Shadow Bolt

Something Intresting:If you kite the Shadow Bolt(can be done without Crusader Aura or trinkets),It has the sound From Diablo 2's ending cinematic(It's the second video,and can be heard at 0:35)

Without talents, Shadow Bolt gains an additional 85.7% of your Spell Damage bonuses.

Affliction warlocks be aware that mastery will not increase the damage of this spell at all, so think twice when choosing your gear.

Edit: Down rating my comment means that you clearly haven't read your affliction mastery description (only dots get bonuses from it).

the spell Shadowbolt or incinerate [spell=29722] can be made instant by backlash [spell=34939]

Where do you confirm that?, would like to know :).

In MoP this will only be the filler for Demonology Locks. After lvl 42, Affliction Locks will use Malefic Grasp or Drain Soul, both if which are channeled spells, as their fillers instead. Of course, Destruction Locks still use Incinerate, and will get it at Lvl 10!

As Demonology's filler while in caster form, it's pretty slow and weak compared to other classes' cast-time fillers (Fireball/ Frost Bolt/Arcane Blast, Lightning Bolt, Wrath/Starfire) because it has to be balanced against the damage done by Touch of Chaos, its Metamorphosis counter-part.

It's perfectly adequate in PvE when you can stand still and not worry about interrupts, but rather hard to work with in PvP because of its long cast time.

In PvP you will tend to use Fel Flame as your filler instead, which means Demonology's Caster Form has rather low pressure; again, balanced against its rather dramatic on demand burst potential (although demo's increased pet damage, and its ability to stack several procs of the Molten Core buff and use them to cast hasted Soul Fires while in caster form, together mitigate this problem to some extent). Compare this to Affliction Locks which have superior pressure and inferior burst compared to Demo.

This spell has a quite long casting time for medium damage, and isn't that good compared to mage's bolts, but since it's the only attack you have at low level, you'll have to deal with it.

As of Dragonisle Nov. 1st, 2022 shadow bolt is replaced with Drain Soul. However, you must spec into Drain soul or you just keep the standard Shadow bolt.

Any shadow non-DoT damage will eat up a charge of imp SB, like shadow wands and the Succubus's Lash.

This spell got a new animation in 2.1.

Also, the damage is very different. :-P

If you're affliction, it is assumed that you're spec'd into Haunt - thus your primary nuke is Shadow Bolt. You never use Incinerate as affliction, since UA and Immolate share the same dot slot (casting Immolate with UA up will replace UA). Additionally, the affliction tree focuses on shadow damage over fire damage. If you're destro, it is assumed that you're spec'd into FnB, Conflagrate and Emberstorm - thus your primary nuke is Incinerate. You never cast Shadow Bolt because the talents that are invested in destro benefit your fire spells. Similarly, you don't cast Corruption or

Used to be our staple Destruction spell, now Blizz has turned it into nothing more than a cast once for debuff and re-apply to keep the debuff for Destro Locks, and a mediocre filler spell for Aff/Demo Locks. I really wish they'd buff this and not Incinerate, we're Shadow/Fire/Demon casters, not Fire Mages!

Destruction spec is the fire burst damage spec. Affliction is for shadow spells and DoTs, and Demonology is for pets.

Slated to receive a new spell effect (animation) in 4.3.

In MoP, if you choose Destruction at level 10, Shadowbolt disappears altogether. Incinerate becomes your new filler spell. This confused me for a few minutes. :)

As of BfA, Shadowbolt is used for both Demonology and Affliction, but Destruction still uses Incinerate instead.

As of right now, Affliction still does not have Shadow Bolt on the Alpha. Their filler is Drain Life, which can be talented to become Drain Soul.

Shadowbolt is the bread and butter of warlock DPS, and this is where we gain most of our DPS from. Gaining shadow spell dmg gear will certainly help add to the damage that shadowbolt can do.

Haunt has never been worth much more than SBolt. His comparison of them is retarded, since shadowbolt is a filler spell, and incinerate mostly a filler spell (not quite for demo), haunt isn't used for this. That being said, it is not the magical power-bullet you claim it to be. It gives the dot damage haunt debuff, but he said himself it should always be cast enough to keep this up, regardless. It gives shadow embrace, but so does shadow bolt. In essence, its worth slightly less than shadow bolt, dpswise (or was). You mentioned PvP? Yes, captain obvious, a spell that heals you and is faster

Will Shadow Bolt be available to Affliction in Legion? Since we lose Malefic Grasp, wondering if this will remain a part of our arsenal.

It would make sense if Incinerate replaces Shadow Bolt for Destruction, as it has for a while... though I don't see it stated anywhere (nor was it stated in the past, though).

Interestingly, the PTR version (I believe for 7.1) says "Requires Warlock (Demonology, Destruction)". So, Destruction will have Incinerate and Shadow Bolt? Or will Incinerate still replace Shadow Bolt? Seems weird to indicate Destruction will have it... unless it's to give us something to do while locked out of fire spells?

In case of anyone reading through these and not already aware, Haunt's CD and debuff time are not identical, there is enough time to finish casting a spell and then cast Haunt after it comes off CD, and not lose uptime on the Haunt debuff applied to the boss itself.

The foolery continues in ((((2023)))), smh! The conduits for the forge of bonds (SL exp, like an additional talent tree) are misappropriated. As of time of post, one of the affliction talents-icons is actually a demonology spell boost. Upgrade choices: Affl-3, Dstr-4, Dmgy-5. GAaAH

seems to have had a debuff lessening the average damage but buffing the high damage, now 88-101 dmg

Shadow Bolt VS Incinerate VS Haunt
Sorry I'm not the type to start testing numbers so I don't have exact stats but I hope this part still helps anyways...
Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm gladly edit this.

Shadow Bolt cast time 3 (talents: 2.5, without haste)
Might want to consider this if your mostly affliction, I find anyways, it might not crit as hard as Incinerate but it's white dmg is quite superior. If you add the shadow bolt glyph with cataclysm, you looking at the most mana efficient spell from the three. Plus something unique to shadow bolt, NightFall + glyph of corruption that gives you a 4% chance with drain life and 8% chance with corruption to have an Instant Bolt

Incinerate cast time 2.5 (talents: 2.25, without haste)
White dmg wise is not as hard as the Shadow Bolt but it's crit factor when spec destruction is simply amazing.
Make sure immolate is on -> Fire and Brimstone + Firestone + Flame and Shadow + Emberstorm + glyph of Incinerate with 5% extra dmg simply owns if you have a high crit chance.

Additions: These are add-ons that Shadow bolt and Incinerate have since they are destruction spells.
Excluding Haunt = Backlash, Backdraft and Empowered Imp

Haunt cast time 1.5 (without haste)
By far not the strongest of the three but the 20% increase in DoT dmg + life reg. after 12sec is more then worth the talent points. Bad point of view is that there is a cooldown on it, therefore, makes it a little hard to spec completely Affliction. Also Haunt has the fastest casting time from all of them.

Haunt isn't a nuke and should only be cast to maintain the debuff, not when it comes off CD. The more time you spend casting Haunt, the less time you're casting Shadow Bolt. -Kulzseza

Everything about Kulzseza's statement is... sooo wrong. Don't cast Haunt when it comes off CD, you say? I take it you've found a way to cast haunt when it's still on CD then. In reality, Haunt is more-or-less a shadow bolt that casts twice as fast, causes all of your affliction damage to increase by 20%, procs Shadow Embrace, and heals you for a large amount.

In PvP especially, one would ALWAYS want to cast a 1.5 second Haunt, Unstabble Affliction, or Fear over a 3.0 second shadow bolt. The only time one should cast shadow bolt over Haunt as affliction in PvP is when SB becomes instant-cast due to a Nightfall-like proc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcEWOC5YbYY this video has sound and features better views of 4.3 shadowbolt. (not mine)

this is similiar to the shadow bolt that these NPCS cast:
Apothecary Falthis
Balizar the Umbrage
Burning Blade Apprentice
Dalaran Conjuror
Dar'Khan Drathir
Dark Strand Adept
Dark Strand Cultist
Fizzle Darkstorm
Frostmane Shadowcaster
Gawanil
Gazz'uz
Ilkrud Magthrull
Licillin
Searing Blade Warlock
Syndicate Shadow Mage
Zevrax

all the details are the same but the yards, warlocks have 30 yards, and these npcs can cast at 40 yards.

http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=20791#used-by-npc

So wich spell is best fore Demo locks?, is it shadow bolt or ist it incinerate?, incinerate alows youto put 3 points in affliction but cost moore water then shadowbolt, but incinerate is casted faster then Sb. Seems like incinerate is best to spam as demo and destruction. But affliction ofc it's better to spam shadowbolt.

ive seen this crit up 2 13k

The most powerfull Shadow Bolt in WotLK

huge crit on netherspite

420 mana. Coincidence? i think not