The math is simple, at least in World of Warcraft Dragonflight—the more you stick to the meta in Mythic+ dungeons, the higher the success rate you’ll complete it in time. Since season two started, high-end WoW players have been bringing one DPS spec to almost all Mythic+ dungeons.
Looking at the Mythic+ teamcomps at Raider.IO’s leaderboard from July 12, each successful team has had one Shadow Priest among their ranks, no matter the week or affix rotation.
Shadow Priests received a full-blown rework with Dragonflight Patch 10.1 on May 2 that finally dealt with button bloat, weak single-target damage output, and the need to constantly switch around the talent build depending on the encounter in question.
Although I do love to bring a Shadow Priest to my Mythic+ runs because of their raw damage output, the real reason why I love to have them in my group as a Restoration Shaman is the utility. Not only do they bring the incredible buff that’s Power Infusion that will have players even paying gold to the Priest just for that sweet damage increase, but they also have AoE stun, fear, and Mass Dispel.
The only downside of Shadow Priests is the long interrupt cooldown, meaning you always need to have one or classes with two or more interrupts. This means it’s always good to have Demon Hunters, Warriors, and even Protection Paladins and Restoration Shamans in your group to make up for the lack of interrupts.
As we near the Patch 10.1.5 release scheduled, we expect to see Shadow Priests continue their dominance. Mages, however, will most likely join them at the very top after the very-much needed rework lands on the live servers. Still, the meta will shape itself and we can only tell for sure once the patch rolls out.
