With the changes to Horrific Visions loot that are coming next reset along with access to Cloak Rank 15 (80% Sanity Loss Reduction), there has never been a better time to learn about getting the most out of your Horrific Visions as a Priest.

While the majority of the information in this guide will be useful to all Priest specs, please note that it has been written from the perspective of a Shadow Priest. This guide will cover the changes coming on March 17th (18th for EU), optimizing Corrupted Mementos, Talents, Essences, consumables, routing suggestions, and boss tips that will help you complete your runs.

About the Author

This Guide was written by Ellipsis - Ice Bear from the WCP Shadow Team and reviewed/formatted by Anshlun and Publik from the WCP Shadow Team.

Discord: Ellipsis - Ice Bear#7667
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/wcpellipsis/
Armory: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/character/eu/defias-brotherhood/ellips%C3%ACs
Ice Bear: Ice Bear.

Changes to Horrific Vision Loot

Starting March 17th/18th, all loot acquired in Horrific Visions will have a 100% chance to become Corrupted (excluding Azerite pieces). This change increases the number of guaranteed Corrupted items a person can acquire in a reset from 2 (M+ box, PvP box) to upwards to 10. Unlike PvP and Mythic+ boxes, not all items that come from Horrific Visions will be high item level but valuable Corruptions are often worth much more than an item level increase, and the ability to better mix and match Corruptions for your situation cannot be understated.

My personal advice regarding Corrupted items in Horrific Visions is to run at least one 5, 4, 3, and 2 mask run to get a 470, 465, 460, and 455 Corrupted item. If you are just starting out I recommend trying the 3 mask first then working your way up to the 5 mask. By starting lower you can get a feel for the path you want to take and familiarize yourself with the vision before adding the harder masks. Afterwards you can, of course, run more or multiple higher mask runs for the increased Mementos. Unless you are in dire need of a specific large Corruption, for example, Twilight Devastation, it’s unlikely you will be able to get a good upgrade from anything under 455 ilvl. Horrific Vision loot is limited to gloves, belts, boots, legs, bracers, and azerite.

Note that, after receiving a reward from a certain loot tier, completing that tier again will reward you with the next highest available reward. That is, you can complete 6 5-mask runs to receive the 470, 465, 460, 455, 450, and 445 rewards while still getting a lot of Corrupted Mementos. Learn more about Horrific Vision rewards on the Wowhead Horrific Visions Rewards Guide.

Corrupted Mementos

Now that many, if not everyone, who is attempting to do deep vision clears has maxed out their MOTHER Research tree, Corrupted Mementos can be used to earn sockets by purchasing Gouged Eye of N'zoth to further character power progression. The most efficient method to obtain Mementos is to run the highest difficulty vision that you can obtain all collectibles in, that is 11 chests and 10 crystals, as well as a majority of the mob count alongside the 5 full clear chests at the end of the run. It is significantly more important to be able to loot the collectibles than it is to add another mask.

Below is a table denoting Memento numbers both with and without collectibles from each mask number. (Credit Dratnos for values). Note that this table is for Stormwind; Orgrimmar has about 10% less trash so expect roughly 10% fewer Mementos from an Orgrimmar clear.

Active Masks Mementos in a base run Mementos with collectibles
0 1400~ 2675~
1 1680~ 3125~
2 1960~ 3575~
3 2240~ 4025~
4 2520~ 4475~
5 2800~ 4925~

If you wish to comfortably obtain one socket per week, and assuming you're obtaining the maximum of 6 possible Vessels per week, you'll need to use at least 4 masks when full clearing Orgrimmar and 3 masks when full clearing Stormwind, to obtain 25.000 Corrupted Mementos from the 6 runs.

You can learn more about Odd Crystals on Wowhead's post about Stormwind and Orgrimmar crystal locations. You can also install the HandyNotes Visions of N'zoth Addon to have the locations for both Chests and Crystals shown in your map.

Talents

Very similar, if not identical in most cases to Mythic Plus talents, you should be using.

Stats and Azerite Traits

For Stats and Azerite Traits, you can pretty much follow the basic raid setup without any major loss.

Essences

Again, similar to mythic plus, though slightly tweaked to offer better on-demand damage when dealing with short-lived trash there are two potential major essence choices (with slight changes to minors) which each have their pros and cons.

Essence of the Focusing Iris Major

Major:

Minors:

This build is great for dealing with large pulls involving multiple trash packs of low health mobs, but lacks burst damage for specific trash mobs that might take a long time to kill or waste your time being unattackable. It also does very little on most bosses compared to the other option.

Breath of the Dying Major

Major:

Minors:

Breath of the Dying's ability to be consistently reset on trash mobs in visions, as well as the powerful execute damage make it excellent for higher mask clears. Mobs in these runs often either have too high health to be dealt with by focusing iris or are too frequent for Iris to be consistently available. It has the added benefit of providing a sizable amount of boss damage, given you can carry a proc into the fight.

Blood of the Enemy Replacement

If you don't have Blood of the Enemy available to you, you can other Essences instead, like Crucible of Flame, Conflict and Strife, or, if you're running Breath of the Dying, Formless Void.

Consumables

Ghastly Goulash is the food of choice for Shadow to shore up any personal survival issues when clearing large areas of trash; it reduces downtime, allows you to stay aggressive, and maintain your DPS rotation with multiple mobs attacking you at melee range. It also allows you to recover from mechanics on trash that deal large amounts of direct (non-sanity) damage.

Invisibility potions, while mentioned, are not required or advised for any routes in Orgrimmar or Stormwind, and are mostly there to be prepared for anything.

Routing

These are optimised routes, focused on making your first 5 mask runs as clean as possible, they intentionally do not go over every chest and crystal location.
There’s little reason or leeway within each zone to change things up, but what order you do the zones is mostly up to you, as long as there isn’t too much doubling back.

Orgrimmar

Orgrimmar Route
Begin in Grommash Hold by following the red line and clearing the left-hand side up to the Blacksmith, use your first Gift of the Titans to deal with the guards and the Blacksmith boss mob if he is active. Check the potion hut after clearing, and head towards the drag, sticking to the right side of the path to avoid pulling additional mobs.

The Drag is completely linear, but make sure you're dealing with trash packs during RP when you can’t interact with objectives. After the last two huts have been checked, use the RP time to open the way to the Valley of Honour, and optionally handle Misha before doubling back to the Inquisitor. Misha is significantly less dangerous, and doing it in this order will usually let you pull Inquisitor with more Sanity.

After the Drag, enter the Valley of Honour and stick to the right wall, avoiding the large bug packs directly after Misha and guarding the bridge. Travel across the water and again stay right, dealing with the Swarmleader pack and any scarabs you happen to pull from the nearby corpses. After this, deal with the Large Aqir elite, and head up the ramp towards Rexxar. With all aqir mobs, be careful of your positioning relative to theirs, and never have your back towards the out of bounds zone to the far right.

After Rexxar, take the totem back to Grommash Hold and follow the green line left up towards the Valley of Spirits and Valley of Wisdom. Be sure to deal with all of the Voidwalkers at the top of the ramp before engaging the next Elite or you will be stuck in combat and likely run out of sanity in the Valley of Wisdom. The Valley of Wisdom itself is set out in a much less linear fashion, with elites at either end and trash dotted throughout. The only advice here is to avoid dealing with the 1x Faceless 2x K’thir Dominator pack to the right, by the altar, as you enter the zone. Everything else, including the two elites, will need to be cleared before you can engage the last boss of the zone.

Valley of Spirits is another linear zone. You can skip a few trash mobs though, namely the faceless pack patrolling the bridge, and the Faceless + Voidwalker in front of the zone boss. Activate the first two totems, and then stick to the left wall behind the troll structure before heading to the final two totems. After that, hug the left side of the Embassy building and be sure to engage the boss towards the back of the zone to avoid pulling anything you have skipped.

Make your way back towards Thrall and conclude your run.

Stormwind

Stormwind Routing
Stormwind is much less linear, with objectives that require you to cover the majority of the zone in most cases, however, there are still some optimisations and trash packs that can be skipped, most notably in the Mage Quarter and Trade Districts.

Begin in the Cathedral District by staying close to the left wall, and pulling the guards alongside the trash towards Trade District, and the ‘Wizard’ buff boss if he is active. Be sure to check the potion in the far corner after clearing.

Head out, following the red line around towards the Dwarven District. This is a small optimisation that saves clearing some trash in the Cathedral. Kill the gnomes outside, turn right, and head towards the fountain to deal with the first elite alongside any trash you feel you can handle. Interact with all the bombs in this area and then head towards the Deepwind Tram entrance and around to the final elite, dealing with the last two bombs on the way.

After the Dwarven District, follow the path and turn right to go over the bridge to Old Town. Old Town is completely linear, just consider clearing some trash on the left after entering, instead of going directly to the first elite. After both elites and Shaw, take the portal back to the Cathedral.

Follow the green line out to Trade District, turning right as you enter and immediately dealing with the Cultist + Burrower, before heading down the alleyway on the left side of the Auction House and through to the first elite, being careful to skip the Faceless + Burrower to the far left. This elite can be dangerous and it’s advised to either handle it with a Titan proc or after the trash is dead. Head towards and dispatch the second elite, clearing any more necessary trash. Take the alleyway up to the bank, kill the faceless and open the cage, then open the rest of the cages. All necessary trash should be cleared at this point, then head out towards the Mage Quarter.

The Mage Quarter is full of numerous hazards, two dangerous elites, and patrolling mobs that can prevent orb placements or make fights take longer than expected. With that in mind, be careful when navigating, even when sticking to this route.

Enter the Mage Quarter and head left, deal with the single eye and single burrower, as well as any patrols that happen to stumble across you on the way towards the ‘hub’ of the area. Drag the first portal keeper (To your left as you enter) back into the alley, out of the path of the patrolling elite, and carefully navigate left along the wall towards the second portal keeper. At any point when you get a Gift of the Titans to proc, use that to handle the elite quickly. After the elite, go through the building beside the path you entered from to the 3rd keeper. The 4th keeper, and second elite are located through the second building on the other side of the ‘hub’. After this Umbric will be active in the tower.

Umbric can be a challenge, especially on higher mask runs. The best strategy is to let your Shadowfiend break him out of his first intermission by using it when he nears 66%, staying relatively central and avoiding the ice patches. When he teleports again at 33%, use Dispersion to quickly get to his side side he goes and he should die soon thereafter. After this, take the teleporter back to Alleria and defeat her to conclude your run. For intermissions, you can also drop a Racing Flag on one of the circles to cause him to instantly finish it. Remember that he always teleports to the side of the room furthest from his current location.

Horrific Visions Boss Tips

Orgrimmar

Annihilator Lak’hal: Should be simple for a Priest. The only danger is getting caught against a wall before the pushback beam starts. Dodge his Orb of Annihilation sideways.

Inquisitor Gnshal: Position him on one side of the large tree stump and DPS from the other, the stump will block any projectiles from his Void Torrent channel.

Misha: Dispel the debuff from yourself and avoid the fear. Avoid standing too close in case split personality prevents you from getting away. Remember to kill the scarabs that spawn after, especially if Leaden Foot is active.

Aqir Mindhunter: Don't pull him while you still have stacks of Aqiri Mind Toxin, as he will cast Ravenous Charge on you if you get stunned by it. Its Toxic Breath adds stacks of the Mind Toxin and can be either side-stepped or outranged. Watch out for its Toxic Volley droplets too.

Rexxar: The most dangerous boss in any vision. It’s advised to use an orb before engaging him, and either DPS him down slowly to handling the boars one by one, or burst with everything you’ve got and hope a single fear on all 4 boars at once is enough time to kill him.

Decimator Shiq’Voth: Kite and stay at max range to avoid Decimator, move sideways when he casts it. Drag it towards the Valley of Wisdom entrance to save time.

Voidcrazed Hulk: You can avoid the Sanity loss from Punishing Throw by being inside one of the tents around him, or underneath the Obelisk near where he stands, but ultimately he isn’t dangerous as long as you avoid the following Explosive Leap.

Coagulated Horror: All sanity damage can be avoided by alert movement, just be careful of overlapping with Leaden Foot or Split Personality.

Vez’okk the Lightless: Stand inside his hitbox to avoid Ring of Chaos, dodge his Defiled Ground frontal attack and move away from the Unleash Corruption the adds spawn from.

Oblivion Elemental: Stay as far away from any skipped mobs as possible to avoid the Hopelessness orb ever traveling into their aggro radius.

Thrall: Remember you’re in an easy zone where sanity drains at its slowest. Focus all resources on killing the two boars at the start whilst avoiding his Defiled Ground casts.

Stormwind

Forge Guard Hurrul: Avoid Entropic Leap, he will always cast it three times. This boss can easily be taken with trash in the Dwarven District to save time.

Therum Deepforge: Very simple as well, move away from Explosive Ordnances or click them to kick them away from you and strafe sideways to avoid Empowered Forge Breath.

Armsmaster Terenson: AoE sanity drain from Blade Flourish and Roaring Blast in the small corridors of Old Town can be a dangerous combination. It’s advised to pull trash on the left-hand side until you get a Gift of the Titans before engaging her.

Alx’Kov the Infested: Use Abolish Disease to remove Corrupted Blight and move out of Lurking Appendage as it silences you and drain sanity. Be wary of traveling too far and pulling extra trash.

Overlord Mathias Shaw: Avoid facing the eyes he spawns. When he stealths, position away from your current location and the location of the first swirl to avoid all subsequent swirls, they always come in three.

Inquisitor Darkspeak: Convert is a dangerous ability if you are dealing with large amounts of trash simultaneously. Consider taking him on alone. Also, consider pulling him with Gift of the Titans to avoid extra sanity loss from Agonizing Torment.

Slavemaster Ul’rok: There’s nothing fancy here, just wait out the Chains and try to position yourself next to one of the cages to open it once he’s dead.

Boundless Corruption: This is a highly dangerous elite, and as mentioned in the routing section, avoid at all costs until you can engage it with a Gift of the Titans proc.

Zardeth of the Black Claw: Avoid the Rain of Fire, and the explosions left by his Voidwalkers when they die. Do not stand in the doorway as it risks getting blocked off by Split Personality and tanking the rain of fire.

Magister Umbric: Mostly covered in the routing guide, use pets and NPC entities to your advantage in the intermission phases. Missiles are also generally more dangerous than Polymorph, despite being less annoying.

Alleria Windrunner: As with Thrall, remember you are back in an easy zone with very low passive sanity drain. Try to make sure the bombs are thrown in the center, leaving pillars safe for Line of Sighting, the fight can be long, and involves being careful with your space to not get boxed in by mechanics later on.

Managing Gift of the Titans

In order to complete your Vision runs as efficiently as possible, managing your Gift of the Titans proc is essential. This proc is basically a mini-Bloodlust and provides you in a significantly large boost in power while active. Due to the power gain, you should optimise the pulls you do around the proc itself. By using a WeakAura to track its internal cooldown (ICD) you know when you should pull bigger, or wait and pull small if you have recently gotten a proc. By delaying tough enemies or large pacts for when you have Gift of the Titans active you can drastically reduce the difficulty of your run.

Since this proc gives large amounts of haste, it's a good idea to pair the Forbidden Obsidian Claw trinket, which scales with haste, with it. If you can time a boss pull with a Gift of the Titans proc and you have this trinket available, it can do an absolutely insane amount of damage to your target.

Addons and WeakAuras

Before venturing into your 5 mask vision we recommend you check out these resources to get the most out of your run.

Addons

WeakAuras

Final Thoughts

Don't enter Horrific Visions with a rushed mentality. For Shadow Priests especially, Horrific Visions are all about proper execution. Try to play around your Gift of the Titans by using WeakAuras and play to your strengths.