evilution

2v2 is hard for us.. Only tip i can think of is put on a shield if a rogue or warrior is on you. You can still do enough damage to keep a healer on their toe's while cutting incoming damage significantly.

Maybe your resto druid partner can cyclone the healer and moonfire your target a couple times when they get low (3k hp or so)... I know my healer (resto shaman) switching to dps really won us a lot of games that could have gone either way.

 

Barell

I am trying out playing with a resto druid atm. Going OKish I gues. Have not really played much, both our play times have dropped lately.

Just a thought on the war/pal or war/druid match up. Whenever the druid or pally comes back to the warrior so he can hamstring you, have your druid cyclone the warrior if possible. That way warrior can only stand there and do nothing. Hopefully the druid or pally will then run again. Just an idea.

 

Malan

Had some matchups this weekend that really gave us some trouble. My team is gear limited at the moment, but consists of Druid/Warrior/Shaman/Paladin/Rogue. Druid/Paladin are the healers. The warrior is pretty squishy at the moment and I'm in about half arena gear, half leather pve gear. We're hovering at the 1800 bracket.

So this team that really confused us was a mage/disc priest/enhance shaman/rogue/paladin. Their team had a strategy we just hadn't seen before, instead of really focusing on DPS they did everything they could to allow the disc priest freedom to mana burn our paladin. We had our rogue on their mage and the warrior and I had started on their enhancement shaman. The team was better geared than us so that was a factor, but it looks like a problem with the initial targets, for that team we should have gone after the priest. However that means that an unmolested enhancement shaman would be free to just wreck house.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

• Juice

I'm not speaking from any particularly great experience here.

I don't believe you can leave the priest alone, as you'll need someone on him to disrupt mana burns. Leave your rogue on the mage and get yourself and the warrior on the priest. That leave the enhancement shaman open, but here's where you need to leverage what you have that they don't - a druid. With cyclones and roots the druid can take their enhancement shaman out of the game. Even if the shaman ends up with a fair bit of freedom due to some solid play (the mage/priest dragging you guys to him, grounding/shocking roots and cyclones, etc) they only have 1 mortal strike effect, and it's poison based. You have 3 poison clearers in your group (plus a totem). You should be able to overcome the mana war and win if you stop mana burns.

It's possible the enhancement shaman will stick to your druid and, with BoF support, wreck him. Won't be particularly easy because you are your only offensive dispeller and you will be kinda busy and focus purging BoF off the enhancement shaman might not get done much. HoJ, feral charge, feral bash, cyclone, may need to be reserved for the enhancement shaman to keep your druid alive.

 

Malan

Yah I believe what they did was locked down our druid while blowing every CC they had on our paladin while also mana burning him. Their entire team seemed to be built around the disc priest doing that, the priest in fact didn't cast a single heal the entire match, just burned and used pain suppression (and I presume ProM).

It was a tough match, they outgeared us quite a bit but also used an unexpected strategy and really confused us on what targets to pick off.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

panny

I'm incredibly sad because I keep team jumping and never getting my 2k PR, despite playing every single game in a 2k 5v5. Stupid team mates >.<

Anyway Malan, a big problem with your particular makeup is that you only have one dispeller. It's difficult to make use of your advantages (Druid CC) because they're alot easier to kill now. Does the following summerize targets?

Outgoing
Enh/War -> Enh
Rog -> Mag

Incoming
Pre/Rog -> Pal
Enh -> Druid

It seems like with both you and a Warrior on an Shaman, the pressure on your Druid should be minimal, allowing him to CC (I recommend CCing the Rogue). Letting your Pally dodge mana burns, especially since you'd be taking little damage. I don't see how your Druid could be locked down at all with only an Enhancement Shaman on him, especially since he'd be continously getting intercepted/hamstrung. I assume their Mage was being locked down by your Rogue?

Imo, the best way to lock down a mana burning Priest is to apply enough pressure through damage so that he has to heal. With a Paladin as the only healer, it's very possible to counter almost all their heals bar Divine Shield. Run an interrupt chain with Earth Shock, Intercept, Pummel, Intimidating Shout, Feral Charge, Bash, Cyclone, and various Rogue tricks while keeping to your original targets.

Cycloning the target is a great way to prevent healing between Shock cooldowns. I believe me and a Druid kept an enemy Warrior from getting any heals from a Paladin for about 20 seconds while we DPSed him between Cyclones.

TBH, I find Shaman/Warrior to be harder than Druid/Warrior now. Resto Shaman are hard to pin down and interrupt at the same time when you're the only DPS, and you can't just Purge all their HoTs. And Water Shield kicks Innervate's ass now.

Fix Spirit Wolves not responding to commands.
DK/Rogue

 

Malan

Our rogue said he was having major problems with their rogue, so maybe that's where things started to fall apart. I'm still trying to get used to focus interrupting. I hit the button at the appropriate time, but I'm just pretty bad at making sure that I'm facing the healer while dpsing a target.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

Cabe

So how are you shutting down the other healer for 20sec w/ your druid partner. I've realize that there is no way i can catch a druid w/ warrior constantly peeling when my druid's cc is on DR. The games i play can easily be a stalemate vs. druid/warrior my comp is enhance/druid. our strategy thus far is shutting down warrior w/ cc while i chase druid. but sooner or later warrior will peel me and allow his druid to drink. same w/ my druid he can drink in between cc's on the warrior. So our plan now is to do a quick swap bloodlust and kill the warrior and hopefully the druid will be a little late to heal warrior and run right into our cc. ok I can focus earthshock, he cylones, my earth shock is back up i earthshock he cyclones that's total like 13 secs only. that won't be nearly enough time for me to blow warrior up even w/ my druid helping out a little. plus he will more than likely fear at low health so i'll have to have my tremor down and can't drop grace cuz i can't afford to miss grouding his cyclone. saving up my shocks alot will lower my dps on warrior big time. does any have any good strategy's???? every game we lost this week was warrior/druid or warrior/pally and one rogue/druid but that one is not nearly as bad as warriors

 

Juli

An un-cc'd druid can stop pretty much all heals in 2v2. The key is to also cyclone the target you are killing, not just the healer. You cannot receive heals while cycloned, and hots will expire, but you do not get any health from the ticks during cyclone (incidentally, priests also do not gain mana from their shadowfiends while cycloned - cycloning a preist with an active shadow fiend is a great way to deny mana, especially compared to trying to cyclone or root the super-resistant fiend itself).

Feral charge the healer, cyclone x2 (x3 if shaman or paladin) on healer, bash or catform -> rake/claw -> maim or warstomp, feral charge the healer again, cyclone the non-healer x2 (all heals will do nothing, and most likely the healer will waste mana casting a heal or two on an immune target), bash/maim/warstomp the healer, feral charge the healer again, cyclone healer x2 (or 3), repeat. If it's a druid healer, shock cyclones he tries to cast, especially when the cyclone on their dps is about to expire and their druid is un-CC'd, otherwise he may be able to interrupt your CC chain.

Even if you decide to kill the druid, when he has full hots (rejuv + regrowth + 3x lifebloom) it is often a good idea to just cyclone him, forcing hots to expire without the ticks giving any healing and resetting the super-efficient lifebloom stack to 0. This kills his mana efficiency and removes his ability to efficiently swiftmend an old rejuv.

 

kniff

A bit late in this season, but our team just managed to get everyone to 2000 rating this evening. We're using the new semi-common warrior/rogue/shaman/priest/paladin where im the shaman. We havent played alot but we had a winning ratio so far of 2:1 which got us pretty easily to 2000 rating. I'm getting my shoulders tomorow night, i feel really happy about it since i never really thought it was possible, since i'm not that well geared (still wearing 2x s1, and 1xs2 with a karazhan ele shield to switch when focused..).

If anyone has any questions how we play our games feel free to ask, however it usually revolves around putting our rogue on their mage/shaman (pala or restosham if they're 2dps 3 healer) while me and the warrior stick on their lock/druid with me basically purging nonstop and pulling BL at the right moment. Switching targets is of course essential because of our coordinated burstpotential. Rogue has been both mutilate and hemo and both have been working fairly well.

My shaman is Djävulen on Mazrigos, it's my alt so it isnt linked in my profile.


PS, instant ghostwolf - i love you.

 

Herrera

That has got to be one stupid warrior if he lets his druid get controlled like that or even a druid if he let's being controlled like that.
While the ChuckNorisDruid is doing all that stuff, he's not healing the warrior's damage, which is kinda nasty and comes with 50% healing reduction debuff.

Totem of the Crusader
Tools: Earth Totem
Increases mounted speed of all party members by 20% while in range of the totem.

 

Juli

That is the ideal scenario, obviously the team that wins is the one that executes better. A good druid WILL be healing during all of that; there is enough time to cast multiple hots between many of those actions, even including regrowths during the 0% DR cyclones. In addition, cycloning the warrior causes mortal strike to fall off very very easily. He asked how it was possible to CC healing for 20 seconds when their healer is on DR. That is how.

 

Cabe

Thanks for the info. We will try that this weekend.

I'll start off on druid forcing him to run for his life while my druid cc's warrior. When cc is on DR the warrior will be forced to peel, I'll then bloodlust and swap to warrior while my druid cc's the opposing druid. I'll also keep my grounding totem down and my focus on druid to shock his cyclones. When warrior is about 40 percent druid will cyclone warrior while I get on the opposing driud forcing him to run and at the same time grounding, shocking and if needs be warstomp his cc. Once I get him running I'll swap back to warrior while my druid cc's opposing druid again and I should be able to burn him down from there. I think this will work because i have an advantage over the warrior. I can ground and shock druids cc allowing my druid to get the upper hand...

 

Juli

Sounds like a solid strategy. The only other suggestion I have before you go try it would be that you may want to reactively ground rather than keeping the totem down (not necessarily always, but when you can). Just keep the druid on focus and drop groundings just like you would shock to stop cyclones, otherwise he can rank1 moonfire you or your totem for 25 mana before casting his CC.

 

Push

My arena teams haven't properly loaded on my Armory for many months thanks to my habitual team switching and the Armory's bugginess; however, my main 2v2 team, which is with a Resto Druid, is 2150 ATM. Since 2.4 we have not gotten much of a chance to play, but so far I don't see us stopping a rise in points anytime soon.

I'm hoping to level that team out at around 2250 or even higher!

My 3v3 bounces around ridiculously from 2050 to 2250 (I can't even keep track). I play with a different combo every week, and it's completely for fun. It's the bracket I've been playing in the least recently. Soon I may try to hunker down on 3v3 and work on a 2300 team like I'm doing for everything else.

My 5v5 is currently 2250, but it's easily going to be higher soon enough. We tried my Paladin as Retribution last week, and we lost 130 points. If it wasn't for that, we'd probably be about 2350 right now!

As for my change in enchantments and gems: especially now that I don't play with a Frost Mage anymore, I find that I'm the focus of nearly every single Arena game. For this reason only, I have gone for survivability a bit more, which I have found helpful so far.

Only if the Shaman is literally the focus of almost every game would I suggest going for survivability. I still generally recommend going for damage to other Shaman, though it always depends on the combos you're running/facing/etc.

During 2.3, I eventually switched to 18/43/00 for the first time in a very long time. I hugely enjoyed that spec! It was my favorite spec I had ever tried; Eye of the Storm was unbelievable for protecting buffs, and the 1 second off shocks helped so much against healers/Mages.

Regardless, I am now 00/47/14 for 2.4. I like the Elemental off-talents a lot better, but the 10 yards to totems is too important to give up, unfortunately. I'm forced to go with the Resto off-talents.

Even if I did go for the Elemental off-talents, I wouldn't be able to get Eye of the Storm comfortably, since Toughness takes so many talent points.

I had a bunch of footage, but I couldn't find any video editing software that was compatible with my operating system (Windows XP x64). I looked for over a month, and I couldn't find anything. I scrapped the project. Sorry!

If somebody who knows what they're doing offers their services to me, I'll gladly recapture a bunch of new footage and pump a video out!

I'm Enhancement.

Add 20% MS to Stormstrike or make Toughness affect immobilization effects. kthx

 

Sintor

How do you people deal with Eurocomp? Mage/Warlock/Druid/Rogue/Priest is Eurocomp, for those who don't know. We were running Enh-Sham/War/Rog/Pri/Pal and couldn't touch it. Complete healers/warrior lockdown. Kept me off every target. We did end up winning two, but it was pure RNG (Warrior got sword spec/windfury/ms crit and I got SS x2 crit/Windfury crits) damage explosion.

Only other team we have trouble dominating is two hunters + anything, bloody traps galore.

 

doogless

Warrior/Shaman train the Warlock, Rogue glues himself to the Mage as best he can. You really shouldn't lose to Euro as melee zerg, you're basically set up to specifically destroy teams like that.

 

Sintor

Normally I'd agree, but the sheer amount of CC going on in a good euro seems to overcome it. We have certainly blasted terrible EC teams and even average ones, but a well-played one with good cc rotation seems to overcome our gap-closing abilities.

 

Malan

What CC though? A warrior and an Enhancement shaman should devastate the warlock, and the rogue should be able to control the mage. That leaves their rogue with a sap, blind and some stuns that they'll probably be trying to use on one of your 2 healers. The cleave team is one of the best counters to the Euro Comp. You pressure 2 targets so hard that it forces the healers to let one die to save the other, which is where you get your foot in the door.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

doogless

Yeah, basically what Malan said. The Rogue shuts down the Mage, pushback from the Warrior + Shaman and Tremor Totem remove most of the Fears, and shocks + Grounding Totem eliminates a good portion of the Roots + Cyclones. I play Euro in 5s, and we've managed to win a few games against cleave teams, but only because their Shaman didn't know how to Earth Shock our Druid.

 

Malan

I'm pretty bad at this myself. My problem was that I kept trying to interrupt offensive spells on my target and would be unable to interrupt heals on my focus, and also that I'm *terrible* at maintaining my position relative to the healer to be able to shock.

I've gotten a little better by shifting my focus-shock macro to a different key (it used to be shift-2 while normal target-shock was just 2) so that I can't screw it up, and I finally came to the realization that all shocks should be saved for heal interrupts and just use grounding totem for offensive soaks.

Still trying to figure out the positioning, I get tunnel vision pretty bad.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

Sintor

I believe our problem was the druid, more than anything. He would always make sure he stayed out of my range while the mage would kite away from us and towards the druid to allow for the extra root/cyclone to make sure the mage got free to poly/etc. I should say this is the only Eurocomp team we have lost to consistently, I believe they are playing it well. Our dispels might be a bit slow as well, which is probably part of the problem.

I just know that even with the glove shock range I'm unable to focus shock the druid out of cyclones/roots at all. From the replays I saved of it, the mage/druid try to suck the rogue out of the group so the rogue is out of totem range and the druid avoids shocks, while the warlock moves to their back line.

 

Cabe

Here is a recently release video. This is the second one by Zagine. As you can see if left alone a shaman can wreck shop. You will also notice when he's focused he is basically useless except for purges and shocks. WTB some skilled players in my Realm to run w/. Guess this is the best we can do right now since push is too lazy to put a video out. Especially 2v2's since my playing time is so limited..
Zagine II - Enhancement 3v3 BG9 By Zagine

 

Push

/cry

I had like 50 GB of videos and spent a month trying to find any video editing software that just worked.

Like I said, if somebody wants to make an epic video out of fresh footage, I'll be happy to work on a kickass video. I promise i wouldn't disappoint.

I'm Enhancement.

Add 20% MS to Stormstrike or make Toughness affect immobilization effects. kthx

 

Malan

So your problem is finding something that works on 64 bit windows?
If so a quick google search says VirtualDub x64 is available.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06