Ok, so, I go to like a bunch of different websites and try to answer questions as best I can. I really don’t want to do that anymore, and I’d rather people come here for me to answer their questions. It’s a lot easier and less time consuming for me — and here I can edit everything into the main post and I won’t have any repeat questions.

Also, please make sure that your questions aren’t broad. I’m not going to answer questions like “how do I get better at priest?” or “what do you do in 1v1?”. Examples of questions would be: “What should be my spellcasting priority against druids in my set up?” or “Why did you spec into Silent Resolve over the other Discipline talents?”.

I will also try to answer every question to my fullest ability, and although they might not be fast, I’ll do my best to work in time to answer them. Please do not repeat questions, look for what has been posted so far and only post if you don’t see it.

All comments/questions will be deleted after I respond to them on the post, to make it less cluttered.

Sooo… ask away!

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Look below for topics that I’ve already answered.

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Other

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Q1A: How do you deal with Double Melee teams as Shadow Priest/Lock/Druid?

I don’t run this set up anymore; we’ve ran SP/Rogue/Druid from 2300->2430 now, mostly because of how druids are going to die a lot easier since 2.4. However, what we did against Double Melee (there was always a warrior) is to have me full time DPS on the warrior, and my Felguard lock (yes felguard is important) support DPS on the warrior with CC on the other melee and healer.

Your druid and warlock should be able to get the second melee into a CC rotation fairly easily, unless it’s an undead rogue.

The only way SP/Lock/Druid should lose this fight is if they zerg the lock down, but most are dumb and zerg down the shadow priest thinking it’s better. Even if they do get on the lock, though, I put out all of my main burst damage, then I start playing defensively with shields and defensive fears on the second melee. Mind Control is also an option if you’re on the Blade’s Edge bridge. It’s very, very important for both your druid and lock to have exceptional gear if you plan on winning against two geared melee that hump your lock instead of priest. Lock has to be Felguard spec too. I know I said that before, but teams with UA Locks are going to get owned by competent teams, and SL SL locks don’t have enough damage to contribute to this team set up.

I would really consider double melee/druid teams one of the easier teams to beat as SP/Lock/Druid.

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Q2A: How do you deal with Priest/Mage/Rogue as Shadow Priest/Lock/Druid?

You have to get on the mage if you want to win this one. Mage/Rogue has way too much damage to ignore the mage and kill the rogue or priest. And mages are sooo easy to lock out anyway. Just make sure you’re both putting constant pressure up on the mage, with your druid Cycloning/Rooting the rogue with assist fears from your lock (I don’t know if Cycloning the priest is a good idea anymore, with the range reduced. You may just have to deal with normal fears from your warlock or spriest). Don’t mass dispel the Ice Blocks unless he’s excruciatingly low and will die. Normally, just wait it out and save the mana. If he’s sitting in the Ice Block, take that time to Mana Burn the other priest. Don’t use Shadowfiend unless you’re sure the mage isn’t going to Absorb any attacks or Ice Block it.

You two should be putting enough pressure on the priest (he should be forced to heal/dispel) to make sure he isn’t going to Mana Burn you or your druid.

Mana Burn is also a fairly decent idea to use on the mage. Even if it’s only 3-4 times, that will cripple the mage hard. Have your lock DoT up the water elementals as they come out, and throw out some mind flays, maybe a moonfire to help out. Just be careful about PoM bounces, since it’s not worth killing the pet if it’s going to keep bouncing a mending and give the priest a break from healing.

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Q3A: How do you deal with Double Melee + Resto Druid teams as Shadow Priest/Rogue/Druid?

We deal with double melee teams almost exactly like we deal with Warrior/Druid in 2v2, with the exception being Rogue/Rogue/Druid (which you should basically always lose if the two rogues are undead, and if they aren’t it’s still a hell of a fight).

Against ANY team with a Warrior and Druid + DPS in it, we split dps with me on the warrior and my rogue on the druid, while our druid CC’s their 3rd player and assists my rogue with locking down the druid (with Feral Charge, Bash, and Entangles). It’s very simple if you do the fight like this, the druid shouldn’t be able to recover if he’s healing by himself. If it’s Ret Paladin/Warrior/Druid you’re fighting, then have your rogue call out when the paladin is about to BoP the druid (he should have a pretty good idea of when it’ll happen) and your druid should be ready to Cyclone him for the duration of it. And for the Cyclones, have your rogue do something useful, be it Gouging the paladin or Kicking a heal. If he’s bubbled, let him stay bubbled since his healing target is Cycloned anyway, and just keep DPSing the warrior down.

The real hard team is double rogue/druid. If they’re undead it’s an almost certain loss. If they’re not, then you have a good chance to win ias long as you have top notch gear. What you have to do is get a fear off on both rogues, and make them blow their trinket. Have your druid be Cycloning from the get-go too. The first rogue that trinkets needs to be your kill target. Abolish poison must ALWAYS be up on whichever one of you is getting killed. If you can get at least one into a kiting rotation (which would be the one you’re assisting down), you can probably win.

CC is a MUST in this fight, 2 rogues can kill you from 100% to 0% in a single kidney shot (overkill too). You can never have 2 rogues beating on one target at the same time. This fight is heavily, heavily, heavily reliant on your druid being very good. Early Silence on the druid to force the rogue to blow cloak early from being killed too fast. Make sure your druid is Cycloning the other druid when his Cyclone is on DR from the rogue. If you can make the druid blow trinket and your rogue isn’t being assisted, you can very easily switch to the druid and gib him in a Cheap Shot -> Kidney Shot.

This is not an easy fight; it’s all about your druid being able to rotate CC’s on multiple targets while keeping a target up through ridiculous damage from 2 rogues. Whoever is being assisted needs to constantly be moving too.

If you guys can live up to the point of you being able to get at least one rogue in a constant CC rotation with Psychic Scream -> Cyclone x3 -> Entangles -> Feral Charge, then chances are you will win. It’s getting to that point that’s the hard part. I wouldn’t really expect to be able to beat this kind of team, to be honest.

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Page #1 Discusses:

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Q1A: How do we deal with Warrior/Shaman as Shadow Priest/Rogue?

Like other warrior/healer combos, being Undead makes this fight a whole lot easier. A GOOD Shaman/Warrior should do really well against Shadow Priest/Rogue, and could potentially be considered a counter, if put into the hands of extremely good players.

What we do is similar to all other warrior/healer fights: split dps. Devouring Plague helps ease up a lot of the damage the warrior is putting out. Just have to make sure you use it at a good time, when the shaman can’t waste a GCD on dispelling it, or when the shaman is stunned.

As the priest, you should be assisting with dispels on the shaman for your rogue partner (Bloodlust + Earth Shield).

You can also, if you want, attempt to burst down the shaman but I don’t think that’s very viable unless your rogue has Vile Poisons for the dispel resistances. I’m not sure if there’s much else to say, we play it almost exactly like druid/warrior, except the warrior does a lot more damage in this set up, and purges are a bitch to deal with. Something to keep in mind is, you’re PROBABLY not going to be using SW:D for damage, since you’ll be pressured on HP, so I generally use it on Windfury or Poison Cleansing Totems from range. Of course, use it for damage if you’re able to.

A couple of things that we’ve wanted to try on live, but we haven’t (we did these on the TTR/PTR):
*Disclaimer*: I have NO idea if these would work in a real arena environment. We were just messing around with new stuff.
- When your rogue gets off a full duration Kidney Shot and he’s not being attacked, he can vanish sap after the Kidney Shot to get a full dura sap off, as long as he doesn’t attack during the Kidney Shot (this is useful in case the priest can’t dispel the Earth Shield, so a lot of the damage the rogue would be putting out on the shaman would be negated anyway, and CC would be a much better option).
- Try to force the shaman to trinket, then switch to him like Lock/Druid. This is done through the opener mainly; you have to have your rogue ready to kill the Tremor Totem (Cheap Shot warrior -> kill tremor totem with either an auto attack or throwing weapon) and mount -> fear the shaman as his totem goes down. Then double DPS the warrior. If he trinkets the fear, zerg the shaman down. If he doesn’t trinket, then either Blind or Sap after the fear (ideally you want to sap of course). He will have to trinket either one of those, so get ready to switch to the shaman, unless the warrior is very low and killable, then you can always just silence and both keep dpsing the warrior.

Basic things to remember are, try to kite the warrior away from the totems. Fear isn’t exactly a #1 priority unless you’re 100% positive you can get the fear off without a tremor or damage breaking it. Shield every time it’s up, Rank 1 Fade at the beginning if the shaman is chain-purging you. If you get pummeled more than once, you’ll probably lose, so FAKE THEM (watch the warrior’s GCD’s, it’s a lot easier than you think, and it makes it 10 times easier to fake pummels). Mana is rarely important in this fight, meaning use shadowfiend for damage, just make sure it gives SOME mana back.

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Q2A: How do we deal with Paladin/Warrior as Shadow Priest/Rogue?

Split dps! This is a strat that relies on the shadow priest to be able to solo warriors very easily. If the paladin is wearing PvE gear, he is a very viable target and you can probably blow him up. I just don’t like assisting down the paladin because of how easy it is to control him, and you get a mass dispel resist it could mean a loss. As always, be kiting the warrior away from the paladin.

If the warrior gets on your rogue, it’ll make it a lot easier to kill him since you (shadow priest) will be free to chain cast. If your rogue can’t get on the paladin, at least have him try to take the fight near him, so he can Kick a heal when needed and DPS the warrior the rest of the time.

If the warrior gets you, DPS is less of a priority for your rogue, and control is #1. Have him use all of his CD’s and abilities to prevent the paladin from healing as long as possible (including Gouge). He should know when the paladin is about to bubble, so he should call that out and get ready to mass dispel / silence.

This team can be a real pain, but they usually cap out at a certain point so you won’t see them over 2k that often.

It’s very important, if you execute this strat, that the paladin doesn’t get any heals off. He can get maybe one off during his bubble, but he shouldn’t get any more than that. You need to be Kicking, Gouging, Silencing, etc. at the END of casts for this to go smoothly.

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Q3A: How do we deal with Paladin/Warlock as Shadow Priest/Rogue?

This can be considered one of the hardest counters to all 2 DPS teams, and we’ve yet to find an “easy” way to beat them. What we’ve done up to this point, which has always resulted in close games, is to stick on the warlock, not the paladin.

The problem with getting on the paladin in this set up is that it leaves the warlock completely open to fear, silence, and DPS at will. All it takes is a Deathcoil or Spell Lock on the priest when the paladin bubbles to turn the game around in their favor. It’s already hard enough killing a paladin cleanse spamming, kiting around your rogue with a warlock fearing both of you.

So, the only strategy that I think it’s viable against a good team is to stick on the warlock. You can possibly switch targets to the paladin after he bubbles, though.

Self dispels are important in this fight, because if you have to shift out at ALL during this fight, you’re probably going to lose. Keep yourself up with shields and self dispels at all times, but still keep applying pressure on the warlock. Always be near the paladin to fear and silence at the end of his Holy Light casts. It’s also important for your rogue to get at least one drive-by kick on the paladin, in addition to a Blind.

ALL Blessings have to be off on the warlock at all times, especially Sacrifice and Freedom as quick as possible.

That’s the jist of it, it is not an easy fight, and easily the most annoying fight for me to play in. Getting 3+ dispel resists in a row on a Sacrifice or Freedom will probably mean you lose.

Another strategy I’ve heard work is for the shadow priest to play almost exactly like a Disc priest. Support damage through Mind Blast / Flay, maybe Death and constantly be mana burning the paladin while the rogue sticks on the warlock. I have never used this strategy, so I don’t know how well it works, however a different 2250+ Shadow Priest/Rogue told me about this, and I thought it could work, so I’m throwing it out there for anyone who wants to try it.

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Q4A: How do you deal with Discipline Priest/Rogue as Shadow Priest/Rogue?

Since my rogue is AR/Prep we get on the rogue every time against this set up. To unstealth him, we have my rogue sap their priest, then I run in, dispel once (to get in combat) and Mana Burn. Then I keep him in combat, try to fear + Mana Burn more to get him to break the fears with trinket or WotF. I’d almost suggest to just gib the Disc Priest if he uses trinket on a fear, since it opens him to a full stunlock rotation leading into a Silence.

However, if you do get on the rogue, it’s very important that your shadow priest uses his/her trinket at the right time. Never, ever, ever trinket against this team unless you’re 100% positive that it’s going to let you get away out of range and LOS of the rogue (LOS to prevent Shadowstep). Dwarves might have an excuse because they have Stoneform.

This is the #1 team that your rogue being AR/Prep will help a ton against. One or two Mace Stuns in a row (+ Kidney Shot or Vanish Cheap Shot) and you can potentially get away with Crippling dropping off without using your PvP trinket.

If your rogue is Shadowstep, I’m going to be honest, I have no idea what I would do. I know that Shadowstep isn’t nearly as good at locking down other rogues as AR/Prep is due to having no lolRnG mace stuns, so one would think getting on the Disc priest is a better solution and hoping you can kill the Disc Priest before their rogue kills your shadow priest (long shot there though), unless you’re undead and they aren’t. No straight answer here, sorry.

CC is not a big deal here; you can easily DPS through the other priest’s heals. He shouldn’t have GCD’s to be dispelling (especially if you Silence early, which you should, before you start kiting away from him to avoid Mana Burns/dispel spam) if you’re doing enough damage to the rogue. It’s rare that I ever fear or silence the priest, past the initial silence ever since every rogue is Shadowstep.

When you (the priest) do get out of LOS of the rogue, stay there. The other rogue will not be able to get on you with Crippling Poison locked on him, being mace stunned, and a rogue putting out DPS on him while he wastes his energy away. It doesn’t matter how long you stay out of LOS and waste your own GCD’s at this point, it’s just important that you’re preventing being hit and forcing their rogue to start attacking your rogue.

Once you see him switch targets, that’s when you can start popping out and back in to cast instants (redotting basically). Make sure that you’re ready to be Shadowstepped to and attacked again when you start to come out to pump out your damage, meaning top yourself off with bandages, reshield, etc.

In summary, since I know some of this wasn’t very clear, this is what we do:

1. Sap priest, Mana burn to get the rogue out. Don’t let him drink, try to fear and get him to burn his WotF/trinket.
2. When rogue opens, have your rogue open on their rogue and stay on him.
3. Only trinket when you’re 100% sure you can get away, or if you’re dying.
4. LOS Shadowstep until their rogue starts attacking your rogue after seeing he can’t get to you.
5. Top yourself off when you get away from the rogue.

As always, the basic rogue vs. rogue things apply. Make sure your rogue keeps a Rupture up, use Vanish -> Cheap Shot effectively, use evasion as soon as he switches to you, use blind relatively early, etc. etc. It’s up to your rogue to keep their rogue off you. If he lets Crippling fall off for more than 2 seconds, there’s a serious problem. It’s VERY important that he knows that keeping the rogue off you is the #1 priority. I cannot stress how important Crippling Poison and the timing of Vanish Cheap Shots are. I’m going to be blunt: If you’re repeatedly losing to Disc Priest/Rogue as Shadow Priest/Rogue, and you aren’t vastly outgeared/outracialed, then chances are it’s your rogue’s fault, not yours (unless, of course, you use trinket at a bad time. Then there’s nothing your rogue can do about it, unless he saves Kidney Shot for when their rogue Kidney Shots, but then he’ll probably just trinket that and be able to catch up to you again.)

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Q1B: Which rogue spec do you feel complements a shadow priest best in 2v2?

Contrary to what I’ve said in the past, I think most rogues would have more success as Shadowstep than AR/Prep. For a long time, I’ve told people that AR/Prep is best for shadow priest/rogue, but I’m not sure anymore. I think a lot of the rogue’s spec depends on the playstyle of the shadow priest. Besides, both specs have their pros and cons. I’ll list them, so this answer isn’t completely pointless.

AR/Prep Pros/Cons
Pros
- Mace Stuns. Amazing for rogue vs. rogue, and can definitely be the deciding factor of who wins.
- Imp Sprint. Great for druid teams; saves the priest some GCD’s where they don’t have to dispel the roots. Also can be game-breaking for warrior teams, to break Hamstring.
- Adrenaline Rush. Controlled burst, very important to be able to do damage on demand in SP/Rogue.
- Blade Flurry. 2 minute cooldown that adds up to a lot more damage and pushback.

Cons
- Less survivability. No Cheat Death QQ.
- Being kited. It can be really easy to kite an AR Prep rogue in long games against druids.
- Dispel resistance. No poison dispel resistance.

Shadowstep Pros/Cons
Pros
- Dispel resistance. Speaks for itself. Vile poisons is amazing.
- Survivability. Cheat Death!
- Stats. More dodge and crit %.
- Kitable. Not kitable at all, compared to an AR/Prep rogue.
- CP Generation. Generates combo points faster than a non-AR buffed rogue.

Cons
- Loss of Mace Stuns. Probably the #1 reason why I do NOT want my partner to go Shadowstep. We already have enough trouble with rogue teams as it is, and I don’t want any more.
- Loss of Imp Sprint. The shadow priest is already hard-pressed for GCD’s. Factoring in Subtlety (30% dispel resistance on druid spells), roots can be an extremely annoying spell to dispel, and you can find yourself dispelling it 3+ times without it breaking.
- Loss of controlled burst. Losing AR and Blade Flurry means losing a lot of damage when you’re trying to burst someone down.

Also, a lot of people say that AR/Prep lost its effectiveness when AR was taken off prepration. Most SP/Rogue games for us never lasted long enough for the second AR anyway, so we didn’t notice much of a difference when they changed it. The second AR is NOT needed for the spec to be effective.

In short, I don’t think there is a single “best” spec for the rogue to be in Shadow Priest/Rogue. It all depends on your playstyles and how well you play together. So try both of them if you can, and see which works best for you guys.

Note: I didn’t include Mutilate because I don’t consider Mutilate good at ALL for shadow priest/rogue. Try it if you want, but I doubt anyone would have more success with Mutilate compared to the other two specs.

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Q2B: What is your general strategy for starting the arena fight in 2v2? Do you run out and rush, stay back, etc.?

In Nagrand, I always stay behind a pole on our side, and get ready to move to a pole on the other side for when my rogue is ready to sap / engage.

In Blade’s Edge, I run up to my side of the bridge and stay behind one of the thin pillars for LOS. If they run up before we’re ready to start, I jump down to the bottom floor and use the pillars for LOS. And I get ready to go back up in case my rogue gets sapped or gets a sap off and is ready to start.

In Ruins, I stay in the room until we figure out what the other team consists of, and I decide from there. If it’s Mage/Rogue, I don’t want to be in the room, so I move out towards the middle. If it’s double stealth (applies to invis mage + rogue) I run out as well, and stay ~20 yards away from my rogue at all times. If it’s Warrior/Healer I move slightly out, but not that far; I try to get into a position where if he attacks me, I can easily go back into the starting zone to kite him away from his healer. If it’s Warlock/Rogue, I come out but I stay back and let my rogue open up on him and 1v1 for awhile. If it’s Warlock/Druid, I come out but stay out of range until my rogue opens up on him (Same for Hunter/Druid).

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Q1C: If you had access to any PvE gear, would you use it?

Nethervoid Cloak — http://wowhead.com/?item=32590 — I definitely would use this for 2v2/3v3 when my survivability is almost never an issue. Spell damage > all else (over 400 resilience) in the lower brackets. I would not use this in 5v5 when survivability is important.

Skull of Guldan — http://wowhead.com/?item=32483 — I can’t say for sure whether or not I would use this, since I’ve never had experience with spell haste before. I would say yes, though. But probably not over…

Timbal’s Focusing Crystal — http://wowhead.com/?item=34470 — Oh god yes, easily the best shadow priest trinket for PvP (I think it’s one of the best if not the best for PvE too?). There is no reason why you SHOULDN’T try to get this, it has comparable Equip +dmg with the Icon, Hex, and other trinkets along with a 10% chance to shoot out a cool little shadowbolt for over 500 dmg. It makes people stand up, it puts them in combat again, it only has a 15 second cooldown, it procs while YOU are sitting, mounted, stunned, AFK, whatever. I can’t even tell you how amazing this trinket is in a brief summary, it’s that amazing. Use it if you have access to it! (And it’s relatively easy to get anyway).

Post more PvE item questions if you have them; I’ll keep updating this section.

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Over the past few days, I’ve been doing some 3v3 arenas as RMP. Our starting rating was in the 2100’s and so far our record is 20-3 from there. We haven’t seen many Druid/Hunter/Warlock teams, which is the obvious counter team to RMP, which is pretty lucky.

A few things I’ve noticed as Disc is that it’s almost always convenient to spend GCD’s defensively dispelling. It’s very, very easy to set a focus to a mage or warlock on the other team, see them cast a fear or polymorph, keep an eye out on your party frames, and dispel it in less than a second. It’s not particularly difficult to do that on a shadow priest if you’re not being assisted but Disc priests practically never get assisted, so I just play my LOS and dispels come very easily. It was really refreshing to be able to conveniently dispel fears, polymorphs, and silences off my teammates almost all the time.

On the other hand, I was a little bit underwhelmed by how much healing output I could do, especially factoring in Wound and MS. Against double melee / druid teams, I found it really difficult to keep my mage up. We won every game against double melee (I honestly have no idea if that’s how the fights are supposed to be played out, assuming good players on both sides, but that’s how it happened). After playing on a druid and paladin on the TTR so much, it was hard to get used to solo healing through double melee. Maybe I’m just terrible, I’m not really going to deny that at this point after seeing me mess up 10 times a game.

Another great thing about Disc is that I can still put out decent burst because of the 1/3 healing = dmg change from a couple of patches ago. I felt like I was really contributing to burst with Mind Blast / Deaths and even the occasional Pain, more than what I was expecting. Plus SW:D is up a lot, and generally risk-free, in case I have to break Polymorphs.

So basically, going up above my SP/Lock/Druid team (which is now SP/Rogue/Druid as of this week) in 23 games from 2100’s with almost 0 problems surprised me a lot. I mean, when I was playing on my shadow priest, we had our fair share of problems… we didn’t lose a TON, but we definitely didn’t steamroll teams the way we do as RMP. Every fight seemed like an uphill battle, like we weren’t really in control. At least to me.

Then I was joining a point selling 5v5 team, I think we went from 1850-ish to 2050-ish. I really have to say, WOW. I have NEVER enjoyed 5v5 as much as I did that night. I was screwing up left and right, but I still felt like I was contributing. On my shadow priest, I just die so ridiculously fast in 5v5 that sometimes I want to apologize to my teammates… without a real reason… I mean, I guess I’m sorry for playing a shadow priest? Either way, as a discipline priest in 5v5, I felt like I was playing a whole new game. I’m trying NOT to make this a whiney post about shadow priests, but I’m also trying to be as truthful as possible, without giving out the wrong message. The bottom line is, Disc priests contribute a whole lot more in 5v5 than shadow priests. Then again, I am running two separate set ups on both of my priests so I guess that’s not really a completely fair comparison.

Anyway…
Earlier this night I was doing 2v2’s with a hunter as Disc Priest/Hunter. We started out at 1500 from a new charter, and went to ~1930 without any losses (but jesus christ, we had some close games with warrior/druid. STRATS PLEASE?). From then on, we sort of bounced around up and down. I think we ended the night around high 30’s as wins and 7 losses. It’s a pretty good set up, but not having stoneform really blew. I definitely didn’t feel as good in 2v2 as I did about 3v3 and 5v5. Shadow seems very superior to discipline for 2v2, and I’d also consider shadow to be viable for 3v3, just not AS viable as Disc.

Just out of curiosity though, for anyone running Disc Priest/Hunter, what are the main teams you have trouble with? We were having some difficulties with Warrior/Druid and Rogue/Warlock. Are we just bad? LFstratzpst

Ok, getting off topic. And it’s almost 4 AM here so I’m going to finish this off.

I had a lot of fun playing a well-geared Disc priest in serious arenas finally (aw i <3 u temmatez =) yes evn u imagez lol no not rly), and even though it’s more viable and easier to get higher rated with, I don’t think it’ll ever compare to how fast-paced and exciting shadow is. So for anyone who feels like blowing this out of proportion, no I’m NOT switching my main to my Disc priest, that’s mostly going to be my *heh heh* money makah, and for-fun 2v2/3v3 teams. All of my main teams are still going to be shadow, my main priest is still going to be shadow. So make sure that you quote that if any of you make a post or something saying “well NOXN has a disc priest and she says that theyre a lot better and has more fun playing disc than shadow and probably going to switch mains!”.

No, but really. Don’t say that.

FAKE EDIT: Not going to proofread this post, I’m just going to publish it and go to sleep. Way too lazy & tired to correct my typos and errors. sry broskiz!

so here you go, for anyone who DOESN’T KNOW: when you leave a pet in your car for long periods of time, it will overheat and suffer braindamage or die (from heatstroke/suffocation). it doesn’t matter if the windows are open or not, the temperature in the car can easily hit like 125 degrees, even in just minutes.

seriously, when I heard these things, I was just astonished that they didn’t know this. it was really heartbreaking to hear this girl talk about her “cute little puppy in my car!!!”

the puppy was fine for anyone who was wondering, she took it home after being yelled at.

so I finally completely got over being sick from the past like two weeks. last week I had a constant temperature of 103 degrees+. good thing it’s CSAP testing week so I missed virtually nothing hEH

but ANYWAY I forgot this was about my internet lifes, no one cares about my RL on blogz rite

well, I haven’t really written any new blawg posts lately because… well mostly because I haven’t wanted to, but also because the TTR has been up and it’s basically my religion to play on it 24/7. I was writing a lot before because the live realms are incredibly boring, and the only reason why I ever log on is to arena anyway… so I had nothing to do.

hopefully I’ll find some inspiration to write about something soon =p but for now, I get to brag about my new 5v5 rating!

we haven’t really been a very active team (looL speakeasy never online!) but a couple of nights ago we had some really good games with the rank 1 team. we went like 7-5 or 8-5 or something, and ended the night with a 2384 rating putting us at rank 1!

yay us!

now if I can just get a srs 3v3 D:

Anyway, the purpose of this blog was actually not just to ramble on, it’s to talk about shadow priests and the role they’re playing in 5v5. I’m not exactly ashamed of saying this, because I think every shadow priest that’s high rated in 5v5 would agree:

holy shit i get carried so hard

so basically, just talking from memory, I think we’ve won about 90 games this season. and maybe like 60 of those were over 2k. that’s not very many games to get 2000 -> 2400. If someone was to remind me of a couple of key points in each game, I could probably remember all 60 of them and exactly what happened. But I’ve seriously lost track of the number of games where I die in the first 10-20 seconds, and it turns out to be a 4v5 with my Euro Comp set up with a shadow priest (Rogue/Felguard Lock/Frost Mage/Resto Druid/Shadow Priest) vs. whatever team just blew me up (usually double melee).

I think the fact that all of these games when I die and my team manages to bring it back from a 4v5 to a win just goes to show how incredibly strong the euro comp really is. And I was just thinking last night, when I’m being focused in 5v5, especially with a rogue humping me, I literally cannot cast anything. My typical spell rotation in a 5v5 game goes like this: try to put up early dots, usually only get SW:P/DP, put up VE, dispel, dispel, dispel, dispel, dispel, DEFENSIVE DISPEL, dispel, dispel, dispel, dispel, dispel. So the only damage I’m really contributing is two DoTs, maybe the occasional mind blast. I mean, I’m sort of just sitting here wondering why the hell I’m just not disc. We would be a much better team if I was, I don’t care what anyone else says. My damage is so low when I’m being assisted, and even lower when I’m dead. All I bring to the table are dispels, and… well, disc priests do that even better (they have 4% less mana on dispels than me and more mana/mana regen overall).

Obviously we’re doing fine with me as shadow, but I think it’s pretty depressing that 5v5 is the one bracket where I feel like I’m not being effective. So there goes my emo rant about shadow priests. I guess it didn’t really have a purpose other than to vent out some of my frustrations, but hey it worked!

And I’m not even going to look over this before publishing. YOU CAN ALL JUST READ IT AND LOOK AT ALL OF MY ERRORS I DONT CARE!

Short version: <3 my teammates in 5v5, i hope you don’t get too tired from carrying me heH

1v1: Shadow Priest vs. Frost Mage

Before clicking on the download link, I would suggest that you read through the entire post, so you know what to look for, and how to not make the same mistakes I made.

So you don’t get bored before you get to the fights, I’ll list the most important things to note in a 1v1 with a frost mage.

1.) Ideally, you want to fear both the mage and his pet, even if it doesn’t break a cast. The earlier you get a fear off, the better (especially if it’s before he uses Freeze, but they usually cast that instantly so… whatever). If you have to decide between fearing the mage and his pet fear the pet.

2.) Shadow Word: Death the initial Polymorph(s). It sucks if he fakes it, but if he doesn’t then you’re screwed anyway.

3.) Use range to your advantage. You’re the one that can do damage while being a million yards away. Both him and his pet have to be in range to cast.

4.) Make a self dispel macro. Dispelling is like half of what you’re going to cast, and you don’t want to waste time targetting yourself and retargetting him. On top of this, always dispel everything off yourself, even Winter’s Chill (if it gets too high stacked anyway). The worst situation to be in is in a Nova or Freeze with a Frostbolt -> Icelance coming your way, and you have 5/5 Winter’s Chill, a Frostbolt, and a Nova debuff on you. That’s an almost sure way to lose. So dispel the dispel buffers and don’t be caught in a situation like that.

5.) In an arena situation, it’s much easier to 1v1 frost mages. There’s almost 0 chance of losing if you’re using line of sight to your advantage and you have sufficient gear. I’m saying this before people are like “Well, you can’t range in arenas, what are you going to do then!?”. The fact is, a 1v1 in a non-LOS area is the best environment for a frost mage to duel. And the only way to beat them in a duel is to use range to interrupt casts so… do it!

6.) Devouring Plague. It helps a lot. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily “required”, since I only have to use cd’s on good frost mages to beat them. Against most, it’s relatively easy to maintain range and avoid damage. But yes, I would consider it a necessity if you’re dueling good frost mages.

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Download the video here: http://files.filefront.com/Noxn+FrostMageFightswmv/;9729874;/fileinfo.html

There are 3 clips in the video.
Length: 4 min 33 sec
Size: 74.9 MB
Track is listed at the end of the video.
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Now, since I was too lazy to edit a commentary into the video, I’ll explain them here!

Fight #1 — Shadow Priest Win
It was a solid start, but I wasn’t really expecting the double Polymorph. I was saving trinket in case I got my holy school locked with a nova on me. Notice after the first Frostbolt, I dispel it off myself _before Imagez gets out of range of his pet_. This is so I can get a fear off on both him and his elemental.

As the fight goes on, also notice that I prioritize keeping myself alive over doing damage to imagez. Self dispels before offensive dispels against Frost Mages. He was also smart not to Ice Block my Devouring Plague, because he knew a Silence was waiting for him right as he got out. Unfortunately, when I do Silence a bit later, it misses his Frostbolt cause I’m awful, but it would have been a good Silence if it hit.

When he Ice Blocks, I take that time to move to his pet to get another fear off. Now is the time when I try to put out my damage. Now that all of his shields are down, he has 0 pushback resistance. I take advantage of this by putting my Shadowfiend on him, giving me time to either damage him or recover from a burst (there wasn’t much burst in this fight).

A few seconds later, when I get Imp CS’ed in a nova, there’s nothing I can do, so I take that time to get off a wand shot so as to not waste a GCD or two. When I see his elemental is down, I take that time to get a couple of bandage ticks off so he’s pressured more into breaking the channeling with an Ice Lance.

And finally, mind flay a bit and killed him. It was a lot better than the next two fights…

Fight #2 — Shadow Priest Barely Win
I’m going to be honest here, I probably would have lost this one if I didn’t resist the Frostbolt at the end. We’ll never know if it would’ve crit or not though!

At the beginning, he faked the Polymorph, then was going to get a full duration one on me, so I used Silence so I wouldn’t get caught in a burst situation. After his next Polymorph, I trinket, dispel once, then try to get range.

He Ice Blocks my DoTs, knowing his Freeze was down so he couldn’t catch up to me, and my Silence was down from earlier. I use this time to pop Devouring Plague on him.

As the fight progresses, notice that I’m constantly keeping my HP in a safe zone. I can get mana back from Shadowfiend, so mana isn’t that big of a concern right now. Looking back, I should have dispelled the Nigh Invulnerability Belt (and Dampen Magic earlier), but I was being really safe with my HP.

During my second Silence, I try to recover. Noticing his shield is down again, I put my Shadowfiend on him, fake a Mind Flay, and bandage during the Imp CS. Now I try to dispel the Frostbolt off myself to get another fear on him, but he novas and makes me waste more of my mana dispelling. Since I’m oom, low on HP, and out of ways to regen mana, wanding is the only way to finish him off so I try to gain range and wand when I can. Eventually, it comes down to a DoT + Wand vs. a Frostbolt. And I resist the frostbolt lulz!

Fight #3 — Mage Win
In the third fight, once again he fakes the first poly and tries to get a full duration one on me, so I silence him and _should have_ used this time to DoT him up. For some reason, I thought he was going to Ice Block my VT, so I faked it. Really bad decision and I’m awful (oh yeah I messed up like 50 times in this fight lol!), but anyway…

Knowing he was going to Poly again, and I wouldn’t be able to get a wand off in time, I got off a tick of Mind Flay. If he had Dampen Magic or a shield on, I would have used that time to get another dispel off though.

His polymorph procced a focus, and I saw an opportunity to waste it, so I trinketted the poly. I saw another one coming, so I saved my GCD to SW:D it. He didn’t think I’d hit it, so he instantly summoned his pet, giving me a free fear on it. Unfortunately he Ice Blocked it so it only got the pet. >.<

This is when I try to regain distance on him and let my DoTs do the work. Unfortunately his next Frostbolt procced Frostbite, so he got a free Ice Lance for 1800 on me his next GCD.

Then I try to get more distance, and… then I just die.