Played about a hundred games between my eight level 70 toons mostly in 2s and 3s with many different partners through the week. There were quite a few Holy Paladin+Warlock in 2s and Holy Paladin+Warlock+? in 3s and many Hunters. Aside from those, a lot of people ran comps rarely seen at the end of S3. With the trend of people lapsing on Resilience for more PvE gear, gib comps seemed to be making a comeback.
We ran an APPoMPyro+Elemental Shaman comp ourselves and steamrolled all the Warrior/healer teams we ran into, openning up with extra long range Fire Blast (S2 hands+Flame Throwing, 3k damage openner on a crit with Ignite) on the Warrior to stop Charge then nuked harder than the healer expected. We "show off" the Shaman with Gorehowl then switch to weapon+shield "as soon as we see their comp." Many times the healer tried to open with CC only to find his Warrior just plain dead right after.
Originally Posted by Calantus
Except hunters... holy FUCK. When did they get so much goddamn damage? I seriously fear them far more than any other damage dealer right now and if it wasn't for pillars I think I'd give up WoW (again) until they were nerfed. I don't think they need a nerf precisely because of pillars, but my God are they scary and deserving of fear now. You will not catch me going more than 2 feet from a pole if a BM hunter is in the arena. Hunters also brought something new (to me) which is ret paladin and BM hunter. The first time I saw it I thought it was some crazy mess-about team and died in the span of a HoJ.
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Indeed it is very dangerous to be caught in the open by a geared BM Hunter with her CDs up (or even by a not very geared one, ever since Blizzard botched the Steady Shot clipping fix). They don't have a lot of endurance though. High damage BM burst rotations are very harsh on mana and they will run dry very fast even with the new AotV. Once they are low on mana their damage goes
way down when they can't chain quaff Fel Mana Pots the way they do in raids. Plus they are not hard to catch and kill once BW is gone.
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I had an interesting experience this week on that:
I have a Priest friend who has two alts, Ellarone the BM Hunter and Morgaindrys the Feral Druid. She only gets to raid with her Priest, so her alts are not very well geared. Her Hunter doesn't have much gear except for the bow from Karazhan. She forms a 2s team with one of her friend's Feral Druid who is also in mostly blues and greens. They considered the fact that 90+% of the teams at 1500 in our Battlegroup in week 1 are in at least S2, and figured that they had no chance and simply queued and /danced for ten matches.
My Hunter just made 70 on the weekend before the start of S4 and managed to get one piece of honor PvP gear, the S2 crossbow, before the end of week 1. I took my new weapon and grabbed Morgaindrys for some points in 2s. Refusing to /dance for ten matches, I took stock of her gear and we tried to come up with some way to steal a win here and there. Our initial strategy was to have her dress in her cat gear and Pounce, and I would burn the Pounce target. Unfortunately, she had mostly bear gear and very little cat and healing gear, and we got steamrolled and only managed to kill one toon in six matches.
She got a little frustrated trying to win and told me that her Australian internet was having lag issues and it was very hard for her to melee in the lag, so I set out to revamp our strategy. After some thought, we decided to give deception a try. I had her put on bear gear except for a healing weapon (in this case, the distinctive-looking Serpentcrest Life-Staff), and told her to act like a Resto Druid and bear out to Feral Charge/Bash my target when pressured. We then went back into queue.
We got a Rogue/Priest team in S2 gear. I dropped a Frost Trap and Aimed Shot the Priest. The Rogue CSed me, tripping the Frost Trap. Morgaindrys popped out and Cycloned the Rogue. I activated AP trinket/BW/RF. The Rogue smelled Resto and sprung for Morgaindrys with me BWed and the ground frosted. She beared out and Feral Charged the Priest, then Bashed. The Priest PSed, but with Aimed Shot up he still died to my Hunter left alone to spam DPS macro and Arcane Shot his spells.
Later we beat another S2 team through the same deception and sheer AP trinket/BW/RF burn. This time it was Rogue+Mage. I started out on the Mage. The Rogue started out on me. I activated my CDs and Morgaindrys Cycloned the Rogue and Feral Charged and Bashed the Mage. They switch to the "Resto Druid." Mage got low quickly and Iceblocked, leaving the Rogue to pound on 25k armor 14k health of "Resto Druid." I dropped an Improved Mend Pet on the pet and left it on the Mage and switched to the Rogue. The Rogue died before he could down the bear and the pet finished off the Mage. Having a split chained /click for KC in the SS macro to allow separate player/pet targets helped there.
Morgaindrys couldn't stop laughing after we were done. Maybe she will try to win a few with her Hunter this week.