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PvP in
World of Warcraft can be very fun and rewarding for
the Priest. However you must have a different mindset (and gearset)
going into
PvP compared to PvE. It is a very different aspect of the game, and one
that if
gone into blindly, will bring much gnashing of teeth. In this guide, we
will
introduce you to the world of PvP, and try to help you avoid some of
the noob
mistakes many people make. As a Priest you will have to understand that
you
will be the first target by enemy players, and most likely the first to
die.
alt="Warsong Gulch"
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Builds
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The
first thing we need to look at is how we are specced.
Our spec, more than any other class, will dictate our role in PvP. A
Shadow
Priest is going to do very well one on one in PvP, while a Holy Priest
has no
chance in a fight and must take a support role and heal his teammates.
A
Discipline Priest can do a little of both depending upon
what’s needed, but
your most important quality as a Discipline Priest is survivability. So
let’s
take a look at each and some strategies on how to play with that build.
Shadow
Priest
Slaughtering
other players so you can dance on their corpse,
laughing, is not just fun, but a God given right. The
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/talents"
target="_blank">Shadow Priest
is your best chance at being able to do
exactly that. They are extremely formidable in one on one combat. Our
only
downside is that we are a bit of a glass cannon. We hit hard, and have
some
decent crowd control, but we can’t take a lot of damage. So
you have to be on
your toes, and know what you are going to do to keep enemy players off
of you.
It
is impossible to discuss strategies for every situation
and class you are going to go up against, but there are a few general
strategies you can use to steer you in the right direction. First off,
make
sure you are fully buffed before starting. Stay in Shadowform, and keep
Inner
Fire, and Power Word: Fortitude up at all times. Use consumables like
elixirs,
flasks and Fish Feast to give you an edge in PvP. Once you have an
enemy in
range, open up with Dispel Magic. You can quickly remove several buffs
with
this, and dramatically decrease their health, and other stats with a
very low
mana cost. Use your DOTs like Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague
right
away. As soon as they are about to attack you, use your crowd control
spells.
Psychic Scream and Psychic Terror for melee classes Silence for the
casters.
Use Mind Flay for constant damage, and throw up a Power Word: Shield if
you
start getting hit. Even in as a Shadowpriest you are still able to heal
yourself, and use Prayer of Mending when there are several team members
and
enemies about. They may want to attack you, but will easily confuse you
for a
squishier Holy Priest. Mind Control should be a favorite spell to use
in PvP,
throwing enemies off cliffs. Using Mind Control on Players with pets,
such as
Hunters, Warlocks and some Death Knights, will cause the pets to attack
you and
break Mind Control. Make sure your DOTs stay up and the fight should
end pretty
quickly.
Tip:
Be careful with using Mind
Blast. It is a great spell, but melee classes like to run behind you
while
casting causing the spell to fail.
[protip]
DoTs will be your main concern as a Shadowpriest.
Keep a distance between you and other players and you will have the
advantage.
Mind Control will not dispel your DoTs, this will be great to keep them
still
while your DoTs tick away at their HP. Psychic Horror will be great
against
DPS, especially hunters, disarming their main hands
style="">and
ranged weapons.[/protip]
Holy
Priest
Understand
if you are a
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/talents"
target="_blank">Holy Priest,
in PvP your role is support. This shouldn’t be
a shock to you; in PvE you play a support role. Nothing changes much in
PvP for
you. If you find yourself one on one with the enemy, you are likely
going to
lose. So your goal is to stay with your group, and keep them alive so
they can
protect you. This is no easy task. Everyone out there is going to
target you
first. So stay alert and near people at all times.
It
is impossible to discuss strategies for every
situation and class you are going to go up against, but there are a few
general
strategies you can use to steer you in the right direction. First off,
make
sure you are fully buffed before starting. Keep Inner Fire, and Power
Word:
Fortitude up at all times. Use consumables like elixirs, flasks and
Fish Feast to
give you an edge in PvP. Once the enemy closes, use Power Word: Shield
and get
a Renew up. Cast Dispel Magic to knock their buffs out quickly. The
name of the
game in PvP is speed! It has nothing to do with Mana conservation. So
burn all
of your quickest casting heal spells. These fights won’t last
6 and 7 minutes
like boss fights can. Keep Renew up on your teammates and use circle of
healing, flash heals, and Prayer of Mending to keep everyone topped
off. You
will also want to save Guardian Spirit for yourself and do not forget
that (if
you have the spell) Desperate Prayer will be a life saver. Remember
speed wins
the game here, so don’t think, just heal. A Holy Priest will
also be considered
great bait, keep Power Word: Shield up on yourself and be prepared to
spam heal
yourself while others kill your attacker(s).
Tip:
Use Fear if anyone gets too
close to you, and keep your Power Word: Shield up to negate much of the
damage
they can do.
[protip]
To easier cast Guardian Spirit on yourself create a
Macro as follows: /cast [target=<your name here>]
Guardian Spirit. This
way if you have a friendly targeted you won’t accidently cast
GS on them when
you wanted it on yourself.[/protip]
Discipline
Priest
When
played correctly, the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/talents"
target="_blank">Discipline Priest
is awesome in PvP. They can heal when
needed, and do a fair amount of damage when the opportunity is there.
It is
probably the hardest spec to play out of the three, because you always
have to
be thinking about which role to fill.
It
is impossible to discuss strategies for every
situation and class you are going to go up against, but there are a few
general
strategies you can use to steer you in the right direction. First off,
make
sure you are fully buffed before starting. keep Inner Fire, and Power
Word:
Fortitude up at all times. Use consumables like elixirs, flasks and
Fish Feast
to give you an edge in PvP. When the fight starts be ready to have
everyone
targeting you. A Priest not in Shadowform is usually assumed to be
Holy. You
have a few tricks to use to survive those first few attacks while your
teammates take out the enemies. Use Pain Suppression and Reflective
Shield to buy
you some time and start returning some damage. From here watch the
situation.
Throw your DOTs when you can, and heal when needed. Most people who
expect to
roll over a Holy Priest will be in for a nasty surprise when facing a
Discipline Priest. Do not forget that Penance can be used to heal or to
do
damage. Power Infusion will also be your favorite spell to use on
yourself when
PvPing.
[protip]
To make things easier to cast Pain Suppression or
Power Infusion on yourself, create a Macro as follows: /cast
[target=<your
name here>] Power Infusion or /cast [target=<your name
here>] Pain
Suppression. You can put both together in the same macro with a new
line to
cast both on you at the same time.[/protip]
Gear
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Your
priorities change in PvP. Your gear has to change too.
In PvP we are introduced to a new stat. Resilience, Resilience reduces
the
chances of you receiving a critical strike or critical spell effect. In
addition, it reduces the damage taken from criticals and damage over
time
spells. The only way you can increase resilience is through gear,
enchantments,
gems, flasks, or elixirs. It is the most important stat in PvP, greatly
slowing
down combat and giving you some breathing room to think during the
hectic
fights. Spirit is almost meaningless now, and Stamina becomes more
important.
Stack as much Resilience and Stamina as you can with + Spell Power and
+
Intellect following. Remember your fights will be over quickly, with
little to
no down time. You have to be ready to take a few hits, and unleash as
much
healing or damage as you can as fast as you can.
Where
to PvP
Battlegrounds
are instanced areas where the two
factions (Horde and Alliance) can duke it out. To play, you have to
enter the
queue (the line to get in) by talking to a battlemaster in a capital
city or at
the portal instance entrance (if there is one). Most battlegrounds are
of the
capture-the-flag or gain points by taking various objectives variety.
The
number of players per side can vary from 5 to 15, with Alterac Valley
allowing
up to 40 per side. Playing in battlegrounds can give you Marks of Honor
and
honor points. You can use these to purchase special PVP gear. You can
start
playing in battlegrounds at level 10.
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flight point
and Ashenvale Forest
Ashenvale
There
is no physical entrance for Strand of the Ancients, it
is only accessible through talking to a battlemaster in capital cities,
or
through the battlegrounds tab in your Player vs. Player info screen.
Wintergrasp is easily accessed through the pvp tab, battlemaster, or
just
flying over there in Northrend.
You
can also queue up for any battleground anywhere and at
anytime through your battlegrounds tab, in your Player vs. Player info
screen. Default H key on your keyboard.
style="">The Battlegrounds
You
want to have an understanding of the goal of each of the
battlegrounds, this helps in knowing where best to go and how you can
be the
most help for your side win. Whether you want to stick with a large
group of
people or protecting a flag or tower will be completely up to what is
going on
in the battleground. With lots of practice, you will be able to know
what best
to do as things progress.
Basin:
The
goal of this battleground is to be the first side to
gain 2000 resources. There are 5 resources, Stables, Lumber Mill, Mine,
Blacksmith,
and Farm. The Alliance are by the Stables, the Horde are by the Farm.
Blacksmith will be the favorite first target after gaining either the
Stables
or Farm (depending on which side you are playing). As a Healer you want
to
stick with the groups of those traveling often from resource to
resource to
either attack or protect it. A Shadow Priest or Discipline Priest can
have a
choice of following the group or staying with one of the resource flags
to
protect it.
Valley:
In
Alteric Valley it is a race to see which team can get to
the enemy side the fastest and kill the leader. At times this can be a
long
process and other times short. In the end, if the battleground lasts
for many
hours who ever runs out of reinforcements first loses the battle. As a
Holy
Priest you want to stay with the group taking out the lieutenant and
the
leader, healing the Main Tank through all the damage. A Discipline
Priest can
fill either role of healing or dpsing, when sticking with the group
taking out
the leaders, your protective spells will come in handy when enemy
players come
in to stall you from kill their leaders before they do. As a Shadow
Priest you
get the luxury of being able to assist in taking out towers and
capturing
graveyards or staying on your side of the field to keep the enemy
players at
bay.
the Storm:
This
battleground is much of a mix between Warsong Gulch and
Arathi Basin. The goal of this battleground is to reach 2000 points
before the
other side does. This is achieved by capturing towers and collecting
the flag
from the center of the battlefield. Much like Arathi Basin, team
members will
be running often from tower to tower in order to protect it or to
capture it.
The flag is available to carry to any tower controlled by your side to
gain
extra points and reach 2000 points quicker. A Holy Priest will again
want to
stay with the groups of people running from tower to tower or to the
flag to
keep collecting. Discipline or Shadow Priest has the choice of staying
with the
group or near a tower to keep it in your control and protect it from
enemies
trying to capture it.
Wintergrasp:
Wintergrasp
in Northrend is a huge PvP battleground that
resets every few hours and introduces siege combat to WoW. You can gain
ranks
through killing enemy combatants or by taking or defending the keep.
You can
create various weapons and vehicles depending upon your rank. Once you
achieve
the rank of First Lieutenant, you can gain Wintergrasp Marks of Honor
by
participating in a battle. You can spend those marks on special gear
from
vendors in Wintergrasp Keep if your faction holds the keep. Just like
in
Strands of the Ancients, Holy and Discipline will want to refrain from
using
any siege vehicles, if possible to keep players on the ground up and
alive.
Shadow Priests can either drive a siege vehicle or stay on the ground
and
assist with dpsing.
of the Ancients:
This
battleground is different compared to all other
battlegrounds. You start off as either defending or attacking.
Attackers will
come up from the beach in a boat and try to break into the fortress
using siege
vehicles in order to get to the orb inside within 10 minutes. After 10
minutes
the sides will switch! The defenders will attack and the attackers will
defend.
The side that has gotten to the orb the fastest wins the battle. As a
Holy
Priest, you want to refrain from using a siege vehicle, even if it
looks like a
lot of fun to be able to use, you will want to keep any players on the
ground
alive. As a Shadow Priest you get to choose between helping dps down
the enemy
players or drive a siege vehicle. A Discipline Priest can do whichever
they
want to do, though it will be recommended to help in supporting the
fellow
players attacking or defending.
Gulch:
This
battleground is capture-the-flag. The first team to
capture 3 flags from the enemy’s field wins the battleground.
Holy and
Discipline Priests will want to stay with the flag carrier, keep the
flag
carrier protected, healed and put those fears to good use getting the
attackers
off the flag carrier. Shadow Priests will want to be out in the field
killing
off attackers from the flag carrier or staying with your flag to keep
the enemy
from capturing it. You cannot gain a point in capturing a flag if your
flag is
not there.
PvP
Rewards
Do
you really need more of a reward than slaughtering
your enemies, dancing on their corpse and laughing at them? Well no you
don’t,
but Blizzard gives you more
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anyway! You can use your Honor Points,
Arena
Points, and Marks of Honor to pick up new gear that will help your
slaughter
fest even more. Rewards acquired through PvPing gives you armor,
weapons and
trinkets that has resilience, stamina, intellect and other stats like
Spell
Power, Haste Rating and Critical Strike Rating to assist in making you
a better
player in the battlegrounds. You will need to gain a certain amount of
marks
from several different battlegrounds as well as honor points in order
to
purchase PvP rewards. Vendors to purchase these rewards are located in
a
capital city. For Horde they are located in the Hall of Legends in
Orgrimmar.
For Alliance they are located in Champions’ Hall in Stormwind
City. You can
also purchase special mounts, they are not entirely meant for PvPing
alone, but
are only acquired through PvP marks and honor points.
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