Shadow Priest Guide

📊 Stat Priority

Voidweaver (default): Intellect > Haste > Mastery > Critical Strike > Versatility. This build wants the most Haste of the two — roughly 25–33% single-target (up to ~35% in M+), with Mastery ~13–17% and Crit ~7–14%.

Archon: Intellect > Mastery > Critical Strike > Haste > Versatility, kept more balanced — Mastery ~13–17%, Crit ~15–25%, Haste ~18–20%. Because the two builds value secondaries so differently, many players keep two gear sets (a Haste-heavy Voidweaver set + a balanced Archon set).

• Intellect — always #1; comes from item level, so higher ilvl is almost always the upgrade.
• Mastery: Shadow Weaving — amplifies your spells per active DoT on the target, but only counts Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Touch, and Shadow Word: Madness. Rewards high DoT uptime.
• Haste — more casts, faster DoT ticks, more Insanity. No hard cap.

🎁 Tier Set, Trinkets & Consumables

Tier set (Midnight S1): 2pc — Shadow Word: Madness deals +10% damage and costs 5 less Insanity. 4pc — Shadowy Apparitions and Void Apparitions deal +40% damage. Prioritize the Helm, Shoulders, Chest, and Legs to complete the bonuses; the exact slots matter less than getting 4pc online.

Top trinkets — Raid: Gaze of the Alnseer and Vaelgor's Final Stare (both S-tier; the latter is the best on-use to stack with Voidform). M+: Emberwing Feather (on-use), Shadow of the Empyrean Requiem, Heart of Wind, Sporelord's Mycelial Insignia.

Consumables: Flask of the Shattered Sun · combat potion Light's Potential · Silvermoon Health Potion · feast/food Hearty Silvermoon Parade · Void-Touched Augment Rune · Thalassian Phoenix Oil (weapon oil). Gems: Indecipherable Eversong Diamond (prismatic) + Flawless Quick Amethyst (Haste) / Flawless Masterful Peridot (Mastery) to match your build. Embellishment: Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt (weapon) / Arcanoweave Lining.

🚀 Opener

Pre-cast your DoTs so Mastery: Shadow Weaving is already stacked when cooldowns land, then dump everything into the first Voidform/PI window. Keep Shadowform and Power Word: Fortitude up before the pull. (Voidweaver shown — Archon swaps Void Torrent/Void Blast for Halo.)

1. Pre-cast Vampiric Touch on the boss
2. Cast Shadow Word: Pain
3. Cast Void Torrent to open Entropic Rift (Voidweaver) — or Halo (Archon)
4. Cast Voidform
5. Activate on-use trinkets + combat potion
6. Cast Power Infusion (or buff your ally via Twins of the Sun Priestess)
7. Cast Shadow Word: Madness to spend Insanity
8. Cast Void Volley (Voidform ability)
9. Cast Void Blast / Mind Blast and continue the priority below

⚔️ Single-Target Priority

Builder-spender: generate Insanity with short-CD spells, never overcap, and keep Shadow Word: Madness rolling so Mastery stays high. Refresh DoTs only inside their pandemic window (~30% remaining).

1. Keep Vampiric Touch + Shadow Word: Pain active (refresh in pandemic window)
2. Cast Voidform on cooldown
3. Cast Power Infusion on cooldown (sync trinkets)
4. Cast Halo on cooldown (Archon)
5. Spend Insanity on Shadow Word: Madness if it's down, about to fall off, or you're near the Insanity cap (~35 deficit)
6. Cast Void Volley during Voidform
7. Cast Void Blast while Entropic Rift is up — or before the Rift expires (Voidweaver)
8. Cast Void Torrent to refresh Entropic Rift (Voidweaver)
9. Cast Mind Blast (don't cap charges)
10. Cast Shadow Word: Death in execute range / on absorb-shielded targets
11. Cast Mind Flay: Insanity (while Madness is active) — then Mind Flay as the filler

💥 AoE / Multi-Target Priority

Spread DoTs, then let Psychic Link and Shadow Weaving do the work. Skip manually DoTing anything that won't live ~18s. Decide each pull whether to FUNNEL Madness onto a priority target or SPREAD it across the pack.

1. Apply Vampiric Touch + Shadow Word: Pain to targets that will live (use Tentacle Slam to apply VT to ~6 stacked targets)
2. Cast Voidform on cooldown
3. Cast Power Infusion on cooldown
4. Cast Halo on cooldown (Archon) — strong AoE
5. Spend Insanity on Shadow Word: Madness — funnel a priority target or spread (talent-dependent)
6. Cast Void Volley during Voidform
7. Cast Void Torrent → Void Blast inside the Entropic Rift (Voidweaver) for the cleave payoff
8. Cast Mind Blast (Psychic Link spreads it)
9. Cast Shadow Word: Death as a movement/execute filler
10. Fill with Mind Flay

⏱️ Cooldowns

Missing a Voidform, Power Infusion, or Void Torrent costs more than small gear upgrades. Line your trinkets and potion up with the 2-minute window; use the rest on cooldown.

Power Infusion2 min

Big personal Haste burst. With the Twins of the Sun Priestess talent it ALSO buffs an ally — effectively a second PI for your group, so hand it to your top DPS or healer on heavy windows. Stack it with Voidform + trinkets.

Voidform2 min (talented as your main burst)

Enables Void Volley and amps your Shadow damage / Mastery uptime for its duration. Archon's Perfected Form adds ~5% damage inside it. Your core 2-minute throughput window — align PI and trinkets to it.

Halo~40s (Archon)

Archon-only ring of Shadow damage; cast on cooldown for both ST and AoE. A large chunk of Archon's sustained output.

Void Torrent~30s, 3s channel (Voidweaver)

Channel that opens / refreshes Entropic Rift to full duration. The Rift converts Mind Blast into Void Blast and stacks Voidheart — the heart of the Voidweaver burst loop.

Shadowfiend / Mindbender~3 min / ~1 min

Summoned pet that generates Insanity and chunks damage. Mindbender (talent) is shorter-CD with more total value; pop on cooldown, ideally inside a burst window.

Tentacle Slam2 charges

Applies Vampiric Touch to up to 6 targets (and Madness at reduced value with Maddening Tentacles). Your fastest multi-target DoT setup — don't cap the charges, especially with Void Apparitions.

💚 Defensive Toolkit

Shadow is squishy but well-stocked: a near-immunity in Dispersion, a damage-reducing Fade, and a self-heal in Vampiric Embrace. Pre-plan Dispersion for known raid hits.

Dispersion~2 min

Channel for a massive damage reduction (~75%) and immunity to silence/interrupt effects. Your panic button and the closest thing to an immunity — use it for unavoidable raid spikes. Also reduces threat.

Fade30s

Drops threat. With Translucent Image it becomes a real damage-reduction button (~10%) on a short CD — weave it into recurring raid damage.

Vampiric Embrace2 min

Converts a portion of your Shadow damage into raid healing for the duration. Self + party sustain during heavy AoE phases.

Desperate Prayer~1.5 min

Instant burst self-heal + temporary max-health bump. Emergency top-off.

Power Word: Shieldshort CD

Self-absorb. Pre-shield before predictable hits; cheap and off the global in a pinch.

Flash Heal (Protective Light)—

With the Protective Light talent a Flash Heal grants a damage-reduction buff — a cheap proactive layer between bigger cooldowns.

🧰 Utility & Crowd Control

🗝️ Mythic+ Tips

• Set up packs by spreading Vampiric Touch + Shadow Word: Pain (use Tentacle Slam to blanket ~6 stacked mobs), then let Psychic Link + Shadow Weaving multiply your Madness and Mind Blast across the pull.
• Decide funnel vs spread each pull: dump Shadow Word: Madness into a priority/dangerous target, or spread it when everything needs to die together.
• Don't miss cooldowns — a skipped Voidform, Power Infusion, or Void Torrent costs more than a small ilvl gap. Send PI to your team's top damage on big pulls (Twins of the Sun).
• Use Silence on a focus macro for kicks; Psychic Scream as an emergency AoE stop; Mass Dispel to strip dangerous enemy buffs and dispellable affixes.
• Mind Soothe enables skips; Shackle Undead handles a loose add; Dispersion eats a lethal spike and also dumps threat if you over-pull.
• Voidweaver is the all-rounder for keys (best burst/cleave + highest Haste); Archon when a route favors steady, ramp-free AoE.

⌨️ Macros & Addons

WeakAuras is not supported in Midnight (12.0) — use Blizzard's built-in Cooldown Manager (importable configs on Wago.io). Addons: ElvUI, DBM/BigWigs, Plater (DoT tracking), OmniCD (raid externals).

#showtooltip Silence
/cast [@focus,exists,harm,nodead][@mouseover,harm,nodead][] Silence

#showtooltip Power Infusion
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][@player] Power Infusion

#showtooltip Mass Dispel
/cast [@cursor] Mass Dispel

#showtooltip Shadow Word: Death
/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Word: Death

🚫 Common Mistakes

• Capping Insanity — overcapping wastes generation; spend on Shadow Word: Madness before you hit the ceiling (~35 deficit is the refresh window).
• Letting DoTs (Vampiric Touch / Shadow Word: Pain) drop — that tanks Mastery: Shadow Weaving and your whole damage profile.
• Refreshing Shadow Word: Madness too early — refresh near ~1s left so you don't clip the rolled-over damage and you keep Mastery uptime.
• Manually DoTing trash that dies in seconds — skip anything that won't live ~18s; the GCDs are better spent on burst.
• Hoarding Power Infusion or playing it only on yourself — with Twins of the Sun it should buff an ally too; missing the 2-min cadence is a real DPS loss.
• Forgetting Dispersion / Fade exist — Shadow is squishy; pre-plan your defensives for known hits instead of dying to avoidable spikes.