Shadow Priest DPS Guide (Legion 7.3.5)

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Last updated on Jun 01, 2018 at 13:53 by Furty 261 comments

General Information

Welcome to our Shadow Priest DPS guide for World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. Here, you will learn everything you need to know about playing a Shadow Priest in a raid environment and in Mythic+ dungeons.

About Our Author and Reviewer

This guide has been written by Furty, who has an illustrious history in the World of Warcraft raiding scene and race for World First. He has been a member of guilds such as Serenity, Midwinter, and many more, and is currently raiding in Future. He plays most classes at the highest level. You can follow him on Twitter and watch him play on Twitch.

This guide has been reviewed by Atroxe, a Shadow Priest who plays in Encore, and by DjRiff, a theorycrafter at HowToPriest. You can watch Atroxe play on YouTube and Twitch, and you can watch DjRiff stream on Twitch.

1. Class Overview

Shadow is currently on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to single target damage, but what it lacks in single target it compensates for with its high multiple target damage due to our DoTs. While the spell priority system may seem simple at first glance, the true mastery of your Shadow Priest comes from how well you can perform your rotation whilst also respecting mechanics. Optimizing Insanity generation is absolutely key and it is this Voidform Icon Voidform and Insanity management that allow for an incredibly fun and fast-paced playstyle, when done correctly.

2. Patch 7.3.2 Changes for Shadow Priest

Void Eruption no longer deals a separate damage event for each of your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch on each target. Instead, it deals a single damage event to all targets that have either your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch.
Void Eruption damage increased by 700%.
Shadow Crash cooldown reduced to 20 seconds (down from 30 seconds), Insanity generation increased to 20 (up from 15), and missile speed increased by 60%.
Mind Sear damage increased by 50%.
Heart of the Void now increases Void Eruption's damage by 75% (down from 300%) and heals you for 25% (down from 40%) of the damage done.
Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch damage reduced by 4%.

3. Patch 7.3 Changes for Shadow Priest

Shadow Priest animations for spells have been overhauled.
Can now jump while Levitate is active.

4. Patch 7.2.5 Changes for Shadow Priest

New legendary items added.
Mindbender now generates 8 Insanity per swing (up from 4).
Shadow Word: Pain damage increased by 10%.
Mind Blast damage increased by 13%.
Mind Flay damage increased by 18%.
Void Bolt damage increased by 10%.

5. Shadow Priest Strengths

Great sustained multiple target damage
Provides valuable execute damage
Solid priority target damage, though bad timing can make this untrue
Good self-healing through Vampiric Touch, scaling well with additional targets
Situationally good group utility in the form of Vampiric Embrace

6. Shadow Priest Weaknesses

Weak AoE, both baseline and with talents taken into consideration
Lack of good DPS cooldowns means that Shadow has low burst potential
Weak single target damage

7. Shadow Priest Viability in the Current Patch

Shadow is currently in a good spot for Antorus, the Burning Throne. Shadow's performance on single target is not great, but the majority of the fight design allows us to take advantage of our kit well enough to produce solid numbers. Any time we get to benefit from our DoTs optimally and when we can maintain high Twist of Fate Icon Twist of Fate uptime is when Shadow really shines and shows its strength, and simultaneously Twist of Fate provides us with additional execute damage which is highly valued in a raiding environment.

8. Contents

To make it easy to navigate the guide, we have split it into 12 pages:

Easy Mode: TL;DR to own without reading much;
Spell Summary: see a summary of all your useful spells;
Builds and Talents: learn how to choose your talents;
Artifact Traits and Relics: discover how to level up your Artifact;
Netherlight Crucible Relic Paths: choose the right paths on your Netherlight Crucible;
Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities: master your rotation and your cooldowns;
Boss by Boss Strategies: find out how to defeat current content bosses;
Stat Priority: read up on the respective values of your statistics;
Gems, Enchants, and Consumables: choose the best gems, enchantments, etc.;
Macros and Addons: step up your game with useful macros and addons;
Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot: find the best gear you can wear;
Battle for Azeroth: learn how to play your class in Battle for Azeroth.

Easy Mode⋙

9. ChangeLog

01 Jun. 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Updated to reflect the newest build.
29 May 2018 (Battle for Azeroth page): Page added.
22 May 2018 (spells page): Made a few small tweaks to the page to improve accuracy.
22 May 2018 (this page): Made various updates to the page to bring it up to date with the current state of the game.
22 May 2018 (talents page): Updated tier 4, 5, 6, and 7 talent discussions slightly (no real recommendation changes).
22 May 2018 (gear page): Updated legendary item ranking.
22 Feb. 2018 (this page): Updated viability section.
18 Feb. 2018 (this page): Updated several sections.
06 Feb. 2018 (bosses page): Antorus, the Burning Throne recommendations added.
12 Jan. 2018 (gear page): Updated Heart of the Void tooltip.
12 Jan. 2018 (Netherlight Crucible page): Updated Tier 3 hierarchy to match the changes made to the artifact page.
12 Jan. 2018 (artifact page): Updated relic priority.
30 Nov. 2017 (gear page): Added Tier 21 descriptions, updated legendaries.
30 Nov. 2017 (this page): Added 7.3.2 changes.
30 Nov. 2017 (talents page): Added a new note about Shadow Crash in dungeons.
30 Nov. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Updated Tier 2 and Tier 3 hierarchy.
13 Oct. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Moved Dark Sorrows up in the hierarchy based on recent buffs.
13 Sep. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Updated to match recent rebalancing; updated Tier 2 results based on new data from SimCraft.
12 Sep. 2017 (Netherlight Crucible page): Added Netherlight Crucible page for Shadow Priest.
29 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Redesigned consumables section, added a note about Healthstones in Patch 7.3.
28 Aug. 2017 (enchants page): Added Lightforged Augment Rune and new 7.3 epic gems.
28 Aug. 2017 (stats page): No changes needed for Patch 7.3.
28 Aug. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.3 changes, updated description, strengths/weaknesses, and viability.
28 Aug. 2017 (rotation page): Updated Void Bolt section.
28 Aug. 2017 (talents page): Updated talent tiers 2 and 5 for Patch 7.3.
28 Aug. 2017 (spells page): Fixed typo in the Dispersion section.
20 Aug. 2017 (talents page): Corrected spelling error.
17 Aug. 2017 (gear page): Updated description of Zek's Exterminatus legendary.
06 Jul. 2017 (talents page): Fixed LotV description.
06 Jul. 2017 (this page): Reworded the viability section.
06 Jul. 2017 (artifact page): Added weapon item levels to relic priority.
06 Jul. 2017 (stats page): Tweaked the stat priority.
06 Jul. 2017 (enchants page): Changed neck enchant to Mark of the Claw.
19 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Added notes on Auspicious Spirits vs. San'layn
19 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Added Tier 20 set bonus explanation.
14 Jun. 2017 (easy mode page): Swapped Body and Soul/San'layn/Power Infusion for Mania/Auspicious Spirits/Mindbender.
14 Jun. 2017 (enchants page): Removed Lavish Suramar Feast.
14 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Adjusted talents further (higher priority on Mindbender in low target situations).
14 Jun. 2017 (stats page): Updated stat priority.
14 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Added a few notes about the T20 4-piece bonus. Ready for 7.2.5.
14 Jun. 2017 (artifact page): Minor adjustment to post 35 maxing order.
13 Jun. 2017 (rotation page): Page is not yet completely updated for 7.2.5. More changes to follow very soon.
12 Jun. 2017 (enchants page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5. The stat priority update did not impact the gems, enchants, or consumables.
12 Jun. 2017 (artifact page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
12 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
12 Jun. 2017 (gear page): Added Heart of the Void and Soul of the High Priest to the Legendary items section.
12 Jun. 2017 (easy mode page): Updated stat priority.
12 Jun. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.2.5 changes.
12 Jun. 2017 (spells page): Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
17 May 2017 (rotation page): Fixed drain stacks example to match provided formula.
01 May 2017 (artifact page): Moved Touch of Darkness and To the Pain higher in 7.2 order priority. Added paragraph discussing item levels for relics.
01 May 2017 (enchants page): Removed mention of Potion of Deadly Grace.
01 May 2017 (rotation page): Small update to Power Infusion description.
01 May 2017 (this page): Updated strengths.
01 May 2017 (easy mode page): Removed mention of Auspicious Spirits.
01 May 2017 (spells page): Updated Dispersion description.
01 May 2017 (gear page): Updated positions of Managazas Madness and Anund's Seared Shackles.
01 May 2017 (stats page): Added a mention of Metronome Haste value.
01 May 2017 (talents page): Marked Fortress of the Mind with an X (as in, not recommended), updated Surrender to Madness description.
30 Mar. 2017 (gear page): Updated Zenk'aram, Iridi's Anadem tooltip.
29 Mar. 2017 (enchants page): Added Lavish Suramar Feast.
28 Mar. 2017 (rotation page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
28 Mar. 2017 (talents page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
28 Mar. 2017 (stats page): No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
28 Mar. 2017 (artifact page): Added path for new 7.2 traits.
26 Mar. 2017 (this page): Added Patch 7.2 changes section.
14 Jan. 2017 (enchants page): Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
14 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Added a Surrender cheat sheet and time stamps for the end tier talents.
14 Jan. 2017 (addons page): Added a Mind Flay macro.
14 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Added new legendary items.
10 Jan. 2017 (easy mode page): Small update to easy mode talents for Patch 7.1.5.
10 Jan. 2017 (artifact page): Updated Relic priority for Patch 7.1.5.
10 Jan. 2017 (rotation page): Full overhaul. Revised formatting, updated for 7.1.5, and added additional information.
10 Jan. 2017 (spells page): Patch 7.1.5 update.
10 Jan. 2017 (stats page): Updated stats for Patch 7.1.5.
10 Jan. 2017 (this page): Revamped intro. Added Patch 7.1.5 changes section, added strengths/weaknesses section, and added Viability section.
10 Jan. 2017 (gear page): Updated legendary priority. Made note of Sephuz potency in M+.
10 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Revamped talent section. Added cheat sheet talent builds and updated talents for Patch 7.1.5.
09 Dec. 2016 (easy mode page): Added easy mode for Shadow Priest.
16 Nov. 2016 (talents page): Updated the Body and Soul description to account for its current movement speed bonus and duration.
31 Oct. 2016 (artifact page): Added a mention of how having Mangaza's Madness can affect Relic choice and also added a clarification of how to account for item level differences provided by different Relics.
31 Oct. 2016 (this page): Removed mention of Shadowform always being on, since this was changed in patch 7.1.
31 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Slightly improved the Shadowform mention at the start of the guide.
25 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Added a mention of Shadowform (you should always have it active).
10 Oct. 2016 (talents page): Updated Void Ray description, moved Power Infusion to being the recommended choice, and removed a mention about Mangaza's Madness influencing talent choice.
10 Oct. 2016 (gear page): Updated some mentions about legendary items.
10 Oct. 2016 (artifact page): Updated the Relic priority.
10 Oct. 2016 (rotation page): Made various updates and improvements to account for the repeated changes to Dispersion and Void Torrent.
10 Oct. 2016 (enchants page): Updated the page to reflect that Haste gems should be taken in all slots.
25 Sep. 2016 (rotation page): Updated the page to account for the fact that you no longer gain Voidform stacks while Dispersion and Void Torrent are active.
19 Sep. 2016 (enchants page): Updated neck enchants to Mark of the Hidden Satyr.
15 Sep. 2016 (stats page): Updated the stat priorities.
29 Aug. 2016 (gear page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (this page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (talents page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (artifact page): Added.
29 Aug. 2016 (stats page): Updated for Legion's launch.
29 Aug. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for Legion's launch.
30 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Updated trinket and set bonus recommendations.
19 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Corrected the duration of Vampiric Touch from 24 to 18 seconds, which was a change that came in a recent hotfix.
18 Jul. 2016 (gear page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (stats page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (this page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (rotation page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (addons page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (enchants page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
18 Jul. 2016 (talents page): Updated for the Legion pre-patch.