For Rated BGs?

[Woofwerx]

A group of friends of mind wanted me to to pull in one of my pve ranged dps toons for random and rated, I have fun with all three characters but a couple of them are lower level. I have a choice in between an elemental shaman, shadow priest, or hunter. Which are more prominent in rated BGs? Or should I just roll a mage?

[Skygoneblue]

Well, of the three you listed, Shadow Priest is probably the least useful. In RBGs, you want characters that can bring game-changing skills... Elemental Shamans have that super-annoying knockback that can win Arathi games, and Hunters are expert flag defenders. Let's not forget trapping entire WSG teams coming down tunnels. Shadow Priests just... Well they don't have much other than Psychic Scream that breaks .5sec after you cast it... /shrug

I'd go with the Shaman or Hunter man.

[Sakamae]

Both me (shadow priest) and our ele shaman are top in our RBGs, always offense. There is a lot more utility from a shadow priest than just psychic scream, even if it can be broken by damage it has no diminishing returns and a short CD. You can get some pretty incredible burst damage that will annihilate an EFC with some stacks, in addition to silence, psychic horror, mana burn, mind control, life grip, and just all around survivability. PWS, dispersion, PoM, and being able to toss some heals if needed is really nice. Double tap SWD below 25% is a lot of fun too. Try them out and see what you like. All three of those classes are viable choices, and can be very good in RBGs. See which one is the most fun for you and run with it.

Well, of the three you listed, Shadow Priest is probably the least useful. In RBGs, you want characters that can bring game-changing skills...

Have you played with a good spriest or played one in RBGs that you can say they can't bring "game-changing skills", because they most certainly can and do.

[Krimson]

SPs aren't useless in RBGs.

We can do quite a bit of damage. VT gives dispel protection making it harder for the opposing healers to keep up on dispelling cc's. Pair the SP up with a Warlock and you have some sick multi target damage and dispel protection that's going to quickly wear on teams.

You can pop dark archangel + trinket and switch to MS/MB/SWD spamming the kill target for huge spikey burst potential. Spikey bursts gets kills in RBG's.

We also have probably the longest self-cc chain in the game, being able to silence / psychic horror / mind control / fear / mind control a healer and shut down their game for 30+ seconds.

[Woofwerx]

Well, of the three you listed, Shadow Priest is probably the least useful. In RBGs, you want characters that can bring game-changing skills... Elemental Shamans have that super-annoying knockback that can win Arathi games, and Hunters are expert flag defenders. Let's not forget trapping entire WSG teams coming down tunnels. Shadow Priests just... Well they don't have much other than Psychic Scream that breaks .5sec after you cast it... /shrug

I'd go with the Shaman or Hunter man.

I definitely will take this in consideration, thank you!

---------- Post added 2011-12-15 at 07:15 PM ----------

Both me (shadow priest) and our ele shaman are top in our RBGs, always offense. There is a lot more utility from a shadow priest than just psychic scream, even if it can be broken by damage it has no diminishing returns and a short CD. You can get some pretty incredible burst damage that will annihilate an EFC with some stacks, in addition to silence, psychic horror, mana burn, mind control, life grip, and just all around survivability. PWS, dispersion, PoM, and being able to toss some heals if needed is really nice. Double tap SWD below 25% is a lot of fun too. Try them out and see what you like. All three of those classes are viable choices, and can be very good in RBGs. See which one is the most fun for you and run with it.



Have you played with a good spriest or played one in RBGs that you can say they can't bring "game-changing skills", because they most certainly can and do.

How do spriest fare against lets say most melee versus a elemental shaman and spriest overall in your opinion?

---------- Post added 2011-12-15 at 07:17 PM ----------

SPs aren't useless in RBGs.

We can do quite a bit of damage. VT gives dispel protection making it harder for the opposing healers to keep up on dispelling cc's. Pair the SP up with a Warlock and you have some sick multi target damage and dispel protection that's going to quickly wear on teams.

You can pop dark archangel + trinket and switch to MS/MB/SWD spamming the kill target for huge spikey burst potential. Spikey bursts gets kills in RBG's.

We also have probably the longest self-cc chain in the game, being able to silence / psychic horror / mind control / fear / mind control a healer and shut down their game for 30+ seconds.

How do you handle other casters like frost mages and Death knights?

[Deleted]

"How do spriest fare against lets say most melee versus a elemental shaman and spriest overall in your opinion?"
1v1 is not balanced ... you have team mates in rbg, don't you ? ... casters are behind and have some protection ... melee just distract the others so the casters get through that hard armor and global ppl...
Yes, Sp, arcane, booms will be focused all the time ... for the retarded potential of burst ... kite and hunt ... dont get hunted ...
I play rbg's with 2 friends (me (sp) + lock + boomy/ele ) (dk + rogue) (warr tank) (4 healers, disc,holy.p,resto.s,resto.d) ...
Our dk, rogue, and tank just protect us ... we protect the healers and do the damage ... those dots rape the enemy so fast ...

[Woofwerx]

"How do spriest fare against lets say most melee versus a elemental shaman and spriest overall in your opinion?"
1v1 is not balanced ... you have team mates in rbg, don't you ? ... casters are behind and have some protection ... melee just distract the others so the casters get through that hard armor and global ppl...
Yes, Sp, arcane, booms will be focused all the time ... for the retarded potential of burst ... kite and hunt ... dont get hunted ...
I play rbg's with 2 friends (me (sp) + lock + boomy/ele ) (dk + rogue) (warr tank) (4 healers, disc,holy.p,resto.s,resto.d) ...
Our dk, rogue, and tank just protect us ... we protect the healers and do the damage ... those dots rape the enemy so fast ...

That definitely sounds like fun, the only thing we don't have is a warlock unfortunately, we have a couple of unholy dks though! Thank you for the advice.

[Skygoneblue]

Have you played with a good spriest or played one in RBGs that you can say they can't bring "game-changing skills", because they most certainly can and do.

I posted having played RBGs both as Shadow and Discipline, and I can say that I've changed games much more noticeably when I was healing than when I was tossing DoTs around. I sure don't think Shadow Priests are useless in RBGs, but if you're looking to bring ranged DPS, I think that other classes can bring much more tangible utility.

Of course, both of us are simply stating anecdotes and experience-based opinions. So, I'll just respectfully let the OP decide to take or ignore advice as he sees fit.

[Direshadow]

Shadow Priests are kind of broken in PVP at the moment.

Fear breaks to early.

Dot damage is bad.

Long Disarm cooldown.

Crappy Dot Protection.

No survivability.


At the moment, doing random BGs is your best bet. Period.

[Deleted]

Shadow Priests are kind of broken in PVP at the moment.

Fear breaks to early.

Dot damage is bad.

Long Disarm cooldown.

Crappy Dot Protection.

No survivability.


At the moment, doing random BGs is your best bet. Period.

Kinda have to agree, sp is good but broken, if you get focused you die. period. if you don't then your like arcane mages ;d
Disc brings more utility thou.

[Vampiroth]

Shadow is far from broken in pvp. If you want higher damage keep archangel and emp shadow up. Shadow has some of the highest burst potential in the game, plus plenty of peeling ability if played right. You arent going to ever have the spammable cc ability of mages/locks and you never will so either reroll or adapt and time your abilities correctly.

[Purpleisbetter]

Sorry but...lol.

Agree with Dire.

Huge burst potential if:

-No cc when popping up wings. Won't pass
-No spell locks while building stacks. This MAY pass, maybe.
-Shadow orbs? maybe. And maybe not one you'll need them.
-Dots ticking (s.orbs?): because VT is a FEARSOME dispell protection. Because every healer is scared of a 3 sec little fear. Dispel fest incoming. Def, won't pass.
-Popping Wings and ta-dan! sapped. Or anything, pop the wings and run. Melee are after you and you gonna die. Won't pass.
-Because, when u start hard casting, u won't be kicked/spellocked. NEVER. Seriously...

It's like every other caster, ranged. It's cool if they'll let you cast freely. Who doesn't make decent pressure if is able to play like in a PVE enviroment hitting 20K dps on pvp?

And btw, why would you play seriously pvp with any casters wich aren't LolFrost with crapload of mastery (and possibile MWC as a Human for LOLShatter damage) or Healerlock Affliction wich will spread havoc with 3 dots and unlimited amount of self healing?

-Just hit 85 with frost mage, and messing with my lock in pvps. Well, with the first, i absolutly have no clue, not aiming at 2.2K + i just spam random spell, 3 focus macro on healer and i just face roll arenas at around 1800 rating. I mean, i'm THAT bad. Yet i did accomplish way more with a character i played endlessy for a year in both pve/pvp.
With lock i even have less clue (way more keys to press then lolfrost, i'm overwhelmed rofl). I hardly die even in full pve. The self heal is ridicolous. _Healing for milions just because of drain like haunt and the occasionals death coils. Trilions of damage just because i've putted some dots a minute before on a target, getting a kill out of it tho i totally forgot about that fool. And what it really saddens me, i'm probabily the worst pvper with both lolmasteryfrost and warlock.


Coming back to topic, i'd go with the Ele Shaman because while turreting, wich is a role they fulfill WAY better then a spriest on a RBG, they also do...TURRETING while running. Hex, Tremor totem, grounding, earthbind, frost shock, ghost wolf, possibily the 5 secs kick. Oh, thunderstorm. Even if its maybe as squishy, its for sure more entertraining then dots, flays, spell locked, silenced, dispelld, dead.