In the currently popular WoW Mists of Pandaria Classic, Shadow Priest is a great choice for players who enjoy a hybrid specialization, thanks to its diverse capabilities, such as dealing significant damage, providing supportive healing, and providing crowd control.
However, to ensure sufficient team utility, you need to choose the best options for Shadow Priest, including race, talents, and professions. Since there are so many options and combinations suitable for this specialization in MoP Classic, we’ve provided some recommendations here.
Please note that the recommended options here are for Phase 1. As the game progresses, in-game gear and abilities may be nerfed or buffed, and some Shadow Priest options may change accordingly. Follow IGGM for the latest specialization guides, and everyone can buy cheap WoW MoP classic gold with various discount plans and safe delivery methods.
Overview
To give all players a deeper understanding of Shadow Priest, here’s a brief introduction. Beyond the versatility just mentioned, its flexibility is also quite impressive, especially with Angelic Feather, which makes it easy to understand.
Furthermore, it offers advantages in group fights, as its area damage is significantly greater than that of the standard Priest specialization. It’s also excellent as a healer in raids, as its sustain is significantly enhanced with Vampiric Embrace.
Most importantly, its healing options are highly flexible, allowing you and your team members to maintain multiple healing options, allowing for sustained engagements and consistent farming of Mists of Pandaria classic gold.
However, Shadow Priest does have some drawbacks. For example, its melee attack power is relatively weak, and its offensive abilities have a long cooldown. Therefore, against enemies or bosses that focus solely on melee and continuous attacks, it can lose the initiative and suffer significant damage.
Considering these pros and cons, Shadow Priest is more suitable for players willing to serve as the primary healer for their team, offering the ability to cast offensive abilities like health reduction on enemies in addition to healing.
It’s worth noting that Shadow Priest’s Shadow Orbs system has been improved in the current Mists of Pandaria Classic expansion, with the introduction of Angelic Feather movement option, further enhancing its already impressive flexibility and allowing the use of Holy spells while in Shadowform.
Race
Compared to other classes, Shadow Priest offers a wider range of races, such as Troll and Goblin in Horde and Pandaren, Worgen, and Human in Alliance. In short, you can choose from any race except Orc. Below is a breakdown of the benefits and effects each race provides, rated out of 5.
Pandaren
This race’s multiple powerful passive racial talents are beneficial to this spec. For example, Epicurean doubles the 300 bonus Intellect granted by Well Fed. However, it’s important to note that this race lacks a strong active racial, which may make some encounters more challenging, so I only give it a 3.
Troll
Troll’s Berserking is essential for the mobility-focused Shadow Priest, granting 20% Haste every 3 minutes for 10 seconds. Beast Slaying also provides significant team utility, earning it a 5.
Goblin
Goblin’s Time is Money racial grants this spec an immediate damage bonus and a 1% Haste bonus, making it a strong racial choice. While Shadow Priests already possess excellent mobility, who wants to be less agile? So Rocket Jump is also excellent, but since it overlaps with own stats, I only give it a 4.
Humans
In regular exploration, Human race is generally used to increase critical strike ability and hit chance, and this is no exception for Shadow Priest. Beyond that, it has no other uses, so it only receives a 3-point recommendation.
Worgen
It also possesses Viciousness racial trait, which also provides a 1% increase in critical strike chance for specializations. This primarily allows you don’t need to invest significant gold in weapons and gear for this attribute. Again, it doesn’t provide a significant bonus, so it only receives a 2-point recommendation.
Talents
Based on feedback from Shadow Priest players on social media, here’s a list of available talents at levels 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90.
Some of these talent slots can be adjusted based on the specific encounters you face, while others can be modified based on your playstyle. Keep in mind, these are not set in stone.
- Level 15: Void Tendrils & Psyfiend & Dominate Mind
- Level 30: Body and Soul & Angelic Feather & Phantasm
- Level 45: From Darkness, Comes Light & Mindbender & Solace and Insanity
- Level 60: Desperate Prayer & Spectral Guise & Angelic Bulwark
- Level 75: Twist of Fate & Power Infusion & Divine Insight
- Level 90: Cascade & Divine Star & Halo
Professions
While each profession offers some benefits for Shadow Priests, Engineering is the best, which provides excellent armor options for early exploration. Therefore, we only recommend this one.
This profession offers Shadow Priests a wealth of gear to equip, but the following three are particularly important:
- Synapse Springs: These gloves grant you an average of 320 Intellect per second for 10 seconds with a 1-minute cooldown.
- Frag Belt: This belt grants bonus damage, and this bonus isn’t affected by the global cooldown.
- Lightweight Retinal Armor: This is one of the most powerful Cogwheel Gems in the game, granting increased Stamina and Intellect.
It’s important to note that due to Priest class’s improvements in this expansion, Shadow Priest has become more popular than ever. Once you have the ability to craft these gear, try crafting a few in your free time. They’re very valuable in the current Auction House and can even recoup MoP gold you spent on the profession’s level up.
These are the races, talents, and professions available for Shadow Priests in Phase 1 of WoW MoP Classic. We hope you’ll find the options that best suit your exploration needs and play style, and with them, maximize the damage and healing capabilities of this specialization for the best possible experience. Happy gaming!
