Priest Hero Talents — The War Within (Season 1)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Shadow Priest, check out our Talents page:

Archon will be your best Hero Talent choice for Raiding. Casting Halo empowers your cooldowns to last longer and provide more damage. Archon prefers to play with Void Eruption and Mind Flay builds. This build, in particular, will make your Mind Flay: Insanity deal massive amounts of damage.

Utility wise Archon gives you Word of Supremacy for 5% more stamina in addition to group off-healing every minute when you cast Halo. While this can be powerful on certain encounters it is significantly reduced if another Archon Priest is in your group.

Note that Word of Supremacy and Concentrated Infusion ONLY apply to yourself.

Voidweaver is currently lagging behind Archon in just about every type of encounter, but depending on your playstyle or specific bosses, you can make it work. Voidweaver creates an Entropic Rift every time you cast Void Torrent and pairs well with Dark Ascension. The best-case scenario for Voidweaver is encounters where you can take advantage of Devour Matter.

The gameplay of Voidweaver heavily revolves around Entropic Rift hitting all targets you care about. Even in perfect scenarios where this is always hitting all targets it is still generally worse than Archon, although particularly close in single target. In practice, boss movement in particular can significantly lower Voidweaver's damage output.

Utility of Voidweaver is much better compared to Archon for Raiding as it not only has great self-defensive options with Void Leech or Embrace the Shadow but also grants cast while moving to Void Torrent with Dark Energy.

Archon is our best Hero Talent for pushing high Mythic+ keys, providing the most AoE damage potential if you can pull packs around your cooldowns effectively and mobs live long enough. Typically, for lower keys, this can be a struggle if mobs are dying too quickly, but this will depend on your group and item level when this level starts.

For Mythic+ Archon also brings important utility for your group in the form of Incessant Screams for an extra stop. You also continue to give yourself more stamina with Word of Supremacy and more group healing in general when you cast Halo.

Voidweaver can struggle as you want to increase your AoE damage since it naturally prefers to play with Dark Ascension instead of Void Eruption. That being said, Dark Ascension and Voidweaver tend to do better in lower keys, where mobs might not live very long. This Hero Talent gives you meaningful damage every 30 seconds with Entropic Rift, which pairs well for low keys when you are likely just pulling one pack at a time.

On the utility perspective Voidweaver is very similar in Mythic+ compared to Raiding. You still benefit from the self-healing choices and can choose the slow on Entropic Rift with No Escape or cast while moving Void Torrent with Dark Energy.

2.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Shadow Priest

Archon Single-Target Archon Mythic+ Voidweaver Single Target Voidweaver Mythic+

3.

Best Archon Single-Target Build for Shadow Priest

Archon is simple to build; we only have a single DPS choice, and we prefer Sustained Potency for raiding content. Our utility choice does not matter in most content, although most people will prefer using Word of Supremacy and Incessant Screams.

For full build information check out the talents page.

Shadow Priest Talents and Builds

3.

Best Archon Mythic+ Build for Shadow Priest

When it comes to Mythic+ Archon usually opts to take Energy Compression for more AoE damage, but in higher keys you can still use Sustained Potency if pulls are lasting long enough. For utility Word of Supremacy is still vastly superior, and most people will still use Incessant Screams for the small additional AoE-stop.

For full build information check out the talents page.

Shadow Priest Talents and Builds

3.

Best Voidweaver Single-Target Build for Shadow Priest

Voidweaver has a bit more choice involved, although for Raiding, we prefer to run Void Empowerment to smooth out the opener and Voidwraith for more overall damage. If you are in a scenario where you value execute damage significantly more than overall damage, you can consider using Depth of Shadows. You gain about 5% more damage below 20% health, but lose 5% above that threshold comparing this choice.

Void Leech and Embrace the Shadow are both great options. For any fight that has mostly magic damage, you should strongly consider using Embrace the Shadow; otherwise, Void Leech is a good default.

For full build information check out the talents page.

Shadow Priest Talents and Builds

3.

Best Voidweaver Mythic+ Build for Shadow Priest

For Mythic+ Voidweaver, choices are very similar, although usually Depth of Shadows becomes a bit better. Voidwraith is still a good choice, particularly if you want to do more single-target boss focused damage.

Void Leech and Embrace the Shadow are still great choices in Mythic+. If the dungeon has a large amount of magic damage, you should consider using Embrace the Shadow; otherwise, default to Void Leech.

In certain cases you could consider No Escape to help mobs stay within Entropic Rift to get more damage out, but losing Dark Energy might not make this worthwhile to you. Also, keep in mind slowing mobs can sometimes have negative interactions when the tank is trying to position mobs.

For full build information check out the talents page.

Shadow Priest Talents and Builds

The below sections highlight the differences in the rotation specifically for Archon and Voidweaver. Check out the Rotation Guide to see how this all fits together with the base spec.

The main changes for Archon involve where to cast Halo and Mind Flay: Insanity in the rotation.

• Cast Halo in the opener right before Void Eruption. Use this on cooldown after that. Subsequent uses can happen inside of Voidform.
• Make sure to be aware of your positioning so that you hit all targets with each Halo to keep up Resonant Energy. There is a dead-zone on the return Halo of about 10 yards so be sure to always be away from targets if possible.
• Cast Mind Flay: Insanity at high priority if you have 3-4 stacks of Surge of Insanity to make sure you do not overcap.

Voidweaver requires you to have a stricter sequence inside your opener to make sure you make the most of Entropic Rift windows.

• Use Shadow Word: Death at high priority whenever your target has an absorb shield for Devour Matter.
• Use Void Torrent inside of your cooldowns right after you put up your first Devouring Plague to spawn the Entropic Rift.
• Cast Void Blast at high priority if available.
• Try to pool Mind Blast charges a few seconds before casting Void Torrent. This is to make sure you get as many casts off of Void Blast as possible, although is not as important when using Mind Flay builds.