Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by 8153

Shadow Word: Pain will be one of the most used spells at your disposal as a Shadow Priest when grinding your way to level 60. It's instant cast and if used at the beginning of an encounter you can be sure the entire damage will be done before the enemy is dead; effectively making it a more effective attack than even Mind Blast. As of patch 2.0.1 multiple Shadow Word: Pains can be stacked onto an enemy for immense damage while in parties.

One important thing to note about the talent related to this ability in the Shadow Tree: It does not increase total damage output at every tick, it simply adds one more tick of damage per point added. Generally the enemy will be dead, near dead, or so far from it that simply casting another Shadow Word: Pain would be far more efficient. As such, the talent for this ability is practically useless for a Shadow Priest, put that point to better use!

Comment by 18830

This spell seriously melt faces.

Comment by Bojo

I divided 852 with 18 (total damage with seconds) and got 47.33. I thought this was weird, but later i remembered it ticked every 3 seconds. 47.33 x3 = 141.99

141.99 damage per tick.

From the beginning i was wonderng how it could be 47.33 in the first place, and when i found out it ticjed every 3 sec, i couldnt delete the post. so i wrote this instead...

Comment by 54860

Pathetically good.

Comment by Majora2010

If you need to kite something around as a Priest this is your best friend, as you do not need to face your target to cast this. Run, cast, run, cast etc.
Also adds Shadow Weaving (if you have the talents for it) regardless of level.

Comment by 136470

you also have to consider that if u are a deep shadow priest:

shadow weaving: +10% shadow damage, darkness: +10% shadow spelldamage, misery: +5% spell damage taken by tagert.

so the 140% becomes 165%. at my 49 not well geared shadow priest with all these up (only 4 points in misery btw) it is a ~1149 damage over 24 seconds.

Comment by Balseraph

I find that Improved SW:P has been an extremely valuable talent as an 18 second DoT spell just wasn't quite cutting it for me, particularly when applying the spell to several foes then using Psychic Scream to minimize my contact with them.

Comment by 99096

Okay so crit trinkets can be sustained though sw:p, but how about haste,
example Hyperspeed Accelerator 320 haste engineering gloves buff,
haste potion 500 haste or bloodlust/heroism. I want to see the pain in sw:p
happen twice as fast.

Comment by 258282

BEHOLD! THE FACE OF RAGNAROS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNHUK2ONEF4&feature=player_embedded#at=11

Comment by 884217

Always start with...just a tip :)

Comment by gamedisciple

Wanted to share some analysis:

Base Shadow Word: Pain efficiency (damage per mana): .85
+ Charred Glyph = .95
+ = 1.10
+ = 1.15
+ = 1.17
+ = 1.34

Even with all these, it's still the lowest damage per mana point of all spells (assuming the same conditions).

Comment by 319936

enter reduce mana cost of Shadow Word: Pain by 15%.

Item - Priest T14 Shadow 2P Bonus increase Shadow Word: Pain's critical chance by 10%.
Item - Priest T14 Shadow 4P Bonus increase duration of Shadow Word: Pain by 3 sec.

for Shadow Priest, Shadow Word: Pain critical ticks summon 1 to damage target.

enter increase Shadow Word: Pain's damage by 25%.
Shadow Word: Pain affected by Mastery: Madness

give each tick of Shadow Word: Pain a 5% chance (does NOT diminish on multiple targets) to trigger Divine Insight, make next Mind Blast within 12 sec:

CD is reset
instant
free.

Shadow Orbs is the new resources for Shadow Priest, one can have 3 Shadow Orbs max.
it generate by:

Mind Blast (+1)
Shadow Word: Death (+1; only usable on target less than 20% health; CD is reset if target does not die, but this additional cast does not grant Shadow Orbs, 6 sec internal CD.)

when and only when Priest have at least 1 Shadow Orbs, these spells can be cast to consume all Shadow Orbs:

Devouring Plague (Damage and healing increased based on the number of Shadow Orbs consumed)
Psychic Horror (Horrify duration increased based on the number of Shadow Orbs consumed, Disarm duration unaffected)

Item - Priest T15 Shadow 2P Bonus give each (when damage their target) a 65% chance to extend the duration of Shadow Word: Pain by 1 additional tick.

for Holy Priest, enter Chakra: Chastise increase Shadow Word: Pain's damage by 50%.

Hearthstone: Shadow Word: Pain

Comment by perculia

Some information on why Balance Druid and Shadow Priest dots function differently, from Ghostcrawler:

We decided to dig into all of the dots and found they worked pretty inconsistently. (Consistency isn't always critical because it does lead to a certain amount of homogeneity, but too little consistency can just be confusing too.) We made a pass at all of the class dots and made them snapshot crit chance. This will have implications in any simulations out there.

However, this has some implications on the Unerring Vision of Lei Shen trinket. We’re tentatively fine with the idea of you seeing that proc go off, and reapplying DoTs which crit for their whole duration, in most cases. There’s a couple cases where those periodic crits cause other effects, which end up being very powerful. For example, a Balance Druid can now apply Moonfire and Sunfire, and pretty much chain instant Starsurges for 15 sec, many of which are extending that Moonfire and Sunfire, probably out to 20-25 sec. That’s extremely strong, but we’re going to try leaving it alone for now.

The one which is simply too strong to leave is for Shadow. For Shadow having Unerring Vision of Lei Shen and the PvE set bonuses would mean that every Shadow Word: Pain tick guaranteed crits, so spawns a , which has a 65% chance of extending Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch. And the Vampiric Touch ticks have a 10% chance of spawning a as well. And both can trigger a mastery tick, both of which can also spawn another . The net result is that the feedback loop is so strong that in attainable gear, it’s net positive, resulting in Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch lasting forever (or at least until you get very unlucky and get a long string of failed procs, which will probably take several minutes to happen).

Since 100% crit Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch that never need to be refreshed is a wee bit too strong, we’re building in a failsafe. We’re fine with you getting a normal Shadow Word: Pain/Vampiric Touch duration of all crits, but not forever. When extends Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch, and that DoT has already lasted longer than its normal duration, it will recalculate its crit chance. The result should be that the trinket procs, you reapply Shadow Word: Pain/Vampiric Touch, and get 18/15 sec of crits, then they drop to your normal crit chance.

Comment by Phasha

If you are a discipline priest, this spell is not terribly important, and you can use the following macro to combine it to another spell:

#showtooltip
/cast Power Word: Shield; Shadow Word: Pain
/stopmacro
/targetenemy
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
/targetlasttarget

In this case, Shadow Word: Pain is combined with Power Word: Shield. If you press the macro, it casts Power Word: Shield on your target; If you press alt+the macro, it casts Shadow Word: Pain on your target or your nearest enemy if that cannot be casted on your target.

By making use of this macro, you can stay targeting your friendly targets and focus on healing, instead of switching between friendly and enemy targets. When you want to cast Shadow Word: Pain, just press alt+the macro to cast Shadow Word: Pain on your nearest enemy, while still targeting a friendly target.

You can replace the "Power Word: Shield" part in the code with any spell you want and combine Shadow Word: Pain to that spell instead.

Comment by Akumas

Forgive me, but where is Shadow Word: Pain in my spell book? After downloading the new patch earlier this week, I no longer see it. According to the Specialization and Talents tab, Shadow Word: Pain is supposed to be available.

Comment by Thorwen

This spell is a reference to one of three unforgivable curses in Harry Potter, being reference to Crucio. The other two are Shadow Word: Death, a reference to Avada Kedavra and Mind Control, a reference to Imperio.

Links WeakAuras Export

Shadow Word: Pain

Shadow Word: Pain

2% of base mana	40 yd range

Instant

Discipline, Holy
A word of darkness that causes (16.8% of Spell Power) Shadow damage instantly, and an additional (99.68% of Spell Power) Shadow damage over 16 sec.

Shadow
A word of darkness that causes (16.8% of Spell Power) Shadow damage instantly, and an additional (99.68% of Spell Power) Shadow damage over 16 sec.

Generates 3 Insanity.

Buff

Shadow Word: Pain	Magic

Suffering (12.46% of Spell Power) Shadow damage every 2 sec.
16 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

16 seconds

School

Shadow

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

Magic

GCD category

Normal

Cost

2% of base mana

Range

40 yards (Long)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

1.5 seconds

Aura proc chance

100%

Effect #1

School Damage (Shadow) (SP mod: 0.168)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Periodic Damage
Interval: 2 seconds (SP mod: 0.1246)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #3

Give Power (Insanity)
Value: 3
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #4

Apply Aura: Mod Damage to Caster % (127)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Flags

Cannot be used while shapeshifted
Do Not Sheath
Does not require shapeshift
Aura Never Bounces
Spell Haste Affects Periodic
Taps immediately
Periodic Can Crit
Aura Points On Client
Not In Spellbook Until Learned
Bypass Visibility Check
Do Not Log on Learn
Allow Class Ability Procs
Nameplate Personal Buffs/Debuffs
Periodic Refresh Extends Duration

Guides

Discipline Priest Best Covenant Holy Priest Best Covenant Shadow Priest Best Covenant Discipline Priest Talent Tree Builds Best Shadow Priest Legendaries Shadow Priest Talent Tree Builds Discipline Artifact Guide Discipline Priest Rotation Guide Legion Priest Class Changes Night Fae Discipline Priest Guide

Shadow Word: Pain

Buff

Spell Details

Guides

Related

Contribute