A Guide to the Raiding Shadow Priest
(All credit for this guide goes to Daenyx of the WoW Priest Forums. To see the original version of this post click here. This link is also where you can always find the most updated version of this guide.)
** Updated for Patch 3.1 **
I'm writing this guide in response to the plethora of duplicate questions about aspects of PvE shadow priesting that I see on this forum. I have attempted to condense the most relevant information on each topic into manageable amounts while maintaining their substance. All info is aimed specifically toward maximizing raid boss dps.
I'm monitoring for comments on the thread as much as I can, and if you have any feedback, suggestions, or corrections, please post! If the thread stays within the "people read this" zone, I'll keep it updated regularly. :)
Disclaimer to those who are veterans of the class and have done research on their own: You probably aren't going to find much that's new here, with the possible exception of some notes on testing I've done and the section on Dispersion. Shadowpriest.com is cited in the one place I used it (in the stat comparison section, for the conversions/formulas). I have no illusions that I'm the first to say most of the things in these posts, but since the info wasn't consistently available for the people asking on this forum, and I had the time, here I am.
CONTENTS:
I.Spec/Talents
II.Glyphs
III.Gearing
----1.Stat comparisons
----2.Raid gear top picks
IV.Spell cycle
----1.Basic dps cycle
----2. How SW:Pain works - when to recast
----3.Making the most of Dispersion
V.Professions
VI.Helpful UI mods
I. SPEC & TALENT OVERVIEW
Some variations on the standard shadow build: (They're all very similar for a reason - “interesting” shadow builds don't do good raid dps. I will follow with an explanation of talents and suggestions of which can be moved around by preference without changing dps overmuch.)
A. - no Inner Focus, no Shadow Affinity
C. - with Shadow Affinity 2/3; no Veiled Shadows.
D. - with Silence. Not particularly recommended, but some people don't want to give it up.
The magic numbers are 13/0/58 and 14/0/57.
Basic, must-have talents:
I had a lot of feedback on the original section here saying it was a bit too bloated, so here's something hopefully easier to follow. The following link is a "skeleton spec" of the absolute must-have talents.
Note that the two points in Shadow Focus were necessary to get down the tree to Twisted Faith; if you've got hit running out your ears, they could potentially go somewhere else, but I'd recommend keeping at least 2/3 if not 3/3 Shadow Focus at least in currently-available gear.
"Flex" points/talents:
The above skeleton build has 7 points unused. They could go in...
Shadow Focus
Shadow Affinity
Shadow Reach
Veiled Shadows
Imp Shadowform
Imp Vampiric Embrace
Inner Focus
For a pure raid spec. Obviously you could siphon some of them off into non-raid talents (Imp PS/Silence, Psychic Horror) if you really wanted to... but I would strongly recommend against it for raiding.
Your best bets in terms of increasing dps potential among these talents are Shadow Focus, Shadow Reach, and Imp Shadowform. Why?
- Shadow Focus means less hit required on your gear, and more item points to spend on spellpower, crit, and haste. Only drop points from this talent if you have a lot of extra hit you can't easily get rid of on your gear.
- Shadow Reach means you spend less time and effort in repositioning on fights that require it, and are more flexible in where you can be to dps the boss. Some people skip it, but it really does help quite a bit.
- Imp Shadowform means you will seldom lose ticks from your Mind Flay or casting time due to damage. It may look like a PvP talent at first blush, but WotLK boss fights involve a LOT of raid damage, and you'll up your dps and save mana by taking this pushback protection talent.
Of the others, I prefer Veiled Shadows because the shorter Shadowfiend cooldown means needing to use Dispersion less often (and thus avoiding the cast time loss).
II. GLYPHS
Your major glyphs are:
-Shadow Word: Pain
-Shadow
-Mind Flay or Shadow Word: Death
There is some debate over preference for MF versus SWD major glyphs. I prefer MF since I find that the increased ranged saves me a lot of time running around, hence giving me more dps time. In a total stand-and-nuke situation, SWD will give slightly higher dps.
Minor: I like Shadowfiend since it somewhat salvages those times when the boss just munches your shadowfiend as soon as you cast it. The others won't affect your dps, and are mostly just cute.
III. GEARING
1) Stats
HIT
Hit cap is the most important aspect of gearing for a shadow priest. Hit on gear gives you the highest benefit per point of any stat when you are below hit cap. Once capped, more hit is useless, though you might take an item with a lot of hit on it that allows you to trade hit elsewhere for other stats (example, you get an upgrade with a lot of hit on it and can re-gem a few pieces with spell damage gems).
Caster hit cap is 17%. That's 289 hit rating at level 80 assuming 3/3 Shadow Focus and 3/3 Misery, for non-Draenei priests. Draenei priests get another 1% hit for free (263 cap). 1% hit = 26.23 hit rating at level 80.
SPELL DAMAGE
Most important damage stat for shadow priests after hit capped. Increases the damage done by your spells based on the scaling coefficient of that specific spell. Nightshroud's sticky guide, "Lux et Umbra," has a list of spell damage coefficients for priest spells; I won't re-list them here.
CRIT
Important for shadow priests for four reasons:
1.The obvious – critical strikes for the properly-specced shadow priest do twice normal damage. (Shadow Power talent)
2.Also mods your DoT damage by a percentage equal to your spell critical strike chance. (Shadowform talent)
3.Increases spell damage indirectly in conjunction with Glyph of Shadow. With this glyph, you get a 10-second buff every time you crit (while in shadowform) that increases your spell damage by 10% of your spirit.
4.Mana regeneration. Mind Blast and SW: Death crits proc Imp Spirit Tap.
1% crit = 45.91 crit rating at level 80.
HASTE
Increases casting/channeling speed, and decreases the global cooldown on your spells. The benefit received from haste is limited by your latency. This can be mitigated somewhat by using the castbar mod Quartz, but it's generally true that the lower your latency, the more good you'll get out of haste.
1% haste = 32.79 haste rating at level 80.
SPIRIT
Has two benefits for shadow priests: mana regeneration and increased spell damage. Spirit mana regen is modded by Intellect. Full spirit regeneration does not occur during spellcasting and for five seconds of non-casting after completing a spellcast. This is known as the Five Second Rule (FSR). Untalented, no spirit regeneration occurs within the FSR, only regen from mana per five seconds (mp5) on your gear.
Spirit regen outside the FSR = sqrt(int)*spirit score*0.02787. (*** NOT UPDATED FOR 3.1 ***)
Meditation allows a constant 50% of this to occur inside the FSR; Imp Spirit Tap both increases your spirit (by 10%) and allows 33% of your spirit regen to occur inside the FSR for the 8-second duration of the buff.
Spirit increases spell damage for a properly specced and glyphed shadow priest by effectively 20% of the spirit score in a raid setting. Twisted Faith gives 10% of total spirit in spell damage constantly. Glyph of Shadow gives a 10-second buff every time you crit in shadowform that gives another 10% of your spirit in spell damage for the duration of the buff. Unless your crit rate is exceptionally low, this buff should be active almost constantly during a nonstop fight.
INTELLECT
Int increases maximum mana (15 mana per point of intellect), modifies your regeneration from spirit (see above section on spirit), and gives spell crit at a rate of 1% per 130 Int at level 80.
RELATIVE STAT WEIGHTS
A direct comparison of damage stats (assuming hit capped, from Shadowpriest.com):
1 crit rating = 0.71 spellpower
1 haste rating = 0.65 spellpower
1 spirit = 0.21 spellpower
1 intellect = 0.21 spellpower
Before hit cap, 1 hit = 1.31 spellpower.
After hit cap, spellpower is the most valuable stat on a per-point basis, followed by crit, followed by haste. NOTE: The benefit of haste is reduced by your latency.
GEMS
Follow the comparisons for stats given above. Consider socket bonuses in your analysis of a piece of gear; it may merit a “crossover” gem to get the bonus. For example, you have a yellow socket that if filled with a yellow gem, gives spell damage; you probably want to use a Potent Monarch Topaz (orange) instead of Runed Scarlet Ruby (red). If the socket bonus is stamina or mp5, it's more likely to be worth just using a spell damage gem. Purified Twilight Opals and Misty Forest Emeralds are your best choices to activate the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond meta.
Best-in-color gems:
Red: Runed Scarlet Ruby
Yellow: Potent Monarch Topaz (Veiled topaz or Rigid Autumn's Glow if you need the hit)
Blue: Purified Twilight Opal
Meta: Chaotic Skyflare Diamond
2) Top Raid Gear Picks
I've grouped these by 10 and 25-man raid instances. Note that large amounts of hit on a single piece of gear is undervalued in calculations if you assume that you're already at hit cap. Taking a new piece of gear with a lot of hit on it will often allow you to drop hit for spell damage elsewhere; for instance, replacing hit gems with damage.
* Denotes best-in-slot pre-Ulduar
** denotes good items that are obtained outside raids
~Weapon (Staffs gain extra benefit from the new spellpower enchant for staffs, in some cases making up for the lack of an offhand.)
10man: Icecore Staff, Stormtip, Plamsa Foil
25man: Staff of Endless Winter, Soulscribe, Guiding Star
*Torch of Holy Fire
**Titansteel Guardian, Deadly Gladiator's Spellblade
~Offhand
10man: Igniter Rod, Scepter of Murmuring Spirits
25man: Ironmender, Accursed Spine, Matriarch's Spawn
*Accursed Spine
**Deadly Gladiator's Endgame, Handbook of Obscure Remedies, Ward of the Violet Citadel
~Chest
10man: Valorous Raiments of Sanctification, Vestments of the Piercing Light, Gown of the Spell-Weaver
25man: Robes of the Umbral Brute, Raiments of the Iron Council, Conqueror's Raiments of Sanctification
*The Sanctum's Flowing Vestments
**Spellweave Robe, Deadly Gladiator's Satin Robe, Robes of Crackling Flame
~Head
10man: Valorous Circlet of Sanctification, Lifespark Visage, Enamored Cowl
25man: Conqueror's Circlet of Sanctification, Cowl of Dark Whispers, Hood of Rationality
*Hood of Rationality
**Visage Liquification Goggles, Deadly Gladiator's Satin Hood
~Shoulders
10man: Valorous Mantle of Sanctification, Underworld Mantle, Mantle of the Preserver
25man: Conqueror's Mantle of Sanctification, Mantle of Dissemination, Mantle of the Unknowing
*Mantle of Dissemination
**Deadly Gladiator's Satin Mantle
~Legs
10man: Valorous Pants of Sanctification, Leggings of Unstable Discharge, Heroes Pants of Faith
25man: Leggings of the Enslaved Idol, Legwraps of the Master Conjurer, Conqueror's Pants of Sanctification
*Leggings of Mortal Arrogance
**Deadly Gladiator's Satin Leggings, Woven Bracae Leggings
~Feet
10man: Sullen Cloth Boots, Saltarello Shoes (?)
25man: Boots of Firey Resolution, Boots of the Servant, Sandals of the Ancient Keeper
*Arcanic Tramplers (BoE)
**Spellslinger's Slippers (BoE crafted), Savior's Slippers (BoE crafted), Sandals of Crimson Fury
~Waist
10man: Binding of the Dragon Matriarch, Sash of Mortal Desire
25man: Leash of Heedless Magic, Embrace of the Leviathan, Sash of Potent Incantations
*Leash of Heedless Magic
**Cord of the White Dawn (BoE crafted; best in slot), Sash of Ancient Power (BoE crafted)
~Hands
10man: Valorous Handwraps of Sanctification, Handwraps of Resonance, Heroes Handwraps of Faith
25man: Handwraps of the Vigilant, Conqueror's Handwraps of Sanctification, Valorous Handwraps of Faith
*Valorous Handwraps of Faith
**Spellweave Gloves, Gloves of Glistening Runes, Deadly Gladiator's Satin Gloves
~Wrists
10man: Runetouch Handwraps
25man: Unsullied Cuffs, Shackles of the Odalisque, Bands of Impurity
*Unsullied Cuffs
**Azure Cloth Bindings, Cuffs of Winged Levitation
~Back
10man: D#!*@ of the Spellweaver, Shroud of the Citadel
25man: Pennant Cloak, D#!*@ of Mortal Downfall, Asimov's D#!*@
*Pennant Cloak
**Deathchill Cloak, Deadly Gladiator's Cloak of Dominance
~Neck
10man: Pendant of the Shallow Grave (best in slot), Watchful Eye
25man: Sapphire Amulet of Renewal, Pendant of Firey Havoc, Charm of Meticulous Timing
*Cosmic Lights
**Titanium Spellshock Necklace, Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Dominance
~Wand
10man: Petrified Ivy Sprig, Nurturing Touch
25man: Scepter of Lost Souls, Scepter of Creation
*Plague Igniter
**Deadly Gladiator's Touch of Defeat, Rod of the Fallen Monarch
~Ring
10man: Shimmering Seal, Lady Maye's Sapphire Ring
25man: Signet of Manifested Pain, Pyrelight Circle, Glowing Ring of Reclamation
*Signet of Manifested Pain
**Titanium Spellshock Ring, Inscribed Signet of the Kirin Tor, Band of Guile, Annhylde's Ring
~Trinket
10man: Eye of the Broodmother, Elemental Focus Stone
25man: Flare of the Heavens, Illustration of the Dragon Soul, Pandora's Plea
*Illustration of the Dragon Soul
**Sundial of the Exiled, Forge Ember, Mercurial Alchemist Stone, Figurine - Twilight Serpent
IV. SPELL CYCLE
1) Basic DPS Cycle
A shadow priest dps cycle requires management of DoTs and cooldowns, with Mind Flay used as a filler. DoTs, in order of potency (assuming all are kept up consistently), are Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Pain, and Devouring Plague. Note that DP has a cooldown equal to its duration; you can only have it active on one mob at a time. Mind Blast should have a cooldown of 5.5 or 6 seconds, depending on whether you spec 4/5 or 5/5 Imp Mind Blast. Shadow Word: Death's cooldown is 12 seconds.
Shadow priest dps works off priorities. We have enough spells and cooldowns to manage that there is no neat, clean, regular rotation to stick to. General spell priority is:
DoTs
Mind Blast
Mind Flay
* Shadow Word: Death
*Some priests do not use SW:Death often. Post-3.0 theorycrafting determined that it has a small or negligible effect on dps. However, it's very nice as a filler when you have another cooldown about to come up or a DoT about to fall and you don't want to waste half a Mind Flay. Its ability to proc Imp Spirit Tap on a crit also contributes to mana regeneration, so do not discount the spell.
Important note on SW:Pain – Cast this after you have stacked Shadow Weaving to five. Its auto-refresh on Mind Flay causes it to function based on however many stacks of Shadow Weaving were up when it was first cast.
"Clipping" Mind Flay – Frequently, your Mind Blast cooldown or a DoT refresh will come up while you are channeling Mind Flay. With the increased prevalence of haste on gear, this happens more often than it did in TBC. Unless you are particularly pressed for mana, it is worth it to break the Flay channel early to reapply a DoT or cast Mind Blast.
Vampiric Embrace – As mentioned in the talent section above, this spell is more useful than it tended to be in TBC since far fewer shadow priests are experiencing threat problems currently. It does no damage, and lasts 1 minute. Since the long duration makes it a low-maintenance spell, it is frequently very worthwhile to keep up on a boss. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it on trash.
Trash DPS – Most trash has too few hit points to bother with a full brace of DoTs. Depending on the health and number of mobs in a pull, and the strength of your raid's dps, you may want to apply Pain to a pack and then Mind Sear, or just Mind Sear. Use Vampiric Touch only if the mob is going to last 15 seconds or longer.
Sample opening spell cycle:
VE --> VT (Shadow Weaving = 1)--> DP (SW = 2) --> Death (SW = 3) --> MB (SW = 4) --> Mind Flay 1 tick (SW = 5) --> Pain --> continue
2) How SW:Pain Works - When to Recast
The talent Pain and Suffering (added in 3.0) causes SW:Pain to be refreshed by Mind Flay ticks. This has some interesting implications for transient damage buffs. The following is from recent in-game testing I've done - target dummies for trinkets, Thaddius for weird debuffs. (If you'd like to see the data, post, and I'll either append it to the end of the guide or reply in the thread.)
- Buffs that increase your SPELLPOWER directly (trinket pop or proc, Touch of Shadow buff) are applied to Pain automatically when it is refreshed by Mind Flay. The effect ends when you Mind Flay after having lost the buff. You therefore do not need to recast Pain.
- Buffs/debuffs that increase your DAMAGE DONE (Shadow Weaving, Thaddius charge, Malygos power spark) are not applied on the automatic refresh; they require a manual recast of Pain when the buff/debuff is active. It appears that the damage increase persists until Pain falls off the mob, whether you have the buff/debuff constantly or not (not completely certain; more testing to do!).
3) Making the Most of Dispersion
Dispersion has the disadvantage of making you unable to cast for its 6-second duration, which makes many people dislike it. However, it also gives you more than 1/3 of your mana pool back, has a short (3 min) cooldown, protects you from damage, can be cast while stunned, feared, or silenced, and most importantly – you can move while the buff is active.
Using Dispersion is obviously preferable to going OOM. Given the 6-second silence it imposes, there are preferable times to use the spell, as well. In a pure tank-and-spank fight, you're probably going to lose DPS time if you need to cast Dispersion. Most fights in WotLK content thus far, however, are not tank-and-spanks. They tend to have points where you have to move, or just survive, or no mobs are up to be dpsing. This is when you should use Dispersion – you may be surprised how many fights there are where you can cast the spell while losing minimal or no DPS time. Some easy examples:
Malygos (during Vortex, during Deep Breath)
Sartharion (while running to a safe spot from the lava)
Gothik (while you're waiting for a wave to spawn, or while he's on the other side)
Four Horsemen (while moving from one Horseman to another)
Anub'Rekhan (running away from Locust Swarm, before an add spawns)
Noth (between skeleton waves)
Heigan (during the everyone-dances phase)
Sapphiron (during Deep Breath)
V. PROFESSIONS
A quick overview of what crafting professions will bring to your quest for improved shadow dps. I have considered only benefits that are unique to practitioners of the profession.
Alchemy: Mixology gives a slight increase in potion and elixir effects, and a doubling of their duration. The new caster's alchemist stone is a trinket option you might use at the very beginning of your raiding career (59 spellpower, 50 haste rating), but nowhere near as powerful as the epic-level ones were in TBC.
Blacksmithing: Allows you to install sockets in your own gloves and bracers.
Enchanting: Allows the enchanter to enchant his own rings. Essentially gives you 38 extra spellpower (19 on each ring).
Engineering: Allows the creation and wearing of Visage Liquification Goggles. This is a decent raiding headpiece (Meta + yellow socket, 73 crit, 87 spellpower).
Leatherworking: Allows the creation and application of a Fur Lining to bracers. The spellpower version has 67 spellpower, versus 30 on the highest level normal bracer enchant. (Difference of 37 spellpower)
Tailoring: Allows embroidery of your own cloak; Darkglow gives a chance for a 300 mana return upon spellcast; Lightweave gives a chance on spellcast to proc a 15-second self-buff that grants 250 spellpower. Tailors also effectively get a reduced cost on epic spellthreads for their own pants - the tailor-only versions are the same stats as those available to non-tailors, but considerably cheaper to create.
Jewelcrafting: Allows the jewelcrafter to place up to 3 cut Dragon's Eyes in his own gear. These gems are more powerful versions of standard cuts (e.g. Runed Dragon's Eye is 32 spellpower versus 19 for Runed Scarlet Ruby). If you use 3 Runed DE's, this gives you 39 extra spellpower. Dragon's Eyes are also brilliantly convenient for fulfilling meta and socket bonus requirements, as they are "prismatic" gems.
Inscription: Allows the incriptionist to create shoulder enchants that only he can use. The Master's Inscription of the Storm enchant conveys 61 spellpower and 15 crit rating, versus the Epic-level Sons of Hodir enchant (Greater Inscription of the Storm) at 24 spellpower and 15 crit. (The difference is 37 spellpower.)
VI. HELPFUL UI MODS
Just listing a few essential favorites, here, for those who don't know where to start. These are mods that are directly helpful for shadow priest dps; I'm leaving out most standard unit frames and other general raid mods. Happy to add many more to this list; if you have a favorite that's not here, post, and let me know! All mods are available from Curse unless otherwise noted.
DoTimer – highly customizable DoT timer mod. Some kind of timer for DoTs is pretty much an absolute necessity for shadow priests to maximize DPS. And the Blizzard one doesn't count.
OmniCC or ABInfo – either of these will put large numbers on your action buttons that show the current cooldown, and tick down as the cooldown decreases. Very, very nice for cooldown management. ABInfo also will turn the button red if your target is out of range.
Quartz - castbar mod that estimates your latency at the time of casting and shows it as a red section of the bar. Fantastic for those of us whose latency isn't always ideal (which is most of us!), so we lose less time to lag. Particularly useful if you're starting to stack haste.
Omen – pretty standard threat meter. If threat's ever, ever a concern, you should probably have this even if your raid group doesn't require it.
Recount – fantastic combat meter mod. Shows damage % breakdowns for your spells, % crits, % misses, DoT uptime... pretty much anything you'd want to analyze performance. It's like an in-game WWS report. Rather resource-heavy, unfortunately.
Other suggestions...
ClassTimer - (Thanks to Cyberfalcon) Another customizable timer mod for buffs and debuffs.
Face Melter - (Thanks to Gellan) A more involved timer/cooldown mod for shadow priests; allows you to set your preferred spell priorities, and it will tell you when to cast what based on that.
EventHorizon - (Thanks to Cyberfalcon) Shadow-priest specific cooldown and DoT timer mod that puts everything on the same scale to make weaving cooldowns/DoTs easier to see and plan. Available from WoWInterface.com.
Pawn - (Thanks to Gellan) A gear comparison mod. Available from WoWInterface.com.