Utolsó módosítás programmer, ekkor: 2014.06.27.
In this article, we list your Shadow Priest (WoW 4.3) core abilities and how they should
be used together (rotation). We also explain when to use your various
cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that playing
a Shadow Priest will face you with.
The other articles of our Shadow Priest guide can be accessed
from the table of contents on the left.
1. Basic Single Target Rotation↑top
As a Shadow Priest, you should always have
Shadowform active while
DPSing.
The single target rotation for Shadow Priests is based on a rather simple
priority system. It can best be summarised as:
- Apply and maintain
Shadow Word: Pain on the target
- it is automatically refreshed by
Mind Flay, so it should only have to
be applied once.
- Apply and maintain
Devouring Plague on the target.
- Apply and maintain
Vampiric Touch on the target.
- Cast
Mind Blast on cooldown (regardless of how many Shadow Orbs you
have).
- Cast
Shadow Word: Death
- ideally, you should only cast this when the target is below 25% health, as
its damage is then greatly increased;
- it provides you with a small mana return, so it can be used, even if the
target is above 25% health, if you need mana.
- Cast
Mind Flay as your filler spell.
This basic priority does not take into account maximising your
Empowered Shadow buff uptime, because this is largely out of your
control. We do cover the topic in more detail in a
subsequent section that we
highly recommend reading.
2. Basic Multiple Target Rotation↑top
The multiple target rotation depends on how many enemies you are facing
and how long these enemies will live. Use the following guidelines,
but do not hesitate to adapt your playstyle to your particular situations.
2.1. Persistent Enemies
If your enemies will live for a longer period of time, then make use of
the following guidelines:
2.1.1. Against 2-4 Targets
Against 2-4 targets, you should attempt to keep your DoTs up on all of them
(
Shadow Word: Pain and
Vampiric Touch, as
Devouring Plague can
only be on one target at one time) and then proceed with a single target
rotation.
You should cast
Mind Flay in an alternating fashion between the
enemies, so that it refreshes your Shadow Word: Pain on each of them.
Mind Blast should be used on cooldown.
While maintaining your DoTs up on multiple targets, it is best not to use
Dark Archangel and simply maintain your stacks of
Dark Evangelism,
as you will not have very much time to cast any of the spells that are buffed
by Dark Archangel. For more about the general use of this cooldown, read the
section below.
2.1.2. Against 5 or More Targets
Against 5 or more targets, you are better off simply channeling
Mind Sear on one of them or, ideally, on a tank or melee DPS who is in
range of all of them.
2.2. Short-lasting Enemies
Against enemies that will die too quickly for your DoTs to be efficient
(less than 15 seconds or so), you should simply use as many damaging abilities
as you can, such as
Mind Spike,
Mind Blast and
Mind Flay.
If there is a large number of enemies, you can resort to channeling
Mind Sear.
3. Inner Fire Versus Inner Will↑top
You should be using
Inner Fire in nearly every imaginable scenario,
since it increases your spellpower and your DPS.
Inner Will provides a small movement speed increase, so it can be used
in a situation where moving quickly is of the utmost importance.
4. Cooldowns↑top
As a Shadow Priest, you only have one true DPS cooldown:
Dark Archangel. Additionally,
Shadowfiend can also be considered a
DPS cooldown. In the following sections, we will outline their use briefly.
Then, we will cover them in more detail in a subsequent section.
4.1. Dark Evangelism and Dark Archangel
Dark Archangel is your only true DPS cooldown. It consumes your stacks
of Dark Evangelism, granting you a buff that increases all damage you
deal with
Mind Blast,
Mind Flay,
Shadow Word: Death and
Mind Spike by 20%, as well as granting you some mana.
In short, Dark Archangel should be used on cooldown, provided that you can
make good use of the time (you do not need to refresh your DoTs or move).
4.2. Shadowfiend
Shadowfiend deals some damage to the target, as well as granting you
some mana. It should, essentially, be used on cooldown.
4.3. Dispersion
Dispersion is not a DPS cooldown in and of itself (it is actually a
DPS loss to use it), but it has a very important role for Shadow Priests. Its
usage requires more explanation, so please check our
section dedicated to Dispersion.
5. Optional Read: Mastering Your Shadow Priest↑top
Shadow Priests have a relatively simple rotation. However, there are
several things you must understand in order to play your character to
its full potential.
5.1. Shadow Orbs
Shadow Orbs are an integral part of the Shadow Priest gameplay.
Essentially, each time you deal damage with
Shadow Word: Pain and
Mind Flay, you have a 10% chance to generate a
Shadow Orb, up to a
maximum of 3. If you then cast
Mind Blast or
Mind Spike, your Shadow
Orbs will be consumed, increasing the damage of that Mind Blast or Mind Spike
by 10% for each orb that you had.
Additionally, and most importantly, whenever your Shadow Orbs are consumed,
you gain another buff,
Empowered Shadow, that increases all your periodic
Shadow damage by 29%, for 15 seconds. Despite what the tooltip may suggest,
you gain the full 29% increase regardless of how many Shadow Orbs were
consumed.
The key to playing your Shadow Priest optimally is to ensure that your
Empowered Shadow buff has a very high uptime. Generally speaking, if you are
using the rotation we advise above, then you should have 100% uptime on
Empowered Shadow. This is because the buff has a 15 second duration,
Mind Blast has a 6.5 second cooldown (and it should always be used on
cooldown) and Shadow Orb generation rate is fairly good. This ensures that
you will have at least one Shadow Orb each time you cast Mind Blast, thus
refreshing your buff long before it expires.
There is a single situation where you will not easily have the buff up,
namely the start of the encounter. It is up to you to choose between ignoring
the buff for the first few seconds or using an unusual opening rotation to
force a Shadow Orb to spawn. We will detail this in a
subsequent section.
5.2. Refreshing Your DoTs
As a Shadow Priest, a great part of your DPS comes from your 3
DoTs (
Shadow Word: Pain,
Devouring Plague and
Vampiric Touch).
For this reason, you must strive to maintain 100% uptime on all of them.
As a general rule, you should aim to refresh your DoTs just as they
are about to expire (before the final tick of the DoT).
There are a few subtleties that you should understand, though, to maximise
the damage you gain from your DoTs. Namely, you must understand how your DoTs
are affected by your current buffs and procs and you must also understand what
DoT clipping is.
5.2.1. Dynamic Power of DoTs
Your DoTs take into account all of your statistics at the time when the DoT
is cast (this is only important for
Devouring Plague and
Vampiric Touch, though, since
Shadow Word: Pain is updated each time
it is automatically refreshed by
Mind Flay). This means that a DoT cast
while under the effects of self buffs and procs (most importantly
Empowered Shadow and
Dark Evangelism) will be very strong for its
entire duration, even if these buffs and procs expire in the meanwhile.
Conversely, gaining new buffs or procs will not affect the DoTs that you
have on the target at the time. Those DoTs will continue to work based on your
original statistics.
This raises the question of when and how it is best to refresh your
DoTs. For example, is it worth refreshing a weak DoT (that still has more than
a few seconds on its duration) simply because you gained extra buffs? To answer
this question, you also have to understand what DoT clipping is.
The following section should answer all other questions you may have.
5.2.2. DoT Clipping
DoT clipping refers to the action of refreshing a DoT before its final tick
has occurred. If you refresh a DoT while it had 2 or more ticks left, all ticks
except for the final one will be "wasted". The final tick will be added to the
new duration of the DoT (which will, therefore, be extended to include it).
Furthermore, the final tick of the previous DoT, when becoming part of the new
DoT, will be modified to your current statistics, and not the statistics of the
old DoT.
What this means, in simpler terms, is that:
- If you refresh a strong application of a DoT with a weaker one, between
its penultimate and last ticks, the final tick will become weak.
- If you refresh a weak application of a DoT with a stronger one, between its
penultimate and last ticks, the final tick will become strong.
As a result, if your DoTs have been applied under the effects of
Empowered Shadow and
Dark Evangelism, you should refresh them right
before their final tick, unless you are no longer under the effects of these
buffs, in which case you should let them fully expire before refreshing
them.
If your DoTs have been applied without Empowered Shadow, you should
generally refresh them as soon as you gain the buff (even if they have a long
time still left on their durations), as the gain from this buff is great. It
is, however, also possible to simply refresh them before their final tick,
as this will not have a very high impact on your DPS (and this should
generally only happen at the start of the fight).
5.3. More on Single Target Rotation
To better understand how you will put into practice the priority listed at
the start of this guide, we will quickly walk you through it.
You should apply and refresh your DoTs on the target, based on the above
guidelines (essentially, just as they are about to expire). Then, if all your
DoTs are ticking, you should use
Mind Blast as soon as it is available.
The situation will rarely occur when a DoT will need refreshing just as
Mind Blast comes off cooldown, but if it does happen, we recommend casting
Mind Blast first.
Then, when Mind Blast is unavailable and your DoTs do not need to be
refreshed, channel
Mind Flay on the target. When a higher priority
action is needed, simply interrupt your current Mind Flay and perform it.
Indeed, it will prove a sizable DPS increase to interrupt Mind Flay as soon
as you need to cast something else. It is useful to have a cast bar addon that
allows you to see when Mind Flay ticks, as it is most beneficial to interrupt
it right after a tick.
5.3.1. DPSing on the Move
As a Shadow Priest, moving is rather detrimental to your DPS. Other than
moving as smartly as possible, minimising the distance you have to travel,
there are three things you can do while moving:
- Cast
Devouring Plague. Despite the fact that this is a DoT, thanks to
Improved Devouring Plague it deals some instant damage when it is
applied. This makes it your best instant cast spell (after
Shadow Word: Death, when the target is below 25% health), so you should feel
free to spam it even if it the DoT portion of it does not need to be
refreshed.
- Cast
Shadow Word: Death if either of the following is true
- the target is below 25% health;
- you are very low on mana.
- Cast
Dispersion. You should do this only if your mana is low and you
are looking for a time to cast Dispersion where it will have the smallest
negative impact on your DPS.
5.4. Opening Rotation
As you can see from the above sections, maintaining a high uptime on the
Empowered Shadow buff is important. While this buff will be automatically
refreshed for most of the fight without you having to perform any special
actions, the start of the fight is different.
Unless you have the luxury of starting the fight with one or more
Shadow Orbs (from trash mobs before the boss, for example), it will take
a few seconds or more for your first orb to be generated. Therefore, you can
choose whether you want to start the fight by applying your DoTs without the
Empowered Shadow buff (and missing out on the damage bonus) or trying to
force a Shadow Orb to spawn by doing a slightly unusual rotation. Below, we
present you with both options for your opening rotation.
A standard way of opening the fight, that will result in slightly lower
Empowered Shadow uptime:
- Apply
Vampiric Touch,
Shadow Word: Pain and
Devouring Plague
on the target.
- Cast
Mind Blast (unless you were extremely lucky and your first tick
of Shadow Word: Pain spawned a Shadow Orb, you will not gain the Empowered
Shadow buff).
- Channel
Mind Flay until Mind Blast comes off cooldown. At this point,
you will almost certainly have one or more Shadow Orbs present, and from here
on the Empowered Shadow buff should more or less be always on.
A different way of opening the fight, that will ensure a faster generation
of Shadow Orbs and a faster application of the Empowered Shadow buff:
- Apply
Shadow Word: Pain on the target.
- Channel
Mind Flay until you gain a Shadow Orb.
- Cast
Mind Blast.
- Apply
Vampiric Touch and
Devouring Plague.
- Proceed with your normal rotation.
5.4.1. 4-Part Tier 13 Set Bonus
The 4-Part Tier 13 Set Bonus causes your Shadowfiend and Shadowy Apparitions to grant you 3
Shadow Orbs each time they deal damage. Regarding Shadowy Apparitions,
this is entirely out of your control and will just result in being a DPS gain
throughout the fight.
The Shadow Orbs generated by your Shadowfiend, however, can be put to
better use, both at the very start of the fight as well as later on.
At the start of the fight, this set bonus is extremely useful in allowing
you to essentially start with the
Empowered Shadow buff right away. You
should perform an opening rotation like this:
- Cast
Shadowfiend.
- Cast
Mind Blast. This will grant you the Empowered Shadow buff.
- Apply your DoTs to the target.
- Channel
Mind Flay until your
Mind Blast comes off cooldown.
From here, you can continue with your normal rotation.
During the course of the fight, you will obtain higher DPS by using this
rotation each time your Shadowfiend is active:
- Cast
Dark Archangel (with 5 stacks of
Dark Evangelism).
- Cast
Mind Blast.
- Cast
Shadowfiend.
- Cast
Mind Spike.
- Cast
Mind Spike.
- Cast
Mind Spike.
- Cast
Mind Flay (interrupt it as soon as Mind Blast comes off
cooldown).
- Cast
Mind Blast.
- Repeat steps 4-8 until your Shadowfiend runs out.
During this time, your DoTs will not be on the target (remember that
Mind Spike consumes all your DoTs), so you will have to reapply them as
soon as your Shadowfiend runs out.
5.5. Notes on Cooldown Usage
As a Shadow Priest, you have 3 cooldowns. In this section, we will provide
you with everything you need to know about how to use them.
5.5.1. Dark Evangelism and Dark Archangel
Each time you deal damage with
Mind Flay, you gain a stack of
Dark Evangelism, increasing your periodic Shadow damage by 2% per stack,
up to a maximum of 5 stacks.
Dark Archangel is your only true DPS cooldown. It has a 1 minute and
30 second cooldown. Using it consumes all your stacks of Dark Archangel,
providing you with an 18 second buff that increases the damage done by your
Mind Blast,
Mind Flay,
Shadow Word: Death, and
Mind Spike by
4% for each stack of Dark Evangelism that you had. Additionally, Dark
Archangel restores 5% of your total mana for each stack of Dark Evangelism that
you had.
To put it simply, you should use Dark Archangel on cooldown, as many times
as possible during a fight. There are a few things to keep in mind,
however:
- Dark Evanglism buffs the damage of your DoTs, so try to make sure that
your DoTs are always refreshed or applied while you have 5 stacks of the
buff.
- Dark Archangel buffs the damage of your non-DoT spell casts, so make sure
that you are casting as many of these as possible while the buff is active.
Ideally, you should not waste any time refreshing DoTs while the buff is
active.
- Try to use Dark Archangel during
Heroism/
Bloodlust/
Time Warp or other moments when the boss
is taking increased damage.
5.5.2. Shadowfiend
Your
Shadowfiend, as a DPS cooldown, provides a small boost.
Regardless of this, it should still be used more or less on cooldown.
The damage that the Shadowfiend deals is based on your current statistics
(most importantly, your spellpower), so using it when you have procs from
Enchant Weapon - Power Torrent or Lightweave Embroidery is
beneficial.
Regarding
Heroism/
Bloodlust/
Time Warp, the Shadowfiend
benefits from the increased attack speed, but only if it is already summoned
when Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp is cast.
5.5.3. Dispersion
Dispersion is an interesting ability on a 2 minute cooldown. It
provides you with several benefits during its 6 second duration:
- All damage you take is reduced by 90%.
- You cannot be snared or slowed.
- You gain 6% of your total mana each second.
As a drawback, while Dispersion is active you cannot attack or cast any
spells. Your DoTs will still deal damage, though.
Dispersion's uses are two-fold. Firstly, you should use it to avoid dying,
to minimise the damage you take and sometimes to bypass various deadly
encounter mechanics.
Secondly, you should use it as a mana regeneration tool. You will find more
information on this second use in the section below.
5.6. Mana Management
As a Shadow Priest, you are dependant on mana in order to do DPS. Your
DoTs are extremely costly, and mana will be a problem especially on fights
where you are trying to keep your DoTs up on several targets.
Fortunately, you have a variety of means to regain mana.
5.6.1. Dispersion
Dispersion should be used as often as possible, in order to restore
your mana, while sacrificing as little DPS as possible. This means you should
try to use Dispersion during phase transitions or moments where the targets
are not attackable.
Otherwise, make sure you use Dispersion immediately after using
Mind Blast and while none of your DoTs need to be refreshed. In this way,
Dispersion will essentially take the place of
Mind Flay in your rotation,
which is your weakest spell.
Keep in mind, also, that the Dispersion buff can be cancelled, should you
wish to end it early in order to resume DPS or cast some other spell.
5.6.2. Shadowfiend
Your
Shadowfiend will restore mana to you with every attack it
performs. You should be using this as a DPS cooldown, so you will be getting
the mana-returning benefit anyway.
5.6.3. Shadow Word: Death
Shadow Word: Death should normally only be used when the target is below
25% health, as it deals much increased damage at that time.
However, thanks to your
Masochism talent, each time you cast
Shadow Word: Death (and damage yourself with it, which is a natural byproduct
of casting this spell), you instantly gain 10% of your mana. This is a useful
means of mana regeneration when the target is below 25%, but it also means you
can use it when the target is above 25%, if you are running low on mana and
your mana regeneration abilities are not going to be available imminently.
5.6.4. Dark Archangel
Each time you use
Dark Archangel, you instantly gain 25% of your total
mana. Since you are using this ability more or less on cooldown, the mana
return will benefit you passively.
5.6.5. Hymn of Hope
Hymn of Hope is more of a raid cooldown than a person mana regeneration
cooldown. It offers no DPS gains whatsoever to you and, unless the other
healers or the raid leader require you to use it to boost their mana
regeneration, you should not have to use it.
Regardless of this, you should keep it in mind as a last resort.