Shadow priest: 2v2 arena partners

I know most of my readers are not big on WoW, so I’ll put most of this post under the fold. I actually haven’t played in over a week, and I’m not up on the newest patch, but I can share my thoughts on who you should go into arenas with if you’re a shadow priest. The list goes from worst to best…

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9. Paladins It is my determined opinion that shadow priests do not do well in 2v2 with healers. We go out of mana fairly quickly, and can easily use up our whole pool without killing someone on the opposing team who is getting heals. With this in mind, paladins, arguably the best single target healers in the game, are not a good match. They can keep you alive, it’s true, but once that mana is gone (or burned) your dps will drop to zero. A great retribution paladin, well geared and skilled, may be able to do something against a healing team, but against a mana burn team with good crowd control, you won’t be getting very far at all.

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8. Priests Two shadow priests can get pretty far against a team without any dispels. Two priests also have the options of doing a dual mana burn, which works excellent against healing teams. Those good things being said, a team with two of the same class doesn’t have a lot of choices regarding crowd control, and is being screwed out of some useful buffs coming from another class. I’d have to say that a two priest team might be able to stay alive for a while, but they would not win against good opponents.

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7. Shamans Another case of mana anxiety. Though healing shamans have the mana spring totem (and insanely short heal cast times), it’s just a matter of time before you both run out of mana. In general, I think, shamans and paladins are great for 5v5 and even 3v3, but they are weak in 2v2 unless paired with an excellent non-mana-user.

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6. Hunters Hunters suffer the same mana problems as healers. With that caveat, a hunter can put out a lot of dps, has great crowd control, and also has fairly passive mana burn capabilities. Using all of these abilities to the advantage of the team is difficult, and it takes a great player to pull them off. If you have a great player, a hunter can do great against many teams. The problem is when you run up against a team with great melee. The hunter can’t do too much against them and can’t drain their mana.

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5. Druids Alternately, the healer that appears highest on the list or the melee that appears lowest. A great feral druid can work wonders with a shadow priest, just like a good warrior or rogue. High dps, high survivability, and no reliance on mana means that the feral druid will have a chance to down an opponent no matter what. Druid healers, on the other hand, are great at kiting and avoiding mana burns. Given a choice between chasing and killing the shadow priest or the healing druid, most teams will go for the druid, which is unusual (shadow priests are almost always the first target). This leaves the shadow priest some freedom to go all out. Moonkins can be good partners, but like hunters, they must know and use all the tricks available to them.

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4. Rogues Ah, the melee classes. A good shadow priest / rogue team will work only if they know how to manage aggro and crowd controls. Sap, fear, blind, kick, and silence will be your friends. You want the shadow priest to gain aggro early (though not early enough that combat begins and sap is unavailable). The rogue needs freedom to get on one opponent. In any case, whichever of you doesn’t have aggro, the other must be doing maximum dps. I am a big fan of two dps teams for shadow priests, as you can probably tell.

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3. Mages A great mage should be able to kill anyone, if they are not being harassed. A frost mage, along with their pet, can power through any opposing player and defeat them. The main problem is when the mage is being distracted or crowd controlled or silenced. That’s where you come in, as the shadow priest. Just stay alive, do what damage you can, and get people to attack you. The mage will get the real job done.

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2. Warriors Warriors are probably the fiercest competitor in arenas, hands down. This is why it’s good to have one on your side! Just focus fire on your warrior partner’s target (usually the healer), burn them down, and enjoy your win. They can put out a constant stream of dps, and are near unstoppable if you toss a few dispels their way. Of course, it might be hard to find a warrior who will play alongside a shadow priest; they can do even better with more conventional healers.

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1. Warlocks Warlocks and shadow priests can stack the dots together, and increase each other’s shadow damage, which is great unless the opposing team has a dispeller. This is why I prefer a warlock with unstable affliction as my top teammate in 2v2. Most warlocks go SL/SL spec for arenas, which is a solid spec, and you can go far with one by your side, but for priest partners, UA is the way to go. Warlocks don’t suffer as much of a mana drain problem with life tap, drain life, and siphon life available for when they run out of mana. They also have useful pets which add a bit of a bonus. Finally, a good warlock and a good priest should be able to live forever against pretty much any class except warriors. If you go against a warrior, fear their partner and kill them with dots as quickly as you can. If no warriors, it’s ez mode.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, I’ve never gotten above 1840 on a 2v2 team, so I don’t know what the strategies are in the top tier. Maybe a super-geared shadow priest can do well with a healer, if that’s your experience please leave a comment to that effect. I’m always looking for solid feedback. Also, you can check out my post on shadow priest spell rotations.