Figh the shadow......

1v1: Shadow Priest vs. Frost Mage

Before clicking on the download link, I would suggest that you read through the entire post, so you know what to look for, and how to not make the same mistakes I made.

So you don’t get bored before you get to the fights, I’ll list the most important things to note in a 1v1 with a frost mage.

1.) Ideally, you want to fear both the mage and his pet, even if it doesn’t break a cast. The earlier you get a fear off, the better (especially if it’s before he uses Freeze, but they usually cast that instantly so… whatever). If you have to decide between fearing the mage and his pet fear the pet.

2.) Shadow Word: Death the initial Polymorph(s). It sucks if he fakes it, but if he doesn’t then you’re screwed anyway.

3.) Use range to your advantage. You’re the one that can do damage while being a million yards away. Both him and his pet have to be in range to cast.

4.) Make a self dispel macro. Dispelling is like half of what you’re going to cast, and you don’t want to waste time targetting yourself and retargetting him. On top of this, always dispel everything off yourself, even Winter’s Chill (if it gets too high stacked anyway). The worst situation to be in is in a Nova or Freeze with a Frostbolt -> Icelance coming your way, and you have 5/5 Winter’s Chill, a Frostbolt, and a Nova debuff on you. That’s an almost sure way to lose. So dispel the dispel buffers and don’t be caught in a situation like that.

5.) In an arena situation, it’s much easier to 1v1 frost mages. There’s almost 0 chance of losing if you’re using line of sight to your advantage and you have sufficient gear. I’m saying this before people are like “Well, you can’t range in arenas, what are you going to do then!?”. The fact is, a 1v1 in a non-LOS area is the best environment for a frost mage to duel. And the only way to beat them in a duel is to use range to interrupt casts so… do it!

6.) Devouring Plague. It helps a lot. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily “required”, since I only have to use cd’s on good frost mages to beat them. Against most, it’s relatively easy to maintain range and avoid damage. But yes, I would consider it a necessity if you’re dueling good frost mages.

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Download the video here: http://files.filefront.com/Noxn+FrostMageFightswmv/;9729874;/fileinfo.html

There are 3 clips in the video.
Length: 4 min 33 sec
Size: 74.9 MB
Track is listed at the end of the video.
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Now, since I was too lazy to edit a commentary into the video, I’ll explain them here!

Fight #1 — Shadow Priest Win
It was a solid start, but I wasn’t really expecting the double Polymorph. I was saving trinket in case I got my holy school locked with a nova on me. Notice after the first Frostbolt, I dispel it off myself _before Imagez gets out of range of his pet_. This is so I can get a fear off on both him and his elemental.

As the fight goes on, also notice that I prioritize keeping myself alive over doing damage to imagez. Self dispels before offensive dispels against Frost Mages. He was also smart not to Ice Block my Devouring Plague, because he knew a Silence was waiting for him right as he got out. Unfortunately, when I do Silence a bit later, it misses his Frostbolt cause I’m awful, but it would have been a good Silence if it hit.

When he Ice Blocks, I take that time to move to his pet to get another fear off. Now is the time when I try to put out my damage. Now that all of his shields are down, he has 0 pushback resistance. I take advantage of this by putting my Shadowfiend on him, giving me time to either damage him or recover from a burst (there wasn’t much burst in this fight).

A few seconds later, when I get Imp CS’ed in a nova, there’s nothing I can do, so I take that time to get off a wand shot so as to not waste a GCD or two. When I see his elemental is down, I take that time to get a couple of bandage ticks off so he’s pressured more into breaking the channeling with an Ice Lance.

And finally, mind flay a bit and killed him. It was a lot better than the next two fights…

Fight #2 — Shadow Priest Barely Win
I’m going to be honest here, I probably would have lost this one if I didn’t resist the Frostbolt at the end. We’ll never know if it would’ve crit or not though!

At the beginning, he faked the Polymorph, then was going to get a full duration one on me, so I used Silence so I wouldn’t get caught in a burst situation. After his next Polymorph, I trinket, dispel once, then try to get range.

He Ice Blocks my DoTs, knowing his Freeze was down so he couldn’t catch up to me, and my Silence was down from earlier. I use this time to pop Devouring Plague on him.

As the fight progresses, notice that I’m constantly keeping my HP in a safe zone. I can get mana back from Shadowfiend, so mana isn’t that big of a concern right now. Looking back, I should have dispelled the Nigh Invulnerability Belt (and Dampen Magic earlier), but I was being really safe with my HP.

During my second Silence, I try to recover. Noticing his shield is down again, I put my Shadowfiend on him, fake a Mind Flay, and bandage during the Imp CS. Now I try to dispel the Frostbolt off myself to get another fear on him, but he novas and makes me waste more of my mana dispelling. Since I’m oom, low on HP, and out of ways to regen mana, wanding is the only way to finish him off so I try to gain range and wand when I can. Eventually, it comes down to a DoT + Wand vs. a Frostbolt. And I resist the frostbolt lulz!

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