Shadow Priest PvP Guide for Cataclysm Classic

Shadow Priest is a strong damage dealer in PvP that offers great utility both offensively and defensively. Unlike other damage dealing classes, you will need to focus greatly on this utility in PvP situations to maximize the full potential of this class.

Strengths

• Both offensive and defensive magic dispels.
• Powerful damage-over-time spells that can be applied to multiple enemies.
• Can throw out heals in an emergency situation to save an ally.
• Strong mana regeneration, will never run out of mana.

Weaknesses

• Usually gets focused in arenas as you only have one defensive cooldown.
• Relies on dispellable DoTs to deal the majority of your damage.
• Vulnerable to interrupts as all of your damage is in the Shadow spell school.

• Glyph of Dispersion — Since Dispersion is your main defensive spell, this is a mandatory glyph in PvP.
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain — Boosts the damage of your main DoT by 10%.
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Death — Helps you execute low health enemies easier with Shadow Word: Death

• Glyph of Mass Dispel — Reduces the cast time of Mass Dispel by 1 second.
• Glyph of Psychic Horror — Allows you to use Psychic Horror more often, especially great against melee enemies.
• Glyph of Fade — Allows you to remove slows more frequently with the Phantasm talent.
• Glyph of Inner Fire — Boosts your survability against Physical damage dealers.

• Glyph of Fading — You will often be using Fade to remove slows with the Phantasm talent.
• Glyph of Fortitude — Reduces the Mana cost of Power Word: Fortitude by 50%.
• Glyph of Levitate — Removes the reagent cost of Levitate, allowing you to cast it for free.

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this section. In PvP you will need to react and adapt to different situations, meaning you will not always follow the recommended rotation below.

1. Archangel — Use for burst windows if you have 5 stacks of Dark Evangelism. Swap to using Mind Spike as your main spell during this window.
2. Shadow Word: Pain — Apply to all targets that you won't crowd control. This will automatically refresh when you use Mind Flay on the target.
3. Vampiric Touch — Apply and maintain on all targets that you won't crowd control.
4. Devouring Plague — Apply and maintain on a target.
5. Mind Blast — Use on cooldown.
6. Shadow Word: Death — Only use if the target is below 25% health, or you are low on Mana.
7. Mind Flay — As a filler wherever your rotation has gaps. Cancel the channel if a higher priority spell becomes ready, or a DoT must be re-applied.
8. Mind Spike — Can be used to burst someone very low if they have no DoTs on them. This can also still be used if you get kicked on Shadow spells.

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

• Power Word: Shield — You will want to use this as often as possible on any ally being attacked. Can be used while in Shadowform.
• 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 an emergency.
• Renew — A powerful heal-over-time, especially if your enemy can not remove magical buffs. Great to use when you know someone will take a lot of damage over time.
• Binding Heal — Works very similar to Flash Heal, except this will heal both the Priest and the target. Great whenever you and an ally are low health.
• Prayer of Mending — Whenever an ally is buffed with this and takes damage, Prayer of Mending will heal them and then bounce to a nearby ally. Great for healing multiple people taking damage, especially from DoTs.

In addition to your main spells and cooldowns, you also have many utility spells that can be game-changing when used in the proper scenario. Make sure you understand each of the spells listed below to fully take advantage of your entire spellbook.

• Fade — Thanks to the Phantasm talent you can use Fade to remove any slows you are debuffed by.
• Leap of Faith — One of the new spells you gain in Cataclysm. Pull the target ally towards your location. A great cooldown to save a group member who is in a bad position.
• Dispel Magic — Can remove 1 magical buff from an enemy or an ally. Use this whenever someone in your group is afflicted with a dangerous magical debuff, or an enemy has a beneficial buff that will hamper your group.
• Mass Dispel — An AoE version of Dispel Magic that removes 1 magical debuff from up to 10 friendly targets, and 1 magical buff from up to 10 enemy targets. Can also remove stronger magical buffs that cannot be dispelled in other ways, such as Ice Block and Divine Shield.
• Cure Disease — Removes 1 Disease from an ally.
• Fear Ward — Makes a friendly target immune to the first fear used against them.
• Levitate — You will often use this to give you additional dispel protection.
• Shackle Undead — Can be used against Death Knights when they use Lichborne.

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

1. Jewelcrafting — Gives you three powerful gems, Mystic Chimera's Eye or Brilliant Chimera's Eye, giving you a large stat boost.
2. Tailoring — is a great choice for the Lightweave Embroidery unique cloak enchant.

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

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