showdown

Alright this might be a dumb question, but how do you guys deal with mage and felhunter counterspells? I do pretty well faking out rogues and warriors, but I can't do much about mages because I never know if I'm actually being targetted due to focus macros. Best I can do is try to abuse line of sight. Even if I DID pull off a fake, It'd still just be a 4 second silence rather than 6 second spell lock due to every mage and his mother being talented for it.

Any tips?

 

Pallypoeper

I was wondering if the improved concentration aura is still bugged these days, since I've read some posts about it only giving 15% silence reduction instead of 30%? Is this still true?

 

Toppazz

With focus target macros, it is pretty much impossible to fake out an interrupt that is not on the gcd. Your best bet is to continue to play the line of sight game. You can also try to draw interrupts early on so that their counter is down when you really need to land a heal. This isn't overly effective in 5v5, but in 2v2 and 3v3, you'd be surprised how many counters I pull by just spamming Flash of Light right from the start of the match.

 

• Amera

Don't be afraid to bubble early if it means keeping your team alive through the DPS train. If they die while you are CSd, your bubble was worthless anyway. You can also try to out-range mages. For fel hunters, stun them before you heal.

In general though, there isn't a whole lot you can do, especially in 5v5.

Amerah, Selaste <Serious Casual>

 

AngryDwarf

It was fixed and is currently functioning at 30% as intended. I have tested this with both magical spell lockout (counterspell) as well as physical (kick).

 

PSokar

Selecting the best time to use your bubble can be difficult. Use it too conservatively and teammates could die (and lose), use it too early and you can be vulnerable to spell lock-outs, assist trains (and lose). Doing what you can to not need to use it, and knowing when you will need to use it (the gc on it will effectively make HL a 3.5-4s cast) comes with experience. This is one of the few areas where I think good and average paladins distinguish themselves. PvP is dynamic enough that I don't feel I can really give any more specific/useful advice than use it when you need it to save a life (yours or others).

 

AriasImmortal

A couple questions again, for those of you high rated 2s paladins (since I can't find 4 other non-retards to play 5s with).

Been playing paladin warrior lately, with a pretty damn good warrior. We got up to 2120 today and promptly got smashed down to 2070, mostly because I fucked up in a few situations. Sadly the war's gear is not amazing (it's good but not amazing) and the fact that he's using a sword instead of a stormherald really hurts us.

The biggest problems I had was against a holy priest frost mage team. The mage would constantly sheep/nova my partner, and he would also make sure to spellsteal freedom (100% success rate given only 1 magic buff) so I was stuck spam cleansing just to make sure my partner could even do something.

The issue arose when the priest would fear me out into the open, getting 2-3 mana burns off before I could make it back under cover. Also, during the fear, the mage would sheep my partner and go off to eat or drink. I saved trinket and bubble for the first two fears but the next few really destroyed us. What do you suggest?

Also, fighting other paladin/war teams, we win 90% of the time, but against skillherald warriors I have issues keeping myself alive. I pretty much just spam flash of light, and holy light if I need to after a baited pummel, but the mace spec and skillherald procs make it a lot more difficult. When added to a quick back out/intercept and a fear, there's the possibility I can get bursted down pretty quick. Kiting is an option sometimes but if my war comes in to hamstring the other war, he gets hamstrung himself and leaves their paladin free to run away and drink or whatever. Is my best recourse to try and LoS the intercept from that combo? I can do it in nagrand and in Lordaeron but it's harder in blades edge.

**edit** to make it clear, I have zero issues healing through the intercept+fear combo as long as I don't get mace stunned. Unfortunately, I seem to get stunned quite often.

 

Keline

ICA reduces well of eternity silence from 30 to 21 seconds as well.

 

Ragnor

What has worked for me in the past is run the frost mage out of mana healing your warrior with BoL and FoL, frost mages's aren't known for their longevity or burst. You must position yourself so you never get feared or mana burnt, so don't overly worry about snares and sheeps and let diminishing returns work it's magic. Cleansing through 10 stacks of trash debuffs and detect magic is a waste of mana, just re BoF as every time it's up and have your warrior save his pvp trinket for "the crucial moment". Mages run out of damage when their mana is gone so don't let him drink, warriors don't.. As long as you have mana you will win.... eventually.

Make sure the warrior kills the water elemental twice so you can drink

JoJ on the warrior, BoF on yourself... kite, jump off ledges, run around corners/ramps/pillars. Most of the time their warrior won't even be hitting you (no rage, intercept/charge on cd). HoJ when it's up heal to full. Rinse & repeat. Unfortunately their paladin will probably be doing the same thing. Have your warrior hamstring their warrior and start dps'ing him. The warriors will get bored of chasing unreachable paladins and and go for each other after awhile, then you're back to a traditional heal off.

The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.

www.retpaladin.com

 

AriasImmortal

Yeah, I'll try that next time. Sadly, there's a huge proliferation of skillheralds among warriors. Otherwise I could just stand there and spam FoL myself with no issue. WTB 5 vortexes for my partner.

I usually save my HoJ to make the paladin blow his bubble or BoP. My partner and I communicate very well and I'll HoJ the paladin when he's at about 40-50% which allows my war to burn him down from there. We win almost every mirror match (even when the war is using torch of the damned and the paladin has 4pc t6 for insane FoL).

 

Cull

In regards to 2v2 healing mainly in arena is it wise to stack spell haste. I don't have access to BT gear on my paladin but I am looking at the spellsurge enchant for weapon, the meta gem and the trinket from BM. My partner is a warrior.

 

Gulaja

Spellsurge gives mana back, it's not spell haste. If your partner is a warrior w/ mace as well, you might want to consider just using your stun on the warrior at the edge of an LOS point. Even if he trinkets you should be fine. If your partner doesn't have mace stun, you might want to save your stun for the paladin.

Mostly, try to keep yourself at 80%+. Fake heal early on when he takes the bait, use any mana conservation or healing trinket you may have, di, and go to town with flash heals. The last thing you want to do is find yourself trying to get a big heal off (pro tip: it won't go off.)

This all may be a non-issue with the mace spec nerf coming up.

 

Gulaja

Your warrior honestly shouldn't be getting feared that far away from you. Where are you guys fighting that it's so easy to get feared down the ramp and out of LOS of you? If you are using the ramp as your staging point, try to force the fight closer to the bottom of the ramp in the middle of a fight. Overall, this is a very difficult arena to play in, and unless you are willing to sit in the position you want to fight for several minutes at a time, you might just have to learn to cope with chain fears + earthshocks. Depending on who your warrior is on, at least one shouldn't be an issue.

 

Bsiddiq

So me and my 2v2 partner (holy pally) have gotten into arena. We both have pretty good gear and are able to beat most teams except the following combination:

(1) lock/pally - usually the lock loads up the dots on me and warrior and wait for me to come and try to heal him. Once I take the bait since warrior is taking a lot of damage he refreshes his dots, mana drain while the warrior is feared. Since his "healing" dots are not affected by ms, his pally has minimal healing to do while he tanks/fears. Pally has tried shadow resis gear - ( stamina but not much int/healing), only coming in line of sight for heals (doesn't help much since drain mana is channeled). I've tried some shadow resis gear, killing the pets, trying to dps the pally down but the result is the same. We lose.

(2) shadow priest/lock - everyone knows their strategy. Load on the warrior, force the pally to heal through curse of tongues, pally eventually bubbles, deathcoil the warrior, mass dispel, silence and game over.

We reached mid 1800s before running into locks team and slipping in the ratings. Any helpful strategies would be helpful, esepcially against the first combination (lock/pally) as we can usually beat the shadow priest/lock team with shadow resistance gear. On a side note we do suprisingly well against druid/locks team (judgement of justice, a stun here and there, blessing of freedom)

Thanks

http://sigs.guildlaunch.net/sig.php/627149YcXLs.png

 

GnomeoverTwo

I'm a lock/pal. You aren't getting feared at the start are you? You shouldn't have a problem in the early game at all being a warrior. You have death wish, trinket, and zerker rage! Pummel a fear and drain spell whenever pummel is up. If you notice pummel is coming back don't spam mortal strike because you'll just waste a global cool down and a warlock will get a fear off if timed correctly. With MS on the lock his paladin should run out of mana before yours if gear is comparable! Arenas are a lot about burst damage however sometimes you need to slow down and realize that you can win just by controlling the other person.

 

AriasImmortal

Against pal/lock (which I play in addition to war/pal) kill the pet first. Once it's on your paladin, just have him pull it out of line of sight around a pillar somewhere and unload on it. You may have to kill it twice but it's definitely the way to go.

 

xellos

Have a question about meta gems. Currently I'm using the Powerful Earthstorm (18stam, 5% stun resist). However I'm rolling close to 10k hp unbuffed and was considering switching to Insightful Skyfire (+12 int, chance on spellcast to restore mana). Just wondering if anyone has any experience using it and if it would be a worthwhile switch.

 

Cull

Just played against a warlock/rogue combo twice and I believe the rogue was Ming : / I have to say I am at a loss how to play against this team as warrior paladin.

Off the start of each match my partner is LoSing the warlock until he gets close enough to engage (while trying to dodge the stealthed rogue). I try to get a few dispels and a heal off before I am CoT'd.

From this point I am pretty much forced to bubble due to the insane amount of dps that the team puts out, can't risk being CC'd. I start spamming max rank HL's and I can keep my partner up the duration of my bubble. Once my 10 secs are up the game is pretty much over if the warlock is still alive.

How can we beat this? My warrior can barely fit any dps time in with being stunned by the rogue and I can't see getting on the rogue being any better. If anyone has any insight on this matter please let me know ty.

Edit: Me and my partner have basically decided that this combo is impossible to beat if played perfectly by the opposing team, if anyone can prove me wrong though please do!

 

PSokar

I used to use the 14 crit rating 1% spell reflect. The proc had game-winning potential but was very rare. I switched to the 5% half cast time gem (mystical skyfire?). I really can not imagine how any other gem could be better. That gem saves lives on a game to game basis (and its getting better next patch.)

 

• Symbul

Mystical Skyfire is the bomb. It's 'the' Paladin meta imho. I'm even using it on my Warlock now that it's getting buffed to 10secs.

Against 27/34 Lock+Rogue I don't think you can go after the Warlock as War+Pal and expect results. They're too tough and with supporting stuns from the Rogue have an easy time selfhealing for considerable amounts. Letting the Warlock roam free isn't great either but at least when you cut the Rogue he bleeds. :>

 

Cull

Though won't a good rogue just attempt to kite the warrior while the warlock destroys him? It just seems that we have to do X% of damage in a set amount of time or it's a loss.

 

Kiklion

You have BoF, rogue shouldnt be able to kite the warrior. If you get spell locked, the warrior can intercept the warlock to gain distance off of the rogue and buy some time. With no healers you can kill the first pet really easily. Then standing far away with the warrior on the lock you are out of range of CC while spamming your biggest heals. If the rogue blows sprint or comes at you or you lose sight of him, BoSac the warrior. This not only takes a heavy chunk out of the rogues damage and the warlocks dots, but it protects you from a blind.

 

Hearthly

Definitely save up a little more and get Mystical Skyfire. It's helped me a lot more than Insightful Earthstorm and next patch they're doing a small nerf where(in case you haven't noticed) the mana restore doesn't proc off Aura switching. I used to switch between Concentration aura and Shadow Resist Aura but yea I admit I don't need to since I'll put on a little Shadesteel against warlock teams(abusing it while it lasts ). It works the best for chain healing since the proc from Mystical Skyfire only lasts for a few seconds(3-4 I think?)

 

Cull

I can see what you are saying but the rogue is also mace spec so the warrior is locked down...But I will give what you said a shot. Thnx.