Welcome to the Shadow Priest guide for World of Warcraft the Burning Crusade 2.4.3. In this guide, you will learn about playing a Shadow Priest in dungeons and raids. The guide includes Talents, Gems, Enchantments, Gameplay & Skill rotation tips.
Talent tree
Spirit Tap and Blackout can be swapped between each other. First one is useful for if you can land the killing strike, while Blackout may come at handy while clearing trash mobs between bosses.
Ranks in Improved Mind Blast and Shadow Weaving can be changed depending on your preference. Leave at least 1 point in Shadow Weaving because it is a useful debuff on the target. Improved Mind Blast is usually taken rank 1 or rank 4, but it may change depending on your latency – they goal is to ideally fit in the spell in the full rotation.
We’re going into Discipline mainly for the Inner Focus and Meditation. Tier 1 and 2 talents in this tree are mostly irrelevant to us.
Gems
Normally, you want to use Red gems on all of your gear. Yellow & Blue gems are used only for activating Meta gem or good socket bonuses like the extra spell damage.
- Meta: Ember Skyfire Diamond (better option) or Mystical Skyfire Diamond
- Red: Runed Crimson Spinel or Runed Living Ruby
- Yellow: Veiled Noble Topaz, Potent Noble Topaz or Reckless Pyrestone (for higher tier gear)
- Blue: Glowing Shadowsong Amethyst or Glowing Nightseye
Enchants
- Head – Glyph of Power
- Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Discipline, Greater Inscription of the Orb or Zandalar Signet of Mojo
- Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Subtlety
- Chest – Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats with alternatives like Enchant Chest – Major Spirit or Enchant Chest – Restore Mana Prime
- Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Spellpower
- Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Major Spellpower or Enchant Gloves – Shadow Power
- Legs – Runic Spellthread
- Boots – Enchant Boots – Boar’s Speed or Enchant Boots – Vitality
- Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Soulfrost or Enchant Weapon – Major Spellpower as an alternative
Enchanters can also benefit from Enchant Ring – Spellpower on both of the Rings
Professions
As with every DPS class in a raid – Leatherworking gives your group the best bonus. Drums of Battle and Drums of War provide a noticeable DPS increase. This is the option for higher tier raiders.
Tailoring is great for gearing up your new priest. Look into crafting Shadoweave and Spellstrike sets as they would be with you until T4-T5 items.
You can pick up both Tailoring & Leatherworking while farming the required materials with an alt.
Jewelcrafting would give you earlier access to epic gems, but you can unlock them without the profession later on. Note: epic gems bonus does not require the profession, so you can drop it after using the gems on BiS gear.
As mentioned in the Enchants section, Enchanting grants you a unique ring enchant – Enchant Ring – Spellpower. You can use it on BiS rings and then drop the profession while keeping the bonus. Other than that – the ability to do your armor & weapon enchants.
Gameplay & Rotations
Rotation
Shadow Priest doesn’t have a strict rotation, but rather a priority list of spells. Below list is for maximum damage and may cause mana problems for players with lower gear.
- Vampiric Touch – maintain on target
- Shadow Word: Pain – maintain on target
- Mind Blast – use when off cooldown
- Shadow Word: Death – use when off cooldown (note the self damage, don’t use if you won’t get healed or low on health)
- Mind Flay – if everything else is on cooldown
Another common combination of spells for players with lower gear is Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Flay
Inner Focus should be combined with Shadow Word: Pain or Devouring Plague (Undead special ability for Priests)
Consumables
- Elixir: Flask of Pure Death
- Potion: Super Mana Potion, Destruction Potion
- Food: Blackened Basilisk, Crunchy Serpent, Poached Bluefish
- Oil: Brilliant Wizard Oil and Superior Wizard Oil
- Drums (LW): Drums of Battle and Drums of War
Stat Priority
Spell Hit – Spell Power – Spell Crit & Haste – Intellect – Spirit – Mana per 5 – Stamina
Unique Abilities
Each race has two unique abilities for Priests. They play a role in PVP, but less in PVE. Most of them are Holy and can’t be used by in Shadow Form making them very situational, but the Undead actually has a useful spell to combine with Inner Focus.
- Humans – Desperate Prayer and Feedback
- Dwarf – Desperate Prayer and Chastise
- Draenei – Chastise and Symbol of Hope
- Night Elf – Elune’s Grace and Starshards
- Undead – Devouring Plague and Touch of Weakness
- Troll – Hex of Weakness and Shadowguard
- Blood Elf – Consume Magic and Touch of Weakness