Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to the Battle for Azeroth Shadow guide! My name is Melgane, one of the many Staff members of WarcraftPriests.com. I’ve been raiding as a priest since AQ and been playing shadow for every tier except ICC.
This guide will cover everything from the fundamentals of playing shadow priest to the advanced playstyles, theorycrafting, and personal experiences that are needed to compete at the highest level. I welcome feedback and discussion.
Vanilla WoW: which class for topping dps meters? Vanilla WoW: which class for topping dps meters? Hey folks, let's NOT discuss whether and to what extent dps meters indicate individual skill, and whether striving for #1 is desirable or beneficial in any way. Or at the top of dmg.
Please feel free to message me here on WCP if you do not feel comfortable asking your question publicly. My btag and twitter can be found in my signature down below. Additionally, feel free to join further discussions in our Discord channel! Warcraft Priests
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Acronyms
MB – Mind Blast | VoiEr – Void Eruption | VoiT – Void Torrent | ToF – Twist of Fate |
MF – Mind Flay | LI – Lingering Insanity | DA – Dark Ascension | FotM – Fortress of the Mind |
VT – Vampiric Touch | VF – Voidform | SW:V – Shadow Word: Void | SW:D – Shadow Word: Death |
VE – Vampiric Embrace | VB – Void Bolt | LotV – Legacy of the Void | StM – Surrender to Madness |
What Changed in Battle for Azeroth?
Patch 8.2
- Auspicious Spirits lowered to 50% damage
- Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch damage lowered by 9%
Patch 8.1.5
- Auspicious Spirits lowered from 100% to 70% increased damage
Patch 8.1.0
- Void Bolt now generates 20 insanity, up from 16
- Insanity drain has been reduced 15%
- Voidform now gives 20% spell damage, up from 10%
- Dispersion now reduces damage taken by 75%, up from 60%, and gives you 50% movespeed
- Mania has been replaced by a new talent called Intangibility.
- Please read the talents section below
- Shadowform physical damage reduction removed. Focused Will is replacing it, which causes you to take 15% less damage for 8 seconds after taking a melee attack
- Hallucinations, a new passive, gives you 6 insanity when casting certain spells
- Lingering Insanity now fades every 3 seconds, up from 2
- Surrender to Madness is now a 3 minute cd and the insanity penalty is now 15 seconds
- Void Torrent now generates 30 insanity over it’s duration, no longer needs Voidform, and does 20% more damage
- Mind Bomb/Psychic Scream take 40% longer to break from damage
- Mind Sear damage increased 20%
Patch 8.0.1
- Voidform now gives less haste
- Drain has been increased
- Leap of Faith and Mind Sear have returned
- Mass Dispel now has a 45 second cooldown
- Void Torrent is now a talent
- Various talent changes. Please read the talents section below
- Voidform can now be activated at 90 insanity, down from 100
Talents
Green means it the default talent.
Blue means the choice has merit, but for a specific case.
Red means do not take this talent.
T15
- Fortress of the Mind– Flay and Blast deal 10% more damage and generate 20% more Insanity
- Shadowy Insight– Shadow Word: Pain’s periodic damage has a chance to reset the cooldown on Mind Blast and make your next Blast instant. 3 rppm
- Shadow Word: Void– 1.5 sec cast, 2 charges, 9 second cd that deals 130% spell power and generates 15 Insanity. Replaces Mind Blast.
SW: Void and FotM are both strong picks. Remember that consistent movement favors Void.
T30
- Body and Soul– Shield gives you a 40% movement speed for 3 seconds
- San’layn– Reduces the cooldown of Vampiric Embrace by 45 seconds and increase its healing by 25%
- Intangibility– Reduces dispersion’s cooldown by 30 seconds and heals you for 50% of your health over it’s duration
Body and Soul favors consistent movement. The other two can still be useful, situationally.
T45
- Twist of Fate– After damaging a target below 35% health, you deal 10% more damage and healing for 8 seconds
- Misery– Casting Vampiric Touch also applies Shadow Word: Pain
- Dark Void – 2 second aoe cast that deals 100% spell damage and applies Pain to all targets within 10 yds. 30 second cooldown, generates 30 insanity
This is a powerful row with a lot of different uses. What talent you use here is very fight dependent. ToF is likely the strongest choice on single target fights, with the other two picking up on aoe/spread dot fights.
T60
- Last Word – Reduces the cooldown of Silence by 15 seconds
- Mind Bomb– Leaves a 2 second debuff on the target that disorients all enemies within an 8 yd radius for 5 seconds. 30 second cooldown, replaces Psychic Scream
- Psychic Horror – Stuns the target for 4 seconds. 45 second cooldown
Similar to the T30 tier, these talents have situations where they are useful. Last Word being useful on fights with interrupt rotations while Psychic Horror is more general purpose utility that gives us additional crowd control. Mind Bomb did get improved, but is still the weakest of the three.
T75
- Auspicious Spirits – Your Shadow Apparitions now deal 50% more damage and generate 2 Insanity
- Shadow Word: Death – Spell that deals 187.5% spell damage to a target. Only usable on targets 20% or less health. 2 charges, 9 second cooldown. Generates 15 insanity. If the target dies within one second of casting, generates an extra 15 insanity.
- Shadow Crash– Hurls a shadow projectile that deals 125% spell damage and generates 20 insanity on cast. 20 second cd
With the recent nerf to AS, there is now a balance in this tier between Spirits and Crash. If you are able to reliably hit multiple targets with Crash, it will likely be the better choice. However, a more spread cleave fight will still favor AS.
For single target fights, technically any of them can work, but AS is certainly the easiest of the choices.
For single target fights, technically any of them can work, but AS is certainly the easiest of the choices.
T90
- Lingering Insanity– When Voidform ends, its haste bonus fades by 1% every three seconds, instead of ending immediately
- Mindbender– Summons an improved Shadowfiend for 15 seconds that attacks the target and generates 6 Insanity every time the pet attacks. 1 minute cooldown
- Void Torrent – 4 second channel that pauses insanity drain, generates 30 insanity. and deals 360% spell damage over the duration. 45 second cooldown
LI is generally the best choice for raiding, but suffers with downtime. Bender is always a solid choice.
T100
- Legacy of the Void– Increases voidform’s damage bonus by 5%, reduces cast time of VoiEr by 40%, and reduces activation point to 60 insanity
- Dark Ascension – Immediately activates a new voidform. Casts VoiEr and generates 50 insanity. Resets your current voidform if used during voidform. 1 minute cooldown
- Surrender to Madness– All your spells generate 100 insanity and you can cast while moving for 1 minute. After 1 minute, you take 90% of your maximum health in damage and cannot generate insanity for 15 seconds
Both LotV and Dark Ascension are strong. LotV will provide more frequent voidform patterns, but DA will provide a useful burst. Play around with both to see what works better for you or for the fight.
Azerite
Please check out this post to keep updated. Our team works very hard on their theorycrafting, so I will link directly to that page.
Rotation/Priority
Because our class is separated by the VF mechanic, we have two separate priority lists depending on VF. Dark Ascension has some specials notes in both this section and the advanced section, so please check those out.
Out of VF
- Cast Void Eruption
- Cast SWD (if 2 charges)
- Cast Dark Void
- Cast Fiend / Bender
- Cast SWD
- Cast Crash
- Cast Blast
- Keep up Pain and Touch
- Use filler
In VF
- Cast Bolt
- Cast SWD
- Cast Dark Void (if adds not about to spawn)
- Cast Fiend / Bender
- Cast Crash
- Cast Blast
- Cast Void Torrent
- DoT new targets/maintain DoTs
- Use filler
Let’s take note of a few things now.
General Rotation: The general priority of our spells is Bolt > Blast > Flay.
Mind Sear: As with any aoe spell, it is important to figure out when your aoe overtakes your single target spells. Sear replaces these spells at this number of targets:
- At 2 targets, replace Flay
- At 5 targets replace Blast
- At 6 targets replace SW: Void
DoTs: Assuming that the mob is going to live for certain periods of time, it is worth it to place DoTs up. If the mob lives for at least five seconds, cast Pain. If it lives at least seven seconds, cast VT. The ideal time to cast DoTs is when it would be replacing Flay, but you can substitute Blast if the mob will live longer. Make sure to cast Bolt on cd though!
Dark Ascension: Dark Ascension has several niche uses, but in general, you’ll want to use it near the end of a voidform. This will allow you to remove the downtime between voidforms. You can also use it at the beginning of a fight for the exact same reason. For more detailed talk about DA, check out the advanced section.
Dungeons
For dungeons, your general talent set up is the following:
- T15 – Shadow Word: Void
- T30 – Depends on dungeon
- T45 – Dark Void
- T60 – Last Word
- T75 – Shadow Crash
- T90 – Lingering Insanity
- T100 – Legacy or Dark Ascension
For more specific details, please check out Publik’s wonderful post on Mythic+.
Voidform
Voidform is the main mechanic of our class. We start with zero Insanity and can fill it to 100. Once at 90 insanity (60 with LotV) we can activate VF with the spell Void Eruption. VF generates a stacking buff. We gain one stack of VF for every second that we spend in the form and each stack grants 0.5% haste. This maxes out at 100 stacks.
VF is not permanent. Our Insanity bar depletes naturally over the course of the VF according to this equation:
Once we reach a value of zero Insanity, we leave VF. We then have to fill back up our Insanity.
When we leave VF, we lose all bonus haste unless we have taken the Lingering Insanity talent. In that case, we lose 1% of the bonus haste every three seconds. This haste buff is not removed when entering the next Voidform.
Now that we understand what VF is, how do we generate Insanity? With our spells of course! Below I will list all the spells that generate Insanity and how much they make:
- Blast – 12 Insanity
- Pain – 4 Insanity on the application of the debuff
- VT – 6 Insanity on the application of the debuff
- MF – 3 Insanity per tick, 6 Insanity per gcd, 12 Insanity per full cast
- Sear – 1 Insanity per target hit
- Fiend – 3 insanity per hit
- Shadowy Apparitions – 2 insanity per spirit if talented into Auspicious Spirits
- SW: Void (Talent) – 15 insanity
- Dark Void (Talent) – 30 insanity
- Death (Talent) – 15 Insanity always, 15 more Insanity if the target dies within 1 second of the cast
- Shadow Crash (Talent) – 20 Insanity
- Bender (Talent) – 6 Insanity per swing
- Void Torrent (Talent) – 30 insanity over the duration
- Dark Ascension (Talent) – 50 insanity
Once we generate the appropriate amount of insanity, we have to activate VF using Void Eruption. This is a 2-second casted spell that deals 160% spell power damage to all targets within 10 yds of your target. This spell is replaced by Bolt during VF.
Additionally, there is a spell we gain only during VF called Void Bolt. This is an instant-cast, projectile spell that generates 20 Insanity. This projectile extends your DoTs on the target and all enemies within 8 yards once it hits the target and has a 4.5-second cooldown, modified by haste.
So with this knowledge, the basic idea is to use everything on cd to get into VF, then use the general rotation of:
It is also important to note that Dispersion halts Insanity drain. However, it does halt stack generation. This means that spell will keep you at your insanity level, preventing decay, but will also not allow you to generate stacks of Voidform. This essentially acts as a 6-second pause on your Voidform.
Stats and Gear
For BFA, the stat priority appears to be:
Haste = Crit > Mastery > Vers > Intellect
Therefore, choose pieces that are haste/crit and choose higher ilvl. Try to avoid mastery and vers when you can.
Keep updated on essence values with this post. Note that these will appear on the same page as trinkets once the data is migrated over.
Keep updated on trinket values and uses with this post.
Racials
Racials are extraordinarily close to one another in BFA, comprising less than a 1% difference. Technically, there is some strength appearing in haste racials and the human racial. However, this difference is still small, so go whatever race you want!
Consumables/Enchants
- Potion: Potion of Unbridled Fury
- Flask: Greater Flask of Endless Fathoms
- Augment Rune: Battle-Scarred Augment Rune
- Food: Baked Port Tato
- Gems: Quick Sand Spinel
- Enchants:
- Ring: Accord of Haste
- Weapon: Machinist’s Brilliance or Quick Navigation
Advanced Play/Discussion
Dark Ascension: Remember that DA is not only a Voidform activator but also an extra VoiER. In general play, you are going to just want to use DA on cooldown. It is best, in my experience, to use it at the end of your Voidform so as to minimize your downtime.
That being said, an on-use VoiER is a powerful tool. You can always hold this spell in order to burst a pack of adds on a boss. Additionally, DA is very powerful to use immediately following a VoiER while in dungeons. This will enable you to double-erupt, allowing you to throw out a huge burst of damage in two GCDs.
Remember, taking DA makes time between voidforms longer. Because of this, if you do the double VoiER strat, be aware of the fact that this couldcause you problems for the next pack. Proper DA timing is something that takes practice. You will need to see how much damage your group does and where the dungeon requires higher damage.
Credits and Thanks
A big thank you to the WCP community. This would not be possible without any of you, especially our theorycrafting team!
And a huge thank you to everyone reading, commenting, and supporting this! We all appreciate you all the most since you are the people that we do this for.
Changelog
click to show- 6 Aug 2019 – Updated dungeons section
- 24 June 2019 – Updated for patch 8.2
- 27 May 2019 – General cleanup
- 30 Mar 2019 – Updating stat weight suggestions and dungeon talent suggestions.
- 17 Dec 2018 – Updated drain formula for 8.1
- 12 Dec 2018 – Quick typo fixes
- 11 Dec 2018 – Fixed mind sear at 2 targets and coloring of some talents
- 10 Dec 2018 – Updated for Patch 8.1.0
- 1 Sept 2018 – Changed AS crit threshold from 20% to 18%
- 29 Aug 2018 – Updated t75 talents. Updated voidform rotation
- 20 Aug 2018 – Updated rotation with more up-to-date info + added SWD. Added dungeon section and updated DA info
- 12 Aug 2018 – Updated azerite and trinkets with links to Publik’s pages. Updated weapon enchant and potion
- 10 Aug 2018 – Updated for BFA
- 2 Aug 2018 – Fixed DA cooldown. Added DoTs in VF rotation. Added SW:V/t21 note. Updated gem
- 17 July 2018 – Guide made public with 8.0 release
- Targets1
- Item Level445
- Encounter TypeMax
- 1Balance DruidView Breakdown41,580 DPS
- 2Affliction WarlockView Breakdown40,994 DPS
- 3Demonology WarlockView Breakdown40,223 DPS
- 4Frost MageView Breakdown40,106 DPS
- 5Marksmanship HunterView Breakdown40,037 DPS
- 6Arcane MageView Breakdown39,539 DPS
- 7Destruction WarlockView Breakdown38,970 DPS
- 8Survival HunterView Breakdown38,718 DPS
- 9Assassination RogueView Breakdown38,649 DPS
- 10Elemental ShamanView Breakdown38,041 DPS
- 11Shadow PriestView Breakdown38,027 DPS
- 12Enhancement ShamanView Breakdown37,353 DPS
- 13Unholy Death KnightView Breakdown37,137 DPS
- 14Havoc Demon HunterView Breakdown37,030 DPS
- 15Fury WarriorView Breakdown37,001 DPS
- 16Subtlety RogueView Breakdown36,637 DPS
- 17Retribution PaladinView Breakdown36,442 DPS
- 18Beast Mastery HunterView Breakdown36,364 DPS
- 19Windwalker MonkView Breakdown35,964 DPS
- 20Feral DruidView Breakdown35,543 DPS
- 21Arms WarriorView Breakdown35,224 DPS
- 22Fire MageView Breakdown34,631 DPS
- 23Outlaw RogueView Breakdown34,533 DPS
- 24Frost Death KnightView Breakdown34,145 DPS
DPS Rankings Overview
These rankings are created using SimulationCraft, a program that is highly tested and trusted for simulating in-game encounters with characters.
We use SimulationCraft because simulators permit a high degree of control by allowing us to use specific talents, rotations, gear, possible boss mechanics, etc. to arrive at repeatable results that can be compared across specs and time. Also, simulators allow us to average out results from thousands of fights to get a feel for how a spec performs all of the time and not in one amazing fight.
If you are curious to learn about the simulation fight encounters of Max and Real, we recommend to read our past articles that describe them in Part I and Part II.
We use SimulationCraft because simulators permit a high degree of control by allowing us to use specific talents, rotations, gear, possible boss mechanics, etc. to arrive at repeatable results that can be compared across specs and time. Also, simulators allow us to average out results from thousands of fights to get a feel for how a spec performs all of the time and not in one amazing fight.
If you are curious to learn about the simulation fight encounters of Max and Real, we recommend to read our past articles that describe them in Part I and Part II.
Common Questions
The damage meters for my boss fights look very different than these rankings. Why?
There are any number of reasons why in-game results will differ from simulated (or log based) results. A few common differences include the following.
There are any number of reasons why in-game results will differ from simulated (or log based) results. A few common differences include the following.
- Fight Length: Dungeons and LFR raids often have shorter fight durations which can result in much higher DPS as the value of DPS cooldowns is greatly increased in short fights.
- Multiple Targets: The current DPS rankings offer strictly single-target and splash-AoE (1 main target+2). There are scenarios in-game where there are a lot more targets which can allow for much more aggressive AoE.
- Player Variables: Skill, latency, gear, a lucky string of crits, etc. can all significantly impact in-game DPS. Rankings can help represent general trends, but they’ll rarely predict the outcome of a specific encounter with all its unique factors.
![Charts Charts](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125867594/242515261.png)
How do these rankings compare to other sources that use raid logs to show spec comparisons?
Raid log sites offer a perspective on how some of top players are performing with each spec. These rankings can be helpful to understand how specs are faring in the current raid tier and often reveal unexpected synergies between specific specs and boss encounters. However, log based sites are subject to their own data problems including players who artificially boost their DPS by employing technical or social exploits, changes in popularity of specs, uneven sample sizes, and generally unrepeatable or uncontrolled results.
While simulators allow us to get a feel for how a spec performs all of the time through averaging out thousands of fight results, it is important to note that simulators are generally weak when modeling specific fights in a raid tier, and additionally they rely on data that is as good as the theorycrafting community is able to produce.
Overall, no single DPS ranking is perfect and they should all be considered when evaluating specs. Simulators and log based solutions both offer value to the WoW community.
Raid log sites offer a perspective on how some of top players are performing with each spec. These rankings can be helpful to understand how specs are faring in the current raid tier and often reveal unexpected synergies between specific specs and boss encounters. However, log based sites are subject to their own data problems including players who artificially boost their DPS by employing technical or social exploits, changes in popularity of specs, uneven sample sizes, and generally unrepeatable or uncontrolled results.
While simulators allow us to get a feel for how a spec performs all of the time through averaging out thousands of fight results, it is important to note that simulators are generally weak when modeling specific fights in a raid tier, and additionally they rely on data that is as good as the theorycrafting community is able to produce.
Overall, no single DPS ranking is perfect and they should all be considered when evaluating specs. Simulators and log based solutions both offer value to the WoW community.