kruxor on March 9th, 2011
So I am officially addicted to leveling.
Ive been leveling my hunter the past few days, up to 83 now. Do i really want another 85 character. not really, the gearing, the honor grind, the dailies. I just have to pick one class and stick with it. Eh i will decide when im 85… maybe 
. I do still have a druid and pally that i may level in the future. 
As I also do, i check out the latest in arena geared classes that i want to copy the spec’s and gear etc of. Imitation is the highest form of flattery after all.
Here is the Top Rated Arena Priest at the moment: Wrathful Gladiator Talbadar good to see what the leet players are doing with there chars .
Found a good article on wow riot, its a bit old now. But still quite good showing how to 1v1 with a shadow priest. Its a massive post, but a good read, still kinda relevant.
Here’s an excerpt on how to beat a frostmage with a shadow priest, this could have all changed after the update, but may still be good strategy wize so take it with a grain of salt.
vs.
I would put Frost Mages as the third most difficult class/spec to win duels against(pve geared feral/muti rogues own). Some would argue Death Knights are harder, but I have more ‘random’ losses versus mages because of sheer luck where the DK tactics are more refined and less risky.
Gear Choice: I honestly have not tried Satin versus mages, but with a couple of strategies I have Satin would definitely be more ideal than Mooncloth. You need 600-1000 haste against Mages to do well because your globals are going to be really important. The speed of Dispel Magic, SW:D, Fade, and Shield is limited to your globals only so having millions of spell power will not work as good against Mages as it does DKs. If you have access to gear like on TR you will want a Bauble and Corroded key to just outlive any burst attempts.
Race: Human
Spec Choice: There is one talent choice that will literally win half of your duels and that is Silent Resolve. I have seen some Mages try to spellsteal my shield 10 times and fail while I kill them (Eraseasaurus xD). Here is the most ideal specs: Satin / Mooncloth
The Opener:
The opener is pretty much not in your favor at all. The best mages prefer the unpreventable opener with IMP CS into a sheep. They will continue to spellsteal all of your buffs and triple sheep while their CS is coming back up in 5 seconds or so after the CC chain is done. The best way to prevent this opener (if you do not want to get sheeped or want to save trinket) is to spam silence at the start. I will usually use devouring plague then dispel magic twice in that time so I have a DoT ticking for 24 seconds with no shield. They will usually reapply ice barrier, though. Starting buffs is important for this duel. I start with Inner Fire, Vampiric Embrace, Fort, Shield, PoM, Levitate, and Divine Spirit. Having Shadow Prot, Abolish Disease, and Fear Ward can only hurt you if they spellsteal it early on. All of the other buffs have some sort of beneficial idea to wearing them at the start. Fort, Shield, and PoM are basically rush prevention buffs. If they decide to go for some all-in no sheep no spellsteal tactic you want those on at the start. Levitate is just a nice trash buff that does not help them much and Divine Spirit gives you 16 spell power for free. IMPORANT- If they do sheep you at the start you can use a macro to remove all of your buffs. I just made a simple one for myself and did not get too technical with it. /cancelaura Power Word: Fortitude /cancelaura Power Word: Shield /cancelaura Levitate /cancelaura Prayer of Mending /cancelaura Divine Spirit /cancelaura Shadow Weaving /cancelaura Shadow Protection
Strategy 1 – Survive the Spam:
It is one of the most difficult things to survive against a Frost Mage with Icy Veins pumping Frostbolts into your face. Like I mentioned earlier if you have defensive trinkets you will want them for this fight. The biggest problem in this matchup is that Mages have 30% dispel resistance and that can be so frustrating when each resisted dispel is another 5k Frostbolt in your face. Anyway, assuming the Mage did not go for some all in strategy you still have your PvP trinket and he starts casting Frostbolts with IV up from distance with an elemental and his mirrors out. Your best bet is to run away while dispelling yourself and him. I usually Silence or trinket and Silence to stop the initial damage and Winter’s Chill stacks. If you get distance you should be ok (usually cast some instants and a few Holy Novas if this happens). If you are unable to get away this is the most dangerous part of the duel. The Mage may have blinked into you or just caught up while you were snared and you cannot escape. 100% of duels I will use Disarm as a quick interrupt on a Frostbolt. It lasts 1.5 seconds, but it is enough to stop some damage so it’s worth it. Your best bet if they stick on top of you is to get a dispel on his shield and icy veins and start casting mind flays to give him serious pushback. This basically prevents the zerg as it gives them 1.0 second pushback on every frostbolt and they will need to stop casting them.
90% of Mages will run at you and then do a Cone of Cold Frost Nova Deep Freeze combo, so if you see a Cone of Cold have Fade ready and prevent as many Deep Freezes as possible. Something else I will do when I have time is offDoT and possibly kill/fear the water elemental as it actually does a bunch of damage and lasts a long time. Similar to the DK duel you will have to heal yourself. Juking the CS is pretty much necessary and if you do get CS’d just spam spells from the other school because you will just get put behind otherwise. If you get locked on Shadow you can try to get distance or just spam heals. This may sound like something trivial and obvious, but many times when I get locked on a heal I end up trying to run away and to no avail where I could have just stood there and spammed damage to pressure him to stop casting bolts. Another important thing to remember is that you have to use dispersion in deep freeze or you get owned. I always save it until their first frostbolt in the deep is about to finish and then use it. I usually come out early unless my mana is going to get wasted. I usually disperse the first one and trinket the second. Once you are able to survive all of the early pressure mages are simple to deal with.
Strategy 2 – Playing the Mind Game:
This is really something that wins nearly all of my duels versus top mages. I always work hard to give the Mage a false sense of what I am trying to do. After my duel series with Eraseasaurus I gave him some insight as to why he lost the series and he actually beat me a few times once he figured out some of the games I was playing. The biggest game I like to play is the Shadowfiend juke. This wins so many duels, heh. As soon as the Mage gets in a comfortable position with spam frostbolts and shields off cooldown, I will always fall behind in healing and do not have too many options to come back. The best way to relieve some pressure is this move. Basically what you do is as soon as you are getting low you use your Shadowfiend. Seems simple and pointless, no? It is more complex than it sounds, though. The reason this is so effective is because every Mage in the world sees a Shadowfiend and they instantly want to stop it. They will Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Deep Freeze, and pet nova it until it goes down 95% of the time. That is exactly what I am looking for them to do when I use it. When I am waiting for my weakened soul to fall off or I am just hoping to live until the second disperse I just use it and hope they do not ignore it. There are some other mind games I like to play and one of them is the DPS race. As soon as the Mage tries to go hard and go for the kill I will just stand there and cast damage into them to try to force them to run. Generally the Spriest will die first in this kind of engagement, but most people tend to want to run away instead of going for the risk of the kill. The best thing about Mages running away is when they go cast Evocate. Evocate is one of the last spells you should be casting as the Mage in this duel. I do not remember the last time a Mage went to go Evocate and has come back to win the duel. The spell is just false hope unless you have your entire second set of cooldowns and mirrors up to finish the Spriest off after. It is very easy to live through a solo mage without any pets so having them go Evocate when you are at 50% health is basically a free win – just cast some heals and you are full. There are a few others I do, but one last one is messing with their opener. Lots of Mages love to juke deaths because they feel good doing it, so to abuse that against new Mages I will just get 3 dots and start flaying them. This usually leaves them at 50% when I am sheeped and that is pretty much a won duel already.
Extra Tips for the duel:
1. Find a Pillar
If you have a pillar nearby you will definitely want to be using it. By spamming dispel on yourself around corners you can prevent any quick deep freezes (even avoid imp cs deeps) while your DoTs slowly kill them.
2. Devouring Plague is your Friend
If you are on the move you should really be spamming this spell. It does 2-3k damage on use and causes you to gain ~500-700 health per application when they do not have a shield.
3. Effective Shielding
Mages love spellstealing your shield as much as they love juking deaths and preventing shadowfiends. To abuse this love you want to use your shields as frostbolts are about to hit you. When the frostbolt lands it should absorb the spell completely and leave your shield with 500-1000 absorb left. If they waste time spellstealing it they will not realize that it has almost nothing left and is pretty much free globals for you.
Check out the full article here has a whole bunch of strategies on how to 1v1 pvp shadow priests
Remember robocop? good times
Ah back to the future, ok thats enough caffeine for me.
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