Shadow Priest DPS Spell List and Glossary — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

If you are new to Shadow, this is a great place to start to get an understanding of how the spec works. On this page we will discuss what abilities you have, what they are used for within the specialization, how they interact with each other and also with important cooldowns. If you already have experience with Shadow and are comfortable with it in the current expansion, it is recommended you skip this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

Note that this page merely lists the Talents and explains them. For information on the best talents to use for your Shadow Priest in The War Within, check out our Talents page below.

Insanity is your primary resource as a Shadow Priest. All of our offensive abilities generate Insanity. The goal is to generate Insanity and then spend it on Shadow Word: Madness. It is crucial to use Shadow Word: Madness before you cap on Insanity; otherwise, you will be wasting damage. It is okay to refresh Shadow Word: Madness while it is already active; it adds the damage from the existing DoT to the new DoT whenever you refresh it!

Mana is your secondary resource as a Shadow Priest. Most of our utility spells cost Mana, though managing Mana attentively is generally not required.

Note that this page simply lists all the abilities, assuming you are at max level. If you are leveling, check out our dedicated Priest Leveling page, which has detailed information on when you unlock all of these abilities.

For the abilities below, you might see an included acronym or commonly used short-hand name to refer to that spell. This guide will otherwise avoid using this terminology in most places. Still, you might find them used in the class discord or elsewhere.

These are your core skills that are available regardless of talents and form the core gameplay of the specialization.

Please read our rotation page for more information on using these abilities together in your rotation.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Shadowform	SF	Default form that provides a steady damage increase and is required for certain Shadow spells; it is disabled while in Voidform.
Shadow Word: Pain	SWP	One of your two main DoT spells. It deals Shadow damage to the target over time and generates Insanity on the application.
Vampiric Touch	VT	Primary DoT that deals Shadow damage over time, heals you for a portion of damage dealt, and generates Insanity on application.
Mind Flay	MF	Channeled spell that deals Shadow damage to the target and slows their movement speed. It generates Insanity and has no cooldown, and is used as a filler throughout your rotation.
Dispersion	Disp	Major defensive cooldown that greatly reduces damage taken while preventing spellcasting; also increases movement speed and grants immunity to movement-impairing effects.
Silence	-	This is Shadow's Interrupt spell that will also lock certain enemies out of casting for a short period of time.
Mastery: Shadow Weaving	-	Mastery that increases your damage based on how many of your DoTs are active on a target. The bonus scales with your Mastery rating and is applied per target; it checks specific DoTs and may interact differently with some damage sources (for example, pets).
Focused Will	FW	Passive that reduces damage taken for a short time after being hit by melee attacks, providing consistent mitigation.
Power Word: Fortitude	PWF	Class Stamina buff you can provide to party members, a valuable group utility unique to Priests.
Mind Vision	-	Simple spell with minimal use, but it can occasionally be helpful to see far ahead if you know the name of a mob you want to target.
Mind Soothe	-	Applies a debuff to nearby enemies that reduces their aggro range; useful for avoiding pulls while leveling or in dungeons.
Flash Heal	FH	This has replaced Shadow Mend for us in this expansion and is our main healing spell in our kit. This is castable in Shadowform, but generally is less effective than Shadow Mend was, but at a lower mana cost.
Power Word: Shield	PWS	Allows you to shield a friendly target. This is primarily used on yourself when you need to mitigate damage, but it can also be used on other friendly targets.
Hallucinations	-	Passive that grants Insanity when you successfully cast certain utility spells (dispels and shields), offsetting their global cost.
Vampiric Embrace	VE	Upon activating this ability it will transfer some portion of damage dealt to your allies or yourself as healing.

The following abilities are granted by taking those specific nodes in our Class Talent tree.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Mind Blast	MB	Single-target damage ability on a cooldown that generates a substantial amount of Insanity; talents can alter its charges and behavior.
Psychic Scream	-	Area fear that disrupts nearby enemies; useful for crowd control and buying time.
Dispel Magic	-	Removes a single beneficial Magic effect from an enemy; useful in dungeons and encounters that require dispels.
Purify Disease	-	Removes Disease effects from friendly targets; situational but valuable in certain dungeon encounters.
Shadow Word: Death	SWD	Execute-style ability that deals increased damage against low-health targets.
Desperate Prayer	-	On-demand self-heal on a moderate cooldown that improves personal survivability.
Fade	-	Threat-reduction ability that drops aggro and reduces your aggro radius, useful for avoiding unwanted pulls.
Holy Nova	-	AoE damage/healing spell that exists in the tree but generally does not synergize with Shadow gameplay.
Angelic Feather	AF	Movement ability that grants a strong movement boost; complements Body and Soul and is often preferred when a shield is not needed.
Leap of Faith	LoF	Pulls a friendly player toward you; niche utility for rescue or repositioning.
Shackle Undead	-	Incapacitates Undead or Aberration targets, preventing actions until the effect is broken by damage.
Mind Control	MC	Temporarily takes control of an enemy, preventing you from controlling your character while channeling; some creature types are immune.
Dominate Mind	-	Creates a controllable pet version of a valid target for a limited time; can be refreshed to extend uptime.
Mass Dispel	MD	Dispels multiple harmful Magic effects from allies and certain beneficial Magic effects from enemies; situationally powerful in encounters and dungeons.
Power Infusion	PI	Haste-based cooldown that grants a significant Haste buff to a target; talent choices can change typical usage toward supporting allies.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Improved Flash Heal	-	Increases the effectiveness of Flash Heal.
Spiritual Guidance	SG	Increases your Intellect.
Lightburst	LB	Increases the damage, healing, and cooldown of Holy Nova.
Painful Invocation	-	Increases the damage of Shadow Word: Pain.
Sheer Terror	-	Reduces the amount of damage a target can take before Psychic Scream will break.
Petrifying Scream	-	Changes Psychic Scream to tremble in place instead of fearing them away.
Surge of Light	SoL	Gives a chance for healing spells or Smite to grant an instant Flash Heal; procs are uncommon for Shadow unless actively healing.
Body and Soul	BaS or BnS	Grants movement speed after casting Power Word: Shield; also interacts with Leap of Faith targets.
Twins of the Sun Priestess	Twins	Talent that shifts Power Infusion use toward allies, increasing group utility and potential DPS gains when coordinated.
Strength of Soul	SoS	Increases the amount of Stamina you have.
Psychic Voice	-	Small reduction in the cooldown of Psychic Scream
Void Tendrils	-	Causes enemies to be rooted in place once Psychic Scream ends.
Everlasting Light	EL	Increases the proc chance of Surge of Light based on your missing mana.
Move with Grace	-	Reduces the cooldown of Leap of Faith, improving its availability.
Mental Agility	MA	Reduces the mana cost of Purify Disease and Mass Dispel, and Dispel Magic.
Twin Disciplines	TD	Increases the damage and healing of our Holy and Shadow spells.
Dark Enlightenment	DE	Increases our Haste.
False Autonomy	FA	Increases the duration of Mind Control or Dominate Mind.
Inspiration	-	Minor talent for Shadow with limited impact, since Shadow rarely casts Flash Heal.
Binding Heals	-	When used on allies, your Flash Heal also heals you for a portion of the amount, improving sustain while off-healing.
Sanguine Teachings	-	Provides a small amount of leech to improve passive sustain.
Twist of Fate	ToF	Procs from damage or healing spells and grants a temporary damage increase while active, improving execute potential.
Tithe Evasion	-	Reduces the damage taken from Shadow Word: Death by 50%. This is a great addition to Shadow's kit, especially when running talents like Inescapable Torment or Deathspeaker which will have you casting Shadow Word: Death more than you would otherwise.
Angel's Mercy	-	Gives you a 20-second cooldown reduction to Desperate Prayer, giving you more chances to use Desperate Prayer.
Protective Light	-	Extra defensive talent that gives us a 10% reduction after casting Flash Heal. With how easily cast, Flash Heal is this can be a compelling talent if you can afford to cast the spell before a damage event.
Mindpierce	MP	Increases the damage of Mind Flay and Mind Flay: Insanity.
Spectral Illusion	-	Causes Fade to create a spectral illusion of your character that tricks enemies to attack it instead of you.
Improved Fade	-	Reduces the cooldown on Fade.
Light's Inspiration	-	Buffs Desperate Prayer from 25% max health gain up to 40%, giving us a large chunk of health when used. Very good synergy with Angel's Mercy.
Unwavering Will	-	Reduces the cast time of Flash Heal while above 75% health.
Spell Warding	-	Simply reduces damage taken from magic abilities by 2-4%. This is pretty small but could be a useful thing to pick up in heavy Magic damage fights.
Phantasm	-	Gives an extra effect to Fade letting it also remove snare effects. Paired with Improved Fade, you could remove snares every 20 seconds!
Angelic Bulwark	AB	Cheat-death-like shield that procs when you fall below 30% HP. The shield is only 15% of your max health, though, so unsure how useful this will be.
Benevolence	-	Your healing spells now heal for 3% more. This does not work with things like Shadow Word: Madness, Vampiric Touch, or Vampiric Embrace. But does work with spells such as Halo.
Focused Power	FP	Increases the damage of your spells.
Phantom Reach	PR	Gives most of your spells 15% more range. For a 40-yard spell, this ends up increasing the range to 46 yards. This does work with Psychic Link.
Translucent Image	-	Makes Fade an instant cast 10% defensive button, making it one of the few in our kit.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Shadow Word: Madness	DP/SWM	Deals a considerable amount of damage and is our single target insanity spender. The entire spec basically revolves around building up Insanity and then spending it on Shadow Word: Madness. Due to our Mastery, we want to make sure we keep this DoT up as long as possible, but we do not want to cap Insanity. Because of this problem, Blizzard has made the spell roll damage over. This means that if you cast Shadow Word: Madness while you already have Shadow Word: Madness ticking, it will carry the old damage over as a modifier to the new Shadow Word: Madness's ticks so you do not lose damage. So you should play the same since nothing snapshots, but if you are overcapping insanity, make sure you keep casting Shadow Word: Madness; you will not lose any damage doing so!
Tentacle Slam	TS	Fixed 20-second cooldown AoE spell that applies Vampiric Touch on up to 6 enemies that it hits. This will prefer to apply these DoTs to targets that do not already have DoTs added, although this part can be a bit inconsistent. The damage of this spell is reduced when it hits more than 5 targets.
Voidform	VF	Causes you to enter Voidform. At the end of the cast it creates a Void Volley and you are able to cast Void Volley for the duration of the buff. Voidform does increase your damage done, but replaces Shadowform.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Psychic Link	PL	Causes most single-target abilities to deal a percent of the damage done to all other targets within 40 yards afflicted by your Vampiric Touch. All spells are included except for pet spells, Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Touch, and Shadowy Apparitions. This does work with both the instant damage and tick damage of Shadow Word: Madness.
Misery	-	Causes Vampiric Touch to also apply Shadow Word: Pain and extends Shadow Word: Pain duration to better align with Vampiric Touch.
Invoked Nightmare	IN	Causes your Shadow Word: Pain to deal significantly more damage.
Intangibility	-	Enhances Dispersion healing and reduces its cooldown.
Mental Fortitude	-	Lets your overhealing done by Vampiric Touch or Shadow Word: Madness, build up a shield on your character.
Thought Harvester	TH	Mind Blast is granted an additional charge.
Shadowy Apparitions	SA	Works directly with casts of Shadow Word: Madness to spawn a Shadowy Apparition that float towards any targets that have Vampiric Touch currently ticking.
Tormenting Whispers	TW	Increases the damage done of Shadow Word: Madness.
Descending Darkness	DD	Significantly increases Tentacle Slam damage.
Surge of Insanity	MFI	Buffs the damage and Insanity generation of Mind Flay and Mind Flay: Insanity.
Shadowy Insight	SI	Gives Shadow Word: Pain damage a chance to give you a Shadowy Insight proc. This proc gives you a free charge of Mind Blast and makes your next cast instant.
Voidtouched	-	Increases Shadow Word: Madness damage and raises your maximum Insanity.
Haunting Shadows	HS	Causes your Shadowy Apparitions to deal increased damage and extend the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch.
Mental Decay	-	Increases the damage done of Mind Flay and Mind Flay: Insanity.
Shadowfiend	SF	Gives you Shadow Word: Death a chance to summon a Shadowfiend when damaging targets in execute range. The pet deals damage and generates Insanity on each melee swing.
Dark Thoughts	-	Increases the chance to proc Shadowy Insight and gives that Mind Blast additional Insanity.
Maddening Touch	MT	Vampiric Touch has a chance to grant Insanity on damage; the proc rate scales down with target count.
Improved Voidform	IV	Causes Voidform to generate Insanity on cast and gives the buff itself more of a damage modifier.
Ancient Madness	AM	Extends Voidform when casting Shadow Word: Madness; duration increases with optimal usage.
Phantom Menace	PM	Increases the critical strike chance and critical strike damage of Shadowy Apparitions.
Dark Evangelism	DE	Makes your periodic spells deal more damage.
Shattered Psyche	-	Stacking buff where Mind Flay ticks increase the critical strike chance of your next Mind Blast; it can stack multiple times.
Subservient Shadows	SS	All-around pet talent that increases their damage and duration. This works with Shadowy Apparitions, Shadowfiend, Mindbender, Voidwraith, Idol of Yogg-Saron, and Idol of C'Thun.
Mastermind	-	Increases the critical strike chance of Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay: Insanity, and Shadow Word: Death and increases their critical strike damage.
Mind's Eye	ME	Reduces the Insanity cost of Shadow Word: Madness by 5 for a new cost of 45.
Distorted Reality	DR	Increases the damage of Shadow Word: Madness and causes it to deal its damages over twice the duration but increases the Insanity cost by 5 for a new total of 55.
Spectral Horrors	SH	Increases the damage of Shadowy Apparitions to targets afflicted with Shadow Word: Madness.
Instilled Doubt	ID	Increases the critical strike chance and critical strike damage of Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.
Mindbender	Bender	Causes casts of Voidform to spawn a Mindbender pet that deals damage and generates Insanity.
Deathspeaker	DS	Not only does this increase the base damage of Shadow Word: Death, it also increases the execute threshold to 35%. This also functions to proc Shadowfiend starting at 35% health as well.
Death and Madness	DaM	If you cast Shadow Word: Death and the target dies shortly afterwards you generate Insanity. If it fails to kill a target on cast it will also reset its cooldown.
Mind Devourer	MD (shares with Mass Dispel)	Causes your Mind Blasts to have a chance to proc Mind Devourer. This causes your next Shadow Word: Madness to cost no Insanity and deal additional damage.
Auspicious Spirits	AS	Causes your Shadowy Apparitions to deal more damage and gives them a chance to generate Insanity. This Insanity proc scales down as you are fighting more targets.
Maddening Tentacles	-	Causes Tentacle Slam to apply Shadow Word: Madness at reduced effectiveness to your main target.
Inescapable Torment	IT/SFP	This causes your Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death casts to make all active fiend style pets teleport behind that current target and deal AoE damage to 5 targets and increase their duration. This works with Shadowfiend, Mindbender, and Voidwraith.
Madness Weaving	MW	This effectively makes our Mastery more effective while Shadow Word: Madness is active.
Death's Torment	-	Causes your Shadow Word: Death to echo 2 additional times at reduced effectiveness. This also causes it to trigger effects like Shadowfiend or Inescapable Torment, but at a reduced effectiveness as well.
Screams of the Void	SotV	Causes Shadow Word: Madness to trigger a buff that increases the tick rate of all your active Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch DoT effects.
Tormented Spirits	TS	Gives your Shadow Word: Pain damage a chance to spawn a Shadowy Apparitions on all targets with your Vampiric Touch. Critical strikes of pain have twice as much chance to spawn an apparition.
Insidious Ire	II	Buffs your Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay: Insanity, and Void Torrent whenever you have Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Touch, and Shadow Word: Madness all active on the same target. You get this benefit regardless if that is the target you have all your DoTs active on.
Idol of Y'Shaarj	IoY/YShaarj	While you have Shadowfiend, Mindbender, or Voidwraith active you gain a haste buff. This does not stack.
Idol of N'Zoth	IoN/NZoth	Applies stacking Horrific Visions to enemies; at certain thresholds stacks trigger instant damage and grant Insanity, then reset. The resulting damage interacts with Psychic Link.
Idol of Yogg-Saron	IoYS/Yogg	Spawns a powerful pet after conjuring many Shadowy Apparitions; the pet deals sustained single-target damage and cleave to nearby enemies.
Idol of C'Thun	IoC/Cthun	Gives your Mind Flay and Void Torrent a chance to spawn either a Void Tendril or a Void Lasher. The Tendril deals single target damage, and once you are facing 3 or more targets, you will instead summon a Void Lasher that deals AoE damage. These tendrils also generate Insanity over time as they deal damage.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Halo	-	Creates a wave of Shadow damage that radiates out of the player and deals damage, heals allies, and generates Insanity on cast.
Perfected Form	PF	Increases the Voidform damage modifier.
Power Surge	PS	Creates additional Halo casts that fire sequentially to increase burst potential.
Manifested Power	MP	Adds Surge of Insanity procs granted by each Halo cast.
Focused Outburst	FO	Increases the damage of Void Volley and reduces its base cooldown.
Shock Pulse	-	Applies a slow component to the Resonant Energy debuff that stacks in a similar way.
Incessant Screams	IS	Gives our kit an extra delayed stop after the normal cast of Psychic Scream. Note that this second cast is subject to the DR, so it is not a full-duration fear the second time. The second cast of fear is cast at the exact same location, so if the mob moves out of it the second cast will miss. Depending on the situation Petrifying Scream might be useful with this.
Energy Conservation	-	Increases the duration of Power Surge.
Empowered Surges	ES	Increases the damage of Mind Flay: Insanity and Mind Spike: Insanity baseline.
Word of Supremacy	WoS	Grants a permanent personal Stamina boost; applies only to the caster.
Heightened Alteration	HA	Extends Dispersion duration, increasing its total healing uptime.
Energy Compression	EC	Increases both the damage and healing of Halo.
Sustained Potency	SP	Increases Voidform duration per Halo cast and allows temporary pausing of stored buffs outside combat for a limited time.
Resonant Energy	RE	Applies a stacking debuff to enemies based on Halo hits.
Energy Cycle	-	Gives another all-around benefit to Surge of Insanity procs where completing these casts also triggers Shadowy Apparitions.
Realized Potential	RP	Increases the damage of Shadow Word: Death and reduces its cooldown.
Spiritwell	SW	Increases the damage of Shadowy Apparitions.
Divine Halo	-	Gives you the ability to have finer control over the positioning of Halo as well as getting extra hits of Halo itself.

Ability	Abbreviation	Description/Effect
Void Torrent	VoiT	Causes you to tear open an Entropic Rift towards your current target. At the end of the cast, the duration is refreshed based on how many seconds you channeled Void Torrent for, meaning you are encouraged to always fully channel this cast.
No Escape	NE	Turns your Entropic Rift into a very light black hole mechanic where enemies are slowed. This can be useful in certain cases but might also make positioning mobs more challenging.
Dark Energy	DE	Allows Void Torrent to be cast while moving. You also gain movement speed while Entropic Rift is active.
Void Blast	VB	Grants access to an upgraded version of Mind Blast, Void Blast, that is only available while Entropic Rift is active.
Inner Quietus	IQ	Increases the damage of Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain.
Voidheart	VH	Increases Shadow spell damage while Entropic Rift is active, amplifying many of your Shadow effects.
Devour Matter	DM	Causes Shadow Word: Death to deal extra damage when cast on enemies with an active absorb shield and grants additional Insanity.
Void Empowerment	-	Gives you a free proc of Shadowy Insight when you summon Entropic Rift. This proc does not require that you are talented into Mind Devourer to get the proc.
Darkening Horizon	DH	Gives you an extension mechanic to Entropic Rift where each cast of Void Blast will extend the duration up to 3 seconds.
Voidwraith	-	Causes your Entropic Rift to spawn a Voidwraith when it expires. This pet deals more damage to higher health enemies and generates Insanity.
Touch of the Void	TotV	Causes Voidheart to persist for a short duration after Entropic Rift ends.
Quickened Pulse	QP	Causes Shadow Word: Pain and Entropic Rift to deal damage more often.
Void Infusion	VI	Increases the Insanity generated by Void Blast.
Void Leech	VL	Causes you to leech health from a nearby ally if they have more health than you do. While this can provide a lot of healing, it might not necessarily make your group more defensive depending on how much overhealing is happening.
Embrace the Shadow	EtS	Reduces incoming magic damage and heals a portion when struck by Shadow damage, offering defensive utility on heavy Shadow-damage encounters.
Overwhelming Shadows	OS	Increases the damage done by Void Torrent.
Collapsing Void	CV	Adds mechanics to Entropic Rift where Shadow Word: Madness increases Rift tick damage over time, and the Rift collapses at the end of its duration to damage nearby enemies regardless of Rift size.

For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.