How to beat me in PvP

[Bolty]

I love PvP. I love dueling. I love fighting other players, because it's always so interesting. While mob behavior is completely predictable, you never really know what another player is going to do. If you're also unaware of how they're speced and what gear they have, the variables are fascinating.

Various members of Avarice duel me a lot, and I enjoy it immensely. It's rare on the Battlegrounds that I have one-on-one matches, so practicing in duels gives me experience for those scenarios - experience that has helped from time to time beating up them Horde.

Anyway, to beat thy enemy one must know thy enemy. Just as I get experience and practice fighting against you guys in duels, you gain experience from fighting me. So, when you're on a battleground and you see that Priest on the other side, all alone (ok, chances of that ARE slim, I admit - a Priest, alone?), sporting a Benediction and Prophecy gear, you can bet they're likely healing spec'ed like me. So, how do you beat me?

My strengths:

1) Lots of hit points - well, that's really my gear and not my spec
2) LOTS of mana, more than a "PvP" or shadow spec would have
3) Insane mana regen™, more than a "PvP" or shadow spec would have
4) Free-mana spell cast every 5 minutes with Inner Focus
5) Powerful self-heals

My weaknesses:

1) Little DPS
2) No snare to slow or stop you, due to no Mind Flay and no Blackout
3) Easily Stutterable casts, since I don't spec for Focused Casting or Improved Flash Heal
4) No silence ability, since that's deep in the shadow tree
5) Only "crowd control" way to keep you off me is a 30-second-cooldown fear

It's because of the weaknesses listed above that many Priests go for shadow talents when they want to PvP. As well they should. In group PvP, my inability to really do any significant damage to anyone can be frustrating at times. Still, at the same time, my enemies' inability to kill me quickly makes me an incredibly effective "harasser" - defender of flag points, and healer of both myself and that DPS'er who's kicking their butt at the same time.

How do I duel? Well, it's never going to be a quick battle, that's for sure. My only effective strategy is to play a defensive approach. My goal is to whittle down your hit points or mana while staying alive, preventing you from getting that big shot in that finally takes me. I have no big-shot damage attacks.

I am weakest against Druids, Shamans, and Warlocks. I am strongest against rogues (yes, rogues, who I used to fear greatly) and warriors. Whether this is due to my gear and spec, or my inexperience fighting these classes, well, I don't know. :)

Here's how every class should approach me to take me down:

1) Druids
I HATE YOU! Your ability to heal yourselves and protect your mana pool by shapeshifting gives me fits. See, I can't burn your mana off when you're shifted to a form that doesn't use mana. Druids who shift into bear form are especially difficult for me. You have insane hit points, so whittling you down takes forever - and when you finally get low, you can pop back into human form and heal yourselves! My only way to try to stop you is to fear you just as you go to heal yourself, and then try to burn your mana while you're feared. Often times, it just isn't enough. I have had druid duels last over 10 minutes because we just couldn't kill each other. In the battlegrounds, I once solo fought a druid in Alterac Valley for a good 5 minutes before a lucky Mind Blast crit followed by a fear and another Mind Blast crit got him.
How to beat me? Protect your mana pool and whittle me down like I try to do to you. Once you finally force me to use all my mana, you can count on me only being able to cast a spell once every, oh, 5 or 6 seconds due to my impressive regen. This gives you openings to try things.

2) Shamans
Ok, I HATE YOU MORE! Your shocks interrupt my casts, and a smartly-played Shaman will always interrupt my self-heals with that. Then you go on to heal yourself and I can't do a thing to stop you. You Purge off any buffs I have. In the end, the Shaman's utility beats my one-trick pony healing and 30-second-cooldown fears. If I only had silence...*cry*
How to beat me: be a Shaman, and don't screw up. I'm owned. Don't let me mana burn you. If I were shadow spec'ed, it might be more interesting, but oh well.

3) Warriors
You can't heal yourselves. Automatically that gives me quite an edge, but what really makes or breaks the fight is how you handle my fears. You know I can only use one on you every 30 seconds, and if I get you with it I get a free few seconds to heal myself, re-cast Shield, and prepare for your next assault. Too many warriors make the mistake of thinking "if I can just do enough damage quickly enough..." No.
How to beat me: Concentrate on beating my fears and you'll have me. Interrupt my spell casts and you'll have me. I've GOT to keep my distance from you, so don't be surprised if I'm running from you if you give me the space - I'm letting my mana regen back up and my Pain whittle you down. Don't let me get away, and use your Berserker Rage to beat my fears. If I ever get distance from you, you lose. Especially if you're spec'ed for Mortal Strike, if you can just keep near me and avoid my fears, I'm toast.

4) Rogues
Nothing used to scare me more than a rogue. It's the stun, you see. I had too many experiences of perma-stunlock-until-death getting jumped by rogues. Now that I'm a well-geared 60, however, I have too many hit points for even the best of rogues to keep me in permanent stunlock until death. Once I get that moment of freedom, I'm fearing - and even if you break the fear with a trinket it still usually buys me time to re-Shield, Renew myself, re-Pain you, and heal myself. Too many rogues think "ooh, a squishy," and try to beat me through pure DPS. I've got a LOT of stamina, though, so I can take a real beating, especially with Inner Fire up, Shields, and my powerful Renew ticks. Stuns are crucial, but you'll need more than that or I'll just keep healing myself when you're feared or things are on cooldown.
How to beat me: Obviously, stealth, and get the first hit in. Ambushes are a nice way to open up, but without a stun I'm probably just going to immediately fear you and then heal up. You can either go for a Sap or a Gouge to start out with. An advantage of Sap is that it lets you wait for my Shield to drop before really letting me have it, which would otherwise negate your first ~1000 points of damage. But a big, important thing you can do is to suck my mana dry. Recognize that I'm not a mage; the fight won't be a quick one, and if you can drop my mana pool you can take me out. Rather than going for the quick kill, concentrate on burning my mana off, dancing around me to make it hard for me to land a Mind Blast, stunning me when I try to heal, and getting back to me quickly when I fear you.

5) Paladins:
Your DPS isn't so hot, and a real goal of mine is to burn your mana off so that you can't heal yourself. Then I play you like I would a warrior. You can still damage me without mana, but it's usually not enough for me to even worry about.
How to beat me: don't let me burn your mana. Obviously, get the largest 2-handed DPS weapon you can get, since a shield won't help you. Save your stuns for opportune moments, like when I try to heal myself. Dance around me - mana burn is a LONG cast spell and if you can screw up one of my casts of it, you just gained 3 free seconds of DPS on me with no response, not to mention saving your mana.

6) Priests:
If you're not a dwarf priest, I already have a slight edge on you due to Fear Ward. Both Fear Ward and Psychic Scream are on 30-second timers. You can dispel Fear Ward, of course, so I'll be trying to time it to cast on me just as you go to Scream, thus causing you to waste your fear while allowing me to use mine freely.
How to beat me: if you're a shadow priest, silencing me at the critical moments are huge. Most priest-on-priest fights come down to mana burn vs. mana burn, so if you're talented to reduce the time of your mana burn cast you have an edge. Dispel everything off me at the start of the fight (don't worry, I'll be doing the same to you). Avoid casting SW:Pain on me, since I can dispel it cheaper than you can cast it - thus, I win the mana war that way. If both Priests are pretty decently even in spec, gear, and ability, they often wind up in a semi-stalemate where they wand each other while waiting for their mana regen to let them do something. It can be a long duel sometimes (like Priest vs Druid, or Paladin vs Paladin).

7) Mages
Mages are interesting. Like a Mortal Strike warrior, you can have extreme burst DPS, but you also have the advantage of being able to stay away from me so I can't fear you! Your goal is to blow through all my hit points so fast that I can't keep up with the healing.
How to beat me: If you see me charging you, well, it's not to beat you with my staff, it's to send you flying. Don't let me get close to you. Start off the fight by sheeping me. Yep, sheep me, especially if I've pre-shielded myself. I'm already at 100% health, so it doesn't matter. Then back off. Get maximum distance from me that you can while still being in range for all your most damaging spells. After my shield falls, line me up. Hit me with everything you've got in a span of 2 seconds - Pyroblast (if you have it), Fire Blast, Cone of Cold, everything. If it doesn't kill me, it's going to leave me in bad shape, forcing me to stop and heal myself. Take advantage. You have to keep me on the defensive, never having the time or chance to get near you and fear you, forcing me to self-heal to stay vertical. Pour on the damage, and slow me with frost spells. If I get close, blink away. This is a fight where my normal style of whittling my enemy down doesn't work, because against a good mage I just won't be alive long enough.

8) Warlock
The choice of pet makes a big difference in this fight. Warlocks with PvP experience already know which pet is best to use against me. A lot of epic Priest gear has shadow resistance, so keep that in mind. I can't dispel curses, but other magic effects like Immolation I can just dispel off, so don't waste your time with those. Obviously, Curse of Tongues is huge.
How to beat me: Succubus. Just keep her seducing me as you blast me and I'm in trouble. I can't break or beat that crowd control, and it'll force me to use fear on the succubus instead of you. Death Coil and fear me when I go to heal myself. Don't let me get near you. Like Shamans, you have so much utility that I have a hard time against you if you play it right. If you're willing to potentially sacrifice shards, you can do sick burst damage on me. Keep Curse of Tongues up on me at all times and just lay down the shadowbolts/searing pains/whatever. You have so many tricks in your bag, that I can't possible counter them all without my own tricks like Blackout or Silence, and I lack those.

Oh, for anyone wondering, my spec is 26 disc, 25 holy, going for Meditation in disc and Inspiration in holy. All talents are designed for the most healing efficiency and regen possible. I don't tie my ego to my dueling abilities, since dueling in this game is so dependent on gear and specs that you cannot possibly claim that you are the l33test player around just because you win duels. I play Quake/Counterstrike/whatever to do that. :)

Which makes me think: what if Blizzard opened up a battleground where all players get the same spec and equipment accordant to their character choice? Interesting. I bet the players would loathe it.

-Bolty

[Pesmerga]

No hunter love? :(

[Lissa]

8) Warlock
  The choice of pet makes a big difference in this fight.  Warlocks with PvP experience already know which pet is best to use against me.  A lot of epic Priest gear has shadow resistance, so keep that in mind.  I can't dispel curses, but other magic effects like Immolation I can just dispel off, so don't waste your time with those.  Obviously, Curse of Tongues is huge.
  How to beat me: Succubus.  Just keep her seducing me as you blast me and I'm in trouble.  I can't break or beat that crowd control, and it'll force me to use fear on the succubus instead of you.  Death Coil and fear me when I go to heal myself.  Don't let me get near you.  Like Shamans, you have so much utility that I have a hard time against you if you play it right.  If you're willing to potentially sacrifice shards, you can do sick burst damage on me.  Keep Curse of Tongues up on me at all times and just lay down the shadowbolts/searing pains/whatever.  You have so many tricks in your bag, that I can't possible counter them all without my own tricks like Blackout or Silence, and I lack those.

-Bolty
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What, no hunter listing?

I think you over estimate how useful the Succubus is against a caster and under value how useful the Felhunter is. Fear and Seduce are on the same timer. It doesn't matter if I hit you first with a DC and then follow up with a fear, it's still going to have the same effect as a seduce. The Felhunter adds another level that you're forgetting, interruption and silence effects for spell casters. If you can't cast, the Warlock wins.

[Tuftears]

Hunters are self-explanatory: BM hunter, sic pet on, blast from at range, draining mana does little to help because the hunter doesn't need mana, and most hunters can do pretty nice damage. It's usually over before the red fades from the pet!

This would have a smiley face except I have this happen way too often to me in BGs anyway.

[TheDragoon]

I just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents about dueling warriors (as my only PvP character is a warrior).

3) Warriors
You can't heal yourselves. Automatically that gives me quite an edge, but what really makes or breaks the fight is how you handle my fears. You know I can only use one on you every 30 seconds, and if I get you with it I get a free few seconds to heal myself, re-cast Shield, and prepare for your next assault. Too many warriors make the mistake of thinking "if I can just do enough damage quickly enough..." No.

This is a very, very good summation of the way the fights usually go. Whenever I have dueled healer-type priests (you, in particular :) ) I primarily focus on the following, in this order:

1. Beat Fear
2. Snare (via Piercing Howl and Hamstring)
3. Avoid damage (by trying to run out of your LoS right as your attacks are about to get off
4. Deal damage to you

And when the priest gets low on life, I'd add the following goal to the duel in order to finish things off:

1b. Interrupt Heals

1. If a warrior really focuses on beating your fears, that should allow the warrior to have an easy time with numbers 2 and 4 (and a very good shot at winning) since the warrior will be able to close the distance and stay within melee range.

2. Snaring is a very easy thing to do, but I'm surprised how few warriors really seem to make liberal use of hamstring. The main thing that snaring does is it prevents any real way for a class like a priest to escape melee range of the warrior. Warriors are the masters of melee combat and so any way to keep someone in that range is definitely worth it, in my opinion.

3. Avoiding damage is kind of a no-brainer for endurance fights like what priests tend to do. If a warrior can jump around a player and prevent the player from hitting it, then the advantage goes to the warrior. In particular, I like to jump around priests whenever I see a mind blast queued up since it makes it less likely to hit my warrior. And, of course, while I'm jumping around I'm strafing in order to try and keep my damage going as much as possible. Note that snaring the player makes it unlikely that the player will be able to somehow escape when you do this, so it becomes something of a win-tie situation in favor of the warrior.

Finally, I'll just throw out there that I don't really see how a similarly geared Fury warrior can have that much trouble with a healer Priest. In addition to Berserker Rage, Fury warriors also have Death Wish to break out of fears. Also, Death Wish lasts a full 30 seconds so I can even use Death Wish as a preventative measure if I see the priest getting low on life since, beyond the immunity to fear, Death Wish also adds 20% to damage, giving the warrior a bit more burst in order to finish off the priest. Death Wish can also be used defensively from any stance in case you are already feared and need to break it. And, of course, Fury warriors will have Piercing Howl to help close the distance on Priests who sit in the Dead Zone and Charge/Intercept for those outside the Dead Zone. :)

[Bolty]

Hunters are self-explanatory: BM hunter, sic pet on, blast from at range, draining mana does little to help because the hunter doesn't need mana, and most hunters can do pretty nice damage.  It's usually over before the red fades from the pet![right][snapback]99161[/snapback][/right]

Yes, I forgot hunters. Probably because I own them so much.

9) Hunters
Your pet is a critical element to this: a fast-attack pet obviously helps to stutter my attacks. Without Focused Casting, I need to have Shield on me to get off a clean spell cast. The only other way is to fear you.
How to beat me: stay AWAY FROM ME. Remember that my fear will send both you and your pet flying, giving me all the time I need to waste your mana away and go into turtle mode, self-healing while my SW:P and occasional Mind Blast whittle you down. When you lack mana, a good bunch of your DPS and special moves disappears, and you become much easier to handle. Burn as much as my mana as you can, since that will prevent me from performing the aforementioned turtling. I'll be dispelling any magic effects you put on me, so the key here is to keep your distance as long as possible.

If you're a hunter, and you're thinking "well, I have mad DPS and can burn down his mana," remember that I have a LOT of mana, can dispel a lot of junk you throw at me, and can self-heal extremely well. Rogues have mad DPS too and it's only the stuns/mana burning that cause me issues. I don't know, I never seem to have too much trouble 1 on 1 with hunters. In group PvP, hunters cause me no end of grief, of course, sic'ing their pets on me from long range, draining all my mana off, and generally sniping me while my teammates are busy with others (and I'm busy with them too, keeping them alive). Jerks! :)

-Bolty

[Lissa]

Yes, I forgot hunters.  Probably because I own them so much.

9) Hunters
  Your pet is a critical element to this: a fast-attack pet obviously helps to stutter my attacks.  Without Focused Casting, I need to have Shield on me to get off a clean spell cast.  The only other way is to fear you.
  How to beat me: stay AWAY FROM ME.  Remember that my fear will send both you and your pet flying, giving me all the time I need to waste your mana away and go into turtle mode, self-healing while my SW:P and occasional Mind Blast whittle you down.  When you lack mana, a good bunch of your DPS and special moves disappears, and you become much easier to handle.  Burn as much as my mana as you can, since that will prevent me from performing the aforementioned turtling.  I'll be dispelling any magic effects you put on me, so the key here is to keep your distance as long as possible.

If you're a hunter, and you're thinking "well, I have mad DPS and can burn down his mana," remember that I have a LOT of mana, can dispel a lot of junk you throw at me, and can self-heal extremely well.  Rogues have mad DPS too and it's only the stuns/mana burning that cause me issues.  I don't know, I never seem to have too much trouble 1 on 1 with hunters.  In group PvP, hunters cause me no end of grief, of course, sic'ing their pets on me from long range, draining all my mana off, and generally sniping me while my teammates are busy with others (and I'm busy with them too, keeping them alive).  Jerks!  :)

-Bolty
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The reason you win in 1v1 is because most hunters think, "ooo, I should use Aimed Shot for the mad crits". When it comes to 1v1 fighting as a hunter, Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot are the two damage abilities to use along with Concusive shot to keep the Priest for closing. If you saw my bar I have setup for PvP, you'd see how few of my abilities I use there compared to what I use in PvE.

In PvP, standing in place for a hunter = dead.

[sosostress]

Bolty,

You are the bane of my existence in duels. But now, my friend . . . now I can beat you! MUWAHAHA!

:ph34r: :shuriken:


By the way, I totally take to heart the points you raise here. Firstly, the times I've dueled you, I've been be-decked in my crit-gear which I've found to be insufficient. (We're talking about a Fury Warrior here).

When next we meet, I'll consider wearing more HP/Defensive gear for longevity. Rather than going for the mega-crits, which I'm used to, it may be more useful for me to shield bash/pummel you.

[Pesmerga]

In group PvP, hunters cause me no end of grief, of course, sic'ing their pets on me from long range, draining all my mana off, and generally sniping me while my teammates are busy with others (and I'm busy with them too, keeping them alive).  Jerks!  :)
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Many a clothie has ignored me in Arathi Basin. Then my cat comes up and mauls them. Then they notice me. Then aimed shot crits. :D

Warriors on the other hand.... ::shudders::

[Tuftears]

Viper sting: magic or poison?

[Pesmerga]

Viper sting: magic or poison?
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It's a nature based attack, so that makes it magic, right? (Honestly, no clue)

[Tuftears]

According to Thottbot, poison effect, so... Probably the anti-priest hunter strat should be 'apply viper sting and concussive shot to keep them away, kite and kill at range with pet assist'.

I don't have a lot of experience with fighting specific classes, but my usual strategy for priests on a BG is to feral charge, preferably if they're in the middle of a spell, wait for feral charge's effect to fade, then bash. By then other team mates should have noticed the clothie and started doing damage. If they haven't, it's gonna suck...

[Bolty]

Bolty,

You are the bane of my existence in duels.  But now, my friend . . . now I can beat you!  MUWAHAHA![right][snapback]99169[/snapback][/right]

Good!

Then, each time you beat me, let me know what you did. Then I can try to figure out a counter to it. In the end, we both become better players.

It's my hope that we can all help each other get better at PvP. Leave the egos at the door and we'll all do better in the long run.

-Bolty

[Kevin]

5) Paladins:
  Your DPS isn't so hot, and a real goal of mine is to burn your mana off so that you can't heal yourself.  Then I play you like I would a warrior.  You can still damage me without mana, but it's usually not enough for me to even worry about.
  How to beat me: don't let me burn your mana.  Obviously, get the largest 2-handed DPS weapon you can get, since a shield won't help you.  Save your stuns for opportune moments, like when I try to heal myself.  Dance around me - mana burn is a LONG cast spell and if you can screw up one of my casts of it, you just gained 3 free seconds of DPS on me with no response, not to mention saving your mana.
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Can you get rid of a judgement I put on you? If I hit you with judgement of wisdom and run with seal of wisdom up with blessing of wisdom on I get about 30 mana per second back without looking at mana regen on my gear. So I do wonder if I can win a battle of attrition even though I would drop to about 7 mana/s without swinging at you (while I'm healing). I know mana burn is the killer and while SW:P is probably more mana than cleanse I'm only going to be running at about 4500-5000 mana in PvP gear and you'll be much much higher.

Of course I rarely duel with my paladin so my PvP gear is designed to help me live longer when in small group PvP while giving me a bit more healing power. And now that improved concentration aura really does give me the 15% chance to resist other players silence and interrupt attacks I can do it even better. I saved a live with a holy shock insta heal the other day. And holy shock is nice to help at least get a little damage when bastards get out of melee range (so has the longer range on judgements)

But I do wonder about the fast weapon judgement and seal of wisdom with blessing of wisdom (improved in my case) ticking away.

[Mirajj]

In general, dealing with a hunter will fall into one of three ways. Of which it'll generally cost you a death to learn.

Our specs are very, very easy to spot. Big red pet eating you up? BM hunter. Deal with the pet (CC, ignore if you can) and take care of the hunter. The tradeoff for the big red machine is an uber pet, but a weak hunter. They don't hit hard, and don't have a ton going for them...and if you get rid of the hunter, the pet goes away automatically.

No big red machine, and you are taking major HP hits from even autoshot (For example, my average autoshot is in the 400+range)? You've got a Marks specced hunter. Get up in his face, and you'll cause no end of grief. We don't have a lot of ways to get out to bowshot range, and most of them are outdone by other snaring methods.

No big red machine, and you are taking middling damage even from autoshot? Survival hunter. They have more tricks up close, but....hunters do their best from range. Get in his face, stay there, and while he'll hurt you more than a Marks hunter will...you'll still probably come out on top.

So there you go. Once you figure out what type of hunter you have on your hands, figuring out what to do with them gets much easier.

When I PvP, what I try to do VS mana using targets, and stay out of range. I have extended range, so I can hit them without them being in range of me if I'm far enough away.

Aimed shot is on my hotbar, but I only use it when I'm "fooling" around. Such as when I'm stealthed in the WSG flag room, and a hunter comes onto the balcony or roof and starts sniping my teammates. I fire back. More often than not, you'll see me using Arcane, Conc, and Multi.

[VoiceMan]

Viper sting: magic or poison?
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Poison...my druid is fond of dispelling it as quickly as possible, as without mana...the druid is dead.

[Watto44]

1) Druids
  I HATE YOU!
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Don't worry, I can guarantee that there is not a druid alive (who is of sane mind and all that) who enjoys fighting a priest. (Although I once two-shotted a priest in AB. It's still one of my game highlights. :) ) The real issue with holy priest-druid fights in BGs is that, unless one or the other gets a series of lucky crits the cavalry is going to arrive long before either player's mana is anywhere near low.

From my perspective, if I'm trying to steal a node it's worth my while taking some chances and trying to get the quick kill rather than playing it safe. (Mind you, that goes for every class I go up against when I've decided to try and steal something.) With that in mind, I rarely bear up if I'm trying to steal a node from a priest. I use charge and bash to interrupt heals, but other than that I'm trying to bring you down as quickly as possible and I'm quite willing to loose taking some chances rather than play it safe and get chopped up by your friends. :D

Of course it's a different kettle of fish if I'm playing defense. :D Bash is used for a heal, charge to try and reduce your damage output and you'll rarely see a kitty anywhere.

PS. Viper Sting is definately a poison.

Edit: clarified that I was refering to holy/disc priests. Shadow is a whole different world of druid pain. (Unless you have a decent whack of shadow resist.)

[Tuftears]

Can you get rid of a judgement I put on you?

Yes, unless I've drastically miscalculated. It's a magic debuff. The priest can also dispel your own seal and blessings, leaving you with nuttin'.

[vor_lord]

Yes, unless I've drastically miscalculated.  It's a magic debuff.  The priest can also dispel your own seal and blessings, leaving you with nuttin'.
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The increased cost of the dispel since 1.9 means it will cost the priest more than it will cost you to put up (for a seal, for a judgment you're behind).

But the priest will have a lot more mana than you. And mana burn. And without your Blessing of Wisdom or Seal of Wisdom, the priest will regen faster also :ph34r:

The most annoying part of fighting a paladin as a disc/holy priest is that you can't rely on Shadow Word: Pain (or Devouring Plague if you're Undead) to do anything for you. So even if you reduce your incoming damage to very little by dispelling and mana burn like mad, it still takes a long while to kill a paladin. The priest's only spell interrupt is scream, and you still have shield and lay on hands.

[Concillian]

The most annoying part of fighting a paladin as a disc/holy priest is that you can't rely on Shadow Word: Pain (or Devouring Plague if you're Undead) to do anything for you.  So even if you reduce your incoming damage to very little by dispelling and mana burn like mad, it still takes a long while to kill a paladin. 
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Well, you can play a game with the paladin. Rank 1 SW:P costs far less than a cleanse (pally cleanse cost increased too). So you play "guess the rank of SW:P I'm using". Usually they'll dispel Rank1 SW:P for a while. Once they wise up and stop dispelling something that does like 50 damage over 18 seconds, you come back with a top Rank :), when he dispels that, you switch back to rank 1.

Keeps him casting, so that BoW is the only way he's regenning mana, and keeps you well ahead in the mana race. I generally only mana burn during a fear. Too easy for him to stun during one otherwise. If he's smart he will use the seal that procs stuns against a priest.

But fighting a pally one on one is a colossal waste of time in any BG, as is a non-shadow priest / non-shadow priest fight. I would only engage in them when the other priest was so incredibly well geared (compared to my blues and greens) that it was surely an advantage to tie him up 1 on 1 for the 6-10 minutes it would take to kill me.