The strategies below assume a player at level 70 with all talent points assigned. You can certainly PvP effectively below this level, but often will have higher level players kill you.
PvP as a priest is all about not letting the opponent hit you. While we have strong heals, cloth armour makes us very fragile, especially against melee classes. You don’t want someone to be attacking you without a shield and/or renew up. You need to use Flash Heal if you start to lose health, because certain abilities can take away big chunks of damage before you can heal them. Against all classes Psychic Scream is your most powerful weapon. This skill is one of the strongest PvP skills, and is the most often complained about skill for our class. If it doesn’t break on damage, you have 8 free seconds to attack/heal/run. Use it as soon as you can, so if the fight goes long, it will have cooled down before the end. 26 seconds is all you need to survive for the cooldown to refresh.
The main bulk of your damage vs most classes will come from Shadow Word: Pain. Make sure this is on at all times. It does great damage, is instant cast (so can be cast on the run) and is mana efficient, especially considering the Mental Agility talent. Mind Blast should be your nuke of choice. Cast it as often as the cooldown allows. Mind Flay can be used in limited situations, for example when someone is fleeing due to being feared (Psychic Scream) or when they are heading towards you. At other times, it’s not as useful, as channeled spells are easily interrupted. Silence is also a powerful spell against many classes. The key to beating many good players is the prop timing of Silence. If you miss-time it, or use it to early, it is wasted. It’s best to use towards the end of a long-casting spell, so the opponent wastes time casting and then has to wait a further 5 seconds to cast again. Each class requires a different moment to cast Silence, more on that below.

Another important point about PvP is to ensure to keep some distance between yourself and your opponent (this is mainly for melee classes. For casters and Hunters, strategies are different). Start off the fight at the 35 yard range to cast Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Blast. As they are charging towards you, use Mind Flay. Once they hit you, fear them, and then use Mind Flay again. It’s then best to reposition yourself to be at maximum distance again. You can often beat people without them ever touching you.

Class Strategies
Druid
Druid battles can be very difficult and drawn out. Because both classes have access to strong heals, it’s often difficult to kill each other. The main tactic to use against druids is Dispel and Mana Burn.
Two of the druid’s main heals have strong HoT components, which are easily dispelled by a priest. Good druids won’t even bother to cast these, but if they do, dispel them early before they can heal. You should also start out the battle to remove Mark of the Wild and any other buffs they may have on them.
While they are in caster form, spam Mana Burn. It does low damage, but it burns a significant amount of mana, and a druid without mana is a druid that can’t heal. When a druid is getting low, they will generally shift to their dire bear form. Stop using Mana Burn now, it has now effect. While in bear form, they have increased armour and hp, but most of all have access to a significant heal in the form of Frenzied Regeneration. This heals based on rage generation. If you see a druid gaining health while in bear form, don’t try and dispel it, it doesn’t work. Instead, fear them and move as far away as possible. This will prevent rage generation and hopefully limit their healing ability.
When they shift back into caster form, as they are getting low on health, cast silence. This will prevent them from healing, and at this point, it’s usually fairly easy to finish them off.
Hunter
Hunters can be difficult because of their stings, one of which drains a significant amount of mana. Viper Sting at level 56 drains 1108 mana over 8 seconds, and is a poison, so it can’t be dispelled by a priest.
You should always ignore a hunter’s pet. They don’t do as much damage as the hunter, and there is not point killing them, as meanwhile the hunter will be killing you. Hunters a strongest when they have the range advantage. As soon as possible, bridge that gap. Fear the pet is an option if it is annoying you. That way you can focus entirely on the hunter.

The trick to beating hunters is exploiting their minimum range. Hunter range attacks can only be used at 8-35 yards, while their melee attacks have a 5 yard range. There’s a

3 yard difference between the two where a hunter cannot attack you. Learn where this is, and use it to your advantage. When they are meleeing, run back. When they are shooting, run towards them. After you fear and cast whatever spells you need (whether it be a heal or a damage spell) run towards where they are, rather than away. This will prevent them from applying the crippling Viper Sting on you.
Often hunters will try to flee from you by using Aspect of the Cheetah. I personally love it when they do this. Make sure you have Shadow Word: Pain up on them, and follow. They will be constantly dazed, and make a very easy target.
Mage
Mages are the king of ranged DPS and crowd control. Generally, Shadow priests have the edge over mages, because of Silence and Fear, as well as heals. However, Frost mages can be tough with their kiting, and if a fire mage gets a lucky crit, you can die very quickly.
Mages will invariably open with Polymorph. This allows them some time to cast Pyroblast, which should have 100% crit rate, as long as the talent Combustion is not on cooldown. If they wait for your shield to expire, which it should, this will do up to 1470 damage instantly, with 1 or 2 DoT components. This is huge damage. As soon as you are out of Polymorph (and possible stun, their fire spells should have a 10% chance to stun) cast silence. If you don’t they will kill you. If you try and heal first, they will Silence you, and you will be dead. You now have 5 seconds where they can’t do anything. Make sure you heal yourself to full and have your shield up and ready. This is where the battle begins.
After you have healed and Shielded, run next to them. On the way, cast Shadow Word: Pain. They will probably try and freeze you here. Don’t waste your Psychic Scream if you are frozen. Instead, use this opportunity as they blink/run away to cast Mind Blast. Follow them to where they are. Make sure you are always within range to cast Psychic Scream.
Once they have used Blink and Frost Nova, fear them, and then unload as much damage as you can. Keep casting Mind Blast and healing as necessary, and always keep them Pained.
If you can survive the initial onslaught and heal yourself to full, you should be able to beat a mage the majority of the time.

Paladin
Paladin’s can be quite difficult fights for priests because of their heals and Divine Shield. They can often last long enough to make you run out of mana, at which point they have the advantage because they can do significant melee damage. The key to beating Paladins is using Mana Burn and Silence/Fear at the correct moments. Because they only have small mana pools, Mana Burn is an effective way to stop them from healing. It will drain them fast. When you get a Paladin to around 30% life, Silence them. This will prevent them healing (they can still cast Divine Shield, however). When Silence wears off, Fear them to finish them off.
If you don’t burn their mana and prevent them from healing, they will just use Divine Shield and heal themselves to full, wasting your mana. It’s said that paladins have 3 lives, and this is definitely the case. The trick to beating them is not to let them use their lives at all. You can’t outlast a paladin – your mana pool will run out before theirs – but your heals can mitigate any melee damage they cause while you Burn away their ability to heal any damage you are causing.
Priest
Ah, the most hated fight of any priest. Priest vs priest fights aren’t about strategy, they are about mana pools and talent allocations.
Believe it or not, a Holy/Disc priest will have the advantage against a Shadow priest in a 1 on 1 situation. They will generally have a larger mana pool, and their heals will be more mana efficient. If they have Improved Mana Burn, they have a distinct advantage, even considering Silence.
Priest vs priest battles are long, drawn out fights that only end when one person runs out of mana and can no longer heal. Therefore, the strategy is to reduce your opponent to 0 mana before they do the same to you. The main thing to note about this is to not waste mana. Don’t cast Renew. Don’t cast Shadow Word Pain. Don’t cast Power Word: Shield. This is the only battle where this is the case. Why? They will always be dispelled. Dispel is cheaper mana wise than any of those spells. If your opponent casts any of those, Dispel them immediately. They have just wasted mana. Your main spell should be Mana Burn in the early stages of battle. Once you deplete their mana, you can use Silence and try using Fear, although it

may be difficult to get the latter off. A good priest won’t let you near. Blackout Proc is the best way to close the gap. Try and keep ahead of them in mana at all times. If you take damage, heal, but don’t waste it.
If you are going to overheal, wait. You should also use your wand and melee if you have some good equipment. This can supplement your Mana Burn damage and help to make them heal before you have to. It’s also great for interrupting their casting, especially if you have a fast dagger.
Rogue
Rogues are a priest’s worst nightmare. Make sure you have your shield on at the beginning of the fight. Generally rogues will only ever attack you and you are already engaged with a mob. They will always have the initial advantage in this case.
The worst type of rogue to fight is a stunlock rogue. With a succession of attacks, they can keep you stunned until you are dead (this is assuming they get the jump on you. If you see a rogue before he attack you, you start out an advantage). In this case you need to keep pressing fear. You may just get any opportunity to use it, giving you time to heal.
The second thing you have to worry about with rogues is Will of the Forsaken and other fear immunity trinkets. Undead rogues will give you a very hard time, and will come out on top the majority of the time. The only tactic here is to use fear as early as possible, which will use up their Will of the Forsaken. You then have to survive for 26 seconds until , you can fear again. Chain cast Flash Heal and Shield yourself whenever you can. As soon as you can, use fear again, at which point you should unload as much damage as possible.
Always have Shadow Word: Pain on a rogue. This will prevent them from vanishing and going back into stealth, allowing them to get off their best abilities. Don’t just stand still in the one place, this will allow dagger rogues to sit behind you and use Backstab, and prevent you from casting your damage spells. It’s better to jump around, just as they would do to you.
If you get the jump on a rogue, it’s pretty much an easy battle. Rogues need to start from stealth for a number of specials, and it helps them generate their initial combo points. Without combo points, rogues are useless. Just keep them feared and away from you, and they will be dead before they know what hit them.

Shaman
Shamans are the undisputed kings of PvP. With their shocks, they can own any melee class by keeping them at range. Their Windfury attack allows them to chew threw cloth wearing casters, and their heals and totems give them added versatility that not many classes can match.
The key to beating a Shaman is precise use of Silence and the depletion of their mana. This is another fight where Mana Burn should be your weapon of choice. If you allow a shaman to have full mana, they will just heal when you are near to killing them.
Keep burning their mana away while at the same time healing yourself. The Frost Shock effect can be dispelled if you need to get in close or add some range, and if they try to shift into Ghost Wolf form, dispel them. This will remove it.
A shaman will generally throw down a grounding totem. These absorb harmful spells like fear, and need to be destroyed asap. They will also generally try and interrupt your first heal with an Earth Shock. A good counter to this is to start casting your hearthstone. The glowing green will trick some shamans and they will waste their Earth Shock, at which point you can heal.
If they get low, make sure they can’t heal. Their heal only takes 1.5 seconds to cast, so make sure you don’t miss your opportunity to Silence. Once you have them at this point, Mind Blast and Mind Flay, and try and finish them off. If Silence wears off and they can heal, you are in big trouble.
Warlock
Before you fight, make sure you have Shadow Protection up, as Warlocks have a number of shadow Spells.
Like priests, Fear is the main weapon available to warlocks. However, they don’t really have the capacity to outright kill a priest in the time their Fear lasts. They will do significant damage to you, but once it’s over, you can heal yourself. If they do crit with Shadowbolt and you are low on health after the first fear, it’s a good idea to use Silence as soon as you can. This will allow you to heal and dispel Corruption and Immolate, if they have used them. You should also use this time to run to where they are and use Fear on them.

Whether you are able to defeat a warlock 1 on 1 will depend on which pet he has out and how he is specced. If you can ambush him with any pet other than his Felhunter out, you should have a good chance of causing some damage. Felhunters, especially on a Soul Link Warlock, are a priest’s worst nightmare. They will have massive resists, be able to remove your buffs (or debuffs such as Shadow Word: Pain), and have the ability to Silence you with Spell Lock. Do not try to kill the Felhunter, as it has even higher resists and most of your spells will fail. If you are a Smite build, then you should have an easier time against Felhunter Warlocks, as they do not provide protection from Holy spells.
If the warlock has a Succubus out, it is likely he is a nuker, and you should be careful because he will chain mez you and blast you before you have a chance to react. If you can fear before he Seduces, then you have won the battle, because his hitpoints will be vastly lower than his Soul Link counterpart, and his survivability will be impaired because of his gear choices.
A voidwalker means sacrifice, which is a damage shield similar to Power Word: Shield. Often a Warlock with a Voidwalker out will be able to summon another through talents almost instantly, so you have to be wary that they have another shield. If a warlock has an imp out, you should laugh and kill him quickly. Although an Imp that is boosted by Black Book can output a fair bit of damage, you should be able to survive through it and kill the Warlock with mana to spare.
Focus all your damage on the Warlock, always have him DoTed, and use Mind Blast whenever you can. Warlocks generally have high HP, so they can take a while to bring down, but as long as you keep your self Shielded and use Flash Heal when you need to you should come out on top.
The warlock’s Felhunter pet is designed to take out casters, and as such is a very difficult battle for a priest to fight. The strategy remains the same though – try and bring them down before your mana runs out. Try and time you fears to hit both the pet and the warlock.

Warrior
A good warrior can be tough to beat. We have no real way of reducing their damage output, because we can’t improve our armour. They also have some damaging abilities that can reduce our healing and do significant damage if we go below 20%. Make sure you always stay above this point, or you are toast. Don’t wait to heal against warriors. It doesn’t help.
You have to try and keep them away from you as much as possible. Fear is important here, as is jumping around during the battle. If you can jump through your opponent, it may cancel a swing and disorient them.
Don’t bother trying to get distance at the start of the fight, they will just charge you. There is also little point in trying this in the middle of the fight, as the ability Intercept allows them to immediately close the distance and stun for 3 seconds. This is only usable from 8-35 range, so stay below 8 yards away and they can’t use it. Shield Bash will be your biggest problem here. It interrupts casting and prevents any spell in that field from being cast for 6 seconds. It’s very difficult to get a heal off when this ability is being used often. If you see them at low rage, it’s a good time to heal.
Keep Pain up at all times, Mind Blast when you can, and don’t get below 20%. The key here is surviving long enough to allow your Pain to wear them down. Shield, Renew and Flash Heal are you best bets in this battle.