Shadow Priest DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents — Dragonflight 10.2.6
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Shadow Priest in World of Warcraft — Dragonflight 10.2.6. We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Shadow Priest talents.
Best Dragonflight Talents for Shadow Priest
While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the Talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.
Note that these builds are generic recommendations for various content. For more specific recommendations for the Raid and Mythic+ in Season 3, check out the dedicated pages below.
The video version of this guide is also available if you would like to watch along as I talk about Shadow Priest.
If you want an overview and breakdown of every Talent, check out the Spell Summary first to help navigate your build choices.
Best Talents for Shadow Priest
Single Target Build for Shadow Priest
This build is the default single target build for Shadow, with an option to use either Mind Spike or Mind Flay depending on your preference. These options are extremely close together.
Options with this build:
- Mind Flay version: Drop Mind Spike and Mind Melt. Put these points into Dark Evangelism and Voidtouched.
- Distorted Reality is the preferred choice with this build, beating out Mind's Eye in all scenarios, but they are very close if you prefer Mind's Eye instead.
- You can swap points between Mind Devourer and Dark Evangelism. Either option performs well.
Use the code below to directly import the version with Mind Flay.
- BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIQEBAAAAAAAAAAAAIJpFkIl0ikERSSBShkkEpRgICpItQSQBC
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
Sometimes you want as much single target as possible while also taking Shadow Crash. This can be good for Raid encounters with mostly single target but with adds or for Mythic+ dungeons with smaller pulls on Tyrannical.
If you are looking for a more generic Raid build that can handle a wider variety of encounters, I would suggest starting here. You take a slight dip in single target to grab more cleave talents to handle more situations like regular add spawns. This is roughly 1.5% behind in pure single target compared to the standard build.
Options with this build:
- Mind Flay version: Drop Mind Spike, Mind Melt, and both points of Mind Devourer. Put these points into Dark Evangelism, Phantasmal Pathogen and Voidtouched. This version should also use Mind's Eye.
- You can swap points between Mind Devourer and Dark Evangelism. Either option performs well.
- If you feel confident with your usage of Void Torrent you can drop Idol of Y'Shaarj to use Malediction instead. With this increase in Void Torrent casts, it also prefers Dark Evangelism over Mind Devourer. This version is about 500 DPS ahead (0.3%) compared to the default build.
Use the code below to directly import the version without Idol of Y'Shaarj.
- BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASScAAAAAAAAAAAAAgEaBJJl0ikEJJJFINSSSkGBiIki0CJBFIB
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
3 Target Council Build for Shadow Priest
If you are looking to optimize for 3-target cleave, start with this build. This is particularly optimized for a 3-target fight where only 2 of the targets are stacked, and the third is spread out to mimic the council fight inside of Amirdrassil.
This build specializes in heavy DoT damage which lets you be more focused on handling mechanics in the hectic encounter of Council of Dreams.
If you are able to get the bosses consistently stacked, you can consider using this experimental build with Idol of Yogg-Saron:
- BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEikIBAAAAAAAAAAAAQolQINNSSSSkUg0IJJRaEIiQKSLkEUQSA
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
Mythic+ Build for Shadow Priest
This build aims to pick up the largest gains for Mythic+ damage possible without giving up too much single target. This build is very similar to the single target build because our AoE damage comes from our single target. The main change is swapping out Idol of Y'Shaarj for Idol of N'Zoth in addition to using Shadow Crash. I also suggest starting with Distorted Reality and spreading Devouring Plague for more Mastery value by default. However, if you prefer more priority target damage, you can use Mind's Eye instead, which is also very competitive and can be a better damage pattern for pushing higher keys.
Class talents were selected as a safe default for most keys, but usually you can move points around from Purify Disease, Mass Dispel, Manipulation, or Shattered Perceptions based on the needs of that key. Check out the class talents section of the Mythic+ page for more info.
Options with this build:
- By default this build assumes you are in keys where you need survivability from Mental Fortitude and also do not want to drop Silence. Strictly speaking, this is a DPS loss; if you want to drop one of those points, you can add back a flex point to the build.
- 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, you typically move points out of Mind Devourer into Maddening Touch.
- Pathway into Idol of N'Zoth choice:
- More Single Target damage? Mastermind
- More AoE damage (3+ targets)? Screams of the Void
- If you prefer Mind Flay just drop Mind Spike and Mind Melt to pick up Voidtouched and the last point in Dark Evangelism. This choice is mostly preference , and both perform well.
- You can flex 4-6 points with this build depending on if you want more
AoE, Overall, or Single Target. Put four points into any of the following:
- Mind Devourer - Overall (pref. with Distorted Reality)
- Maddening Touch - AoE (pref. with Mind's Eye)
- Dark Evangelism - Overall
- Mental Decay - Single Target
- Phantasmal Pathogen - Single Target or Idol of Yogg-Saron builds
- Mental Fortitude - Defensive
- Silence - Utility (only in coordinated groups should you consider dropping this)
The above points are flex points. You will spend 4-6 points on any of the above choices. All of these are within small percentages of each other in the various types of content; it is just about where you want to specialize the last few percent of your DPS profile.
Use the below import string for the version with Mind's Eye:
- BIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEIJBAAAAAAAAAAAAgkoERiUSjkEJJJFQhkkEpRKIiEpItQSQBSA
This build is designed for keystones that most players are completing. If you are interested in high-level push keystone optimizations, you likely will want to run a build that uses Void Eruption. Check out the dedicated Mythic+ page to learn more about optimizing builds at all levels.
If you want specific advice for Mythic+, including other talent builds, check out the dedicated page below.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the build directly into your game!
Talent Explanations for Shadow Priests
Note that we do not explain EVERY Talent in the tree on this page. We only explain Talents that are part of our optimal builds for single-target and AoE. For full details and explanations of every Talent, please visit our Spells page via the button below.
Class Talents
Row 1-4
Renew | Small Heal Over Time spell that can be useful to proc Twist of Fate when cast on allies in the opener or during downtime. |
Prayer of Mending | Healing spell that spreads across allies that can be useful to proc Twist of Fate when cast on allies in the opener or during downtime. |
Purify Disease | Adds to our utility letting us dispel diseases. Particularly useful in certain Mythic+ dungeons. |
Protective Light | Turns Flash Heal into a mini-defensive. This does stack with other mitigations. |
Angelic Feather | One of our core mobility spells. |
Phantasm | Niche talent that extends Fade to get out of certain debuffs. |
Death and Madness | Builds upon our execute damage by extending the value of Shadow Word: Death. |
Spell Warding | Gives us a tiny bit of magical defensive value. |
Leap of Faith | Allows you to quickly get an ally out of an otherwise deadly position. |
Shackle Undead | One of the hard crown control abilities we have, but only works against Undead enemies. Does work with Incorporeal in Mythic+. |
Dominate Mind | Version of Mind Control that lets us still do our full rotation while the controlled enemy is a pet. It does not work with every mob but can have powerful use cases when it does. |
Row 5-7
Mass Dispel | Powerful dispel utility that has a wide range of use, particularly in Mythic+. |
Power Infusion | One of our core damage cooldowns that gives us a large amount of haste. |
Vampiric Embrace | Group healing ability that can do quite a lot of healing if used at the right time. |
Tithe Evasion | Required extension of Shadow Word: Death anytime you press the spell often. Without this Shadow Word: Death deals substantially more damage to yourself. |
Body and Soul | Main movement ability and gives you an additional option paired with Angelic Feather to get a long amount of movement speed. |
Twins of the Sun Priestess | Extends Power Infusion to make it a powerful cooldown for yourself and another ally of your choice. |
Twist of Fate | Main execute mechanic for the class that allows us to do slightly more damage at the end of an encounter. |
Throes of Pain | Small bump to Shadow Word: Pain damage but also gives us a decent amount of Insanity over the course of a Mythic+ dungeon. |
Row 8-10
Angel's Mercy | Allows you to cast Desperate Prayer more often with the reduced CD if you find yourself pressing it on cooldown. |
Halo/ Divine Star | Small cooldown spells that mostly contribute to our damage via the Insanity provided less so the damage dealt. Double as a small healing cooldown as well. |
Translucent Image | Transforms Fade into being a small defensive ability. |
Mindgames | Small cooldown spell that deals a small amount of damage and generates some Insanity. |
Light's Inspiration | Increases the effectiveness of Desperate Prayer. |
Improved Fade | Reduces the cooldown of Fade so you can use it more often for threat dropping or the defensive when paired with Translucent Image. |
Power Word: Life | Large single-target heal that can easily save your life or an allies if used well. |
Essence Devourer | Somewhat random healing effect added to Shadowfiend or Mindbender that can proc Twist of Fate if it heals allies below the threshold. |
Spec Talents
Row 1-4
Devouring Plague | Sole Insanity spender that deals damage over time on your target. Damage does roll over on subsequent casts, but the duration only increases by the time till the next tick on the original DoT. |
Dispersion | Main defensive ability that also doubles as a movement cooldown should you really need it. |
Shadowy Apparitions | Adds a gameplay loop into our kit around these apparitions that can make them a powerful damage source if you build around them. |
Silence | Only Interrupt ability for Priests that the other specs do not have access to. |
Mental Fortitude | Good passive defensive Talent that is critical for high damage taken encounters. |
Misery | Required Talent that reduces the amount of time spent casting DoT spells considerably. |
Thought Harvester | Allows you to weave in spells more easily while Mind Blast is cooling down without losing casts of Mind Blast. |
Psychic Link | One of our AoE components that extends our single target spells (including Devouring Plague) to hit targets in range that are affected by Vampiric Touch. |
Surge of Insanity | Enhances our fillers to give a gameplay loop with spending Insanity on Devouring Plague. Mind Flay: Insanity is the default version, while Mind Spike: Insanity is given when talented into Mind Spike. |
Row 5-7
Dark Ascension/ Void Eruption | One of our main cooldown abilities that lets you choose a sort of playstyle of the spec. This choice has some impacts on other talents chosen, particularly in the bottom section of the spec tree. |
Mental Decay | Extends our filler spells to increase the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch every time they deal damage. This does NOT work in AoE with Psychic Link or with Devouring Plague. |
Whispering Shadows | Makes Shadow Crash worth taking as it now is upgraded to apply Vampiric Touch (and Shadow Word: Pain since we have Misery) on up to 8 targets that are hit by Shadow Crash. Loosely tries to prioritize targets that do not have Vampiric Touch already active. |
Shadowy Insight | One of the proc-based spells we have in our kit that gives you an instant cast Mind Blast. This resets the current charge that is cooling down and does not give you a full extra charge. |
Ancient Madness | Adds to your cooldown of choice by giving it a small boost to burst at the start of the cooldown. It does not actually increase the Critical Strike chance on your character stat sheet; only buffs specific spells hidden from the user. |
Mind Devourer | Additional proc based spell that can make Distorted Reality in particular even stronger of a choice. |
Mind's Eye/ Distorted Reality | Allows you to choose if you want to press Devouring Plague more often with Mind's Eye or press it a bit less but get a corresponding bump in uptime and damage. |
Row 8-10
Mindbender | Replaces Shadowfiend with a slightly nerfed version of the pet, but significantly lowers its cooldown. |
Deathspeaker | Gives you another proc into the kit that gives you more procs as you get haste that makes Shadow Word: Death quite powerful. |
Void Torrent | Medium-sized cooldown spell that deals more damage the more haste you have during a fixed channel size. This does generate a moderate amount of Insanity and immediately triggers an Idol of C'Thun proc if talented. |
Inescapable Torment | Transforms Mindbender into a much more powerful cooldown. |
Insidious Ire | Massive increase to priority and single target damage for Mind Blast and Void Torrent. |
Idol of Y'Shaarj | Adds an extra effect every time you summon Mindbender. |
Idol of N'Zoth | Gives you another AoE component in the kit that is capped at 4 enemies and then deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets hit for every tick. |
Idol of Yogg-Saron | Capstone talent that builds off of Shadowy Apparitions talents and plays well with Void Eruption. |
Idol of C'Thun | Versatile Talent that gives you a proc of Insanity in the form of a Void Tendril (Single Target) or Void Lasher (AoE). When fighting 3 or more targets (around the one that procced the spell), you will proc the AoE Void Lasher instead of the Void Tendril. Note that the Insanity generation does not change based on which tendril procs. |
Several of our talents actively change your rotation, specifically your priority in given situations. You can find out more in the rotation section below.
Priest Class Talent Pathing
This section is meant to give more context to choices in our talent tree. This section will not cover every Talent but rather give you reasons and answers for how to make a build.
Top Section Overview (Rows 1-4)
In our class tree, our goal is first to pick up all the damage in the tree, which is mainly concentrated on the right-hand side. Your standard build will start you out with:
- Shadow Word: Death and Shadowfiend for free.
- Start off with Death and Madness and either version of Mind Control or Dominate Mind.
- Grab your movement ability by getting Dispel Magic, Improved Flash Heal, and Angelic Feather.
From there, you can choose where to spend your last few points. For most content, I would suggest grabbing Purify Disease and From Darkness Comes Light for better off healing. After this, you will want to get Leap of Faith, Shackle Undead, or Void Tendrils so that you can get Power Infusion in the next section. As soon as the next section unlocks, you will want to spend points in that first before considering circling back.
Middle Section Overview (Rows 5-7)
Assuming you unlocked the section appropriately, you want to straight away pick up the following to max out your damage:
- Power Infusion and Twins of the Sun Priestess
- Twist of Fate
- Throes of Pain (note you will need to pick something else to path here)
To fill out this section, you will most likely pick up Vampiric Embrace and San'layn to get to Throes of Pain, but you have options. Other good things to note are grabbing more movement with Body and Soul and a defensive talent with Tithe Evasion. In this section, you have quite a lot of freedom of what to pick, and you can even come back to the top section to grab more off-healing if you want that. You might also want to grab Mass Dispel if you can use this well.
Note: you will want to spend 2 points in Unwavering Will if you plan on getting Angel's Mercy.
Bottom Section Overview (Rows 8-10)
For the bottom section of our class tree, we have some focused talents around Mindgames you will want for damage, but you still have lots of choices around that. Here is the base you will want to take in all content:
- Mindgames, Manipulation, and Shattered Perceptions
- Divine Star or Halo. Generally speaking, Halo will be your default, but using Divine Star in open world or dungeon content can be a good alternative.
- Consider adding Crystalline Reflection if you find yourself casting Power Word: Shield often, and the fight has lots of raid-wide damage.
If you have followed the suggestions to this point, you now have lots of points left over to fill out your tree. This is where you can build your Priest the way you need for what you want to do, here are some common paths to consider:
- Defensive: Angel's Mercy, Light's Inspiration, and Translucent Image
- Off-Healing: Binding Heals, Surge of Light, and Power Word: Life
- Utility: Void Shift
- Essence Devourer anytime you are using Mindbender and want some more off-healing.
Shadow Priest Spec Talent Pathing
Moving on to the Shadow Priest spec tree, we can navigate some interesting choices here, all framed with how you want to do your damage.
With Psychic Link, our damage pattern is identical in almost any situation since our single target damage effectively is our AoE damage.
Top Section Overview (Rows 1-4)
This is the utility section of the tree where picking up all the damage you need, generally speaking, is relatively easy. Start your build off like so:
- Devouring Plague for free.
- Shadowy Apparitions, Misery, Thought Harvester, and Surge of Insanity.
- Pick up Dispersion and Silence for your standard utility.
- Pick up Psychic Link anytime you fight more than one target.
- On pure single target, you can fill with any one of the following: Intangibility, Mental Fortitude, Last Word, or Psychic Horror. In most cases, I would default to Mental Fortitude.
Middle Section Overview (Rows 5-7)
In this section of the tree, you will fill out the base part of your kit with some definition. Before going forward, it is important to start considering where you want to end your tree to make sure you pick things that all work together well.
- First off, you need to pick your cooldown, either Void Eruption or Dark Ascension. See the section below to help make this choice.
- Regardless of your choice of cooldown, the following abilities make sense in just about every single build, and I would suggest starting with them: Ancient Madness, Shadowy Insight, Mind Spike, and Mind Melt.
- Always pick either Mind's Eye for more priority target, or Distorted Reality as the default option.
- When facing more than 2 mobs, I would strongly suggest adding Shadow Crash to make DoT management easier.
- Fill out the remaining points before the final section. Mental Decay, Phantasmal Pathogen, and Dark Evangelism are good for a single target. Maddening Touch and Mind Devourer are good mixed damage options.
Void Eruption Versus Dark Ascension
The major choice you need to make in this section is which cooldown to select. Unfortunately, these cooldowns do not have a clear definition. Generally, they will come down to numbers rather than a specific playstyle that one is better at compared to the other. That being said Void Eruption does have some amount of identity, specifically being great for generating more Shadowy Apparitions and an extra instant cast for movement with Void Bolt. With this understanding, you effectively end up taking Dark Ascension whenever Voidform does not make sense, rather than wanting to take it for a specific reason. For most content, you will find Dark Ascension to be more useful when you need damage every minute, instead of the 2-minute cadence of Void Eruption.
Dark Ascension does have some synergy with Mindbender and Idol of Y'Shaarj builds since they line up their cooldowns together, and most builds utilize this combo for Season 3.
Bottom Section Overview (Rows 8-10)
For the final section of talents, you must decide your end goals. At level 70, you can comfortably get two or even three Idol talents to finish your build. Generally, builds utilizing two or three Idol talents are better than those with zero or one. While there are many different combinations of Idols, the builds above are the common choices.
PvP Talents (War Mode) for Shadow Priest
In the open world, you can go into "War Mode." Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- 10%+ increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
- 10%+ more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended enabling the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will make yourself available for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.
Shadow Priest War Mode Talents
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of Shadow Priest-specific PvE talents.
Shadow Priest PvP Talents
- Catharsis is a great boost to damage in the open world if you find yourself in solo content or 1v1s.
- Driven to Madness gives you your cooldown back faster for better uptime.
- Psyfiend can be a nice talent if you are okay with another active ability; otherwise, Void Volley is a good backup.
Changelog
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 13 Feb. 2024: Update default class talents and utility choices in the Mythic+ build.
- 21 Jan. 2024: Update 3-target council build from recent buffs.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5.
- 15 Jan. 2023: Add optional change to the ST + Shadow Crash build and update the 3 target council build.
- 19 Dec. 2023: Remove outdated section and adjust Mind Flay options.
- 18 Dec. 2023: Update flex point talents in default Mythic+ build and update the 3 target council build.
- 18 Dec. 2023: Add note for loss in ST on the Shadow Crash build.
- 12 Dec. 2023: Update default Mythic+ build to not use Idol of Y'Shaarj.
- 03 Dec. 2023: Update default Mythic+ build to use Mind Flay.
- 01 Dec. 2023: Update 3 Target council build to default to Mind Flay.
- 17 Nov. 2023: Update builds for 3 target and Mythic+ to be more streamlined.
- 14 Nov. 2023: Add Mind Flay build option to the Single Target + Shadow Crash build.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Update talent builds and suggestions for Patch 10.2 and Season 3.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reorganize headers to be more readable and move talent spell breakdown.
- 18 Aug. 2023: Correct typo in the description for the Triple Idol Dark Ascension build.
- 13 Aug. 2023: Clarify note on Triple Idol setups in high keys and update video link.
- 08 Aug. 2023: Fix issue where Dark Ascension Single Target build was not using Distorted Reality.
- 07 Aug. 2023: Add new builds from the recent hotfixes.
- 31 Jul. 2023: Swap to Distorted Reality by default for the Dark Ascension ST build.
- 25 Jul. 2023: Add Dark Ascension + Shadow Crash build.
- 23 Jul. 2023: Reviewed from the recent hotfixes. Noted difference in single target builds.
- 17 Jul. 2023: Refactor to use new talent layout.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Update talent strings for Patch 10.1.5.
- 28 Jun. 2023: Swap out Malediction for Deathspeaker on the Dark Ascension build.
- 27 Jun. 2023: Add new talent builds from the recent hotfixes.
- 23 Jun. 2023: Adjust notes about Distorted Reality.
- 02 May 2023: Small caveat to the flex points
- 01 May 2023: Update talent builds for the 10.1.0 rework.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 04 Feb. 2023: Update 2-target build and add a note about VF on single target.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Update talent builds for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Jan. 2023: Update Mythic+ talent builds from the recent changes.
- 23 Dec. 2022: Update talent builds to account for Screams of the Void bug.
- 13 Dec. 2022: Add alternate ST build that offers more burst.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 31 Oct. 2022: Updatedd talent builds to no longer suggest Psychic Link and changed default Mythic+ build to Yogg-Saron.
- 26 Oct. 2022: Updated talent builds from recent bug finding for Screams of the Void.
- 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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