Playing Shadow Priest in Arena really pushes your skills to a next level

[Deleted]

People already warned me not to play a Shadow Priest because they lack survivability and always get focussed down hard.
They were certainly right but I have to admit.... that I actually like this!

The hard part was gearing up (although it was fast thanks to skirmishes and the bonus event) but once I got to full 700/730 gear I noticed my PvP skills actually improved by a large margin and I was having more fun in PvP than I had for a long, long time.

I think that playing strong classes for so long actually didn't do me any good and thanks to my Shadow Priest I now have some actual skill level that I perhaps never had before.

What are your experiences with Spriest nowadays?

[Schmilblick]

Monk, Shaman, Sp, forget them in PvP.

[Tokas]

well then i'd suggest you play elemental shaman, that's probably the worst imaginable pvp spec for how long now... 4 years?

[Deleted]

People already warned me not to play a Shadow Priest because they lack survivability and always get focussed down hard.
They were certainly right but I have to admit.... that I actually like this!

The hard part was gearing up (although it was fast thanks to skirmishes and the bonus event) but once I got to full 700/730 gear I noticed my PvP skills actually improved by a large margin and I was having more fun in PvP than I had for a long, long time.

I think that playing strong classes for so long actually didn't do me any good and thanks to my Shadow Priest I now have some actual skill level that I perhaps never had before.

What are your experiences with Spriest nowadays?

Depends on what level. Sp are perfectly viable upto and around 2k to play with any comp, as long as your partners are decent. After that if your not playing with a frost mage, just don't even bother.

[Alanar]

People already warned me not to play a Shadow Priest because they lack survivability and always get focussed down hard.
They were certainly right but I have to admit.... that I actually like this!

The hard part was gearing up (although it was fast thanks to skirmishes and the bonus event) but once I got to full 700/730 gear I noticed my PvP skills actually improved by a large margin and I was having more fun in PvP than I had for a long, long time.

I think that playing strong classes for so long actually didn't do me any good and thanks to my Shadow Priest I now have some actual skill level that I perhaps never had before.

What are your experiences with Spriest nowadays?

Nice to hear that!

Shadows survivabiliy is not the best, but thus feels more rewarding when you outplay some one in pvp.
I main shadow for a long time and here I am still playing it, despite the negative parts of Shadow it's still a very fun interesting spec to play for pvp.
It's nice to see such a post!

[Deleted]

Just wait for Legion: looks like it will be very easy to survive as Shadow in PvP. Dispersion heals you for about 50% of your total health every 1.5 min, VT heals you on tick + strongest spammable 1.5 sec heal in the game (talented).

[Deleted]

Just wait for Legion: looks like it will be very easy to survive as Shadow in PvP. Dispersion heals you for about 50% of your total health every 1.5 min, VT heals you on tick + strongest spammable 1.5 sec heal in the game (talented).

You're still going to need mad peels to actually cast now though, SP greatest weakness has always been how trainable it is, if the meta leans towards melee it will be worse than it is now, since no instant MB or regen from DP and everything in one school, now including your heal, means one interrupt and your fucked. But this is Arena i'm talking about, we will continue to be utter beasts in bgs however

[ThrashMetalFtw]

Playing SC2 will have the same effect, just much stronger (and it will transfer to PvE aswell).

[Kretan]

You're still going to need mad peels to actually cast now though, SP greatest weakness has always been how trainable it is, if the meta leans towards melee it will be worse than it is now, since no instant MB or regen from DP and everything in one school, now including your heal, means one interrupt and your fucked. But this is Arena i'm talking about, we will continue to be utter beasts in bgs however

Won't really need mad peels. It just returns to you now needing to actually be skilled at juking rather than relying on instant mind blasts. Also, if you are being focused by multiple interrupts and pseudo interrupts, just take driven to madness and don't cast until void form where you will cc chain all of their interrupts and unlock instant damage through void bolt. Essentially, spam out instant shadow word pains, let driven to madness get you to 100 insanity, then fear bomb, void form, horror, void bolt, void torrent, void bolt, silence. Barely have to cast, and void torrent can't be kicked. This will put out immense pressure once every 30 seconds with every other one having void torrent.

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People already warned me not to play a Shadow Priest because they lack survivability and always get focussed down hard.
They were certainly right but I have to admit.... that I actually like this!

The hard part was gearing up (although it was fast thanks to skirmishes and the bonus event) but once I got to full 700/730 gear I noticed my PvP skills actually improved by a large margin and I was having more fun in PvP than I had for a long, long time.

I think that playing strong classes for so long actually didn't do me any good and thanks to my Shadow Priest I now have some actual skill level that I perhaps never had before.

What are your experiences with Spriest nowadays?

Yeah it forces you to learn tricks and techniques you don't need with other more powerful classes. You actually get punished for mistakes in positioning, casting, ccing, etc. When you clean up the mistakes it is really damn strong. It is very easy to tell the difference between a good shadow priest and a bad one because the skill floor is pretty high. It isn't as high as it was in MoP, but in Legion it will go way up again.

[Deleted]

Duels are pretty fun too as Shadow.

The only specs/classes that seem to be a 100% unbeatable as spriest seem to be moonkin, feral, good rogues and good enh. shamans.

[Theed]

You're still going to need mad peels to actually cast now though, SP greatest weakness has always been how trainable it is, if the meta leans towards melee it will be worse than it is now, since no instant MB or regen from DP and everything in one school, now including your heal, means one interrupt and your fucked. But this is Arena i'm talking about, we will continue to be utter beasts in bgs however

I've played a lot of arena games on legion alpha and spriest is - by far - the squishiest spec of all. All survivability relies on heavy self healing. It is almost completly negated when focused by a melee.

[Scooby Dooby Doo]

by far - the squishiest spec of all

That is exactly what I didn't want to hear.

[Deleted]

That is exactly what I didn't want to hear.

Same

If true, that would really suck.

[Alanar]

I've played a lot of arena games on legion alpha and spriest is - by far - the squishiest spec of all. All survivability relies on heavy self healing. It is almost completly negated when focused by a melee.

Right that sucks, since you said our selfhealing is decent.. but without any escape tools.
What would you suggest? Something blinky? Teleleport through void holes, tendrill placements like feathers?
There are some decent ideas around here, but what would you suggest since you have alpha?

Or just flat out damage reduction build in?

[Theed]

Right that sucks, since you said our selfhealing is decent.. but without any escape tools.
What would you suggest? Something blinky? Teleleport through void holes, tendrill placements like feathers?
There are some decent ideas around here, but what would you suggest since you have alpha?

Or just flat out damage reduction build in?

Yes, i think we need some escape utility. Spectral guise was pretty useful in this regard, no idea why they removed it.

Most specs have passive damage reduction on their artifact weapon (10%) and much more armor while we have nothing and cloth armor.

Shadowform damage reduction gone, Inner Fire is gone, Shadowform armor got removed...

[Sithalos]

If you really want to push your skills to the next level, play one of the tank specs. The low damage, low self healing, and overall poor survivability will really push you over the edge.

Great practice for Legion.

[Volitar]

TBH I think Spriest is much easier in WoD than previous expansions, sure we still get trained but instant MB lets you build orbs without having to fake or get space which takes out a lot of personal skill/team synergy. Sucks that you can still only play godcomp (maybe rogue spriest still works?) but its still really fun .

[Insoxoxo]

hello people, I will share with you my opinion as 2.3k xped SP.
Yes SP is lacking 1 defensive cooldown wich is damage reduction similar to locks unrelentning resolve that we can still dps while cd is up.
Overall SP can only play in shatter changing hpala and resto druid. Think of an SP as a burst class same as hunters and mages who are dying fast but deal alot of dmg in short time. You cant have it both
One of the main reasons why mage is best partner for SP is becuase of the synergy and CC is so strong that you dont even need any special defensive abilities. And most of the time melees will train mage simply becuase only think that SP casts is VT and mass dispell.

[Deleted]

That is exactly what I didn't want to hear.

I posted this same concern in the Spectral Guise thread. Shadow Priests are the squishiest class of all. Cloth with no mitigation or reduction. Just a PW:S and minor self heals from dot ticks if you get some VT up. No escapes whatsoever. Permanently snared in place. One stun. Melee will be glued to your ass, interrupting every other spell than SW:P, since some of their mobility was actually buffed from what it was before, and Spriest only lost mobility.

Compare to a Beastmaster Hunter, who has more mitigation from mail armor and 15% extra from dire beast talent if necessary, can reduce target's melee crit chance by 50%, still has his disengages and exhilaration heal, gets Master's Call back from a PvP talent, and now has a 30 second CD cloak of shadows from PvP talent (Survival Tactics), and has all his shots and spells instant (every last one).

GG.