Shadow Priest PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Dragonflight 10.2)
PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, damaging them, bursting them down, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc.. It is a game mode that fully utilizes your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as a Shadow Priest, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.
This page is part of our Shadow Priest PvP Guide.
Playstyle for Shadow Priests
The main role for a Shadow Priest is complex. A large majority of the time, you will just try to stay alive. You will be the focus for many teams. Make sure your partners can help peel for you, so you can get away and cast. Not only that, but you will also have to help your teammates survive if they are being focused. There are two main things you will focus on as a Shadow Priest in Arena.
The first is keeping you and your team alive. This is a weird role to have
as a DPS specialization. Most DPS classes will just focus on using crowd
control and doing damage. Shadow Priests have unique utility that no other
casters have, such as abilities like Power Word: Shield,
Leap of Faith and
Void Shift that help you and your
teammates when being focused.
The thing you will focus on is to always spread the pressure on the enemy
team. This can be difficult when being focused, but it is crucial. Shadow
Priest AoE pressure is unmatched. Always refresh your DoTs and enter
Voidform when there is an opportunity to free cast.
Damage Rotations
Generating and Spending Insanity
Understanding how to generate and spend Insanity is crucial for you to maximize damage with a Shadow Priest. There are numerous spells that will generate Insanity. Here are those abilities and when to use them:
Vampiric Touch and
Shadow Word: Pain are your two primary DoTs that should be used on as many enemies as possible. These are both the primary abilities that will generate your Insanity. You can use abilities, such as
Unfurling Darkness, to instantly place these DoTs after a healer dispels them.
Mind Spike deals damage and reduces the cast time of your next
Mind Blast.
Mind Blast is cast and generates Insanity. This should be used when you have multiple enemies with your DoTs on them to take advantage of the passive
Shadowy Apparitions.
Mind Flay generates Insanity over the duration it is channeled. This is a filler spell that should be used when you have DoTs on all enemies and
Mind Blast is on cooldown.
Shadowfiend generate Insanity each time the Shadowfiend attacks. This has a long cooldown, but can be used in times you cannot cast to get DoTs on enemies. This can be used with
Void Eruption to increase your burst damage.
Hallucinations is a passive ability. This makes it so your
Dispel Magic,
Mass Dispel,
Vampiric Embrace, and
Power Word: Shield all generate Insanity when they are successful.
Now that you know how to generate Insanity, there is only one ability that
you
have that spends all of the Insanity you are generating,
Devouring Plague.
This costs 50 Insanity, deals a large amount of damage over 6 seconds, and heals
you for 50% of the damage dealt. This should be used after the enemy healer
dispels or is in crowd control.
Before Gates Open
Before the gates open, know exactly who you will be using crowd control
( Psychic Scream and
Silence) on. Another ability to
coordinate is
Void Shift; make sure not to overlap it with
other defensive cooldowns. Make sure to use
Power Word: Fortitude on
your teammates. It can be dispelled by abilities like
Purge or
Spellsteal, so be prepared to apply it often. Here are a few things
to keep in mind:
- Most teams will focus on you, so be prepared to cast spells as soon as you get the chance.
- Try to "juke" enemies into wasting their interrupts. This means to begin casting a spell and canceling it to get the enemy team to use their interrupts on nothing.
- Always keep your DoTs (
Vampiric Touch and
Shadow Word: Pain) on all enemies.
The Opener
The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. With a ranged Stun and Silence, Shadow Priests no longer have to overextend to get crowd control on enemies. This helps with survivability and damage output.
Likewise, if an enemy DPS uses their trinket, you can crowd-control the healer and stun the DPS without a trinket. This means they can be burst down in a stun and possibly killed.
When opening do the following:
- Make sure you are in
Shadowform.
- Put
Renew/
Prayer of Mending on a teammate that you think might be targetted.
- Cast
Vampiric Touch on your main target.
- If you are using
Misery, it should also apply
Shadow Word: Pain.
- You will also get a
Unfurling Darkness proc, which makes your next Vampiric Touch instant. This will also apply Shadow Word: Pain.
- If you are using
- Use the instant
Vampiric Touch on any other enemy around you.
- Cast
Mind Spike to reduce the cast time of your next
Mind Blast.
- Cast
Mind Blast on the main target once you get DoTs on as many enemies as you can.
- Use
Shadow Crash if you are using this talent and the target is stunned or cannot move.
- Channel
Void Torrent on your target to deal a large amount of damage and generate Insanity.
- Cast
Mind Flay as a filler.
- From here, you will constantly be refreshing your DoTs on all enemies.
- After your burst, perform your sustained damage rotation until your burst cooldowns are available.
Burst Damage
When you have the enemy healer in crowd control, and you are trying to kill
an enemy, you use your burst damage. To use your crowd control, simply cast
Mind Bomb or
Psychic Scream on the enemy healer. Once it
expires, use
Silence. If your team does not have a stun for the healer,
follow this up with
Psychic Horror if you are talented into it.
- Before entering
Voidform, make sure you have your DoTs on as many enemies as possible.
- Use
Psyfiend on your kill target.
- Cast
Void Eruption to enter
Voidform.
- Use
Mindgames on the kill target.
- Use
Power Infusion on yourself.
- Use
Psychic Horror on the kill target. If you are playing with a class that also has a stun, you should use this after the stun. At the same time, you should
Silence the enemy healer.
- Use
Void Bolt to extend the duration of you
Vampiric Touch's and
Shadow Word: Pains.
- Use
Psyfiend on your kill target.
- Channel
Void Torrent on your target to deal a large amount of damage and generate Insanity.
- Use
Shadow Crash if you are using this talent and the target is stunned or cannot move.
- Cast
Devouring Plague on your kill target.
- Cast
Mind Spike to reduce the cast time of your next
Mind Blast.
- Cast
Mind Blast.
- Use
Void Bolt to extend the duration of your
Vampiric Touch and
Shadow Word: Pain.
- Cast
Mind Blast.
- Cast
Devouring Plague on your kill target.
- If
Vampiric Touch and
Shadow Word: Pain are close to expiring, start refreshing them by casting
Vampiric Touch.
- Use
Mind Flay as a filler.
- Use
Shadow Word: Death if the enemy is at low enough health.
Make sure to refresh your DoTs by using Void Bolt. This will
drastically increase your damage output and lets you use more important spells.
This also generates Insanity quickly.
Sustained damage
Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.
- Cast
Vampiric Touch on your main target.
- If you are using
Misery, it should also apply
Shadow Word: Pain.
- You will also get a
Unfurling Darkness proc, which makes your next Vampiric Touch instant. This will also apply Shadow Word: Pain.
- If you are using
- Cast
Mind Spike to reduce the cast time of your next
Mind Blast.
- Use
Psyfiend on your kill target.
- Cast
Mind Blast when multiple enemies have your DoTs on them.
- Cast
Devouring Plague on your kill target when you have 50 Insanity.
- Use
Shadow Crash if you are using this talent and the target is stunned or cannot move.
- Channel
Void Torrent on your target to deal a large amount of damage and generate Insanity.
- Cast
Mind Flay as a filler and to gain the Haste buff if you are using the PvP talent
Mind Trauma.
- Refresh
Vampiric Touch and
Shadow Word: Pain.
- If you get interrupted, use
Power Word: Shield.
- Use
Shadow Word: Death if the enemy is at low enough health.
Cooldowns/Defensives
Dispersion is the main defensive cooldown for Shadow Priests.
This reduces all damage done to you by 60%, but you cannot use any abilities
while it is active.
Void Shift is another great defensive cooldown. With a
5-minute cooldown is likely to only be used once a game, but it can help
stabilize your team instantly. This cooldown needs to be coordinated with your
healer so there is no overlap with other cooldowns. Use this when being
focused and swap your health with a teammate at higher health. Alternatively,
you can use it on a teammate that is at low health. Keep all of this in mind
when you are choosing your third PvP talent.
Vampiric Embrace is a defensive ability that, when used properly, can
stabilize your team quickly. When you or your teammate is taking heavy damage
, and you have time to free cast, use this ability. Abilities like
Vampiric Touch and
Mind Flay can completely heal your
team.
Power Word: Shield is a versatile spell that helps your team. You
can also use it to generate Insanity if you get interrupted on Shadow
abilities.
Renew/
Prayer of Mending are both instant heals and
should be used on teammates that are taking damage. Prayer of Mending also
gets buffed by the
Cardinal Mending PvP talent.
Desperate Prayer increases your health by 25% for 10 seconds
and instantly heals you for that amount.
Fade/
Mind Soothe. In PvP, these abilities do the same thing:
they reduce the range at which attacks can be made to you. This is great versus
teams with ranged classes on them. This will either force them to wait or make
them overextend to deal damage/crowd control you.
Macros
It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 21 May 2023: Removed old spells.
- 08 May 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.
- Updated all Damage Rotations.
- 21 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated Damage rotations.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 01 Aug. 2022: Reviewed for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 28 Feb. 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.
- 21 Nov. 2021: Updated all Damage rotations.
- 16 Jul. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.1.
- 08 Mar. 2021: Reviewed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 05 Oct. 2020: Updated all Damage rotations.
- 15 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch (9.0.1)
Other PvP Guides
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved 3000 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
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