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Shadow Priest Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits — Dragonflight 10.0.2

Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits are the most important character customization options in Shadowlands. They have a substantial impact on your toolkit and performance as Shadow Priest. This page's purpose is to help you pick the right options according to the content you intend to do in Shadowlands.

• 1. Dragonflight Disclaimer
• 2. Introduction: Prerequisites
• 3. Summary of the Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits
• 4. Shadow Priest Conduits
• 5. In-depth Covenant Analysis
• 6. Kyrian Shadow Priest Deep Dive
• 7. Necrolord Shadow Priest Deep Dive
• 8. Night Fae Shadow Priest Deep Dive
• 9. Venthyr Shadow Priest Deep Dive

Dragonflight Disclaimer

Please be aware that as of the Dragonflight Pre-Patch and Dragonflight expansion, all Covenant abilities, Soulbinds, and Conduits will only function while within the Shadowlands. This page will temporarily remain as a reference.

Introduction: Prerequisites

This page assumes that you are already familiar with Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits . If that is not the case, we have a number of pages that can help you get up to speed:

• Covenants Guide , which explains what Covenants are, what perks they bring, and how you can join one;
• Priest Covenant Abilities , which lists all the abilities that Priests gain by joining each Covenant;
• How To Change Covenant? , which tells you how you can switch Covenant (rejoining a former Covenant will require you to perform a number of tasks to regain their trusts);
• General Soulbind Guide , which explains what Soulbinds are and how you can pledge yourself to them to open up their Soulbind tree;
• Priest Conduits , which lists all of the Conduits available to Priests.

Summary of the Best Covenants, Soulbinds, and Conduits

Dragonflight pre-patch covenant choice.

• Necrolord has no clear synergy or changes going into pre-patch and will just be a nice additional bit of damage to the kit you do not need to play around.

Covenant Choice Overview

For more information about Shadow Priest Covenants along with their various strengths and weaknesses, please see our Covenants and Soulbinds analysis section at the bottom of this page.

Best Conduits for Shadow Priest

Conduits have three different types depending on the kind of effect they provide. The following lists will rank the best Conduits for each type based on the content you are doing. Please refer to our Priest Conduits list if you want to see all Priest Conduits.

Shadow Priest Conduits

Note that as of Patch 9.1.5 you can now freely swap Conduits without any penalty via Conduit Energy, so make sure you are always using the optimal Conduits for the content you are doing.

Shadow Priest Potency Conduits

The Conduits available to Shadow Priest are not very impactful, but do have some synergies with our talent choices that change this up slightly.

Shadow Priest Specific Potency Conduits

Covenant Ability Potency Conduits

Shadow Priest Endurance Conduits

Shadow Priest Finesse Conduits

In-depth Covenant Analysis

The following section is dedicated to going over the Covenant abilities for Shadow, and more importantly the Soulbinds behind each of these abilities that encompass your entire Covenant Choice. The discussion and information is going to assume you are at max Renown levels, as you need the full Renown to unlock all Soulbinds and all Soulbind paths. The ranking of which Soulbind will change based on your current Renown levels. We have a specific simulation that will be updated weekly if you wish to see what is currently the best path for the current level of Renown possible. Otherwise the below paths will be best at max Renown levels once you get there, or once you unlock the full tree.

Kyrian Shadow Priest Deep Dive

This ability will feel awkward and weird to press as Shadow; it is just strangely designed.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Kyrian Shadow Priests

• Awkward rotation to learn.
• Lackluster AoE potential.
• Certain Soulbind traits require a bit more movement to get full potential out of and are less passive.

• Terrible covenant legendary makes the performance fall off a cliff compared to Necrolord .

Kyrian Shadow Priest Soulbinds

Shadow Priest Pelagos Soulbind

For both Raiding and Mythic+, use the following path:

Shadow Priest Kleia Soulbind

Shadow priest forgelite prime mikanikos soulbind.

For Raiding, use the following path

If in Mythic+, use this path instead:

Necrolord Shadow Priest Deep Dive

Strengths and Weaknesses of Necrolord Shadow Priests

• Versatile damage profile that also provides healing for allies.
• Consistent playstyle that is easier to execute effectively with more passive Soulbind traits.

• Square root scaling can make the DoT effect harder to maximize.

Necrolord Shadow Priest Soulbinds

Shadow Priest Plague Deviser Marileth Soulbind

For Raiding, use the following path:

For Mythic+, use the following path:

Shadow Priest Emeni Soulbind

Shadow priest bonesmith heirmir soulbind.

For Raiding and Mythic+, use the following path

Night Fae Shadow Priest Deep Dive

Strengths and Weaknesses of Night Fae Shadow Priests

• Having a cooldown-reduction-based ability makes this a great ability for progression bosses to fit in more cooldowns compared to what you could do otherwise.

• All three Soulbinds are useful in their own way, giving you lots of options for your damage patterns.
• Can be more difficult to play optimally compared to other covenants.
• Can require meticulous planning of cooldowns to line things up perfectly rather than simply firing all abilities on cooldown.

Night Fae Shadow Priest Soulbinds

You can use this Weak Aura to help track Field of Blossoms as a Priest. It tracks the duration even if you have to step out of it to handle a mechanic.

Shadow Priest Niya Soulbind

Shadow priest dreamweaver soulbind, shadow priest korayn soulbind.

For both Raiding and Mythic+, use the following path

Venthyr Shadow Priest Deep Dive

Strengths and Weaknesses of Venthyr Shadow Priests

• Lackluster AoE potential when compared to the other Covenants.
• The covenant legendary is incredibly inconsistent and makes the damage potential less ideal compared to Necrolord .

Venthyr Shadow Priest Soulbinds

Shadow Priest Nadjia Soulbind

Shadow priest theotar soulbind.

• Crit = Versatility.

Shadow Priest Draven Soulbind

• 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.

More Priest Guides

Guides from other classes, raid guides.

This guide has been written by Publik , Shadow Priest theorycrafter and SimC dev at Warcraft Priests . He currently raids in The Exiled on Arthas-US.

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Shadow priest

• View history

Shadow priests (or shadowpriests ) are priests whose powers derive from the Void instead of the Light . Shadow priests can be worshipers of many dark forces such as the loa or the Old Gods , or simply focus their art on shadowy magics and mental manipulation, understanding the necessity of balance between dark and light. But to truly understand such ancient, corruptive influence is to be driven mad. This is the state in which these dark priests thrive, embracing insanity and feeding off of the minds of their opponents to reach terrifying new limits. [1]

• 1 Background
• 2 In the RPG
• 3.2 Unnamed
• 5 References

Background [ ]

"Victims of a shadow priest seldom remember why they're victims." [2]

The high arakkoa of Draenor were once worshipers of the sun goddess Rukhmar . But discipline was harsh among them, and those found guilty of dabbling in shadow magic or worshiping gods other than Rukhmar were hurled from the spires and into the cursed pools of Sethekk Hollow , where their wings shriveled and their bodies contorted. [3] This led to the rise of a new caste of outcast arakkoa , with their own custom of worshiping Anzu the Raven God and their own shadow priesthood known as the talonpriests .

Shadow priests were first brought to human society after the First War . Natalie Seline , a bishop of Stormwind , began to delve into workings of the orc necrolytes who had poured through the Dark Portal and desecrated their hallowed dead. While at first this was done in order to provide Azeroth with the knowledge it needed to fight against such dark magic, the bishop's studies over the years became increasingly obsessed with finding out why such dark energies existed at all, and why she began to see the ebb and flow of such energies in the world around her. She began preaching about the necessity of a balance between dark and light , but after her death, her books were locked away in the Kirin Tor 's vaults in Dalaran . [4] These teachings were rediscovered by Forsaken priests in Lordaeron after the capture and refurbishing of the Undercity , [4] leading to the creation of the Cult of Forgotten Shadow .

During the war against the Lich King , part of the Scarlet Onslaught 's clergy became corrupted by the nathrezim Mal'Ganis , leading to the appearance of raven priests .

The spreading of the Twilight's Hammer during the times of the Cataclysm led many priests of the Church of the Holy Light to lose their faith in the Holy Light and turn to the worship of the Old Gods instead.

Years later, during the Burning Legion 's third invasion , many shadow priests joined the Conclave in the Netherlight Temple . [5]

In the RPG [ ]

A single shadow priest serves as a bishop for a Forsaken community. [6] There are also shadow priests among the trolls, they find Forsaken to be kindred spirits, supporting them because they are evil. [7] There are also shadow priests that follow Kil'jaeden. [8]

Unnamed [ ]

See also [ ]

• Shadowcaster

References [ ]

• ^ Legion Class Preview Series: Priest
• ^ Mind Spike
• ^ Beasts of the Savage Lands — Spires of Arak
• ^ a b World of Warcraft: The Magazine Issue 4 , pg. 84
• ^ Legion Preview: Class Halls
• ^ Horde Player's Guide , pg. 160
• ^ Horde Player's Guide , pg. 181
• ^ Manual of Monsters , pg. 112
• 1 Anduin Wrynn
• 2 Iridikron

Shadowy Apparitions - How to get them to occur more often?

I am a very casual player. I do not expect to be all powerful or anything close to it. I also rarely play my Shadow Priest. So I thought I’d give it a whirl with the new talent system the last few days after messing around with all my other characters. Anyways…

Shadowy Apparitions - How do I get them to go off more often? I know when I’m against a large group they trigger like crazy but when its more of a one on one/two I rarely see them at all. Is that simply normal? Perhaps I’m simply not casting the right spells when against low numbers? What is it that triggers them to go off more often?

I am not even sure they matter to my output. I just like seeing them float around while fighting.

they only show up from mind Sear, DP, and Mind blast iirc, and ever since they changed them to only make one even if you crit, they aren’t as visible as they used to

they used to double up on crit, which also doubled their insanity regen

This is mostly correct. They also spawn from Voidbolt if you happen to spec into Void Eruption/Voidform.

You can thank whatever whichever dev at Blizz decided to screw with one of the communities most beloved aspects of Shadow Priests, which seems to be a reoccurring theme recently.

This wiki contains inaccurate and out-of-date information. Please head over to https://wowpedia.fandom.com for more accurate and up-to-date game information.

Shadow priest

• View history

Shadow priests of the Forsaken are members of the Cult of Forgotten Shadow . A single shadow priest serves as a bishop for a community. [1] There are also shadow priests among the trolls; they find Forsaken to be kindred spirits. [2] There are also shadow priests that follow Kil’jaeden. [3]

• 1 Shadow priests in World of Warcraft
• 2.1 Group Contribution
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Shadow priests in World of Warcraft [ ]

Shadow Priests are a specialization of the Priest class who have put the majority of their talents into the Shadow Tree . Priests interested in soloing and PvP usually select a heavy amount of Shadow talents, as Shadow spells dole out high DPS . These priests lack the healing power of priests specialized in the Holy and Discipline trees, but are formidable opponents in PvP.

Shadow Priests can also be invaluable support, whether by silencing casters, disarming melee, applying the Misery debuff to help allies hit, reducing an enemy's healing by use of Improved Mind Blast , shielding a party member, or dropping Shadowform to help with healing.

Prior to The Burning Crusade , Shadow priests were of limited use in group PVE, as they were generally inferior to primary DPS classes. Shadow priests now have little need to concern themselves with mana availability or crit rate, allowing them to focus almost solely on maximizing spell damage.

It is a common misconception that Shadow Priests are incapable of healing instances. As long as the Priest stays out of Shadowform and focuses on healing, he or she should be able to heal well enough to serve a group. An experienced Shadow Priest with high damage can even heal through trash pulls and non-raid bosses with Vampiric Embrace and Shadowform.

Shadow Priests in Endgame [ ]

Group contribution [ ].

Shadow priests are extremely useful in endgame content, providing Replenishment for mana-intensive fights, and group healing for fights that include multiple people taking damage. Also, shadow priests with 3/3 Misery increase chance to hit the target with spells by 3%.

Threat is generally not a problem for shadow priests, due to a 30% reduction of threat generation in Shadowform, and the option to temporarily dump all threat with Fade . However, the healing from Vampiric Embrace, coupled with high damage caused can generate more threat per damage than most other classes. In addition, Mind Flay , a staple damage spell, causes additional threat due to its snare effect. Points into Shadow Affinity is used to reduce overall threat in a party/raid.

See also [ ]

• Shadow priest PvP guide
• Shadow priest builds

References [ ]

• ^ HPG , pg. 160
• ^ HPG , pg. 181
• ^ MoM , pg. 112

External links [ ]

• 1 Samwise Didier
• 2 Sindragosa (tactics)
• 3 Icecrown Citadel (instance)

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Shadow Priest Guide for WoW Dragonflight Raids

Last Updated November 18, 2023

Best Shadow Priest Dragonflight Build, Talents, Stat Priority, Races, BiS gear, etc., ranked by their performance and popularity based on the latest Raid Logs from Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope.

Temporary Measure

Using data from Heroic logs while there is not enough data from Mythic yet

Easy mode choices summary for Shadow Priest

Class tree talents for shadow priest, spec tree talents for shadow priest, full talent tree for shadow priest, weapons for shadow priest, trinkets for shadow priest, head for shadow priest, neck for shadow priest, shoulders for shadow priest, back for shadow priest, chest for shadow priest, wrist for shadow priest, hands for shadow priest, waist for shadow priest, legs for shadow priest, feet for shadow priest, rings for shadow priest, gem for shadow priest, gem combination for shadow priest, tier for shadow priest, tier combination for shadow priest, back enchant for shadow priest, chest enchant for shadow priest, wrist enchant for shadow priest, belt enchant for shadow priest, feet enchant for shadow priest, ring enchant for shadow priest, weapon enchant for shadow priest.

This guide covers all the essential parts of character optimization needed to maximize your DPS in Raids as Shadow Priest .

To navigate between guide sections use the top dropdown or buttons in the bottom.

Frequently Asked Questions

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