THE PRIEST OF SHADOW (PvP Guide)

Vivira on Fri Aug 20 2010, 22:56

Wow, what can I say? Shadow Priest (often referred to as a Spriest)... my personal favorite class in the entire game, with paladin in a close second. Yeah, I like hybrid classes, but priests just stand out from the others IMO... the best heals, arguably the best PvP Damage (over-time of course). Well, where to begin. I guess with the Pros and the Cons of deciding to roll Shadow Priest and do some PvP.

Pros:
-High damage, which is sustainable over moderately long periods of time.
-No lengthy cooldowns, highest being Silence which is 45 seconds (excluding racial/talented abilities)
-Decent passive healing thanks to Vampiric Embrace, available through talents.
-Can Silence opponents.
-High melee reduction, around 35%, which is almost as good as mail armor (using Shadowform and Inner Fire)
-Possible to dispel many beneficial spells from enemies and harmful spells from yourself and team members
-AoE fear on a relatively short cooldown (26 secs with talents)
-Very difficult to snare a fully talented Shadow priest, with a 15 second cooldown on Fade (glyphed and talented)

Cons:

Ehh, there are really only 3 substantial cons to the Shadow Priest in PvP in my opinion...

-While in Shadowform (vast majority of the time), it is not possible to cast any holy spells, such as heals. However, you can always get out of Shadowform to heal, but its a hassle when your getting pounded by someone... Switiching out Shadowform, healing, healing some more, going back to Shadowform...all while enemy can get some great hits on you and gain some CD seconds at no charge Razz

-Shadow Priests, and priests in general, are very buff dependent, leaving a purged shadow priest vulnerable (and rebuffing costs are...costly) Shaman or Rogue with near-equal your gear=Your worst nightmare, if they are a good player. But alas, it just depends what crits and what doesn't, what hits and what misses, and ofc the skill of your opponent.
-If silenced (counterspelled) in Shadowform, Shadow priests have very few useful spells. (Beware of Mage for this...)

Key Stats...
Spell Power (should be a bit balanced with Stamina, but I actually prefer to SP stack more than Stamina Gems, so it's really your choice.)
Crit -Essestial! Makes your DoT's tick for super high amounts, probably the most important stat aside from SP.
Resilience (ideal goal in season 8: about 1150 resilience rating, which is very good and will get you far especially in the mostly-1v1 duels that you will experience on Splashgame.)
DONT GET CAUGHT UP ON INTELLECT! - Intellect is pretty easily obtained by a shad priest. You start with a high amount, talents improve it, I only keep 1 or 2 intellect sockets/enchants. 18000 is good, any higher is just a bonus, but can be useful. Use Dispersion if your low on Mana (can be used every 2 mins.) and also keep a steady Vampiric Touch (refreshed with Mind Flay if your specced right), and you'll be just fine.

Hope this rather lengthy guide helped, good luck to all future Spriests!

JooZeppi on Thu Sep 30 2010, 10:43

Thanks for the post! ;-)

Ucarious on Sat Oct 02 2010, 09:26

Not to be a downer but the MOST desired stats for Spriests are: Crit/about 300-500 haste/and Spell Power/ and about 1000 resil

MOSTLY Crit and SP tho...

**Thaldan** on Sat Oct 02 2010, 12:38

It's sick how much crits Priests, Warlock, Mages have! So many.. Razz

Vivira on Sat Oct 02 2010, 13:34

Ucarious wrote:Not to be a downer but the MOST desired stats for Spriests are: Crit/about 300-500 haste/and Spell Power/ and about 1000 resil

MOSTLY Crit and SP tho...

Yes i just realized I forgot to include crit^^

THE PRIEST OF SHADOW (PvP Guide)

THE PRIEST OF SHADOW (PvP Guide)

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