As we head into Midnight Season 1, Shadow Priest feels… complicated.

On paper, we’re competitive. In practice, we’re being propped up by some very unhealthy tuning levers while several core gameplay loops feel hollowed out. The result is a spec that can perform, but doesn’t always feel great doing it.

Let’s break down where Shadow stands in raid and Mythic+, what’s working, what isn’t, and how we feel heading into the season.

Overall Ranking​

• Raiding: High C tier, low B tier
• Mythic+: Solid B tier

We are not bottom of the barrel. But we’re also not comfortably strong without caveats. In raid especially, our damage profile is being artificially supported by one overtuned modifier instead of a healthy core kit. Pure single target is going to be an issue, but if there are adds we should be viable enough in the current state.

The bigger concern is that our weaknesses are very defined: weak single target, limited burst AoE, and limited PvE crowd control options compared to other ranged specs. Those gaps matter in modern encounter design.

The Big Issues​

Psychic Link Is Doing Too Much Heavy Lifting​

Right now, Psychic Link is compensating for extremely low single-target damage by massively inflating our cleave and multi-target throughput. The modifier is insanely high, and while that keeps us competitive on encounters with adds, it masks deeper problems.

This is not a healthy place for the spec to be:

• Our single-target is weak.
• Our AoE is disproportionately dependent on a single modifier.
• We lack meaningful burst AoE compared to many other specs, our damage ramps rather than spikes.
• If Psychic Link gets nerfed (and historically, it will), we immediately drop off a cliff.

Shadow should not rely on a single cleave scalar to stay relevant.

Archon Feels Gutted and Boring​

Archon is currently the biggest disappointment of the Midnight launch.

The spec revolves around Voidform, but Voidform itself feels hollow:

• It’s barely extendable.
• Ancient Madness has been nerfed so heavily that it no longer meaningfully supports the old loop.
• The interaction between Voidform → Shadowy Apparitions → Idol procs → Apex talents has been dismantled.

Archon ends up feeling one-dimensional: press cooldown, do damage, exit cooldown. The dynamic loop is gone.

On top of that, our tree pathing makes certain rotational improvements functionally inaccessible. The second charge of Mind Blast should be a natural pickup for a spec that wants more Insanity flow and Apparition generation, but the top of our tree is so crowded that taking it often forces you to drop meaningful mid or bottom section throughput. In practice, most builds simply cannot justify it.

When obvious rotational upgrades become impossible due to pathing constraints, that’s a structural design issue.

Tier Set & Apex Talents: A Double-Edged Sword​

The Midnight tier set and Apex talents heavily buff Shadowy Apparitions.

We love that direction. Shadowy Apparitions are flavorful, thematic, and feel great when they matter.

But here’s the problem:

To compensate for these buffs, Blizzard nerfed the base value of the spells those talents enhance. Without the tier set or Apex amplification, Apparitions feel weak and ignorable.

We’ve seen this story before.

In Dragonflight, core spells like Shadow Word: Death and Inescapable Torment were gutted to balance temporary power spikes and those nerfs were never fully reverted. We are dangerously close to repeating that pattern.

If Midnight follows the same trajectory, Shadow risks being balanced around borrowed power that disappears in future seasons.

Drastically Undertuned Talents (SW:D, Looking at You)​

Some spells and talents are simply undertuned.

Shadow Word: Death is the biggest offender. You can practically un-talent it and barely notice. That should never be true for a historically iconic execute.

When a core rotational button becomes optional in practice (not by design, but by tuning neglect), that’s a red flag.

Tentacle Slam – Cool Idea, Awkward Execution​

Tentacle Slam has potential, but its implementation is messy:

• Several talents buff its damage, but that’s not the point of the spell.
• If your target moves after casting, it can miss.
• It is not guaranteed to apply DoTs to your primary target.
• It creates awkward gameplay friction in movement-heavy encounters.

Notably we lost a good chunk of expression being able to cast this at a particular location, rather than locking it to a specific target. This is a notable downgrade from Shadow Crash that leaves us in a lot of awkward situations going into Midnight.

The spell wants to be a utility/interaction engine for Apparitions and Idol gameplay, but its tuning and reliability don’t support that identity cleanly.

Idol Spells Lack Flavor and Impact​

The Idol spells are weaker and less flavorful than they’ve been in past iterations.

When you talent into an Idol, it should meaningfully change your gameplay texture. Right now, they often feel numerically modest and visually muted.

They need:

• More distinct identities
• Stronger gameplay hooks
• Clearer impact moments

Idols used to define builds. Now they feel supplemental.

Voidform Needs Something..Anything​

Voidform is supposed to be our defining moment.

Right now, it isn’t.

One of the best-feeling interactions in the past was Void Volley triggering C’Thun, creating satisfying cross-synergy inside the cooldown window. Even something as simple as restoring that interaction would meaningfully improve the feel of Archon.

Voidform needs:

• A stronger feedback loop
• More extension potential
• Clear synergy with Apparitions and Idols

Without that, it’s just a stat steroid with a timer.

Limited PvE Control and Utility Gaps​

While having Silence baseline is great, our overall PvE CC toolkit is still lacking compared to other ranged DPS. We don’t bring a reliable AoE stop, we don’t bring meaningful group control beyond niche fears, and our utility profile is narrower than many competitors.

Additionally, Dispersion still being on the global cooldown feels outdated. For a defensive meant to react to lethal mechanics, having it trigger the GCD adds friction that many modern defensives no longer have.

These aren’t spec-breaking issues, but they contribute to Shadow feeling slightly behind the curve in modern dungeon design.

The Good News​

It’s not all doom and gloom.

There are real positives heading into Midnight.

Shadow Word: Pain and DoTs Feel Strong Again​

This is huge.

Shadow Word: Pain and our DoT gameplay feel relevant again. Multi-DoTing matters. Maintaining debuffs matters. We feel more like an actual damage-over-time spec again.

That’s a massive win for class identity.

Silence and Dispersion Baseline​

Having Silence and Dispersion baseline is fantastic quality-of-life.

• Less talent tax
• More flexibility in builds
• Better utility baseline

This is one of the cleanest wins for the spec going into Midnight, even if Dispersion being on the GCD still needs attention.

No More Bad Active Pets​

Shadowfiend/Mindbender are now fully passive.

No more awkward pet desyncs.
No more micromanaging fragile pet AI.

This is a small but significant improvement.

Voidweaver Is Actually Fun​

Voidweaver deserves praise.

It looks great.
It feels distinct.
It has engaging gameplay hooks.

While Archon struggles, Voidweaver carries a lot of the “fun” weight for the spec right now. It also plays similarly enough to The War Within that returning players won’t feel lost.

Minimal Pruning​

We barely lost spells going into Midnight.

That matters. The toolkit still feels like Shadow Priest. We weren’t gutted the way some specs were.

More Apparition-Centric Talents​

Blizzard is clearly leaning into Shadowy Apparitions as a core identity pillar.

That’s the right direction.

They just need to avoid over-nerfing the baseline to compensate for temporary scaling spikes.

UI Frustrations That Matter​

There are also practical issues that are hurting high-end gameplay:

• You still can’t color-code nameplates.
• DoTs on unit frames are not filterable/sortable in a way that supports heavy multi-DoT raid encounters.

When your spec thrives on tracking multiple DoTs across many targets, poor UI support becomes a real performance limiter.

Final Verdict – How We Feel Going into Midnight​

Shadow Priest is not bad.

But it is fragile.

We are:

• Propped up by an overtuned Psychic Link modifier.
• Struggling with weak single-target.
• Lacking meaningful burst AoE.
• Limited in PvE crowd control compared to other ranged specs.
• Playing an Archon build that feels hollow compared to past iterations.
• Constrained by awkward talent pathing decisions.
• Balanced around tier and Apex synergies that may not survive future tuning passes.

At the same time:

• DoTs feel good again.
• Apparition gameplay is thematically strong.
• Voidweaver is fun.
• Utility baseline is improved.
• The core toolkit remains intact.

So where does that leave us?

Cautiously optimistic, but concerned.

If Blizzard smooths out single-target, restores meaningful Voidform loops, improves burst AoE options, and avoids knee-jerk Psychic Link nerfs without compensatory buffs elsewhere, Shadow could land comfortably in B tier or higher.

If not, we risk becoming a spec that only feels good when artificially inflated by temporary modifiers.

Going into Midnight Season 1, Shadow Priest feels playable, competitive in Mythic+, and serviceable in raid, but it doesn’t feel complete.

And for a spec built on void-fueled madness and escalating power, “incomplete” is the wrong vibe.

We don’t need a rework.

We need our loop back.

The following changes are focused on simplifying some of the cooldown launch sequence as well as the frequent number of high priority procs in the rotation for Shadow. We are also updating the fantasy and visuals of their core spells to create a consistent theme of using the power of the Old Gods to haunt your enemies.

Feedback Thread on the Forums

• US
• EU

Changelog​

• [10/15]: Season 1 Tier set added and a change to Void Empowerment
• [10/9]: Updated from this week's Alpha build
• [10/1]: Initial Alpha Build

Baseline Spells​

• Vampiric Embrace
• Silence
• Dispersion

In addition to these spells being added baseline there have been changes to the balancing of several spells in our kit. For brevity I have not included these simple balancing tweaks in this post.

Removed Spells​

Class Spells​

• Void Shift
• Psychic Horror
• Apathy
• Cauterizing Shadows
• Divine Star
• Essence Devourer
• From Darkness Comes Light
• Halo (now Archon tree only)
• Manipulation
• Power Word: Life
• Prayer of Mending (Holy only)
• Renew
• Rhapsody
• San'layn
• Throes of Pain
• Void Shield
• Word of the Pious

Shadow Spells​

• Dark Ascension
• Void Bolt (now a passive in the Apex Spec tree, sort of)
• Last Word (baseline)

Talent Tree​

You can see an updated version of the Talent Calculator on Wowhead.

Class Tree​

• Shadowfiend is a Shadow only spell
• Psychic Scream and Mind Blast are now class talents and given baseline.
• Shadow Word: Death is no longer given for free as Shadow

Hero Trees​

Archon​

• Halo is now baseline for Archon specifically.
• Concentrated Infusion has been removed.
• Spiritwell - new talent
• Empowered Surges increases Mind Flay: Insanity damage by 30% (was 60%).
• Perfected Form now increases damage during Voidform by 5% (was 20%).
• Icons have been updated to be more Shadow Priest themed

Voidweaver​

• Void Torrent is now baseline for Voidweaver specifically.
• Quickened Pulse - new talent
• Touch of the Void - new talent
• Overwhelming Shadows - new talent
• Voidheart has changed positions in the hero talent tree.
• Void Empowerment now causes you to gain Shadowy Insight (was Mind Devourer).

Spec Tree​

We will soon be getting several new talents into the spec, these have not yet shown up in Alpha but were announced:

• Shadow Power – Increases your non-periodic spell damage by 6%.
• Mind Melt – Mind Flay has a 20% increased critical strike chance and deals 50% increased critical strike damage.

The following talents have been adjusted/reworked:

• Talenting into Misery now replaces Shadow Word: Pain.
• Shadowy Insight now grants a temporary charge of Mind Blast that ignores its cooldown instead of granting a charge when triggered.
• Devouring Plague renamed to Shadow Word: Madness and the healing component has been removed.
• Shadow Crash reworked into Tentacle Slam (targeted only)
• Void Eruption renamed to Voidform for clarity
• Voidform can now be an extendable buff (Ancient Madness) or a non-extendable version
• Surge of Insanity is now fully passive, no more procs. Mind Flay: Insanity is still granted via Archon.
• Shadowy Apparitions now only proc from Shadow Word: Madness baseline
• Void Volley takes Void Bolt's place as the active spell to press during Voidform with a 15-second cooldown.
• Death and Madness is now a choice node with Deathspeaker
• Phantasmal Pathogen renamed to Spectral Horrors and is now 1-point
• Maddening Touch is now a 1-point talent
• Insidious Ire now also affects Mind Flay
• Void Torrent now baseline for Voidweaver only

Tentacle Slam Animation​

Shadow Crash renamed to Tentacle Slam and has been redesigned – Tentacle Slam summons a massive shadowy appendage to slam the ground, dealing damage and applying Vampiric Touch to up to 6 targets to all enemies between you and the target, as well as 8 yards around your target. Max 2 charges, 15 seconds recharge.

Shadow Word: Madness Animation​

Apex Talents: Void Apparitions​

1. Void Apparitions - When an effect from an Idol is activated, conjure Shadowy Apparitions
2. Void Apparitions - Shadowy Apparitions have a chance to become empowered and deal more damage and send out a Void Bolt at their target. This Void Bolt does NOT refresh DoTs
3. Void Apparitions - Tentacle Slam has a 100% chance to activate an effect from one of your idols (does not require it to be talented).

FAQ​

How will Mass AoE Work?​

With the changes that remove Void Bolt and its ability to refresh DoT effects this is a massive gap we have right now in our kit.

UI and Addons​

Combat Addons will be disabled.

This means that many things you rely on for tracking will have to change. Basically anything that accesses Combat Log events will likely stop working and you will need to rely on the default UI to track these things.

While we do not know all specifics it is likely that things like Plater nameplate mods or Weak Auras that track buffs/debuffs will no longer function. Hopefully we get more details soon.

The biggest thing here is to give feedback on what we rely on addons for that is no longer working. The biggest things that come to mind are:

• Tracking if every mob in a pack has DoTs active
• Duration of DoTs on your current target to know optimal refresh times (Only works for Shadow Word: Madness currently)

Gearing Updates in Midnight

Season 1 Tier Set Bonuses​

• 2-set bonus: Shadow Word: Madness damage increased by 10% and Insanity cost reduced by 5.
• 4-set bonus: Shadowy Apparitions and Void Apparitions damage increased by 40%.

One of the most common questions Shadow Priests have in Season 3 is: “How long should my Voidform last?” With the new Archon set bonus shaping our gameplay, Voidform durations are both more stable and more rewarding than ever. Let’s break down what realistic expectations look like, and how your rotation and gear tie into sustaining long Voidforms.

Shadow Priest Feedback​

Major Cooldown Design​

All the way back in the Dragonflight development cycle it was mentioned that our cooldowns would be looked at in a future patch. Several patches later the problems with Dark Ascension and Void Eruption as a choice node is still present in our spec tree.

Dark Ascension is incredibly simple in its design, and has little cohesion with our overall spec or talent tree design. This has recently become even worse with the removal of Mind Spike, which felt like it was the defacto filler to pick with Dark Ascension. In its current state I just do not understand why this is still in the game, I would much rather have a choice node that modifies Void Eruption instead of Dark Ascension (see below).

Being able to pick between a 1-minute Shadow Priest compared to a 2-minute Shadow Priest is a really cool concept. However, since these are separate cooldowns today there is a severe lack of cohesion with the rest of our kit since spells need to work with both. This also limits the design options you have with our cooldowns.

At this point Void Eruption is a much more interesting cooldown and I would prefer focusing Shadow Priests on that cooldown over Dark Ascension. Exploring past ideas like ramping DoT damage or haste as Voidform goes on would be cool to see in the modern game, but just is not possible as long as Dark Ascension still exists to balance Void Eruption against.

Note that if Dark Ascension did go away it would mean a lot to the community to get a glyph that altered Voidform's animation to be the Dark Ascension wings.

DoT Maintenance and Application​

This patch we saw a few targeted changes at Shadow Crash to help with our DoT maintenance and application gameplay. Overall I think these changes solve good problems in raid, but seem to miss the mark for Mythic+ specifically.

Shadow Crash Issues​

The two main pain points with the new design are as follows:

• Shadow Crash has become a damage talent with Descending Darkness
• Bugs limit its usefulness in Mythic+, particularly in large pulls
  • Bug Report 1
  • Bug Report 2

Shadow Crash has mostly existed as a DoT application tool, with an exception of a Dragonflight tier set that was quite controversial. The reason for the controversy is making it a damage button now gives us a conflict, do we press Shadow Crash for damage or hold for DoT'ing targets? Luckily the 2 charge system can help with this, but largely this gameplay feels unhealthy to be pulling the player in two different ways.

There are quite a lot of people that dislike pressing Shadow Crash in single target, and it does feel quite weird, unsure if this was intentional. Due to current pathing challenges (see below) we take Shadow Crash and Descending Darkness in every single build currently. Part of this is pathing but also because it helps solve our issues with Mobility and Movement by giving us a valuable instant-cast to press when needed. Unfortunately this just feels like a conflicting design and I wish these problems could be solved with other solutions.

The other large issue is how these changes affect Mythic+. We have long known of bugs as it relates to Shadow Crash and DoT'ing targets, particularly in large pulls. The changes lowering the target count seem to have made these bugs more prevalent/happen on more packs than usual. Until Shadow Crash correctly prioritizes un-dotted targets to apply DoTs vs. refreshing this spell will continue to be an incredibly flawed way of applying DoTs.

Shadow Priest isn't a DoT Spec​

I was pretty disappointed that there was nothing else adjusted with the spec as it relates to casting and maintaining DoT spells. We have been locked behind Misery being a required talent and Shadow Crash as our DoT applicator for quite some time now, and the issues are still quite obvious. There is no build variety that actually makes DoTs powerful vs. easy to spread, everything is just leaning in towards the easy to spread category. This makes our DoT gameplay non-existent in places where we used to actually press Vampiric Touch or Shadow Word: Pain in previous iterations, particularly low-target count environments.

In the current design since we take Shadow Crash everywhere we literally never press Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch in Single Target, and even most cleave environments. This has made Shadow Priests lose a core piece of its identity and I wish there were alternatives available in the tree to make DoTs an actual part of our gameplay again. This removes Shadow Word: Pain as a rotational instant-cast spell to use during movement.

On top of this our DoTs have continued to be neglected when it comes to power, currently only totalling to less than 4% of our total damage (SW:P and VT).

Utility Nodes in the Spec Tree​

Currently Shadow Priests have to choose 2 utility points in the top section of our talent tree before moving onto the middle section after picking all the damage nodes.

This creates a problem, as we are limited to 2 of the 4 of these nodes without losing DPS by sacrificing points in the rest of the tree.

• Dispersion
• Silence
• Intangibility or Mental Fortitude
• Last Word or Psychic Horror

For most content we always want to have Dispersion. This leaves effectively just one point left, which typically we players will choose Mental Fortitude to counter the squishy nature of playing a Priest. This means we are effectively choosing between losing defensive utility, our interrupt, or DPS with this choice.

If Dispersion and/or Silence were just made baseline for Shadow Priests this issue goes away.

Spec Tree Pathing Issues​

With the changes to the talent tree this patch I wanted to go over specific issues with pathing that we notice on the tree to bring up those pain points when creating a build.

• The Shadow Crash path is only 2 points to get to Void Torrent. The alternative option is 3 points which inherently puts these nodes at a disadvantage.
• The following nodes are in a weird spot where nothing before/after is related. They are also pretty uninspiring in general.
  • Madness Weaving
  • Dark Evangelism
  • Idol of Y'Shaarj
• Number of 2 point nodes is still the highest in the game
• Plagued by lots of numerically weak nodes that do not change your gameplay or others that are super niche. These cause our pathing to be restricted.

Core Shadow Priest Themes are not always easy to path or there are too few choices. I've created annotated trees and then ranked their pathing situation for each core theme. Furthermore as a cost of these being core themes we notice that the actual base spells are severely undertuned. The cost of these spells having lots of talent points seems to be weak base spells, which impacts their dependency on these talents. Shadowy Apparitions, Mind Blast, Shadowfiend or Mindbender melees, and DoTs are extremely weak baseline.

• Shadowy Apparitions: S
• Mind Blast: B
• Pets: D
• Mind Flay: Insanity: D
• Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch: D

Mobility, Movement, and Utility​

Mobility and Movement​

Shadow Priests have long been known for their mobility issues, which is still very much relevant in Season 3 of The War Within.

The only way Shadow Priests can actually counter this kind of mobility problem is to pay for a race change. Dractyhr, Goblin, and Void Elf become our only way to get meaningful movement displacement when other classes have this built into their kit. Nothing in the changes coming in Season 3 make this problem better. Vault of the Heavens or Door of Shadows in the Priest tree please?

Utility​

The other topic that is still painful is our classes group utility. Often times the only thing that makes Priests stick out from the crowd is Power Word: Fortitude, something that Holy and Discipline also bring in addition to Shadow Priests. Giving Shadow some of its own identity when it comes to utility would go a long way.

Shadow Priests do get value out of Vampiric Embrace that Holy and Discipline do not, but this ability has its own flaws that often do not make it valuable. The two big ones are the "smart" heal aspect of Vampiric Embrace being pretty dumb and it being hard to press on-demand when the group actually needs healing. To get good healing out of this we need to be doing good damage, lining this up is typically not something Priests do in this day and age. Would rather the spell just be passive Leech for my party, or something that I can control more that is not tied to my damage as much.

The other big problem with Shadow Priests is how it relates in the current Mythic+ Group Composition meta. There are different requirements for what a healer or dps should bring to a group, and generally speaking our group utility for control is niche and typically weaker than our ranged dps counterparts.

• Shackle Undead usually has incredibly niche to no value every season in Mythic+
  • Why can't this work for more enemy types? Or just call it "Shackle"?
• Psychic Horror is a severe DPS loss to take (see above section on spec tree utility points)
• Silence is arguably the worst interrupt in the game for Mythic+ content. Often times the Silence portion of the effect is useless, leading to us just having a long cooldown interrupt.
• Dominate Mind is either overpowered or useless.
• Psychic Scream is pulling a lot of weight for us right now as an AoE stop, unfortunately we do have to play in melee to use it though. This was a big problem solved by Mind Bomb (particularly in its stun version) that I still miss to this day
• Mass Dispel has not only seen significant nerfs, there has also been a notable change in dungeon design limiting its use cases
• Void Tendrils goes most seasons with most players forgetting it even exists it is so niche and often useless

Priests have had plenty of utility spells in the past that were useful, but not game breaking that have been taken away from us. Bringing some of these back or shoring up existing utility problems would go a long way to groups being excited about inviting a Shadow Priest into their group.

• Shining Force
• Mind Bomb

In the below sections I will go over the existing sets and feedback about them. I have also included preliminary numbers on how strong these tier sets are currently.

Archon​

• 2pc: +4%
• 2pc + 4pc: +17%

The Archon set bonus going into Season 3 is fairly straightforward, it gives us more Halos, which leads to more Insanity, and more Devouring Plague casts. This gives us even more casts of Mind Flay: Insanity and longer Voidforms.

Archon was already a fairly uninspiring Hero talent setup for Shadow Priests, and this set really does not add to anything it was doing, just repeats more of the same. Unfortunately it has fallen into the age old trap of just making Voidform last longer and become more punishing. Adding in more Halo's could be interesting but not in the way that it currently does extending our Voidform, just getting the same visuals we have but for longer is not as exciting as the Voidweaver set. The 4-set also is in a weird spot that you do not actually get any value from this set until the burst part of your Voidform is over (18 seconds after you press Halo).

A spec should not be able to sustain a single cast of its major cooldown for 90-120s. This effectively makes it not a cooldown considering how we get balanced around this. There are much more interesting ways to buff Voidform or our cooldowns that is not simply making them last longer. Voidform does not need to last longer.

Being able to sustain a single Voidform this long makes the gameplay more punishing when handling mechanics or having to move. This is just bringing back some of the old problems we had with drain-based Voidform in previous expansions without any of the cool parts of extending Voidform that we had (ramping haste/damage/insanity drain gameplay).

Voidweaver​

• 2pc: +20%
• 2pc + 4pc: +45%

Clearly the Voidweaver set is currently overpowered. This needs to be resolved by nerfing this set specifically, and not base Shadow Priest nerfs. The set itself is fun to play with and feels like it changes our core gameplay loop during cooldowns for the better, but includes modifiers that simply bloat the value and are not necessary.

The reason that this set is so much fun to play with is it makes you feel like you are machine gunning out Void Blast casts, and it feels awesome. The cast time reduction and more important the cooldown reduction of Void Blast is what gives us this feeling, the damage modifier to Void Blast is not necessary and is just a massive tuning knob that does not need to be there. Similarly the 4pc buffing Entropic Rift damage is not necessary for the set to be powerful.

A more appropriate version of the set that is not egregiously overtuned but still keep the parts that are fun might look like this:

• 2pc: Void Blast's cast time is reduced by 20%. Void Blast's cooldown is reduced by 50%.
• 4pc: Void Blast now also causes Entropic Rift to grow, and the damage of your next Void Torrent is increased by up to 100% based on the size of Entropic Rift when it collapses.

Below is my initial reaction to changes on the 11.2 PTR for Shadow Priests.

• List of Data-mined Changes and Patch Notes
• Season 3 Set Bonuses

Gameplay Changes​

Overall this patch has lots of design changes of how we deal damage but realistically gameplay wise the changes are quite tame, which makes sense for a mid-expansion rework. The major gameplay changes you will notice are:

• Mind Spike has been removed
• Shadow Crash 15s CD 2 charges 6 targets baseline. Whispering Shadows functionality merged into the base spell.
• Void Volley new active
• Malediction has been removed and is now baseline into Void Torrent making Void Torrent a 30 second cooldown.
• Unfurling Darkness has been removed.
• Shadowy Apparitions can now critically strike independently of the spell that procced them.
• Base Mind Flay damage and Insanity has been buffed and Mind Flay: Insanity had its Insanity generation nerfed.
• Deathspeaker is now a fully passive talent instead of a proc.

Questions​

Below is the list of questions the community has with unclear interactions or changes coming in 11.2.

• Proc chance for Tormented Spirits is unknown.

Problems Ignored​

While the list of changes is overall pretty positive I was disappointed that a few of the issues the spec has went unaddressed this patch. Below are the big ones I feel still could use adjustments.

• Utility choice in top section
• Baseline Shadowfiend/Mindbender damage
• Dark Ascension vs. Void Eruption
• Movement/displacement improvements

Pathing Issues​

Below is the list of current pathing issues I noticed with the talent tree redesign and where these nodes feel out of place in their current design and/or place on the tree in general. All of these options are also difficult to take/path into in their current state.

• Dark Evangelism off of Shadow Crash.
• Madness Weaving
• Idol of Y'Shaarj

Tier Set​

Overall the sets seem pretty powerful numbers wise but still need to play-test them to see how they feel. First reaction is fairly positive!

Archon​

• 2pc: Halos generate an additional 10 Insanity over 5 sec and Resonant Energy additionally increases the damage of your Devouring Plague by 5.0%.
• 4pc: While Power Surge is active, every 2 casts of Devouring Plague adds another Halo to the effect at 100% effectiveness, up to 2 times.

Voidweaver​

This tier set will likely eliminate the need to pool Mind Blasts before casting Void Torrent.

• 2pc: Void Blast damage is increased by 40% and Void Blast's cast time is reduced by 20%. Void Blast's cooldown is reduced by 50%.
• 4pc: Void Blast now also causes Entropic Rift to grow, Collapsing Void increases Entropic Rift's damage by an additional 20%, and the damage of your next Void Torrent is increased by up to 200% based on the size of Entropic Rift when it collapses.

Talent Changes​

In this section I'm going to quickly touch on the changes and give my reaction to them.

• Dark Ascension
  • This talent still existing feels extra out of place now that Mind Spike was removed since our only filler spell is now not buffed with this cooldown, particularly with Surge of Insanity procs.
• Subservient Shadows
  • Most of the value comes from Idol of C'Thun/Idol of Yogg-Saron and not Shadowfiend or Mindbender. With this current identity it feels a bit misplaced on the tree.
  • This talent does not work with Depth of Shadows (duration effect)
  • Shadowfiend and Mindbender being weak baseline is likely contributing to it feeling underwhelming in this current spot.
• Madness Weaving
  • Feels pretty lackluster given its place on the talent tree.
  • Weird way to add damage to the spec
  • The spec already likes mastery so its functionality feels misplaced and is not very clear to the average player.
• Death's Torment
  • Pathing feels like a good spot off of Deathspeaker and the echoes stacking Idol of N'Zoth feels like a good pathing interaction
• Deathspeaker
  • losing the movement global is a bit disappointing, wish we still had the proc version as a choice node
  • Really begins to highlight how weak Shadow Word: Death is baseline
  • While this talent on live does interact with Depth of Shadows this current iteration does not. Without adjusting that talent as well we have this weird zone between 35% and 20% health where we have different execute interactions which makes things feel confusing.
• Shadow Crash
  • Cooldown/charges changes overall feel positive
  • With the removal of Deathspeaker as a movement global getting this as a pathing node into Void Torrent can be a decent alternative with Descending Darkness. Unsure how it will feel weaving in Shadow Crash on single target.
• Descending Darkness
  • while optimizing Shadow Crash damage does give us yet another form of AoE you now have a conflicted sense of using it solely for DoT spreading or Damage. I personally liked not feeling pressured to use it on cooldown but rather being able to mostly just save it for DoTing purposes, and now this is a bit conflicting.
  • On fresh targets DoTs are applied after Shadow Crash deals damage so you lose out on the Mastery modifier here which feels bad, another reason why making this a damage spell is awkward.
• Void Volley
  • not using its own keybind is awesome
  • this spell is just super cool and I love it
• Idol of N'Zoth
  • tooltip is very confusing
  • insanity generation buffs are currently hidden from your buff bar and combat log
  • Devouring Plague gives 12 stacks regardless of Mind's Eye vs. Distorted Reality, potentially an oversight?
• Idol of Y'Shaarj
  • This really has nothing to do with pets and does feels out of place on the tree for what it was reworked into.
  • The pathing talents are all pet related, and this talent proccing haste emphasizes a known issue with the game not updating pet melee-swing time in real-time after you get a haste proc. Pets update on a slower interval (roughly ~3 seconds) which makes this node feel even more out of place.
  • feels very feast or famine gameplay which is not typical of this spec.

Changes for Shadow Priests​

Unfortunately this patch has very little in changes for Shadow Priests. Below is the impactful updates, check out the full notes here.

• Sustained Potency has been updated – It now also pauses the duration of Dark Ascension or Voidform for up to 20 seconds while out of combat or affected by a loss of control effect. This is capped at 20 seconds per cast of each cooldown (i.e. going in and out of combat more than once does not refresh the pause duration).
• Entropic Rift now displays a low-noise version for your allies, instead of being completely invisible.

What this means​

Functionally nothing is really changing except Archon now can choose to take Sustained Potency even inside of Mythic+. The out of combat pause is very nice for dungeons, particularly in lower keys and it was already competitive to take anyways (particular for boss damage or really long pulls).

Dracthyr​

Starting this patch you can also make a Dracthyr Priest. From a combat perspective you get a single Mastery point from Awakened, which you can see how that stacks up in the charts. Other racials are listed below. To see these changes I did a video when it first came out and a revised one after it was changed.

• You can fight in Dracthyr form or Visage form as a Priest
• Wing Buffet
• Tail Swipe is EVOKER ONLY
• Glide (at a reduced speed compared to Evokers)
• Soar
• Awakened

Anniversary Event​

With this patch there is also an upcoming launch of the Anniversary event. This event includes lots of cosmetics as well as some new gear drops that I will go over in this post as it relates to Shadow Priest. I am not covering all aspects of this event, only the ones relevant for player power. To see more about this checkout the Wowhead guide.

Timewalking Dungeons?​

Currently there is a trinket, Mindtap Talisman that is from Dire Maul. This was available on the vendor on PTR but I am not sure specifically what the source of this could be. It is quite possible it is just a Timewalking dungeon drop during the event. If that is the case it would drop and be upgradable to 580 item level. I bring this up because even at 580 item level it is currently extremely powerful. Beating out many trinkets at Myth track item level, although not being BiS.

Blackrock Depths Raid​

This raid is returning with HERO track gear. This is a great opportunity for alts as well as a few key drops that might even be useful for your main. Through a Relic Coffer Key system you can also purchase up to 3 items from a vendor if you clear the raid enough and do not see the drops you want.

Notable Drops​

The following is listing ideal stat pieces that drop from the raid. There could be others that drop and are upgrades, here is just a short list to see what is available.

The Burst of Knowledge is extremely powerful and is likely to get nerfed/adjusted at some point. Early sims put this equal or better to most trinkets at Myth track item level, even though Burst of Knowledge is only Hero track level. This means it is strictly speaking a purchasable item that is Best-In-Slot.

Currently this trinket is extra powerful since it is not on the shared trinket cooldown, meaning we can stack this in execute and use it with Spymaster's Web as an example. I suspect this will be fixed, but even still this is a strong trinket that we simply just bind to Power Infusion.

• Trinket Combo Sims
• Trinket Single Sims

Cantrip Items​

In addition to normal gear drops there are also Cantrip items with extra effects. Below are the ones available to Shadow Priest with information on their power level for us.

DISCLAIMER​

This post is now outdated. We have posted updated guidance in IcyVeins and the Discord and the below information is mostly out of date. Keeping this only for historical purposes.

October 8th/9th Changes​

Voidweaver has received lots of buffs to its kit which when using the right talent build and optimized gear can end up being better than Archon in certain situations. When comparing the best builds Voidweaver is up to 1% ahead of Archon, meaning they are very close.

THINGS ARE STILL BEING TESTED

It takes us a long time to sim talent builds, especially with rotational changes. Having only gotten this on Friday night we are still working on things and the below information should be treated as EARLY information.

List of Changes​

• Mind Blast damage increased by 10%.
• Shadow Word: Death damage increased by 10%.
• Void Bolt damage increased by 10%.
• Shadowy Apparition damage increased by 10%.
• Voidweaver: Entropic Rift damage increased by 10%.
• Voidweaver: Void Blast damage increased by 20%.
• Voidweaver: Collapsing Void damage increased by 10%.
• Voidweaver: Voidwraith damage increased by 10%.
• Voidweaver: Inner Quietus now increases Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain damage by 25% (was 20%).

How big are these buffs?​

• Archon Single: +2.8%
• Voidweaver Single: +5.2%
• Archon Triple Idol AoE: +2.2%
• Archon Hybrid AoE: +2.2%
• Voidweaver AoE: +3.9%

Overview​

There are a few keys things to note:

• Unfurling Darkness is now strongly preferred for Voidweaver builds in non-dungeon environments. This supplements our DoT refreshing instead of relying on Mental Decay and also gives us an instant cast spell thats hits like a truck. This can still be used in dungeon environments depending on how much of your time is spent at lower target counts (5 or less).
• By default SimC will cause a certain percentage of ticks of Entropic Rift to miss, this is aimed at making it more realistic with boss and target movement. Chance is 5% on single target and up to 10% above 2 targets.
• Voidweaver will naturally struggle as you go into dungeons and start pulling massive packs together, anything more than 8 targets is rough. For this reason pushing keys will still prefer Archon most weeks, but any type of pug situation where you are pulling one pack a time will do great with Voidweaver, especially during Voidbound weeks.

When to pick Archon?​

• Consistent single target damage, not contingent on targets staying in place.
• Prefers the Void Eruption playstyle
• Mythic+ Dungeons where you are pushing high key levels where packs are living 60+ seconds long or you are consistently pulling packs together and around your cooldowns.

When to pick Voidweaver?​

• Top single target damage, particularly when bosses are not moving out of Entropic Rift. This is contingent on playing Unfurling Darkness. If you do not want to play with this talent than Archon will net more single target damage.
• Prefers the Dark Ascension playstyle
• Mythic+ Dungeons where you are pulling one pack at a time and not chain pulling massive pulls. Ideally stays at/under 8 targets as much as possible.
• Anytime you are fighting against absorb shields for Devour Matter (i.e. Voidbound affix, Queen Ansurek intermission, etc)

Rotation Changes​

The following is a list of changes done to the APL compared to before these changes. This is not a full list of how to play Voidweaver.

• Pool Mind Blast for 1 GCD with Mind Flay or 2 GCDs with Mind Spike before Void Torrent comes off cooldown with Voidweaver
• As Voidweaver you should cast Vampiric Touch to proc Unfurling Darkness when facing less than 6 targets and Dark Ascension is not active. This falls just above normal Mind Blast in the priority list.
• You should cast Vampiric Touch to spend Unfurling Darkness as a top priority action when the buff is available. This means as soon as you proc this you immediately spend it.
• Removed unlocked Devouring Plague use during Dark Ascension and instead unlocked it while Entropic Rift is active specifically. You still use Devouring Plague at high priority if it is about to expire or you are capping on Insanity.

Example Voidweaver Opener​

This is an example opener with the VW_VE_VW_DA_cthun_82852967308207_Spike_DR build.

1. Cast Halo pre-pull for 10 Insanity
2. Open with Vampiric Touch to proc Unfurling Darkness and apply our DoTs
3. Cast Vampiric Touch again to consume Unfurling Darkness
4. Mind Spike
5. Voidwraith
6. Dark Ascension
7. Power Infusion + Potion
8. Devouring Plague
9. Void Torrent
10. Void Blast
11. Void Blast
12. Devouring Plague

Full openers with a wider variety of talent builds will be posted to the guide soon.

WeakAuras​

With all of the changes there are a few WeakAuras to list to help with the rotational parts of playing Voidweaver Shadow Priest.

• Pooling Mind Blast Helper
• Unfurling Darkness
• These are all baked into Publik's WeakAura Set

Breakdowns​

The below charts include breakdowns in the various sim environments. Click each link to see the builds used. Note that this page will not be updated after the launch of the changes and you should check the guide for the most up to date builds at that point.

Single Target​

Single Target + Shadow Crash​

2 Target (Stacked)​

Composite Raid​

8 Target 1 Minute Burst​

DungeonRoute Overall Average (+15)​

I've posted quite a lot on these topics already but wanted to call out a few things that are still plaguing the spec.

There are a lot of bugs facing the spec currently, several of which are very impactful to playing the game. The full list is here with the big ones below:

• Halo is pulling mobs that are not currently in combat
• Voidheart is expiring early
• Voidwraith pet is taking full damage as if it was a player
• Darkening Horizon is not always extending correctly
• Mind Soothe is not castable
• Idol of C'Thun is completely broken

Season 1 Tier Set Bonus

Currently the tier set for Shadow Priests is about a 3% DPS gain going from equivalent gear without the set bonus to equipping the full 4 set. This is particularly due to the strength of Distorted Reality (especially early on with less stats) and the inherent synergy with Mind's Eye. Mind's Eye does gain about 5% with the set but this is not enough to offset the loss at current tuning.

In AoE situations the set bonus is about 4%, primarily due to preferring Mind's Eye for these builds. Overall this makes for a pretty underwhelming set bonus effect power wise, and particularly stings because the set bonus is pretty boring as it stands today.

Hero Talent Iteration

So far we have not seen much iteration on our Hero Talent trees, particularly for Archon. Archon looks exactly how it did when it was first released and not a single thing was ever changed or iterated on, including the actual numerical tuning of the tree. I don't want to repost feedback but this is extremely disappointing and it feels like this just wasn't a priority to work on.

While Voidweaver did get some iteration early on there are still quite a few challenges that tree has that would really help to see more iteration and changes with to make it feel better to play, particularly with the way the Entropic Rift spawns and follows targets.

Talent Tree Tree Iteration

Going into the expansion Shadow Priest has received little to no changes to the base spec. While we have gotten reworks quite often over the years none of these have really ever felt complete and this certainly adds to the frustration when comments made in previous dev cycles of revisiting things like Dark Ascension were never changed in the TWW beta cycle.

Furthermore Shadow Priests now have the most 2 point nodes in our tree, and our class tree has the most total points. This equates to 1894837640784 possible builds of our class tree which is obviously an insane number to reason about, but is kind of crazy considering some classes only have a fraction of a percent of that amount. This is not solely indicative of a problem, but does make Priests feel like our tree is not created equally when looking at other classes and specs in the game.

This is still causing ugly issues in places like the Shadow spec tree where you have to pick between more DPS or taking the loss to get crucial defensive or utility nodes. As far as I'm aware the design goals were to not have this be a choice but we still have a crowded top section of our talent tree which feels horrible.

Decided to wrap up some previous posts and feedback into a more concise entry to give current good, bad, and bugs for Voidweaver and Archon from a Shadow Priest perspective.

Good​

• Visually exciting
• Mini-bursts every 30s feel nice
• Cast while moving Void Torrent is fun to play with

Bad​

• Shadowy Insight procs can be frustrating as we pool Mind Blasts before our Void Torrent and waste these procs.
• Travel time to getting to the target can be frustrating, would feel much better if it just spawned under the target.
• Pooling Mind Blasts before Void Torrents can be awkward
• Slowly follows the target if its moving across the room too fast
• Feels like we need to play around Mind Melt a bit too much
• Lack of Void interactions on the tree, particularly Voidform. Instead we have several points that deal with Mindbender, SW:D, or dots
• Retargeting when original target dies feels really random
• Devour Matter can be good in niche cases, but feels bad that most of the time it does nothing

Gamebreaking Bugs​

• Void Blast sometimes breaks
• Voidwraith gets 1-shot by most environmental AoE effects
• Darkening Horizon doesnt always work correctly

State of Archon

Good​

• Off-healing can be quite powerful
• If you like Halo, it is cool to see the bursts
• Simple to play, if you like base shadow you will like Archon

Bad​

• Puts a weird amount of emphasis on MFI/MSI
• Does not make our cooldowns feel that powerful
• Can feel overwhemled trying to spend Surge procs before capping, particularly with VF
• Honestly quite boring relative to Voidweaver
• Halo itself is pretty weak baseline, especially since the echoes do not give Insanity

Gamebreaking Bugs​

• Mind Spike can munch free Surge of Insanity procs