Monday, August 30, 2010

Surge of Shadowmourne In Arena's

Since it's been months after they finally released the last wing of ICC, there's been a huge growth of Shadowmournes out there since guilds now have 2-4 guys with them.  Sure it sounds like a good thing PvE-wise, but these same PvE heroes filter down into Arena & faceroll their way up into the higher brackets.  I have only lost to 1 team with a Shadowmourne in 2's so far, & they were a 2.5k+ team, but it's just disappointing to see how 1 little weapon can carry bads to 2.2k+.  Also, the AoE proc it has takes like half of my pets health without me even realizing.  Every 1 outta 6 matches, there's a Warrior or DK with it, & it's getting plain out ridiculous.  Hopefully Cataclysm will be released soon so I can get out of this Season 8 already & have something else to do instead of camp my ratings for titles.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Affliction / Holy Pally

-World of Warcraft Arena Tips -

Work on getting down their defensive cooldowns, then kill something in a HoJ -> Death Coil -> Counterspell. If you can't kill someone in that, then you'll have to play the mana game. ALWAYS keep everyone dotted up; full dots on everyone burns through a healers mana quicker than a Mana Drain. If there's another Lock or Hunter, go hard on their pet while keeping everyone else dotted up, the healer will be forced to dump mana into healing the pet. Also, be sure to Mana Drain caster dps if their healer is pillar humping, it's really easy to oom Spriests, Mages, & Ele Shamans & it forces them to play really defensively. Against Resto Shamans, never have your pet on them, pump out your damage on his partner to force to come out from behind the pillar, then get a Mana Drain off. With Druids, be sure to look out for whenever he Roots your pet & get a dispel on him to stay on the Druid. Also, look for opportunities where he's out in the open at <80% health with no HoT's up, you can most likely get a kill there. Toggle auto cast on Devour Magic on healers until you've cleaned them of buffs, so it'll be much easier to Dispel Innervate, Divine Plea, etc. With Priests, Fear the pet when it comes out, and get ready to interrupt his Hymn. You stop those two & it's GG for you guys. Also against Priests, be sure to have a good distance between you & your partner to avoid both getting caught in a Fear, which usually results in Mana Burns going off.
Also, have your Pally call out to you whenever he's going to Plea, so you can have peels ready to avoid it getting dispelled, you'll come to learn that Dispels are your worst nightmare in this comp.

Frost Mage / Destro Lock

 I recently had someone ask me on tips for Frost / Destro, so I thought I'd post it here.


My 2s partner is a Frost Mage, and things are going pretty well for us but I have some questions as I am new to playing a PvP Warlock.

1.) Gear - I am sure that there is plenty of room for improvement on my gear, I am just not sure where to start. Currently I am sitting at 1100 Resilience which I have heard can be over doing it for a destro lock. I have 28% Crit, 2700 SP (Self Buffed), and 410 Haste. What are the ideal stats to aim for? If someone could armory me, or provide a link to a geared PvP destro lock, that would be greatly appreciated.

2.) Pet - Now this may be a silly question but is the Felhunter buff / Counter spell useful enough with this comp to generally over rule the use of the succubus while facing most caster/healer, or caster/melee comps?

3.) Comp Difficulty - Any insight to what the hardest comps that we would face would be fantastic. Also, if you could list anything that should be easymode due to a particular strategy with this comp I will be greatful.

4.) General - Anything you think I should generally know, while running destro, or while running this comp?



 My answers:


1. It's mostly down to personal preference & what works for you, but I personally like to aim for a bit of Crit while keeping a good amount of Haste, but above all Spell Power is the best possible stat.  With Haste, be sure to have at least 20%,

2. Personally, I've never seen a Succubus past 2k; it might seem awesome for the peels against melee, but there's a few reasons it's horrible. First off, it has 7-8 Seduces before it goes OOM; second is that it's squishy, really really squishy. The Felhunter is a far superior pet not because of the Counterspell, but because of Devour Magic. Defensive Dispels can be game breaking, especially in a double DPS team. I'm not sure if you've been able to fully grasp the capabilities of Devour Magic, but give a try, and you'll see that being able to Dispel CC's off your Mage will be amazing. Also, your Frost Mage should have more than enough tools to peel melee off you.

3. Any melee / healer team you should have an advantage over due to the Snares & Frost Novas a Mage brings. If there's a Dispeller on their team, be sure to cover up Polymorphs with WC stacks; if there isn't a Dispeller on their team, you might as well automatically win. I imagine your main strat should be to drop a healer in a Deep Freeze -> Death Coil -> Counterspell (Mage). Your Mage should be able to put out some sick damage during the Deep Freeze because of Shatter with Icy Viens up. If it ever gets to where you have them to 20% & he lived through the burst, you can still use the second Counterspell & if it gets even more desperate, use Cold Snap -> Deep Freeze -> Shadowfury (as an interrupt). All this while, be sure to have the other trapped in a Sheep / Fear rotation, & if they're a melee, have them trapped in a Nova.
Only thing I can really see you guys having trouble against would be Druid / DK due to the DK's amazing peels + Cheetah Form.

4. Main thing is to use your Shadowfury wisely, don't use it everytime it's up. See a healer peeking around the pillar? Shadowfury them & use the stun for time to get a Fear off; usually gets them out in the open where you can put out insane pressure on them. Also use it as a peel; if your Mage calls out that his Frost Nova is CD & there's a Warrior on him, use it to give him to get out of there. Be sure to call out EVERYTHING. If you are needing to eat/drink, call out to your Mage if he has any Nova's or anything to give you a few seconds to eat & vice versa. If he needs to Evocate, be sure to keep him safe while he does it. Call out whenever the enemy uses Defensive CD's; ''Hey, that Warrior just popped Shield wall, let's switch targets for a bit.''.
Also, as Destro, your job isn't necessarily to go in there & spam Incinerates. You work to set up a window with CC's where you can blow something up real quick. There are tons of games where I only cast 2-3 Incinerates as I run around Fearing & LoS'ing. Whenever I find someone out in the open, it's a matter of getting off a Shadowfury -> Conflag -> Chaos Bolt -> Death Coil -> 1 or 2 Incinerates & they're dead. Especially with a Mage, you guys should work towards setting up your burst. Ex. ''Healer's out in the open! I'm getting this Warrior in a full Poly, jump on that Pally!'' etc.
An important thing in any double dps comp is to AVOID ANY DAMAGE!