Shadow Priest Rotation Guide - Midnight

By EllipsisPriest Updated: 2026/08/10

Shadow Priest Rotation in Tentacle SlamPsychic Link

Maximise Shadow Word: Madness Uptime Insanity is Shadow's only resource which it uses to cast Shadow Word: Madness. Prioritize using Shadow Word: Madness to keep your insanity from capping at 100. Keeping Shadow Word: Madness up for as long as possible will increase your damage through Mastery: Shadow Weaving.

Keep Cooldowns on Cooldown: Alongside a resource system, Shadow has a variety of short, medium, and long duration cooldowns to manage. The rule of thumb is to prioritize shorter cooldown spells over longer cooldown spells to avoid situations where you lose an overall use of an ability throughout an encounter.

React to Procs: Shadow has several procs like Shadowy Insight, and Mind Devourer which need to be reacted to and spent as and when they occur to avoid wasting potential spell casts.

Best Shadow Priest RotationHero Talent Master Switchesentire page's Best Shadow Priest Single Target Rotation Please select a Hero Talent option to generate a Single Target priorityUse the ✖ markers to switch to common alternate talent picks based on your loadout.The builds used below are covered in the Talents page. Anywhere you see the icon, you can hover over it for additional notes. OptionsMiseryInvoked NightmareVoidformPriority

Maintain Vampiric Touch, either with Tentacle Slam or hard cast Vampiric Touch

Cast Halo.

Cast Power Infusion.

Spend Insanity on Shadow Word: Madness if it is not active, is about to fall off, or you are about to cap.

Cast Mind Blast.

Cast Mind Flay: Insanity if Shadow Word: Madness is active.

Cast Shadow Word: Madness if Voidform is active.

Cast Tentacle Slam if there will be no additional targets to DoT or upcoming movement.

Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target is below 20% Hp.

Cast Mind Flay, interrupting as soon as anything of higher priority becomes available.

When moving, cast Tentacle Slam, Shadow Word: Death, or Shadow Word: Pain to generate some Insanity and deal some damage.

Use the ✖ markers to switch to common alternate talent picks based on your loadout.The builds used below are covered in the Talents page. Anywhere you see the icon, you can hover over it for additional notes. OptionsMiseryInvoked NightmareVoidformPriority

Maintain Vampiric Touch, either with Tentacle Slam or hard cast Vampiric Touch

Cast Power Infusion.

Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target has an absorb shield.

Cast Void Blast if Shadow Word: Madness is active or if Entropic Rift is about to expire.

Spend Insanity on Shadow Word: Madness if it is not active, is about to fall off, you are about to cap, or Entropic Rift is active.

Cast Void Torrent to activate Entropic Rift.

Cast Mind Blast.

Cast Shadow Word: Madness.

Cast Tentacle Slam if there will be no additional targets to DoT or upcoming movement.

Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target is below 20% Hp.

Cast Mind Flay, interrupting as soon as anything of higher priority becomes available.

When moving, cast Tentacle Slam, Shadow Word: Death, or Shadow Word: Pain to generate some Insanity and deal some damage.

Best Shadow Priest AoE RotationInsanity Please select a Hero Talent option to generate a Single Target priorityUse the ✖ markers to switch to common alternate talent picks based on your loadout.The builds used below are covered in the Talents page. Anywhere you see the icon, you can hover over it for additional notes. OptionsMiseryInvoked NightmareVoidformPriority

Maintain Vampiric Touch, either with Tentacle Slam or hard cast Vampiric Touch

Cast Halo.

Cast Power Infusion.

Spend Insanity on Shadow Word: Madness if it is not active, is about to fall off, or you are about to cap.

Cast Mind Blast.

Cast Mind Flay: Insanity if Shadow Word: Madness is active.

Cast Shadow Word: Madness if Voidform is active.

Cast Tentacle Slam if there will be no additional targets to DoT or upcoming movement.

Cast Shadow Word: Death if there is a target is below 20% Hp.

Cast Mind Flay, interrupting as soon as anything of higher priority becomes available.

When moving, cast Tentacle Slam, Shadow Word: Death, or Shadow Word: Pain to generate some Insanity and deal some damage.

Maintain Vampiric Touch, either with Tentacle Slam or hard cast Vampiric Touch

Cast Power Infusion.

Cast Shadow Word: Death if the target has an absorb shield.

Cast Void Blast if Shadow Word: Madness is active or if Entropic Rift is about to expire.

Spend Insanity on Shadow Word: Madness if it is not active, is about to fall off, you are about to cap, or Entropic Rift is active.

Cast Void Torrent to activate Entropic Rift.

Cast Mind Blast.

Cast Shadow Word: Madness.

Cast Tentacle Slam if there will be no additional targets to DoT or upcoming movement.

Cast Shadow Word: Death if there is a target is below 20% Hp.

Cast Mind Flay, interrupting as soon as anything of higher priority becomes available.

When moving, cast Tentacle Slam, Shadow Word: Death, or Shadow Word: Pain to generate some Insanity and deal some damage.

Best Shadow Priest OpenerInsanityShadow Word: MadnessHero Talent Please select a Hero Talent option to generate an Opener sequenceThe builds used below are covered in the Talents page. Anywhere you see the icon, you can hover over it for additional notes.Sample Timeline OptionsMiseryInvoked NightmareVoidformSequence

Cast Mind Blast.

Cast Tentacle Slam.

Cast Halo.

Cast Power Infusion + Use Potion of Recklessness + Any on use trinkets

OptionsMiseryInvoked NightmareVoidformSequence

Cast Mind Blast.

Cast Tentacle Slam.

Cast Power Infusion + Use Potion of Recklessness + Any on use trinkets.

Cast Shadow Word: Madness.

Cast Void Torrent.

Cast Void Blast.

Pre-Combat Check Shadow Priest Major Cooldowns Power Infusion Twins of the Sun PriestessPower Infusion Voidform

Voidform is an unusual cooldown compared to most as very little of its value comes from the damage bonuses associated with having the Voidform buff, and instead it comes from having access to the new spell, Void Volley. Void Volley is a spell that Shadow Priests aim to prioritize during Voidform so as not to potentially lose a cast throughout its duration.

Voidform can also be extended as Archon through the Sustained Potency talent, as well as the Ancient Madness talent.

Shadow Priests should use Voidform on cooldown as consistently as possible, as this will result in it lining up perfectly with Power Infusion, Halo, and Void Torrent.

Halo HaloManifested PowerSustained PotencyPower SurgeEnergy ConservationDivine HaloView ChangelogNavigation BarRelated GuidesTable of Contents

Tags: PvE

Comments

Comment by Muricas

At 5+ targets it is no longer worth using Mind Blast as it is a DPS and an Insanity Per Second loss.
At 10+ targets it is no longer worth using Void Bolt (except for movement)

If you have nameplates shown and would like to know how many mobs are in an AOE group, here's a macro that could help you quickly determine how many targets there are:

/run local count = 0 for i = 0, 10000, 1 do if _G ~= nil and _G:IsVisible() then count = count + 1 end end print(count)

Comment by sbensen

Has anyone figured out a good rotation with all the new available cds? I've been messing around with the talent ring, sephuz, shadow word:void, dark void, spirits, bender, and dark ascension . Right now my opener is sw void, bender, vt, dark void, sw void, void erruption. When that void form is about to end around 20 seconds, I try to have a charge of shadow word void or two up to cast before using Dark Acension so my insanity bar is full enough for another 20 second void form. By the time that void form is done, bender is about to come off cd and I can start the process again. Does that make sense? Thoughts?

Comment by Smackmytotem

In the "special usage of dark ascension" part of the guide, step 2, the linked spell/action is Talk, when I believe it should be something else (probably shadow crash).

Comment by Domdonadon

Hi there, Holy priest Cambria here from Cael, doing some research into a good shadow rotation, which appears quite complex.

I am just wondering...is it not a bit of a waste casting both Void Eruption and then Dark Ascension putting one's self into void form, as per the Special Usage of Dark Ascension' section?

Also looking forward to this site getting some updated love, it refers to the NH Mythic Chronomatic Anomaly strat....
Cheers.

Comment by Keilis

When using Misery, when do you recast Vampiric Touch - when Vampiric Touch is about to end or when Shadow Word: Pain is about to end? Somewhere in the middle?

Comment by daadaadaaren

Are there any tips or comments on how to use the unfurling darkness talent on single target? Does it rank above or below a normal mind blast?

Comment by Laxxboy

Why do we Arcane Torrent 7 seconds before pull as Blood Elf?

Comment by Parnass

The Night Fae ability can be used during voidform I don't get why misinformation is spread about it. It DOES reduce the cd of Void Eruption even during voidform simply because the CD starts refreshing as soon as void eruption is cast. It means you get out of voidform with a remaining cooldown of about 45 seconds or less depending on your haste and rotation.

It's actually quite nice to synergize them when possible because of the added insanity making the rotation even deadlier (and Niya/Dreamweaver adding free mastery/haste when casting fae guardians too).

Comment by Fulfinsen

Why am I getting to this page when I click on Prot Warrior Rotation guide?

Comment by Aisenfaire

Looks like a mistake in the code is even if Inescapable Torment is unchecked (talent not taken), the guide still says to use SW Death while Mindbender is active.

Comment by XjohnnyXbravo

Great rotation helps me get good dps i mostly come in first 2nd dps ty.

Comment by Icezombie

Am i correct in assuming that no mention of on-use trinket means that it's all a bit too variable to pick a dedicated spot for these trinkets in the opener and priority order breakdowns?
Got myself a transmitter and i'm still learning more about the "rotation", so it's not quite obvious to me just yet.

Comment by Kilrathi3

This guide for rotation, needs fixin, it has not been updated to current.
There is no Mind Flay for Voidweaver yet it is everywhere in rotation suggestions with this selection.
the author has been mia for over 5 months.

Comment by Anise

As a total noob who never played priest this is about as useful as teats on a male boar. Thanks for writing this but i dont have most of those spells as a fresh level 10 lightforged and this "guide" teaches me very little.

I will continue using the one button rotation. That opens with Vampiric and not shadow word death as this guid says. I will watch what the OBR chooses and replicate those spells in that order on another bar higher up the screen. That will give me a start.

Shadow Priest Rotation Guide - Midnight

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