style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The
Basics

Shadow Priests, like any other cloth DPS currently in game, are bound
to the role of ranged DPS (sorry to kill your dreams of being a melee
Priest). However it is very rare to see a Shadow Priest make the top of
any damage meter. While Shadow Priests have come a long way since
vanilla WoW, they are still in need of some tweaks to improve their
DPS. Don’t be disheartened though; while you won’t
be topping the damage meter, you won’t be last either. Keep
your DoT’s up, know when to use your various spells, and
above all stay alive and you will push out some relatively competitive
numbers.



Now that we have gotten past the rather nasty news that Shadow Priests
still are in need of some fixes to help them compete for top damage,
let me share the secret that most people seem to forget. Shadow Priests
are usually not brought to raids just for their DPS. /GASP! You as a
Shadow Priest are being brought to raids for the various buffs you can
provide that make everyone else’s raid experience oh so much
more pleasant.



A single Shadow Priest can provide a debuff a lot like a
Warrior’s Mortal Strike (Mind Blast), give mana (Vampiric
Touch) and health (Vampiric Embrace) back to some of your raid members,
and increases the hit chance for the entire raid (Misery). As you can
see, while a Shadow Priest will never put out the numbers a mage or
warlock can, keeping one in the raid is a very good idea. Plus you get
to do all this in Shadow Form, which makes you into a sort of shadow of
yourself and increases your Shadow damage, reduces your threat and
damage taken.

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Item
Stats and Bonuses

As a Shadow Priest you are going to want to stack Spellpower whenever
you can. Love it, own it, gem for it, you can never go wrong with
Spellpower. There is no ceiling on how much Spellpower you should/can
have, so stack it till you can’t stack anymore.



Hit for the Shadow Priest is all important. If you are constantly
missing the mobs, you aren’t doing damage, which reduces you
to nothing more than a shadowy lump taking up a raid spot. Since the 1%
miss cap has been removed from spells with the introduction of patch
3.0, 17% hit is required for a naked, untalented Priest to never miss
on a raid boss.

style="width: 600px; height: 238px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77671">

Don’t panic though, as you won’t be untalented or
(hopefully) naked, meaning you will only need to reach around 11% hit
(10% with a Draenei in the group). This should be easy to do with the
amount of hit Blizzard has made available on Shadow Priest gear.
Sticking close to hit cap should always be in the back of your mind
when choosing gear. Don’t be too far under or too far over,
since both will hamper your damage in the end.



Since you won’t really need to be stacking hit thanks to the
amount currently available on the gear you can easy pick up, you should
be looking into Haste and Crit. While there is really no set amount of
Crit and Haste you should have, both are important to the Shadow
Priest. Loosely 1 Spell Power is worth around 0.7 Crit, or 0.7 Haste.



Unlike Disc or Holy Priests, Intellect and Spirit are pretty much
worthless for the Shadow Priest. Both stats will be on the gear you
pick up, but unless you have no other choices you should never gem or
enchant for these stats. You will gain more than enough from the gear
you pick up.

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Talents

As a Shadow Priest you are going to want to pick up as many DPS talents
as possible. A good skeleton (not fully filled out) build to start with
is href="http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=5&tal=0503000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000325020251003012023152301350"
target="_blank">8/0/51.
After you have picked up all the DPS talents available you will have
roughly 12 points to play with. These points can be placed in the mana
regen talents (I.e. Meditation, Veiled Shadows, Dispersion) , or
utility talents (Psychic Horror, Improved Power Word: Fortitude,
Improved Power Word: Shield) based on your personal preference.



 Don’t be afraid to try things out, swap up your
points and find out what works best for you. For those of you who would
rather just be told straight up what spec to use, one of the most
common specs for Shadow Priests is href="http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=5&tal=0503203000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000325023051223012023152311351"
target="_blank">13/0/58.
This spec has all the max damage talents, plus a few utility and mana
regen talents to help you along the way.

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Shadowform

style="float: right; width: 250px; height: 350px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77667">Shadowform
is what makes Shadow Priests unique from all other casters. Much like a
druid shifting into bear or cat, a Shadow Priest in order to do the
maximum damage needs to shift into Shadowform before every fight. Once
in Shadowform the Priest will turn into a shadowy form of him or
herself. Shadowform increases Shadow damage, reduces all damage done to
the Priest and reduces the threat generated by the Priest, and gives
the periodic damage from the Priest’s Shadow Word: Pain,
Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch the ability to critically hit for
100% increased damage.



Speccing into Improved Shadowform (2/2) gives the Priest even more
advantages. Improved Shadowform gives the Priest’s Fade
ability a 100% chance to remove all movement impairing effects and
reduces casting or channeling time lost when damaged by 70% when
casting any Shadow spell in Shadowform.



As with all things, there is a downside for the Priest in Shadowform.
Once in Shadowform the Priest will no longer be able to cast Holy
spells. This means that the Priest loses the ability to heal
themselves, forcing them to rely on others to do it for them. Not all
is lost, the Priest can still cast important spells such as Cure
Disease, Abolish Disease, and even throw Shields if they are in a fix.



If Shadow Priests finds themselves in a situation where they
must heal, they simply have to drop out of Shadowform. However it
should be remembered that doing this takes a large amount of mana, and
their healing will be severely gimped. Popping out of Shadowform should
only be done in the utmost emergencies.

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Spell
Rotation

Unlike most other classes, Shadow Priests do not have any spell
rotation that is set in stone, however, there is a simple priority list
that can be stuck to that cano help maximize your damage. The list is
as follows:



Vampiric
Touch

Devouring
Plague
style="font-style: italic;">
Mind
Blast

Mindflay



Cast Shadow Word: Pain on the boss only after debuffs such as Curse of
Elements, Scorch, etc are placed on the boss. If you have the Glyph of
Mindflay, you should only need to cast Shadow Word: Pain once per
fight. Shadow Word: Pain should only be recast if there is a change in
your % of crit, or a change in your % of damage.. If you do not have
the Glyph of Mindflay (and you really should) Shadow Word: Pain will
need to be applied every time it runs out.

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Helpful
DPS Tips

Do not cut short your DOTs. Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague are the
only two you really need to worry about. Get a DOT timer that shows
exactly when your DOTs will expire. Also pick up a good cast bar that
estimates latency within the cast. It will take a little getting used
to, but eventually you will avoid falling victim to loss of damage due
to lag.



While throwing DOTs on everything in sight (multi-dotting) may seem
like an easy way to improve your DPS you may be surprised to find it
could actually hurt it. Many factors need to be taken into
consideration such as time to live on your secondary target, the Global
Cooldowns you will use to place the DOT on the secondary target, and
several others. If you feel the situation is ideal for multi-dotting be
sure that Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch do not fall off as both
will result in DPS lower than that on a single target. Also watch your
mana, and never forget your other priorities such as using Shadowfiend,
or moving out of fire.



As a Shadow Priest be prepared to be in a continuous cast. If you
aren’t casting something you are wasting DPS. If everything
is on cool down use Mind Flay until something else becomes available.
You will find that Mind Flay will become your bread and butter as a
Shadow Priest.



Mind Flay is a channeled spell, and as such it can be broken by
movement, or by accidentally (or intentionally) clicking a new spell.
Since Mind Flay is so low on the priority list, you may be tempted to
break the channel, or cast another spell before the channel ends. This
is a mistake! Never, ever break Mind Flay before the second tick unless
faced with some impending doom.



Shadow Word: Death is a great spell to be used while running, but
otherwise can be thrown in based on the Shadow Priest’s
personal preference. However it should be used with caution, as you can
kill yourself with this spell. Using this while at low health is a very
bad idea.



During heavy movement fights the priority system should change, instant
casts should be organized so they are the spells being cast while you
are moving. Down time should be used to cast Mind Blast and Mind Flay.



Always ask yourself: Is my Inner Fire up?


style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Aggro
Management

Part of any DPS class’s job is to make sure they do not pull
aggro from the tanks. Pulling aggro can get you, and possibly the rest
of your raid killed. Get a threat meter, learn to use it, and keep your
eye on it at all times. If you find that you are close to pulling
aggro, don’t fret, Priests have the ability to use Fade which
drops the Priest’s aggro for a short time, allowing the tanks
to hopefully pull ahead. Keep in mind that once Fade wears off all your
aggro will come back in full.



Knowing your tanks is a very important part of aggro management. If you
raid with the same tank for a long period of time you will
instinctively know how hard you can push before pulling aggro from
them. You should also learn if they need a few seconds before they peak
at max threat generation once a mob is pulled. If this is the case, pre
fading and casting will give you higher DPS results than simply
standing around during that time.

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Mana
Regeneration

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/77670"> style="border: 0px solid ; float: right; width: 250px; height: 168px;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77670">Mana
is of course very important to a Shadow Priest. Without it you
can’t cast any of your damage spells and are rendered fairly
useless. Unlike their healing counterparts, Shadow Priests do not rely
on Spirit and Intellect for their mana regeneration. Instead Shadow
Priests make use of a series of talents such as Meditation and Vampiric
Embrace to aid them along the way.



Shadow Priests also have access to Shadowfiend. This should be used on
every cool down without hesitation. Since most Shadow Priests have 2
talents in Veiled Shadows, Shadowfiend is only on a 2 minute cool down
and can usually be used several times during any boss fight.



Dispersion is also common for Shadow Priests to be specced into,
allowing for one more mana regaining talent. Dispersion allows the
Priest to regenerate 6% mana every 1 second for 6 seconds, but the
Priest is unable to attack or cast any spells. This talent is also on a
2 minute cool down and could be used in between Shadowfiend cool downs


style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Consumables

To be the best you can possibly can be, come to raid prepared with the
right consumables. Flask of the Frost Wyrm should always be used,
combined with a Fish Feast, or if not available use Shoveltusk Steak or
it’s fish equivalent. Finally, bring Wild Magic Potions;
these should be used during Bloodlust/Heroism.

Glyphs

Common Major Glyphs used by Shadow Priests include:



Glyph of Shadow

Glyph of Dispersion

Glyph of Mind Flay



Minor Glyphs are limited but include:



Glyph of Levitate

Glyph of Shadowfiend

Glyph of Shadow Protection

Glyph of Fading

Glyph of Fortitude

style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Macros

Casts Mind Flay unless already channeling Mind Flay:



#showtooltip
Mind Flay
style="font-style: italic;">
/cast
[nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay ;



Cast Mind Blast unless already channeling a spell:



#showtooltip
Mind Blast
style="font-style: italic;">
/cast
[nochanneling] Mind Blast ;
style="font-style: italic;">


Cast Mind Blast/Vampiric Embrace/Shadow Word: Pain/Mind Flay



/castsequence
reset=combat/target Mind Blast, Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: Pain,
Mind Flay



Activates Inner Focus and recasts Shadow Word: Pain



#showtooltip
Shadow Word: Pain
style="font-style: italic;">
/script
UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
style="font-style: italic;">
/cast
Inner Focus
style="font-style: italic;">
/script
UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
style="font-style: italic;">
/cast
Shadow Word: Pain
style="font-style: italic;">