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  1. #1

    How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Hi there.

    Recently i saw an enormous amount of posts regarding shadowpriests, dispersion, and how overpowered and imbalanced shadowpriests are.
    To help you fellow players, i've decided to write a guide, being a shadowpriest myself, so that more people can succefully defeat shadowpriests on their battlegroup. This will be a comprehensive guide containing images, spoilers, tactics, and tips to defeat this imba class.

    Preparation
    You can find an shadowpriest outside IF or Orgrimmar, this is the place were most shadowpriest hang out.
    To initiate combat, you should approach the shadowpriest and talk to him. He will say something about how nerfed shadowpriest were, and how they could not kill anyone in previous patches, and how they became godlike while mages are now water dispensers. After you talk to him, click DUEL to start the fight.

    PHASE ONE

    You should position yourself as shown in this image: Phase 1

    The shadowpriest will begin the fight without a shadowfiend, because he will feel too overpowered to use a shadowfiend against you. MT#1 and MT#2 should position the shadowpriest so that his back will face the tank farther away from the IF door. It is advisable for them to have at least 350 shadow resistance. Greater Shadow Protection pots are also a good commodity, as Whipper root tubers and +50 stamina potions from the quest in Blasted Lands.

    The melee DPS group (shown as YELLOW in the pic) should stay behind the shadowpriest, near the tank farther away from the Gate. This is done because they will need to retreat behind the tank and bandage, from time to time. (Bandage spot is shown on the pic)

    The rest of the raid should position as shown in the picture. It is important for the raid to have about 120-200 shadow resistance, which will help sustain the damage. Keep in mind you will need at least 2 dispellers for each debuff type, otherwise you will wipe pretty soon.

    During Phase 1, the shadowpriest will perform a series of attacks:

    Mind Flay: A flay of shadow is launched every 2 seconds to the tank that has aggro, causing 5000 to 8000 shadow damage, depending on resistance. Mindflay will crit between 8000 and 10000 damage, again depending on the target resistance. This is where MT#2 should come into play: If a Mind Flay crits MT#1, the shadowpriest will have a buff that will increase Shadow damage by a Zillion times. This is when MT#2 should taunt the shadowpriest to prevent MT#1 from dying. MT#1 will then do the same thing once another Shadowbolts crits MT#2.

    Shadow Word: Death Every now and then the shadowpriest will cast SW, killing a random raid member.

    Mind Blast: If a target is affected by Vampric Touch, the shadowpriest will use Mind Blast to instantkill the person, and restore his mana to full.

    Devouring Plague: The shadowpriest will cast Devouring Plague everytime he changes target. If one of the raid members gets aggro, he will suffer from the plague and instantly die. It is important not to OverDPS, or members will die one after another.

    Phase 1 is relatively easy and will last until the shadowpriest has 70% life. This can take between 3 and 5 minutes, depending on your equipment.

    PHASE TWO

    When the shadowpriest reaches 70% life, he will instacast a shadowfiend. This is when the fight becomes harder.
    Note: You cannot kill the shadowpriest while the shadowfiend is alive. If you try to, the shadowpriest will say that It's not his time yet and will use an healing ability, which will probably render the fight impossible in phase three.

    Note: MT#3 and MT#4, which are tanking the shadowfiend, should stay at least 10 yards away from the shadowpriest.

    Phase two is all about killing the shadowpriest.
    The shadowfiend CANNOT BE DAMAGED by melee, as it has very high magic resistance. Also, during phase two, you should not magic debuff the pet or the priest, otherwise the shadowfiend will cast shadowcrawl and kill the tanks.

    MT#1 & #2 should stay on the shadowpriest with a few healers, while the caster DPS group will take down the Felhunter, while the melee DPS group focuses on the shadowpriest. During this phase, the shadowpriest will receive next to no damage, as Inner Fire prevents any serious melee damage.

    During Phase two, the shadowpriest will have a new attack at his disposal:

    Mind Sear: Every 20 seconds, the shadowpriest will cast Mind Sear and hit anyone within 10 yards for an incredible amount of Shadow damage.

    Every DPS class standing near the shadowpriest should retreat as shown in the picture and bandage as soon as he casts Mind Sear. Only the MT with Shadow resistance should remain near the shadowpriest. This is done because if the shadowpriest finds no one within melee range during Mind Sear, he will start using silence on the healers and wipe the raid.

    When the shadowfiend is dead, PHASE THREE begins.

    PHASE THREE

    Phase three will begin as soon as the shadowfiend is dead.
    Notes: The shadowpriest should be at around 40% health now. If he's any higher than that, you'll prolly not be able to take him down before you wipe. Also, if you have more than 6-7 dead members by now, you will probably wipe as you can't do enough DPS.

    During phase three, the shadowpriest will use all his arsenal to kill you.

    Shadow Word: Pain/Vampiric Touch: Every 10 seconds, the shadowpriest will cast a random debuff on the entire raid. These debuffs should be removed as soon as possible.

    Phychic Scream: The shadowpriest will randomy cast Phychic Scream, hitting all the melees around him. You need to be quick and dispel Fear on the MTs otherwise they will lose aggro.

    Silence: Every 45 seconds the shadowpriest will silence a caster, but if no casters are in range, a healer will be silenced, with the a tank death as the result.

    Dispersion: The most imbalanced spell in the shadowpriest's arsenal. This spell will be cast if the shadowpriest gets low on mana, making him immune while dots kills off parts of the raid.
    CT_raidassist will warn you when the shadowpriest is about to cast Dispersion, and attempts to interupt the instant spell should be made. If more than 3-4 healers are killed, the MTs will not be able to sustain damage and die, wiping the raid.

    PHASE FOUR
    When the shadowpriest is at 5% life, he does an emote saying "Imba shadowpriest performs one last service for Blizzard" He will then start casting Shadow Word: Death on the entire raid.
    This means you need to kill him before the entire raid is wiped out.

    If you manage to kill him before that, congratulations! You just killed the hardest boss currently in World of Warcraft!

    (Originally written as "How to beat a warlock" from the official forums anno 2006)

  2. #2
    Mechagnome loveshack's Avatar
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    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    This thread deserves more then a golfclap....how about a /tigerwoodsclap?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mad_Murdock View Post
    Dictonary, get one!
    Irony at its best ^^^

  3. #3
    Herald of the Titans Baabinator's Avatar
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    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Trying to be witty/funny =/= witty+funny
    Scars show you the remnants and failures of the past.

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  4. #4

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Protip for the OP: some of us have been around long enough to be able to expose the fact that you're ripping off a 4 year old joke about warlocks. I mean, Hell, you didn't even make new pics for the spriest theme.

  5. #5

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Quote Originally Posted by Annesh
    Protip for the OP: some of us have been around long enough to be able to expose the fact that you're ripping off a 4 year old joke about warlocks. I mean, Hell, you didn't even make new pics for the spriest theme.
    Protip:
    Quote Originally Posted by Witchdoctor Win'cape
    (Originally written as "How to beat a warlock" from the official forums anno 2006)

  6. #6

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    9.5/10

    By the way, there is a way to bug this fight: If a paladin casts Divine Intervention on a raid member, the shadow priest will most likely focus on that member and try to dispel it with mass dispel but since, currently, mass dispel doesn't work on DI, the priest will keep resetting aggro after each cast (= will keep casting mass dispel onto the person with DI), hence after 3 minutes of spamming mass dispel, the shadow priest will probably go oom. HOWEVER, the priest will, most likely, cast dispersion after the 3-minute bug/exploit period so it is a bit tricky to time everything right. Multiple Divine Interventions are recommended to keep the encounter bugged until everyone syncs in the right way in my opinion. Best to have everyone on vent, just in case. Also, /range 15 just to be sure mind sear doesn't get you or it might get quite hairy.

  7. #7

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Just play a feral and pop zerk. You should be able to kill him before he does.

  8. #8

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Warlocks were OP coz Fear had no damage cap or DR.

    This is just silly.

  9. #9

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    I know this is a joke thread and all.. but its just absured to even utter how a shadow priest could be even remotely considered op in pvp.

    I didnt laught at all during this thread because i kept saying to myself.. I know this is a joke thread.. but wtf man.





    You wanna talk about how op priests are? put a shadow priest up against a ret pally.... he pops wings.. you pop dispersion.. you still take 12k shots through your dispersion..

  10. #10

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Fun shiet!

  11. #11

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    I did it thanks to this guide. you can now call me Nöxious, Shadow's Bane

  12. #12
    I am Murloc! Irony's Avatar
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    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    5/10 was kind of a fun read.
    You can tell WoW changed the MMO for good when players started complaining about the amount of time they sink, into a time sink.

  13. #13

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Just plain stupid thread. Shadow priests are not that hard you just need to expect certain things when dueling them.

  14. #14

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    this is both new and interesting
    1) Load the amount of weight I would deadlift onto the bench
    2) Unrack
    3) Crank out 15 reps
    4) Be ashamed of constantly skipping leg day

  15. #15

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Quote Originally Posted by Kootz
    You wanna talk about how op priests are? put a shadow priest up against a ret pally.... he pops wings.. you pop dispersion.. you still take 12k shots through your dispersion..
    I would love to see the ret pally doing 120,000 or so damage in a single shot on what I would hope to be a spriest with a decent amount of resil.

  16. #16

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest


    MT#1 & #2 should stay on the shadowpriest with a few healers, while the caster DPS group will take down the Felhunter, while the melee DPS group focuses on the shadowpriest.
    You forgot to change Felhunter to Shadowfiend in the middle of your copy/paste.
    I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An inch. It is small and it is fragile and it is the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.

  17. #17

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Hmm looks like the "how to kill a lock" guide i read some years ago ;D
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  18. #18

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Quote Originally Posted by Smithsonian
    I would love to see the ret pally doing 120,000 or so damage in a single shot on what I would hope to be a spriest with a decent amount of resil.

    Sanctified Wrath
    means wings bypasses 50% of damage reduction effects...
    We still wouldn't be hit for 12k though.

  19. #19
    Deleted

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    . MT#1 will then do the same thing once another Shadowbolts crits MT#2.
    From the mind flay line.


    If I hadn't read it before I would love it.

  20. #20

    Re: How to beat a Shadow Priest

    Well, at least he's given credit where credit is due.
    Quote Originally Posted by Shinra1 View Post
    ...because being black means you can't be racist only prejudice.
    Quote Originally Posted by Shinra1 View Post
    ...black people have no power, privilege they cannot be racist since they were oppressed.
    Quote Originally Posted by Shinra1 View Post
    Did you just compare slavery to the holocaust? Don't compare them. The holocaust lasted 4 years while slavery lasted for well over 200 years at least in the US FYI

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