WoW Season of Discovery: Best Shadow Priest Runes

24 March 2024 (00:30)

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World of Warcraft Season of Discovery WoW SoD Priest Rune Engravings Runes Ranked

In Phase One for WoW Season of Discovery Shadow Priests (the Priest DPS spec) were really not in a good place. Their damage output was severely lacking, but smart players knew to be patient and hold out until Phase Two, when abilities like Shadowform would become available.

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WoW Classic: Season of Discovery – All Priest SoD Runes

Priests in WoW Classic are a go-to healer, and in Season of Discovery, the class gets better at its primary role and Shadow DPS, too.

Now that Phase Two is here, and a max level of 40 is attainable, Shadow Priests are doing extremely well. With Shadowform, and several buffs to the best Priest SoD Runes, they regularly find themselves topping DPS charts in Gnomeregan. Movement isn’t an issue, either, because the spec is almost entirely based on DoT spells. This guide goes over what the best SoD Priest Runes are for each slot, and why they are so beneficial to a chart-topping Shadow Priest build.

Homunculi

Best Priest Legs Rune

Homunculi Effect	Break off splinters of your soul to animate 3 miniature copies of yourself that attempt to attack your current target with a mace, sword, and axe Reduces the attack speed, attack power, and armor respectively of any target the Homunculi hit.

Arguably one of the most unique Runes in the Season of Discovery, Homunculi is a Priest Rune that creates three small copies of yourself. Called “my children” or “the mini-mes” by some community members, these three Homunculi will attack your target and reduce their AP, Armor, and Attack Speed.

They don’t have a lot of HP, but the effect is pretty useful for all endgame content in SoD. It’s not only one of the funniest Runes – especially when the Homunculi die – it’s also the source of great debuffs for PvP and PvE both.

Void Plague

Best Priest Chest Rune

Void Plague Effect	Afflicts the target with a disease that causes Shadow damage over 18 sec.

The recipient of several buffs throughout SoD, Void Plague has turned into a powerhouse of a DoT spell. It’s an instant cast ability that puts a DoT on the target, dealing Shadow Damage every three seconds for 18 seconds. In Phase One, its damage output was pretty abysmal, but with several updates it’s become incredibly strong.

WoW Season of Discovery: Best Healing Classes in SoD, Ranked

All five classes that can Heal in WoW SoD will work in the endgame, but ultimately, some are better than others thanks to utility and spell variety.

Void Plague should be a regular part of your damage rotation as a Shadow Priest. The amount of damage it can do on a six second cooldown (which means you can rotate between three targets and maintain the DoT), is pretty hard to match.

Shadow Word: Death

Best Priest Hands Rune

Shadow Word: Death Effect	A word of dark binding that inflicts massive Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target.

Shadow Word: Death is the Shadow Priest’s most iconic Execute ability, brought to SoD as a Gloves Rune. It deals an enormous amount of Shadow damage to the target instantly, but if that target isn’t killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster will take a chunk of damage in reciprocation.

On a 10 second cooldown, and with the amount of HP recovery available to Shadow Priests (like Vampiric Embrace), it’s not necessarily an ability that’s guaranteed to kill you in retaliation. Though it’s great for finishing trash fights faster, there’s no reason not to “spam” this towards the end of a Boss fight to up your DPS, as long as you can stay alive.

Mind Spike

Best Priest Belt Rune

Mind Spike Effect	Blasts the target for a chunk of Shadowfrost damage, and increases the Critical Hit chance of your next Mind Blast on the target by 30% Stacks up to 3 times Shadowfrost deals both Shadow-type and Frost-type damage

Mind Spike is, for all intents and purposes, a better version of Mind Flay. Instead of being a Channeled ability that can be interrupted or pushed back, it’s an Instant-cast. Instead of slowing the target (which isn’t that useful in PvE), it increases the Critical Hit chance of Mind Blast by 30%, stacking three times. Instead of just dealing Shadow Damage, it deals both Shadow and Frost damage.

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It’s difficult to pick any Rune over such a core ability for a Shadow Priest’s rotation. Mind Blast is already a powerful skill for the spec, and this Rune makes that better while also providing a new Instant Cast. With the amount of moving required in Gnomeregan, too, Instants are much more useful than Channeled abilities in SoD.

Dispersion

Best Priest Boots Rune

Dispersion Effect	You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90% and removing all snare and movement-impairing effects You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec Dispersion can be cast while under the effect of all snare and movement-impairing effects, and makes you immune to them while Dispersed

The Dispersion Rune is the best Boots Rune for Shadow Priests because it’s one of the very few ways that the Priest class can regenerate Mana easily in SoD. When Dispersed, all incoming damage is nearly nullified, and you become immune to movement-impairing effects. It can also be cast during these effects, canceling them and allowing freedom of movement. However, you can’t cast any spells or attack.

Dispersion lasts for six seconds, during which you regenerate 6% mana every second, for a total of 36% base Mana. Though you may lose DPS uptime, it’s worth it to regain Mana and launch yourself back into the action. Because you already won’t be able to do anything under its effects, consider casting Dispersion during mechanics where casters are forced to move, like for Electrocutioner 6000 in Gnomeregan.

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Released: November 23, 2004
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