Devouring Plague

Devouring Plague
Devouring Plague Level 21 Shadow priest ability 40 yd range All Shadow Orbs Instant cast Consumed all of the caster's Shadow Orbs to deal X Shadow damage and an additional Y Shadow damage every 1 sec for 8 sec. Also heals the caster for 1% of their maximum health when it deals damage. Damage and healing increased based on the number of Shadow Orbs consumed.
Usable by
Class	Priest
Properties
Type	Offensive
School	Shadow
Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
Other information
Level learned	21
Modified by	[Glyph of Dark Archangel]
Improvements	[Solace and Insanity]
Related debuff
Disease Devouring Plague Causes Y damage every 1 second, healing the caster. Duration: 6 seconds

"When the shadows are through with you, there will be nothing left, not even your bones."
—Deacon Markus Hallow

Devouring Plague is a Shadow priest ability, learned at level 21. It is an instant cast Shadow-based spell that consumes all of the priest's [Shadow Orbs] to deal instant damage and apply a damage over time debuff, which heals the caster each time it deals damage.

Improvements

• [Solace and Insanity]

• Glyph of Dark Archangel
• Minor Glyph
• Use: Permanently teaches you this glyph.
  
  When you apply Devouring Plague to a target, you take on the form of a Dark Archangel for 8 sec.
• Classes: Priest
• Requires Level 25
• Sell Price: 1

Tips and Tactics

• Both of Devouring Plague's damage components are capable of critting. However, its healing component is not capable of critting.

• Devouring Plague's damage and healing is increased proportionately to the amount of Orbs consumed; using it with 3 Orbs provides 3 times the damage and healing of using it with 1 Orb. However, the tooltip always describes the damage and healing caused by casting the spell with 1 Orb, and does not change to reflect the number of Orbs the priest currently possesses.

• Devouring Plague's damage and healing are directly increased by the priest's haste. Using haste effects shortly before Devouring Plague can therefore serve to increase not only DPS, but also the healing generated.

• Devouring Plague is a direct alternative to [Psychic Horror] as a use for Shadow Orbs. Psychic Horror offers more damage mitigation and crowd control benefits with its horrify effect and disarm effect, while Devouring Plague offers substantial damage and self-healing. Devouring Plague's short duration and lack of cooldown also makes it available more frequently.

• If the cast misses or is evaded by the target, no Shadow Orbs will be consumed, allowing you to try again.

• Although Devouring Plague's damage and healing scales with the number of Shadow Orbs consumed, in ideal circumstances priests can save themselves a global or two by not casting it until they have 3 Orbs. The time saved can then be spent casting other spells, increasing overall DPS.

• As a disease, Devouring Plague can be dispelled by paladins' [Cleanse] and healing priests' [Cure Disease]. This makes it possible to remove this effect from targets with [Unstable Affliction] without triggering its dispel effect. Holy paladins run the risk of doing so, however, due to [Sacred Cleansing].

• As a disease, Devouring Plague cannot be dispelled by the usual magic dispelling effects, preventing most classes from removing it. However, effects like [Divine Shield] and [Ice Block] will still remove it.

• Be aware that recasting this on a target already afflicted by your Devouring Plague will overwrite the older debuff, wasting damage and healing, even if the new debuff is weaker.

Patch changes

• Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Changed. Now consumes all Shadow Orbs. Previously: Afflicts the target with a disease that causes X Shadow damage over 24 sec. 15% of damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster. This spell can only affect one target at a time.
  
• Patch 4.2.0 (2011-06-28): Devouring Plague damage done has been decreased by 12%.
  
• Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Cooldown removed but may only be inflicted upon a single target.
  
• Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): This spell now has a new icon.
  
• Patch 3.0.3 (2008-11-04): The bonus coefficient has been increased to be on par with other DoT spells. Base damage on ranks 7, 8, and 9 decreased to partially compensate for better scaling.
  
• Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Devouring Plague made available to all priests.
  
• Patch 1.10.0 (2006-03-28): No longer keeps players in combat for its duration.
  
• Patch 1.8.0 (2005-10-10): Will now properly consume the Inner Focus effect when cast.
  
• Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Health leech effects no longer give you health while you are a ghost.
  

External links

• Wowhead
• WoWDB