This guide is primarily for healers who need to not fail at their Shadow off-spec. This is not a guide for people trying to be the best-of-the-best at DPS.
Current through Patch 4.2.
Contents
Spells
PewPew Spells
Spell Name What it Does More Info Shadow Word: Pain DoT Can auto-refresh with mind flay if talented (Pain and Suffering) Devouring Plague DoT Heals you a little too Vampiric Touch (talented) DoT (short) Keep it on the target to proc Replenishment when Mind Blast hits Mind Flay (Shadow Priest only) Channeled Direct Damage that slows movement speed Stacks Evangelism. Counts as "periodic damage" for certain buffs. The slow feature is pretty useful. Mind Blast Direct Damage Longish cooldown. Used to proc both Empowered Shadow and Replenishment Mind Spike Direct Damage Short cast time, no cooldown. Primarily for trash. Strips dots off the target. Shadow Word: Death Instant Direct Damage that also does damage to the priest Longish cooldown. Don't kill yourself with it. Mind Sear Channeled AOE Buffed in 4.1 to be viable on 3+ targets.
Shadow Orbs and Empowered Shadow (Very Important)
It’s a bit of a tricky mechanic, so here we go…
- Every time you hit Mind Flay (or SW: Pain ticks), you can proc a Shadow Orb. You can have up to 3 Shadow Orbs.
- Then you can use Mind Blast or Mind Spike to consume the orb(s)
- Consuming the orb(s) boosts the damage of Mind Blast or Mind Spike by 10% per orb (this is higher at higher levels, due to mastery).
- Consuming the orb(s) also gives Empowered Shadow: a 15 second buff to all periodic damage (i.e. all dots and Mind Flay). The Empowered Shadow buff is the same regardless of how many orbs are consumed.
Now, you want to stay in Empowered Shadow state at all times. Duh. But you also want to cast Mind Blast as often as possible, because it is awesome. Apparently, in math-land, you’re supposed to just cast Mind Blast on cooldown, regardless of the orb situation. However, keep an eye on your dots. Make sure you are casting your dots before Empowered Shadow drops off.
Using Shadow Word Death WITHOUT Killing Yourself
Shadow Word: Death does lovely damage, is an instant, and, with talents, gives you mana and does not do huge damage to you.
But first, if you want to use SW:Death, you gotta take the talents:
- Pain and Suffering -reduced damage from SW:Death
- Masochism – mana return
- Mind Melt – increases damage done on targets under 25%
Otherwise you’re just putting strain on the healer, sucking down your OWN mana too fast, and not doing as much damage as you could be.
Now that you have these wonderful talents, you STILL can’t Shadow Word: Death with reckless abandon. Killing yourself with this spell just screams “I’m a noob!” It’s embarrassing.
- Check your own health before doing SW:Death!
- Know the fights when a damage spike is coming
- Don’t abuse the glyph.
This last one is a biggie. If you have the glyph that resets your cooldown on SW: Death, you’ll go WHEEE DAMAGE and hit it twice. If the first hit doesn’t kill you, the second one might. Be extra careful with the glyph.
Further Reading
- WOWInsider: On the Subject of Shadow Word: Death
DoT Use
(Dark) Evangelism and Empowered Shadow both increase your periodic damage. Therefore, you should only put up or refresh dots when:
- Evangelism is at 5 stacks; and
- Empowered Shadow is up.
Dots don’t clip anymore, so you can refresh a wee bit early, before the last tick. Remember, Shadow Word: Pain should refresh with Mind Flay, so once you get going, you really only have to worry about refreshing Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch.
Mind Spike Use
Mind Spikes are nice little bursts of damage that eat up all your dots on the target. For this reason, it’s good to use on trash or when you WANT to make sure there are no lingering dots on your target.
AOE and You
Mind Sear damages the enemies around the central target. (It currently damages the hostile central target as well as the enemies around it. This might be a bug.)
You can also make a friendly player the central target! You can center your Mind Flay on a tank or melee DPS and go to town, or center it on a hostile target.
… but follow these “rules”:
- 4 or more mobs. Otherwise, try to dot up the targets individually. AND…
- Do not let your Empowered Shadow OR Evangelism stacks drop off. Seriously.
Further Reading:
Base Rotation
Rotation is what you do on a boss mob to get perfect DPS. The stars align, you never have to move out of the bad, you never get targeted by the ick… oh wait, yeah, you do.
With that in mind, try to stick to rotation, but use your common sense. Don’t get fuzzled if your rotation goes off the rails.
Without further ado, here’s what the spell priority is:
- (Be in Shadowform)
- SW: Pain (SW: Pain will auto-refresh with Mind Flay)
- Mind Blast with one or more orbs up
- Devouring Plague
- Vampiric Touch
- Mind Blast on CD without any orbs
- SW: Death
- Only at 25% or less UNLESS you need mana
- Takes priority over mind blast with zero orbs up at under 25%
- see section above on NOT GETTING DEAD
- Archangel (see below)
- Shadowfiend (see below)
- Mind Flay
This is the basic rotation without using trinkets and other assorted nonsense.
Starting Rotation
Again, I leave this up to the math people. Elitist Jerks has 2 recommendations, depending on personal preference.
1. Shadow Word: Pain » Vampiric Touch » Devouring Plague » Mind Blast » Mind Flay until Dark Evangelism
This approach prioritizes getting the dots ticking at the start of the encounter.
2. Shadow Word: Pain » Mind Flay (until orbs) » Mind Blast » Vampiric Touch » Devouring Plague » Mind Flay
This approach attempts to force an orb and get both evangelism and empowered shadow up as soon as possible.
Remember, too, starting slowly is not necessarily a bad thing. You want to make sure that the tank has firm aggro before really unloading.
Archangel, Shadowfiend, Mana, And You
Archangel and Shadowfiend are great dps abilities and should be used on cooldown, once you have all your dots up. However, if you are starting out a fight, you want to wait until you’re lower on mana before using them for the first time. After all, you do not want to waste the mana returns.
Practice
Go to a dummy. The goal for the rotation is for it to be automatic and an easy routine that you fall into.
That way, in combat, you’re not focusing on what you need to do next to maintain your rotation. You’re focusing on how best to modify your rotation to fit your circumstances.
Cooldowns
| Spell Name | What it Does | Castable in Shadowform? | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Divine Hymn | Extremely powerful channeled AOE heal | No | Use it every boss fight. |
| Leap of Faith | Yanks your friendly target to you. | No | Easier to use by prearrangement than to use on the fly. |
| Fade | Sheds Aggro temporarily | Yes | Good for when you're getting roflstomped |
| Dispersion | Makes you near-immune to damage, gets you out of snares, and gives mana. | Yes | Yes, the roflstomping thing. Also, mana. Can be cancelled early via a macro. |
| (Dark) Archangel (Disc Talent) | A boost to direct damage spells and a mana return | Yes | Use it or lose it! |
| Shadowfiend | Bites the ankles of the boss for extra DPS and mana return | Yes | Use it whenever it's off cooldown, but wait at the beginning of the fight until you need a little mana. |
I’m A Dark Angel
Use Dark Archangel ONLY if you have 5 stacks of Evangelism. Every 90 seconds, consume your stacks, and you get:
- 20% damage boost for 18 seconds (to Mind Flay, Mind Blast, Mind Spike, and SW: Death, not dots)
- 25% mana
What’s not to like? Use it whenever it’s off cooldown, but be smart about it.
- Remember, you lose your Evangelism stacks which means you lose the buff to dots. Make sure to refresh your dots BEFORE you hit Dark Archangel, and do not refresh again until your Evangelism stacks are back up.
- Don’t click it right before a heavy running phase.
Dispersion – License to Stand In Bad (not really)
This cooldown can help your healers by keeping you from taking unavoidable damage. However, once the damage spike is over, unless you need the mana from dispersion, you’d best get back to DPSing. Use a /cancelaura Dispersion macro to cancel Dispersion early.
Wait, I’m Supposed to Use Healing Cooldowns?
Yes. Divine Hymn is a raid cooldown that may turn the tide of a battle. Let the healing coordinator choose when you should use it.
Leap of Faith? How the Eff Does That Work?
It’s really hard, in a raid situation, to figure out who is in a bad position and would be better off in YOUR position. Most times, if someone is running from something awful, you sure as hell don’t want to bring the person, and consequently, the awful, near YOU.
However, some people have been able to use it effectively as a tank cooldown to get the tank out of the bad or kite a mob, etc. This would need to be done by prearrangement, or it is damn disconcerting.
TL;DR – it’s hard to use on the fly, but you can use it as a planned maneuver in a particular boss fight if the situation warrants.
(I still think it’s Leap of Fail, but I have been shown the error of my ways. Other people seem to like it for things OTHER than griefing your group members…)
Further Reading:
Buffs
| Spell Name | What it Does | Target | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power Word: Fortitude | More Stamina | AOE on Group/Raid | Does not stack with the evil warlock imp. |
| Shadow Protection | Shadow Resist | AOE on Group/Raid | Does not stack with pally shadow resist aura. |
| Fear Ward | Absorbs one fear effect | Single Target | Lasts 3 min, Cooldown of 3 min, useful in PvP or on the tank in certain encounters. |
| Levitate | Target levitates over ick and falls slower. | Single Target | You think this isn't a buff? I'll let you FALL next time. |
| Vampiric Embrace | Self-buff to trickle health to you and friends when you do single-target damage | Self only | The trickle is pretty slight. |
| Inner Fire | Self-buff for armor and spellpower | Self only | Does not stack with Inner Will |
| Inner Will | Self-buff for movement speed and mana reduction on instant spells | Self only | Does not stack with Inner Fire. Does not stack with movement-enchants (such as boots). |
Inner Will versus Inner Fire
When do I use Inner Will and when do I use Inner Fire? Generally speaking, the thoroughput of Inner Fire combined with the survivability of its armor boost make it a solid choice. You won’t miss the speed boost too badly if you have a boot enchant that gives a minor run speed increase. Inner Fire is better for solid DPS.
However, if you find yourself in an encounter where you’re hopping around like a coked-out ferret throwing mostly instants, or a fight that involves a lot of movement, then Inner Will is probably better.
Inner Will is also nice for learning an encounter. The speed boost gives you a little more wiggle-room when you’re unfamiliar with when to start running out of the bad. Once you are more comfortable getting out of the bad without a speed boost, then you can swap over back to Inner Fire.
Pro tip: Use Inner Will when running back from a wipe.
Mana Regeneration
| Spell Name | What it Does | Castable in Shadowform? | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shadowfiend | Bites the ankles of the boss for mana | Yes | A Macro helps. |
| Hymn of Hope | Mana for lowest-mana raid members. Channeled. | No | Hard to find time to channel it. |
| (Dark) Archangel (Disc Talent) | Consumes Evangelism stacks for 5% per stack (total 25% with full stacks) | Yes | This should be used every cooldown, but only with 5 full stacks. The cooldown is 90 sec. |
| Dispersion | Gives you mana back AND prevents you from taking damage. | Yes | It will cause a DPS loss, but may be worth it. 6% mana x 6 sec = 36% mana. Can be glyphed for lowered cooldown. |
| Shadow Word: Death + Masochism | Gives you mana back when you hurt yourself with Shadow Word Death. | Yes | You will be using SW:D a lot in the last 25% of a boss's health. |
| Replenishment | Mana for the entire group | Yes | You'll proc it by doing your standard rotation (Mind Blast while VT is on the target) and everyone will love you |
Getting the Most out of Your Shadowfiend
OK, you want to pop Shadowfiend early because it’s a nice DPS boost and you might get a second chance to pop another later, but not too early so that your mana gains are wasted.
To get the most out of your Shadowfiend:
- First hit Shadowfiend and immediately swing into Hymn of Hope. (Don’t do it the other way around or you’ll interrupt your Hymn of Hope channel by casting Shadowfiend and feel like a moron.) See, Hymn of Hope raises your maximum mana by 15%. Shadowfiend returns a set percentage of mana. Soooo if your maximum mana is higher, you get more out of the fiend.
- Use a Shadowfiend Macro to make sure the stupid thing is attacking when it’s released.
- Release the Shadowfiend before Heroism, Bloodlust, or Time Warp is hit. The fiend will hit faster and give you more mana! But if you release the fiend after the buff has already been activated, it does not benefit.
Cleansing
No excuses! You’ll cleanse and you’ll like it. Mostly you’ll be called upon to cure disease, since not all healers can do that.
| Spell Name | What it Does | Castable in Shadowform? | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cure Disease | Cures Disease | No | Depending on the disease, sometimes it's cheaper to just heal through it. |
| Dispel Magic | Cleanses magic debuffs from self or from an enemy. Does not cleanse friendly targets. | Yes | You may be asked to use this on boss fights if there is no mage to spellsteal. |
| Mass Dispel | AOE: Cleanses friendly or hostile targets. | Yes | It's pretty mana-expensive and the targeting circle is a pain. |
Crowd Control
You’ll be doing a bit more crowd control than your healing brethren. Study up.
| Spell Name | Works on... | What it Does | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shackle Undead | Undead | Immobilizes and prevents attacking (including casting) Breaks on damage. | Limited use, depends where you are. |
| Mind Control | Humanoids | Controls a hostile target. Channeled. | In a tight spot, you can crowd control a healer mob and fulfil your healing duties using their mana. |
| Mind Soothe | Humanoids | Reduces aggro radius. | ... so you can get closer to mind control |
| Psychic Scream | Everyone | AOE fear | Unless you want to pull the whole instance, get the glyph. |
| Psychic Horror (Talented) | Everyone | 3 sec horror, and a 10 sec disarm | Not a long-term solution to extra mobs |
| Silence (Talented) | Everyone | 5 second silence, also an interrupt | 2-point prereq for this talent. |
Talents
Talent Evaluations
The Talent What it does Evaluation Mandatory Improved Shadow Word: Pain Increases damage of SW: Pain Shadow Word: Pain should be up at all times. Twisted Faith Minimal damage increase, and converts spirit to hit Even if you don't have a healing offspec, this is the easiest way to get hit capped. Shadowform Increases damage done, decreases damage taken, and gives a raid-wide haste buff Uh, duh. Yes. Vampiric Touch A third hot. Plus you need it to proc replenishment Harnessed Shadows Increased chance to proc a shadow orb. You need at least one shadow orb every 15 seconds to keep up your Empowered Shadow buff. Shadow orb generation is unpredictable. Pain and Suffering Mind Flay refreshes Shadow Word Pain and your damage taken from SW: Death is reduced This saves GCD in refreshing SW: Pain and makes SW: Death more viable in a rotation Vampiric Embrace A trickle of health for you and your raid every time you single target dps. Health return is great. Also, it's a prereq for Vampiric Touch Dispersion Makes you near-immune to damage and returns mana An excellent and indispensable cooldown. Good Evangelism (Disc) Stacks to increase damage for your periodic damage You take these 2 and like it. I have yet to see a shadow priest spec without these. Archangel (Disc) Consume Evangelism stacks to gain mana buff to direct damage spells. Masochism Mana return from attacks of more than 10% health. Mana return from your own SW: Death recoil. Mana is good. Duh. Mind Melt Increases damage done by SW: Death on targets below 25%. Casting Mind Spike gives a cast time reduction to Mind Blast. The last 25% of a fight is sometimes the most bursty. This helps. Shadowy Apparition SW:Pain ticks can proc mini-you's that run over to the boss and explode Extra damage for no effort, and they're very cute. Improved Devouring Plague A burst of damage on application of Devouring Plague Honestly, what's not to like? Useful (solid boosts to DPS) Twin Disciplines (Disc) Increases damage by 6% Duh. Yes please. Mental Agility (Disc) Reduces mana cost of instant spells All dots, Pw: Death Darkness Haste (3% for 3 points) Haste is one of our better stats. YMMV (Depends on your role, gear, and regular raid makeup) Veiled Shadows 1 minute shaved off the Shadowfiend Cooldown Very nice for extra mana. Shadowfiend also provides a little dps. Improved Mind Blast Reduced cooldown on Mind Blast and target takes reduced healing Because of dot and orb juggling, it is rare that you will get to cast mind blast exactly when it comes off cooldown. Points can be stolen from this talent. Psychic Horror 3 second horror effect, plus 10 second disarm This may be useful or not, depending on what you do. Long cooldown. Silence Silences the target 2 prerequisite points make it a hefty investment. Long cooldown. Sin and Punishment Puts a nasty horror on a dispeller of your Vampiric Touch. Also lowers the cooldown on shadowfiend whenever mind flay crits. The mind flay/shadowfiend part is the PvE use. It depends how often you crit and what your mana situation is. Phantasm Cancels movement-impairing effects when you fade Could be very nice for certain boss encounters. Paralysis Immobilizes the target for 4 sec on Mind Blast crit Could be useful for leveling or for slowing (along with other raiders' slowing effects) Improved Psychic Scream Cooldown reduction on psychic scream It's not much of a cooldown reduction. Only take this if you plan to take Silence. Inner Sanctum Boost to speed of Inner will and armor of Inner Fire It's a matter of personal preference whether these buffs will save you from the bad. Not Recommended Anything in the Holy Tree ... because it is seriously fail for shadow.
Shadowy Apparitions and Movement
Shadowy Apparitions are awesome. They go forth and pwn your target, and you don’t have to lift a finger beyond your normal rotation.
However, they have a better proc chance when you’re moving. This means that you don’t lose as much DPS when you’re running out of the bad. It also means that the clever shadow priest can jump around while casting instants. It can only improve your dps! (And people just thought you were being annoying.)
Sample Specs
There isn’t that much wiggle-room, as you’ll see. I have never seen a recommended spec that does not include Evangelism/Archangel, so that’s 8 points in the discipline tree right there.
- Ensidia recommends
- Base Talent Spec from EJ with optional 2 points
- Rades’s Spec (with silence)
Glyphs
The ones marked with * are mandatory. The ones in parentheses are not recommended.
| Type | Glyph | What it Does | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Shadow Word: Pain* | 10% damage boost to SWP | Solid, mandatory, damage boosts. |
| Mind Flay* | 10% damage boost to Mind Flay | ||
| Shadow Word: Death | When target is below 25% you can SW:D and the cooldown resets | This glyph is limited to firing once every 6 sec, so essentially it's 2 SW:D for the cooldown of one. Firing off 2 SW:D at once might also kill you. | |
| Dispersion | Reduced cooldown on dispersion | Useful if you are having mana issues | |
| Major | Spirit Tap* | Mana return after killing | Recommended for leveling. Also good for doing dailies, heroics, and PvP. |
| Psychic Scream | Instead of running all over, your targets stand in place crowd controlled | Makes Psychic Scream viable for PvE | |
| Psychic Horror | Lowered Cooldown | If you use psychic horror a lot, might as well | |
| Scourge Imprisonment | Lowered cast time on Shackle | Currently, not many things to shackle, but that could change in coming xpacs | |
| Fade | Reduced cooldown for fade | Situational. Are you an aggro monkey? | |
| Inner Fire | Buffs your inner fire armor bonus | Situational. You might want it for the increased damage of hardmodes. | |
| Mass Dispel | Lowered Cast time | Can't hurt to get the ick off people faster. It takes a while to place the targeting circle. You might also be using this ability offensively. | |
| (Dispel Magic) | A small heal on your dispel target | You can't dispel magic on friendly targets (except self) since 4.1. Failsauce. | |
| (Fear Ward) | Reduced cooldown by 30 sec | Lousy and near-useless in PVE | |
| Minor | Fading* | Lowered fade cost | This is one of the rare minor glyphs that helps you IN COMBAT |
| Levitate* | No reagent | Running out of reagents is embarrassing. | |
| Shadowfiend | 5% max mana if dies from damage | It's not likely to die from damage anymore. | |
| (Shadow Protection) | Increase duration by 10 mins | The duration is 1 hour already. Fail. | |
| (Fortitude) | Reduce mana cost | It's been reduced in a recent patch, so it's not significant. |
Stats
Stat priority is thus, according to Kilee’s Guide.
Intellect » Haste (up to 2588 or 2140) » Mastery » Hit/Spirit (up to hit cap) » Crit
Elitist Jerks has a slight variation on this. It prioritizes hit (up to cap) before haste and does not concern itself with haste break points.
Intellect » Hit/Spirit (up to hit cap) » Haste » Mastery » Crit
As EJ is quick to remind you, run everything through SimulationCraft to double check that the priorities hold true as you acquire new gear.
Haste
Extra Dot Ticks From Haste
When you get to a certain haste, instead of your dot ticks getting closer together, you get an extra tick. In theory, this will give you more DPS – not because the DoTs will tick for more (they won’t), but because you will need to refresh them less often (less opportunity for user error). The problem is that we have 3 different dots to take into consideration, and their haste points don’t line up.
Haste Threshold that is not a Cap
If we’re going to pick a dot to get an extra tick on, it’s going to be Vampiric Touch. The magic number is 2588 haste (2140 with Dark Intent). Hitting this point makes VT go from 13 seconds back up to 15. In your rotation, refreshing this less often is a small DPS increase and refreshing it less often will be less of a pain in the ass. (Devouring Plague is much longer, so the shortened duration or extra dot tick is less of a big deal there. And SW: Pain will be auto-refreshing itself.)
This extra tick is not enough of an increase to sacrifice, say, intellect, or gem straight haste for. It’s just something to consider as your haste starts getting close to this number.
Further Reading:
- Wowinsider The Mechanics of Shadow Priest Haste
- Shadowpriest.com Why Haste Plateaus Don’t Exist
- Cynwise’s Calculating DoT and HoT Sweet Spots
- Hots & DOTS: Dots and Haste
- Spriest Blog: Dot and Hot haste calculator
Hit
Hit Cap
Hit Cap is 17% (1742 hit). Although hit has a lower stat weight than Haste, for example, you still need to get reasonably close to hit cap. If you miss a lot, it will screw up your rotation and hurt your dps (a dot might fall off if the recast misses). However, anything over 17% is a total waste.
It is perfectly OK to prioritize hit over other secondary stats until you’re within spitting distance of hit cap.
Spirit=Hit
All things being equal, if you need more hit, pick spirit over hit (for gems, enchants, etc). After all, it’s a one-to-one ratio, and spirit can be used in your heal set, whereas hit is quite useless.
Gearing
Pick gear based on the stat priority, above. Generally the highest ilevel gear is the better choice (because you can tweak your stats with reforging), with a few caveats:
- It is better to spend your hard-earned valor points on an item that works for both your specs rather than just one spec
- Between two pieces of the same ilvl, pick the one that has native haste or mastery, depending on whether you are above or below the haste break point.
Reputation, Justice Points, Crafting, Heroics, and Other Gear Choices
To get a solid gear foundation:
- Do all the quests in Twilight Highlands and you will get a few key ilvl 333 pieces without setting foot in a dungeon.
- Do Hyjal (revered) and Therazane (at least honored) for the appropriate enchants.
Afterward, take a look-see at the loot lists and go from there.
I’m not going to tell you what to do first, because it completely depends on what your most needed gear slot is, and after a few lucky drops, your priorities will suddenly shift. I will say that before grinding up rep, spending your Justice Points, or having something crafted, LOOK at all that is available, and make a tentative outline of where to get your stuff.
Further Reading
- Anexxia at Bible of Dreams has written many Shadow Priest gear lists. Find them under the Gear Category.
- Saga at Spellbound has a complete list of Cataclysm Reputation Gear
Reforging
Intellect can’t be reforged. Boo. Otherwise:
- Get close to hit cap via spirit or hit. According to EJ, it’s not vital to actually be at hit cap.
- Reforge the rest based on the priority above.
Further Reading
Enchants
Pick enchants based on the stat priority above (seems reasonable enough). You need Hyjal rep (Revered) for the hat enchant, and Therazane (Honored or Exalted) for shoulders.
For raiders, I recommend a speed boost on the boots to help get out of the bad. It’s worth the stats that you might give up. Sure, you can get something similar with Inner Will, but you may not want to use Inner Will for that particular encounter.
The list below has all the best enchants for the class/spec, but also cheaper options if you can’t spend the maelstrom crystals. I’ve included both the haste and mastery options, and you’ll pick based on how close you are to the haste break point.
| Slot | Enchant | What it Does | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head | Arcanum of Hyjal | +60 intellect +35 crit | Revered with Hyjal |
| Shoulder | Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone | +50 intellect +25 haste | Exalted with Therazane |
| Lesser Inscription of Charged Lodestone | +30 intellect +20 haste | Honored with Therazane (Get Exalted ASAP) | |
| FelfireInscription | +130 intellect +25 haste | Inscriptionist Only | |
| Cloak | Greater Intellect | +50 intellect | |
| Lightweave Embroidery | +580 intellect for 15 sec proc | Tailor Only | |
| Chest | Peerless Stats | +20 all stats | Requires Maelstrom Crystals (3) |
| Mighty Stats | +15 all stats | ||
| Bracers | Mighty Intellect | +50 intellect | Requires Maelstrom Crystals (2) |
| Greater Speed | +65 haste | Requires Maelstrom Crystal (1) | |
| Speed | +50 haste | ||
| Draconic Embossment - Intellect | +130 intellect | Leatherworker only. (And what priest is a leatherworker?) | |
| Hands | Greater Mastery | +65 mastery | Requires Maelstrom Crystals (2) |
| Haste | +50 haste | ||
| Mastery | +50 mastery | ||
| Belt | Ebonsteel Belt Buckle | +socket | Crafted by blacksmiths, usable by everyone. |
| Legs | Powerful Ghostly Spellthread | +95 intellect +55 spirit | Crafted by tailors (usable by everyone) |
| Sanctified Spellthread | +95 intellect +55 spirit | Tailor only. Same effect as spellthread usable by everyone, but materials are cheaper. | |
| Feet | Lavawalker | +35 mastery run speed boost | Requires Maelstrom Crystal (1) |
| Haste | +50 haste | ||
| Earthen Vitality | +30 stamina run speed boost | +30 stamina isn't great, but the speed boost utility is good for raiding, if you can't afford Lavawalker. | |
| Ring | Intellect | +40 intellect | Enchanter Only |
| Off-hand | Superior Intellect | +40 intellect | |
| Weapon | Power Torrent | Proc 500 intellect for 12 seconds | Requires Maelstrom Crystals (4) |
| Hurricane | Proc 450 haste for 12 seconds |
Gems
For Shadow it is recommended to use red gems exclusively for the +40 intellect, and to not match a socket bonus, unless the socket bonus is at least +10 intellect. When matching a socket, use:
Your meta gem requires 3 red gems so it’s a win/win.
If you still need hit, it’s best to reforge to get the hit (spirit) you need, rather than regem to it. However, you may need to gem differently to balance out your stats if you’re mixing and matching your healing and shadow gear sets.
| Color | Gem | Stats |
|---|---|---|
| Meta | Burning Shadowspirit Diamond | +54 intellect +3% crit damage |
| Red (for any red slot or a slot of another color where the socket bonus is sucky) | Brilliant Inferno Ruby | +40 intellect |
| Orange (yellow slot) | Reckless Ember Topaz | +20 intellect +20 haste |
| Artful Ember Topaz | +20 intellect +20 mastery | |
| Purple (blue slot) | Purified Demonseye | +20 intellect +20 spirit |
Making Your Healing Gear Set Work For Shadow
Step 1: Assess Your Gear
You’re not creating a set from scratch. Pull out your best gear that you have, which is probably your heal set, and put it on. See where your stats are.
Step 2: Strategic Pieces to Fill In Gaps
There’s no way you’re going to be able to create 2 perfect distinct gear sets, unless you raid a hell of a lot and have no life… and guild mates willing to just hand over gear to your shadow spec over the protests of frothing warlocks and mages. The best you can do is to have some pieces that you can swap in to fill in the gaps.
A good way to get said pieces: Rep gear. You can buy 2 versions of the same item: one for your main set and one for your off-set. You can reforge, enchant, and gem the off-set piece to your liking. Also, look at the cloth pieces that you shunned for your main set that have hit on them.
What would be a terrible mistake is to take a significant drop in ilvl on a slot. If your pants are a purple, do not swap in a blue for your shadow set, no matter HOW much freakin haste the blue has.
Step 3: Tweak the Strategic Pieces, Leaving alone the pieces of your regular healing set
You may need to reforge, enchant, or gem the pieces you pick up so that gaps in your healing set are filled in for shadow purposes. (Likely you’ll need MOAR HASTE.)
Professions
Elitist Jerks has a nice breakdown, but in the TL;DR version:
- Crafting professions give us +80 intellect, give or take, from profession bonuses.
- The bonus from Mining is pretty dang useless
- Skinning gives some crit, which is OK but not great.
- Herbalism does have a nice haste buff from Lifeblood. Lifeblood is NOT on the GCD and can be easily added to a macro and paired with any of your spells.
Consumables
Use a Flask of the Draconic Mind. Period.
If your raid places down a feast, just use it. If there’s no feast, whatever you can get your hands on to increase a useful stat, in order of preference listed above for gear (isn’t this easy?). You may pick spirit over intellect until you’re comfortable with your regen.
Although every little bit of stat counts, you’ll be eating after every freakin wipe. There will be a lot of wipes. You may go through a stack 0f 20 in one night. Unless you’re in a hard core raiding program, don’t break the bank on food.
Further Reading
- Upyursh has a list of Cataclysm Food Buffs and Flasks (though the ingredients for the flasks are out of date)
Addons
Raid Frames
Yes, you still need raid frames even if you’re not healing. Most healers use Vuhdo or Grid, with a few using Healbot and others using more generic frame replacement, such as Xperl, Pitbull, or Shadowed Unit Frames. I strongly recommend Vuhdo or Grid because I think they are the most configurable to see what healers generally need to see. P.S. Grid is better.
What to Track On Your Raid Frames
You should be able to show:
- Who has a bad thing that you can cleanse
- Raid debuffs, preferably with stacks and a timer (for knowing whom to avoid, etc)
Not a lot compared to what you need to see as a healer, but you can’t just do away with raid frames. If you use Grid, check out the grid page for how to show these statuses in your frames. For other addons, there are guides linked to the healer addons page.
Notifications and Timers
Several Choices
Look, there is no RIGHT answer for how to track your stuff. Some people do fine with the default UI. Some people like a lot of auditory noises. Some people like bars, some like icons, and some like battle text. Check out the Addons for All Classes Page and figure out what will work for you.
What to Track with Your Notifications and Timers
You need to track:
- your DoTs (REALLY IMPORTANT)
- when you have certain auras (like Evangelism stacks)
- when stuff procs (like Shadow Orbs)
- when stuff comes off cooldown (like Dispersion)
How you track this all is your business. If you decide to go with Power Auras, I have some strings posted that you can start with.
Recommendation: ForteXorcist
A good all-in-one that tracks cooldowns and dots is Fortexorcist. It is particularly well suited to Shadow Priests and Warlocks. It can be configured to show your dot ticks as well.
Further Reading:
Shadow Priest Resources
- Elitist Jerks Shadow Priest Guide
- Ensidia’s Shadow Priest Guide
- Kilee’s Shadow Priest Guide at Shadowpriest.com
- How To Priest : PvE Guide
- Power Aura Page for sample power auras
- Macro Page for some useful macros
- Posts Tagged “Shadow Priest“