So for you other shadows out there, how you feeling about being viable in pvp going forward?
I feel like its my last chance to reconsider and I have to commit to priest, and just feeling some FOMO with all the rogue/MM/ret train going around.
Plus I’m not impressed by our legendaries for pvp 
At least mindgames is looking sexy (plz no nerf)
I’d imagine the choice is sephuz, and the same for many others because of the CC reduction.
Shadow seems really, really strong in PvP, and not in a sort of… obvious pubstomper kind of way that MM hunter is, the kind that’s a consistent complete picture that’ll do well in a variety of setups and situations.
My pvp experience is limited, but if you are free casting, people die almost instantly.
If you get focused, you get smoked. I guess those two statements generally apply to most specs.
I’ve been having a really good time as a shadow priest in Pvp. Be prepared to be targeted instantly though. If I’m allowed to free cast it gets nasty fast. Managing your survivability is crucial and being a Venthyr really helps with that. Played right you have like 4 lives. The only thing is that almost every class has a kick and that is extremely lethal for us as we can’t even disperse while kicked where other classes you mentioned don’t really need to worry as much about that. Can be challenging but rewarding. I strongly recommend!
shadow is super good right now.
if you can learn how to use gfade well, plus cds, you can pretty much kill anything 1v1 outside of a good ww or sub (prot pally pvp aids not withstanding)
Hpellipses said it best:
It’ll work in bgs, rbgs, arena (through all mmr and with a variety of comps rpx, warrior/sp, god comp, etc), and wpvp.
There’s no better time to pvp as a spriest. Hasn’t been this good (imo) since mop shadow orbs dp (didn’t play enough wod to know).
My only hesitation with going with Shadow for pvp right now is that it might get nerfed tbh. It’s super strong right now and has a much fuller toolkit than any other class almost. It can burst, it can offheal, it has a lot of cc, it can spread pressure, has strong defensives, etc etc.
It’ll be good no matter what.
The reality is that shadow has been good pre 9.0, just with a different speed of damage with ramp up to vf, no dp, and the fact that a lot of people (like me) dumped their spriests because they didn’t like vf.
Still had gfade, dispersion, void shift, ve, etc.
Now it’s just much more efficient with damnation and unfurling darkness working together, dp for on demand damage, mindgames (which is cried about a lot) and thoughtsteal which i could see getting changed if anything.
The cries about shadow needing to be nerfed are primarily from random bg people who just have no idea how to deal with it, coupled with the fact that a lot more people are playing it now since it is finally fun again, plus good.
It’ll work super well in rps, sp/ww, sp/dk, shadowplay (sp/lock), and people will always make god comp work.
With the current speed of play, shadow will do well with burst windows instead of just damp damp rot.
I am coming from a more arena standpoint, but in bgs shadow has always done well with spread damage and decent cc.
Question about this, what are people replacing for this, I mean void origins and gfade are necessary for PvP I can’t see doing any PvP with out either. Are people forging lasting plague to plug thoughtsteal in for shadow?
Void origins is not a necessity for pvp.
Thoughsteal is also only really good in arena, where it’s also competing with life swap xD
It’s also comp dependent, like against mages and locks its great since it locks them out of their cc.
In 2s payfiend can help vs a healer dps team, plus if they can cure diseases any competent healer won’t let you drop a 12 second dp.
So yea, if you wanted to run thoughtsteal it’d be vs mage or lock and you’d replace lasting plague (or psyfiend).
Gfade and void shift are too game changing to drop.
If it’s bgs and more casual stuff, don’t worry about thoughtsteal.
As said above me, it is primarily arena based.
The most versatile class in the game right now, very fun to play, amazing utility, not the most damage but close to it. I would say we’re currently a 9/10 and its an awesome class to play atm.