General Information
On this page, we present the viable talent and glyph choices forShadow Priests in World of Warcraft MoP 5.4. We detail what each of the talents andglyphs do and in which situations they should be taken.
The other pages of our Shadow Priest guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.
1. Talent Choices↑top
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- Performance-enhancing
- Survival
- Crowd Control
- Movement
- Utility
- Situational
There is no longer such a thing as a default build. Most of the talents arenow viable. They can easily be changed, thanks to 
Dust of Disappearance(and 
Tomes of the Clear Mind from level 86 to 90).You will frequently find yourself changing talents and glyphs betweenencounters, in order to adapt your play style to different mechanics.Therefore, it is important to understand what each of your talents does andhow they affect your play style.
2. Tier 1 Talents↑top
Tier 1 talents offer you a choice between 3 crowd-control abilities.
Void Tendrils roots up to 5 enemies in place for up to 20 seconds.Killing the tendrils cancels the effects. The targets must be in the 8-yardproximity of the main target of the spell.
Psyfiend spawns a friendly NPC that casts fears on nearbyenemies.
Dominate Mind takes control of an enemy player or NPC.
These talents have, at best, situational uses. They may be useful insome encounters, but most likely will only be used during trash andquesting. Your choice will be largely irrelevant.
These talents do not influence your performance in any way, their usesbeing entirely situational. We advise that you choose the talent you preferthe most, or that one which applies best to the conditions of theencounter.
That said, Void Tendrils may prove more useful than other choices,since it allows you to root enemy adds.
3. Tier 2 Talents↑top
Tier 2 talents offer you a choice between 3 means of improving yourmobility.
Body and Soul increases the movement speed of the target of your
Power Word: Shield and 
Leap of Faith by 60% for 4 seconds.
Angelic Feather allows you to place up to 3 feathers on theground. Collecting a feather (running through it) increases the player'smovement speed by 80% for 6 seconds. Placing feathers has no cooldown, butyou only gain a new feather every 10 seconds.
Phantasm causes your 
Fade to remove allmovement-impairing effects from you. It also makes you unslowable for 5seconds.
We recommend choosing Body and Soul or Angelic Feather. Bodyand Soul is a bit better, because it offers an immediate movement-speedincrease whenever someone needs it, as opposed to Angelic Feather, which takesmore time since you need to spawn the feathers. The added time to set upAngelic Feathers will also result in a loss of DPS. Be wary, however, that the Power Word: Shields you cast to provide the Body and Soul buff will apply the
Weakened Soul debuff on the target, so make sure not to inconvenience anyDiscipline Priests who are trying to do their job. Conversely, note that youcannot provide the boost if the player is already affected by Weakened Soul,so be on the look-out for that.
Angelic Feather is a close second to Body and Soul, though, so if youthink you will need the extra 20% movement speed that Angelic Feather offers,or if you think the 6-second duration of the Body and Soul buff will notbe enough, then you should go with Angelic Feather.
It is important to note that neither Power Word: Shield nor Leap of Faith will take you out of 
Shadowform when you use them.
Phantasm is more of a PvP talent, with situational uses atbest.
4. Tier 3 Talents↑top
Tier 3 talents offer you a choice between 3 performance-enhancingabilities.
From Darkness, Comes Light passively grants you a 20% chance, wheneveryour 
Vampiric Touch ticks, to cause your next 
Mind Spike tonot consume your DoTs, to be instant-cast, to cost no mana, and to deal 50%additional damage. You can have a maximum of 2 charges of this buff at onetime.
Mindbender is an improved version of 
Shadowfiend,which it replaces. The Mindbender has a lower cooldown, and provides you withmore damage and mana regeneration.
Solace and Insanity causes 
Mind Flay to deal 33% more damageon targets affected by 
Devouring Plague, for each Shadow Orb with whichDevouring Plague was cast.
Currently, Solace and Insanity provides the highest DPS gain,provided that you can afford to stand and channel Mind Flay followingthe applications of Devouring Plague. In case the encounter requiresvery heavy movement, it may not be the best choice.
Mindbender is a good choice for fights where you have to move a lot(since it can be cast while moving), or for fights where you need sometimed burst DPS to burn down a target.
From Darkness, Comes Light is also a good choice. The Mind Spikesyou can get off thanks to this talent are a nice DPS boost, and they do notnegatively affect your rotation. If you are multi-dotting targets with your Vampiric Touch, then you will get more procs of this talent. Even so,it is not normally better than Solace and Insanity.
5. Tier 4 Talents↑top
Tier 4 talents offer you a choice between 3 abilities that improve yoursurvivability.
Desperate Prayer is an instant-cast self-heal that heals you for30% of your maximum health, with a 2-minute cooldown.
Spectral Guise allows you to enter a pseudo-stealth state (youremain in combat), leaving behind an illusion of yourself. The effect lasts for6 seconds, or until you receive 3 attacks.
Angelic Bulwark is a passive ability that grants you a damageabsorption shield, for 20% of your maximum health, each time you drop below30% health. The effect has an internal cooldown of 90 seconds.
Here, the choice comes down to either Desperate Prayer or Angelic Bulwark. We prefer Desperate Prayer, because it can be usedon-demand. Angelic Bulwark can be great when it procs, so it is useful forfights where you often drop below 30% health (progression content, mostlikely).
Spectral Guise does not have any meaningful PvE applications.
6. Tier 5 Talents↑top
Tier 5 talents offer you a choice between 3 performance-enhancingabilities.
Twist of Fate passively increases your damage and healing by 15% for10 seconds, each time you damage or heal a target that is below 35%health.
Power Infusion is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your spellcasting speed by 20%, reduces the mana cost of all your spells by 20%, andincreases all damage done by 5%, for 20 seconds.
Divine Insight grants you 5% chance, each time
Shadow Word: Pain deals periodic damage, to reset the cooldown of
Mind Blast and cause your next Mind Blast (cast within 12 seconds) tobe instant cast and cost no mana.
Twist of Fate is currently the best choice. Note that you can increasethe uptime of the buff by making sure to damage low health adds regularly, ifthe encounter provides such an opportunity.
Divine Insight is a good choice for fights where there is heavymovement and multiple adds, since it gives you something to castwhile moving ( Mind Blast when the talent procs). These extra Mind Blastcasts result in more Shadow Orbs, allowing you to cast Devouring Plaguemore.
Power Infusion is currently the worst of the three talents in thistier.
7. Tier 6 Talents↑top
Tier 6 talents offer you a choice between 3 abilities that deal damage toand heal multiple targets.
Cascade is a sort of "chain heal" or "chain lightning", dependingon how you wish to use the spell. The initial bolt heals or deals damage toits first target, after which it splits in two, each bolt jumping totargets that are far away, until it eventually stops.
Divine Star resembles a yo-yo, in the sense that theball of energy travels in a path away from you (in front of you), and afterreaching a certain point (24 yards away), it returns. Both on the first, aswell as on the second trip, it heals allies in its path, and damagesenemies.
Halo causes an effect around you, which expands up to a 30-yardradius. Allies who are inside it are healed, while enemies are damaged. Thehighest amounts of healing/damage are received by the targets who are aroundthe 25-yard mark.
Quite simply, you should choose the tier 6 talent based on the positioningof the targets you are attacking.
If the targets are spread out, then you will want Cascade.
If the targets are stacked loosely (ideally in a line, although we cannotquite see this happening very often), then Divine Star can shine. Notethat Divine Star also provides a very high amount of healing, making it quiteuseful during heroic progression. Divine Star is also good if you need tofight in a small space, which does not allow you to fulfill the positioningrequirement of Halo (see below).
Finally, Halo will work well if the targets are close to eachother, and if you can position yourself in such a way as to be 25 yards awayfrom them.
If you are using these talents exclusively against a single target (inwhich case they will all hit their target), then Halo provides the highestDPS, again, provided that you can stand 25 yards away from the target.
8. Major Glyphs↑top
There are a few Major Glyphs you should consider, though none of themprovide a DPS increase. Below, we group them together by category.
8.1. Healing
Glyph of Focused Mending causes your 
Prayer of Mending to onlybounce back and forth between yourself and your initial target. This makesPrayer of Mending an excellent survival ability, providing you with a niceamount of healing.- Glyph of Vampiric Embrace increases the amount of healing provided by
Vampiric Embrace by 25%, and reduces the duration over which this healhappens. This makes the heal from Vampiric Embrace more bursty.
- Glyph of Prayer of Mending increases the initial heal of Prayer of Mending, at the cost of one charge. This glyph is usefulparticularly for the times when you use Prayer of Mending as a self-healingability.
8.2. Damage Reduction
- Glyph of Inner Sanctum provides you with a 6% spell damage takenreduction while
Inner Fire is active. This is particularly useful duringprogression content.
- Glyph of Fade reduces all damage taken by 10% while Fade isactive. This can turn Fade into a useful minor survival cooldown in times ofraid damage.
- Glyph of Inner Fire increases the armor you gain from Inner Fire by50%. This is useful if you expect to take considerable Physical damageduring the encounter.
8.3. Utility
9. Minor Glyphs↑top
All Minor Glyphs are of purely cosmetic value, and they do not influenceyour gameplay at all.
10. Changelog↑top
- 10 Sep. 2013: Patch 5.4 update.
- 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: updated the Glyph of Mass Dispeldescription.
- 07 May 2013: Added Glyph of Inner Fire, Glyph of Prayer of Mending, and Glyph of Mass Dispel. Grouped the MajorGlyphs by category. Added additional details in the discussions of Tier 3, 5,and 6 talents.
- 26 Apr. 2013: Added Glyph of Vampiric Embrace and Glyph of Fade.
- 10 Apr. 2013: Re-worded a few talent discussions, particularlyclarifying when each of the Tier 5 talents is best chosen. Removed themention of Glyph of Mind Spike (since it is more or less worthless now),and added a mention for Glyph of Inner Sanctum.
- 26 Mar. 2013: Re-worded and clarified the explanations of the valueof various performance-enhancing talents.
- 13 Mar. 2013: Updated the relative values of Tier 3 and Tier 5talents, to account for the most recent simulation results.
- 04 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
