WoW Shadow Priest Guide

What is a Shadow Priest?

Pre-Burning Crusade and patch 2.0 (the introduction of Misery and Vampiric Touch) a shadow priest was more of a novelty in a raid than a staple. Most of the time our shadow priest was in the melee dps group with the rogues and dps warriors so they could get the benefit of Vampiric Embrace. They weren’t near the top of the damage chart, or the healing chart, but were decent at both.

Then came the Burning Crusade and the emergence of the Shadow Priest as a viable 5-man and raid spec. This was all possible because of two talents: Misery (adding 5% to all spell damage in the raid) and Vampiric Touch (returning 5% of damage done as mana to party members). The introduction of epic tailoring pieces also put shadow priests at the top of the damage meters in Karazhan for the first time.

Currently our role in a raid is to return as much mana as possible to our party members by doing as much damage as possible while remaining under our tanks in threat. Health return through Vampiric Embrace is only a side benefit of a Shadow Priest these days. The use of VE is very situational and depends on the fight.

In 5-mans we provide mana/health returns to the group which makes the role of the healer easier. We can also provide crowd control through the use of Mind Control, though its use is situational depending on the instance/mob you are facing.

Gear Discussion

The first thing to consider as a shadow priest is your gear. What stats should you be focusing on as you do 5-mans to gear up for Karazhan?

Spell hit rating.
This stat will give you more of a DPS increase than any other stat until you reach the hit cap. Spell hit rating increases your chance to hit with spells. However, there is a base 1% chance to miss that cannot be overcome. Your chance to hit against level 73 mobs (raid bosses) is 83%. Therefore, you need 16% hit rating to become hit capped against raid bosses.

Luckily, shadow priests are one of the easiest classes to reach the hit cap with. By taking 5/5 points into the talent Shadow Focus, you will have an innate +10% to your chance to hit. In other words, you need to obtain 6% more spell hit from your gear, which works out to be +76 spell hit rating. (at level 70, 12.6 spell hit rating is equal to 1% spell hit)
 
+shadow damage or +spell damage.
All of our abilities scale with +shadow/spell damage. Most of your damage as a shadow priest will come from our two damage over time spells: Shadow Word Pain and Vampiric Touch, as well as our channeled spell Mind Flay. These three spells cannot crit, which is why the shadow priest class favors shadow/spell damage over any other stat once they are hit capped.

Stamina.
A dead shadow priest isn’t returning mana to their group. For just starting Karazhan, a nice goal would be between 7.5-8k health once raid buffed. Once you get into Gruul’s Lair and beyond, 8.5k+ health is the target.

Intellect.
While having a large mana pool is nice, other stats are much more important to a shadow priest than intellect is. Anywhere over 7k mana unbuffed is perfectly fine. Part of being a shadow priest is learning a shadow fiend/mana pot rotation so that you never run out of mana, but always finish a fight with as little mana as possible. This takes practice.

+Spell crit.
This stat only affects two of our spells as a shadow priest: Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death. As such, this stat is nice if you can get it, but not something you should go out of your way to focus on.

Mana per 5 (mp5).
One of the challenges of playing a shadow priest is balancing how aggressive your spell cycle is in terms of mana use. You don’t want to run out of mana 2 minutes into a long boss fight, nor do you want to finish with only half of your mana pool depleted. That said, mana per 5 is a stat that is great if you can get it. However, your role is mana return to your whole group so don’t give up much +dmg just to gain a few more mp5.

Spirit.
This stat provides very little benefit to a shadow priest as we are always casting spells during battle so cannot benefit from mana regen outside the five second rule. (see here for details on mana regen and the five second rule.) You should never take spirit over any other stat. However, having a little on your gear is always nice so that you get the benefit of the talent Meditation. 
 

Once you have gear you will not be replacing for awhile, get it enchanted and socketed with good gems. +spell damage enchants and +spell damage gems as much as possible, with the odd +spell hit gem if you need it. Also use your Aldor/Scryer inscription on your shoulders and the +22 spell dmg/+14 spell hit rating enhancement for your head which you get from Lower City rep.