Shadow Priest Guide — Class Guides · WoW Classic

Damage with Shadow spells, damage over time and Mind Flay, and Shadowform. The usual leveling tree.

A cloth-wearing healer who also deals Shadow damage. Priests heal single targets and groups, shield allies with Power Word: Shield and fight with Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Blast. More about the priest

Class: Priest
Roles: Damage
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Leveling, Player versus player
Top talent: Shadowform
Popular builds: 3
Version: WoW Classic

How to play

Shadow is the priest's damage tree. Shadowform raises Shadow damage and cuts the physical damage you take but stops you casting Holy spells. Shadow Weaving makes the target take more Shadow damage, which also helps warlocks, and Vampiric Embrace heals your party for part of your Shadow damage.

Damage comes from Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Blast when ready and Mind Flay as filler. Spirit Tap makes leveling very efficient: after each kill you regenerate quickly and can pull the next enemy at once. Silence and Psychic Scream keep enemies off you.

In raids a single Shadow priest is valued for Shadow Weaving and Vampiric Embrace, and runs short of mana in long fights. In battlegrounds Shadow is a tough, strong caster.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Classic.

Rotation and priorities

1Shadowform on; Vampiric Embrace on the target in groups.
2Shadow Word: Pain on everything that will live long enough.
3Mind Blast whenever it is ready.
4Mind Flay as filler: it also slows the target.
5Power Word: Shield before a pull while leveling; finish low targets with your wand to save mana.
6Psychic Scream and Silence when something reaches you.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Very efficient leveling with Spirit Tap, shields and a wand.
Shadow Weaving raises the raid's warlock damage.
Vampiric Embrace heals your group for free.
Tough for a caster: Shadowform, shields and Psychic Scream.

Weaknesses

Runs out of mana in long raid fights.
Raids usually take only one Shadow priest.
No healing spells in Shadowform.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Spell damageshadow damage counts
2
Hitto 16% against bosses; Shadow Focus covers 10%
3
Intellect
4
Stamina
5
Spiritregeneration, more with Spirit Tap
6
Critical strikeonly Mind Blast can crit

What to look for

Spell damage first; shadow damage items count too.
Spell hit to 16% against bosses, of which Shadow Focus covers 10%.
A good wand while leveling.

Items worth chasing

Briarwood ReedSpell damage and healing in a trinket.
Neltharion's TearA trinket of spell damage and spell hit.
Talisman of Ephemeral PowerA burst of spell damage on use.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Discipline
Holy
Shadow

Shadow Weaver
DamagePvE
2031
20/0/31
Raid Shadow: Shadow Weaving stacks for every shadow caster, Shadowform and Darkness raise your damage, and Mental Agility keeps instant spells cheap.
- Inner Focus 1/1
- Mind Flay 1/1
- Vampiric Embrace 1/1
- Darkness 5/5
- Shadowform 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Spirit Tap Wanderer
DamageLeveling
1437
14/0/37
Shadow leveling with almost no downtime: Spirit Tap after each kill, a specialized wand to finish targets, then Shadowform and Vampiric Embrace.
- Inner Focus 1/1
- Silence 1/1
- Vampiric Embrace 1/1
- Darkness 5/5
- Shadowform 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Blackout Shadowform
DamagePvP
1536
15/0/36
Battleground Shadow: Blackout stuns, Silence and Improved Psychic Scream control, Martyrdom protects your casts and Shadowform cuts physical damage taken.
- Inner Focus 1/1
- Silence 1/1
- Vampiric Embrace 1/1
- Darkness 5/5
- Shadowform 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting

Key talents

Shadowform · top talent, up to 1
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical damage done to you by 15%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain · tier 2, up to 2
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 sec.
Improved Psychic Scream · tier 3, up to 2
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream spell by 4 sec.
Improved Mind Blast · tier 3, up to 5
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 sec.
Mind Flay · tier 3, up to 1
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 Shadow damage over 3 sec and slowing their movement speed by 50%.
Shadow Reach · tier 4, up to 3
Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 20%.
Shadow Weaving · tier 4, up to 5
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
Silence · tier 5, up to 1
Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 sec.
Vampiric Embrace · tier 5, up to 1
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 20% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 1 min.
Darkness · tier 6, up to 5
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 10%.

Shadow Magic abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.