Shadow Priest Torghast Guide and Best Anima Powers — Dragonflight 10.0.2

Last updated on Oct 25, 2022 at 11:37 by Publik 43 comments
General Information

On this page, we tell you all you need to know to prepare your Shadow Priest before entering Torghast and then how to pick up the right Anima Powers once you are inside!

1.

Shadow Priest Torghast Guide

This guide is focused on Torghast specifically, but feel free to use these tips in the open-world or any other solo content as well.

As a Shadow Priest you will get access to many helpful Anima Powers within Torghast and using these with our base class abilities will make you very strong inside of Torghast. We have lots of great utility spells we can use to make our runs easier, especially considering most mobs are Undead so we can use Shackle Undead Icon Shackle Undead for harder packs.

For a video walkthrough of Torghast as a Shadow Priest, check out my video guide below, where I go over everything you need to know about Torghast.

In general your strength inside of Torghast will be your plethora of Anima Powers coupled with baseline utility that simply trivialize packs of mobs. Between powers that augment your fear abilities to others that boost your Covenant spells, you will have lots of tools to be able to handle various problems thrown at you in Torghast. That being said, if you do end up overpulling one big weakness as a Shadow Priest is an easy way to run away or kite mobs once you have exhausted all your utility, so be careful about overpulling. There is no reason to rush through Torghast so you are better off taking your time and playing to your strengths.

2.

Best Torghast Talents for Shadow Priest

The following talent builds apply to Torghast or other open-world content. If you are looking for other talent suggestions, check out the dedicated page for that below:

3.

Best Torghast Covenant / Soulbind / Conduits for Shadow Priest

The following recommendations are specifically for Torghast. Check out the full page below to see what to run for other forms of content.

Your options vary between Covenants:

Covenant Soulbind Recommended Tree
Kyrian Forgelite Prime Mikanikos Mikanikos Tree
Necrolord Bonesmith Heirmir Bonesmith Heirmir Tree
Night Fae Korayn Shadow Priest Korayn Torghast tree
Venthyr Nadjia the Mistblade Nadjia Tree

The suggested Soulbinds here are very similar to Mythic+ suggestions, as the damage pattern of the two pieces of content can be quite similar. Regardless of your Covenant choice, you will be just fine in Torghast and each one provides unique benefits, especially paired with the specific Anima Powers that augment those abilities.

Conduits-wise, our choices are very limited here and almost none of them offer a noticeable gain of damage inside short fights in Torghast. It probably is not worth swapping Conduits around for Torghast specifically but instead changing up your path to use the built-in Soulbind Traits instead of taking extra Conduits.

4.

Best Torghast Legendaries for Shadow Priest

  1. Shadowflame Prism Icon Shadowflame Prism
  2. Talbadar's Stratagem Icon Talbadar's Stratagem
  3. Stable Phantasma Lure Icon Stable Phantasma Lure

Talbadar's Stratagem Icon Talbadar's Stratagem will be a fine choice for Torghast, especially with powers that buff your Mind Blast Icon Mind Blast damage. I typically start with Shadowflame Prism Icon Shadowflame Prism and then swap to Talbadar's at a Broker if I get enough Mind Blast powers for big single-target damage. Keep in mind if you start out with Shadowflame Prism Icon Shadowflame Prism you should use Mindbender Icon Mindbender.

Stable Phantasma Lure Icon Stable Phantasma Lure is honestly just a neat legendary to try if you can spare the Soul Ash Icon Soul Ash. This gives you an increased amount of Torghast currency (Phantasma Icon Phantasma) during your run, which you can use to purchase additional Anima Powers on that run specifically. Most runs will average out giving you an extra power or two with this, and will typically be a larger increase than a Shadow-specific Legendary would be.

Note that once you get the Memory of Unity Icon Memory of Unity you should equip that with whatever covenant legendary corresponds to your covenant choice.

Check out the full Legendaries guide for more information on what to use as a Shadow Priest.

5.

Control and Utility for Shadow Priest

As a Shadow Priest you have lots of important tools at your disposal to make sure your runs go smoothly and you avoid the risk of dying.

  • Power Word: Shield Icon Power Word: Shield — Offers a great passive reduction in damage that you can use before combat, as well as giving you a speed boost with Body and Soul Icon Body and Soul.
  • Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream — Allows you to fear up to 5 enemies giving your damage over time effects a chance to finish off targets, or let you kite away.
  • Psychic Horror Icon Psychic Horror — Gives you a powerful single target stun that can be used on mobs you are trying to run away from or lock down.
  • Mind Bomb Icon Mind Bomb — An interesting upgrade over Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream, this can be helpful if you wish to lock down more than 5 targets or you want a lower cooldown fear.
  • Silence Icon Silence — Provides our baseline interrupt ability that can also prevent future casts for a short duration if that mob is not immune to the effect.
  • Dispel Magic Icon Dispel Magic — Is a helpful offensive dispel for getting rid of any pesky buffs an enemy might have. This can be incredibly powerful, so make sure you have a good addon to let you know when something is dispellable (I use Plater for this).
  • Purify Disease Icon Purify Disease — This spell provides a disease cleanse for yourself or any ally; nice to have but generally does not need to be used often inside of Torghast.
  • Mind Vision Icon Mind Vision — This version of a Far Sight Icon Far Sight-like mechanic is incredibly useful inside of Torghast, allowing you to see through the eyes of your enemy. If you are searching for Anima Powers on a floor or want to find the exit, you can use this spell to weave through mobs without actually pulling them. While active on one target you can recast on another mob further down a hallway and keep recasting.
  • Desperate Prayer Icon Desperate Prayer — Gives the Priest a small heal and mini defensive that can come in handy when fighting powerful enemies.
  • Shackle Undead Icon Shackle Undead — Is a great crowd control ability that can be used on most mobs in Torghast.
  • Mind Soothe Icon Mind Soothe
  • Fade Icon Fade — Can be used while you have a pet active or companion to pass threat off temporarily. Can also be used with Mind Soothe Icon Mind Soothe to further reduce the range that enemies attack you.
  • Mind Control Icon Mind Control — Turns into a little bit of a DPS ability with certain Anima Powers, and can generally help you clear packs that otherwise would be extremely challenging.
  • Vampiric Embrace Icon Vampiric Embrace — Is a great built-in self-healing cooldown that adds to the already powerful self-healing we get through Devouring Plague Icon Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch Icon Vampiric Touch.
  • Dispersion Icon Dispersion — Our main defensive ability that should be used once you run out of other spells to press to get you out of a bad situation.

Keep in mind that while doing Torghast solo you might need to interrupt more often than you have Silence Icon Silence available. This is where you can use abilities like Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream or Psychic Horror Icon Psychic Horror to further lock down a target if Silence is not available.

6.

Best Anima Powers for Shadow Priest

Anima Powers are found inside of each of your Torghast runs and will reset in between each run, so they are just temporary enhancements. You can accumulate dozens of these at the end of the run depending on how much you clear or how many mobs you kill. Most powers can also stack so you can keep getting the same power for incredible benefits.

There are several Powers that have great synergy together and can be chained with others to create some fun builds to play with, so do not shy away from non-damage Powers as they could be changed with others to become damage Powers! To find a list of all Anima Powers available to Priests, please use the buttons below.

The below ranking is going to go off of generic strength of an Anima Power in the context of these builds and potential use cases, but at the end of the day you should enjoy making builds of your own that are fun while clearing this content.

  1. S Tier: the strongest powers available, almost always going to be worth using.
  2. A Tier: these powers are still strong, but maybe not always a must-have pickup or require other powers to really impact your gameplay.
  3. B Tier: below-average powers that have niche uses where they can make sense, but not for all runs.
  4. C Tier: weak powers that typically do not make sense to use and are not very beneficial.

The list below is mostly going over Priest-specific powers, but there is a large list of generic powers that will also be available to you as choices. We have included some generic powers in the list that are fun to play with or are generally strong.

6.1.

S Tier

  • Power Overwhelming Icon Power Overwhelming — Possibly one of the most fun powers in all of Torghast, this causes your Mind Blast Icon Mind Blast to have no cooldown and be instant cast while Power Infusion Icon Power Infusion is active. This power gets a massive boost in damage when you get your T28 4-set: Living Shadow Icon Shadow Priest 4-Piece since each extra Mind Blast extends this pet further.
  • Cruelty Censer Icon Cruelty Censer — Enemies that are feared (Psychic Scream Icon Psychic Scream), horrified, stunned (Psychic Horror Icon Psychic Horror or Mind Bomb Icon Mind Bomb), or dazed take 35% increased damage. This power gives you a fantastic combo where you put your DoTs on as many targets as possible and then fear them to finish them off.
  • Dreamspun Mushrooms Icon Dreamspun Mushrooms — Night Fae-only ability that simply increases the duration of Fae Guardians Icon Fae Guardians by 60%. This is very powerful and helps you keep insane Voidform Icon Voidform uptime in your Torghast run.
  • Fae-bliss Lantern Icon Fae-bliss Lantern — Night Fae-only ability that causes Fae Guardians Icon Fae Guardians to also increase damage and healing by 30%.
  • Maldo's Soul Exploder Icon Maldo's Soul Exploder — Necrolord-only ability that gives you a 20% chance to trigger an Unholy Nova Icon Unholy Nova after killing an enemy. Particularly useful for packs that have staggered health mobs.
  • Death Harvester Icon Death Harvester — Each time you score a killing blow with Shadow Word: Death Icon Shadow Word: Death, you increase the damage of all subsequent casts by 5%, stacking. This does not apply to trivial enemies.
  • Fallen Priest's Blessing Icon Fallen Priest's Blessing — Stacking power that gives your Mind Blast Icon Mind Blast a boost to your next Devouring Plague Icon Devouring Plague. Great for pumping single-target damage for bosses.
  • Voidwraith Signet Icon Voidwraith Signet — This power creates a Voidwraith any time you kill something with Shadow Word: Death Icon Shadow Word: Death. Pairs perfectly with Death and Madness Icon Death and Madness and the Shadow Word: Death build.
  • Soul of an Archon Icon Soul of an Archon — This is an amazing power that will really scale your DoT damage, especially in AoE.
  • Horrific Dictionary Icon Horrific Dictionary — One of our better powers, this will effectively boost your main stat passively as you cast "word" spells. You only need to cast one to refresh all your stacks. On broker floors you can swap to Holy and Discipline to get even more stacks.
6.2.

A Tier

6.3.

B Tier

6.4.

C Tier

6.5.

Honorable Mentions for Twisting Corridors

While the above tier list will net you positive results for your normal runs, inside of Twisting Corridors you will be flooded with powers and generally have your pick of anything you would like to use. For this reason I have made the below list of powers to strongly consider when you are in these Twisting Corridors runs to help guarantee finishing successfully.

7.

Anima Power Builds for Shadow Priest

Now that you know the available Anima Powers for Shadow Priest, this section will specifically call out some natural builds you can target as you climb floors in Torghast.

7.1.

Fear Build

This build relies on you getting one or more Cruelty Censer Icon Cruelty Censer powers, and then augmenting your existing fears and control abilities to play into this effect. Once you get one Cruelty Censer you can add to it with the following powers that work extremely well together. Typically with this build I like to use Psychic Horror Icon Psychic Horror to have an additional control ability to proc this effect. Usually not suggested to use this build when running with others.

7.2.

Shadow Word: Death Build

As you journey through Torghast, you will find several abilities that buff the power of Shadow Word: Death Icon Shadow Word: Death. If you find yourself getting these early on, here are some suggestions on other powers to buy/look for as you climb that floor. Keep in mind that with this build you are heavily suggested to use Death and Madness Icon Death and Madness if you are not already using it. The Painbreaker Psalm Icon Painbreaker Psalm can be a nice addition to this build as well, but is generally not worth using otherwise.

7.3.

Mind Blast Build

Due to recent power additions and changes you can use this build to catapult the value of Talbadar's Stratagem Icon Talbadar's Stratagem dramatically by buffing Mind Blast Icon Mind Blast. This is especially fun to play with once you get access to your T28 4-set bonus: Living Shadow Icon Shadow Priest 4-Piece.

7.4.

Mind Control Build

Perhaps one of the strangest builds is one that revolves around using Mind Control Icon Mind Control on hard hitting enemies and turning that strength onto other targets within Torghast. This typically is not my favorite build to run, but can help you in clearing higher floors that you might be undergeared at doing by yourself.

7.5.

Off-Heal Build

When running with others, sometimes it makes sense to pick up some off-heal powers to help out the group with healing if no one wants to play an actual healing spec. The following powers are great "support" Priest powers that are perfect for this use case:

8.

Best Trinket for Shadow Priest in Torghast

Trinket tuning is still in progress, so right now I would suggest using any Raid or Dungeon trinkets you can find, generally speaking they are all pretty solid for Shadow Priest.

9.

Changelog

  • 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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