How do I beat a Shadow Priest?

[WeekSauce]

how do I beat a shadow priest? I have a friend who is always beating me. His gear is better than mine. I am looking for the best strategy because I would love just to beat him once to shut him up. He is also a very experienced player over me too.

[xerzhull]

only going by my experience but first and formost I find spellstone is invaluable in removing the Sp`s dots on you.

Shadow Ward will soak up more damage

Not sure what spec you are but use Felpup to chew off even more dots or even remove fear on you.

Ok thats just the basics but this should have given you some time and opportunity for you dots to have ticked for a time.

If you sl/sl fear + drain life with the above information should see you well

Hope this helps..

[Gritz]

Spellstone once you are fully Dotted, Shadow Ward every time it's ready, Spell lock and Mind flay, fear, drain, GG.

[doogless]

DoTs + Drain Life. With no spell lock and no healing debuff, they will have a hard time killing you before they're OOM.

What spec are you?

[Gritz]

SP has a Silence talent, that's why I like to wait to fear until after I've spell locked their Mind Flay.

[doogless]

I don't worry about that because the Silence will last the same duration no matter when it's used. It's not a big deal either way, really.

[lordofsounds]

Gear and experience are the most importance factors in PVP. Since you lack both, it is really hard for you to to beat him.

General:
- You may spec SL/SL or demo. Imo they are both fine. When you have good gear, affliction is also ok.
- Use S.Ward whenever available.
- Try to stay away more than 8 yards for not to be affected by Psychic Scream.
- Wait for being fully dotted and use Spellstone.

Demo:
Send FG. Try to stay just out of the casting range. Get in, full dot, get out . If he atttacks to FG, get more closer to fear and drain life.
- When he sends fiend, send FG after it. When it is far enough, use intercept.

SL/SL:
- Send felpuppy and keep it always on him. Turn off auto casts. Use them manually.
- Use unit frames to see and lock channeling or casting spells.
- Always devour his buffs and debuffs. Write 2 macros for this,
You may use his name or a focus macro.

Keep in mind that they usually have high shadow resistance, so dont trust fears too much and always think about the next move. If you have UA, you may also use CoS.

Basicly you'll dot, fear and drain life. But if he's a lot better gearwise, it will be a tough fight.

[Tannenbernie]

I will generally disagree with the startegies above. The way to beat a shadow-priest is destruction...you have nether-protection.....you win, no matter if he is epic and you are green.

I mean, you can do everything that a shadowpriest can do an....then you can do many things he can not do.....then you are immune to his damage 30% of the time. Its basically impossible to loose. My arenapartner is SPriest and i never went below 40% HP on any duel vs him. There is a lot of whining on SPriest forums about Warlocks and that they are unbeatable.....which is a correct complaint. A Destro Warlock can not be beaten by a SPriest, at least i have never experienced something like that.

Lets look at the abilities:
The SPriest has a fear which is on CD after usage.
The Warlock can do as many fear as he wants.

The SPriest can call a pet for small duration of time which does nearly no damage and gives him mana....if he is stupid enough to use it then he will proc backlash - so he gets some nice Insta-SBs right in his face.
The Warlock has Felhunter which not only does some damage, but interrupts/silences him, not to mention devour magic.

The SPriest can do ShadowDmg.
The Warlock can do ShadowDmg or FireDmg.

The Spriest has only 1 Dot and 1 instacast.
The Warlock has 3-5 Dots and 1-4 instacast.

The SPriest needs to be very close for some damage Spells.
The Warlock can do all his damage from extended range.

The SPriest has Silence.
The Warlock has SpellStone and CoD.

The Warlock is immune to all damage from SPriest 30% of the time via Netherprotection.
The SPriest dies.

Well, thats at leat my experience.....i am not so hot at PvP, always fighting in the 1550-1650 arena range, but i cant remember ever loosing to a SPriest 1vs1. We are to them what rogues is to us.

[SirSigmundFreud]

Originally Posted by Tannenbernie

I will generally disagree with the startegies above. The way to beat a shadow-priest is destruction...you have nether-protection.....you win, no matter if he is epic and you are green.

I mean, you can do everything that a shadowpriest can do an....then you can do many things he can not do.....then you are immune to his damage 30% of the time. Its basically impossible to loose. My arenapartner is SPriest and i never went below 40% HP on any duel vs him. There is a lot of whining on SPriest forums about Warlocks and that they are unbeatable.....which is a correct complaint. A Destro Warlock can not be beaten by a SPriest, at least i have never experienced something like that.

Lets look at the abilities:
The SPriest has a fear which is on CD after usage.
The Warlock can do as many fear as he wants.

The SPriest can call a pet for small duration of time which does nearly no damage and gives him mana....if he is stupid enough to use it then he will proc backlash - so he gets some nice Insta-SBs right in his face.
The Warlock has Felhunter which not only does some damage, but interrupts/silences him, not to mention devour magic.

The SPriest can do ShadowDmg.
The Warlock can do ShadowDmg or FireDmg.

The Spriest has only 1 Dot and 1 instacast.
The Warlock has 3-5 Dots and 1-4 instacast.

The SPriest needs to be very close for some damage Spells.
The Warlock can do all his damage from extended range.

The SPriest has Silence.
The Warlock has SpellStone and CoD.

The Warlock is immune to all damage from SPriest 30% of the time via Netherprotection.
The SPriest dies.

Well, thats at leat my experience.....i am not so hot at PvP, always fighting in the 1550-1650 arena range, but i cant remember ever loosing to a SPriest 1vs1. We are to them what rogues is to us.

The ones I have bolded are destruction talents, most people in PVP are not destruction, so this generally only helps if you are ganked while farming. (yes I know some people will go destro in PVP, but it's less common than Sl/Sl or felguard.)

[doogless]

Also you can put up Shadow Word if he pulls out a Shadow Fiend. It deals melee shadow damage, so having up Shadow Ward will deny mana restore and prevent spell casting interruption.