Shadowpriest PVP - need help to not give up

[Deleted]

Hi everyone,

As I am at the edge of giving up on playing my shadow priest in PVP I would like to ask if you can give me some advice and motivation to keep playing.

Granted I don't have all of my honor talents yet (around honor level 15) but want to ask someone who already has them all how is it like? Does it help somehow? Does PVP get more enjoyable after getting all the talents?

My problem is, as already stated numerous times in other threads, melee classes. If I have all my cooldowns and the other player is bad, I mean REALLY BAD, I can beat them/stand a chance, however if they can add 2+2 and press 4 buttons I am really screwed. How can I do something when my Dots tickle them and I get smacked with 500K Mortal Strike crits (most recent fight - Mortal Strike Crit for 550K followed by a 300K overpower crit - almost half of my life in 2? globals)?

Here is how my usual fight goes against a melee player, for example, a rogue (all this happens in a battleground):

- I get opened on with cheap shot (worst case scenario since If I get the jump on them it does not change much) through which I sit. At the end of it I have around 85-90% HP; looks good!
- As soon as the stun ends I pop a PW:S, drop SW:P on the rogue and fake cast to get a VT up. Now I have around 65-70% HP (still good however my PW:S gets eaten through really fast...).
- Now to get some pressure up I pop Power Infusion (yes, I run PI so I can get some casts of while a melee sits on me), Shadowfiend and drop a Mindblast. Now we both sit at around 50-60% HP.
- I then try to Fear them, get a PW:S up on myself (Mind&Soul) and use my Psyfiend to get some distance but my fear gets trinketed and they just gap close the meager distance I made between us with one cooldown so I am back to receiving a pounding.
- Now I am around 40% HP while they have healed up instantly and my dots ran out so I fake cast shadowmend; If I manage this I either get some HP back but lose the pressure (lol!) and need to redot them or I get stunned and this is what usually happens.
- I trinket the stun, PW:S myself and since I am at 30-50% hp and need a few more seconds to get my fear up I drop a dispersion - this should get me some distance but alas, it does not.
- I drop to around 20% HP (!) WHILE BEING IN DISPERSION but got my fear up.
- I cast 1 or 2 shadowmends while the rogue is feared and use the remaining time to reapply my dots and maybe drop a mindblast
- Fear ends, they use one of their gap closing abilities and now all I can do is wiggle around like a magikarp fakecasting.
- when I bust my behind off to actually do something the rogue just whacks me freely.
- I DIE. The end.

The above is just a description of my most recent 1v1 fight with not a very skilled rogue. Usually if they know what they are doing is just die in around 6-8 seconds, max 10 without being able to do much.

Is this how it should look like? What can I do? Where can I improve? Please tell me it does get better later on since I'm really close on giving up and shelving my priest...

Please, fellow priests, give me advice, tips, tricks, builds, anything!

if nothing can be done I guess I will have to play my monk

[Deleted]

there isn't a whole lot you can do ATM especially vs rogues (and most other melees) we seem to lack enough escapes while they have loads (please give us spectral guise back!!)

you could try a few things:
- line damaging spells up with void shield to get some more healing back (still hard because its super hard to get any sort of cast off)
- cry
- hope blizz fixes melee mobilty and 100% uptime
- they are buffing shadowform to give 10% damage and 10% physical reduction might help abit
- pray to blizzard some more
- cry again

[Woop Woop]

You have to be babysat by teammates. In random bg you will suck, unless the other team is stupid.
Im either top dmg or close to it, or at the bottom somewhere, it all depends on enemy team, do they have competent melees etc. Ive had a rogue go after me like it was his only job inthe bg, fun times. Yes, i cried.

[Deleted]

It becomes much more enjoyable when you have access to the better talents.
melee are an issue right now (mainly rogues) there isn't anything you can do but that goes for a lot of classes.

You need to change your play style constantly stick with your group never stand out. If someone is attacking you disperse and run to your team.

[Deleted]

there isn't a whole lot you can do ATM especially vs rogues (and most other melees) we seem to lack enough escapes while they have loads (please give us spectral guise back!!)

you could try a few things:
- line damaging spells up with void shield to get some more healing back (still hard because its super hard to get any sort of cast off)
- cry
- hope blizz fixes melee mobilty and 100% uptime
- they are buffing shadowform to give 10% damage and 10% physical reduction might help abit
- pray to blizzard some more
- cry again

I highly doubt they will give us spectral guise back as it would totally crap on their pruning philosophy. I think making fade dispell all movement imparing effects (just like the glyph) and making the player unslowable below 100% would be a good start but one can only dream.

You have to be babysat by teammates. In random bg you will suck, unless the other team is stupid.
Im either top dmg or close to it, or at the bottom somewhere, it all depends on enemy team, do they have competent melees etc. Ive had a rogue go after me like it was his only job inthe bg, fun times. Yes, i cried.

Shame since I like to solo a lot and, unfortunately, I also get a dedicated melee each BG which always goes for me, same as you described - they're like sharks when they smell blood, going for the easy kill...

- - - Updated - - -

It becomes much more enjoyable when you have access to the better talents.
melee are an issue right now (mainly rogues) there isn't anything you can do but that goes for a lot of classes.

You need to change your play style constantly stick with your group never stand out. If someone is attacking you disperse and run to your team.

But this shouldn't be the case. Atm Blizz forces on us , either consciously or unconsciously, a rather limited playstyle.

[Shyzhi]

I aint been shadow for long and im only honor level 12 currently, If im alone and a melee looks at me i die. We are just so weak against them at the moment, taking damage and dealing it back we are weak at it. agianst melee having Psyfiend helps (it needs more HP) as of the slow and then useing your shield / spint to get some distance between them and hope your dots and instant casts can take them out. You do need to be a gnome or somthing to hide under a twig so people dont see you. EVERY bg i have rogue, DH, warrior.. DK all going after me. even if there is 26234623 people infront of me and are almost dead its me as the main target because we are so weak..

[Thelxi]

If it is BGs you mostly care about, I would just reroll now. There are much better things to play and it would suck to reroll later into the expansion and having to start all over again.

[Deleted]

If it is BGs you mostly care about, I would just reroll now. There are much better things to play and it would suck to reroll later into the expansion and having to start all over again.

I hope this will change. I have a firm belief that every class and every player should enjoy every aspect of the game. I don't mean being great at it or anything, just making it possible to be enjoyable

[Deleted]

I highly doubt they will give us spectral guise back as it would totally crap on their pruning philosophy. I think making fade dispell all movement imparing effects (just like the glyph) and making the player unslowable below 100% would be a good start but one can only dream.

Yeah this is exactly what i meant by giving us it back, atleast then fade will be useful for PvP also (i rarely use it in PvE as is).

[Glnger]

I've only done like 3 bgs as shadow. Having way more fun playing discipline. Shadow can pump damage but they just don't have the survivability against good teams. With discs I'm usually getting 5-6 kbs not counting mc deaths and the knock back. Plenty of damage, good heels and only dying against organized teams that melee train me. Having great fun so far. Mc and knock back never gets old. We've gone against some ally premades and it feels damn good being the deciding factor in some of those matches with clever game play than just looking at kbs or damage done.

[Fascinate]

This isnt new bro, shadow has always been awful 1v1. We are good in 3's and possibly rbg's, that's it.

[barrsftw]

You absolutely NEED Instacast Void Eruption AND +50% heal from dispersion in the artifact tree. After getting both of these you should feel much more powerful vs melee.

Also from what I hear shadow is the best caster in 3s. I have only done 3s as disc and haven't seen a shadow yet so I can neither confirm nor deny this based on my experiences however.

[Glnger]

Oh yea. For sure instant void form is a must.
Imo void eruption should either be instant on its own or it should keep the cast time but refresh dots like void bolt does.

Maybe instead of legacy of the void I think it's called where you can void form at 70 insanity, it should give instant void form, and the other last tier talent should do what I said earlier about refreshing all dots, maybe even instead of doing damage.

[Deleted]

You absolutely NEED Instacast Void Eruption AND +50% heal from dispersion in the artifact tree. After getting both of these you should feel much more powerful vs melee.

Also from what I hear shadow is the best caster in 3s. I have only done 3s as disc and haven't seen a shadow yet so I can neither confirm nor deny this based on my experiences however.

Damn, I'm still a bit away from both of these, gonna try a get them as soon as possible and see if this changes anything.

Any tips on which gold trait in my artifact I should get 1st? I'm running the void tentacle on mindflay but can respec the artifact...

[Reposed]

Damn, I'm still a bit away from both of these, gonna try a get them as soon as possible and see if this changes anything.

Any tips on which gold trait in my artifact I should get 1st? I'm running the void tentacle on mindflay but can respec the artifact...

For PvP, Call to the Void is the best gold dragon trait, IMO.

[Woop Woop]

For PvP, Call to the Void is the best gold dragon trait, IMO.

Went MH route, respec is too expensive so im still 3 traits and 100k AP away from it sadly.
Do you know if the mindflay damage is decent, or is it just used for the slow?

[Shyzhi]

Iv been a druid since 2004 and changing to priest for legion pvp and maybe pve.. is a big thing for me. its been hard to turn away from my druid as its my baby but.. im already having .... bad times. im only rank 15 in pvp so.. no 6% haste and no instant void.. i hope it gets better after that. Because i wanna pve aswell i have taken Mass Hysteria. whats nice if im not attacked and can let me dots have there fun (for abit...) Its not just pvp we lack its pve too but being crit 3x in a row for 400k by a rogue is not fun at all, i think my highest was a 160k or somthing mindblast if i saw it correctly...

[Deleted]

Iv been a druid since 2004 and changing to priest for legion pvp and maybe pve.. is a big thing for me. its been hard to turn away from my druid as its my baby but.. im already having .... bad times. im only rank 15 in pvp so.. no 6% haste and no instant void.. i hope it gets better after that. Because i wanna pve aswell i have taken Mass Hysteria. whats nice if im not attacked and can let me dots have there fun (for abit...) Its not just pvp we lack its pve too but being crit 3x in a row for 400k by a rogue is not fun at all, i think my highest was a 160k or somthing mindblast if i saw it correctly...

I'm in the same boat as you are.

edit

I'm losing all hope - dispersion is, literally, the worst defensive CD there is...

What do you fellow priest think about going disc while (if?when?) they fix shadow?

[Shyzhi]

Just noticed im the only shadow priest / priest in all my bgs lol.....

I tried disc i didnt like it at all.. i will keep trying shadow but if things get to bad i just wait till / if we get fixxed

[Sikplays]

Loved disc in beta, Maining shadow though. Dispersion is not the best but not the worst by any means.... Pain supp doesnt even feel like it works as disc. I am rank 50 and two like...19 in my artifact, I am always top 3 in BGs. Arenas i get melted, we cant survive Vs. 100% uptime on melee. Shadow form will help. but to be fair. WW and DH are way over tuned. those are the only melee i am scared of so once those get balanced it will be fine.