Here is a comprehensive guide on the Shadow Priest class in WOW Vanilla 1.12.1, focusing on achieving the highest DPS with the lowest mana usage in raids. This guide includes details on the skill tree, gear, enchants, consumables, rotation, and macros.
Table of Contents
Skill Tree (Talents)
This build emphasizes damage output while managing mana efficiency, which is crucial for sustained DPS in raid environments. This build is tailored for raiding as a Shadow Priest, maximizing your damage output while optimizing mana usage. You can make adjustments based on personal preferences, specific raid compositions, and encounter characteristics, but in general, it aims for optimized efficiency.
Shadow Tree (35 Points)
- Spirit Tap (5/5): Primarily valuable outside raids, it remains the top choice for occasional mana regeneration and is necessary to advance in the talent tree.
- Improved Shadow Word: Pain (2/2): Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain, boosting sustained DPS.
- Shadow Focus (5/5): Essential for reducing mana costs and increasing the hit chance of Shadow spells.
- Improved Mind Blast (5/5): Reduces the cool-down of Mind Blast, increasing DPS output.
- Mind Flay (1/1): The core ability for DPS rotation.
- Shadow Reach (3/3): Extends the range of Shadow spells, which is helpful for positioning in raids.
- Shadow Weaving (5/5): Boosts Shadow damage, enhancing personal and raid DPS.
- Vampiric Embrace (1/1): This ability heals all party members for 20% of the shadow damage dealt.
- Vampiric Touch (2/2): Combined with Vampiric Embrace, shadow damage now heals all party members for 30%, while Vampiric Touch provides a 2% mana regen.
- Darkness (5/5): Increases Shadow spell damage, directly boosting DPS.
- Shadowform (1/1): Grants a 15% boost to Shadow spell damage and reduces physical damage received by 15%. This talent significantly enhances DPS for Shadow Priests focused on dealing damage with Shadow spells, making it a core choice.
Discipline Tree (14 Points)
- Unbreakable Will (5/5): Essential for advancing in the talent tree, although it doesn’t directly boost raid DPS. It can offer some protection against raid encounter mechanics.
- Silent Resolve (3/5): Reduces threats and brings management under better control against other classes’ more bursty threats.
- Improved Power Word: Fortitude (2/2): Enhances a critical buff, beneficial for the whole raid.
- Inner Focus (1/1): Offers a free, critical spell cast, excellent for pairing with Mind Blast.
- Meditation (3/3): Crucial for mana regeneration while casting.
Key Considerations for Raids
- Maximizing Shadow Damage: The focus is on talents that directly increase Shadow damage output.
- Mana Efficiency: Talents like Meditation are crucial for maintaining mana over long fights.
- Raid Utility: Shadow Weaving is invaluable for increasing overall raid DPS when there are multiple Warlocks.
Considerations
This DPS-maximizing, mana-efficient build involves trade-offs, particularly in threat reduction. Placing a few points in Silent Resolve can lead to higher threat generation. To address this, rely on threat meters and adjust DPS during critical boss phases as required. Notably, Shadow Priests generally have steadier threats than classes with burstable threats, like Fire Mages. That may prove a blessing to offset the lack of these talents.
Gear
Best in Slot Rares
These rare items (“Blues”) are the top choices for Shadow Priest to gear up for raiding.
- Head: Spellweaver’s Turban (General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire)
- Neck: Star of Mystaria (Balnazzar in Stratholme)
- Shoulders: Boreal Mantle (Ras Frostwhisper in Scholomance), Burial Shawl (Various bosses in Scholomance)
- Back: Archivist Cape of Shadow Wrath (Archivist Galford in Stratholme)
- Chest: Robe of the Void (Crafted, pattern drops from various bosses in Scholomance)
- Wrists: Sublime Wristguards (Guard Mol’dar/Guard Slip’kik in Dire Maul North)
- Hands: Atal’ai Gloves of Shadow Wrath (Various bosses in the Sunken Temple)
- Waist: Clutch of Andros (Kirtonos the Herald in Scholomance)
- Legs: Skyshroud Leggings (Highlord Omokk in Lower Blackrock Spire)
- Feet: Omnicast Boots (Golem Lord Argelmach in Blackrock Depths)
- Rings: Maiden’s Circle (World drop), Ring of Spell Power (Several bosses in Molten Core)
- Trinkets: Briarwood Reed (Jed Runewatcher in Upper Blackrock Spire), Eye of the Beast (Quest reward from “For The Horde!” in Lower Blackrock Spire)
- Weapons: Witchblade (Darkmaster Gandling in Scholomance) for one hand, Tome of Shadow Force (Quest reward from “The Darkreaver Menace” in Scholomance) for off-hand, Rod of the Ogre Magi (Captain Kromcrush in Dire Maul North) for staff
- Wand: Bonecreeper Stylus (Darkmaster Gandling in Scholomance)
Total Buffs from all BIS Rares
Best in Slot Mix of Rares and Epics
- Head: Crimson Felt Hat (Magistrate Barthilas in Stratholme)
- Neck: Animated Chain Necklace (Ramstein the Gorger in Stratholme), Choker of Enlightenment (Lucifron in Molten Core)
- Shoulders: Boreal Mantle (Ras Frostwhisper in Scholomance), Felcloth Shoulders (crafted)
- Back: Amplifying Cloak (Magister Kalendris in Dire Maul West)
- Chest: Robe of Winter Night (crafted)
- Wrists: Sublime Wristguards (Guard Mol’dar/Guard Slip’kik in Dire Maul North)
- Hands: Hands of Power (Quartermaster Zigris in Lower Blackrock Spire)
- Waist: Ban’thok Sash (Ok’thor the Breaker in Blackrock Depths)
- Legs: Skyshroud Leggings (Highlord Omokk in Lower Blackrock Spire)
- Feet: Omnicast Boots (Golem Lord Argelmach in Blackrock Depths)
- Rings: Maiden’s Circle (World drop, Auction House), Songstone of Ironforge (Reward from “The Princess’s Surprise” in Blackrock Depths)
- Trinkets: Briarwood Reed (Jed Runewatcher in Upper Blackrock Spire), Eye of the Beast (Reward from “For The Horde!” in Lower Blackrock Spire)
- Weapons: Rod of the Ogre Magi (Captain Kromcrush in Dire Maul North) for staff, Staff of Dominance (Golemagg the Incinerator in Molten Core)
- Wand: Skul’s Ghastly Touch (Skul in Stratholme)
Example total buffs
Best in Slot Epics
- Head: Preceptor’s Hat (Heigan the Unclean in Naxxramas)
- Neck: Choker of the Fire Lord (Ragnaros in Molten Core)
- Shoulders: Rime Covered Mantle (Gluth in Naxxramas)
- Back: Cloak of the Devoured (C’Thun in AQ40)
- Chest: Crystal Webbed Robe (Maexxna in Naxxramas)
- Wrists: Burrower Bracers (Lord Kri in AQ40)
- Hands: Dark Storm Gauntlets (C’Thun in AQ40)
- Belt: Eyestalk Waist Cord (C’Thun in AQ40)
- Legs: Fel Infused Leggings (Lord Kazzak in Blasted Lands)
- Feet: Snowblind Shoes (Azuregos World Boss in Azshara)
- Rings: Ring of the Fallen God (C’Thun in AQ40), Band of the Inevitable (Noth the Plaguebringer in Naxxramas)
- Trinkets: Neltharion’s Tear (Nefarian in Blackwing Lair), The Restrained Essence of Sapphiron (Sapphiron in Naxxramas)
- Weapons: The End of Dreams (Grobbulus in Naxxramas) for one hand, Sapphiron’s Left Eye (Sapphiron in Naxxramas) for off-hand, and Soulseeker (Kel’Thuzad in Naxxramas) for staff
- Wand: Wand of Qiraji Nobility (Lord Kri in AQ40)
Total buffs from all BIS Epics
*DPS Calculation Formulas
Only Weapons in the BIS Rares (Excludes Wand)
I use this formula to calculate DPS for weapons, considering that off-hands often provide auxiliary stat buffs rather than direct DPS.
Calculation:
- First, calculate the average damage per hit by adding the minimum and maximum damage, then divide by 2.
- Next, divide the moderate damage by the Weapon Speed. The total provides the average damage per second, which is the DPS.
For example, on a hypothetical weapon with a damage range of 45–85 and a weapon speed of 1.60 seconds:
So, the DPS of this weapon would be approximately 40.63.
Only Armor in the BIS Rares (Includes Wand)
To calculate the total DPS contributed by armor and gear, I needed to focus on how the stats provided by the equipment increase the damage output of a Shadow Priest’s abilities or spells. However, it’s important to note that armor typically does not directly contribute to DPS, but the stats on the armor can.
For a Shadow Priest, the most relevant stats for DPS are Spell Power, Intellect (which affects mana pool and critical strike chance), Hit Chance, and Critical Strike Chance. Here’s a simplified formula to calculate an estimated total DPS based on these stats:
- Base Spell DPS: This is the average DPS of the character’s spells without any gear. It can be calculated based on the base damage, casting time, or the spells’ cooldown.
- Bonus from Spell Power: The formula calculates this bonus by multiplying the total Spell Power from the gear with the Spell Power coefficient of the spell. Different spells have different coefficients.
- Bonus from Critical Strikes: This bonus accounts for the increased damage from critical hits. By multiplying the Base Spell DPS with the increase in critical strike chance (from gear), the formula can arrive at the damage multiplier of a critical hit (usually 200% of typical damage).
- Bonus from Hit Chance: This bonus accounts for reduced missed attacks for targets where hit chance is relevant (like PvE encounters with bosses). It’s estimated by multiplying the Base Spell DPS with the increase in hit chance from gear, as shown below:
This formula approximates and does not consider many in-game factors, such as talents, buffs, debuffs, and specific game mechanics. I recommend in-game DPS meters or specialized simulation tools for precise DPS calculation.
Total DPS for BIS Epics and BIS Hybrids (All Items)
The following formula estimates the total DPS of a character based on all gear, including weapons.
- Base Spell DPS (BDPS): Spell damage without gear, based on average damage and casting time.
- Total Spell Power (TSP): Sum of spell power bonuses from all equipment.
- Spell Power Coefficient (SPC): How spell power affects damage varies by spell.
- Total Intellect (TI): Sum of intellect bonuses from gear.
- Total Hit Chance Increase (THCI): Gear’s spell hit chance increase as a decimal (e.g., 3% = 0.03).
- Total Critical Strike Chance Increase (TCCI): Gear’s critical strike chance increases as a decimal.
- Critical Strike Multiplier (CSM): Typically 2x for critical strikes.
- Shadow Spell Power (SSP): If applicable, extra spell power for Shadow spells.
- Shadow Spell Coefficient (SSC): How Shadow Spell Power affects Shadow spell damage.
Enchants
These enchants optimize your gear for maximum DPS and mana efficiency.
- Head and Legs: Arcanum of Focus
- Shoulders: Zandalar Signet of Mojo
- Back: Enchant Cloak — Greater Resistance
- Chest: Enchant Chest — Greater Stats (PvE)
- Wrists: Enchant Bracer — Mana Regeneration (PvE)
- Feet: Enchant Boots — Minor Speed
- Weapon: Enchant Weapon — Spell Power
Total buffs from all enchants
Consumables
These consumables are designed to boost Shadow Priest DPS and mana efficiency. Utilize them as required while considering their cost and availability.
- Flasks: Flask of Distilled Wisdom (increases maximum Mana by 2000 for 2 hours)
- Elixirs: Elixir of Shadow Power (increases Shadow damage by 40 for 30 minutes)
- Mana Regeneration: Brilliant Mana Oil (increases healing by 25 and returns 12mp5 for 30 minutes), Mageblood Potion (regenerates 12mp5 for 1 hour)
- Food: Nightfin Soup or Sagefish Delight (each grant 8mp5 seconds for 10 minutes). You can only have one but not both.
- Stat Boosters: Gizzard Gum (increases Spirit by 25 for 1 hour), Cerebral Cortex Compound (increases Intellect by 25 for 1 hour)
Rotation
The following rotation strives to balance high damage output with mana conservation:
Unless these can be coordinated with the raid, avoid using spells that consume extra debuff slots on raid bosses, like Vampiric Embrace or Devouring Plague. Still, they are powerful in dungeons, open world, and PvP.
Macros
The following macros function in vanilla WoW 1.12.1 without macro add-ons, all fitting within the default 255-character limit. They are configured to use the highest-ranked available spell automatically.
- Cleanly target nearest enemies (characters 149/255).
/script if UnitHealth("target")==0 and UnitExists("target") then ClearTarget(); end
/run if GetUnitName("target")==nil then TargetNearestEnemy() end- Spam Mind Flay without canceling (characters 157/255).
/run m=0 for i=1,40 do if(strfind(tostring(UnitDebuff("target",i)),"Spell_Shadow_SiphonMana"))then m=1 end end if m==0 then CastSpellByName("Mind Flay") end2. SW:P and Shoot — Casts Shadow Word: Pain on a target if they don’t have the debuff; otherwise, Shoot (characters 199/255).
/run m=0 for i=1,40 do if(strfind(tostring(UnitDebuff("target",i)),"Spell_Shadow_ShadowWordPain"))then m=1 end end if m==0 then CastSpellByName("Shadow Word: Pain") else CastSpellByName("Shoot") end