Priest Hero Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Shadow Priest, check out our Talents page:

As a Shadow Priest you are free to play Archon or Voidweaver inside of Raiding environments. Each of these brings their own unique strengths and both will strive at all levels of content.

Archon revolves around casting Halo to empower your cooldowns to last longer and provide more damage. Archon prefers to play with Void Eruption and Mind Flay builds. This build, in particular, will make your Mind Flay: Insanity deal massive amounts of damage.

When compared to Voidweaver, Archon is particularly strong at dealing consistent damage as well as handling movement well with the access to Void Bolt during cooldowns.

Utility wise Archon gives you Word of Supremacy for 5% more stamina in addition to group off-healing every minute when you cast Halo. While this can be powerful on certain encounters it is significantly reduced if another Archon Priest is in your group.

Note that Word of Supremacy and Concentrated Infusion ONLY apply to yourself.

Voidweaver can put out great single target damage by creating an Entropic Rift every time you cast Void Torrent. This naturally pairs well with Dark Ascension that not only buffs the damage of the rift itself but also makes your subsequent Void Blast casts hit very hard. The biggest benefit by far for this hero talent are raid encounters like Queen Ansurek where you can take advantage of Devour Matter.

When compared to Archon you will find that Voidweaver can be a bit less consistent overall but has a more flexible damage pattern if you can figure out your movement with this more turret playstyle during cooldowns.

The gameplay of Voidweaver heavily revolves around Entropic Rift hitting all targets you care about. In practice, boss movement in particular can significantly lower Voidweaver's damage output so on certain fights you need to consider this before committing to Voidweaver.

Utility of Voidweaver is much better compared to Archon for Raiding as it not only has great self-defensive options with Void Leech or Embrace the Shadow but also grants cast while moving to Void Torrent with Dark Energy.

As a Shadow Priest you are free to play Archon or Voidweaver inside of Mythic+ environments depending on the need of the group. Each of these brings their own unique strengths and both are playable at key levels most players are completing. As you push into higher key levels above 10 you might notice Archon performing better in particular for the bigger sustained AoE output with Void Eruption.

Archon is our best Hero Talent for pushing high Mythic+ keys, providing the most AoE damage potential if you can pull packs around your cooldowns effectively and mobs live long enough. Typically, for lower keys, this can be a struggle if mobs are dying too quickly, but this will depend on your group and item level when this level starts.

For Mythic+ Archon also brings important utility for your group in the form of Incessant Screams for an extra stop. You also continue to give yourself more stamina with Word of Supremacy and more group healing in general when you cast Halo.

Voidweaver is a great all around option for Mythic+ that does particularly well in dungeons where you just pull one pack at a time to take advantage of having 30 second damage windows rather than massive sustained AoE. This pattern does well in most pug environments particularly at or below level 10 keys.

As you push key levels you will naturally notice Voidweaver struggling on most weeks compared to Archon, particularly if you can pull around your cooldowns. That being said Voidweaver is still considered viable at these levels with good play, especially during Voidbound Affix weeks due to the increase you get with Devour Matter.

On the utility perspective Voidweaver is very similar in Mythic+ compared to Raiding. You still benefit from the self-healing choices and can choose the slow on Entropic Rift with No Escape or cast while moving Void Torrent with Dark Energy.

2.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Shadow Priest

Archon Single-Target Archon Mythic+ Voidweaver Single Target Voidweaver Mythic+

3.

Best Archon Single-Target Build for Shadow Priest

Archon is simple to build; we only have a single DPS choice, and we prefer Sustained Potency for raiding content. Our utility choice does not matter in most content, although most people will prefer using Word of Supremacy and Incessant Screams.

For full build information check out the talents page.

Shadow Priest Talents and Builds

3.

Best Archon Mythic+ Build for Shadow Priest

Sustained Potency is your go-to DPS talent as Archon in Mythic+. Starting in Patch 11.0.5 this talent gives us a new pause mechanic for Voidform that lets us pause the duration of Voidform for up to 20 seconds when out of combat. In addition to the extra single target damage this provides it can drastically help as you are transitioning between packs, particularly at lower key levels. If you looking for more raw AoE damage you can instead run Energy Compression.

For utility Word of Supremacy is still vastly superior, and most people will still use Incessant Screams for the small additional AoE-stop.

For full build information check out the talents page.

Shadow Priest Talents and Builds

3.

Best Voidweaver Single-Target Build for Shadow Priest

Voidweaver has a bit more choice involved, although for Raiding, we prefer to run Void Empowerment to smooth out the opener and Depth of Shadows for more overall damage.

Void Leech and Embrace the Shadow are both great options. For any fight that has mostly magic damage, you should strongly consider using Embrace the Shadow; otherwise, Void Leech is a good alternative.

For full build information check out the talents page.

Shadow Priest Talents and Builds

3.

Best Voidweaver Mythic+ Build for Shadow Priest

For Mythic+ Voidweaver, choices are very similar, heavily favoring Depth of Shadows even further. Voidwraith is still a too far behind to be considered for this content.

Void Leech and Embrace the Shadow are still great choices in Mythic+. By default I would suggest using Embrace the Shadow but in certain keys with more Physical damage Void Leech might make more sense for you.

In certain cases you could consider No Escape to help mobs stay within Entropic Rift to get more damage out, but losing Dark Energy might not make this worthwhile to you. Also, keep in mind slowing mobs can sometimes have negative interactions when the tank is trying to position mobs.

For full build information check out the talents page.

Shadow Priest Talents and Builds

The below sections highlight the differences in the rotation specifically for Archon and Voidweaver. Check out the Rotation Guide to see how this all fits together with the base spec.

The main changes for Archon involve where to cast Halo and Mind Flay: Insanity in the rotation.

• Cast Halo in the opener right before combat starts on cooldown after that. Your goal is for that first Halo ring to hit your main target right after combat starts. Due to the natural cooldown desync that happens it is perfectly okay to end up casting future Halos inside of Void Eruption as needed.
• Make sure to be aware of your positioning so that you hit all targets with each Halo to keep up Resonant Energy. There is a dead-zone on the return Halo of about 10 yards so be sure to always be away from targets if possible.
• Cast Mind Flay: Insanity at high priority if you have 3-4 stacks of Surge of Insanity to make sure you do not overcap.

Voidweaver requires you to have a stricter sequence inside your opener to make sure you make the most of Entropic Rift windows.

• Use Shadow Word: Death at high priority whenever your target has an absorb shield for Devour Matter.
• Use Void Torrent inside of your cooldowns right after you put up your first Devouring Plague to spawn the Entropic Rift.
• Cast Void Blast at high priority if available.
• Try to pool Mind Blast charges a few seconds before casting Void Torrent. This is to make sure you get as many casts off of Void Blast as possible, although is not as important when using Mind Flay builds.