Solipse

How does everyone feel about this sort of team.

We played 5 different 3v3 teams last night with 2 mages. Two of the teams were with a druid (one was resto, one was moonkin). Two of the teams were with a priest (one was shadow, one was holy). One of the teams was with a rogue.

We went about 50/50 against these teams. They always targeted our lock first and whether we won or lost was SOLELY based on whether or not their blastwave->POM pyro BS would kill the warlock instantly or not. If they didn't and he was able to healthstone and I could land a holy light, we usually won. If they did then I was chain sheeped and they focused on our third person.

Our lock has 14k hp and 330 resilience... and yet these teams can drop him before I can even get a heal off. (I can only preemptively bubble and heal against the non priest teams otherwise I eat an MD and fear and he definitely dies).

Is this fairplay or cheese?

Quick Edit: All but one of these teams were pretty shitty players. One of the priest teams was very good but the others were absolutely horrible. If they failed in getting the lock down with their pyro bullshit they died fast. Most (aside from the one priest team) never even bothered to CC me unless the lock died, they'd just stand there nuking away. They were terrible yet they're able to stay competative solely based on the pom nonsense.

 

Starpoe2

Generally we lock one down quickly with either spell lock or a deathcoil right off the bat, so that the Pyroblasts come in staggered, that way they're much easier to heal through. You mentioned they're constantly going for your lock, is he doing the VW Sac + Summon before the start of the match? I've found that's saved me from many teams that rely on burst damage.

 

DecimusGarona

Get your warlock to start the match with a VW sacrifice, giving him an extra 3k hp, and a priest bubble should add another 1300+. Throw in health stone for another 2700 HP (given your warlocks current talents and assuming fel armor).

This totals to over 21000 hp that they have to burn through before you can get a heal off. If your warlock/priest don't know how to fear them, silence them, or otherwise remove control of their character for the short amount of time you need to pop a heal out, then I don't know how to help you. If your warlock is worried about casting a spell like fear or drain life and getting his shadow school locked down, tell him to just suck it up because it is better him than you.

Oh yeah, I forgot deathcoil heal/CC as well.

 

Braque

The Stone to their Scissors is Fire Resist gear (heroic badges set). Or a dual rogue team.

 

Zoee

It won't work very well, but they will have a fair chance of beating quite a few setups. It's completely reliant on burning down an opponent quickly and once they've burned their pyroblasts/blast waves they don't have that much to offer.

In general I think bringing two of one class to a 3v3 is a bad idea.

 

Solipse

He's not, and that's a good idea. Thanks.

Normally, from what we saw, they'd kill his felhound asap before they attempted to burn him. (Which would normally be enough time for the VW shield to drop, wouldn't it?) He was able to get them to slightly stagger their pyros in one or two of the matches with fear, but with the trinkets breaking DC now, it's harder than it would initially seem, especially against a team with good ventrilo communication.

The difficult thing with the mage teams is that their burst is on demand and doesn't force them to swing right into it at the start. The good team (the priest one) last night played defensively until they were ready to go into their blastwave -> pom pyro mode. There really wasn't much defense against it.

 

Leto

This strategy is assuming they blow their cooldowns without being in any sort of control over the fight. They could just wait for deathcoil to be used, or until their cc's are down, or the paladin is counterspelled, etc.

Rogue at heart.

 

DecimusGarona

If a 2 mage team is waiting on their cooldowns to gain control over a warlock/priest/paladin team with double dispels, and they actually succeed, I don't think anyone can be blamed but the priest and paladin for failing miserably in their jobs as dispellers. The priest should have a macro to dispel the paladin and use it the second the paladin is CCed. In the unlikely event that the mages can get off a synchronized sheep on both characters at once, that is what PvP trinket or bubble is for.

Edit: Blessing of sacrfice on the warlock can also make the paladin immune to polymorph.

 

Gulaja

Actually, I think you neglected to inform us who your 3rd was?

Anyways, you need to come out strong and very offensively. The sooner they burn their cooldowns, the better for you since you don't have to worry about CS as much. The worst is when the mages do decent dps at the beginning trying to bait a heal for the CS kill. Before you engage, make sure to call out a strategy for your warlock. Who he is going to deathcoil. Who you are going to stun, who he is going to fear, etc. etc. Save the felhunter for an early CS on the fire tree if you can.

I hate these groups because a small bit of lag on my part can wreck the game, and quite often these groups are rated lower than us. Big risk, small benefit.

 

DecimusGarona

Armory reveals all. The OP is on an affliction warlock/shadow priest/holy paladin team.

 

Solipse

That's actually a misnomer. It doesn't make you immune, it just makes you immune from staying for the full duration. Spells are still broken when you're poly'd, obviously. A chain poly against a pally will keep him from healing unless bubble is up.

 

Solipse

Yeah, played on a rogue/warrior/pally team last season and wanted a change of pace from an all physical team. The change in meta game is interesting to say the least... it's alot more line-walking and learning how to play optimally.

 

Gulaja

Thanks!

Well yes, you are putting the "key plays" into your hands instead of the warrior/rogue. It's much easier to heal a rogue when he has BoF and the guy attacking him is hamstrung.

Anyways, your priest/wlk should be putting appropriate pressure on the mages, ignore the priest. Mana drain really isn't a serious issue here, and you'll be LOSing the mages anyways so you shouldn't get hit too much. Starting out with a heavy offense will force their hand sooner, and that's of course to your advantage since you don't have to wait and wait and wait for them to use AP.

 

Solipse

Yep, that's one of the things that works well/I like about this setup (along with the fact that I really enjoy playing with the two other guys on the team - it's a blast). I'm sure we'll eventually learn to outplay the two mage matchup, it's just the unpredictability of it all that bothers me.

Well, unpredictability and the observation that when this trick fails, all but the one team floundered. (We only played the moonkin team once and between starfire and 2 AP pyros our lock was annihiliated, so I'm not sure how they would have played had it failed).

Anyway, thanks for the ideas guys... definitely some small tweaks to how we handle them.

 

levk

The warlock has to be held responsible for his own life. Your heals shouldn't be an invitation for him to stand in the middle and tank all this shit.