Everything You Need To Know: Shadow Priest TBC

priests are taught to be faithful worshipers of holy magic and while some remain steadfast in their quest others stray to the darkness shadow priests use sinister magic to torture the minds of their victims while granting their allies incredible combat enhancements the first definitive feature of a shadow priest is a translucent ghastly appearance known as shadowform shadowform increases your shadow damage dealt by 15 it also increases your threshold for physical pain reducing the physical damage you take by 15 to achieve this form you must completely forsake the light rendering you unable to cast any holy spells while it's active you're able to shift in and out of this form freely but during combat you'll almost always want to be in shadow form in a little bit we'll discuss the rare situations where you may want to consider switching out of shadow form even during combat moving on to the spells you'll be using as a shadow priest there's none more important than vampiric touch it deals decent damage over time with an incredible effect while your target is under the effect of vampiric touch you gain mana equal to 5 of the shadow damage that you deal now that's really good considering that in vanilla shadow priest's biggest weakness was mana but it gets even better when you're grouped up with other players you see vampiric touch's effect extends to all party members meaning that they also gain mana equal to 5 of the shadow damage you deal you also have vampiric embrace a non-damaging spell with another powerful group-wide effect the way it works is you apply vampiric embrace to your target and you and your allies are healed for 15 of all shadow damage that you deal the healing that this spell provides isn't going to save anyone from critical condition but it will provide a substantial amount of healing on encounters with periodic damage like blood boil from black temple in addition to their health and mana regenerative effects shadow priests also provide two crucial raid debuffs the first comes from the shadow weaving talent this talent causes all of your shadow spells to apply a stack of shadow vulnerability one stack of shadow vulnerability increases the shadow damage the target takes by two percent this debuff can stack up to five times for a total of ten percent increased shadow damage this is not only a massive damage boost to the shadow priests but also destruction warlocks and if you didn't know already warlocks make up a significant portion of your ranged dps so every guild wants this debuff and if that wasn't enough your damaging spells also apply another debuff to your target called misery misery increases all spell damage the target receives by five percent so overall that's 15 increased damage for warlocks and shadow priests and five percent increased spell damage for all of their casters pretty insane if you ask me shadow word pain is your other damage over time spell and while it doesn't have any special effects it's an incredibly mana efficient spell that makes up a huge portion of your overall damage shadow word pain also has the advantage of being an instant cast spell allowing you to apply and maintain its effect while moving mindblast is one of your two non-periodic damage spells it hits for a huge amount after a 1.5 second cast and it's on a very short cooldown but while mineblast is the highest dps spell for the shadow priest it's also the least mana efficient and early on you'll find it difficult to use this spell on cooldown without the use of a ton of mana consumables we'll circle back to that in the spell priority section shadow word death is your other non-periodic damage spell and compared to mind blast it's more mana efficient and it's instant cast allowing you to use it on the move but it comes with its own set of disadvantages it has double the cooldown of mind blast and a self-damaging component the way it works is if shadow word death doesn't deliver a killing blow to your target a hundred percent of the damage you dealt will be reflected back to you now in most cases that's all right since the healing from vampiric embrace can easily restore the reflected damage by the time shadow wear death comes back off cooldown but i'll give you a few examples of where this can go horribly wrong the first one comes during prince malcazar which is the last boss of karazhan during phases one and two of this encounter he'll periodically cast infeeble on five random raid members when you get in feeble you're instantly brought to a single hit point and your healing received is reduced by a hundred percent that means that any damage you take is fatal so shadow word death cannot be used during this time the second example also comes from karazhan during the curator encounter curator has a ton of health and the easiest way to take him down before his enrage timer is to deal maximum damage during his evocation phase and shadow priest can't really do that since during evocation he receives 200 increased damage and if you crit with shadow or death during evocation you'll suffer the same fate as many shadow priests before you and die during a phase that has no damage mineflay is your filler spell as a shadow priest and it's one of the main reasons why you're dubbed the face melting spec i mean just listen to the sound of this spell and mindflay has excellent mana efficiency when compared to your non-periodic damage abilities but like with most great things it comes with a few drawbacks the first of which is it's a channeled spell that delivers one tick of damage every second for three seconds that means that if for whatever reason you need to cancel your channel before the first tick of damage you've paid the full mana cost for zero damage compare that to a warlock who can simply cancel his shadow bolt without committing any mana up front and it can be a little frustrating that's a very minor gripe compared to the second drawback the 24 yard range of this spell can make it extremely difficult if not impossible to use on a variety of encounters nightbane is one of such encounters his bellowing roar fears all targets within 35 yards most range classes can avoid the fear by simply casting their spells a step out of range but because of the short range of mind flay that positioning is not possible for the shadow priest this forces the priests to put themselves in a vulnerable position just to be effective and it doesn't feel so good and like shadow word death mind flay is also difficult to use on prince malkazar throughout the fight he'll periodically cast shadow nova an ability that deals high shadow damage to all targets within 24 yards which is coincidentally the same range as mind flay so as long as you have the in feeble debuff we talked about earlier you simply cannot cast mind flay shadow priests have one major offensive cooldown called shadow fiend this ability has a 5 minute cooldown and when activated you summon a shadowy fiend to attack your target for 15 seconds every point of damage dealt by the shadow fiend grants you two and a half points of mana and using this ability at the right time and on the right target is essential to your mana management as a shadow priest there are a few other things i want you to understand about shadow fiend first his attack power scales with your spell power so using a spell power trick it before you activate shadow fiend will increase your mana returns second his damage is physical so putting him on the target with the least armor is the best choice for maximizing his damage so a fully raid debuff boss with fairy fire curse of recklessness is going to be an excellent target for our shadow fiend friend third your shadow fiend will benefit from heroism dramatically increasing his damage and your mana returns so ensure that you're planning your shadow fiend usage around heroism whenever possible last thing while your shadow fiend is relatively tanky he can still die when there are a lot of aoe mechanics present in situations where this is a possibility it's a great idea to use power word shield on your shadow fiend after you cast it more on that spell in a minute let's talk about shadow priest healing while they may have abandoned the ways of the light and holy magic they didn't forget everything that they learned in fact shadow priests have almost all the same healing spells that the holy priest has in early on in the expansion a shadow priest is more than capable of healing a five-man dungeon and even karazhan if needed it's even more doable if the shadow priest has a dedicated healing set now there are situations where you may consider healing even while in a dps role but that decision must consider the following casting any healing spell automatically takes you out of shadow form so casting a single flash heal for example would cost you around 1300 mana since after you use 450 mana on flash heal you'll need to spend an additional 850 mana to get back into shadow form and aside from the high mana cost when you stop dealing damage as a shadow priest you stop regenerating health and mana for your group through vampiric embrace and vampiric touch and last as you progress through content phases your healing spells become increasingly trivial compared to pure healers since you lack talent and sufficient bonus healing but all of that goes out the window when one or more of your healers are dead and your group mates need to be topped off after a mechanic like the title shield on high warlord and agentus combining inner focus with prayer of healing can be very clutch in these moments while there is a significant opportunity cost with casting holy spells as a shadow priest you can freely cast discipline spells even while in shadow form that gives you the incredible ability to dispel powerful magic effects on enemies and harmful magic effects on allies through dispel magic for a relatively low mana cost you can purge two beneficial magic effects from an enemy or dispel two harmful magic effects from an ally while this ability will come in handy countless times in your raiding adventures it's not exactly unique hunters and shamans have purge paladins have cleanse and mages have spell steel but an ability that is unique to the priest is mass dispel mass to spell is basically an aoe version of dispel magic it works by dispelling up to 10 enemies and up to 10 allies in a 15 yard radius and this effect is absolutely mandatory on certain encounters falmist in sunwell is one of those encounters during phase one thelmas will periodically cast gas nova an aoe ability that deals moderate upfront damage and leaves a fatal debuff on every single raid member the debuff drains 3000 health and 1000 mana every 2 seconds it's active and 3 mass dispels is the only answer to this mechanic that doesn't result in death it's worth mentioning that master spell also has the additional advantage of being able to remove magic effects that are normally undispellable this comes in handy on the mario's encounter in this fight there are several adds that need to be managed by crowd control or interrupts however lady kira barry buck is immune to both when she activates divine shield while divine shield is active she can freely cleanse her allies of crowd control as well as heal them for a significant amount best case scenario this prolongs the fight and worst case scenario this causes a wipe so priest's unique ability to remove divine shield through mass to spell is extremely valuable here another disciplined spell that you'll be making regular use of is power word shield for a high mana cost power word shield creates a barrier around you that absorbs a chunk of damage what makes this spell really good for shadow priest is while the shield is active the priest is immune to spell pushback and unlike other casters shadow priests have no passive reduction to spell pushback so good usage of power word shield can help mitigate this weakness going back to the topic of healing tossing out a couple of power ward shields to the raid when healers are struggling often results in a better outcome than healing directly that's because power word shield doesn't take you out of shadow form and it allows you to continue to deal damage and regenerate health and mana for your party before moving on to the last section i wanted to briefly talk about threat as a shadow priest you generate a ton of threat through the damage you deal the mana you regenerate through vampiric touch and the healing you do through vampiric embrace for that reason you need to be aware of how you can reduce your threat when you're pulling aggro we do have a nice threat reduction ability called fade which has a 30 second cooldown and cost about as much mana as a mind blast but we want to avoid wasting that mana so it's often best to approach these situations proactively and not pass your tanks on threat to begin with when your tanks are having threat issues just apply vampiric touch vampiric embrace and shadow word pain and don't do anything else until they give you the okay honestly you don't want to piss off a tank and you don't want to piss me off either so please subscribe to the channel if you want to see more shadow priest content or other class guides on to the last section we have the shadow priest damage priority list well it's actually damage priority lists but it didn't really sound right so i called it damage priority list anyway it's impossible for me to give you a single list since your priorities will change depending on your gear level the current encounter and your mana management skills with that said imagine shadow priests as a sports car that runs on mana it has three distinct modes eco balanced and turbo eco is your mana conservation mode in this mode you have the following priorities your first is to maintain vampiric touch and vampiric embrace at all times your second is to maintain shadow word pain at all times your third is to cast mind flight as a filler whenever the above conditions are satisfied in this mode you should only clip your mind flays if you need to refresh vampiric touch or vampiric embrace and by clipping mind flight i just mean intentionally ending your mind flay channel before the last tick the next mode is balanced and just like eco your first priority is to maintain vampiric touch and vampiric embrace at all times your next priority is to maintain shadow word pain your third priority is to use mind blast on cooldown your fourth priority is to use shadow word death on cooldown and your fifth priority is to use mind flight as a filler in this rotation we don't ever clip three ticks of a mine flight unless it's to refresh vampiric touch or vampiric embrace but if you're doing good on mana in this mode you can consider clipping your second and especially your third tick of mine flay to refresh shadow word pain if it fades during your channel last is turbo mode this mode puts maximum dps above everything aside from maintaining your raid debuffs and vampiric spells so as with every other mode your first priority is maintaining vampiric touch and vampiric embrace your second priority is casting mind blast on cooldown your third priority is casting shadow word death on cooldown your fourth priority is maintaining shadow word pain and then you'll use mindflay as a filler in this rotation you should always end your mind channels prematurely the moment that your shadow word death or mind blast comes off cooldown now you may be wondering which modes to use and when it's impossible to answer that question because the mode you use constantly changes and it's based on your best guess to the following question which mode or priority list will result in me dealing the most possible damage while maintaining mana throughout the fight so i can provide a steady stream of mana health and raid debuffs if you went out of mana before the fight ended you spent too much time in the wrong mode and you need to adjust accordingly but i can safely tell you that in the first phase you'll be splitting your time in eco and balance mode you can drastically increase the amount of time you spend in balance mode simply by carrying an infinite amount of mana potions on you if you don't use mana potions expect to be spending most of your time in eco mode also please don't try to use the priority list outlined in turbo mode for any prolonged period of time until the majority of your gear is tier 6. so in an expansion where raid utility is in the highest demand the shadow priest offers so much i hope to see you guys in the next one peace

Channel: ZGT

Views: 69,680

Keywords: TBC Classic Beta, shadow priest pve guide pve, holy priest tbc raid guide, Healer rankings tbc, tbc beta release date, Best healer in tbc classic, shadow priest 2.4.3, Shadow Priest TBC Classic, Shadow Priest Raid Guide, Shadow Priest Pre-patch TBC, Shadow Priest Guide, Shadow Priest TBC classic guide, shadow priest tbc guide, TBC Classic, Shadow priests pve guide tbc, Shadow Priest Pre patch guide, SP tbc classic, sp tbc, sp tbc guide 2.4.3

Id: k8LJqdm47Wo

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/International_Ebb9]

I’m starting shadow priest for the first time, was JUST looking for a video like this

[u/QueenSpicy]

So I think this is a good video for someone who has never played Shadow Priest, or played the game before. But given the nature of a 15 year old game, the real information is the last 3 minutes, which is where I liked the insight in the 3 dps "modes" you gave.

the first 13 minutes are tl;dw a run down of all the abilities the shadow priest has and what they bring to a group. The last 3 minutes are dps rotation for mana efficiency -> maximum dps.

If you wanted to turn this from a beginner guide to a more "useful" average player guide, I would have included stat itemization, heavy hitter pieces of gear, and maybe quickly go over the talents you chose and why.

[u/Centais]

Thanks

[u/gnurensohn]

Shadow is so fun to play. Got 60 yesterday and healing dungeons as shadow is also possible. I love the class. Good video btw

[u/_XIIX_]

why do you think its the free est raid spot ever? dont you think that all the classic priests that played holy for 2 years now want to have their turn on dps?