1. Consider using vampiric embrace during your void form if you need to be healed
1.1. While you're in void form you're going ot be doing a lot of damage. If you're ever in a situation where you lack defensive cds or just need to recover your health, doing so during void form is the best time to do so as it means you'll be able to focus on playing offensive without the risk of dying. The healing is based on your single target damage, so the more damage you have, the better.
2. Consider transitioning back into offensive gameplay the moment you're no longer in trouble
2.1. When you're trying to recover and stay alive, a lot of your globals are going to be MD casts, heals, fear, shield etc. but the moment you're no longer in trouble, it's extremely important for you to start casting VT again
3. Consider switching onto a healer when they're pushed in
3.1. Consider using silence on a healer when dealing damage to them
4. TEMPLATE CONCEPT
5. Chapter
5.1. Lesson
5.1.1. Void Form - How To Get It And What To Do With It
5.1.1.1. Consider having vampiric touch up on the entire enemy team before going into void form
5.1.1.1.1. When you cast void eruption and go into void form, you activate your void bolt ability. You absolutely must use this ability on cooldown when you're in void form in order to maximise our overall damage. In order to ensure that you can do this, you need to minimise the amount you cast in your shadowform and the best way to do this is to ensure that you already have vampiric touch up on everyone before you go into shadowform. Remember that void bolt refreshes the duration of your dots on the target that you use it on.
5.1.1.2. Consider not faking your void eruption cast and just allowing yourself to be kicked so that you can cast it after the lockout ends
5.1.1.2.1. Because of how long your void eruption cast is, it's usually not worth trying to fake it unless you're confident that you can fake the enemy team. You should definitely play with an addon for tracking interrupts, we're just playing with one here because we're practicing for lan tournaments, but you should. This will allows you to see when interrupts are down meaning you'll be able to free cast without any risk, however we still recommend just trying to cast through interrupts even when you can see that they have interrupts ready so that you don't waste a lot of time faking yourself on such a long cast
5.1.1.3. Consider using void bolt on cooldown during your void form
5.1.1.3.1. It's high single target damage, does around 150-200k. Substantial damage for an instant damaging ability that can be used every 2-3 seconds on top of your dots. It also refreshes your dots, so if you're able to constantly use it on cooldown, you'll be able to keep your dots up on multiple targets. You're goal with void bolt is to refresh your dots on whoever you have them on while also pressuring the target you're trying to kill. You only void bolt a target if dots are about to fall off. If their dots are not falling off, you can void bolt your main kill target.
5.1.1.3.2. Even if you're heavily under pressure, you should still attempt to do this. This is especially true just after shielding yourself or having vampiric embrace up as both of those abilities will cause your damage to heal yourself
5.1.1.3.3. It's important to reconigse that if you don't pressure the enemy team with constant void bolts while you're in void form, not only will you not be healing yourself with those refreshed VTs, but you're also going to allow the team to constantly play offensive which will just cause you to fall further and further behind
5.1.1.3.4. Shadow Word: Pain is also a much higher priority during void form. You want to make sure that any vampiric touches you refresh with void bolt are also refreshing shadow word: pain
5.1.1.4. Consider using mind flay to pressure your main target when you already have dots on them and both your mind blast and void bolt are on cooldown, during your void form
5.1.1.4.1. Whenever you do this, you don't want to channel the entire cast if the enemy team has interrupts ready. Your goal during void form is to cast void bolt on cooldown, so being interrupted on shadow is one of the worst things that can happen. Just a few ticks of mind flay on your main target is a greay way to efficiently increase your pressure while waiting for void bolt to come off cd, just don't get kicked!
5.1.1.4.2. The main thing is that if you knew you were going to be interrupted, you would even consider not casting at all. The idea of casting a few ticks of mind flay is a way to try and maximise the amount of damage you can do while minimising the chance of you being interrupted
5.1.1.5. Consider the following priority when dealing damage: get vampiric touch up on at least two targets, go into void form if you can, use void bolt if you can, get shadow word: pain up/use mind blast procs depending on your insanity. You can then channel mind flay into anyone for single target pressure
5.1.1.5.1. Consider using your mindbender during your void form to help increase your insanity regen to allow you to spend more time in void form. It also benefits from the 20% damage increase you get in void form
5.1.2. Single Target Pressure, Bursting And Killing
5.1.2.1. Consider getting Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain up as soon as possible on the target you want to deal damage to in the opener
5.1.2.2. Consider using mind blast to generate single target pressure and insanity when you want to pressure your main target
5.1.2.2.1. Whenever you're low on insanity and you want to be able to generate inanity quickly to get back into void form, and you want to shift your priority to dealing a bit more single target pressure, you can cast mind blast into your main target. Remember that shadow word: pain will be resetting the cd of your mind blast which will allow you to generate even more insanity rather quickly
5.1.2.3. Consider using your psyfiend and then shielding it when you want to burst someone down
5.1.2.3.1. It will chase people behind pillars, applies a 50% slow and 50% healing reduction and does damage. The perfect time to use is when you're trying to use cooldowns to burst someone down. It will assist in the damage you deal to them and if they are about to start receiving a lot of heals, it will slow down how quickly they can recover. You basically just use it when you're bursting someone down, and it's extra perks will just assist you in your overall pressure and kill attempt.
5.1.2.3.2. It's also really important to shield the psyfiend because it only has 10hp which means it can die to pretty much anything. You should use a macro to shield it straight after using it.
5.1.2.3.3. /tar psyfiend /cast power word: shield /targetlasttarget
5.1.2.4. Consider using dispel magic when going for a kill in order to remove important buffs, like earth shield
5.1.2.4.1. You don't want to be spamming this all game because you'll go oom, but when you're going for a kill, it's a great spell to use between your void bolts
5.1.3. Art of Survival
5.1.3.1. Consider keeping up as many vampiric touches as possible
5.1.3.1.1. As a shadow priest, you heavily rely on the self healing from vampiric touch to stay alive. It's also your main source of damage, so if you manage to go an entire game without getting a single VT cast off, you're most likely going to die in under a minute while also putting out no pressure whatsoever.
5.1.3.1.2. You have to make sure that you still attempt to cast VT even when you're being heavily pressured
5.1.3.1.3. Shadow Word: Pain is another one of your DoTs, it's good to have up before using void bolt to refresh the duration of your dots, but it's not a priority outside of void form
5.1.3.2. Consider using power word: shield on yourself whenever you're in trouble
5.1.3.2.1. 150-200k absorb, this is nice. Very good spell, much live. It gives the target that's shielded (including yourself) a sprint. It's also an extra buff which can help with dispel protection which can be great when you're trying to live, especially if a mage is offensively dispelling you while you're playing with a healer that's healing you with hots. It also gives you an extra buff that makes all damage you deal heal yourself for 33% of the damage you deal, similar to vampiric touch.
5.1.3.2.2. This is essentially your go-to button whenever you start to take damage and you're able to control your character
5.1.3.3. Consider attempting to cast mass dispel whenever your healer gets cc'd by a magical debuff
5.1.3.3.1. You should always try to do this whenever you can. It's a part of your toolset and you should get into the habit of always trying to do it. Against rogue mage, it's going to be a lot harder then against some other comps as they have a good amount of cross cc to stop you from casting. But, it's always good to attempt to do it as it will always force the enemy teams hand. You'll either get a kick out of the way or force them to use something to stun you even though they might not have wanted to. The important thing here is that you just try to go for the MD every time your healers gets cc'd. Also if you only get kicked you'll be able to play defensive in other ways, like casting shadow mend
5.1.3.4. Consider using fear whenever you can fear multiple targets
5.1.3.4.1. Fear is a great tool for getting dps off of you when you're under pressure and low on health to allow you to get the enemy team off of you and get casts off to start to pressure the enemy team
5.1.3.5. Consider using a defensive silence on a dps when you're low on health and want to save your defensive cds, like disperse
5.1.3.5.1. You would do something like when you're team doesn't necessarily have any offensive pressure or when it's your only way of living.
5.1.3.6. Consider casting shadow mend to keep yourself alive when you're really low on health and mass dispel isn't a better option
5.1.3.6.1. When you're really low on health and close to dying, you're only options are to use mass dispel to get your healer out of cc, or use shadow mend to heal yourself. They're also on separate schools so you can always cast one if you get interrupted on the other. You usually decide what's better to cast based on the situation and what cc your healer is in. For example, there's no point casting a mass dispel on a 2 second polymorph when it's just going to end by the time you finish your cast, so you're better off just healing yourself.
5.1.3.7. Consider holding dispersion until you know you have to use it
5.1.3.7.1. You want to try and hold it as long as possible. Dispersion actually heals you for 50% over 6 seconds, so it's not that bad if you disperse really low while your healer is in cc because you're just going to get passively healed back up. You're never going to be sure if you actually need to use your dispersion even if you're dropping low because many things can happen for you to be able to hold your disperse. For example, if your shaman is sitting in a polymorph against a fire mage, there's a chance that polymorph will break. When you're playing with a rogue or a mage, you're team mate might be able to peel for you a lot or stop any follow up cc on your healer which can be enough to allow your healer to use a cooldown to keep you alive. You also have to consider what offensive cooldowns the enemy team is using, because you generally want to be trading your dispersion for the enemy teams offensive cds. Using dispersion outside of offensive cooldowns can easily cause you to lose the game later on before disperse comes back off cooldown if they still have offensive cds ready.