Be a sucessful Shadowpriest in the Arena's

[themaster]

What is my succes for becoming a Gladiator Shadowpriest?
Well This guide hopefully will be the answer to your questions.
Become a decent shadowpriest in arena’s.
Yes like you all know, shadowpriests are overpowered at the moment. But that doesn’t mean that all can play at 2.5k rating. And this guide wont help you to reach that rating but will help you to improve your playstyle as a shadowpriest
So what is the key to success as a shadowpriest in arena.?
The answer to this question will be answered later in my guide.

Basics:

These Talents+Glyphs you might use as a Shadowpriest.
2v2: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
3v3: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Yes the 3v3 specc has no Shadow Power. There is an endless discussion about this talent, but i don’t find it any helpful, since my priest got 18% Crit and Resil lowers my crit chance by about 12%, which leaves me with 6% crit chance and is totally not worth it.
But this is all depended on the comp, lets say if you play Shatterplay or with a Boomkin it might be worth it.



You should gem: Mysterious Dreadstones in all the blue sockets, Reckless Ametrine in all the Yellow sockets and Runed Cardinal Ruby in the red sockets.
So the stats you probably want as a shadowpriest is about: 3400 Spell power, 20% Haste , 26k+ HP, 20+ Mana and 1100 resil. Without 1100+ Resil i wouldn’t dare to enter the arena.
If you get more than 20% haste and that at the cost of Spell power than its not worth it.
Some people enjoy playing with 3300 Spell Power and 25% haste, but the 100 spell power benefit is better than the 5% haste.

Macros:

#1 : Gargoyle Shackle:
#showtooltip Shackle Undead
/target Ebon Gargoyle
/cast Shackle Undead
/targetlasttarget
#2 Silence on Focus, If focus doesnt exist, it silences the Target
/cast [target=focus,exists,harm] Silence
/cast [exists,harm] Silence
#3 Shadow Word Death+ Shadow word Death focus (Good against Polymorphs)
/cast [target=focus,modifier:shift] Shadow Word: Death; Shadow Word: Death
#4 Fear ward Shadowfiend, If there is no shadowfiend then it Fear wards your target.
/cast [exists,target=Shadowfiend] Fear Ward
/cast Fear Ward
#5 Dispels Normally, when you use Shift (which you can change) it will self dispel. (Put your Character name in the macro)
/cast [target=CHARACTERNAME,modifier:shift] Dispel Magic
/cast [target=target,nomodifier] Dispel Magic

Addons:

Gladius: Gladius - Addons - Curse
Gladiminish: Gladiminish - Addons - Curse
PowerAuras: Power Auras Classic - Addons - Curse
Afflicted3: Afflicted 3 - Addons - Curse
InterruptBar: InterruptBar - Addons - Curse
Quartz: Quartz - Addons - Curse
These are the main addons that you should use.

Getting Started

So at the beginning of the guide the question was what is the key to success as a Shadowpriest, besides it’s overpoweredness.


What you need is a good partner who is good at communicating and tells you when he is Cced / What is he going to do etc. You might do this aswell. Basically you need to have a fast reaction when your partner says: “Feared”, because after the fear there may land an Unstable affliction for example and you don’t want to get silenced.


Many shadowpriests tend to fail in arena doing dps, while their partners outdmg them by 2x, lets say i play RPS (skillcomp ) and my rogues does lets say200k dmg that fight and i do 100k that fight. How comes?
The main damage from a shadowpriest comes from the spell Mind flay. Many Shadowpriests are used to a PvE rotation or Level 70 playstyle where they use Mindblast followed by a Shadow word Death. No this is all wrong! You should use VT>SWP>DP>MB>MF and spam mind flay till you need to redot. As soon your target drops below 30% you use that oldskool MB+SWD combination to get him to die. If he is not you spam mind flay like a rogue would spam his Mutilate button.
Ok this said i hope you all know how to do DPS now


As a shadowpriest and you play with a rogue you must keep that Power word shield up on your rogue at all time. 2v2 / 3v3.. Why?
Well they probably are nukeing on him or he has dots and cant vanish. But thanks to your awesome PW:S he can now vanish and re-open.

How-to Fight in Arena

Basic Arena stuff..

Always use /focus in arena. Priority #1 = Mages, Priority #2 = Healers. If there is a mage just watch your CC on the healer on Gladius and click him on Gladius to get Silence off.
When you face Warlock or Mage teams and the warlock has a felhunter out, PLEASE for the sake of PVP try to fake cast them. When you run in they MOST LIKELY (are retarded and) use Counter Spell/ Spell lock on the first spell you cast. So what you are going to do is Cast your 2 instant dots first THEN you use VT, but at like 0,2 sec after Casting this you STOP casting. And if they didnt use spell lock/Counter spell, then do this again. If 2nd time they didnt do it then just be free to cast it, they will probably use it on your 2nd casting spell. But i think that this is mainly important for the healer in 3v3 and for yourself in 2v2. Also when nukeing a mage target be sure to spam dispel on him to remove Ice barrier. So the dispelling targets should be with these buffs: Fear Ward/Ice barrier/ Any Paladin spell (BOP/BUBBLE/HOF/HOS). Rest is irrelevant



When the fights starts you probably already chose what your nuke target is going to be. Go let your rogue sap that target or run in and let your mage sheep.. Fear the healer, nuke the nuke target to force a trinket on the 1st fear. If they eat the 1st fear then your target should be probably dead and if not you use Psychic Horror on the healer (IF YOU PLAY WITH A ROGUE WHO CAN DISARM, IF NOT DONT). Let say you were nukeing a warrior. You would want to wait out with shadowfiend + silence after Shield wall because you can use your 2nd fear now on the healer and pop shadowfiend to kill him now + silence the healer if the target ain’t dead yet.
But it’s really important to get that Psychic Scream off on the healer on the start when you are about to nuke your target.

Failing SW on Poly?

So many of you shadowpriests/disc priests are kinda fail at polymorh. Any good mage would Fake cast his first (two) sheeps and then really sheep you. Any stupid mage uses Counter Spell > Sheep and then you are kinda screwed unless you can Line of Sight. So don’t use the Shadow word: Death focus macro on the 1st sheep the mage uses.

When should you SW the mage?. Yes mages use /focus sheep aswell so when will he sheep you? This most likely will happen when his partner goes off you and you see him use sheep, this is the moment that you use this macro and get the sheep reflected off. If the partner continues sitting on you then the sheep is intended for 1 of your partners, and you might pull off a quick dispel then.

Noes...CCed!

Avoid trinketing the first CC on yourself at all costs, because this can result into a switch and get you owned in a stunlock (after dispersion). Also talking about dispersion, dont dare to waste it on the first stunlock you get for example, because this is a guarranteed lose. Well you should use it if your healer is CCed and cant do anything. But this is the part where your partner should help you out by ccing a dps and sitting on the other like peeling it away. And where you might want to use fear/psychic horror on the melee+ Silence the dps caster. Put the DPS Caster to /focus and target the melee and then use this panic macro:
/cast [target=focus] Silence
/cast Psychic Horror



This should you give a couple of seconds non nuked time where your healer should heal you and cant get Counter spelled by a mage for example. Or for 2v2 where you can use a quick flash heal +pom and renew on yourself.

Tremor >.<

What i do against Shaman teams that have Tremor totem up before i use fear, IS NOT MELEEING (unless i stand next to it) and is not WANDING. I use this simple macro i made (same as the sap macro):
/target Tremor totem
/Cast Devouring Plague
/Targetlasttarget
Yes after doing this you need to re-apply Devouring Plague on your enemy, but np thats another instant 3k dmg.

HARD

Well most likely Wizzcleaves will rape you and melee teams are a joke. In 2v2 (Spri/rogue) ayou will get owned by Lock/hpally or DK/Healer
Against Wizzcleave like LSD. You gib the warlocks pet in 2 sec, use mind sear on the warlock so when he used Fel Domination to summon a new pet it will instantly die. Yes i dunno if this is a bug or not but its atleast in your advantage. This works because when the new pet is summoned it has like 1k hp for 1 sec after that the pet gets to the 100%HP .. this trick is actually kinda known, warriors abuse it all the time. If you play RPS like me and you go for the shaman you will get spamfeared, and wont gib the shaman because of -30% DMG Reduction while stunned (Make Skill Classes more OP Plx)
The best would probably be going for the warlock like i said or you could try gib the druid after he trinketed + has no hots on himself.
In 2v2 against lock/hpally you go for the lock and cc the hpally if you couldnt win this game np, its rofl anyway.
DK/Healer is a joke aswell, they just tunnel vision you. So you probably want to go on the healer if there is no boxes or w/e and if its not a paladin healer. If it’s a paladin you go for the DK, and switch to healing mode when he pops Gargoyle + Always keep at distance and spam abolish disease on yourself+renew/pom. After gargoyle you should be able to kill him, if he still has AMS + AMZ then you lost this game.

Over And Out

Well i think that i told you enough about shadowpriests. I mean its kinda hard to explain how to get good, and it all is just so logic. The guide isnt probably written in a good sequence, but this is because im a such a “pro” at writing a guide. It’s atm 3:27 CEST time and i can’t think anymore. I will update this guide as soon i come with something new.

L2P

You just must practise, visualise, keep track of ur partners, be good at communicating, USE FADE (because not many spri realise it exists), self dispel,dispel partners. and not screw up with trinketing 1st CC/fake casting.

[lolnej7]

How u get

"/target Tremor totem
/Cast Devouring Plague
/Targetlasttarget"

working?

used to have similar one with icelance and grounding, but all those totem macros have been stop working.

[Maisteri]

Isnt the #5 macro kinda pointless since when you hold down alt you will cast the spell on yourself?

[Mayx]

Isnt the #5 macro kinda pointless since when you hold down alt you will cast the spell on yourself?

Well, you maybe want another modifier button

[grimmeged]

A fine guide thanks for contributing.
I myself am currently playing Disc as Shadow is honestly too overpowered and just plain boring.

I would however disagree with focusing on sw:d sheeps.
If this is a beginner's guide, I believe using pillars at your advantage is much better than trying to sw:d sheeps.
Also, fakecasting in the start rather than doing instant dots works better imo, as you get the Counterspell out of the opposing team, and your teammates are then free to cast.

I have achived rank 1 twice, one as shadow one as disc so I believe as a beginner's guide, using pillars, los, turtling is better than actually watching fakecasts - my experience tells me you spend too much focus on looking at a mage fakecasting 2-3 times, thereby wasting valuable DPS time.
Of course you could just go aggressive on him, shutting him down, however tactics in arena is for another time

I like your guide, +rep from me

[SprayPlaster]

Too bad I just changed spec to disc, but otherwise some nice tips here and there, especially the ones about pets. Would be great if you can expand some more =)

[Nommy]

Isnt the #5 macro kinda pointless since when you hold down alt you will cast the spell on yourself?

It's very useful if you still want to keep your enemy target while spamming dispell on your self.

Edit: quoted the wrong person. Thanks for the gr8 guide btw.

[themaster]

How u get

working?

used to have similar one with icelance and grounding, but all those totem macros have been stop working.

No /cast [target=Tremor Totem] Devouring Plague stopped working. But this macro i posted works because it will Target the Tremor totem, then you cast DP and then you target your last target.. I think you should hit the macro twice or something to make it work, but yes it works

[Kazin420]

Great guide!

I'm actually in the process of making a shadowpriest, so this will def be useful.

+repx3

Damn needa spread my rep around before giving to you again.

[j0eL]

No /cast [target=Tremor Totem] Devouring Plague stopped working. But this macro i posted works because it will Target the Tremor totem, then you cast DP and then you target your last target.. I think you should hit the macro twice or something to make it work, but yes it works

No it doesn't work you liar.