Shade

By now everyone has noticed that every class seems to have a basic spec which almost all the top teams use (28/33 for priest, heavy elemental/21 resto for shamans, 41/20 paladin, etc). However, we do see people playing different specs from the norm, but they tend to use unorthodox lineups. The classic example is the shadow priest/1.5 healer team from Clan Hex, or the resto shaman/paladin/2warrior/warlock team used by one of the other high-rated arena teams.

What off-specs do yall think become viable at the highest levels of play, and exactly what kind of class lineup do you need to use to be able to play your class to the fullest?

I'm asking because my arena team is currently using warrior, warlock, rogue, paladin and shaman (myself). I am playing restoration because the team needs a second healer, but it appears that restoration is a dead-end (or at least, subpar) spec for top-level arena play. Do I need to play restoration with this lineup, or do we have a chance with me as elemental?

 

• alcaras

War/Lock/Rogue/Pal/Shm has several weaknesses.

1. Two melee, one BoF. This means frost nova is going to wreck havoc on your team's ability to DPS.
2. Warlock -- unless he's Soul Link and has 300+ resilience, he's going to be a prime target. You'll need to be resto have a chance at keeping him up.

Working a priest into your rotation, in place of the rogue, will make you a much stronger team -- it gives you fort, mass dispel and and either lets you go elemental and the priest 28/33, or you can mix things up and have the priest go shadow (which synergizes very nicely with the warlock) and stay resto yourself.

 

Burnserker

I'm making a 5v5 team, and at the moment, its goings to be composed of

Resto Shaman
Fire Mage (will repec to frost)
Shadow Priest
MS Warrior
Rogue (Unsure of Spec)

with a warlock in the wings to replace if someone is gone.

I choose the shaman because well honestly he is one of the best shamans on the server I am on and i trust his skills, otherwise it would be a paladin

 

raal

A rogue is not as easy to root/slow as a warrior. Cloak of shadows, then improved sprint, vanish, then cloak of shadows again. That is 4 snares removed within a one minute period without a single dispel.

There are many down sides to rogues, but being snared is not one of them.

 

Burnserker

yeah i will admit that rogues are hard to snare, but im just saying i dont know many fights that last over a minute long in arena unless its cat and moues at the end with someone being chased around

 

archz0r

Skilltrap wins against our rogue and warrior every time, seeing as we only have one BoF and it usually goes to the warrior as he has WF and does most of our damage.

 

Sniddie

Our current team is usually Me+Warrior+Shaman+Priest+Paladin, we played against double hunter and hunter and never had any trouble with traps.

Usually on BEA we all mount up, crusader aura and charge middle, i demount,stealth and sprint for the hunter, then i stick on him at all times stunlocking/gouging (shaman+priests help purging/dispelling BoFs and such) while our warrior goes for another dps (rogue/cloth). Priest goes manaburning with Heroism and Paladin/Shaman heals.

I dont see this "skilltrap", i hardly find it imba, annoying at most.

 

◊ Shadowed

We're running War/Rog/Mage/Pal/Shaman and the top team on Nightfall is using War/Rog/Mage/Pal/Priest.

Mages don't really use nova on melee enough to be an issue, the only time I really worry is when it's 2 Frost Mages but thats only happened once, and it shouldn't be as bad once we get the Ice Block changes in 2.1.0. Most of the time i've been kited is when somebody is BoFed and their just running around, even without being snared it's hard to get rage to pummel any healers or intercept so unless Mace spec procs I have to wait out BoF or hope it gets purged.

Rogues can get out of the trap themself, and Warriors can intercept out of it (or trinket + intercept if entrapment is active) since people are within range of you pretty much everytime.

 

◊ Zoid

Why the hell would you use BoF on someone who's frost nova'd? Just dispel them. Putting BoF wipes their blessing off. I can dispel any magic snares (nova, traps, fear, roots, hammer of justice, etc.).

I think the most amazing thing a paladin brings to the arena is Blessing of Sacrifice. I toss that on whatever party member is taking the most damage and I'm eating 104 damage of every hit they take. It also makes it extremely hard to CC me since if you sheep me your buddy is probably hitting the target I put BoSac on and its gonna pop me.

I think having two paladins is a waste. I'm heavily in favor of three DPS teams since it lets you burst down an enemy target if necessary.

 

Fjord

Because the person who gets hit with frost nova is likely to be getting hit with frost armour as well. Also if the mage novas again on cooldown your melee will still be immune and shrug it off.

 

archz0r

Our team only has one defensive dispeller and rogues can't get out of the trap on their own for very long. I don't know about the teams you're up against but when we're up against good teams with a hunter you can't just stay on the hunter at all times, he gets BoFed and runs around in his trap all the time with entrapment proccing, our melee is bound to get stuck with only one BoF.

That said, we usually don't use rogue in our primary setup as our team is based on outlasting with 3 healers.

 

Shade

Update - we changed up our lineup slightly. We added a skilled restoration druid to our team, allowing me to respec to elemental. Now we are using

warrior/paladin/resto druid + any 2 of SL lock/rogue/elemental shaman

It has made a HUGE difference. This week we're 18-4, and have climbed from 1666 to 1826 on our 5v5.

My conclusions? I'm beginning to realize the limitations of the shaman as a second healer. Basically, having a druid or a priest as your second healer brings some powerful CC/offense to the table. Druid has cyclone, roots, and sleep, as well as mark of the wild/thorns, and priest brings fort, spirit, shadow protection, fear, and most importantly, mana burn. Restoration shaman brings heals and bloodlust, but no CC.

 

Grailyn

BoF is dispelable. If your letting any melee run around with BoF for more than ~4 seconds your dispellers are losing the games for you.

Any team without a solid offensive dispeller is just asking for trouble. A good priest can dominate an entire match with just 2 spells. Mana Burn and Dispell Magic.

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/ch...ther&n=Grailyn

 

archz0r

I usually give the warrior WF and pop Bloodlust, start to spam purge and keep the paladin from healing whenever Earth Shock is up and then throw in some heals if the paladin and druid aren't able to keep someone in our team up. Providing Earth Shield on the ones that are getting focused and dropping a Mana Tide helps a lot aswell.

 

archz0r

Even though it's dispelled almost instantly it still gives the hunter some distance, and if the hunter has half of a brain he will use silencing shot on the dispeller as he gets BoF.

 

◊ Shadowed

Stop going for the Hunter first and CC him, or spam purge/stun lock him as soon as you start attacking so he can't run, it's really not that big of an issue most of the problem comes from the frost trap in the middle and the healers on the pillers.

Druids have more limitations then a Shaman does when it comes to healing in 5vs5, and you still have things like Earthshield or Mana tide that they bring. Cyclone isn't a very effective CC unless you're using a burst damage team and being able to lock out someone for a short period of time lets you kill them.

 

Keline

They might also have frost armor and ice shit on them. Might cleanse twice for nothing.

I personally prefer BoLight for the ultra fat healing (3.1k HL crits are pretty nice)

 

Thelyna

Keeping yourself un-CC'd is far more important than slightly bigger heals. I will always start off a match with BoSac on my warrior (for 2v2) or warlock/shaman/druid (for 5v5) until I'm sure there's no stealth rogues, mages or succubus locks around (hunter traps are relevant too, but if I blunder into a hunter trap I deserve to be CC'd). Also, BoS 4 is 104 damage removed after mitigation, if you're fighting a rogue or other dual-wielder it's non-trivial mitigation in itself.

... 3.1k HL crits? post-MS I assume?