Shadow Priest PvP Guide (2024)

Last updated on Jan 01, 2024 at 23:11by Abide1 comment

Welcome to our PvP Shadow Priest guide for Wrath of the Lich King. Here youwill learn all you need to know to properly play Shadow Priest in PvPscenarios.

Shadow Priest is a strong damage dealer in PvP that offers great utility bothoffensively and defensively. Unlike other damage dealing classes, you will needto focus greatly on this utility in PvP situations to maximize the fullpotential of a Shadow Priest.

The talent build listed above takes a lot of the major bonuses from the Shadowtree to help push your damage higher, while also giving you the major PvPabilities such as Silence and Psychic Horror.

Depending on which PvP activity you are focusing on, you may choose to swapsome of the talents around. If you are not having Mana issues, you can exchangeMental Agility for Improved Power Word: Shield to further enhanceyour utility. If you are finding yourself having Mana issues, you can pick upFocused Mind instead of Mind Melt orImproved Mind Blast. Pick and choose these talents depending on yourunique situation.

1. Glyph of Dispersion — This is a must-have in PvP, allowingyou to use Dispersion much more frequently and save yourself fromdying.
2. Glyph of Fade — This is another must-have in PvP as itsynergizes well with Veiled Shadows and Improved Shadowform,allowing you to often remove slows off yourself.
3. Glyph of Power Word: Shield — This is the most impactful glyph youcan use in the third glyph slot, especially when paired with theImproved Power Word: Shield talent.

1. Glyph of Shadowfiend — This helps you sustain your Mana if yourShadowfiend happens to die.
2. Glyph of Fortitude — Helps if you ever get the chance to rebuffyour ally with Power Word: Fortitude.
3. Glyph of Fading — Has great synergies with a Shadow Priest'stalents as you will be often using Fade to remove slows fromyourself.

As a Shadow Priest in PvP there is no real set rotation you should befocusing on. The usage of your abilities will largely depend on multipledifferent factors in the situation. Become accustomed to your main damagingabilities as well as your healing and utility spells, and you will quickly learnwhen and how to use them properly.

As a Shadow Priest you will mainly be focusing on dealing damage with thesemain spells. Be sure to properly use any free time you are given to get as muchdamage out as you can before you get focused by your enemies.

• Vampiric Touch — Deals high damage-over-time and restores Manaback to you and your party members. Try to apply this to all enemies your alliesare attacking.
• Shadow Word: Pain — Deals high damage-over-time. Try to applythis to enemies your allies are attacking.
• Devouring Plague — Deals high damage-over-time. Try to applythis to enemies your allies are attacking.
• Mind Blast — Deals very high damage with a short cast time andcooldown. You will want to use this as often as possible.
• Shadow Word: Death — High, instant damage. This spell can also beused to break crowd controls if timed properly, such as Blind orPolymorph.
• Mind Flay — Channeled spell that deals damage-over-time andslows the target's movement speed. Mostly used as a filler spell after usingeverything else.

While healing is not your main objective as a Shadow Priest, it will berequired from time-to-time. Knowing when you need to heal and help preventdeaths is one of the main benefits of having a Shadow Priest as not many classesoffer strong healing spells in emergencies.

• Power Word: Shield — You will want to use this as often aspossible on any ally being attacked. Great when paired withImproved Power Word: Shield.
• Flash Heal — Is a quick, small heal, but with a high Mana cost.Useful for quickly topping up an injured ally or getting a fast heal out in anemergency.
• Renew — A powerful heal-over-time, especially if your enemycan not remove magical buffs. Great to use when you know someone will take a lotof damage over time.
• Binding Heal — Works very similar to Flash Heal, exceptthis will heal both the Priest and the target. Great whenever you and an allyare low health.
• Prayer of Mending — Whenever an ally is buffed with this andtakes damage, Prayer of Mending will heal them and then bounce to a nearbyally. Great for healing multiple people taking damage, especially fromDoTs.

Shadow Priest has powerful utility spells that can be used in manysituations, sometimes either offensively or defensively. Knowing when andwhere to use these abilities is vital to your success in PvP.

• Dispersion — This is a great defensive tool as it reduces yourdamage taken by 90%. Use this if you are being focused down with cooldowns.When paired with Glyph of Dispersion, this has just over a one-minutecooldown, allowing you to use it often.
• Silence — Allows you to blanket silence an enemy, preventingthem from casting any spells. Great when trying to prevent a healer from healingor a damage dealer from casting any more damaging spells.
• Psychic Horror — Horrifies an enemy for 3 seconds, stunningthem in place. Also disarms their main hand weapon for 10 seconds. Can be usedoffensively to crowd control someone, or defensively as a disarm against amelee damage dealer.
• Mass Dispel — Dispels magic buffs from enemies and debuffs fromallies. Can also remove spells that can not be removed normally, such asDivine Shield or Ice Block.
• Dispel Magic — Dispels magic buffs from enemies and debuffsfrom allies depending on your target. You will use this often both offensivelyand defensively.
• Abolish Disease — Removes diseases from an ally if possible.Has some uses in PvP.
• Shadowfiend — Great for restoring Mana in long, sustainedfights. Can also be used for additional damage when all-in on a kill.
• Inner Focus — Gives you a free cast. Try to use this on anexpensive spell as it has a 3-minute cooldown.
• Shadow Word: Death — Causes damage to the Priest equal to thedamage it deals. This backlash damage can break crowd control effects that breakon damage, such as Blind and Polymorph if timed properly.
• Shackle Undead — You will mostly use this when fighting aDeath Knight to crowd control their pets or if they useLichborne.
• Psychic Scream — This is a Priest's only real form of crowdcontrol. You will mostly use this to help setup a kill or to peel for yourselfor an ally.

As a Shadow Priest your largest focus stats-wise will be Resilience. Youwill often be focused in a PvP environment, and Resilience aims to prevent youfrom dying in a short window.

Resilience is the largest source of damage mitigation you can get from stats.Resilience is a flat damage reduction from all PvP sources and getting as muchof this as possible, especially early on, can help you drastically in most PvPsituations.

You will want to maintain 4% Hit Rating to help land your offensive spells.Reaching this number is much easier with the Shadow Focus talent.It is vital to maintain this Hit Rating through gear and talents at alltimes.

Similar to Hit Rating, Spell Penetration helps you land your offensive spellswhen fighting enemies that have higher than base magic resistance. The twobreakpoints to worry about are the 75 Spell Penetration soft cap and the 130Spell Penetration hard cap. Try to aim at least for the soft cap when choosinggear, gems and enchants.

Spell Power increases the effectiveness of your damage spells, giving you thehighest power gain possible. Aim for this stat whenever Resilience is notavailable.

Spirit has multiple uses for a Shadow Priest through various talents such asTwisted Faith. It also helps with Mana regeneration in long sustainedfights.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Shadow Priest in Wrathof the Lich King PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Tailoring — With Lightweave Embroidery you willhave much higher burst window opportunities.
2. Engineering — Hyperspeed Accelerators gives you alarge Haste increase, allowing you to get much more damage off in a shorterwindow.
3. Jewelcrafting — Gives you 3 powerful gems, Runed Dragon's Eye, giving you a huge Spell Power increase.
4. Enchanting — Gives you a nice, passive Spell Power boostwith 2 x Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for aShadow Priest in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Shadow Priest's place within the Arena, wehave created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular teamcompositions which you can find below.