Kaber

If your Druid is not coming under fire, what's he doing the entire fight? He should be line of sightning the mage and Cycloning/Rooting the Rogue as much as he can while you take the mage's mana pool, making sure to LoS the mage as much as you can while you drain him. He should also be a fairly good distance away from the Rogue and save his trinket for Blind when they go for the shatter. Between Freezing trap, scatter shot, roots, and cyclone you guys should have a fairly good handle on the Rogue, and with Silence and Viper Sting on the Mage everytime your cooldowns come up you should be able to deal with him. Also, kill the Ice Pet immediately when he summons it no matter what. That's extra CC and DPS that you are letting run around free if you don't kill it.

 

sargsui

It does seem a bit funny that I came here wondering how the hell to beat dru/hunt as rog/mage and he shows up asking the opposite question. :P

 

Doppel

Neruse is playing in the 1950+ bracket which is close to the maximum attainable rating for mage/rogue in shadowburn (there is only 1 mage/rogue team above 2000 afaik). I'd imagine that any teams of that sort are played exceptionally just to thrive in that bracket- so getting beaten by a team you should counter comp is not that big of a shock.

 

sargsui

Good point, but the proximity of the posts still gave me a chuckle!

 

Erilar

Thanks for the reply, Kierran. Can anyone confirm re. Clever Traps and Freezing Trap in PvP? 12 secs or the PvP cap of 10? I Googled the topic before posting here, but also found equally adamant claims to both 10 and 12 secs.

 

Peacharizona

Ok so ive had much more success playing with my new druid partner, were back up past 1850 and were running into more and more of the dreaded druid / warlock teams and my main problem is controlling the other team's druid. Ive been asking around with my friends to see if i could get any possible engineering items or gimmicky weapons like the skull of impending doom for example, mainly to control the druid better. And ive come up with a possible solution, but im not so sure if it will work. The two handed axe that drops off of c'thun has an effect that disorients for 3 seconds and does not break on damage. Now im sure alot of people will say "lol youll gimp your stats" etc, but the loss of stats could get us a win if the proc happens a decent ammount. I am specced for 3/3 imp wing clip and generally i stay really close to the druid (casting scare beast wing clip, etc) trying to get him out for a sting. and generally ill put an aimedshot on him when he is in the middle of my frost trap radius. Applying as much pressure as possible, so if i used this axe (getting it is not a problem, there is a group of people who run naxx and AQ40 for fun all the time) got a proc in the middle of my frost trap, and then a possible entrapment this would put a significant amount of pressure on the druid and really ruin his focus. All in all what i am trying to ask is if A. the proc happen frequently enough, and B. would losing the stats be that detremental? Of course i can always switch weapons back to my wellfare epic vengeful axe or my dual wield intellect weapons during the course of the game.

 

Vasilii

First off I was under the impression that you could not switch weapons once the arena match started?? Maybe I'm just a noob?

I've been over 1850 with a priest and just started a new team with a druid to see how we do, have not had much time to play yet though. From my experience as well as watching/reading druid/hunter strategy, the ideal strategy against this team is to kill the warlocks pet twice (he will instantly resummon after the first kill). While killing the pet, throw vipers on the druid. Have your druid CC the lock as much as possible to prevent him from mana draining. Use scatter/trap on the lock as well. If you can kill both his pets then the game is won because your druid will be able to drink while his will not. After the pets are down dps the lock and continue to drain the druid. Make sure not to let the lock resummon his pet but it should be easy because it has 10 second cast time. It's a long fight but one that you should win, even as hunter/priest we almost always beat lock/druid using the same strategy.

As far as weapons go, 2 One Handers with +30 Intel enchants are ideal for druid/hunter. You are not a burst dps team and the extra intel + viper allows you amazing mana regen with minimal FD/Drink.

 

Loshiis

Weapons/shields are the one thing you can switch once a match has started.

<Cookie Vendor>

 

Vasilii

We'll I'm an idiot, but with that I would use S3 Axe on double dps teams and One-Handers with +30 Intel enchants on DPS/Healer Teams.

 

Kierran

That is in fact what Therst and others recommend you do.

 

Drolz

As I recall, both the axe itself and the proc are ridiculously rare. I'm talking like 2% on the proc, and one axe in half a year of C'Thun farming.

 

Peacharizona

yeah i just bought myself a shiney new Season 3 sword to put 30 int on, I have no qualms that it is clearly the better option while draining the other team but in the end draining wont do it alone, you have to put mad amounts of pressure on the other teams druid to eventually kill him. Normally i just highest rank things until i hit 50 % mana and get single ticks of mana through drinking during the match and eventually the druid dies because between me AND my pet he isnt going to be able to drink. I was just thinking of the c'thun axe as a finisher, swapping it in for a lucky proc and pretty much free aimedshot while hes disoriented

 

Kaber

I can also swap Idols on my Druid in Arena, so I assume you can also swap any ranged slot weapon.

 

Thebigcheeze

This was my response to a question about generic rogue/dps setups, but most of the tips work for all ranged dpsers. The feel of the thread was that the rogue/mage was attempting to kill the druid, so that's where most of my advice is aimed.



swapping CC back and forth between the DPSers is key. as a hunter, you have scatter shot and ice cube trap (sorry, I get freezing and frost mixed up >_<). You also have silencing shot and a pet.

Scatter/trap works perfectly against any class, but generally try to save it for the rogue.

Save silences/your trinket for when you know you'll be CC'd or to stop a huge hit (shatter combo, for instance). If your rogue is getting owned three ways from tuesday, it's better for you to eat a cc for a few seconds than for you to take a 4k burst from a mage.

FEIGN DEATH DROPS TARGETTING. If you're about to get smashed by a shatter or eat a cc, pop feign death. They'll de-select you and it will break their cast, buying you atleast a few seconds to possibly get silencing off of cooldown.

Keep viper on the ranged DPS always, even if it's a lock. every GCD they use on life tap is a GCD they aren't using to kill you with.

Keep your pet on the ranged dps.

Keep wing clip or concussive on ----both enemies----.

Don't blow CC cooldowns on DPS. if the rogue is low, don't scatter to setup for an aimed or steady/auto. save scatter, silencing, warstomp (if you're a tauren) etc. for staying alive or keeping your partner alive.

If there's a shadowpriest, **use a snake trap**. Don't use it on a lock or a mage because they can just use rank 1 arcane explosion or rank 1 hellfire to kill them, but a shadowpriest just gets destroyed. make sure to arcane shot off the PW:S to make sure they can't cast crap.

All the time the hunter is doing these things, the druid should be chain root/cycloning the rogue. They need to call out if the rogue cloaks or sprints (that means you scatter->trap or scatter->concussive or scatter->clip if you're close enough).

Another thing is to ---watch your own health---. Don't get so caught up in CCing that you let yourself get shattered, or you don't notice the s.priest loading you with DoTs and then dropping a mb/swd on you. You have a 41 yd range. Only heals are this long. Use it.

I hope that helps.

 

turbo012

this may be a vague question but which feet enchant should i from the following?

surefooted, dex, cat's, boar's

i pvp 2v2's only, my teammates are, my friends in RL, warrior/warlock

also i know this sounds like dumb question but does minor speed increase stack? becase wow is so unclear on what stacks or not.

 

• Nisu

Not dex for sure - as for the other ones, run speed is pretty major, so my preference would be to Boar's for sure - Cat's may be acceptable if you feel comfortable with your HP numbers. I'm not a fan of Surefooted because it's a minor bonus, and the hit rating is easy to make up, while not having run speed will allow anyone with it to catch you even unsnared.

Minor speed, either from the meta, boot enchants, AB boots, and JC trinket all do not stack, nor do they stack with Cheetah/Pack.

 

Kierran

My question is of a more general nature, and I'm curious whether others have given it some thought: what are the biggest concepts or abilities that separate under-performing hunters from excellent ones? I run hunter/druid, and my teammate and I have hit a roadblock in our progress (hovering around 1700). I'm having a lot of trouble identifying what it is we should be doing better. We're both relatively well-geared with ~350 resilience, we've read up on strategies for all of the important match-ups, and we've perused numerous threads like this one for any tidbits of information (Therst's guide has been invaluable). Despite all this, I feel like we struggle through a lot of matches, even ones that are supposedly an 'auto-win' for our team.

I consider myself and my partner skilled players who know how to play our class, but at some point I have to face the facts and figure out why we're not doing as well as I think we should. There's obviously a disconnect between our understanding of what we should be doing and its execution. I fully believe that more practice is essential, but I have to make sure that we're not missing important details or else we'll simply be reinforcing bad habits. So what is it that makes an excellent PvP hunter? What realizations and skills have resulted in the biggest improvement in your game? How long did it take to make it all click and start rising up the ladder? Any advice will be most helpful.

 

Trohck

Probably a good way to approach answering your question is to analyze why you are losing. Hunters and druids are both very complex classes in PvP with a lot of skill headroom, so trying to take it all in at once is probably not going to work for you. Off the top of my head here are some areas where you might stand to improve: trap selection, trap placement, positioning with respect to your druid, pet choice, cooldown management, when to drain vs. burn, mana management, target choice, coordinated target switches. The list goes on and on, so analyzing it one loss at a time might be a better approach.

 

diotox

I think two of the most common mistakes that people who get stuck at 1700ish with a viable team make are in the areas of positioning and playing defensively. As far as positioning goes, particularly with hunter/druid, your druid needs to be hugged up to a pillar or the center tomb on lordaeron, and you need to have a frost trap down that he can use to kite at all times, period. No lapses. Many low rated players do not strongly grasp just how powerful LOS is, and how many fears, manaburns, etc can be easily dodged if you always stay very close to something you can easily use to duck out of LOS. Yes, in some cases freezing trap is better, but when you are having trouble where you shouldn't be, double checking and making sure you master the fundamentals first is what you need to be doing before getting fancier. Freezing trap opens yourself to some "Oh shit" moments, such as when the wrong target eats it, or when they trinket out of it, neither of which is an issue with frost trap. I find low rated healers often have these complete lapses in judgement where they stand around out in the open for long periods of time which often costs their team the game.

As far as playing defensively goes, as hunter/druid, you own the long game against most lineups. Dragging the game out is generally going to be in your favor. There is nothing "dishonorable, cheap, or unfair"(Yes, people have asked me for help before and then responded using one of those 3 terms) about circling the same pillar with your druid, playing ultra defensively with wing clip spam, scatter, and silence to massively reduce incoming damage while doing very little damage of your own while you wait for the other team's cooldowns to be used up. You shouldn't feel like you're under a time limit to kill somebody(in most cases), your druid should never be saying "Can't you just kill somebody already?", and so on.

Both you and your druid need to protect your mana pools by LOSing or interruping manaburns, manadrains, and curing viper stings ASAP. This is one of those things that is "duh" on paper, but you need to be quick and consistent about it each and every single time. It is an area that you can easily lapse in and lose games because of. In addition, both of you need to be looking to drink well before you think you even need the mana. If either of you are even 1 drink tick's worth of mana short of being full mana, then if you can find time to drink 1 tick, do it. One major difference I observe between great hunters and average ones is that the best hunters use feign death to drink damn near every time the cooldown is up, frequently for only 1 or 2 ticks worth. They turn it into a variable size mana potion on a 30 second cooldown. Doing this makes it take a very, very long time for the hunter to even begin getting low on mana, and the lower his mana goes, the more effective aspect of the viper is.

Basically what I'm getting at is that I suspect while your team might be aware of the fundamentals, you might not actually be executing them in practice. It would help a lot if you listed some of the auto-win matchups for hunter/dru that you are struggling with, as it would make it much easier to possible identify some certain areas that could stand to be improved.

 

Kaber

Something that was probably touched on earlier in the thread that I would like to bring up, while we're on the topic of LOS, is the bridge in Blade's Edge Arena. When you are paired with a Druid, you can fight in the center of the bridge, under the bridge, or on either side in the open. You cannot, under any circumstances, fight at the end of the bridge or on the ramps. It is a Druid's worst nightmare because it forces him out into the open (either into the middle of the bridge, below in an open spot, or right on top of you) where he can be easily mana burned, CCed, or DPSed. It is a pretty bad spot for Hunters as well, so if you are Druid/Hunter you have to move the fight away from these areas.

I find Blades Edge to be my most hated Arena simply because I have to tell people over and over that we cannot fight at the ends or ramps of the bridge and that they have to either drop down or charge the other team.

 

Kiklion

I can't stress this enough, it is much the same in 3's as well.

I hate it when my team complains about me eating a priest fear, meanwhile they are standing all bunched up on top of the ramp in BE. I have two options, either stand in the middle of it all and easily get mana burned / feared, or stand out in the bridge with no LoS oppotunities that don't involve complete stoppage of heals on my teammates.

 

doogless

Agree with this 100%. Positioning in Blade's Edge is probably the hardest to learn, and it's extremely important as a Druid. On all of the teams I heal for on my Druid, I've had to repeatedly stress that if my partner(s) get(s) backed to either end of the bridge, they need to come all the way down to the ground rather than forcing me to try and heal from the ramp.

 

Kaber

Something I left out is that it is also very easy to get LoS'd by your own teammates at that spot of the bridge. If I am standing in the middle and they walk behind a pillar I can't heal them, or if we get someone to a critical point and I need to CC their partner then the same happens when they move behind it. If I am at the bottom of the ramp, I cannot get LoS to heal them if they move to the top, opposite side, or onto the bridge around a pillar. I have even had team mates run away from me up the ramp thinking it would save them from getting killed by a focus fire when all they had to do was run off the ramp, get under the bridge and start pillar humping.

Blade's Edge is one of the easier maps for a Druid to kite on, but the learning curve for positioning is huge.

 

turbo_012

If minor speed does not stack, then isn't it better for me to get +12 stamina on boots? Because i already have a meta gem with minor speed increase + AP.

 

• Nisu

I would get the [Relentless Earthstorm Diamond] or [Powerful Earthstorm Diamond] since I'd consider them both much better, but if you want to stick with the run speed meta, by all means get something that's not run speed on boots, stam is decent enough.

On another note, you might want to do the whole spelling and punctuation thing, people here tend to frown on not doing it.