1. DISCLAIMER: THIS IS AN END GAME GUIDE AND IS MADE WITH A PURPOSE TO PREPARE A PLAYER FOR PVP COMBAT AND IMPROVE HIS SKILL AND AWARENESS IN HIS SURROUNDINGS AND GET BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PARTICULAR CLASS. THIS GUIDE IS NO WAY "ONE & ONLY" WAY OF PLAYING A SHADOW PRIEST, AND IS COMPLETELY MADE FROM MY OWN AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. THERE ARE WAY BETTER PLAYERS THAN MYSELF WHO CAN PROVIDE A BETTER INPUT ON THIS CLASS, AND IF THEY HAPPEN TO STUMBLE UPON THIS GUIDE FEEL FREE TO MAKE YOUR OWN. WITH BLACKJACK AND HOOKERS.





    I've been lurking these forums and came to realization that there are no proper guides for Shadow Priests, so I've decided to fix that. Welcome to my own very fabulous guide to this class.
    Here you will find all the required information on how to gear up and gem/enchant your priest, cookie-cutter builds, macros & add-ons, various tips and descriptions as well as an advanced guide on how to make proper keybindings and become an #mlg hero.





    First comes first. In order to get the best out of your class you need to have a proper gear setup. As it is well known, Shadow Priests have some mana issues and they tend to go oom quickly if they don't have the right gear with mana regeneration. That's why our main goal is to get the 5/5 spirit Mooncloth Wrathful set to aid us with our mana pool issues. A lot of priests, however, tend to bring an argument about how 5/5 Satin gear is better and that stacking crit is the only way to go. Let me assure you that once you enter arena and face a fairly decent compilation of opponents, you will cry out loud about being oom to your partner within first 5 minutes of a match, cursing the world for picking that "muuh damage" crit gear over the mooncloth one.

    Also, there's another argument which exists among priests: getting 2 parts of Satin & 2 parts of Mooncloth for extra resilience bonus. I won't even bring up the discussion on how 4 pieces set bonus outperforms that small amount of gain in your resilience numbers.

    So, knowing what mainset pieces we want to get, the question about the off-set arises. We go with haste Neck, Back, Cuffs, Belt & Boots WF pieces. As for Rings I'm willing to suggest Ashen Verdict exalted rep ring with haste & hit rating, or the mp5 one. 2nd ring should be another PvE part with haste & spellpower stats on it. So in ideal this is how our gear is supposed to look:

    Main Set Pieces:
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51484
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51486
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51482
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51485
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51483

    Off-set Pieces:
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51333
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51332
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51339
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51337
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51338

    Rings:
    First slot: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=50398 or http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=50400
    Second Slot: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=50714 or http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=50636 or http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=54585


    Now, talking about which trinkets to use: here it all depends on the playstyle you're going to choose and the comp you will be playing, be it 2's or 3's. You can go either offensive either defensive:

    Offensive:
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=54588
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=50348

    Defensive:
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=50726
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=47059

    The offensive playstyle trinkets provide a great amount of haste and spellpower procs for you to tear your enemies in pieces.
    The defensive playstyle trinkets give you an astonishing amount of mp5 for your poor mana pool and an extra instant heal which sometimes can be a difference between a win or lose.

    Also, please take a look at this particular trinket: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=50365. Take a really close look to memorize how it looks and never ever buy or wear it.

    Weapons:
    As for main weapon, once again there are two options: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=50734 or http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51398 depending on what stats you desire: be it more spellpower or more resilience.

    Off-hand:
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51407

    Wand:
    I prefer having both http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51531 & http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=51451 swapping them for according situations where I require spell penetration cap & where I don't.




    So here we are, with best gear possible for our sexy little priestess. It's time to improve it even further by adding proper enchants & gems to it.

    Enchants:
    Helm: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=44075
    Shoulders: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=44068
    Back: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=38973
    Chest: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=38975
    Wrists: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=60767
    Hands: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=38979
    Belt: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=41611
    Pants: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=41602
    Feet: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=39006
    Weapon: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=44487

    These are the basic enchants you can take with not much of other options to go from there, unless you're an Engineer. In that case getting Rocket Gloves and Nitro Boots is a better option for world PvP.


    Now as for gems to take:

    Red Socket: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=40113
    Yellow Socket: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=40155
    Blue Socket: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=40135
    Meta Socket: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=41378 Engineers with Nitro Boots use this one instead: http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=41375

    Congratulations, by this moment your priest is well-geared with rather perfect stats.
    Talking about stats: here is some information for advanced players:

    Spoiler: Show

    Edit: removed information, which was accidentally taken from Cataclysm pre-patch and not WOTLK itself.

    Hit cap:
    Not taking 3% from shadow focus into consideration:

    4% for any targets
    6% for undead or blood elf (not rogues or paladins)
    8% for rogues and paladins (not UD or BE)
    10% for undead/blood elf rogues or paladins

    Spell Penetration:
    130 against paladins, priests, druids
    140 against mages
    160 against felhunters






    Basically there are three options to go for and all of them are classic 20/0/51 builds with minor differences:

    The Mana Saving one:
    Spoiler: Show


    The Mind Blast one:
    Spoiler: Show


    And the Power Word: Shield one:
    Spoiler: Show


    As you can see, there's not much difference between all of them, except the last one where you take the http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=14748 instead of http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=14520 which is not that good. I'd rather have extra mana for 3K more damage than extra ~1K shield absorption.

    Also, as you can see in shadow tree you can put 2 points either into http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=33213 for mana, either make 4/5 in http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=15273 or even take a http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=14910. In the end it all comes to your own personal preference. Experiment!




    As for glyphs, there is not much to choose from, really:

    Major Glyphs:
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=45753 is a must have.
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=42398 is a must have, due our builds being around this ability being able to remove slows.
    As for third glyph you can go either http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=42408, or http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=42402. Personally I'd choose shield over extra armor.

    Minor Glyphs:
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=43342
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=43370
    http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=43374

    And that's it. You can look into getting http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/item=43373 instead of Fading mana reduction one, however.

    You have the gear, you've got dem enchants & gems, you've got your talents spec with glyphs and you think that you're ready to get straight in the action. You're right, but there's still a lot up ahead.




    Before we start discussing macros, please consider getting BindPad addon here. It is really useful addon to have for both: macros and bindings. We'll discuss addons in the next section, including this one.

    As a priest, or pretty much any other class, you need to have various macros for different situations you'll be facing. It is not a must, many people play good without them, but in order to ease your life and improve your playstyle I'd highly suggest to look into them. I will share few basic macros, on part with few advanced ones.





    Mind Flay/ Mind Sear: This macro consists of 2 attack spells, one being used on a usual keypress, while second is being used with [shift] modifier. Both macros have [nochanneling] parameter which lets you mash the button without accidentally canceling or interrupting your own spell.
    Code:
    #showtooltip Mind Flay
    /cast [mod:shift, nochanneling:Mind Sear] Mind Sear();
    /cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay();
    Vampiric Touch/ Mind Blast: just like above, combines two spells in one button with [shift] modifier and a command for your pet to attack, if it exists.
    Code:
    #showtooltip Vampiric Touch
    /cast [mod:shift] Mind Blast();
    /cast Vampiric Touch();
    /petattack
    Mashable Shadowform
    Code:
    /cast !Shadowform();
    Silence & Focus Silence:: this macro stops your cast to silence either main target, or [@focus] target using [shift] modifier.
    Code:
    /stopcasting
    /cast [mod:shift, @focus] Silence();
    /cast [nomod] Silence();
    Dispel Mouseover & Self
    Code:
    /cast [@mouseover, help] Dispel Magic();
    /cast [@player] Dispel Magic();
    Dispel Mouseover & Enemy
    Code:
    /cast [@mouseover,help] Dispel Magic(); Dispel Magic();
    Mashable Mass Dispel
    Code:
    #showtooltip Mass Dispel
    /cast !Mass Dispel();
    Power Word: Shield on your partner, if he exists. Else, it shields you.
    Code:
    /cast [target=YOURPARTNERSNAME, exists] Power Word: Shield(); Power Word: Shield();
    Engineering Gloves & Wand
    Code:
    /use 10
    /cast !Shoot();

    Advanced Macros



    Pet Macro & Pet Dispel: Summons your pet & uses his attack ability & dispels him if needed on same button.
    Code:
    /cast [nopet] Shadowfiend();
    /petaggressive
    /petattack
    /cast [harm, pet] Shadowcrawl(); [target=pettarget, pet] Shadowcrawl();
    /cast [target=pet,exists]Dispel Magic();
    Shackle Gargoyle Macro
    Code:
    /targetexact [exists,harm] Ebon Gargoyle
    /stopmacro [noexists]
    /cast [@target,harm] Shackle Undead();
    /cast [@arenapet1,exists] Shackle Undead();
    /cast [@arenapet2,exists] Shackle Undead();
    /targetlasttarget
    Abolish Disease & Cure Disease
    Code:
    /castsequence reset=target/combat/8 Abolish Disease, Cure Disease, Cure Disease, Cure Disease, Cure Disease, Cure Disease
    Other modifiers you can use:
    Code:
    [@arena1] [@arena2] [@arena3] [@arenapet1] [@arenapet2] [@focus] [@party1] [@party2] [@party3]
    These are few examples of macros you can make. If you want more information on how to macro, there's plenty of guides available on wowwiki.






    Unless you're arena tournament player, you'd want some pro #mlg addons to ease your life and rise your awareness. But then again, if you were a tournament player you wouldn't be reading this guide.

    Like I mentioned earlier, one of the best addons you can get to yourself is BindPad. It is really easy & comfortable to use to store all your beloved keybinds and macros. It even has a feature to let your buttons be triggered on press instead of release. So here's the list of addons I highly recommend trying out:

    1. BindPad

    2. SnowfallKeyPress. This one lets you use all your spells faster by triggering them on your key press instead of release.

    3. Power Auras Classic. A really powerful addon which allows you to create an aura for any buff/debuff/spell/cooldown you're willing to track on yourself or an enemy.

    4. Gladius & Gladiminish. A strong combo of unitframes for your daily arenas.

    5. Icicle. Keeps track of your enemy cooldowns above their nameplates.

    6. Quartz. Highly customizable cast bar unitframes for you, enemy, focus and your pet.

    7. shieldwatch. Shows the timer of your shield and the amount it's able to absorb.

    8. TidyPlates & CleanPlates skin. Great replacement for original nameplates with class icons, target's hp, ability to show/hide totems, pets, etc.






    This part of guide is dedicated to smart keybinding.

    By smart keybinding I imply planning your binds ahead and separating them into cluster groups, instead of just having them in chaotic order like Shackle on 1 followed by Renew followed by shadowform. This is an important part in getting yourself set up, especially for a new player. You'd want to be in comfortable and tidy environment while gaming, so you wouldn't have to search for your spells on your bars and remember that particular keybind for your pet.

    You'd want to have your offensive spells combined in one group whilst having all your defensive abilities in another. Furthermore, you'd want to have your party1,2,3 macros separated from arena1,2,3 ones and others, so you wouldn't mix everything up. How to achieve that? Well, that's what I'm here for. Please allow me to assist you with it, but first things first.

    There are a lot of advertisement about mouses specially made for MMO like Razer Naga for example, with lots of extra side buttons for your bindings, which even come with special addons and software so you could put your macros on it. Myself, I never felt comfortable with those buttons and the fat form of the mouse grip. I am rather satisfied with low profile mouse which has usual two buttons on the side. If you're an owner of such mouse, I have a good advice for you: Those side buttons can be revamped into ctrl & alt modifiers which for some people are really hard/uncomfortable to reach on their keyboard.

    Personally I use this software which comes with free 30 days trial, but there's a lot of alternative ones available for free and they all are pretty easy to use.

    Now when we sorted this out, I'll give you a few example of layouts you can use/adopt for your personal likings and make those bindings flow.

    Like I said, best way is to separate your keybindings into cluster groups is by using modifiers. Let's look at this example of how to sort your offensive spells. Let's start with [nomod] basic offensive & defensive spells.



    After setting up your main spells, let's go one level deeper and set up your [shift] modifiers.



    And then again, let's go even more deeper, by setting up your [ctrl] modifiers.



    Adding one more level to this to complete the sequence with [alt] modifiers.



    As you see, everything is in order and easily accessible via modifiers, so it will require some dedication to use arena1 keybind instead of casual renew.
    Now this is merely an example of how to set up your keybinds, a layout which will give you a basic understanding of what cluster bindings are.




    Now when you are prepared for battle, let's discuss a proper setups to play as Shadow Priest in arena. Shadow Priest is really an amazing class because it can be played in various compilations and can have a big variety of partners, be it a melee or a caster.

    Here are the best setups for you to play:

    2vs2:

    Frost Mage/Shadow Priest - one of the strongest setups there is for this class. It is capable of a a great CC chains, has double silence and both classes have off-heals. Great versatility due peelings a mage can provide, and not to forget to mention free food. And a portal on occasion.

    Sub Rogue/Shadow Priest - 2nd strongest setup for this class. Hard counters the setup above. Rogue provides a great opener with the sap on the opponents, posses ability to gouge, blind and disarm the enemy. Stunlocks your tunneling target with ease. Mutilate Rogue is also very viable partner at this point thanks to the Envenom vs Platers, however it loses its mobility by not having a Shadowstep.

    Unholy DK/Shadow Priest - Another powerful setup. Hard counters the setup above. This setup is focused around bursting the targets straight at the beginning of the game. DK can grip enemies for you to fear them, provide additional silence and a pet stun. Anti Magic Zone also comes in handy.

    Warlock/Shadow Priest - Destro provides a high burst, whilst affliction has great survivability. A very strong compilation due the amount of CC warlock can provide with succubus/felhunter & fears. Can banish druids.


    3vs3:

    Shatterplay - Frost Mage/Resto Shaman/Shadow Priest - Just like 2vs2 setup, but with great heals, grounding and tremor totems and additional CC in form of hex. Spread dem love for shamen. Don't forget about the bloodlust.

    Shatreeplay [God Comp] - Same as above, but replace shaman with a druid. You get a tree with amazing healing powers of HoTs, additional CC in form of cyclone, and "immunity" to polymorphs.

    sRMP - Rogue/Mage/Priest - A variety of well known RMP with disc priest, except it's triple damage here we're talking about.

    Shadowplay - Warlock/Shaman/Priest - Another great setup.





    Let's talk about basic abilities of your class. You posses a great ability to apply damage and kite, use http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=48113 and a shield which you can apply every 13 seconds on yourself, considering you have 4 piece set bonus. Your defensive abilities are http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=27610 and http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=64058 on part with your http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=49766 and http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=12685. You also posses an ability to silence your opponent every 45 seconds.

    Best way to utilize those abilities is by planning their cooldowns ahead and not just using everything straight at start hoping to kill your opponent straightforward, unless you know you can for sure. Here are some basic tips:

    1. Always keep your shield up. If you have shieldwatch addon you know exactly how much the shield can absorb, so you won't over-apply it and lose the amount of absorption from previous one.
    2. Time your silence right. In Frost Mage/Shadow Priest setup you should be the first one to use it, due its longer cooldown.
    3. Save your disarm for warriors bladestorm. It cancels it.
    4. Disarm hunters.
    5. Use your dispersion as defensive cooldown and not as mana regeneration one.
    6. Always dispel stuff and use abolish disease at proper occasions.
    7. Keep your Renew and http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=48113 up.
    8. You have http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=14751 which can be used for http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=64844.
    9. If possible, use wand and your pet on rogues cloak to prevent them from restealth.
    10. Mass Dispel can get you in combat if a stealthed target is in its area. Being in combat prevents you from being sapped.
    11. http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=48158 can get you out of polymorph if you use it right before mage's cast end.
    12. If the enemy is hiding behind the pillar or obstacle but their pet/totem is standing in your line of sight near them, use http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=60441 on it.
    13. Don't dispel http://wotlk.cavernoftime.com/spell=48160.
    14. If you're playing with a rogue in your team, always shield them up first at the start of the battle.


    That's it for now folks. I might update this guide later with some more information.
    Edited: April 26, 2020 Reason: Images fix.

  2. ARCHIVE OF THE ORIGINAL POST;
    Spoiler: Show


    DISCLAIMER: THIS IS AN END GAME GUIDE AND IS MADE WITH A PURPOSE TO PREPARE A PLAYER FOR PVP COMBAT AND IMPROVE HIS SKILL AND AWARENESS IN HIS SURROUNDINGS AND GET BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PARTICULAR CLASS. THIS GUIDE IS NO WAY "ONE & ONLY" WAY OF PLAYING A SHADOW PRIEST, AND IS COMPLETELY MADE FROM MY OWN AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. THERE ARE WAY BETTER PLAYERS THAN MYSELF WHO CAN PROVIDE A BETTER INPUT ON THIS CLASS, AND IF THEY HAPPEN TO STUMBLE UPON THIS GUIDE FEEL FREE TO MAKE YOUR OWN. WITH BLACKJACK AND HOOKERS.





    I've been lurking these forums and came to realization that there are no proper guides for Shadow Priests, so I've decided to fix that. Welcome to my own very fabulous guide to this class.
    Here you will find all the required information on how to gear up and gem/enchant your priest, cookie-cutter builds, macros & add-ons, various tips and descriptions as well as an advanced guide on how to make proper keybindings and become an #mlg hero.





    First comes first. In order to get the best out of your class you need to have a proper gear setup. As it is well known, Shadow Priests have some mana issues and they tend to go oom quickly if they don't have the right gear with mana regeneration. That's why our main goal is to get the 5/5 spirit Mooncloth Wrathful set to aid us with our mana pool issues. A lot of priests, however, tend to bring an argument about how 5/5 Satin gear is better and that stacking crit is the only way to go. Let me assure you that once you enter arena and face a fairly decent compilation of opponents, you will cry out loud about being oom to your partner within first 5 minutes of a match, cursing the world for picking that "muuh damage" crit gear over the mooncloth one.

    Also, there's another argument which exists among priests: getting 2 parts of Satin & 2 parts of Mooncloth for extra resilience bonus. I won't even bring up the discussion on how 4 pieces set bonus outperforms that small amount of gain in your resilience numbers.

    So, knowing what mainset pieces we want to get, the question about the off-set arises. We go with haste Neck, Back, Cuffs, Belt & Boots WF pieces. As for Rings I'm willing to suggest Ashen Verdict exalted rep ring with haste & hit rating, or the mp5 one. 2nd ring should be another PvE part with haste & spellpower stats on it. So in ideal this is how our gear is supposed to look:

    Main Set Pieces:
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51484
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51486
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51482
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51485
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51483

    Off-set Pieces:
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51333
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51332
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51339
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51337
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51338

    Rings:
    First slot: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50398 or http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50400
    Second Slot: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50714 or http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50636 or http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=54585


    Now, talking about which trinkets to use: here it all depends on the playstyle you're going to choose and the comp you will be playing, be it 2's or 3's. You can go either offensive either defensive:

    Offensive:
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=54588
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50348

    Defensive:
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50726
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=47059

    The offensive playstyle trinkets provide a great amount of haste and spellpower procs for you to tear your enemies in pieces.
    The defensive playstyle trinkets give you an astonishing amount of mp5 for your poor mana pool and an extra instant heal which sometimes can be a difference between a win or lose.

    Also, please take a look at this particular trinket: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50365. Take a really close look to memorize how it looks and never ever buy or wear it.

    Weapons:
    As for main weapon, once again there are two options: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=50734 or http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51398 depending on what stats you desire: be it more spellpower or more resilience.

    Off-hand:
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51407

    Wand:
    I prefer having both http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51531 & http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=51451 swapping them for according situations where I require spell penetration cap & where I don't.




    So here we are, with best gear possible for our sexy little priestess. It's time to improve it even further by adding proper enchants & gems to it.

    Enchants:
    Helm: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=44075
    Shoulders: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=44068
    Back: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=38973
    Chest: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=38975
    Wrists: http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=60767
    Hands: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=38979
    Belt: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=41611
    Pants: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=41602
    Feet: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=39006
    Weapon: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=44487

    These are the basic enchants you can take with not much of other options to go from there, unless you're an Engineer. In that case getting Rocket Gloves and Nitro Boots is a better option for world PvP.


    Now as for gems to take:

    Red Socket: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=40113
    Yellow Socket: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=40155
    Blue Socket: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=40135
    Meta Socket: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=41378 Engineers with Nitro Boots use this one instead: http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=41375

    Congratulations, by this moment your priest is well-geared with rather perfect stats.
    Talking about stats: here is some information for advanced players:

    Spoiler: Show

    Edit: removed information, which was accidentally taken from Cataclysm pre-patch and not WOTLK itself.

    Hit cap:
    Not taking 3% from shadow focus into consideration:

    4% for any targets
    6% for undead or blood elf (not rogues or paladins)
    8% for rogues and paladins (not UD or BE)
    10% for undead/blood elf rogues or paladins

    Spell Penetration:
    130 against paladins, priests, druids
    140 against mages
    160 against felhunters






    Basically there are three options to go for and all of them are classic 20/0/51 builds with minor differences:

    The Mana Saving one:
    Spoiler: Show


    The Mind Blast one:
    Spoiler: Show


    And the Power Word: Shield one:
    Spoiler: Show


    As you can see, there's not much difference between all of them, except the last one where you take the http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=14748 instead of http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=14520 which is not that good. I'd rather have extra mana for 3K more damage than extra ~1K shield absorption.

    Also, as you can see in shadow tree you can put 2 points either into http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=33213 for mana, either make 4/5 in http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=15273 or even take a http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=14910. In the end it all comes to your own personal preference. Experiment!




    As for glyphs, there is not much to choose from, really:

    Major Glyphs:
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=45753 is a must have.
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=42398 is a must have, due our builds being around this ability being able to remove slows.
    As for third glyph you can go either http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=42408, or http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=42402. Personally I'd choose shield over extra armor.

    Minor Glyphs:
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=43342
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=43370
    http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=43374

    And that's it. You can look into getting http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=43373 instead of Fading mana reduction one, however.

    You have the gear, you've got dem enchants & gems, you've got your talents spec with glyphs and you think that you're ready to get straight in the action. You're right, but there's still a lot up ahead.




    Before we start discussing macros, please consider getting BindPad addon here. It is really useful addon to have for both: macros and bindings. We'll discuss addons in the next section, including this one.

    As a priest, or pretty much any other class, you need to have various macros for different situations you'll be facing. It is not a must, many people play good without them, but in order to ease your life and improve your playstyle I'd highly suggest to look into them. I will share few basic macros, on part with few advanced ones.





    Mind Flay/ Mind Sear: This macro consists of 2 attack spells, one being used on a usual keypress, while second is being used with [shift] modifier. Both macros have [nochanneling] parameter which lets you mash the button without accidentally canceling or interrupting your own spell.
    Code:
    #showtooltip Mind Flay
    /cast [mod:shift, nochanneling:Mind Sear] Mind Sear();
    /cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay();
    Vampiric Touch/ Mind Blast: just like above, combines two spells in one button with [shift] modifier and a command for your pet to attack, if it exists.
    Code:
    #showtooltip Vampiric Touch
    /cast [mod:shift] Mind Blast();
    /cast Vampiric Touch();
    /petattack
    Mashable Shadowform
    Code:
    /cast !Shadowform();
    Silence & Focus Silence:: this macro stops your cast to silence either main target, or [@focus] target using [shift] modifier.
    Code:
    /stopcasting
    /cast [mod:shift, @focus] Silence();
    /cast [nomod] Silence();
    Dispel Mouseover & Self
    Code:
    /cast [@mouseover, help] Dispel Magic();
    /cast [@player] Dispel Magic();
    Dispel Mouseover & Enemy
    Code:
    /cast [@mouseover,help] Dispel Magic(); Dispel Magic();
    Mashable Mass Dispel
    Code:
    #showtooltip Mass Dispel
    /cast !Mass Dispel();
    Power Word: Shield on your partner, if he exists. Else, it shields you.
    Code:
    /cast [target=YOURPARTNERSNAME, exists] Power Word: Shield(); Power Word: Shield();
    Engineering Gloves & Wand
    Code:
    /use 10
    /cast !Shoot();

    Advanced Macros



    Pet Macro & Pet Dispel: Summons your pet & uses his attack ability & dispels him if needed on same button.
    Code:
    /cast [nopet] Shadowfiend();
    /petaggressive
    /petattack
    /cast [harm, pet] Shadowcrawl(); [target=pettarget, pet] Shadowcrawl();
    /cast [target=pet,exists]Dispel Magic();
    Shackle Gargoyle Macro
    Code:
    /targetexact [exists,harm] Ebon Gargoyle
    /stopmacro [noexists]
    /cast [@target,harm] Shackle Undead();
    /cast [@arenapet1,exists] Shackle Undead();
    /cast [@arenapet2,exists] Shackle Undead();
    /targetlasttarget
    Abolish Disease & Cure Disease
    Code:
    /castsequence reset=target/combat/8 Abolish Disease, Cure Disease, Cure Disease, Cure Disease, Cure Disease, Cure Disease
    Other modifiers you can use:
    Code:
    [@arena1] [@arena2] [@arena3] [@arenapet1] [@arenapet2] [@focus] [@party1] [@party2] [@party3]
    These are few examples of macros you can make. If you want more information on how to macro, there's plenty of guides available on wowwiki.






    Unless you're arena tournament player, you'd want some pro #mlg addons to ease your life and rise your awareness. But then again, if you were a tournament player you wouldn't be reading this guide.

    Like I mentioned earlier, one of the best addons you can get to yourself is BindPad. It is really easy & comfortable to use to store all your beloved keybinds and macros. It even has a feature to let your buttons be triggered on press instead of release. So here's the list of addons I highly recommend trying out:

    1. BindPad

    2. SnowfallKeyPress. This one lets you use all your spells faster by triggering them on your key press instead of release.

    3. Power Auras Classic. A really powerful addon which allows you to create an aura for any buff/debuff/spell/cooldown you're willing to track on yourself or an enemy.

    4. Gladius & Gladiminish. A strong combo of unitframes for your daily arenas.

    5. Icicle. Keeps track of your enemy cooldowns above their nameplates.

    6. Quartz. Highly customizable cast bar unitframes for you, enemy, focus and your pet.

    7. shieldwatch. Shows the timer of your shield and the amount it's able to absorb.

    8. TidyPlates & CleanPlates skin. Great replacement for original nameplates with class icons, target's hp, ability to show/hide totems, pets, etc.






    This part of guide is dedicated to smart keybinding.

    By smart keybinding I imply planning your binds ahead and separating them into cluster groups, instead of just having them in chaotic order like Shackle on 1 followed by Renew followed by shadowform. This is an important part in getting yourself set up, especially for a new player. You'd want to be in comfortable and tidy environment while gaming, so you wouldn't have to search for your spells on your bars and remember that particular keybind for your pet.

    You'd want to have your offensive spells combined in one group whilst having all your defensive abilities in another. Furthermore, you'd want to have your party1,2,3 macros separated from arena1,2,3 ones and others, so you wouldn't mix everything up. How to achieve that? Well, that's what I'm here for. Please allow me to assist you with it, but first things first.

    There are a lot of advertisement about mouses specially made for MMO like Razer Naga for example, with lots of extra side buttons for your bindings, which even come with special addons and software so you could put your macros on it. Myself, I never felt comfortable with those buttons and the fat form of the mouse grip. I am rather satisfied with low profile mouse which has usual two buttons on the side. If you're an owner of such mouse, I have a good advice for you: Those side buttons can be revamped into ctrl & alt modifiers which for some people are really hard/uncomfortable to reach on their keyboard.

    Personally I use this software which comes with free 30 days trial, but there's a lot of alternative ones available for free and they all are pretty easy to use.

    Now when we sorted this out, I'll give you a few example of layouts you can use/adopt for your personal likings and make those bindings flow.

    Like I said, best way is to separate your keybindings into cluster groups is by using modifiers. Let's look at this example of how to sort your offensive spells. Let's start with [nomod] basic offensive & defensive spells.



    After setting up your main spells, let's go one level deeper and set up your [shift] modifiers.



    And then again, let's go even more deeper, by setting up your [ctrl] modifiers.



    Adding one more level to this to complete the sequence with [alt] modifiers.



    As you see, everything is in order and easily accessible via modifiers, so it will require some dedication to use arena1 keybind instead of casual renew.
    Now this is merely an example of how to set up your keybinds, a layout which will give you a basic understanding of what cluster bindings are.




    Now when you are prepared for battle, let's discuss a proper setups to play as Shadow Priest in arena. Shadow Priest is really an amazing class because it can be played in various compilations and can have a big variety of partners, be it a melee or a caster.

    Here are the best setups for you to play:

    2vs2:

    Frost Mage/Shadow Priest - one of the strongest setups there is for this class. It is capable of a a great CC chains, has double silence and both classes have off-heals. Great versatility due peelings a mage can provide, and not to forget to mention free food. And a portal on occasion.

    Sub Rogue/Shadow Priest - 2nd strongest setup for this class. Hard counters the setup above. Rogue provides a great opener with the sap on the opponents, posses ability to gouge, blind and disarm the enemy. Stunlocks your tunneling target with ease. Mutilate Rogue is also very viable partner at this point thanks to the Envenom vs Platers, however it loses its mobility by not having a Shadowstep.

    Unholy DK/Shadow Priest - Another powerful setup. Hard counters the setup above. This setup is focused around bursting the targets straight at the beginning of the game. DK can grip enemies for you to fear them, provide additional silence and a pet stun. Anti Magic Zone also comes in handy.

    Warlock/Shadow Priest - Destro provides a high burst, whilst affliction has great survivability. A very strong compilation due the amount of CC warlock can provide with succubus/felhunter & fears. Can banish druids.


    3vs3:

    Shatterplay - Frost Mage/Resto Shaman/Shadow Priest - Just like 2vs2 setup, but with great heals, grounding and tremor totems and additional CC in form of hex. Spread dem love for shamen. Don't forget about the bloodlust.

    Shatreeplay [God Comp] - Same as above, but replace shaman with a druid. You get a tree with amazing healing powers of HoTs, additional CC in form of cyclone, and "immunity" to polymorphs.

    sRMP - Rogue/Mage/Priest - A variety of well known RMP with disc priest, except it's triple damage here we're talking about.

    Shadowplay - Warlock/Shaman/Priest - Another great setup.





    Let's talk about basic abilities of your class. You posses a great ability to apply damage and kite, use http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=48113 and a shield which you can apply every 13 seconds on yourself, considering you have 4 piece set bonus. Your defensive abilities are http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=27610 and http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=64058 on part with your http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=49766 and http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=12685. You also posses an ability to silence your opponent every 45 seconds.

    Best way to utilize those abilities is by planning their cooldowns ahead and not just using everything straight at start hoping to kill your opponent straightforward, unless you know you can for sure. Here are some basic tips:

    1. Always keep your shield up. If you have shieldwatch addon you know exactly how much the shield can absorb, so you won't over-apply it and lose the amount of absorption from previous one.
    2. Time your silence right. In Frost Mage/Shadow Priest setup you should be the first one to use it, due its longer cooldown.
    3. Save your disarm for warriors bladestorm. It cancels it.
    4. Disarm hunters.
    5. Use your dispersion as defensive cooldown and not as mana regeneration one.
    6. Always dispel stuff and use abolish disease at proper occasions.
    7. Keep your Renew and http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=48113 up.
    8. You have http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=14751 which can be used for http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=64844.
    9. If possible, use wand and your pet on rogues cloak to prevent them from restealth.
    10. Mass Dispel can get you in combat if a stealthed target is in its area. Being in combat prevents you from being sapped.
    11. http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=48158 can get you out of polymorph if you use it right before mage's cast end.
    12. If the enemy is hiding behind the pillar or obstacle but their pet/totem is standing in your line of sight near them, use http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=60441 on it.
    13. Don't dispel http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=48160.
    14. If you're playing with a rogue in your team, always shield them up first at the start of the battle.


    That's it for now folks. I might update this guide later with some more information.

  3. Looks like a good guide. but do you mind talking a little bit about starting items once hit 80 lvl? I mean, how to get starting weapons and so on. Thanks.

  4. By far the best guide I saw on the forums, It's really clean looking and informative so you just inspired me to level a shadow priest but I have a couple questions because you didn't mention anything about these;

    1- What professions do you prefer?
    2-With the %3 talent how much hit rating do i need?
    3-What's my dot order?

  5. Nice guide,could you tell me please the addon talent you use? I saw the talents you named in the guide and i believe is an addon.

  6. All your main DoTs have haste breakpoints, past which they get another tick. Here are some of them:
    Devouring Plague gets new ticks at: 0, 322, 701, 1,080, 1,459
    Shadow Word: Pain gets new ticks at: 6, 511, 1,016, 1,521
    Vampiric Touch gets new ticks at: 57, 663, 1,269
    Shadow Word: Pain is not even affected by haste in wotlk. DoTs don't have any haste breakpoints in wotlk and DoTs never get extra ticks in wotlk. Haste only lowers the total duration of Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague and increases the frequency at which they tick.
    Misinformation like this makes me wonder if you actually even play wotlk.

  7. Nice guide,could you tell me please the addon talent you use? I saw the talents you named in the guide and i believe is an addon.
    Waiting for answer... still waiting

  8. May 1, 2016  

  9. May 2, 2016  
    If you play horde what race you should take and wich trinket should i use ?

  10. May 3, 2016  
    If you play horde what race you should take and wich trinket should i use ?
    Undead for sure.

  11. June 8, 2016  
    I guess this is the reason there are no good players on the server, this good for **** guide made by an even worse player is an example to people who want to learn, and they cant get any better because people like this keep making guides.. But whatever, keep doing it. Kinda resembles the society nowdays anyway

  12. I would like to point out the healing focus build aswell as the martyrdom build which proved to be rly effective in 3s since ur trained by melee all the time...

    healing focus is reducing pushback from healing spell casts by 70% rly good when ur trying to live vs classes with pets, it changed the outcome of many games for me

    martyrdom is actuallly rly good in solo queue u should try it out just drop imp fort/imp shield/imp mana burn or whatever ur last 2 points are in disc

    I also personally use shakle greater glyph for 2s since dk is the only comp raping my sp mage. the glyph reduces the cast time of shackle undead by 1sec its kinda insane... i tried it once and couldnt play without it (I have replaced inner fire glyph) example: (fear dk-> lichborne-> shakle dk) is rly effective vs dk hpal comps

    Lastly, i suggest u guys use the addon called cork to track ur inner fire.

    tip i can give u to make u play better is think the following: is my silence going to make the guy mad or no? if yes then use it. if no or not sure then save it. same goes with horror

  13. By far the best guide I saw on the forums, It's really clean looking and informative so you just inspired me to level a shadow priest but I have a couple questions because you didn't mention anything about these;

    1- What professions do you prefer?
    2-With the %3 talent how much hit rating do i need?
    3-What's my dot order?
    Im guessing that would be dependent on the situation .However usually it should be VT > DP > SD:P . However in the case that maybe the target is about to die and he has no Defensive CD and maybe a meele and youre trying to kite you can spam DP to try killing him .

  14. Im guessing that would be dependent on the situation .However usually it should be VT > DP > SD:P . However in the case that maybe the target is about to die and he has no Defensive CD and maybe a meele and youre trying to kite you can spam DP to try killing him .
    Actually you want to go VT-SW:P-DP. If a target is close to being dead you can SW:D instead of DP cause it does more damage now after the fix. Of course you can continue with spamming a couple of DP's if the target is still low, however watch out since spamming DP drains your mana very quickly.

  15. what u consider best trinkets for spriest? CTS is number one, but for second, is solace best or just second dps trinket (DFO)?

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