Shadow Priest DPS Mythic+ Tips — Dragonflight 10.0.7

Shadow's playstyle in AoE is very similar to single target, relying on interactions from those single target abilities for cleave damage but then spending our Insanity on Mind Sear instead of Devouring Plague.

The video version of this guide is also available if you would like to watch along as I talk about Shadow Priest.

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.

With all the ways our kit has to do damage, you might need clarification as to 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 an example, 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. At this point, your highest priority is getting as many ticks of Mind Sear off as possible. See the rotation guide in detail for how to optimize this.
4. Use spells like Void Torrent and Mindgames when talented into Psychic Link.
5. If using Inescapable Torment, weave in Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death casts while Mindbender is active.
6. Use spells to generate Insanity, with a higher priority on Mind Blast if using Mind Devourer.
7. Before resorting to filler spells like Mind Flay, you should first make sure cooldown spells like Halo or Divine Star are used.
8. Fill with Mind Flay or Mind Spike, depending on your build.

Use the following switches to help showcase how the example opener changes:

• Void Eruption
• Dark Ascension
• Mindbender
• Inescapable Torment
• Mind Devourer
• Idol of Yogg-Saron

Example opening rotation for a mythic+ pack (anywhere between 3-8 mobs):

1. Cast Vampiric Touch on any targets as the pack is being grouped up with Fade (see below).
2. Cast Shadow Crash to put up DoTs on targets once everything is grouped.
3. Cast Mindbender.
4. Cast Shadowfiend.
5. 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 otherwise.
6. Cast Void Eruption with Power Infusion. Depending on if you want to save for the boss, you would also use your combat potion here as well.
7. Cast Dark Ascension with Power Infusion. Depending on if you want to save for the boss, you would also use your combat potion here as well.
8. Cast Void Bolt.
9. Dump any Insanity you have with Mind Sear.
10. Cast Void Torrent.
11. Dump any Insanity you have with Mind Sear.
12. Cast Void Bolt.
13. Cast Mind Blast.
14. Cast Mindgames.
15. If you have enough Insanity or a Mind Devourer proc, use Mind Sear.
16. If you have enough Insanity use Mind Sear.
17. Cast Mind Blast to fish for Mind Devourer procs.
18. Cast Mind Blast to fish for Mind Devourer procs or while Mindbender is active.
19. Cast Mind Blast while Mindbender is active.
20. Cast Shadow Word: Death with Mindbender active.
21. Cast Halo or Divine Star.
22. Continue with the rotation as normal, using filler spells until you get enough Insanity to cast Mind Sear.

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.

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.

• 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.
• 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.
• Psychic Scream fears up to 5 enemies close to you for 8 seconds, but damage can break this early. Psychic Scream is primarily used as an AoE interrupt in dungeons.

• 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 as needed.
• 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 45-second cooldown without Improved Mass Dispel. You can also Mass Dispel Bursting as well.
• Vampiric Embrace heals allies based on 50% of the single-target damage you do on a 2-minute cooldown. 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.
• 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 some passive damage or to take the pet with you throughout the dungeon.
• Shackle Undead allows you to crowd-control undead enemies in a dungeon. In Dragonflight Season 1, this has rare use cases; notably, the mini-boss adds in the last boss room of Halls of Valor.
• 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 a 5-target root if you can afford to jump into melee to cast this.
• Void Shift can be used to save your life or the life of an ally if used at a good time.

• 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.

Below are the suggested talents for Mythic+. We recommend importing these strings directly into your in-game talent tree for easy swapping!

• Idol of C'Thun and Idol of Yogg-Saron (Any Key/Affix) — BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgk0iEAAAAAAAAAAAAABkSkm0IJJJlkIRQakkkINCSQIFpFSCA
• Idol of N'Zoth and Idol of Yogg-Saron (Nokhud/Ruby Fortified) (can use Insidious Ire or Malediction) — BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAESSLSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAoEpl0IJJJlkIRQakkkINCSQIFpFSCA

Note that either Idol of N'Zoth build still uses Mind Sear as your primary spender starting at 3 targets (or 2 with a Mind Devourer proc).

While Idol of Yogg-Saron is required for all dungeon builds, you can flex some points depending on the week's affixes. The C'Thun build is well-suited for every key and every affix combination. This gives you the most AoE damage while sacrificing very little single target. For Nokhud and Ruby Life Pool keys, you can experiment with the N'Zoth build, which should provide some more cleave damage with a bit of a loss on single target.

Note you can experiment using Dark Ascension in keys; you need to pick what makes sense based on how you pull the dungeon. This can be decent for pug keys or where you find yourself doing one pack at a time. As you get more comfortable or find yourself in groups consistently pulling around Void Eruption, you can produce big results with cooldowns up. Even in high keys, using Dark Ascension can make sense to get that extra single-target damage, especially on Tyrannical. Either of the builds above can easily swap between these two cooldowns.

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.

1. Dark Ascension full single target (0.0%)
2. Void Eruption full single target (-0.2%)
3. Dark Ascension Idol of C'Thun M+ (-4.5%)
4. Void Eruption Idol of C'Thun M+ (-4.8%)
5. Dark Ascension Idol of N'Zoth Insidious Ire M+ (-8.0%)
6. Void Eruption Idol of N'Zoth Insidious Ire M+ (-8.0%)
7. Void Eruption Idol of N'Zoth Malediction M+ (-8.7%)
8. Dark Ascension Idol of N'Zoth Malediction M+ (-9.2%)

You can 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. If you decide you want more utility, you can drop one point from Dark Evangelism to pick up Psychic Horror or Mental Fortitude.

Note that the talents recommended above are specifically for Mythic+. You can check our main page below for a general overview of Shadow talents.

You might have seen some Shadow Priests choosing to run builds without Mind Sear inside of Mythic+. These builds are not recommended if your goal is doing more overall key damage.

With how easy Mind Sear is to pick up, there is no reason not to have it for when you want to do even AoE damage on 3 or more targets. On certain keys or certain affixes, you might need some priority damage with Devouring Plague but typically not for every pull, so having Mind Sear available for when you want; it is why you should always have it.

Furthermore, builds are going around using that drop Mind Sear and use Idol of Y'Shaarj and Idol of N'Zoth. This build is only suggested to use for some use cases. This build sacrifices considerable single-target damage by picking N'Zoth. It is harder to execute since it does not have Mental Decay with Mind Sear to keep DoTs refreshed. Having to manually DoT mobs and losing single target is not something most players are looking for. I would consider these builds bait for that reason. My full thoughts on this can be found in the post below.

I broke down this in more detail on WarcraftPriests if you want to see my full thoughts on this question.

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.

• Algeth'ar Academy
  • Mass Dispel can be used on any casts of Monotonous Lecture that you do not have a way to break or interrupt.
  • Mass Dispel can be used on Oversurge casts from Vexamus as players soak. Only needed if someone gets high stacks in most situations.
  • Leap of Faith for Crawth to help allies position better.
  • On the last boss, you can quickly dispel Energy Bomb on players to trigger any pool drops if someone has 2 stacks already. Typically a job the healer can manage, but it sometimes is helpful to have.
• Ruby Life Pools
  • Mass Dispel will be helpful to have for the trash leading up to the first boss, in case you miss any kicks of Ice Shield.
  • Blaze of Glory can be removed with either Mass Dispel or Dispel Magic.
  • Mass Dispel can trigger add explosions for all the tiny adds on the platform the last boss spawns at. These mobs are stationed throughout the room as well as spawned by the mini-boss.
• The Azure Vault
  • Taking Psychic Voice and/or Psychic Horror can help keep the mobs locked down that cast Mystic Vapors in the first room. If any of these casts do succeed, you can always Mass Dispel these off the group.
  • Mass Dispel can be used for any casts of Erratic Growth that are not kicked in time.
  • Mass Dispel can be used for the Conjured Barrier that the Arcane Construct adds cast.
  • Mass Dispel can be used on Brilliant Scales buffs that the guards cast on themselves. This should be a high priority for someone in your group since it reduces magic damage taken by 30%.
  • Mass Dispel and Phantasm are both useful for the last boss to remove slows on allies that have stacks of Oppressive Miasma or Dragon Strike on the tank.
• The Nokhud Offensive
  • Dominate Mind can be used to stop adds going to disable the ballista on Granyth. Psychic Scream and Psychic Horror can also buy you some time here. If you time this correctly, you can do this for the last 3 adds in a row without anyone focusing them, as you go to the next add. The previous one will go and disable the PREVIOUS ballista, but since it goes in a cycle, it will not be used until the next set of casts.
  • Mass Dispel or Dispel Magic are both helpful for Stormshield buffs on the Primal Stormshield adds, as well as The Raging Tempest's Energy Surge buff.
  • Having Mass Dispel for Swift Wind casts can allow your group to let that kick fall through and dispel it instead.
• Court of Stars
  • Mass Dispel can be used to quickly get rid of the group's Hinder stacks on the first boss and can easily clear the group's stacks of Arcane Lockdown. Timed well; you can cast the Mass with the boss and have it cleared instantly. You can also, use it to dispel Mana Fang DoT from the Mana Sabers.
  • Mass Dispel can also be used on Impending Doom debuffs from the mini-boss Baalgar the Watchful. Make sure the groups' members are lightly spread before dispelling as it does splash damage.
• Halls of Valor
  • Shackle Undead for the adds spawned by the mini-boss adds in the last boss room.
• Shadowmoon Burial Grounds
  • Mass Dispel can be used to get rid of Shadow Word: Frailty casts that get off on players. This DoT deals a lot of damage and is very deadly.
  • Sinister Focus should be dispelled with Dispel Magic or Mass Dispel.
  • For any adds that are summoned by stepping on gravestones, you can dispel off their Incorporeal shields with Dispel Magic or Mass Dispel.
  • Purify Disease for the Plague Spit Disease that the Plagued Bats cast.
• Temple of the Jade Serpent
  • For any pulls with Corrupt Living Water, you can Mass Dispel off the DoT from Tainted Ripple that you do not line of sight.
  • Mass Dispel can help your healer tremendously on the last boss, handling every other dispel set of Touch of Nothingness throughout the fight.

Note that for any weeks of Bursting, you should always take Mass Dispel.

In our first section of talents, the build is relatively straightforward and gives easy access to everything we want for Mythic+.

• Devouring Plague - Baseline pick.
• Shadowy Apparitions, Misery, Coalescing Shadows, Mind Sear, and Mind Spike - All the damage talents you will want for every key.
• Dispersion and Silence - Utility spells you will always want.
• To finish the build, pick your desired free utility point between the following choices: Intangibility / Mental Fortitude for more healing or Last Word / Psychic Horror for more utility. Note that if you need this point, you will need to remove a point somewhere else in the build, likely Dark Evangelism.

This is the section of talent we will put the majority of our points into to get to the bottom section as efficiently as possible.

• Void Eruption will typically be the cooldown of choice, as it has great AoE scaling with the Mastery activation. With this, we will grab Ancient Madness to give our cooldowns more burst. Can also pick Dark Ascension if you want more single target or if your group is doing fewer double/big pulls.
• Mental Decay and Shadow Crash give your DoTs better uptime without requiring manual casts.
• Shadowy Insight, Surge of Darkness, Mind Melt, Auspicious Spirits, and Psychic Link all give you damage to your generators to help smooth out your damage between Mind Sear casts.
• There is some flexibility here if you want to grab some more single target with Mind Spike talents instead, but otherwise, the above suggestion will be a good platform for your AoE damage.
• Select the number of points you want in Dark Evangelism. Most builds will put two points here, but you can drop one if you picked an extra utility point in the first section.

In this section, a substantial amount of power is inside of Mind Devourer in AoE, effectively giving you 100 insanity per proc when channeling a Mind Sear. Because of this, you want to take this talent for every one of your Mythic+ builds. This means Idol of Yogg-Saron will also be taken since it is such an easy pickup for the point investment you already made.

The following are the bases for the builds shown above:

• Mind Flay: Insanity — massive amounts of boss damage, too good to give up for most keys.
• Void Torrent — gives you massive single target and AoE burst, making it a staple in any build.
• Idol of C'Thun and Idol of Yogg-Saron — Screams of the Void, Encroaching Shadows, Mind Devourer.
• Idol of N'Zoth and Idol of Yogg-Saron — Insidious Ire or Malediction, Encroaching Shadows, and Mind Devourer.

There are three weekly affixes and one seasonal affix. The first affix is available instantly at levels two and three; the second affix starts at level four, the third affix is enabled at level seven, and the seasonal affix is at level ten.

Going into Dragonflight, the Necrotic and Inspiring affixes have both been removed, so you will no longer see these in the affix rotation.

• 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. These affixes shift the focus of dungeons from boss to trash, depending on the week. Shadow Priests will excel during Fortified weeks as our multi-target damage has a short ramp-up time and then 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.

• Raging increases the damage dealt by enemies below 30% HP by 100% until they die.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 choose to CC this mob and wait for the Health to tick passively or try and kill it down. 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.

• 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.
• Grievous afflicts players with a stacking DoT when they fall below 90%. Use Shadow Mend to help out your healer when outside of combat.
• Quaking will periodically attempt to interrupt casters by creating a negative zone around each player. About 3 seconds after the zone forms, it will deal 20% maximum Health in damage to each player caught in the zone and interrupt any hard casts being finished during the shockwave.
• Explosive will occasionally spawn Explosive Orbs that need to be targeted and burned down within a short period, or they will significantly damage the party. Explosive Orbs are not cleavable, and the number of orbs that spawn scales with the number of enemies pulled.
• 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.

Thundering is the Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 1 seasonal affix. This is another kiss-curse affix that can reward you for optimizing the affix with a decent damage increase. To take the most advantage of this, I would strongly suggest having you and your group use this WeakAura.

The dungeon pool for Dragonflight Season 1 includes the following dungeons:

• Algeth'ar Academy
• Ruby Life Pools
• The Azure Vault
• The Nokhud Offensive
• Court of Stars
• Halls of Valor
• Shadowmoon Burial Grounds
• Temple of the Jade Serpent

To help out in gearing this season, be sure to check out the gear guide.

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.