Mind Spike

Mind Spike is a priest spell, learned at level 81. It was introduced with Cataclysm, and was first announced in the Cataclysm priest review. At level 85, Mind Spike's base damage is 1083 - 1143 Shadowfrost damage.

As well as dealing rapid and significant damage, Mind Spike also places a debuff on the target that increases the critical strike chance of the next Mind Blast cast upon the target by 30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times for an additional 90% chance. While Mind Blast has a sizable cooldown (6.5 seconds fully talented, 8 seconds if not) Mind Spike has none, making Mind Spike an excellent spammable direct damage spell and allowing the priest more than enough time during Mind Blast's cooldown to ensure the next Mind Blast will achieve a critical hit. The Shadow talent Mind Melt further reinforces this relationship, with Mind Spike potentially granting instant-cast Mind Blasts.

Mind Spike fills a niche in Shadow DPS by providing a quick nuke to use in situations where the priest doesn't have time to set up the normal rotation, such as when adds are dying too fast or you have to swap targets a lot. Spamming Mind Spike should do about as much damage as casting Mind Flay on a target afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. It also provides Shadow priests with a spell to cast when locked out of the Shadow school, as school lockouts no longer affect both schools for multi-school spells.

Finally, when talented with Paralysis, the additional Mind Blast crits that Mind Spike causes become even more valuable, paralysing enemies for up to 4 seconds each time.

Mind Spike for Holy and Discipline priests
While Discipline priests using Atonement and/or Evangelism may prefer to continue using Smite, those not focusing on these talents will find Mind Spike creates the possibility of a new direct damage rotation for Holy and Discipline priests at level 81, with Mind Spike's debuff making Mind Blast far more powerful and mana efficient. While Penance and Holy Fire remain the fastest and most mana efficient options (respectively), by alternating the fast and spammable damage of Mind Spike with the more powerful Mind Blast (during Penance and/or Holy Fire's substantial cooldowns), Mind Spike effectively takes the place of Smite as the go-to direct damage spell. While DoT-reliant priests may wish to consider whether to use Mind Spike, due its DoT-extinguishing effect, those primarily dealing direct damage can take advantage of a new rotation that exceeds the traditional Smite/Holy Fire rotation in terms of speed, crit frequency and mana efficiency.

As there are no are Glyphs directly benefitting Mind Spike (or Mind Blast), switching to this rotation may also free-up space previously used for Glyph of Smite, allowing for further improvements to the priest's abilities.

Fittingly, Mind Spike also works with the Holy talent ability Chakra to increase all Holy and Shadow spell damage by 15%.