Deal Damage as a Shadow Priest

No doubt in the course of leveling you settled upon a pretty solid way to grind your way through mob after mob. Shadow priests are particularly good at moving from one enemy to another quickly and with little downtime thanks to DoTs, and you probably felt pretty slick as you worked your way to 80. Once you hit the endgame, however, it's time to start working on maximizing your spellcasting to do the most damage possible in any given situation. More damage makes you a better asset to your group, will get you invited more often, and ensures you're able to gear yourself up!

Unlike some other classes, shadow priests don't have a set rotation of spells they want to cast in a specific order. The cooldown of Mind Blast and the varying timers on your DoTs mean you have to work with a priority system to make sure you've got everything up that needs to be up. The general rule of thumb is thus: Vampiric Touch > Devouring Plague > Mind Bast > Mind Flay, as long as Shadow Word: Pain is always up and being refreshed by Mind Flay via Pain and Suffering. That means, if you notice Vampiric Touch is going to fall off in the next 1.5 seconds, begin casting a new one; if VT is up and Devouring Plague is off cooldown, cast that; if both DoTs are up and Mind Blast is off cooldown, cast that; and if all your DoTs are on the mob and MB is on cooldown, use Mind Flay until one of those is not true. That is the basis of your single target DPS. It can take some getting used to, so practice getting maximum uptime on all of your spells on a training dummy in a capital city!

For heavy AoE situations, Mind Sear is your obvious choice. It's a very powerful AoE spell when there are a lot of mobs for it to hit. In small situations, such as two, three, or sometimes four enemies, it can be more efficient damage to put up Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain on all of the mobs, and keep both of those DoTs up as long as you can, filling in spare time between refreshing with Mind Blasts and Mind Flays.

Shadow priests can definitely take some getting used to, but they're a very satisfying class when it all clicks. With practice, you can keep up a near perfect single target damage rotation on one mob while juggling DoTs on multiple adds. It's somewhat tricky to handle, but the end result is a lot of damage and a group impressed with your ability. Still, the core of any damage dealing class is understanding how to do the highest damage they can to a single target, and the best way to do that is practice. Hit up those dummies, learn your priorities, and you'll be topping meters in no time!