Shadow Priest PvP Guide — The War Within (11.2)

Shadow Priests are a force to be reckoned with. What Shadow Priests lack in defensives, they make up for in damage. If left unchecked, a Shadow Priest can melt an entire team in seconds. Not only do they have strong single-target damage, they have utility. Spells like Mass Dispel and Void Shift make Shadow Priests a very versatile caster.

Strengths

• Strong spread damage
• Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel are crucial spells to have
• Great survivability
• Instant crowd control

Weaknesses

• No mobility
• Struggle to cast against melee teams
• DoTs are easy to dispel

• New Talent: Dark Thoughts – Increases the chance for Shadowy Insight to occur by 25%. When consuming Shadowy Insight, Mind Blast generates 1 additional Insanity.
• New Talent: Death's Torment – Shadow Word: Death deals damage 2 additional times at 15% effectiveness.
• New Talent: Madness Weaving – The damage bonus from your Mastery: Shadow Weaving gains 25%/50% additional benefit from Devouring Plague.
• New Talent: Void Volley – Void Torrent is replaced with Void Volley for 20 seconds after it is cast.
  • Void Volley – Releases a volley of pure void energy, firing 10 bolts at your target and 1 bolt at all enemies within 10 yards of your target for Shadow damage. Generates 10 Insanity.
• New Talent: Subservient Shadows – Summoned minions last 20% longer and deal an additional 15% damage.
• New Talent: Phantom Menace – Increases the critical strike chance of Shadowy Apparitions by 10% and their critical strike damage by 40%.
• New Talent: Instilled Doubt – Increases the critical strike chance of Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain by 8%/15% and their critical strike damage by 20%/40%.
• New Talent: Descending Darkness – Increases Shadow Crash damage by 300%.
• Dark Evangelism has been redesigned – Now increases periodic spell damage by 6%. 1-point talent.
• Deathspeaker has been redesigned – Now increases the damage of Shadow Word: Death by 25% and causes it to gain its damage bonus against targets below 35% instead of 20%.
• Idol of Y'Shaarj has been redesigned – Your damaging spells have a chance to grant Call of the Void, increasing your Haste by 15% for 12 seconds. When Call of the Void ends you are afflicted with Overburdened Mind, reducing your Haste by 10% for 8 seconds.
• Idol of N'Zoth has been redesigned – You create Horrific Vision when casting harmful spells on enemies. At 50 stacks of Horrific Vision, your target sees a nightmare, dealing Shadow damage and granting you 4 Insanity over 3 seconds. At 100 stacks, your target witnesses a vision of N\Zoth, dealing high Shadow damage and granting you 12 Insanity over 3 seconds. Visual effects have been updated.
• All damage reduced by 4%.
• Mind Blast damage increased by 30%. Does not apply to Void Blast.
• Mind Flay: Insanity damage increased by 20%.
• The following talents have been removed:
  • Malediction
  • Mind Spike
  • Unfurling Darkness
  • Whispering Shadows