Shadow mastery and PvP

[MisterSheep]

I started PvPing seriously with my Spriest lately, and had a lot of fun at it! I'm guessing i'm doing quite good, but every bit of advice can help.

I was wondering what veterent Spriest were doing about mastery and shadow orbs in PvP.

Do you apply all your DoTs on your target even if you don't have any shadow orbs? or do you cast SW:P/Mind Flay until you get your first shadow orb and then chain with mind blast and DoTs?

If you wait for shadow orbs, do you also wait to get all 5 stacks of dark evangelism?


Thanks a lot for any advice

[Horith]

I'm curious as well.

Bumpp

[smashzu]

Never rely on orbs, they can (and will) be purged off of you.
Mastery is still a great stat though since MS/MB is our biggest burst when we are allowed to freecast.

Usually, I'll throw dots up on the initial pressure - preferably after opening with a fear on the other teams healer. A few flays when possible, and once AA is up - call a hard switch, silence the healer, pop AA, nuke with spike/blast.

[Themos]

Having been on the receiving end of shadow priests in arena and BGs, the most threatening are the ones that chuck a few SWPains out there and MS/MB spam.
If the opposing healer is being too cleanse happy, toss some VTs and time a Psychic Horror/Silence/Psychic Scream on them.
If noone is bothering you at all, definitely turret it up fully DoT/DPS someone and rack up evangelism. Time a good silence on the healer then blow DA/trinket and MB/SWDx2.

A good healer will selectively cleanse around VT and counter your bursts. In this case, I'd try mana burn or mind control.

[Chillin D]

To be honest, the healer generally won't be purge spamming you during a huge burst on a target or even if you're putting out enough pressure. Shadowplay (Resto Shaman, UA 'lock, Spriest) being a good example. DoTs rolling on all targets equates to everyone losing health at about the same rate so the healer will struggle to keep everyone up after a while. During the time that the healer is working on getting everyone up is when you build up your DE (which, to be honest, if you get to freecast you'll be doing this anyway) and with a SWP rolling on 3 targets getting orbs shouldn't be too much of a challenge either. After that, blow wings and x3 Spike insta Blast.

And to the wondering if you apply your DoTs before or after, it really depends on procs. Let's say you're using Power Torrent. If Power Torrent procs and you already have your DoTs up, renew them. All of them. However, in the beginning, I like to just throw SWP on everything and flay for a bit. Helps a lot if you're running with a UA 'lock because most healers won't dispel with UA on a target. Once you get the Orb go agead and blast and apply your remaining DoTs. After that just try your best to keep a SWP on all targets so that you can get Orbs fairly quickly. Renewing DoTs per trink/weapon proc can really start eating at your mana, too, so be sure to throw SW around a bit, too. Just to keep a solid amount.

I personally take Mastery over Crit just for those reason. But I guess to each his own, I may be doing something completely wrong. Just my take on the matter.

[Deleted]

haste > mastery > crit