This PvP guide is no longer current and will be dissolved in an upcoming site update.
Welcome to this World of Warcraft Legion Guide for Shadow Priests looking to optimize their character in end-game PvP, such as Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds. We take an alternative approach to standard character optimization class guides as we use purely leaderboard statistics to make recommendations. While this guide looks like a standard class guide, it is actually automatically generated using statistics we've created using the Official Battle.net WoW API, specifically the PvP Leaderboards. The guide recommendations are based on final polished statistics from the best Shadow Priests. Due to that, our guides are able to show what stats, talents etc. are proving to be most successful in competitive PvP. We update the data daily to keep these guides current.
Browsing through this guide couldn't be easier. Below are the guides available, and remember you can always use the tabs above to navigate through them.
Stat Priority
Optimized Stat Priority and Stat Summaries.
Gems & Enchants
Optimized Gems and Enchants.
Main Talent Build
Max-performing Talent Build and information on talents.
PvP Statistics
Extra analytical charts from excess leaderboard statistics.
PvE Guide
We also provide this PvE guide for Shadow Priests, based on heavy research, play-testing, and SimulationCraft results.
If you're interested in seeing how Shadow Priest stacks up against other specs, be sure to check out our spec rankings:
PvP Rankings
Based on statistics from Blizzard's Official PvP Leaderboard API.
DPS Rankings
Generated using SimulationCraft, the most trusted theorycraft tool.
Feb 17, 2012 Shadow Priest PvP 85 4.3 140k Crit BloodVeil. The video was a learning experience and is to show the power of a shadow priest with and without buffs, showing very high crits and owning other. Sep 13, 2019 Personally I have had no problems killing Shadow Priest. As a fire mage. I am not even as high of an ilvl as some of the priest I have killed. Shadow Priest unfortunately dont have the raw damage up front fire mages have. Blizzard dose need to look at how Shadow Priest do in pvp. Maybe give them a few more direct damage spells.
Statistics ExplanationsIntellect is your primary stat. You should look for this stat in allof your upgrades. It provides you with Spell Power, which increases the damageof your spells.Critical Strike increases your chance to critically hit withall spells and abilities.Haste increases your spell casting speed and the tick rate of yourperiodic effects.Mastery ( ) increases the damage of your, and.Versatility increases all your damage and healing done, and decreasesall damage taken.
2020: This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.3 and no changes are necessary. 25 Jun. 2019: This page has been reviewed for the release of Patch 8.2 and no changes are necessary. 14 Apr. 2019: Updated for the release of the Crucible of Storms raid. 24 Jan.
2019: Swapped around Intellect and Haste/Crit in the stat priority. 10 Dec.
2018: This page has been reviewed for Patch 8.1 and no changes are necessary. 30 Aug. 2018: Changed stat priority. 13 Aug. 2018: Updated for Battle for Azeroth launch.