Shadow Priest PvP Guide for WotLK 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 a Shadow Priest.

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.

Weaknesses

• Usually gets focused in arenas as you only have one defensive cooldown.
• Relies on dispellable DoTs to deal the majority of your damage.
• Has Mana issues if fights do not end quickly, especially in low gear.

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

Depending on which PvP activity you are focusing on, you may choose to swap some of the talents around. If you are not having Mana issues, you can exchange Mental Agility for Improved Power Word: Shield to further enhance your utility. If you are finding yourself having Mana issues, you can pick up Focused Mind instead of Mind Melt or Improved Mind Blast. Pick and choose these talents depending on your unique situation.

1. Glyph of Dispersion — This is a must-have in PvP, allowing you to use Dispersion much more frequently and save yourself from dying.
2. Glyph of Fade — This is another must-have in PvP as it synergizes 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 you can use in the third glyph slot, especially when paired with the Improved Power Word: Shield talent.

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

As a Shadow Priest in PvP there is no real set rotation you should be focusing on. The usage of your abilities will largely depend on multiple different factors in the situation. Become accustomed to your main damaging abilities as well as your healing and utility spells, and you will quickly learn when and how to use them properly.

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

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

While healing is not your main objective as a Shadow Priest, 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. Great when paired with Improved 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 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.

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

• Dispersion — This is a great defensive tool as it reduces your damage 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-minute cooldown, allowing you to use it often.
• Silence — Allows you to blanket silence an enemy, preventing them from casting any spells. Great when trying to prevent a healer from healing or a damage dealer from casting any more damaging spells.
• Psychic Horror — Horrifies an enemy for 3 seconds, stunning them in place. Also disarms their main hand weapon for 10 seconds. Can be used offensively to crowd control someone, or defensively as a disarm against a melee damage dealer.
• Mass Dispel — Dispels magic buffs from enemies and debuffs from allies. Can also remove spells that can not be removed normally, such as Divine Shield or Ice Block.
• Dispel Magic — Dispels magic buffs from enemies and debuffs from allies depending on your target. You will use this often both offensively and defensively.
• Abolish Disease — Removes diseases from an ally if possible. Has some uses in PvP.
• Shadowfiend — Great for restoring Mana in long, sustained fights. 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 an expensive spell as it has a 3-minute cooldown.
• Shadow Word: Death — Causes damage to the Priest equal to the damage it deals. This backlash damage can break crowd control effects that break on damage, such as Blind and Polymorph if timed properly.
• Shackle Undead — You will mostly use this when fighting a Death Knight to crowd control their pets or if they use Lichborne.
• Psychic Scream — This is a Priest's only real form of crowd control. You will mostly use this to help setup a kill or to peel for yourself or an ally.

As a Shadow Priest your largest focus stats-wise will be Resilience. You will often be focused in a PvP environment, and Resilience aims to prevent you from 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 much of this as possible, especially early on, can help you drastically in most PvP situations.

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 all times.

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

Spell Power increases the effectiveness of your damage spells, giving you the highest power gain possible. Aim for this stat whenever Resilience is not available.

Spirit has multiple uses for a Shadow Priest through various talents such as Twisted Faith. It also helps with Mana regeneration in long sustained fights.

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

1. Tailoring — With Lightweave Embroidery you will have much higher burst window opportunities.
2. Engineering — Hyperspeed Accelerators gives you a large Haste increase, allowing you to get much more damage off in a shorter window.
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 boost with 2 x Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower.

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.