Shadow Priest Guide for The War Within - Dragonflight 10.2.7 (2024)

Last updated on Jun 16, 2024 at 14:47by Publik52 comments

Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Shadow Priest.Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about theShadow Priest spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion,including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the stateof the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regularchanges expected as updates hit the War Within beta. This is not meant to bea launch guide for Shadow Priest, but instead serves as aresource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, andwhat you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

Shadow Priest has received relatively minimal changesgoing into War Within, where most of the changes are focused on the newHero Talents (see below). There were however a few key additions to ourclass and spec talent trees.

The big change to the class talent tree is the removal of Mindgames and its associated talents. Mindgames itself was movedto a PvP talent and we got three new class talent points to replace thosenodes.

• Void Tendrils now lasts for 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
• New talent: Cauterizing Shadows - When your Shadow Word: Pain expires, is refreshed with less than 5 secondsremaining, or the target with it active dies, a nearby ally within 40yards is healed.
• New talent: Manipulation - Now causes you to take1%/2% less damage from targets affected by Shadow Word: Pain.This is a 2 point talent so you get 1% for each point invested.
• New talent: Phantom Reach - Increases the range of most spellsby 15% (40 yards -> 46 yards). Note that this currently does NOTaffect: Halo, Divine Star, Psychic Scream, or Psychic Horror.
• Halo is now a 1-minute cooldown to be better alignedwith our cooldowns. This is particularly relevant for the Archon HeroTree.

• Mind Flay: Insanity now deals damage every 0.5 seconds for 2seconds (was every 0.75 seconds for 3 seconds). It also generates 12Insanity over the duration (was 16).
• Void Torrent damage increased by 30%.
• New talent: Void Crash - Choice node with Shadow Crashthat is instead targeted at a particular enemy (it will follow them if theymove). All other interactions are identical with Shadow Crash (including the 8yard radius).

In addition to the changes to Shadow Priest core kit, The WarWithin also has major implications for all specs thanks to the HeroTalent Tree system, new tier sets, and the natural reduction in secondarystats when entering a new expansion.

Shadow Priest gets to choose between the Archonand Voidweaver Hero Talent Trees. In sections below, we will talk moredeeply about the implications of these Hero Talent Trees for the spec, and somethoughts on their strengths and weaknesses.

The Archon Hero Tree Talents are based around using Halo to dealincreased damage and also empowering our cooldown spells like Power Infusion, Dark Ascension, or Void Eruptionto be more effective.

From a gameplay perspective, Archon is extremely simple, you press Halo at the start of your cooldowns and enjoy the extra damage.Halo now has a 1-minute cooldown, making it easy to line up and play aroundthe Archon tree.

Power-wise, Archon is a bit flat in terms of value early on in the expansion.With lower base damage at the start of the expansion we will likely invest intobuffing our Halo more with Energy Compression rather thangetting longer cooldowns with the other choice in that node, Sustained Potency. Towards the end of the first season or later on inthe expansion, we could see better scaling with this tree.

The utility value of Archon cannot be ignored, as it hasseveral strong benefits. Firstly, centering the damage around Halobrings with it significant off-healing for the group if there is damage going outaround the 1-minute timer of the spell. Since the spell is rotational, we probablywould not hold it specifically for more healing, but on certain encounters, thiscould be a significant increase to the group's survivability. In addition to thehealing capability, you also get access to Incessant Screams, which canhelp layer on even more AoE CC in Mythic+.

Defensively, Archon also brings with it Word of Supremacy which givesyou 5% more stamina from Power Word: Fortitude. While this does nothingfor your group, it does make for a good personal defensive benefit.

The Voidweaver Hero Tree Talents strongly deliver on theme and gameplaychanges, summing a black hole like Entropic Rift that deals massiveamounts of damage. This is spawned from casting Void Torrent, and withcertain talents, we can extend the duration and expand the size of the riftover time. Furthermore, while the rift itself is active, we deal increaseddamage and transform our Mind Blast into Void Blast.

From a gameplay perspective, Voidweaver builds on existing cycles with Void Torrent and provide a bit more emphasis on castingyour transformed Void Blast casts to deal massive damage. Thesecasts of Void Blast can extend the duration of the rift when using Darkening Horizon and casts of Devouring Plague make the riftlarger and deal more damage when it expires with Collapsing Void.In addition, you also have access to either Depth of Shadows or Voidwraith, which plays off of existing pet gameplay of Mindbender and Inescapable Torment.

Power-wise, Voidweaver has a lot of potential, particularly in Mythic+with your short burst windows every 30 seconds from Void Torrentand Malediction. At lower key levels, you should have enough pacingto get a Rift for each and every pack you are facing, while higher keys canget 2 or more per pack. This also has some more single-target potentialwhen taking Darkening Horizon to get even bigger rifts for extendedencounters.

Voidweaver also offers several great utility and defensive nodes thatmake the spec extremely appealing. For utility you have access to No Escape or Dark Energy. Getting cast while moving to Void Torrent makes the spec a bit more mobile as well, which feels great.On the defensive side, you get access to Void Leech or Embrace the Shadow, both of which are great options depending on theincoming damage type. Embrace the Shadow does also count the self-damage from Shadow Word: Death so any builds that end up using that a lot getmore value from this.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Shadow Priest in The WarWithin. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentarythat is italicized.

• Priest Shadow 11.0 Class Set 2pc — The duration of Devouring Plague is increased by 1 second. This will make the specfeel considerably better to play at lower haste levels in season one, andmight even allow us to run less haste than usual.
• Priest Shadow 11.0 Class Set 4pc — Devouring Plague increasesyour damage done by 2% for 10 seconds; multiple applications may overlapWhile this will not strictly have gameplay implications, it will just rewardplaying the spec properly since it should have near full uptime.

Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected to have anygameplay impact.

The first season tier set bonuses are intentionally made to besomewhat on the weaker side across the board, but will still be usedeven if it seems small.

Currently our set bonus is certainly on the weaker side, being about 1% damagefor the 2-set bonus and another 2% or so for the 4-set bonus. When combined together,you can expect between 3-4% total value from getting this tier set.