5 Steps to not be a PvP Nub

These days not many priests PvP as shadow due to lack of survivability and useful weapons. Why choose shadow when disc is so powerful and fun at the same time? Well there are some amazing new talents and abilities coming to shadow in 3.1 that should spice things up.

• Shadow Affinity: Now also causes you to receive 5/10/15% of your base mana when your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch spells are dispelled.
• Vampiric Touch: When dispelled, Vampiric Touch will deal damage to the afflicted target.
• Psychic Horror: You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 sec and drop all weapons for 10 sec. (16% of base mana, 30 yd range, Instant cast, 1 min cooldown)
• Dispersion (Tier 11) now clears all snare and movement impairing effects when cast, and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
• Shadowform: Now reduces both spell and physical damage taken.

While these changes should breathe some new life into PvPing as shadow, for now I bring you 5 tips that have helped me succeed in PvP.

1. This one is pretty basic but you’d be surprised by how many people actually forget this. Rebuff completely after every death. This means Fort, Shadow Prot, Inner Fire, even fear ward. Why would you think getting beat by someone or a group of someones should be followed by gimping yourself for the next assault. If you want to do well or at least try to look like you belong then please remember this step.

2. PvP gear and PvE gear are not the same no matter how good your PvE gear is. Dont get me wrong when i say this, because I know not everyone has full deadly gladiator. My point here is there is some very easy to get PvP gear through badges, honor points, arena points, Grizzly Hills coins, and Stonekeeper’s Shards, not to mention running VoA. Having a couple of pieces of gear with high stam and resilliance and gemmed and enchanted properly will greatly increase your chances in battlegrounds no matter what your goals are.

3. The spells used in raiding and 5 mans are great for melting face but when it comes down to it you have to be, for the most part, standing still and protected by a tank to use them. In PvP you must maintain constant mobility and learn to use your entire arsenal of spells. Like every class we have spells that seem useless or ill designed for PvE. That is because they were most likely designed with PvP in mind. Dispel, Mass Dispel, Abolish Disease, Mana Burn, these are all spells that are rarely used by raiding shadow priest but are the life and soul of a PvPer. Learn all aspects of your class to become a better player in PvP and in general.

4. Stay in groups and fight at the flags. Its easy to get angered and follow an enemy away from safety so I guess the main message here is never lose your head. Think clearly and help those around you. You dont have to know the people in a battleground to work well with them. Whatever you are doing, whether it be defending, flag carrying, or whatever, take stock of the players around you and what class they are. Every class has different strengths and weakness in PvP and it helps a lot to know what they are.

5. Healing. This is not an all the time thing, but when you are in a battleground with few healers or none are around you are a healer. It sucks yeah I know. The thing that you have to remember is without the others around you you will be a sitting duck. Heal when needed and nuke when needed and be smart enough to recognize when the time is for each.

These tips are basics for staying alive and doing ok at PvP. Stay tuned to my PvP section of the blog and I will get into specifics as time goes on. Thanks for reading and have fun.