Shadow Priest DPS Sepulcher of the First Ones Raid Guide — Shadowlands 9.2

On this page, you will find Shadow Priest specific information to deal with each boss in the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid. These are not complete encounter guides, but rather provide 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 what you can do to 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.

Going into this patch we have gotten our biggest Legendary nerfed, but Shadowflame Prism should scale as we get our tier set and upgraded Conduit ranks of Rabid Shadows. At this point we should still deal competitive single-target damage. On progression players should also feel comfortable choosing to play Night Fae for increased survivability and access to Soulshape. After you get access to Double Legendaries with the Memory of Unity Necrolord will become the primary Covenant choice due to its large damage gain over Night Fae's Covenant Legendary.

The following recommendations are going to be from the perspective of a Necrolord or Night Fae and assume that you will use the Memory of Unity power when you get access to it. Venthyr will also use similar choices but will not be a suggested choice. Kyrian will typically use Talbadar's Stratagem and Damnation, but again this is not an optimal Covenant choice. The below suggestions also assume you have access to the T28 4-set bonus AND are equipping Shadowflame Prism. If you do not have tier or cannot use Tier AND Shadowflame Prism you will swap out Mindbender for Damnation.

Generally speaking we will show Twist of Fate for most encounters, especially the single-target heavy ones. If you are struggling to re-DoT effectively, Misery could make sense as you learn the fight, but generally will perform worse (1-3% overall).

We advise you to use the following talents against Vigilant Guardian.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Misery (or Twist of Fate, situationally)
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Vigilant Guardian: Shadowflame Prism.

This is a classic fight involving lots of adds at the start of the boss and then a single-target boss burn for the later parts of the encounter. With the way that the adds are generally spread Misery is going to be your default choice for this encounter. Misery makes DoTing adds as they are being grouped much easier, and depending on your group's damage they typically will not live long enough while stacked to make Searing Nightmare worth using. Should your group need more boss damage Twist of Fate is also a good option for this fight but it will make it more challenging to DoT up all the adds in the encounter.

• You can use Leap of Faith to speed up parts of the phase when members of your group need to drop orbs into the boss to activate it.
• Make sure you use Vampiric Embrace after the boss enrages in the final phase.
• Make sure you coordinate with your group for Lust timing on the boss. You want to have all your cooldowns for this.
• Make sure to snipe low-health adds with Soulletting Ruby if you are using that trinket.
• Try to position yourself between the incoming adds and past your tanks so you make it easier for them to pick up any targets they do not have aggro over.

For more information, please refer to our Vigilant Guardian guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Twist of Fate
• Level 35: No specific recommendation
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener: Shadowflame Prism.

For the purposes of build optimization this boss is more or less just pure Patchwerk single-target; there are several mechanics that are scripted throughout the encounter but they should not impact your DPS much if you plan ahead for them.

• Use Fade (with the Translucent Image Conduit) and Desperate Prayer to help soak raid damage.
• You can use Leap of Faith to grip in any melee or the tank for the group stack.
• As a Necrolord careful when casting Unholy Nova while the boss is transitioning as it can miss if you are not careful.
• Make sure your raid team plans movement cooldowns to make it so you have as little downtime as possible when dodging the frontal cones.

For more information, please refer to our Skolex, the Insatiable Ravener guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against Artificer Xy'mox.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Twist of Fate or Misery
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Artificer Xy'mox: Shadowflame Prism.

Artificer Xy'mox is back again! Several of his mechanics have returned from the Castle Nathria version of the encounter, so should be familiar enough to you if you progressed that encounter. Traps in this version of the boss do not expire, so you will need to be more vigilant about dodging these traps.

• With the amount and frequency of stacked adds you can comfortably run Misery. If your group decides boss damage is better you should just run Twist of Fate. Realistically you can still perform very well regardless of your choice here.
• To get optimal passive cleave from Your Shadow Priest 4-Piece (Living Shadow) make sure you are targeting the mob at the center of the clump of adds if possible.
• During the intermission phases you should be close to the add clump to use Psychic Scream to interrupt their casts as needed.

We advise you to use the following talents against Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Twist of Fate
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle: Shadowflame Prism.

Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle has an add that spawns throughout the encounter that is more or less perfect for getting extra Twist of Fate uptime. Maintaining our DoTs on two mostly stacked targets should be a relatively easy enough task and you should not need Misery for this encounter.

For your first few kills of this boss I would highly suggest swapping to Venthyr or Night Fae. With Door of Shadows or Soulshape you can easily dodge rings and skip mechanics that you have to deal with. I personally proffered going Venthyr for the ease of play and extra priority target damage on the add. As Venthyr running Theotar with the double charge on Door of Shadows can be particularly nice for your first kill. If you decide to do this as Necrolord you will need to be extremely on top of your positioning otherwise you can die easily.

• Make sure to snipe low-health adds with Soulletting Ruby if you are using that trinket.

For more information, please refer to our Dausegne, the Fallen Oracle guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against Prototype Pantheon.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Misery
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits or Psychic Link
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Prototype Pantheon: Shadowflame Prism.

Prototype Pantheon is a 2-4 target council boss that has lots of multi target built into the fight. Phase 1 and 2 are both 2-target boss encounters, while the last phase has you fighting all 4 targets at once. Because of the intense amount of DoTing you will be doing in the final phase Misery will likely win over Twist of Fate just in terms of globals saved so you can focus more time on other things.

Depending on where you want to optimize damage you should consider using Psychic Link. Roughly speaking this talent is break even or within margin of error in Phase 1 if you effectively DoT a few of the adds and just slightly worse in Phase 2 with no adds. However, in the final phase with 4+ targets this talent is significantly ahead of Auspicious Spirits. Since you typically lust in the last phase as well this is even better and a solid choice overall for this encounter. If you take Psychic Link you should also run the Mind Devourer conduit over Dissonant Echoes. These two Conduits are already extremely close in value and Psychic Link will favor Mind Devourer in general.

• Make sure to save instant cast abilities to handle movement in batches during that GCD you cast the instant spell.
• Try to time Vampiric Embrace with the healing increased buff the raid gets after popping seeds.
• When you have the bosses stacked make sure to swap for Mind Sear to get more Dark Thoughts procs for the T28 set bonus.

For more information, please refer to our Prototype Pantheon guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against Lihuvim, Principal Architect.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Twist of Fate or Searing Nightmare
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Lihuvim, Principal Architect: Shadowflame Prism.

This boss gives you some flexibility in the Level 30 talent row based on what kind of damage your group needs. On Heroic or lower Twist of Fate will be the clear answer to get more boss damage, especially with each add phase letting you proc this while still doing boss damage. Many top logs will likely run Searing Nightmare to ensure Degeneration Automa die quickly on Mythic difficulty, but naturally as your group gets more gear you might see this talent get phased out as our AoE is not as bursty as other specs.

• This fight is all about positioning for us; plan your movements ahead of time to get good uptime on the boss. If planned correctly you should not lose any damage moving across the room.
• The boss is still attackable in the intermission, so make sure after you nuke the first add before it spawns to go right back to keeping DoTs up on the boss.

For more information, please refer to our Lihuvim, Principal Architect guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against Halondrus the Reclaimer.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul
• Level 30: Twist of Fate
• Level 35: No specific recommendation
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Halondrus the Reclaimer: Shadowflame Prism.

Similar to previous bosses this one will make or break your DPS depending on your ability to move with your instant cast spells. Be sure to use these effectively in the intermission to stutter step your movement to maintain your damage.

• Make sure to time your Unholy Nova well during the intermission, it does not follow the target so if you cast it while the boss is moving and you are far away the travel time could mean that it misses the boss entirely. This would also destroy your Pallid Command damage. Try moving into melee or ahead of the boss to prevent this from being an issue.

For more information, please refer to our Halondrus the Reclaimer guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against Anduin Wrynn.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Twist of Fate (or Searing Nightmare, situationally)
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Anduin Wrynn: Shadowflame Prism.

While this fight does have a decent amount of adds throughout the fight you will most likely want to run Twist of Fate on progression. Not only is this easy to proc in both intermission phases but it is the only talent that actually improves boss damage. Many top logs will choose to run Searing Nightmare to pad on the adds in the intermission but this does not provide significant boss damage and is just there for padding.

• You can use Shackle Undead on the Grim Reflection adds after intermission.
• In the intermission even if tunneling the Lich King manifestation you want to use Mind Sear as your filler over Mind Flay when there are stacked little adds for more Insanity.
• Coordinate with your healers if they would like you to use Mass Dispel to quickly make the adds healable in the Shadow realm. These adds need to be dispelled before they can be healed so this could save them some time.
• Make sure regardless of which shadow realm you go down with you always have cooldowns for the intermission phases. You do massively increased damage here that is replicated to the boss. You can pop full CDs in the first Shadow realm and still have them for intermission phases.
• Make sure to snipe low-health adds with Soulletting Ruby if you are using that trinket.

For more information, please refer to our Anduin Wrynn guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against Lords of Dread.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Twist of Fate (or Misery, situationally)
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits (or Psychic Link, situationally)
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Lords of Dread: Shadowflame Prism.

Since there are not many adds in this fight if you can manage using Twist of Fate and maintain your DoTs on both bosses this will be the most ideal. Misery will definitely be easier to use but will have overall less damage.

Throughout the fight Kin'tessa will erupt into a Swarm of Darkness at the same time that Mal'Ganis goes into a Swarm of Decay. These abilities will do damage to the raid, but also cause both bosses to take 100% more damage from area-of-effect abilities. This means that while this buff is active you should be prioritizing the following spells:

• Shadow Priest 4-Piece (Torment Mind) – Make sure to keep as much uptime on your T28 4-piece as possible.
• Shadowflame Prism – Try to hold CDs slightly to line up with these phases if possible.
• Unholy Nova – Try to hold CDs slightly to line up with these phases if possible.
• Shadow Crash – While this talent does technically get more damage you can only get a maximum of 2 casts per phase which turns into about 6-8 empowered casts total throughout a typical fight length. Because of this I would not suggest running this talent.

Note that while Mind Sear is increased, it is not worth it in this case due to the loss in Insanity over using Mind Flay as your filler. This also makes Searing Nightmare not an ideal choice since it would need to overcome this loss by channeling Mind Sear to be worth using.

Void Eruption and Psychic Link are NOT affected by this increase.

• You can pre-DoT the Inchoate Shadow adds when it is better for you before they become killable to help save time later.
• In the intermission phases where you need to find the "Imposters" just tag your friends with non-DoT spells, you do not want to actually kill them, unless they are Balance Druids of course.
• Make sure to snipe low-health adds with Soulletting Ruby if you are using that trinket.

For more information, please refer to our Lords of Dread guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against Rygelon.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Twist of Fate (or Misery, situationally)
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against Rygelon: Shadowflame Prism.

• You can use Twist of Fate to maintain very high uptime on this boss with the adds constantly spawning. Swap to Misery if your group needs help killing these faster, but this will cost you boss damage.
• This is a relatively short fight in the grand scheme of things. For most groups you will only get 2-3 uses of Power Infusion. Make sure you plan these out accordingly.
• Make sure to snipe low-health Unstable Matter adds with Soulletting Ruby if you are using that trinket.

For more information, please refer to our Rygelon guide.

We advise you to use the following talents against The Jailer.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 25: Body and Soul (situational options: San'layn or Intangibility)
• Level 30: Twist of Fate
• Level 35: Last Word or Psychic Horror
• Level 40: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 45: Mindbender
• Level 50: Hungering Void

We advise you to use the following Legendary against The Jailer: Shadowflame Prism.

From a damage perspective this boss does not require anything specific from a Shadow Priest. The biggest thing to keep in mind is to know where you need to move ahead of time, as the encounter is very scripted.

• If you are targeted with a Mind Control make sure to use Psychic Scream beforehand.
• Try to save cooldowns if the Mind Control is coming soon so you do not waste your damage.

For more information, please refer to our The Jailer guide.