Shadow Priest Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic

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Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

• Levels 10 to 12 — 3 points in Spirit Tap.
• Levels 13 & 14 — 2 points in Darkness.
• Levels 15 to 17 — 3 points in Shadow Focus.
• Levels 18 & 19 — 2 points in Darkness.

Spirit Tap is great for Mana generation between fights. Shadow Focus is a great talent, giving you some much needed hit rating. Darkness is a great damage boost for all of your spells.

• Levels 20 — 1 point in Mind Flay.
• Levels 21 — 1 point in Darkness.
• Levels 22 & 23 — 2 points in Improved Shadow Word: Pain.
• Levels 24 — 1 point in Improved Mind Blast.
• Levels 25 to 27 — 3 points in Shadow Weaving.
• Levels 28 & 29 — 2 points in Shadow Reach.

Mind Flay is one of your main damage spells. Shadow Weaving is a great stacking damage buff, be sure to keep it going between fights. Shadow Reach gives you additional range on your Shadow spells.

• Level 30 — 1 point in Vampiric Embrace.
• Levels 31 & 32 — 2 points in Improved Vampiric Embrace.
• Levels 33 & 34 — 2 points in Improved Mind Blast.
• Levels 35 to 37 — 3 points in Improved Devouring Plague.
• Levels 38 & 39 — 2 points in Mind Melt.

Vampiric Embrace with Improved Vampiric Embrace is great for keeping you healthy while getting attacked. Improved Devouring Plague and Mind Melt are both great damage increases.

• Level 40 — 1 point in Shadowform.
• Levels 41 & 42 — 2 points in Improved Mind Blast.
• Levels 43 & 44 — 2 points in Improved Spirit Tap.
• Levels 45 to 47 — 3 points in Misery.
• Levels 48 & 49 — 2 points in Improved Shadowform.

Shadowform is a massive boost to this spec, greatly increasing your damage output. Improved Spirit Tap gives you even more Mana regeneration and Spirit. Misery increases the chance your spells hit and your damage done. Improved Shadowform reduces the amount of spell pushback you get while casting Shadow spells.

• Level 50 — 1 point in Vampiric Touch.
• Levels 51 to 53 — 3 points in Pain and Suffering.
• Level 54 — 1 point in Psychic Horror.
• Levels 55 to 59 — 5 points in Twisted Faith.

Vampiric Touch is your most important damage spell, greatly increasing your damage. Pain and Suffering refreshes your Shadow Word: Pain whenever you use Mind Flay. Psychic Horror is useful for elites, powerful enemies, and PvP. Twisted Faith even further increases your damage capabilities.

• Level 60 — 1 point in Dispersion.
• Levels 61 to 65 — 5 points in Twin Disciplines.
• Levels 66 to 68 — 3 points in Improved Inner Fire.
• Levels 69 & 70 — 2 points in Improved Power Word: Fortitude.

Dispersion is a good defensive cooldown if you are in a dangerous position; it also restores a lot of Mana and can be used to keep your Mana high. Twin Disciplines is a nice damage boost to all of your spells. Improved Inner Fire and Improved Power Word: Fortitude are great stat boosts.

• Levels 71 to 73 — 3 points in Meditation.
• Levels 74 & 75 — 2 points in Improved Psychic Scream.
• Level 76 — 1 point in Silence.
• Levels 77 to 80 — 4 points in Shadow Power.

Meditation is great Mana regeneration. Improved Psychic Scream and Silence are not required, but are great tools if you find yourself in a bad situation or PvP. Shadow Power is a decent damage boost for your final talent points.

Your leveling glyphs will differ from your endgame glyphs. Glyphs can be a huge boost to your leveling speed as some greatly improve the baseline power of your key abilities. Be sure to check the price of these glyphs on your server to vastly improve your leveling experience.

1. Glyph of Mind Flay
2. Glyph of Dispersion
3. Glyph of Shadow

1. Glyph of Fortitude
2. Glyph of Levitate
3. Glyph of Fading

1. Power Word: Fortitude keep this buff up before entering combat.
2. Inner Fire keep this buff up before entering combat.
3. Divine Spirit keep this buff up before entering combat.
4. Vampiric Embrace keep this buff up before entering combat.
5. Shadowform keep this buff up before entering combat.
6. Smite your target until it is dead.
7. Smite your target from max range.
8. Shadow Word: Pain your target after you enter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
9. Continue using Smite on your target until it is dead.
10. Mind Blast on cooldown.
11. Continue using Smite on your target until it is dead.
12. Holy Fire your target from max range.
13. Mind Blast your target from max range.
14. Vampiric Touch your target from max range.
15. Devouring Plague your target after you enter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
16. Shadow Word: Pain your target. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
17. Mind Blast on cooldown.
18. Mind Flay as a filler until target is low.
19. Shoot your target with your wand if they are low enough to die from DoTs and wand damage.
20. Shadow Word: Death if a target did not die from DoTs and would take too long to wand down. Ideally this would kill the target to prevent you from taking the backlash damage.

You have very few spells early on. At the start of a pull you will want to be at max range. This helps you get off more damage before the mob reaches you. Running away from the mob while casting instant cast spells like Shadow Word: Pain help keep that distance from the mob, reducing your damage taken. Overall, this helps reduce how often you need to drink as you will need to heal yourself less.

Now your rotation starts to form itself as you get multiple new spells. Holy Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a long cast time and deals high damage. Next you will want to cast Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on the target while running away from it if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Mind Blast on cooldown and use Mind Flay as a filler spell until the target is low enough to die to DoTs and Shoot. Be sure to use either Renew or Power Word: Shield whenever you are taking high damage.

With Shadowform you can no longer cast Holy spells, changing your rotation a bit. Start with Mind Blast from max range. Next you will want to cast Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on the target while running away from it if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Then use a couple Mind Flays until the target is low enough to die to DoTs and Shooting, or use another Mind Blast if the target is still high health.

Start with Vampiric Touch from max range. Next you will want to cast Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on the target while running away from it if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Use Mind Blast, then cast a couple Mind Flays until the target is low enough to die to DoTs and Shooting, or use another Mind Blast if the target is still high health when it is available.

Training spells can be rather expensive, especially if you try to learn every spell available to you. Here we will give you a list of your top-priority spells that you will want to train so you know which ones you can avoid and save some money.

• Be sure to keep these spells at max rank — Power Word: Fortitude, Shadow Word: Pain, Power Word: Shield, Renew, Mind Blast, Inner Fire, Mind Flay, Psychic Scream, Devouring Plague, Flash Heal, Divine Spirit, Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Death.

• Smite — Do not train this past rank 3 as you will stop using it after that.

• Holy Fire — Do not train this past rank 4 as you will stop using it after that.

• Psychic Scream — You can delay upgrading this if you are low on money, but eventually you will want to learn higher ranks.

• Dispel Magic — You only really need 1 rank of this spell; train the second rank when you have the money to spare.

• These spells only have 1 rank and should be trained as soon as possible — Fade, Cure Disease, Fear Ward, Abolish Disease, Levitate, Shadowfiend.

• Save your gold instead of training these spells — Lesser Heal, Resurrection, Heal, Holy Nova, Mind Soothe, Shackle Undead, Mind Vision, Mana Burn, Mind Control, Prayer of Healing, Shadow Protection, Greater Heal, Prayer of Fortitude, Prayer of Shadow Protection, Prayer of Spirit, Binding Heal, Prayer of Mending, Mass Dispel, Mind Sear.

Congratulations on hitting Level 80 in Wrath of the Lich King! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level-80 Shadow Priest gameplay by reading our Shadow Priest guide, which covers everything you need to know to properly play your Shadow Priest.