Devouring Plague every 24 seconds, and a contagion that reaches two targets

Shadow Priests got a faster Devouring Plague in Blizzard’s 16 October development notes, and a slower Shadow Word: Death.

The cooldown changes

• Devouring Plague: 24-second cooldown, down from one minute.
• Shadow Word: Death: 18-second cooldown, up from 12.

A 24-second cooldown makes Devouring Plague part of the regular rotation rather than a once-a-minute event. It still costs mana; a shorter cooldown means more casts, not free ones. The notes do not give the plague’s duration or damage, so they do not settle how often it is worth recasting.

Devouring Contagion

The talent Devouring Contagion now spreads Devouring Plague to two targets.

The same build fixed a bug in which the bounced plague cost mana, played a cast animation and put the caster’s own Devouring Plague back on full cooldown. With that fixed, the spread no longer costs you mana or your own plague’s cooldown.

Elsewhere in Shadow

The build also cut Vampiric Embrace’s cooldown to 30 seconds and made it impossible to resist, and earlier notes from 1 October allowed Devouring Plague to land critical strikes. A new Shadow talent arrived alongside these changes; Dark Inspiration has its own explainer.