Shadow Priest Guide — Class Guides · WoW Wrath of the Lich King

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, Player versus player, Leveling
Top talent: Dispersion
Popular builds: 3
Version: WoW Wrath of the Lich King

How to play

Shadow in Wrath is a damage-over-time caster: Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague tick on the target, Mind Blast hits hard, and Mind Flay refreshes Shadow Word: Pain through Pain and Suffering. Vampiric Touch gives the raid Replenishment, and Misery adds spell hit for every caster.

Keep Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain up, Mind Blast when ready and Mind Flay to fill. Shadow Weaving stacks to five early in the fight. Dispersion restores mana and cuts the damage you take.

Mind Sear hits packs, and Shadow is strong for leveling and in arenas with Psychic Horror and Silence.

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 Wrath of the Lich King.

Rotation and priorities

1Shadowform and Vampiric Embrace on.
2Vampiric Touch kept up.
3Devouring Plague kept up.
4Shadow Word: Pain kept up; Mind Flay refreshes it.
5Mind Blast whenever it is ready.
6Mind Flay to fill; Mind Sear on packs; Dispersion and Shadowfiend for mana.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Replenishment for the raid.
Misery raises spell hit for every caster.
Dispersion makes you hard to kill.

Weaknesses

Slow to ramp up in a fight.
Weak on short-lived targets.
Needs a lot of hit.

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
Hitto 446 rating (17%), less Shadow Focus and Misery
2
Spell power
3
Haste
4
Critical strike
5
SpiritTwisted Faith turns it into spell power
6
Intellect

What to look for

Spell power and hit to the cap, then haste.
Spell power gems in red sockets.
A staff, or a dagger or mace with an off-hand.

Items worth chasing

Phylactery of the Nameless LichA trinket with a big spell power proc.
Muradin's SpyglassA trinket that stacks spell power.
Dislodged Foreign ObjectA trinket that stacks spell power.
Dying CurseA trinket with a spell power proc.

Builds

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

Discipline
Holy
Shadow

Shadow Raider
DamagePvE
1457
14/0/57
Raid damage with 57 points in Shadow, down to Dispersion, and 14 in Discipline.
- Shadowform 1/1
- Vampiric Touch 1/1
- Pain and Suffering 3/3
- Twisted Faith 5/5
- Dispersion 1/1
Glyphs: Glyph of Shadow (major), Glyph of Mind Flay (major), Glyph of Dispersion (major), Glyph of Fortitude (minor), Glyph of Shadow Protection (minor), Glyph of Shadowfiend (minor)
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting
Shadow Gladiator
DamagePvP
2051
20/0/51
Arena and battleground damage with 51 points in Shadow, down to Dispersion, and 20 in Discipline.
- Psychic Horror 1/1
- Vampiric Touch 1/1
- Pain and Suffering 3/3
- Twisted Faith 5/5
- Dispersion 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting
Shadow Leveling
DamageLeveling
1358
13/0/58
Leveling with 58 points in Shadow, down to Dispersion, and 13 in Discipline.
- Psychic Horror 1/1
- Vampiric Touch 1/1
- Pain and Suffering 3/3
- Twisted Faith 5/5
- Dispersion 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Dispersion · top talent, up to 1
You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced and clears all snare and movement impairing effects when cast, and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
Mind Melt · tier 6, up to 2
Increases the critical strike chance of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 4%, and increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain spells by 6%.
Shadowform · tier 7, up to 1
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15%, reducing all damage done to you by 15% and threat generated by 30%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form except Cure Disease and Abolish Disease. Grants the periodic damage from your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells the ability to critically hit for 100% increased damage and grants Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch the ability to benefit from haste.
Shadow Power · tier 7, up to 5
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay, and Shadow Word: Death spells by 100%.
Improved Shadowform · tier 8, up to 2
Your Fade ability now has a 100% chance to remove all movement impairing effects when used while in Shadowform, and reduces casting or channeling time lost when damaged by 70% when casting any Shadow spell while in Shadowform.
Misery · tier 8, up to 3
Your Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch spells also increase the chance for harmful spells to hit by 3% lasting 24 sec, and increases the benefit from spell power gained by your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 15%.
Psychic Horror · tier 9, up to 1
You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 sec and drop their main hand and ranged weapons for 10 sec.
Vampiric Touch · tier 9, up to 1
Causes 450 Shadow damage over 15 sec to your target and causes up to 10 party or raid members to gain 1% of their maximum mana per 5 sec when you deal damage from Mind Blast. In addition, if the Vampiric Touch is dispelled it will cause 720 damage to the afflicted target.
Pain and Suffering · tier 9, up to 3
Your Mind Flay has a 100% chance to refresh the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain on the target, and reduces the damage you take from your own Shadow Word: Death by 30%.
Twisted Faith · tier 10, up to 5
Increases your spell power by 20% of your total Spirit, and your damage done by your Mind Flay and Mind Blast is increased by 10% if your target is afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain.

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.