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← How you play

How you play Shadow Priest

Keep your slow shadow spells ticking on enemies, build Insanity, and spend it on Shadow Word: Madness.

Your buttons, most important first

  1. Keep Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain on the target. Tentacle Slam puts Vampiric Touch on many enemies at once.
  2. Voidform together with Power Infusion: your big moment. Put your shadow spells on the target first.
  3. Spend Insanity on Shadow Word: Madness before the bar is full, or when it is about to run out.
  4. Mind Blast and Void Volley whenever they are ready. Nothing else ready? Mind Flay.
More enemies: Tentacle Slam on the pack first, then Vampiric Touch on enemies that will live a while. Same buttons after that.
Biggest mistake: Voidform before your shadow spells are on the target: you waste your big moment putting them on.

Hero talents

Archon: Halo on cooldown, just before Voidform. When Mind Flay: Insanity lights up, cast it.
Voidweaver: Void Torrent opens a rift. While it is open, Mind Blast becomes Void Blast: press it whenever ready.

From the guides: Method 27 Aug · Wowhead 12 Aug · Icy Veins 11 Aug 2026. A patch can change this.

Group

Buttons you press for someone else or for the whole group. For one person: click their name first, then press the button. The grey note says when a button works differently.

to protect someone else: put it on them just before a big hit
when someone else's health is low
makes someone else stronger for a while
when someone has died

Consumables

What to bring for this spec. Point at an item for its tooltip.

Dispel

From your group: debuffs you can remove
From enemies: buffs you can take off

In the game this card knows your character. Every button shows the key it is on for you right now, the lists above drop whatever you have not learned, and your bags are checked for the consumables.

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