Shadow Priest DPS Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

In The War Within, Shadow Priest continues on the builder-spender design while also having some interesting damage over time and AoE mechanics. The talent tree offers ways to build your own Shadow Priest, where you can choose between two different core cooldowns ( Void Eruption or Dark Ascension) and then capping it off with thematic Idol spells aligned to the Old Gods. The spec has lots of options, and playstyle can vary widely depending on the talents, so there is a lot to talk about!

Strengths

• Flexibility with cooldown style choice.
• Powerful sustained priority target AoE damage with Psychic Link and Voidform.
• Great self-healing through Mental Fortitude, Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague, scaling well with additional targets.
• Access to one of the best single player external DPS cooldown, Power Infusion. Can now be given away easily with Twins of the Sun Priestess.
• Archon and Voidweaver are both competitive Hero Talent options in all forms of content.

Weaknesses

• DoT management can require a lot of focus and can be reliant on Shadow Crash hitting correctly to deal reasonable AoE damage.
• Lots of spells and abilities, which could be overwhelming depending on talents.
• Need to plan out movement specifically, cannot just stop casting whenever you want for optimal damage.
• One of the weaker specs when it comes to mitigating damage taken without losing DPS.
• Poor interrupt for PvE content.
• Struggles dealing damage to short-lived enemies.
• Average Single Target damage.

If Shadow Priest sounds interesting to play and you would like to level a fresh Priest, check out the leveling guide below to get you to the end-game with ease!

After getting to max level, or once you feel more comfortable with the spec, you should check out the suggested Addons page to get started on mastering your Shadow Priest.

Shadow Priest gameplay combines the basic builder-spender idea used in other specs while twisting in being an active DoT class with lots of cooldowns to use. The basics of the rotation involve getting as much uptime as possible on your cooldowns while making sure to keep up all 3 of your DoTs on as many active targets as possible, especially Devouring Plague.

If you are new to Shadow Priest, or maybe just want a quick start guide to the spec, we suggest first looking through the Spell Summary first, as well as the Easy Mode page linked below. This will get you up and running on your Shadow Priest in no time!

If this is not your first time playing Shadow Priest, you can jump right into the Talents and Rotation sections of the guide to start mastering the ins and outs of playing your Shadow Priest in a PvE environment.

Starting at level 71 you gain access to brand new Hero Talents. This is where you get to pick between Archon or Voidweaver. The Hero Talents page goes over this choice and talks about strengths and weaknesses of Archon and Voidweaver.

While gearing these days can seem overwhelming or challenging, there are a few things to remember will make this process a bit less painful. Check out the gearing page to decide what pieces to aim for from various forms of content.

With any gearing setup, if you are looking to optimize your character, you should always ensure you are using the correct consumables, gems, enchants, and more on your Shadow Priest. All the little things can add up to a noticeable difference in damage! The stats page goes over each stat in-depth and why we like (or do not like) each secondary enhancement.

Once your character is prepared, you can dive into various forms of end-game content. We have dedicated pages for Raiding, Mythic+, and PvP, depending on what you are interested in. Each one will go over various talents and build changes that are best for that content. Our Raiding, Mythic+, and PvP guides can help you maximize your character for each environment, regardless of your focus on end-game content.

For Season 1 of The War Within we will be diving in to Nerub-ar Palace. Check out the guide below for specific builds and talents for each boss.

If you are struggling to perform on your Shadow Priest, we have compiled a list of mistakes and how to overcome them on your Shadow Priest, as well as general questions answered on the FAQ page. You can also try simulating your character to make sure you are using the optimal build for your character.