Shadow builds are the most popular PvP Priest talent tree used in Cataclysm 4.0.3. This Shadow pvp spec guide will take you from 1-85 and includes your prime glyphs.
Cataclysm Shadow Priest PvP Build Guide 4.0.3 Notes
This is the best PvP leveling skills for a Shadow Priest from 1 through 85 that goes along great with the best leveling route guide: Zygor’s Leveling Guide
Cataclysm Shadow Priest PvP Build Guide 4.0.3 Rotation
1) Shadow Word: Pain
2) Vampiric Touch
3) Devouring Plague
4) Shadow Word: Death only if the boss has less than 25% health
5) Mind Blast
6) Mind Flay
Cataclysm Shadow Priest PvP Build Guide 4.0.3
Level 85 Priest (7/0/34) (Link)
Shadow (34 Points)
Darkness – Rank 1/3
Spell haste increased by 1%.Improved Shadow Word: Pain – Rank 2/2
Increases the damage of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6%.Veiled Shadows – Rank 2/2
Decreases the cooldown of your Fade ability by 6 sec, and reduces the cooldown of your Shadowfiend ability by 60 sec.Improved Psychic Scream – Rank 2/2
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream spell by 4 sec.Improved Mind Blast – Rank 3/3
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 1.5 sec., and while in Shadowform your Mind Blast also has a 100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 10% for 10 sec.Improved Devouring Plague – Rank 2/2
Your Devouring Plague instantly deals damage equal to 30% of its total periodic effect.Twisted Faith – Rank 2/2
Increases your shadow spell damage by 2%, and grants you spell hit rating equal to 100% of any Spirit gained from items or effects.Shadowform – Rank 1/1
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15%, reducing all damage done to you by 15%, and increasing all party and raid members spell haste by 5%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form.Phantasm – Rank 1/2
Your Fade ability now has a 50% chance to remove all movement impairing effects.Harnessed Shadows – Rank 2/2
Increases the chance for you to gain a Shadow Orb when dealing damage with your Mind Flay and Shadow Word: Pain by 8%, and you have a 100% chance to gain a Shadow Orb when critically hit by any attack.Silence – Rank 1/1
Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 sec. Non-player victim spellcasting is also interrupted for 3 sec.Vampiric Embrace – Rank 1/1
Fills you with the embrace of Shadow energy, causing you to be healed for 6% and other party members to be healed for 3% of any single-target Shadow spell damage you deal for 30 min.Masochism – Rank 2/2
When you take a damaging attack equal to or greater than 10% of your total health or damage yourself with your Shadow Word: Death, you instantly gain 10% of your total mana.Pain and Suffering – Rank 2/2
Your Mind Flay has a 60% chance to refresh the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain on the target, and reduces the damage you take from your own Shadow Word: Death by 40%.Vampiric Touch – Rank 1/1
Causes 540 Shadow damage over 15 sec to your target and causes up to 10 party or raid members to gain 1% of their maximum mana per 10 sec when you deal damage from Mind Blast.Paralysis – Rank 2/2
When you critically hit with your Mind Blast, you cause the target to be unable to move for 4 sec.Psychic Horror – Rank 1/1
You terrify the target, causing them to tremble in horror for 3 sec and drop their main hand and ranged weapons for 10 sec.Sin and Punishment – Rank 2/2
When your Vampiric Touch is dispelled, the dispeller and all nearby enemy targets within 10 yards have a 100% chance to be instantly feared in horror for 3 sec.When your Mind Flay critically hits, the cooldown of your Shadowfiend is reduced by 10 sec.
Shadowy Apparition – Rank 3/3
When you deal periodic damage with your Shadow Word: Pain, you have a 12% chance to summon a shadow version of yourself which will slowly move towards a target which is afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain. Once reaching the target, it will instantly deal 485 shadow damage.While moving, the chance to summon the shadowy apparation is increased to 60%. You can have up to 4 Shadowy Apparitions active at a time.
Dispersion – Rank 1/1
You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec.Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced and clears all snare and movement impairing effects when cast, and makes you immune to them while dispersed.
Discipline (7 Points)
Improved Power Word: Shield – Rank 2/2
Increases the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 10%.Twin Disciplines – Rank 3/3
Increases your Shadow and Holy spell damage and healing by 6%.Mental Agility – Rank 2/3
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 7%.
Holy (0 Points)
None
Glyphs
Glyph of Mind Flay (Prime Glyph)
Increases the damage done by your Mind Flay spell by 10% when your target is afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain.Glyph of Shadow Word: Death (Prime Glyph)
If your Shadow Word: Death fails to kill the target at or below 25% health, your Shadow Word: Death’s cooldown is instantly reset. This effect cannot occur more often than once every 6 sec.Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain (Prime Glyph)
Increases the periodic damage of your Shadow Word: Pain by 10%.Glyph of Inner Fire (Major Glyph)
Increases the armor from your Inner Fire spell by 50%.Glyph of Spirit Tap (Major Glyph)
When you kill a target with your Shadow Word: Death and yield experience or honor, you instantly receive 12% of your total mana over 12 sec.Glyph of Fade (Major Glyph)
Reduces the cooldown of your Fade spell by 9 sec.Glyph of Shadowfiend (Minor Glyph)
Receive 5% of your maximum mana if your Shadowfiend dies from damage.Glyph of Levitate (Minor Glyph)
Your Levitate spell no longer requires a reagent.Glyph of Fortitude (Minor Glyph)
Reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 50%.
Do You Want To Level Faster Like The Pros?
If you are having trouble leveling or need to level faster in WoW Cataclysm I highly suggest you check out Zygor’s Leveling Guide. It has the perfect leveling path that gets you to 85 faster and easier than any other way. No matter what level you are, you load the guide and it points with an arrow to the direction of each monster, quest giver, trainer etc. Its pretty crazy. It also has an in game box that tells you exactly what to do, like kill 5 boars, run west 10 miles, etc. If you dont have this in game add on guide, honestly, you are missing out. You can find out more here or check out the Zygor Cataclysm Leveling Guide Review.

very nice it was extremely helpfull
Glyph of Pain Suppression?? WTF? u can’t use pain in shadow. lol
yeah something got mixed up, glyphs have been updated
this is a shit build, why would you get 1/3 in darkness more hast gets the dots on the target faster, and with improved mind blast and paralysis i would expect you to get mind melt more so if you have glyph of shadow world death, wtf is the point of getting 1/2 in phantasm, having 1/2 of masochism is good enough or you could have gone one step further and got archangel to solve your mana problems and get a damage boost out of it, paralysis will rarely be used because a priest doesn’t and if you want to stop healing done to a target just silence, most of those is a wast of talents
you dont need much haste because MS spam is ftw now
I personally use this spec (http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bcGoZZhrMdrkrdzfo:skRkbM0MV)
^ thats cause you are bad.. The talent tree for shadow is soooo heavily built.. there isnt anything you should really leave out.. everything has its strong point.. with that said.. this i believe is the main build from what ive seen, and how i play on my teams. 2 2200 teams already..makes me think im doing somethihng right….. http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bcZZrrGdrkrddfo:sRkMok0VM
From what ive Heard & Seen Dark Arch-Angel is pretty much a must since it gives a pretty big damage boost, amazing when your fighting a beefy class slowing them down with mindflay and slowly getting more and more powerful
I am new to playing this class and was curious about stats. (Flame at will)
What should my goal for Int, Spirit, Haste be? And is Hit or spell pen important for pvp?? AGain I am very new to pvp with this toon, so want to learn as much as possible!
One other thing I am running across in BG’s is some ppl using MS, MB, MF, archangel rather than DOT’s. Any ideas on which is getting the best results in pvp?
hi
i dont fallow this
is this tallent for pvp or pve?
Realm: Shattered Hand
You might want to put more points into Darkness, since haste is better for pvp, the faster the casts, the more damage output.
@ priestpro I think you failed to read this blog, Its not about arena builds, It was designed for Battlegrounds. Slight difference in the two as well.
Seriously if you want a good PVE build use mine it’s very good i get to 17k dps and 50k+ AoE. http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bcGoZZGbGdRzrd0fo:RkMbMRMcV
oh it’s pvp sorry:D thought it was pve from comments
oh it’s pvp sorry:D thought it was pve from comments. but it’s still NG.