Shadow Priest DPS Spell List and Glossary — The War Within (11.0.7)
On this page, we present you with all spells and procs that you need to understand as a Shadow Priest in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.0.7).
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Shadow Priest spells.
The War Within Spell Glossary for Shadow Priest
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.
Main Resource for Shadow Priest in The War Within
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 Devouring Plague. It is crucial to use
Devouring Plague before you cap on Insanity; otherwise, you will be
wasting damage. It is okay to refresh
Devouring Plague 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.
Unlocking Abilities
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.
The War Within Abilities of Shadow Priest
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 |
---|---|---|
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SF | Default form that you will always want to have
active as it is just a simple 10% damage buff. It is important to note that when
in ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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SWP | One of your two main DoT spells. It deals Shadow damage to
the target over time and generates Insanity on the application.
Since ![]() |
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VT | Your other main DoT spell. It deals Shadow damage to the target, over time, heals you for 30% of the damage dealt and generates Insanity on application. |
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MB | Deals damage to a single target, which has a 9-second
cooldown, affected by Haste, and generates a high amount of Insanity. It
is generally one of your highest-priority spells. You also gain an extra charge
of this ability when you have ![]() |
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MF | Channeled spell that deals Shadow damage to the target and slows their movement speed by 50%. It generates Insanity and has no cooldown, and is used as a filler throughout your rotation. |
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- | Our Mastery spell that
emphasizes having DoTs up on as many targets as possible. Depending on your
Mastery rating, you deal (4.0% + gear rating) increased damage to targets for
each of your three DoTs active. So if you have a 0 mastery rating from gear, you
will do a 4% increase in damage per DoT on the target, so all three DoTs would
be a
12% increase to your damage. This is calculated per target, so spreading DoTs
is very valuable, but only works with ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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FW | This is a passive ability that causes melee abilities and attacks to reduce all damage you take by 15% for 8 seconds. This gives you some passive defense, which is very welcome. |
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PWF | Group buff available to all Priests that gives everyone in your party 5% Stamina for 1 hour. This is an exclusive buffs just to Priests, there are no scrolls from Inscription to give you this buff, so this is a very strong piece of utility we bring to groups. |
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- | 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. |
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- | This spell has been slightly updated in The War Within. It is a unique ability that applies a buff to enemies in a 10-yard range that makes their aggro range significantly reduced. This has a short cooldown but can be used to skip past mobs while leveling or even inside of dungeons. |
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- | Self-heal spell and defensive that provides a good chunk of on-demand healing on a 1.5-minute cooldown. Adding this to our defensive toolkit makes us one of the best defensive ranged DPS specs out there. |
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- | Powerful aggro-drop ability that can come in handy if you
accidentally pull a threat on something, and it also gives you reduced aggro radius.
When paired up with ![]() |
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- | Fears all enemies within 8 yards for 8 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown. Primarily useful to get enemies off you when you are alone. |
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FH | This has replaced Shadow Mend for us in this expansion and is our
main healing spell in our kit. This is castable in ![]() |
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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. |
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- | Passive ability that grants you 4 Insanity on
successful ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Priest Class Tree Abilities in The War Within
The following abilities are granted by taking those specific nodes in our Class Talent tree.
Class Tree Active Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
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- | Base heal over time spell for Priests. While this does have little few uses for Shadow. It is castable in Shadowform, so it is an option if you want more off healing. |
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- | Removes a beneficial Magic effect from an enemy each
time you cast it. Handy tool next to ![]() |
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SF/Fiend | 3-minute cooldown, which summons a shadowy fiend
that attacks your target for 15 seconds. It is an offensive cooldown that is
not particularly strong. Ideally, it should be paired with high Haste buffs or
right before ![]() |
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PoM | Healing spell available to all Priests that can be more passive off-healing in your kit. Spells like this can come in handy during encounters that have downtime where you cannot DPS but where off healing your group is helpful. |
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- | Removes all Disease effects from friendly targets. This is generally niche in its use but sees use in dungeons from time to time which still makes it a valuable addition. |
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SWD | Baseline execute ability that deals a moderate amount of damage, and even more damage if used on a target with less than 20% health. |
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- | AoE skill available in our tree but does not scale or interact with our kit. It is just a spammable AoE ability that will likely not be used much as a Shadow Priest. |
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AF | Spell available to all Priests now
and will compliment ![]() |
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LoF | Pulls a friendly party or raid member toward you. It has a 1.5-minute cooldown. This is a niche skill that can help get a group member out of an otherwise deadly situation. |
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- | Allows you to prevent an Undead target from taking any actions for 50 seconds. This effect breaks upon any damage. |
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- | Another AoE crowd control ability Priests get
access to. These tendrils require you to be in melee range of your targets
similarly
to ![]() |
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MC | allows you to take control of an enemy target for 30 seconds. This does not work on Demonic, Mechanical, or Undead targets. While channeling this you cannot control your character. |
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- | Alternative choice to ![]() |
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MD | removes all harmful Magic effects on up to 5 allies and 1 beneficial Magic effect on up to 5 enemies on a 2-minute cooldown. This is situationally very useful, particularly in dungeons. It can also dispel certain types of Magic that are normally not dispellable. |
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PI | Haste-based cooldown spell that allows you to give an
ally (or yourself) a 20% Haste buff for 15 seconds. While under normal
circumstances you
would cast this solely on yourself, with the talent directly below
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VE | Heals allies based on 50% of the single-target damage you do for 15 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. This is particularly useful in solo or up to 5-man content, but can also be useful for raids when used at the right time. |
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DStar | Short ranged ability that gives the Priest a combo damage and healing spell. For optimal use, you want to be within 24 yards of your targets so that the star hits each target twice for optimal damage and healing. This spell generates 6 Insanity while in combat. |
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- | Similar spell compared to ![]() |
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PWL | Powerful burst healing ability that is only usable if the target is below 20% health. This is a great piece of off-healing and something to consider if you want to provide more utility for your group. |
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VS | Returning PvP talent is now available in our class talent tree. This can be used to quickly save a life, whether it is yours or someone else in your group. |
Class Tree Passive Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
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- | Small healing increase to ![]() |
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- | Small reduction in the cooldown of ![]() |
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- | Changes ![]() |
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- | Buff to the initial healing of ![]() |
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- | Extra defensive talent that gives us a 10%
reduction after casting ![]() |
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- | Choice against ![]() ![]() |
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- | Gives an extra effect to ![]() ![]() |
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DaM | Gives you a reset of ![]() |
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- | Simply reduces damage taken from magic abilities by 3%. This is pretty small but could be a useful thing to pick up in heavy Magic damage fights. |
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- | Talent that feels oriented to PvP gameplay and will likely not see much use in PvE. It requires you to be critically struck by an attack that does not often happen outside of PvP. |
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- | Gives a stacking damage buff to ![]() |
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- | Reduces the amount of damage a target can take before
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- | Another non-Shadow based talent that increases
damage of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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- | Simply reduces the cooldown of ![]() |
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- | Gives you an extra 3% leech. |
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- | Reduces the damage taken from ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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- | Relatively inconsequential talent for Shadow
considering how little we will press ![]() |
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MA | Reduces the mana cost of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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BaS or BnS | Our second movement ability in the tree gives you a small burst of
movement speed after
casting ![]() ![]() |
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Twins | Massive utility spell in our talent tree
that can be a large DPS gain for your group. With this talent, you will want to
always try and cast ![]() |
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VS | Allows you to refill part of your active
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SL | Buffs ![]() ![]() |
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- | Gives your ![]() ![]() |
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- | Reduces the cast time of ![]() |
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ToF | Has been slightly buffed in Dragonflight, now proccing
from damage OR healing spells for Shadow. This means we can potentially have
more uptime on this buff from healing spells like ![]() |
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- | Adds in passive Insanity when targets die with your
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- | Gives you a 20-second cooldown reduction to ![]() ![]() |
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- | Decent talent choice for anyone who intends on
doing a lot of ![]() |
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- | Makes ![]() |
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CS | Whenever your ![]() |
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SoL | Gives your healing spells and ![]() ![]() |
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- | Buffs ![]() ![]() |
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CR | Adds a small instant heal to
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- | Reduces the cooldown on ![]() |
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- | Causes you to take 2% less damage from enemies that currently have your
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- | Your healing spells now heal for 3% more. This does not work with things like
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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. |
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ED | Gives your ![]() ![]() |
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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 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Shadow Spec Tree Abilities in The War Within
Active Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
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DP | 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
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Disp | Your main defensive spell is Shadow, reducing all damage taken by 75% but also preventing you from casting any spells for. It also increases your movement speed by 50% and makes you immune to movement-impairing effects. |
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- | Allows you to prevent a target from casting for 4 seconds on a 45-second cooldown. If the target is immune to silence effects, it also works as a standard interrupt if you use it on a target while it is casting. |
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PH | 4-second single target stun on a 45-second cooldown. |
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MS/Spike | Filler spell that replaces ![]() |
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VoiEr/VF | Causes you to enter ![]() ![]() |
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VB | Ability that replaces ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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DA | The alternative cooldown option is on a brief 1-minute cooldown. Activating this gives you 30 insanity while also buffing the damage of non-periodic spells by 25%. |
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SC | Fixed 20-second cooldown uncapped AoE spell that
applies ![]() ![]() |
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VC | Alternative version of ![]() |
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Bender | Replaces ![]() |
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VoiT | Large single target channel that generates 60
Insanity on a base 45-second cooldown (reduced by 15 seconds with
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Passive Abilities
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
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SA | Works directly with casts of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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- | Makes your ![]() |
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- | Lets your overhealing done by ![]() ![]() |
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- | Causes your ![]() ![]() |
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LW | Reduces the cooldown of ![]() |
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TH | Mind Blast is granted an additional charge. |
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- | Causes ticks of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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- | Causes your ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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UD | Causes your ![]() |
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SI | Gives ![]() ![]() |
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AM | Gives either ![]() ![]() |
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- | Increases the damage of ![]() |
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MM | Stacking buff that makes your ![]() ![]() |
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MT | Gives your ![]() |
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DE | Makes your ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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AS | Causes your ![]() |
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TS | Gives your ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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PL | Causes most single-target abilities to deal a percent of the damage done to all
other targets within 40 yards afflicted by your ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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PP | Increases the damage of ![]() ![]() |
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ME | Reduces the Insanity cost of ![]() |
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DR | Increases the damage of ![]() |
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DS | Gives your ![]() ![]() |
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MFI/MSI | Causes every other cast of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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IT/SFP | Returning Shadowlands legendary Shadowflame Prism as a talent.
This causes your ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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- | Increases the critical strike chance of ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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SotV | Causes ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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MD (shares with ![]() |
Causes your ![]() ![]() |
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II/Talbs | Buffs your ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Male | Reduces the cooldown of ![]() |
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IoY/YShaarj | Causes you to gain an extra effect when you summon your
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IoC/Cthun | Gives your ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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IoYS/Yogg | Spawns a Thing From Beyond after conjuring 25 Shadowy Apparitions. When the pet spawns, it continually casts Void Spike to deal a large amount of single-target damage at your current target and small cleave to targets around that one. |
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IoN/NZoth | Gives ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Shadow Hero Talent Abilities in The War Within
Archon
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
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PS | Effectively creates 2 extra ![]() |
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PF | Gives an extra modifier to ![]() ![]() |
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RE | Applies a debuff to enemies that will get 2 stacks per cast of
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MP | Adds more procs into the kit, giving you 3 total
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- | Applies a slow component to the ![]() |
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IS | Gives our kit an extra delayed stop after the normal cast of
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WoS | Effectively gives your character an extra 5% stamina all the time. Keep in mind that this bonus only applies to yourself and not any group members. |
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HA | Adds 2 seconds to the duration of ![]() |
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ES | Massively increases the damage of ![]() ![]() |
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EC | Increases both the damage and healing of ![]() |
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SP | Gives you 3 seconds of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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CI | Gives you an extra 10% haste on the ![]() ![]() |
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- | Gives another all-around benefit to ![]() ![]() |
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- | Gives you the ability to have finer control over the positioning of
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Voidweaver
Ability | Abbreviation | Description/Effect |
---|---|---|
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ER | Causes you to tear open a rift towards your current target when you cast
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NE | Turns your ![]() |
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DE | Allows ![]() |
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VBlast | Grants access to an upgraded version of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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IQ | Increases the damage of ![]() ![]() |
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DM | Causes ![]() |
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- | Gives you a free proc of ![]() ![]() |
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DH | Gives you an extension mechanic to ![]() ![]() |
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DoS | When you cast ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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VW | This transforms your ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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VH | Gives you a massive 10% modifier to Shadow spell damage while
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VI | Doubles the Insanity generated by ![]() |
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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. |
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EtS | Provides an effective 3% reduction towards magic damage taken in addition to healing back that same amount if it was Shadow damage. This utility can be very powerful on high Shadow damage encounters. |
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CV | This adds to gameplay elements to ![]() ![]() ![]() |
For more information on how to use these abilities together in your rotation, please read our rotation page.
Changelog
- 15 Dec. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.7.
- 04 Nov. 2024: Reviewed from recent hotfixes.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Added entries for Hero Talents.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 03 Dec. 2023: Add more detail about Idol of Y'Shaarj.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Update spells from changes in Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Update description of Angel's Mercy from the change in 10.1.7.
- 23 Jul. 2023: Reviewed from the recent hotfixes.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Add in references to Benevolence and Essence Devourer talents for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 Jun. 2023: Add a bit more detail to Shadow Crash.
- 01 May 2023: Updated for new spells in 10.1.0.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Add new talents for 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 03 Nov. 2022: Included acronyms and commonly used references to spells.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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