Appearance-altering actions that take place while in Shadowform (such as being poisoned or diseased) will alter the character's appearance until Shadowform is dropped and reassumed.
Trivia[]
Shadowform is considered the defining shadow priest ability due to its visual appearance altering effects.
Shadowform is an epic Priest spell in Hearthstone, where it changes the standard Hero Power to deal damage in the form of [Mind Spike] rather than healing in the form of [Lesser Heal]. Using Shadowform a second time transforms Mind Spike into "Mind Shatter", which deals an extra point of damage. The flavor text reads: "If a bright light shines on a priest in Shadowform… do they cast a shadow?"
Patch changes[]
Hotfix (2022-02-24):Fixed an issue where Shadowform would be cancelled when interacting with chests in Zereth Mortis.
Hotfix (2020-11-23):Now learned at level 10 (was 12).
Patch 8.1.0 (2018-12-11): No longer reduces physical damage taken (was 10%).
Hotfix (2017-06-13):Shadowform reduces physical damage taken by 20% in PvP situations (was 10%).
Hotfix (2016-12-06):You can now activate and deactivate Shadowform while mounted.
Patch 7.1.0 (2016-10-25): Returned as a new spell for Shadow Priests:
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage dealt by 10%, and reducing your Physical damage taken by 10%.
You may not cast any Holy spells while in this form.
The shadowy visual is now tied to Shadowform.
[Voidform] now acts to intensify Shadowform. It automatically triggers Shadowform if not already active, and you gain the effects of both.
When Voidform ends, you return to Shadowform.
The damage of all Shadow Priest abilities has been reduced to compensate for this, resulting in no net gain or loss of damage.
Now learned at level 12 (was 24).
Old: Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 25% and increasing your armor by 100%. However, you may not cast any healing spells while in this form.
Hotfix (2015-06-23):Fixed an issue that could cause Shadow Priests to be unable to shift out of the Shadowform visual effect.
Patch 6.2.0 (2015-06-23): Shadowform no longer applies its visual effect to the priest's mount.
Patch 6.0.2 (2014-10-14): No longer allows any healing spells to be cast but also no longer has a restriction on casting other Holy spells. [Mind Quickening] is no longer tied to Shadowform and is now a separate passive.
Hotfix (2014-01-08):Shadowform now increases the Priest's armor by 100% (up from 60%).
Patch 5.4.0 (2013-09-10): Now increases the Priest's armor by 60%, but no longer reduces all damage taken by 15%. Now incorporates the effect of [Glyph of Dark Binding].
Patch 5.2.0 (2013-03-05): Now increases the Priest's Shadow damage by 25% (was 20%).
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Bonus to shadow damage done increased to 20% (up from 15%). Now a level 24 Shadow ability (was a tier 3 Shadow talent).
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): No longer reduces threat by 30%. Additionally, [Cure Disease] can no longer be cast in Shadowform. Moved from tier 7 to tier 3.
Patch 3.3.0 (2009-12-08): Shadowform will now cause [Devouring Plague] and [Vampiric Touch] to benefit from haste. Both the period length and the duration of these spells will be reduced by haste. In addition, the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of base mana.
Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): Now reduces all damage taken by 15% (previously only reduced physical damage). Bonus damage from critical strike chance removed and replaced by the ability of those periodic damage spells to generate critical strikes.
Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20):[Abolish Disease] and [Cure Disease] can now be cast while in Shadowform. Additionally, you can now shift into Shadowform while mounted or sitting.
Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): If you are in Shadowform and try to use an ability that may not be used in Shadowform, you will leave Shadowform and use that ability. This can be disabled with /console autoUnshift 0
Entering Shadowform gives a new action bar (like stealth).
Patch 2.0.3 (2007-01-09): The visual effect of Shadowform will no longer persist if disabled while mounted.
Patch 1.10.0 (2006-03-28): Now reduces all physical damage taken (melee and ranged), as the tooltip suggests.
Patch 1.7.0 (2005-09-13): Switching to Shadowform no longer cancels Holy buffs on a priest.
Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Changed so all spells except Holy can be cast rather than only Shadow and Discipline spells. Tooltip updated. This fixes several bugs that prevented various actions (creating tradeskill items, mining, summoning a mount, using a hearthstone and many more).