
Power Infusion when used on an ally. While there is contentious debate on who the best specs are for this, I would generally prefer giving this out to Unholy Death Knights, Mages, Warlocks, Devastation Evoker, Enhancement Shamans or anyone else that is on a 2-minute cooldown timer.
-
Dispel Magic allows you to dispel beneficial buffs from enemies. This is extremely useful in dungeons, as many mob packs in many of the dungeons tend to have some buff that they cast on themselves. While this is more important in some dungeons than others, it is still precious to be able to do it.
-
Purify Disease dispels all Disease effects from friendly targets. This is fairly niche but still situationally extremely useful.
-
Mass Dispel remains a beneficial ability to have in our arsenal. Dispelling is very important, and Mass Dispel allows for both offensive and defensive dispels. The fact that you can dispel multiple enemies or friendly targets with just one global is situationally powerful. However, Mass Dispel does have a fairly lengthy 2-minute cooldown. You can also Mass Dispel
Bursting as well.
-
Vampiric Embrace heals allies based on the single-target damage you do on a 2-minute cooldown (reduced by
San'layn). It can be potent depending on the situation, especially when combined with
San'layn. Note that the damage of our DoTs also gets converted to healing. Similarly, we also have access to
Essence Devourer, which can be nice for any builds that use
Mindbender for similar style healing.
-
Leap of Faith pulls a friendly party member towards you. It could be more useful generally, but it can sometimes save someone.
-
Mind Control is good to deal with
Bolstering if you want to avoid a mob in the pack getting Bolstering stacks. While mobs are Mind Controlled, they can not get affected by Bolstering. You can also pick up
Dominate Mind if you want passive damage or to take the pet with you throughout the dungeon. See the section below for specific examples.
-
Shackle Undead allows you to crowd-control undead enemies in a dungeon. This has rare use cases, notably, the
Incorporeal mobs.
-
The class tree also offers several healing spells that you can combine to
give off healing capability for the priest. The main ones are
Renew,
Prayer of Mending, and
Power Word: Life.
-
Flash Heal becomes a small defensive with
Protective Light.
-
Void Tendrils offers an aoe root if you can afford to jump into melee to cast this.
-
Void Shift can be used to save your life or an ally's life if used at a good time. Generally speaking, this is not very useful.
-
If you are in a dungeon where you do not need much utility else where I
would strongly suggest taking
Holy Nova to path into
Spell Warding for the reduced magic damage taken.
Shadow Priest Utility Talents
-
Psychic Horror stuns a single target for 4 seconds at a 45-second cooldown. It is handy for some dungeons to lock down dangerous targets.
-
Silence serves as both a silence effect as well as an interrupt. Though its baseline cooldown is longer than most interrupts in the game at 45 seconds, we do get the ability to reduce that cooldown by 15 seconds if we take
Last Word as a talent.
-
Mental Fortitude is an extra absorb shield that can be invaluable when pushing up in higher keys. This also has an extra benefit of giving more uptime of things like the
Blue Silken Lining embellished effect if you are using that.
Useful Mind Control Enemies in Mythic+
The below list is not an extensive list but contains any notable mobs you could consider controlling.
Generic
- Spiteful Shades - You can control these to not deal with them as they naturally expire.
- Bolstering Mobs - You can control a mob before it gets bolstered if you are worried about it dying too fast or getting stacks.
Atal'Dazar
- Shadowblade Stalker -
Venomfang Strike (Increases Nature Damage Taken)
- Zanchuli Witch Doctor - Unstable Hex (5-second polymorph)
- Dazar'ai Confessor -
Bwonsamdi's Mantle (Group CC Immunity)
Dawn of the Infinite - Murozond's Rise
- Alliance Knight -
Rallying Shout (+Damage Done and Health) and
Sundering Slam (Sunder Armor effect)
- Paladin of the Silver Hand -
Holy Light
- Horde Farseer -
Healing Wave
- Horde Raider -
Rallying Shout (+Damage Done and Health) and
Sundering Slam (Sunder Armor effect)
Darkheart Thicket
- Consider taking over Frenzied Nightclaw to not face more than one at a time.
- Note that you can Mind Control the Bloodtainted Fury small
small clones after the big ones die. If you do so, they will auto-cast
transform and constantly spawn big versions that are hostile.
The big versions they spawn are then controllable, but the spells
are not particularly useful -
Blood Assault and
Blood Bomb.
Everbloom
Note for the below mobs, you NEED to kill the packs around the first boss before he will spawn.
- Everbloom Naturalist -
Choking Vines (ST Stun)
- Everbloom Cultivator -
Enraged Growth (Gives the targeted ally 15% increased damage and 50% attack speed)
- Everbloom Mender -
Healing Waters (ST Heal)
Throne of the Tides
- Naz'jar Oracle -
Hex (5 second polymorph) and
Healing Wave
- Minion of Ghur'sha - DO NOT MIND CONTROL THIS MOB. It auto-casts an AoE that will hit everything within 60 yards even if you are not in combat with them.
Waycrest Manor
- Runic Disciple -
Spellbind (ST Silence)
- Dreadwing Raven -
Pallid Glare (ST Disorient)
- Maddened Survivalist - Note: While Mind Controlled the mob will still cast their traps, but they only affect PLAYERS. So this will completely troll your group if you MC them.
Defensive and Survivability Guide
As you get into higher keys or particularly challenging bosses, it can be hard to survive through mechanics if you are not properly prepared or if you do not react appropriately. In this section, I will list out all the tools we have in our kit to survive keys as a Shadow Priest.
Before starting a key, you should evaluate your talent choices to prepare for how intense that key will be. For any incoming mechanic, you should know if you need to use a Defensive to mitigate the hit to survive using the lists below.
Talent Choice
Before you start a key, you should evaluate how difficult the dungeon is for your group. If you are in a push key where it is relatively high for your group, you should strongly consider adding more defensive talents, even if they cost you some damage. This will need to be on a key-by-key basis, but here are your options.
If you find yourself wanting more defensive points but have run out of
points, you can choose to sacrifice as many as 3 of the last few points
in the Mindgames talents.
Shattered Perceptions and
Manipulation make up less than 1% of your overall damage even
when factoring in the
Psychic Link value. If having more defensive
options is more valuable than that 1% damage, consider dropping those points
but still leave the base Mindgames point.
Class Talents
Spell Warding (path through
Holy Nova to get this)
Protective Light
Translucent Image
Angel's Mercy
Light's Inspiration
Angelic Bulwark
Power Word: Life
Essence Devourer/
Void Shift
Spec Talents
Dispersion
Mental Fortitude
Defensives
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
Void Shift
To properly use this, I suggest getting a set of WeakAuras or Addons to help you know when an incoming mechanic is coming so that you can use the proper defensive to handle that incoming damage. Below is a short list of a few I would suggest.
WeakAuras
Addons
Mythic+ Affixes
Tier One Affixes
-
Fortified increases the Health pool of all non-boss enemies by 20% and damage dealt by 30%.
-
Tyrannical increases the Health pool of boss enemies by 40% and their damage dealt by 15%.
Fortified and
Tyrannical are the two affixes every
player will see. Depending on the week, these affixes shift the focus of dungeons
from boss to trash. Shadow Priests will excel during Fortified weeks as our
multi-target damage has a short ramp-up time. Then, they will sustain at decent
numbers without the use of cooldowns. During Tyrannical weeks, Shadow has
plenty of talent options to shake up its damage allocation depending on where
your group needs damage.
Tier Two Affixes
-
Volcanic spawns volcanic plumes underneath and around players when in combat with any enemy. When damaged by Volcanic, players suffer 50% of their maximum Health pool in damage and are knocked into the air. The more enemies you encounter, the more Volcanic that will spawn.
-
Storming essentially is the tornado version of
Volcanic. While in combat, you will see grey swirls on the ground, indicating a tornado is about to spawn in that location. Do your best to dodge these, as they are active for 10 seconds after spawning and will knock you back if you get hit.
-
Afflicted will periodically spawn enemies that must be healed to full or dispelled.
Purify Disease will be a precious resource when this is active.
-
Incorporeal spawns an enemy that needs to be single target CC'd for 20 seconds. As a Shadow Priest, we can use
Shackle Undead,
Dominate Mind, or
Psychic Horror.
-
Entangling will occasionally spawn roots under your character. You can either break this by running out or by pressing
Fade if talented into
Phantasm.
Tier Three Affixes
-
Raging makes enemies immune to crowd control except for interrupts for 20 seconds after reaching 30% health.
-
Sanguine places a pool of blood on the ground when a mob is slain. This pool will heal remaining enemies who stay inside the zone and damage players. You can use
Psychic Scream or
Mind Control or
Dominate Mind (and dismiss right after) to try and get mobs out of the Sanguine faster if something goes wrong.
-
Bolstering buffs remaining enemies' Health pools and damage dealt by 20% when an enemy dies nearby. To counter this affix, DPS all mobs down evenly and focus your casts into high-health mobs if there are any. As Shadow, you can also
Mind Control mobs that you do not want to get any Bolstering stacks on at all costs. Note that once a mob gets a stack of Bolstering it CANNOT be Mind Controlled.
-
Bursting forces enemy mobs to detonate when slain, afflicting the group with a stacking debuff that causes players to suffer damage every four seconds. When handling the Bursting affix, ask how many stacks your healer can handle. Try to avoid mindlessly DPS'ing and exceeding your healer's stack limit.
Mass Dispel can easily get rid of your group's stacks and allow you to plan to kill many mobs at the same time.
-
Spiteful brings back another effect from Battle for Azeroth, this time in the form of a Corruption effect where a mob would target and chase you down. These mobs spawn whenever any mob dies. You can either CC this mob and wait for the Health to tick passively or try to kill it. This mob is not affected by
Shackle Undead, so you will have to run away; otherwise, you get hit by very hard-hitting melee swings. I would also suggest using this WeakAura to clearly see if the mobs are targeting you. Talenting into
Void Tendrils can be a great tool for controlling these mobs easier during this affix.
Trinket Considerations for Shadow Priest in Mythic+
With the number of trinkets to choose from in the game, you should try simming your character on Raidbots using Patchwerk and Light Movement to optimize for raids and single-target encounters and DungeonSlice for Mythic+ fight styles.
Check out the BiS and Gear page to learn more about good trinkets to use on your Shadow Priest.
Changelog
- 03 Dec. 2023: Update Dark Ascension Triple Idol build to default to Mind Flay.
- 01 Dec. 2023: Add more info about when to pick which build. Refactor Shadowy Apparitions build to work better with the Season 3 set bonus.
- 25 Nov. 2023: Add more Dispel suggestions to various dungeons.
- 24 Nov. 2023: Add Purify Disease to Atal'Dazar suggestions.
- 20 Nov. 2023: Change the name of the Season 2 build to the Shadowy Apparitions build and go over use cases.
- 17 Nov. 2023: Update Mythic+ builds for Season 3 to be more streamlined.
- 16 Nov. 2023: Add Season 2 tier set build to use while gearing up.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reorder sections and update information for Season 3 and Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 13 Aug. 2023: Update video link and clarify differences between triple idol setups.
- 09 Aug. 2023: Add more detail on when to pick which build as well as touching up several sections to make things clearer.
- 08 Aug. 2023: Add new section clarifying when to use each dungeon build.
- 07 Aug. 2023: Add new builds from recent hotfix nerfs to various spells.
- 31 Jul. 2023: Add a few missing entries for Mass Dispel use cases.
- 23 Jul. 2023: Reviewed from the recent hotfixes and mentioned new talent options.
- 17 Jul. 2023: Refactor to use new talent layout.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated talent strings for Patch 10.1.5.
- 27 Jun. 2023: Adjust builds to include Distorted Reality, Dark Ascension, and Mindbender options.
- 23 Jun. 2023: Update some figures for Distorted Reality.
- 22 Jun. 2023: Correct issue with Mind Flay vs. Mind Spike comparisons.
- 20 Jun. 2023: Clarify DR vs. ME and Mind Spike vs. Mind Flay DPS breakdowns.
- 16 Jun. 2023: Add more detail on why to use Mind Spike in keys.
- 07 Jun. 2023: Add section on burst damage.
- 30 May 2023: Add a few mouseover macros for handling Season 2 affixes.
- 28 May 2023: Remove Purify Disease and Mind Control suggestion for Halls of Infusion.
- 26 May 2023: Shuffle sections around and add more detail around defensive usage.
- 24 May 2023: Remove part of the sample opener in favor of the rotation page.
- 22 May 2023: More tips and details for Season 2.
- 21 May 2023: Add easy way to see utility choices by dungeon and affix.
- 19 May 2023: Add Mind Control section for interesting mobs to control.
- 06 May 2023: Suggest Mass Dispel for Halls of Infusion and add more detail on Mind Flay in Mythic+.
- 04 May 2023: Add Season 2 dungeon utility section.
- 01 May 2023: Updated talent builds and suggestions for 10.1.0.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.0.7.
- 26 Feb. 2023: Correct error in Mindgames target cap.
- 22 Feb. 2023: Add caveat for using Mind Sear in Mythic+.
- 17 Feb. 2023: Add more detail to the example opener.
- 04 Feb. 2023: Adjust single target differences for common builds.
- 02 Feb. 2023: Add more uses for Dispel and Mass Dispel.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Update talent builds and suggestions for 10.0.5.
- 12 Jan. 2023: Add Void Tendrils suggestion for Spiteful affix.
- 11 Jan. 2023: Add new talent builds from the recent buffs.
- 23 Dec. 2022: Add more detail to picking between the two talent builds in Mythic+.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Add some start of season 1 tips.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 05 Nov. 2022: Add a section on the Mythic+ opener and easy version of the priority list.
- 31 Oct. 2022: Updated talent builds to no longer suggest Psychic Link and removed Idol-less build.
- 26 Oct. 2022: Updated builds to pickup Translucent Image.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Priest Guides
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This guide has been written by Publik, Shadow Priest theorycrafter and SimC dev at Warcraft Priests. He currently raids in The Exiled on Arthas-US.
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