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jlavarj · 12/28/07, 3:35 PM

I mostly play in the 2v2 bracket, and I can give more advice on what doesn't work than what does. Right now I'm playing with a resto shaman real life friend, which has some good synergy but a lot of weakness. Right now we are bouncing around the 1600s (plus or minus 30) depending on the night. Our basic strat is to have the resto shaman go in as dps and get off 2-3 lit bolts/chain lit right off the bat to either force cooldowns (ice block, bubble, nature's swiftness, etc) and then fall back into a more traditional 1 healer/1 dps while we take turns earthshocking the healer.

One thing I've noticed is, in general the rule is to try and kill the healer first in 2's. That is not the case with an enhance specced shaman, at least in the 1500-1600 brackets. We just pose to much burst threat to leave alone, which is good for your healer, but usually limits me from getting to the other healer because of hamstring, crippling poison, etc.

In arena, I break down the teams we run into 3 types of teams.

Junk Teams: I'd throw throw our enhance/resto shaman into this group. These are the teams with two of any one class or off specs like ret pallies, prot warriors, enhance shaman, etc. These are the teams you have to beat to soak up the losses from the next two types of teams.

Killer Combos: These are the teams with great class combinations that can beat most junk teams with a high margin of error. Warrior/Pally, Rogue/Priest, Druid/Warlock, etc are all in this group. Depending on their skill, they can go far, but even unskilled they should be able to hang higher than most of the bad class combos. You need to be able to win half of these fights.

Skilled: These are the teams that either have a good combo or are just great players. An example is a rogue/druid we fought where the rogue would perfectly time his gouge for when he needed a heal, to keep me from purging them, meanwhile the druid would time a cyclone on my partner at the same time to keep me from getting a heal. As soon as the cyclone went off, the druid went to bear form and feral charged the heal my partner tried to get off on me. To beat these teams you have to be equally skilled in your own class, and understanding the counters to the other team's abilities. You are most likely not going to win these unless you have a perfect 2's partner that can compensate for an enhance shaman's weakness (kiteable, no cc, etc).

For us (enhance shaman/resto shaman) we beat most of the junk teams we come up against.

The killer combos we do well against are:
druid/warlock (tremor, earthbind, purge, dual grounding totems)
druid/hunter
resto shaman/warrior
pally/mage (not sure if this is a good combo)
pally/hunter
warlock/shadow priest
rouge/rouge (hopefully this will get better after the prep nerf)
druid/warrior (alternating frost shocks, earthbind totems, and purge to prevent swiftmends.

The combo groups that rock us are:
pally/warlock (curse of tounges and 3 tough targets to take down)
pally/warrior (Have to kill the pally twice because of the bubble before you even start attacking the warrior)
priest/rogue
priest/warrior (mana burn hell and it's hard to keep enough damage on the warrior to prevent the priest from getting burns off)

These are just my observations from several months of mediocrity in arena.

12/28/07, 3:35 PM	#16 (permalink)
jlavarj Von Kaiser bluerequiem Troll Mage Bloodscalp	I mostly play in the 2v2 bracket, and I can give more advice on what doesn't work than what does. Right now I'm playing with a resto shaman real life friend, which has some good synergy but a lot of weakness. Right now we are bouncing around the 1600s (plus or minus 30) depending on the night. Our basic strat is to have the resto shaman go in as dps and get off 2-3 lit bolts/chain lit right off the bat to either force cooldowns (ice block, bubble, nature's swiftness, etc) and then fall back into a more traditional 1 healer/1 dps while we take turns earthshocking the healer. One thing I've noticed is, in general the rule is to try and kill the healer first in 2's. That is not the case with an enhance specced shaman, at least in the 1500-1600 brackets. We just pose to much burst threat to leave alone, which is good for your healer, but usually limits me from getting to the other healer because of hamstring, crippling poison, etc. In arena, I break down the teams we run into 3 types of teams. Junk Teams: I'd throw throw our enhance/resto shaman into this group. These are the teams with two of any one class or off specs like ret pallies, prot warriors, enhance shaman, etc. These are the teams you have to beat to soak up the losses from the next two types of teams. Killer Combos: These are the teams with great class combinations that can beat most junk teams with a high margin of error. Warrior/Pally, Rogue/Priest, Druid/Warlock, etc are all in this group. Depending on their skill, they can go far, but even unskilled they should be able to hang higher than most of the bad class combos. You need to be able to win half of these fights. Skilled: These are the teams that either have a good combo or are just great players. An example is a rogue/druid we fought where the rogue would perfectly time his gouge for when he needed a heal, to keep me from purging them, meanwhile the druid would time a cyclone on my partner at the same time to keep me from getting a heal. As soon as the cyclone went off, the druid went to bear form and feral charged the heal my partner tried to get off on me. To beat these teams you have to be equally skilled in your own class, and understanding the counters to the other team's abilities. You are most likely not going to win these unless you have a perfect 2's partner that can compensate for an enhance shaman's weakness (kiteable, no cc, etc). For us (enhance shaman/resto shaman) we beat most of the junk teams we come up against. The killer combos we do well against are: druid/warlock (tremor, earthbind, purge, dual grounding totems) druid/hunter resto shaman/warrior pally/mage (not sure if this is a good combo) pally/hunter warlock/shadow priest rouge/rouge (hopefully this will get better after the prep nerf) druid/warrior (alternating frost shocks, earthbind totems, and purge to prevent swiftmends. The combo groups that rock us are: pally/warlock (curse of tounges and 3 tough targets to take down) pally/warrior (Have to kill the pally twice because of the bubble before you even start attacking the warrior) priest/rogue priest/warrior (mana burn hell and it's hard to keep enough damage on the warrior to prevent the priest from getting burns off) These are just my observations from several months of mediocrity in arena.