The reported client read adds Improved Mind Flay, Devouring Contagion, and Early Demise to Shadow Magic. Blizzard's September 24 Priest notes update Renew and Power Word: Shield behavior, but do not name a Shadow tree talent.
Shadow in Forever
The reported Shadow Magic tree has 18 talents: 3 new, 10 reworked, and 5 unchanged against Classic Era. Shadowform is the 31-point capstone; Blizzard's September 24 Priest notes name no Shadow Magic talent change.
In tree order. Each talent shows its Forever text at full rank beside Classic Era's, and the first rank that differs when full rank reads the same.
Row 1 open from the first point
Shadow Focus
Reworked
Forever, 5/5
Improves your chance to hit with Shadow spells by 5%.
Classic, 5/5
Reduces your target's chance to resist your Shadow spells by 10%.
Blackout
Unchanged
Forever and Classic, 5/5
Gives your Shadow damage spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 3 sec.
Spirit Tap
Reworked
Forever, 5/5
Gives you a 100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit for 15 sec after killing a non-trivial target. For the duration, your Mana will regenerate at a 50% of normal rate while casting.
Classic, 5/5
Gives you a 100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target that yields experience. For the duration, your Mana will regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 sec.
Row 2 5 points in Shadow Magic
Shadow Affinity
Reworked
Forever, 3/3
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 30%.
Classic, 3/3
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 25%.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain
Unchanged
Forever and Classic, 2/2
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 sec.
Shadow Reach
Reworked
Forever, 2/2
Increases the range of your offensive Shadow spells by 20%.
Classic, 3/3
Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 20%.
Row 3 10 points in Shadow Magic
Improved Mind Blast
Unchanged
Forever and Classic, 5/5
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 sec.
Improved Psychic Scream
Unchanged
Forever and Classic, 2/2
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream spell by 4 sec.
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 63 Shadow damage over 3 sec and slowing their movement speed by 50%.
Classic, 1/1
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 Shadow damage over 3 sec and slowing their movement speed by 50%.
45 Mana · 20 yd range · Instant
Improved Mind Flay
New
Forever, 2/2
Your Mind Flay now deals 20% more damage, gains 10 yards increased range, but slows the target's movement speed by 20%.
Row 4 15 points in Shadow Magic
Improved Fade
Unchanged
Forever and Classic, 2/2
Decreases the cooldown of your Fade ability by 6 sec.
Vampiric Embrace
Reworked
Forever, 1/1
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 20% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 30 sec. Vampiric Embrace also grants a chance for your Spirit Tap talent to trigger when enemies afflicted by it die.
Classic, 1/1
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 20% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 1 min.
40 Mana · 30 yd range · Instant · 1 min cooldown
Shadow Weaving
Reworked
Forever, 3/3
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to increase the Shadow damage you deal by 2% for 15 sec, stacking up to 5 times.
Classic, 5/5
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
Row 5 20 points in Shadow Magic
Silence
Reworked
Forever, 1/1
Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 sec and interrupting their spellcasts for 3 sec.
Classic, 1/1
Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 sec.
225 Mana · 20 yd range · Instant · 45 sec cooldown
Devouring Contagion
New
Forever, 2/2
Reduces the mana cost of your Devouring Plague by 50%. Targets that die while Devouring Plague is active spreads it, jumping to a nearby enemy within 10 yards for the remaining duration.
Row 6 25 points in Shadow Magic
Early Demise
New
Forever, 2/2
Increases Shadow Word: Death's critical strike chance on targets at or below 20% health by 30%.
Darkness
Reworked
Forever, 5/5
Increases your Shadow damage done by 10%.
Classic, 5/5
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 10%.
Row 7 30 points in Shadow Magic
Shadowform
Reworked
Forever, 1/1
Assume Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 10%, reducing the Mana cost of all Shadow spells by 50%, increasing the critical strike damage bonus of your Shadow spells by 100%, and reducing Physical damage taken by you by 15%. However, you may not cast healing spells while in this form.
Classic, 1/1
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical damage done to you by 15%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form.
Requires 1 point in Vampiric Embrace · 40% of base mana · Instant · 1.5 sec cooldown
Every fact, with its source
3 more facts, checked Sep 27, 2026; 1 from Blizzard. The 1 headline change is above. The tag says how sure each one is.
September 24 Priest notesRenew can critically hit, and Power Word: Shield can overwrite an existing Shield without Weakened Soul; no Shadow Magic talent is namedChangedConfirmedBlizzard forums · Sept 24 beta notes
Notes
The reported Shadow Magic tree has 18 talents: 3 new, 10 reworked, 5 unchanged.
TalentsNames, positions, ranks and text from the community WoW Forever Talents dataset, read from WoW Forever beta client build 1.60.1.70009. Reported
Classic EraThe comparison text comes from Classic Era client build 1.15.9.69722, in the same dataset. Unchanged means the same text as that client, not a Blizzard statement.
