1. Talents and Glyphs
2. Stats and Reforging
3. Gems
4. Enchants
5. Consumables
6. Professions
7. Spell Rotation
8. Gear
1. Talents and Glyphs
1.1 Talents
Shadowpriest talents
This is the base spec to use, with two points to be placed wherever you wish.
1.2 Glyphs
Prime - Mind Flay, Shadow Word: Death, Shadow Word: Pain
Major - Spirit Tap seems to be the one that is strongly recommended, for the other two the choice is yours.
Minor – Your choice.
2. Stats and Reforging
2.1 Stats
Int > Haste > Hit = Spirit > Crit = Mastery
Shadow priests needs Int. It converts to spellpower along with affecting the spell crit hit chance as well. Also we need hit, but not an excessive amount. Keep in mind that Twisted Faith grants 100% spell hit equal to Spirit from gear and effects like buffs.
That said, to be or not to be hit capped? I would say yes to avoid missing with spells. The hit caps are 1742 for non-draenei and 1640 for draenei.
For haste, there are soft caps. Here are some breakpoints of note (quoted from EJ):
218 Haste Rating for +154 DPS.
1255 Haste Rating for +37 DPS.
1602 Haste Rating for +78 DPS.
2589 Haste Rating for +47 DPS.
2737 Haste Rating for +11 DPS.
3205 Haste Rating for +77 DPS.
These of course are the DoT tick related breakpoints and are irrespective of latency.
There might be some other breakpoints related say to being able to squeeze in another Mind Flay or cast inside a Mind Blast cooldown however that type would be effected somewhat by latency so are harder to gear for.
2.2 Reforging
Reforging is new feature implemented in Cataclysm. It allows us to convert 40% stat of our choice to equivalent amount of a stat that isn’t already on the item. The stats that we are able to change are:
Spirit
Hit
Crit
Mastery
Haste
Some items are not required to be reforged. If an item has haste/crit on it, you most likely don’t want to touch it. Anything with crit/mastery, you may want to reforge the higher of the two to haste. If you are in need of hit, reforge mastery to hit/spirit. If you are over hit cap, reforge spirit/hit to best stat available.
3. Gems
META: Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond (+54 critical strike rating and +3% increased critical damage)
RED: Brilliant Inferno Ruby (+40 intellect)
ORANGE: Artful Ember Topaz (+20 intellect and +20 mastery)
ORANGE: Reckless Ember Topaz (+20 intellect and +20 haste)
PURPLE: Purified Demonseye (+20 intellect and +20 spirit)
Note on matching gems for the bonuses: do this only if the bonus grants you with either int or haste. Otherwise stack int gems. Use purified demonseye only if you need to reach hit cap if there are no other ways to do it.
4. Enchants
Head: Arcanum of Hyjal -- Revered, Guardians of Hyjal
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone -- Exalted, Therazane
Back: Enchant Cloak - Greater Intellect
Chest: Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats or Enchant Chest - Mighty Stats
Bracer: Enchant Bracer - Greater Speed or Enchant Bracer - Speed
Gloves: Enchant Gloves - Haste
Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Legs: Powerful Ghostly Spellthread
Boots: Enchant Boots - Haste or Enchant Boots - Lavawalker or Enchant Boots - Earthen Vitality
Rings: Enchant Ring - Intellect (enchanters only)
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Power Torrent or Enchant Weapon - Hurricane
Offhand: Enchant Off-Hand - Superior Intellect
5. Consumables
Food – Seafood Magnifique Feast (Severed Sagefish Head) – Increases Intellect and Stamina by 90
Flask of the Draconic Mind – Increases Intellect by 300
Volcanic Potion - Increases intellect by 1200 for 25 sec
With the guild cauldrons and the new feasts, food buffs and flasks are easier to handle during raids.
6. Professions
Depending on profession you are able to enhance your gear with better stats than those obtained by reputation or from AH. Note that not all of these are straight DPS increase, but are most likely useful when it comes to survivability.
Alchemy
Flask of the Enhancement – Increases Intellect by 80 (not affected by mixology)
Lifebound Alchemist Stone
Blacksmithing
Extra sockets on bracers and gloves.
Enchanting
Enchant Ring – Intellect (40)
Engineering
Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades
Synapse Springs
Inscription
Felfire Inscription (+140 Int and +25 haste)
Jewelcrafting
Brilliant Chimera’s Eye (+67 Int x 3)
Leatherworking
Draconic Embossment – Intellect (+130 on bracers)
Tailoring
Master’s Spellthread (+95 Int and +80 Sta)
Lightweave Embroidery (chance to increase spell power by 580 for 18 secs)
Herbalism
Lifeblood - Minor heal and 480 haste rating for 20 secs
Mining
Toughness – Increases Stamina by 120
Skinning
Master of Anatomy – Increases critical strike rating by 80
6. Spell Rotation
Quoting Nanuviel on Argent Dawn:
The things to be agreed seems to be:
- open up with VT, DP and SW: Pain (VT first if you can stand still on the pull, VT last if you need to run in.)
- keep up dots, clip them before last tick
- MB on cooldown, if you have 1 shadow orb or more. If not, MF to gain at least one orb
- SW: Death x2 on cooldown after target health reaches 25%
- MF as filler, to stack up shadow orbs
- Keep Mind Spike out of your rotation unless you need to clear your target for dots, or you have short-lived adds.
Basically it looks like this (when standing still):
VT > DP > SWP > MF for orb > MB > SWD at 25%
Mind Spike should only be used if there are multible mobs to fight (in Omnotron its quick way to get rid of the dots before the shields are up) and in trash fights. MSx2/3 gives instant MB with crit.
Dark Archangel usage: Main goal is to use DA after five stacks of Dark Evangelism. I personally do this mainly after 2nd MB, which is about at ~75% mana. This brings mana back up to 100%. Then I continue with the above rotation until around ~50% mana I put up the shadowfiend. By this time I often have second DA up to use as well. Keeping this in mind when rotating the usage of DA and SF I end up with nearly full mana at the end of the fight than drained out of it.
7. Gear
For pre-raid, I suggest looking at the list on this thread at MMO-champion.
The following lists are based on various researches done through the net. If anything here seems to be misplaced, please inform me and I’ll edit the lists accordingly.
For 359
Head - Mercurial Hood (Nefarian)
Neck – Valiona’s Medallion (Valiona & Theralion)
Shoulder – Mercurial Shoulderwraps (token from Cho’gall)
Cloak – Drape of the Twins (Valiona & Theralion)
Chest – Mercurial Vestment (2200 VP)
Bracer – Bracers of the Burning Eye (Atramedes)
Gloves – Brackish Gloves (Chimaeron)
Belt – Soul Breath Belt of the Undertow (Conclave of Wind)
Pants – Mercurial Leggins (2200 VP)
Boots – Einhorn’s Galoshes (Chimaeron)
Ring 1 – Band of Secret Names (1250 VP)
Ring 2 – Security Measure Alpha (Omnotron)
Trinket 1 – Darkmoon Card: Volcano (quest)
Trinket 2 – Theralion’s Mirror (Valiona & Theralion)
Main Hand – Incineratus (Magmaw)
Off Hand – Book of Binding Will (Halfus)
Ranged – Finkle’s Mixer Upper (Chimaeron)
Simcraft results in 25.8k dps as a draenei with tailoring and enchanting; this was the best result I could get after nearly an hour fiddling with the slots, enchants, gems and reforging.
Alternatives:
Head – Helm of Eldritch Authority (Valiona & Theralion), Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades (Engineer only)
Shoulder – Mantle of Roaring Flames (Atramedes), Mantle of Nefarius (Nefarian)
Cloak – Haunt of Flies (1250 VP)
Gloves - Woundsplicer Handwraps (BoE)
Belt – Belt of the Depths (crafted), Belt of Arcane Storms (Maloriak)
Ring – Ring of the Boy Emperor (crafted), Signet of the Fifth Circle (Cho’gall)
Main Hand - Twilight’s Hammer (Cho’gall)
For 372/379
Head – Crown of the Twilight Queen (Sinestra)
Neck – Valiona’s Medallion (Valiona & Theralion)
Shoulder – Mercurial Shoulderwraps (T11 Heroic token)
Cloak – Shroud of Endless Grief (Sinestra)
Chest – Mercurial Vestment (T11 Heroic token)
Bracer – Bracers of the Dark Mother (Sinestra)
Gloves –Mercurial Gloves (T11 Heroic token)
Belt –Soul Breath Belt of the Undertow (Conclave of Wind)
Pants – Mercurial Leggings (T11 Heroic token)
Boots – Einhorn’s Galoshes (Chimaeron)
Ring 1 – Signet of the Fifth Circle (Cho’gall)
Ring 2 – Planetary Band of the Undertow (Conclave of Wind)
Trinket 1 – Darkmoon Card: Volcano
Trinket 2 – Theralion’s Mirror (Valiona & Theralion)
Main Hand – Incineratus (Magmaw)
Off Hand – Book of Binding Will (Halfus)
Ranged – Finkle’s Mixer Upper (Chimaeron)
Alternatives
Head – Helm of the Eldritch Authority (Valiona & Theralion)
Cloak – Drape of Twins (Valiona & Theralion)
Bracer – Bracers of the Burningeye (Atramedes)
Gloves – Brackish Gloves (Chimaeron)
Belt - Belt of Arcane Storms (Maloriak)
Ring - Security Measure Alpha (Omnotron)
Main Hand - Twilight’s Hammer (Cho’gall)
