Shadow Priest guide
Caster DPS. Shadow stacks DoTs and channels in Shadowform with Shadow Weaving boosting your shadow damage. Forever makes Shadow Word: Death baseline as an instant finisher with self-damage backlash, and Undead priests get Dark Sacrifice to convert health into mana. Vampiric Embrace heals your party from your shadow damage.
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Stat priority
- Hit (to cap)
- Spell Power
- Shadow Damage
- Critical Strike
- Intellect
- Spirit
- Stamina
Opener
- Shadowform: Always on
- Vampiric Embrace: Party healing from your damage
- Shadow Word: Pain: Apply first
- Mind Blast: Start stacking Shadow Weaving
Single target
- Shadow Word: Pain: Keep it up for the whole fight
- Devouring Plague: Every race can learn it in Forever; its damage heals you
- Mind Blast: On cooldown
- Shadow Word: Death: On cooldown when you can afford the backlash, or as an execute
- Mind Flay: Filler channel
Several targets
- Shadow Word: Pain: Spread to several targets
- Mind Flay: Filler on the main target
- Holy Nova: Holy talent that cannot be cast in Shadowform; only for tiny AoE needs
Cooldowns
- Dark Sacrifice: Undead only: converts your health into mana; heal back with Vampiric Embrace
- Inner Focus: Discipline talent: free, higher crit Mind Blast
- Silence: Interrupt casters
- Fade: Threat drop
Key talents
- Shadowform
- Shadow Weaving
- Darkness
- Vampiric Embrace
- Mind Flay
- Improved Mind Flay
- Improved Mind Blast
- Shadow Focus
- Improved Shadow Word: Pain
- Devouring Contagion
- Early Demise
- Spirit Tap
- Silence
What Forever changed
Shadow Word: Death is now baseline: an instant nuke on an 18 sec cooldown that backlashes you for 30% of your maximum health if the target survives, and the new Early Demise talent raises its critical chance on targets at or below 20% health. Undead priests also get Dark Sacrifice, a health-for-mana tool that pairs with Vampiric Embrace healing, and Shadowform now also boosts shadow crit damage. Other new talents: Improved Mind Flay (each Mind Flay tick deals 20% more than the one before at 2/2) and Devouring Contagion (cheaper Devouring Plague that spreads when its target dies).
Tips
- Shadow Focus gives 5% shadow hit; you still need gear hit for bosses.
- Shadowform doubles shadow crit bonus in Forever, so crit is better than in Classic.
- Use Shadow Word: Death as an execute when you do not want to risk the backlash.
Other Priest specs: Discipline, Holy
Data from the WoW Forever client, build 1.60.1.70938, extracted .