Shadow Priest DPS Spec, Builds, and Talents (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. Patch 7.2.5 Changes
  • 3. Patch 7.2 Changes
  • 4. Strengths
  • 5. Weaknesses
  • 6. Viability in the Current Patch
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Spell Summary
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Main Resource
  • 3. Basic Abilities
  • 4. Cooldowns
  • 5. ChangeLog
• ×Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Choices
  • 2. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 2.1. Raid Encounters
      • 2.1.1. Single Target & Light Cleave
      • 2.1.2. Surrender to Madness
      • 2.1.3. Mythic+
    • 2.2. For General Use
  • 3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
  • 2. Relic Choice
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Preface
    • 1.1. Shadowform
  • 2. Single Target Priority
  • 3. Multiple Target Rotation
    • 3.1. Persistent Enemies
      • 3.1.1. Against 2-3 Targets
      • 3.1.2. Against 4 or More Targets
    • 3.2. Short Lasting Enemies
  • 4. Cooldowns
  • 5. Important Notes
    • 5.1. Insanity
      • 5.1.1. Generating Insanity
      • 5.1.2. Insanity Generation Modifiers
      • 5.1.3. Insanity Drain
    • 5.2. Voidform and Lingering Insanity
    • 5.3. Void Bolt
    • 5.4. Talent Synergies
      • 5.4.1. Lingering Insanity + Legacy of the Void
      • 5.4.2. Surrender to Madness + Reaper of Souls + Twist of Fate
    • 5.5. Void Eruption and DoTs
      • 5.5.1. Single Target
      • 5.5.2. Multiple Targets
    • 5.6. More on Cooldowns
      • 5.6.1. Shadowfiend
      • 5.6.2. Dispersion
      • 5.6.3. Void Torrent
    • 5.7. More on Talents
      • 5.7.1. Tier 6 Talents
      • 5.7.2. Tier 7 Talents
  • 6. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Mastery vs Haste
  • 2. Gems
  • 3. Enchants
  • 4. Consumables
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Priests
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Shadow Priests
      • 1.2.1. Dispersion Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.2.2. Mind Flay Camera Spin
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Priests
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.3. GTFO
      • 2.1.4. Parrot or Mik's Scrolling Battle Text
      • 2.1.5. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.6. Recount / Skada / Details!
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Shadow Priests
      • 2.2.1. WeakAuras Thread
      • 2.2.2. SPTimers
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Tier 20 Set Bonuses
  • 2. Legendary Items
    • 2.1. Explanations
      • 2.1.1. Anund's Seared Shackles (Wrist)
      • 2.1.2. Sephuz's Secret (Finger)
      • 2.1.3. Mangaza's Madness (Waist)
      • 2.1.4. Heart of the Void (Chest)
      • 2.1.5. Soul of the High Priest (Ring)
      • 2.1.6. Zek's Exterminatus (Back)
      • 2.1.7. The Twins' Painful Touch (Finger)
      • 2.1.8. Mother Shahraz's Seduction (Shoulder)
      • 2.1.9. Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish (Trinket)
      • 2.1.10. Zenk'aram, Iridi's Anadem (Head)
  • 3. Loot Competition
  • 4. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Shadow Priests in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.

The other pages of our Shadow Priest guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

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. Talent Choices

Level	Choices
15	✔ Twist of Fate	? Fortress of the Mind	✘ Shadow Word: Void
30	? Mania	✔ Body and Soul	? Masochism
45	✔ Mind Bomb	✘ Psychic Voice	? Dominant Mind
60	✔ Lingering Insanity	? Reaper of Souls	✘ Void Ray
75	✔ San'layn	✔ Auspicious Spirits	✘ Shadowy Insight
90	✔ Power Infusion	✔ Misery	✔ Mindbender
100	✔ Legacy of the Void	✘ Shadow Crash	? Surrender to Madness

Talents can be freely changed when out of combat and in a rested XP area (such as an inn or a capital city). Moreover, Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind can be used to temporarily allow players to change talents anywhere, as long as they are out of combat.

2. Talent Cheat Sheets

While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.

2.1. Raid Encounters

2.1.1. Single Target & Light Cleave

• Level 15: Twist of Fate
• Level 30: Body and Soul
• Level 45: Mind Bomb
• Level 60: Lingering Insanity
• Level 75: Auspicious Spirits (Critical Strike heavy) OR San'layn (Mastery heavy)
• Level 90: Mindbender
• Level 100: Legacy of the Void

2.1.2. Surrender to Madness

• Level 15: Twist of Fate
• Level 30: Body and Soul
• Level 45: Mind Bomb
• Level 60: Reaper of Souls
• Level 75: Auspicious Spirits
• Level 90: Power Infusion
• Level 100: Surrender to Madness

2.1.3. Mythic+

• Level 15: Twist of Fate
• Level 30: Body and Soul
• Level 45: Mind Bomb
• Level 60: Lingering Insanity
• Level 75: San'layn
• Level 90: Misery or Mindbender
• Level 100: Legacy of the Void

2.2. For General Use

This build is an excellent starting point for questing and general purpose usage.

• Level 15: Twist of Fate
• Level 30: Mania
• Level 45: Mind Bomb
• Level 60: Lingering Insanity
• Level 75: San'layn
• Level 90: Misery
• Level 100: Legacy of the Void

3. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

✔ Twist of Fate

? Fortress of the Mind

✘ Shadow Word: Void

• Twist of Fate grants you a 10-second buff each time you damage a target whose health is below 35%. The buff grants you 20% increased damage and 20% increased healing, and it does not stack.
• Fortress of the Mind causes Mind Flay and Mind Blast to deal 10% more damage and generate 20% more Insanity.
• Shadow Word: Void is an active ability with 3 charges and a 20-second recharge time. It deals Shadow damage to the target, and generates 25 Insanity.

Twist of Fate is the default choice for nearly every fight.

Fortress of the Mind can be the best choice on purely single-target encounters, however, the presence of any additional adds greatly diminishes its potency versus Twist of Fate. It also suffers on high movement encounters, and therefore is a very contextual choice.

Shadow Word: Void can be used to extend Voidform for a more prolonged stretch, however, it does significantly less damage than the other talents. It could serve as a leveling talent, but nothing more.

4. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

? Mania

✔ Body and Soul

? Masochism

• Mania passively increases your movement speed by 1% for every 3 Insanity you have.
• Body and Soul causes Power Word: Shield to increase your target's movement speed by 40% for 3 seconds.
• Masochism causes Shadow Mend's DoT to act as a HoT instead, when cast on yourself, and also causes you to take 10% reduced damage while it is active.

The best choice in this tier is Body and Soul, as it gives you a useful speed boost and the Power Word: Shield also grants you some added survivability. Using it has no drawbacks anymore, now that Power Word: Shield no longer applies Weakened Soul.

Alternatively, you could use Masochism in case you need to use your Shadow Mend on yourself often.

Mania is an entirely passive choice. It can be very useful and will save you occasional global cooldowns, however, the lack of on demand movement can be a problem for high-end raiders. Player's preference; experiment and find what works best for you.

5. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

✔ Mind Bomb

✘ Psychic Voice

? Dominant Mind

• Mind Bomb replaces Psychic Scream. Mind Bomb has a 30-second cooldown and it places a debuff on the target which detonates after 2 seconds (or if the target dies before then), stunning all enemies within 8 yards for 4 seconds.
• Psychic Voice reduces the cooldown of Psychic Scream by 30 seconds.
• Dominant Mind changes Mind Control to allow you to also control your own character during this time (by turning the mind-controlled target into a pet). However, Mind Control can no longer be used against players, and it gains a 2-minute cooldown (up from not having a cooldown).

Mind Bomb is a good default talent; it is very useful in Mythic+ dungeons, and certain raid encounters as well (e.g. Il'gynoth). It also lines up perfectly with Sephuz's Secret if you are using that legendary.

Dominant Mind can theoretically provide a DPS boost in some cases, but it is a very niche talent.

Psychic Voice should not be taken.

6. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

✔ Lingering Insanity

? Reaper of Souls

✘ Void Ray

• Lingering Insanity causes the haste bonus to fade by 2% per second upon exiting Voidform, rather than ending immediately.
• Reaper of Souls allows you to cast Shadow Word: Death on targets below 35% health (up from 20%), and it always generates 30 Insanity as though it had killed the target.
• Void Ray causes Mind Flay damage to grant you a 6-second buff that increases the damage done by Mind Flay by 10%. This effect stacks up to 4 times.

Lingering Insanity is the best option for most situations, as the bonus Haste is very valuable. When paired with Legacy of the Void, a high uptime on the bonus Haste can be achieved.

Reaper of Souls is the best choice if you are playing with the Surrender to Madness talent.

Void Ray should be avoided in its current state.

7. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

✔ San'layn

✔ Auspicious Spirits

✘ Shadowy Insight

• San'layn increases the damage of your Vampiric Touch by 20%, and the healing of your Vampiric Embrace by 20%.
• Auspicious Spirits cause your Shadowy Apparitions to deal 100% increased damage and generate 3 Insanity when they deal damage.
• Shadowy Insight grants your Shadow Word: Pain ticks a 10% chance to reset the remaining cooldown of Mind Blast and cause your next Mind Blast to be instant cast.

Auspicious Spirits is our go-to talent on the tier. While San'layn is not far behind, particularly with Mastery behind priortized after Haste, it takes ~20k Haste for it to displace Auspicious Spirits from being the better option the tier.

Shadowy Insight should not be taken.

8. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

✔ Power Infusion

✔ Misery

✔ Mindbender

• Power Infusion is an active ability with a 2-minute cooldown. It grants you a 25% increase in haste and Insanity generation for 20 seconds.
• Misery causes Vampiric Touch to also apply Shadow Word: Pain.
• Mindbender replaces Shadowfiend. Mindbender has a 1-minute cooldown (down from a 3-minute cooldown for Shadowfiend), and each attack the Mindbender makes generates 8 Insanity.

Mindbender is the best choice for single-target and light cleave. It should be used insight of Voidform whenever possible for the extra Haste, damage, and Insanity generation.

Power Infusion is the best choice for heavy cleave and players utilizing Surrender to Madness. Without Surrender to Madness, you'll want to be able to reliably use it with DoTs on at least 5 targets for it to gain a noticeable edge over Mindbender.

Misery is a good choice when you need to reliably apply pressure to a large amount of short(er) lived targets. It is a good choice for Mythic+ dungeons.

9. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

✔ Legacy of the Void

✘ Shadow Crash

? Surrender to Madness

• Legacy of the Void allows you to active Voidform when you have 65 or more Insanity.
• Shadow Crash is a slow moving projectile that hits all targets within 8 yards for heavy Shadow damage, on a 30 second cooldown.
• Surrender to Madness is an active ability with a 10-minute cooldown. It lasts until you exit Voidform, and during this time all your abilities generate 100% more Insanity that normal, and you can cast while moving. When Surrender to Madness ends, or you run out of Insanity, you die. Horribly.

Legacy of the Void is the strongest choice for most situations.

Surrender to Madness is the best option for very short boss encounters where you will be in Voidform for the majority of the fight.

Shadow Crash is generally not worth the tradeoff, even in heavy cleave and AoE scenarios.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 19 Jun. 2017: Added notes on Auspicious Spirits vs. San'layn
• 14 Jun. 2017: Adjusted talents further (higher priority on Mindbender in low target situations).
• 12 Jun. 2017: Page reviewed and deemed updated for 7.2.5.
• 01 May 2017: Marked Fortress of the Mind with an X (as in, not recommended), updated Surrender to Madness description.
• 28 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
• 14 Jan. 2017: Added a Surrender cheat sheet and time stamps for the end tier talents.
• 10 Jan. 2017: Revamped talent section. Added cheat sheet talent builds and updated talents for Patch 7.1.5.
• 16 Nov. 2016: Updated the Body and Soul description to account for its current movement speed bonus and duration.
• 10 Oct. 2016: Updated Void Ray description, moved Power Infusion to being the recommended choice, and removed a mention about Mangaza's Madness influencing talent choice.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.