MoP Shadow Priest Guide
- Introduction
- Abbreviations
- Spell Changes
- Races
- Talents
- Glyphs
- Gear
- Stats & Reforging & Enchants
- Professions & Consumables
- Playstyle & Rotation
- Interface
- Macros
Introduction:
Welcome to my Shadow Priest guide for Mists of Pandaria! Shadow Priests have had a lot of changes since Cataclysm, mainly the lovely change to shadow orbs making them consistent and not rng like they were in Cata. Also with the removal of Dark Evangelism and Empowered Shadows our atrocious ramp-up time is now gone meaning full damage from the start which also helped out AoE greatly since we no longer have to maintain those buffs while using Mind Sear for an extended period of time.
Abbreviations
CC – Crowd Control
DoT – Damage over Time
DI – Divine Insight
DP – Devouring Plague
DPET – Damage Per Execute Time
FDCL – From Darkness, Comes Light
(G)CD – (Global) Cool Down
LoF – Leap of Faith
MB – Mind Blast
MF – Mind Flay
MS – Mind Sear
MSp – Mind Spike
PP – Pseudo Power or Stat Weightings
SO – Shadow Orb
SoD – Surge of Darkness
SW:D – Shadow Word: Death
SW:I – Shadow Word: Insanity
SW:P – Shadow Word: Pain
Tick – The part of your DoT that inflicts damage
ToF – Twist of Fate
VE – Vampiric Embrace
VT – Vampiric Touch
Spell Changes:
A lot of our spells have changed for Mists of Pandaria, I have noted the important changes below.
Mind blast - Now on an 8 sec CD and generates 1 shadow orb
Shadow Word: Pain: Now also deal initial damage on application
Vampiric Touch: Now also provides 2% max mana return each tick
Devouring Plague - Now requires shadow orbs to be cast and consumes them for increased effect
Shadow Word: Death - Now only usable under 20%, generates 1 shadow orb
Vampiric Embrace - Now a 3min CD healing dividing 50% of your single target damage as healing to all party/raid members
Mass Dispel - Now on a 15 sec CD
For maxing in PvE there are 5 options:
Alliance:
For Alliance you have 2 options:
Worgen:
With the 1% Crit and the racial sprint Dark Flight Worgen is the best of the Alliance races
Draenei:
With the 1% passive hit you're able to put pick up less gear or reforge less into spirit/hit/expertise and get more haste/crit/mastery as well as the racial heal Gift of the Naaru which is decent but nothing exceptional.
Horde:
For Horde you have 3 options:
Troll:
With Berserking providing 20% haste for 10 sec and Beast Slaying providing 5% extra damage vs "Beast" enemies
Goblin:
With the Time is Money Racial providing 1% haste and the Rocket Jump which provides great movability
Undead:
The new racial introduced in MoP Touch of the Grave giving our damaging abilities a chance to deal additional shadow damage, which scales with shadowform. Provides roughly 2% overall damage
All these racials over an entire fight are pretty close, though if you are in need of focused burst damage troll is the obvious pick otherwise it's down to personal preference.
The Talent Tree System has changed dramatically for Mists of Pandaria, you should find yourself changing some of the talents depending on the encounter.
Tier 1 - Void Tendrils:
Void Tendrils; This is what I use 99% of the time since you're able to root some mobs on certain fights and it's the only viable pick for PvE
Psyfiend; Never used in PvE rarely anything it works on and if you can fear it the chances are its better to root it with Void Tendrils.
Dominate Mind; So far there haven't been anything you're able to mind control in raids which renders this ability completely useless on any boss
Tier 2 - Body and Soul:
Body and Soul; Is what you will be using on pretty much every single fight except if your strategy revolves around having Angelic Feather's places for extensive kiting of mobs by a tank.
Angelic Feather; Only really used in specific cases revolving around kiting mobs for an extended amount of time.
Phantasm; No use what so ever in PvE, doesn't work on anything in raids.
Tier 3 - FDCL/Mindbender:
From Darkness Comes Light; Use this 100% of the time as soon as you're able to multi dot! On single target FDCL and Mindbender are relatively close so it comes down to personal preference if you want to play a static gameplay or more dynamic with proc's.
Mindbender; Use this instead of FDCL on single target fights if you want a more static gameplay.
Shadow Word: Insanity; Currently the worst of the 3 talents, never really used.
Tier 4 - Angelic Bulwark:
Desperate Prayer; Can be good but it's a wasted GCD which makes Angelic Bulwark more viable.
Spectral Guise; Not really worth anything since you can't really do any fancy stuff with it on any encounter.
Angelic Bulwark; The best choice in this tier, passively proc's an absorb shield when you go below 30% health without spending a GCD.
Tier 5 - ToF/DI:
Twist of Faith; This is the talent you want to use on almost every fight. It will result in lower initial damage but skyrocket when you hit 20% remaining hp, additionally on most fights you're able to proc this off of adds or you can snipe it with a Prayer of Mending on a low health raid member
Power Infusion; The worst talent of the 3, it's okay if you need to burst in a short amount of time but overall it comes out lower than the others.
Divine Insight; Coming out relatively close to ToF, DI is good on fights where you are able to multi dot a lot but the downside is having proc's from both FDCL and DI can be really hectic and on multi target fights where DI would be and option the chances are that you would be able to have a really good uptime on ToF which provides overall stronger dot dmg on on every target and not just instant Mind Blast and better shadow orb generation. But basically if you like the really hectic and dynamic gameplay that having FDCL and DI at the same time provides you can go for it since it's still really close to the FDCL+ToF spec since you will be generating more shadow orbs thereby doing more Devouring Plague casts.
Tier 6 - Halo:
Cascade; Not worth it compared to Halo
Divine Star; Not worth it compared to Halo
Halo; Does by far the most damage of the 3 talents in this tier and should be picked any time.
Major:
Required:
Glyph of Mind Flay - The movement increase from this glyph is just invaluable as soon as you have to move just a tiny bit on any encounter.
Glyph of Dark Binding - The ability to PoM/LoF/Renew without leaving shadowform is just as if not even more invaluable than the Mind Flay glyph just because you are able to use those utility spells without ever leaving shadowform
Encounter/Spec based:
Glyph of Mind Spike - If you run the FDCL talent
Glyph of Mass Dispel - On certain encounters you need to Mass Dispel some buffs and having a 0.4 cast is a lot better than having 1.5 sec cast time on it
Glyph of Vampiric Embrace - Very situational, discuss this with your healer team, if they believe the burst healing is needed on certain encounters use it otherwise don't.
Glyph of Fade - If you aren't running FDCL and you don't need to Mass Dispel/VE heal use this to mitigate more damage.
Minor:
Completely up to you
For the entire BiS Pre-Raid and BiS Raid list checkout:
H2P BiS Pre-Raid
H2P BiS Raid List
Intellect > 15% (5100 rating / 4760 for Draenei) Spirit/Hit/Expertise > Haste > Crit > Mastery
Stat Weights:
Int = 1.0000
Spirit = 0.5932
Spell Power = 0.8153
Hit = 0.5932
Crit = 0.4068
Haste = 0.7546
Mastery = 0.3751
For extensive info on Stat Weights visit:
H2P Stat Weight Info
Twintop's Stat Weight info
Enchanting
Shoulders:
* Greater Crane Wing Inscription - Created by a level 600 Scribe.
Back:
* Enchant Cloak - Superior Intellect - Created by a level 525 Enchanter.
Chest:
* Enchant Chest - Glorious Stats - Created by a level 575 Enchanter.
Wrist:
* Enchant Bracer - Super Intellect - Created by a level 600 Enchanter Revered with The August Celestials.
Hands:
* Enchant Gloves - Greater Haste - Created by a level 525 Enchanter.
* Enchant Gloves - Superior Mastery - Created by a level 575 Enchanter.
Waist:
* Living Steel Belt Buckle - Created by a level 600 Blacksmith Honored with The Klaxxi.
Legs:
* Greater Cerulean Spellthread - Created by a level 575 Tailor Honored with Golden Lotus.
Feet:
* Enchant Boots - Pandaren's Step - Created by a level 575 Enchanter.
* Enchant Boots - Greater Haste - Created by a level 550 Enchanter.
Weapon:
* Enchant Weapon - Jade Spirit - Created by a level 600 Enchanter Revered with Shado-Pan.
Off Hand:
* Enchant Off-Hand - Major Intellect - Created by a level 575 Enchanter.
Reforging
Below SWP-2 Haste Breakpoint (8085 Haste)
Int > Spell Power > Haste > Hit=Spirit > Crit > Mastery
Above SWP-2 Haste Breakpoint (8085 Haste)
Int > Spell Power > Hit=Spirit > Crit > Mastery >= Haste
The goal is to reach the Hit cap without going below 8085 Haste Rating. Find gear where you can convert Mastery or Crit into Haste and do that. Then try to convert all the Mastery to Spirit/Hit/Expertise. If you're still under Hit cap then reforge any remaining pieces with Crit into Spirit or Hit.
Gemming;
Meta = Burning Primal Diamond = (216 PP) + 3% crit damage
Red = Brilliant Primordial Ruby = (160 PP)
Blue = Purified Imperial Amethyst = (174.912 PP) OR Sparkling River's Heart = (189.824 PP)
Yellow = Reckless Vermilion Onyx = (200.736 PP) OR Quick Sun's Radiance = (241.472 PP)
Veiled's Best Professions by PP
Though the general consensus is that Engineering and Tailoring is mostly the 2 best because of the on-demand glove enchant, rocket boost and such coupled with the potential to stack it with Lightweave and get a greatly buffed DP/Fiend out, as well as refreshing dot's prior to these huge Int buffs fading.
You should always use the following consumables to maximize your damage:
Flask: Flask of the Warm Sun
Food: Mogu Fish Stew
Potion: Potion of the Jade Serpent
Before the pull make sure you have flask & food buff on;
Pre pull Opener:
Use Potion of the Jade Serpent
Start VT cast so it hits the sec the tank pulls
Mind Blast
(Halo @ 25 yards range)
Fiend
SWP
VT
Regular "rotation"
Single Priority list:
#1 - DP with SOx3
#2 - MB
#3 - SW:D below 20%
#4 - Halo / Shadowfiend / Mindbender
#5 - MSp (FDCL) / SW:I (SW:I)
#6 - SW:P / VT
#7 - MF
Multi Target Priority List:
3-5 targets
Halo on CD @ 25 yards range
Dots
Mind Sear
More than 5 targets
Halo on CD @ 25 yards range
Mind Sear
Personally I've always gone by the philosophy that the better you're able to track your dots and procs the more you can optimize your play, this is the basic logic behind my UI also having my raid frame in the middle of my screen being able to fast PWS/LoF/Mending/FH etc to save people, because the "good" in a player doesn't just come from being able to do dmg or do healing but having great awareness and be able to do that extra thing in situations where it's between life and death in a progress situation.
The most important addons in my opinion are:
Forte Xorcist - Dot tracking
Power Auras - Buff/Debuff tracking
Rangedisplay - Displays your estimated range to your target which is really relevant in MoP with Halo being most effective at 25 yards
Halopro Alternative to Rangedisplay
To cancel the speed increase from the Mind Flay Glyph to be able to use rocket boost
Cast Inner Fire if you don't have any Will active and Inner Will if you are in Inner Fire and Inner Fire if you are in Inner WillCode:#showtooltip /cancelaura Glyph of Mind Flay /use 6
Dispersion macro with built-in shift mod to cancel itCode:#showtooltip /castsequence Inner Fire, Inner Will
Cancel levitate and any parachute effect you might not want to have on.Code:#showtooltip /cancelaura [mod:shift] Dispersion /cast Dispersion
Code:/cancelaura levitate /cancelaura Parachute
Useful links:
HowToPriest everything you'll ever need
Twintop that little extra
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