Shadow Priest DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.1.0

The Shadow Priest rotation revolves around a modern version of a builder/spender style of play that also mixes in damage-over-time effects. You use abilities that generate Insanity and then spend that Insanity on Devouring Plague.

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

If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, you might benefit from visiting our Beginner page, which outlines a close-to-optimal rotation in simpler terms.

The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.

If you are completely new to Shadow and need more information on your abilities, you can check out our Spell Summary page.

Shadowform is an aura that increases your spell damage by 10%. You should always have Shadowform active (you only need to activate it once, and it will remain active until you die; entering Voidform will temporarily deactivate it but then automatically reactivate it when you exit Voidform).

Use the buttons below to select your talents to see how that changes the rotation:

Active Talents	Passive Talents
Halo	Surge of Insanity
Divine Star	Unfurling Darkness
Mind Spike	Distorted Reality
Void Eruption	Inescapable Torment
Dark Ascension	Mind Devourer
Shadow Crash	Deathspeaker
Mindbender	Idol of C'Thun
Void Torrent	Shadowy Insight

Before going in-depth with the priority list, I wanted to break down the goals of playing Shadow Priest on a single target. These goals are meant to help describe the why behind the full-on priority list, hopefully giving it more context.

If you can get these goals right, the rotation should make more sense and fall into play naturally.

1. Maintain Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain roughly up to 12 targets. Use Shadow Crash to help with this.
2. Maintain uptime of Devouring Plague on a single target without capping on Insanity.
3. Maintain uptime of Devouring Plague on as many targets as possible that will live the full duration.
4. Use short cooldown Insanity generating spells to make sure you do not lose uses of them. This includes spells like Mind Blast, Void Bolt, and Surge of Insanity procs.
5. Use your long cooldown spells ideally when you will not lose uses of any short cooldown spells, being sure not to hold too long to still take advantage of any active buffs.

The single-target rotation relies on the following priority system of abilities, depending on which phase you are in.

If you are looking for something easier to digest or you are just getting started, I strongly suggest looking at the Beginner page page. The below rotation guide is meant for advanced users that want to min/max their rotation as much as possible.

1. Keep Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain active by using Vampiric Touch to apply both DoTs. Use Shadow Crash if available when you need to refresh and you do not need to hold for adds coming in less than 15 seconds. Refresh these during the proper pandemic window (see below).
2. Keep Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain active by using Vampiric Touch to apply both DoTs. Refresh these during the proper pandemic window (see below).
3. Cast Shadowfiend.
4. Cast Mindbender.
5. Cast Void Eruption to enter Voidform. Make sure Mind Blast charges are on cooldown before entering Voidform.
6. Cast Dark Ascension.
7. Cast Power Infusion.
8. Sync any trinkets you have with your cooldowns (see below).
9. Cast Mind Blast if Mindbender is active and you are capped on charges or will cap charges soon. Cast at high priority if Mindbender will expire otherwise.
10. Cast Void Bolt.
11. Spend Insanity on Devouring Plague. Maintain maximum uptime on the DoT without capping on Insanity.
12. Spend Insanity on Devouring Plague. Maintain maximum uptime on the DoT without capping on Insanity. You can cast regardless during Voidform if it will let you cast another Void Bolt before Voidform expires.
13. Spend Insanity on Devouring Plague. Spread this DoT around to all available targets.
14. Cast Mind Blast if capped on charges.
15. Cast Mind Blast if capped on charges or Shadowy Insight is active.
16. Cast Void Torrent. This should always be full-channeled.
17. Cast Mind Spike: Insanity.
18. Cast Mind Flay: Insanity.
19. Fully deplete all Mind Blast charges.
20. Fully deplete all Mind Blast charges unless Mind Devourer is active.
21. Cast Mindgames if Devouring Plague will be active when the cast finishes.
22. Cast Vampiric Touch to consume Unfurling Darkness.
23. Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target is below 20% HP.
24. Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target is below 20% HP or Mindbender is active.
25. Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target is below 20% HP or Deathspeaker is active.
26. Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target is below 20% HP, Deathspeaker is active, or Mindbender is active.
27. Cast Halo. Save if adds are coming in less than 20 seconds.
28. Cast Divine Star. Save if adds are coming in less than 10 seconds.
29. While Voidform is active dump Insanity with Devouring Plague.
30. Cast Mind Spike.
31. Cast Mind Flay.
32. Use the following spells in order should you need to move and do not have any instant casts to use: Shadow Crash, Shadow Word: Death, Divine Star, Shadow Word: Pain

When facing two targets, you still follow the single target rotation. The main change is typically swapping out Mind's Eye for Distorted Reality. To see how this changes the rotation, use the talent switcher at the top of this section.

Note: the pandemic window for our DoTs is 30% of the total duration. This means to get optimal value out of refreshing DoTs, you want to wait until they are at or below the following thresholds:

• Vampiric Touch - 6.3 seconds;
• Shadow Word: Pain (with Misery) - 6.3 seconds;
• Devouring Plague does not work like a traditional DoT spell, but it will add the old DoT damage to the new DoT damage as well as duration based on ticks remaining;

Devouring Plague does not follow the same refresh rules as these two DoTs, instead, roll their damage over and add duration based on ticks remaining. The way you typically want to play around with this is to maximize the uptime of the DoT as much as possible without capping on Insanity. You want to do this for optimal uptime on our Mastery bonus.

Any on-use trinket offering some sort of stat bonus should ideally be used inside your cooldowns to get the most benefit. Any exceptions to this are noted below.

1. Voidmender's Shadowgem - Sync with Power Infusion.
2. Use Darkmoon Deck Box: Inferno (and other Darkmoon trinkets) on cooldown.
3. Erupting Spear Fragment should be used with Power Infusion or if there is more than 1 target active.
4. Beacon to the Beyond should ideally be used with adds or multiple targets. You can use it on cooldown if there are no additional targets to save this trinket.
5. Spoils of Neltharus - Sync with Power Infusion, do not fish for a particular buff.
6. DEFAULT: Sync with Voidform, Dark Ascension, or Power Infusion. If the cooldown is a minute or less, be sure to use it on CD. Lastly, use it if the fight will end before your cooldowns will come back up.
7. Use Desperate Invoker's Codex.

For on-use trinkets that ONLY deal damage, you can use them on cooldown, starting with Patch 10.1; Shadow Priest has no modifiers to buff them. The exception is when using double on-use, where you do not want to use a damaged on-use trinket if it means you cannot use a stat on-use trinket with cooldowns later. When in doubt, you can sim your character and see how the sim uses the trinket.

To start the opener, your first spell will change, given your talents and the situation. Use the priority list below to know your FIRST spell to open combat with. This will adjust with your talents selected above:

If you would like a more comfortable opener, you can use a longer opener to pool Insanity with Shadow Crash, Halo, and Divine Star. The goal of this is to get to your first Devouring Plague faster than you would normally. This is not a massive DPS gain, but it is there if you want to min/max. These spells should be used so they do not pull you into combat (specifically Divine Star and Shadow Crash). Note that based on talents, this is how SimC behaves.

1. Shadow Crash x2 + Divine Star x2 = 24 Insanity over 20 seconds
2. Shadow Crash x2 + Halo x1 = 22 Insanity over 20 seconds
3. Divine Star x3 = 18 Insanity over 30 seconds
4. Shadow Crash x2 = 12 Insanity over 20 seconds
5. Halo x1 = 10 Insanity over 1.5 seconds

Aside from that, here are your normal opener activities:

1. As a Blood Elf you can use Arcane Torrent before pulling, do not use this during your rotation after this.
2. Make sure Shadowform is active.
3. Make sure Power Word: Fortitude is active.

1. Pre-Cast Shadow Crash if you can reliably land the skill shot on the pull; otherwise, use Vampiric Touch.
2. Pre-Cast Vampiric Touch
3. Cast Shadowfiend.
4. Cast Mindbender.
5. Cast Mind Blast.
6. Cast Shadow Word: Death.
7. Cast Mind Blast.
8. Cast Void Eruption.
9. Use your combat potion Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power.
10. Use Power Infusion and any stat-based racial abilities. Make sure to cast Power Infusion on an ally if using Twins of the Sun Priestess.
11. Use any on-use trinkets that you may be running.
12. Cast Void Bolt.
13. Cast Mind Blast.
14. Cast Mind Blast.
15. Cast Devouring Plague.
16. Cast Void Bolt.
17. Cast Void Torrent.
18. Cast Void Bolt.
19. Cast Devouring Plague.
20. Cast Mind Blast.
21. Cast Mind Spike: Insanity
22. Cast Mind Flay: Insanity
23. Cast Void Bolt.
24. Cast Mind Spike: Insanity
25. Cast Mind Flay: Insanity
26. Cast Mindgames.
27. Continue with the priority list in the top section above.

1. Pre-Cast Shadow Crash if you can reliably land the skill shot on the pull; otherwise, use Vampiric Touch.
2. Pre-Cast Vampiric Touch
3. Cast Shadowfiend.
4. Cast Mindbender.
5. Cast Dark Ascension.
6. Use your combat potion Elemental Potion of Ultimate Power.
7. Use Power Infusion and any stat-based racial abilities. Make sure to cast Power Infusion on an ally if using Twins of the Sun Priestess.
8. Use any on-use trinkets that you may be running.
9. Cast Mind Blast.
10. Cast Devouring Plague.
11. Cast Mind Blast.
12. Cast Void Torrent.
13. Cast Devouring Plague.
14. Cast Mind Spike: Insanity
15. Cast Mind Flay: Insanity
16. Cast Mindgames.
17. Continue with the priority list in the top section above.

The Shadow Priest multi-target rotation is very similar to the single target priority list above, with only small differences. Our AoE damage is mostly unlocked by performing our single target rotation well. If you can do that well, you just need to maintain DoTs, and things should fall into place naturally.

Use the following list as a cheat sheet for the critical target swaps:

• 2+ targets: Start using Halo above Surge of Insanity fillers. It can also be used on a single target, but not significant to drop it or only use it for healing at that target count.
• 2+ targets: Start using Divine Star above Surge of Insanity fillers. It can also be used on a single target, but not significant to drop it or only use it for healing at that target count.
• 8+ targets: Drop high priority Mind Blast actions for Inescapable Torment. You still use Mind Blast as a low-priority action to generate Insanity since, at this target count, you are not prioritizing Inescapable Torment damage.

When fighting more than a single target, your rotation will look almost identical, except you will be using any tools you can to maintain Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain on both targets. You should try to maintain these DoTs on up to 12 targets roughly. Shadow Crash should be able to cover 8 stacked targets. Do not bother manually DoTing any target that will not last for at least 18 seconds.

The other change is when using Distorted Reality you can spread Devouring Plague to both targets; otherwise, continue to only keep it active on a single target.

In addition, if you are using Divine Star It starts being worth at 2 targets if you can consistently hit it twice (you need to be within 24 yards of all targets).

For specific tips about playing Shadow Priest in Mythic+, feel free to check out that dedicated page below. From a rotation standpoint, things will follow the priority list above.

Inside of Aberrus or through the Inspiration Catalyst You can craft up to 5 pieces of tier slot gear. This gear gives you unique effects after having 2 or 4 pieces equipped:

• 2-piece set bonus: Priest Shadow 10.1 Class Set 2pc
• 4-piece set bonus: Priest Shadow 10.1 Class Set 4pc

One technical note, the set bonus will apply only to Shadowy Apparitions spawned while the set bonus buff is active. This means that even after the buff expires if a Shadowy Apparition spawned with it active it will be buffed as if it was when it eventually reaches the target.

These tier sets do not fundamentally change how you play in raid encounters.

For Mythic+ environments, you can choose to play a bit around the tier set depending on the state of the pack. In general, if the pack is about to die, it might not be worth using Devouring Plague when you have three stacks of Darkflame Embers. Proccing the set bonus and the pack dying instantly later would lose you damage. Instead, consider holding that Devouring Plague until the start of the next pull.

In addition, it is a small optimization to be closer to any mobs as they will start to die to make sure your Shadowy Apparitions give value. Any of them that hit after they die do not generate Insanity and are wasted.

Devouring Plague is a DoT unlike anything the game has ever seen. As such, you must understand how it works at a high level to avoid misuse of its unique effects.

When refreshing Devouring Plague, you do not need to worry about doing this at a specific time, and that is because whenever you do refresh the spell, it rolls over any damage remaining on the ticks and adds that in the form of a modifier to the new DoTs ticks. This effectively means that when you are in a case where you often hit or get close to 100 Insanity (referred to as capping), you can freely refresh Devouring Plague and not lose any damage assuming the target lives for the entire DoT duration. It is important to note that no part of this process is snapshotting stats but instead converting future damage ticks into a modifier value to the new ticks. Because of this period, Intellect and Haste's changes do not change how the rollover happens; it always works the same way regardless.

This mechanic is mostly passive but can be used to your advantage to burst down a specific target. By banking up 100 Insanity (or 150 with Voidtouched) you can use two Devouring Plague casts back to back and get a new DoT with much more powerful ticks in the same amount of time as a single Devouring Plague. Otherwise, if your target lives, you should always prioritize keeping the DoT active on the target for as long as possible for maximum benefit with our Mastery. While maximizing this, make sure you are also NOT capping on Insanity. Juggling these two conditions will be how you master this spell.

For most types of content, you should play completely normally; there is nothing to game with how this works unless you are trying to burst something down specifically. Just play normally and enjoy not losing damage when you would have otherwise capped Insanity.

If you want to see this change explained in video form, I go over this in more detail in this video.

Now that Devouring Plague is our only Insanity spender, I wanted to briefly cover multi-target. The way you play with this strictly depends on if you are playing with Distorted Reality or not. When you are NOT using Distorted Reality, you should maintain Devouring Plague on just a single target, even in AoE. Pick the one that is the most important to focus down. You could spread this if there are more than one big priority targets you care about, but that is almost always an overall DPS loss.

Alternatively when using Distorted Reality you can spread Devouring Plague around to targets that will live for that duration. This can be hard to know from just looking at health, but generally, you can just spread this blindly. You can still tunnel on one target, but that will typically be a DPS loss with this talent compared to just using Mind's Eye instead.

For dungeon pulls specifically, you should always be pulling WITH the tank, not after. By getting proper setup as the tank is pulling by putting up Vampiric Touch ASAP, you will further increase your damage in the pack without suffering from loss in casting our Insanity spenders. This is only possible by using Fade as a threat drop, as the tank is pulling to be able to DPS before the threat is fully established. Mastering this is crucial to doing well in Mythic+.

The Unfurling Darkness talent can be a bit awkward to play around with, but if you do you think of it less as having to cast an extra Vampiric Touch and more like a cooldown, you press every 15 seconds; that should make more sense. Generally, you want to try and use Vampiric Touch every 15 seconds to process this "extra" damage and then re-cast Vampiric Touch again (ideally on a different target to help with DoT uptimes) for that damage bonus. You only have 8 seconds to use this free cast, so use it wisely.

Depending on how much other stuff to do, you do not need to go out of your way to cast this every 15 seconds, especially if this means losing Devouring Plague casts. It will mostly be passive damage naturally as you refresh your Vampiric Touch and then re-cast it for the benefit. Do not let the buff expire and play naturally.

Both Mindbender and Shadowfiend are guardians that scale with your stats, which means using them in combination with, for example, Intellect, Haste, or Mastery procs is ideal. However, it is not ideal to delay them too much for both to accomplish this. They are not big enough damage increases to warrant doing so, and maximizing the number of casts is more important. If you lost a Mindbender/Shadowfiend cast because of delaying it too much, then that will almost definitely not have been worth it. This is especially true for Mindbender, which has a short cooldown of 1 minute. When using Inescapable Torment, mastering this is important to get full damage out of the cooldown.

However, there is an additional aspect to consider here. Both Shadowfiend and Mindbender generate an amount of Insanity whenever they hit their targets. Both pets generate 2 Insanity per melee swing. This is particularly useful in AoE when getting consistent Insanity generation is more difficult.

As a general rule of thumb, you will want to use Shadowfiend or Mindbender right before going into Void Eruption or Dark Ascension.

Depending on the race you decide to play, you will get various amounts of spells that you can use to buff your character further. Unfortunately, not all of these are useful. Use this section if you are curious about how to use them in combat.

Note that as of writing, the DPS difference between the various racial buffs is anywhere between 1-2%. Because this is so small, picking a race just for the DPS output is generally not suggested. Often you will get more value out of picking the one that has better non-DPS options, such as Goblin's Rocket Jump.

• Fireblood, Berserking, Blood Fury, and Ancestral Call should be synced up with Power Infusion to maximize damage.
• Lightforged Draenei's Light's Judgment should be a low-priority action above your fillers. It gets better with adds and is worth saving and using for them.
• Blood Elf's Arcane Torrent should only be used before combat; it is a DPS loss to use during combat.
• As a Zandalari Troll, I suggest sticking with Embrace of Pa'ku for your Embrace of the Loa.
• Nightborne's Arcane Pulse is not worth using for DPS purposes.
• Vulpera's Bag of Tricks is not worth using for DPS purposes.