Shadow Priest PvP Guide — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0.1)

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 talents/Spells: Focused Power, Twin Disciplines, Painful Invocation, Mindpierce, Dark Enlightenment, Improved Voidform, Shadow Power, Mind Melt, Depth of Shadows, Haunting Shadows, Invoked Nightmare, Maddening Tentacles, and Crushing Void. It is worth noting that there is a large emphasis on your spread damage and talents like Depth of Shadows and Haunting Shadows help with that.
• Removed talents/spells: Dark Ascension, Last Word, Psychic Horror, Void Torrent, Shadowfiend, and Void Shift have all been removed.
• Changed talents/spells:
  • Void Eruption renamed to Voidform.
  • Devouring Plague renamed to Shadow Word: Madness and redesigned. It deals Shadow damage instantly plus additional high Shadow damage over 6 seconds and conjuring a Shadowy Apparition.
  • Shadow Crash renamed to Tentacle Slam and redesigned. Tentacle Slam summons a massive Shadowy appendage to slam the ground, dealing damage and applying Vampiric Touch to up to 6 targets. 2 charges.
  • Mindbender - Casting Void Eruption summons a Mindbender to attack your target.
  • Void Volley is now the replacement spell during Voidform instead of Void Bolt.
• PvP talent changes:
  • Catharsis has been removed.
  • New talent: Psychic Shroud.