POL
05-19-2008, 03:30
by Garrthos
First off, as a resto druid, in an arena, your job is pretty simple. Don't die. roots, cyclone, bash, maim, bear charge, all these tools must be used in order to stay alive while running and healing your dpser at the same time. its all about running, its all about throwing hots and staying out of Line of sight (LOS). its about using every ability at your disposal to outlast the other healer, or CC the other healer at exactly the right time so that your dpser can finish the target hes on. Druid is a Heal over time class (HOT) as many of us know, i hope. a general strategy for high lvl arena is one dps one healer. the dps stays on the other healer, and who ever can live longer wins. sometimes, things can change, in the blink of an eye, and youll have to adjust, which ill explain later, but for the most part, thats how it works, healer vs dps x2. whoever is better at staying alive, wins. oh, and in areans, no treeform. treeform is for raids ladies. the ultimate arena spec in my opinion is 8/11/35+. big hots that resist dispels, bear charge and uninterruptable cyclones/roots. check my spec for my specific version of this spec.
What I'm going to do is just type in how i survive against each class 1v1 vs most specs i can think of. Of course, when theres 2 dpsers/CCers, things change, and become much more hectic, but for the most part, at high levels, its one dpser and one healer/hybrid. so ill do the 1v1 strats per class.
Let me start off by saying my partner is a warrior who is making his stormherald today. (he went swords first, but changed his mind after my constant complaints of how much mace stun kills me) lol. hes orc, im tauren. were both 70, lol what else can i say. warrior druid. 2000 rating season 2. here we go.
Feral Druid:
You wont see many of these at high rank as the main DPSer. usually he'll be healing a rogue or warrior and helping dps when the warrior is topped off, or cycloning my warrior and turning to kill me. But lets say its a healer/feral druid combo. Feral druids are capable of shifting out of our roots and natures grasp spell, so getting away from them is tough (on top of that, they're extra fast in cat form). So how do we escape? The way to beat a feral druid is to burn their mana (you'll see that this strategy gets very repetative as a resto druid). the way i handle feral druids, is forcing them to shapeshift over and over until they can't anymore. I use my roots, to make them shift out, i use cyclone, and wait until theres 1.5 seconds left and cast hibernate. if they shift out to avoid being slept, they lose mana, if they don't, i have 10 seconds to drink/heal/run. roots, while not effective, still makes them use 800 mana per shift, and resets their cat energy to 40. keep lifeblooms up, rejuvenation if needed, and swiftmend if they get a big ferocious bite crit. keep your face to them whenever possible so they cant shred you, and just survive.
Moonkin Druid:
Again, not very represented in the high lvl pvp, unless as a hybrid Healer/dps, but in case you're facing one, keep hots up and, in response to a big crit, cyclone and let your HOTs tick. When they cast trees, cyclone the DRUID, warstomp cheetah form away to negate all of that spells dmg. thats...pretty much it. not too tough to survive against moonkins.
Rogue:
Rogue is all about timing against a druid. The only thing a rogue is thinking when he fights a resto druid is "shift out of bear, shift out of bear". So , remember that. the only time you should be out of bear form is if you're ready to get a massive amount of dps laid into you, or you have the rogue effectively CC'd. When I'm in the arena with my warrior partner, I start out stealthed, so, I'll usually see the rogue before he does me (because he has to stunlock my warrior off his healer). Ill unstealth, throw some HOT's on my warrior, Omr, and keep 41 yards away. Most rogues will use Wound poison (their version of mortal strike), so eventually I'll have to move closer to cast depoison once or twice. When you do this, it isn't a bad idea to throw an abolish poison on yourself first, in case the rogue sees you coming and decides to blind you (abolish will keep you safe for 8 seconds). Make sure you put faerie fire on him at this point. Once the rogue decides he can kill you, he'll cloak the FF off and vanish to stunlock you. Go bear and begin the battle.
He'll open with cheapshot and spam shiv to get you wounded. Bad rogues will kidney shot you at this point, hoping they can finish you off in bear form in 6 seconds >_<. in this case, wait till its over, natures grasp, and HOT, abolish poison, run (reapply FF). and go help your warrior kill the healer. I won't deal with the bad rogues. they're bad, and you should be fine. A good rogue will continue to dps you even if he has 5 points on you. hell keep wound up and wait till you pop out of bear form, to kidney. what i like to do is natures grasp them and jiggle away in bear form until out of melee range, and then come out of bear. Against a good rogue, the first spell you should cast is abolish poison, because he will probably blind you here if his cloak is down (which it should be). Fights with rogues are very reactive, but its basically the same thing over and over. If you do get caught in caster form, remember you can barkskin, to give yourself soul link for 12 seconds. Use it sparingly, and keep HOT's up on you whenever possible or whenever the rogue is coming close. HOT, bearform, demoralizing shout, kite.
My best suggestion is find the best rogues on your server, and duel them, over and over, and just try to NOT DIE. do it over and over until they hate your guts cause duels take 10-15 minutes. thats the best way to do it against any class.
Shadowpriest:
Usually, where you find a shadowpriest, you find an unstable affliction warlock. Healing your warrior against these 2 will be very hard, unless your warrior has a shadow resist set. I would say close to impossible if they're good. (7 seconds of silence, 2 types of fear and dispels of my HOT's on Omr). Alot of winning against this combo is on my warrior's shoulders. Defensive stance, reflecting the right spells is key. But if it's just a shadowpriest on you, it isn't too difficult. Always cast Lifebloom first on yourself, and then rejuvenation. Lifebloom is a tiny little green thing over your head, not easily noticed, if they arent paying attention, rejuvenation is like a gigantic green hand wrapping around you, lol. Basically theyre going to DOT you up, and then silence you and dispel the HOTs on you and try to burst you down. if you survive the silence, you're fine. what i recommend, is when you see the dots being applied in full, pop lifebloom, rejuvenation, and cyclone him. if he silences this, your lifebloom is ticking and rejuvenation should be as well, after this,he will dispel them, thereby popping the lifebloom to heal for 1500ish (for me). but that only leaves him 3 seconds to kill me. and I'm fully healed, so he has to do 9k dmg in 3 seconds (not going to happen). after you're unsilenced, lifebloom , rejuvenation, and continue.
Hunter:
lawl. abolish viper sting, use line of sight in arenas (each has a TON of line of sight, even ruins). that's all there is to it. don't let them shoot you, lol. Use the poles in nagrand, the tomb in lordearon, and the entire stage in blade's edge. Know where they are at all times and you'll be fine.
Shaman:
Shaman are my bane. they're the scariest class in the game for me. Not because they can kill me in the arenas (they can't), i just line of sight their casts if they're the main DPSers, but because they can absolutely obliterate my warrior if they get lucky. Enhancement shaman my warrior tears through, so not too much issue there, just be careful they love to spam purge, so keep lifebloom up at all times so your warrior can get 1500 healing every 1.5 seconds for 200 mana. Elemental is the scary spec. an elemental shaman with good gear can burst your warrior for close to 10k in about 3 seconds if he gets a lucky proc. 6-7k without it, and he can purge your heals. basically, a good elemental shaman, if he times it right , can kill your warrior before you can react and cast a regrowth. For the most part, elemental shaman roll with another dps class, whether it be warlock or a rogue or whatever, so you've also got them to deal with. Like I said, I hate this class, and I always will. Keep lifebloom up and keep your finger on your NS healing touch macro... and pray he doesn't crit everything or that your warrior can reflect something.
Warrior:
This is probobly the class you'll face the most in arenas 1v1. Warrior/anything but paladin is pretty easy, natures grasp, run, bash run, cyclone run. pretty cake. duel warriors to get good at this. Remember you can hit natures grasp in bear, bash gives you enough time to cast a lifebloom or rejuv, AND cyclone/roots, if you do it properly. i recommend, bash, casterform rejuv and walk 3 or 4 feet (out of pummel range, but inside intercept range, then cyclone/roots). barksin anytime you catch an intercept in caster form, use lifebloom mostly (mana efficient) but don't be scared to cast rejuv to swiftmend later if you know he's got control, and definitely dont be scared to NS healing touch yourself, because if the warriors on you, your warrior wont need it.
The problem with warriors comes with paladins and the spell blessing of freedom. Blessing of freedom effectively cuts your escape options in half...but at the same time, it allows for some ridiculous kiting if you know what you're doing. How? when a warrior gets freedom instead of the paladin, hes coming for you, no doubt about it. you cant bear charge, you cant roots, you cant grasp, but you still have bash, frenzied rejuv, barkskin and cyclone. Whenever a warrior gets freedom, i know its my job to move the hell away from the paladin. i bash/cyclone or anything you have available, and run. Throwing HOT's, going bear, barkskin if needed before bear. basically what you need to do is get as far as humanly possible from the paladin and stay alive during that time. 15 seconds is what you need to survive. if you do this, natures grasp will win you games. pop it once freedom is down and now you've got the warrior on lock for 10 seconds and you can go help your warrior kill the paladin with bear charges and bashes. if the paladin isn't low at this point, just root him, he'll usually freak and cast freedom on himself, so the warrior can't just unload on him, and then you've got easymode warrior kiting again.
Mage:
There's 2 types of mages. PoM and not PoM. Pom mages are usually low ranking teams (before resilience owns their big crits), and elemental (non PoM) are higher ranking, sustained damage, but needs casting time. Both are pretty much easy. against a Pom mage, always keep rejuvenation on, so you can swiftmend after they Pyro you. done. NS if its a gigantic crit. elemental mages or frost mages are very easy too. keep hots up on yourself (lifebloom is usually enough) and make sure you're ridiculously fast at cheetah forming out of frost novas and back to caster to reapply lifebloom. that's all there is to it. use Line of sight on the elemental mages, always be ready for the pyroblast if they're PoM. you won't know what the mage is the first time. but keep in mind, at higher levels of pvp, PoM wont be very viable because of resilience. use your own ranking as a guide. just be quick on that cheetah form in novas! oh, you can also cheetah form out of sheep.
Paladin:
What, ret? trinket out of the first hammer (they do extra dmg if youre stunned). cyclone spam him whenever he pops avenging wrath. keep HoT's up a when your pvp timer says about 1 minute left (2nd hammer is coming) so you're healed during the hammer, and then trinket out of the 3rd hammer. >_< thats pretty much it.
Warlock:
Warlock is pretty easy pretty much regardless of spec. I'm not going to bother with bad warlocks... line of sight their fear casts, keep hots up. if theres a felhunter, cast lifebloom first, so he dispels it for 1400 free healing, and 6 seconds to rejuv or relifebloom yourself. thats it. thats how you beat a bad warlock.
good warlocks: if devour magic is on autocast (the felhunter will put a circle over your head every 6 seconds at the beginning of the match), always cast lifebloom first. it'll dispel it for 1500, and then you have 6 seconds of any buff you want. for example, if you have to innervate while a felhunter is on you, cast lifebloom, dispelled, hit innervate, another lifebloom and natures grasp, then cast cyclone, that will all but guarantee you a full innervate against a felhunter. maybe even thorns, if youre paranoid. continue line of sighting the warlock so you don't get feared, decurse CoA, and pole kite him for days. when you get deathcoiled, wait for the fear, trinket out and continue to kite him.
Small tip tho: My alt is a warlock, and i expect trinkets on fear. so when you DO get feared after that deathcoil, don't trinket RIGHT away, because they'll be expecting it. wait a second and when they begin redotting or casting a shadowbolt, then trinket.
this was fun!
First off, as a resto druid, in an arena, your job is pretty simple. Don't die. roots, cyclone, bash, maim, bear charge, all these tools must be used in order to stay alive while running and healing your dpser at the same time. its all about running, its all about throwing hots and staying out of Line of sight (LOS). its about using every ability at your disposal to outlast the other healer, or CC the other healer at exactly the right time so that your dpser can finish the target hes on. Druid is a Heal over time class (HOT) as many of us know, i hope. a general strategy for high lvl arena is one dps one healer. the dps stays on the other healer, and who ever can live longer wins. sometimes, things can change, in the blink of an eye, and youll have to adjust, which ill explain later, but for the most part, thats how it works, healer vs dps x2. whoever is better at staying alive, wins. oh, and in areans, no treeform. treeform is for raids ladies. the ultimate arena spec in my opinion is 8/11/35+. big hots that resist dispels, bear charge and uninterruptable cyclones/roots. check my spec for my specific version of this spec.
What I'm going to do is just type in how i survive against each class 1v1 vs most specs i can think of. Of course, when theres 2 dpsers/CCers, things change, and become much more hectic, but for the most part, at high levels, its one dpser and one healer/hybrid. so ill do the 1v1 strats per class.
Let me start off by saying my partner is a warrior who is making his stormherald today. (he went swords first, but changed his mind after my constant complaints of how much mace stun kills me) lol. hes orc, im tauren. were both 70, lol what else can i say. warrior druid. 2000 rating season 2. here we go.
Feral Druid:
You wont see many of these at high rank as the main DPSer. usually he'll be healing a rogue or warrior and helping dps when the warrior is topped off, or cycloning my warrior and turning to kill me. But lets say its a healer/feral druid combo. Feral druids are capable of shifting out of our roots and natures grasp spell, so getting away from them is tough (on top of that, they're extra fast in cat form). So how do we escape? The way to beat a feral druid is to burn their mana (you'll see that this strategy gets very repetative as a resto druid). the way i handle feral druids, is forcing them to shapeshift over and over until they can't anymore. I use my roots, to make them shift out, i use cyclone, and wait until theres 1.5 seconds left and cast hibernate. if they shift out to avoid being slept, they lose mana, if they don't, i have 10 seconds to drink/heal/run. roots, while not effective, still makes them use 800 mana per shift, and resets their cat energy to 40. keep lifeblooms up, rejuvenation if needed, and swiftmend if they get a big ferocious bite crit. keep your face to them whenever possible so they cant shred you, and just survive.
Moonkin Druid:
Again, not very represented in the high lvl pvp, unless as a hybrid Healer/dps, but in case you're facing one, keep hots up and, in response to a big crit, cyclone and let your HOTs tick. When they cast trees, cyclone the DRUID, warstomp cheetah form away to negate all of that spells dmg. thats...pretty much it. not too tough to survive against moonkins.
Rogue:
Rogue is all about timing against a druid. The only thing a rogue is thinking when he fights a resto druid is "shift out of bear, shift out of bear". So , remember that. the only time you should be out of bear form is if you're ready to get a massive amount of dps laid into you, or you have the rogue effectively CC'd. When I'm in the arena with my warrior partner, I start out stealthed, so, I'll usually see the rogue before he does me (because he has to stunlock my warrior off his healer). Ill unstealth, throw some HOT's on my warrior, Omr, and keep 41 yards away. Most rogues will use Wound poison (their version of mortal strike), so eventually I'll have to move closer to cast depoison once or twice. When you do this, it isn't a bad idea to throw an abolish poison on yourself first, in case the rogue sees you coming and decides to blind you (abolish will keep you safe for 8 seconds). Make sure you put faerie fire on him at this point. Once the rogue decides he can kill you, he'll cloak the FF off and vanish to stunlock you. Go bear and begin the battle.
He'll open with cheapshot and spam shiv to get you wounded. Bad rogues will kidney shot you at this point, hoping they can finish you off in bear form in 6 seconds >_<. in this case, wait till its over, natures grasp, and HOT, abolish poison, run (reapply FF). and go help your warrior kill the healer. I won't deal with the bad rogues. they're bad, and you should be fine. A good rogue will continue to dps you even if he has 5 points on you. hell keep wound up and wait till you pop out of bear form, to kidney. what i like to do is natures grasp them and jiggle away in bear form until out of melee range, and then come out of bear. Against a good rogue, the first spell you should cast is abolish poison, because he will probably blind you here if his cloak is down (which it should be). Fights with rogues are very reactive, but its basically the same thing over and over. If you do get caught in caster form, remember you can barkskin, to give yourself soul link for 12 seconds. Use it sparingly, and keep HOT's up on you whenever possible or whenever the rogue is coming close. HOT, bearform, demoralizing shout, kite.
My best suggestion is find the best rogues on your server, and duel them, over and over, and just try to NOT DIE. do it over and over until they hate your guts cause duels take 10-15 minutes. thats the best way to do it against any class.
Shadowpriest:
Usually, where you find a shadowpriest, you find an unstable affliction warlock. Healing your warrior against these 2 will be very hard, unless your warrior has a shadow resist set. I would say close to impossible if they're good. (7 seconds of silence, 2 types of fear and dispels of my HOT's on Omr). Alot of winning against this combo is on my warrior's shoulders. Defensive stance, reflecting the right spells is key. But if it's just a shadowpriest on you, it isn't too difficult. Always cast Lifebloom first on yourself, and then rejuvenation. Lifebloom is a tiny little green thing over your head, not easily noticed, if they arent paying attention, rejuvenation is like a gigantic green hand wrapping around you, lol. Basically theyre going to DOT you up, and then silence you and dispel the HOTs on you and try to burst you down. if you survive the silence, you're fine. what i recommend, is when you see the dots being applied in full, pop lifebloom, rejuvenation, and cyclone him. if he silences this, your lifebloom is ticking and rejuvenation should be as well, after this,he will dispel them, thereby popping the lifebloom to heal for 1500ish (for me). but that only leaves him 3 seconds to kill me. and I'm fully healed, so he has to do 9k dmg in 3 seconds (not going to happen). after you're unsilenced, lifebloom , rejuvenation, and continue.
Hunter:
lawl. abolish viper sting, use line of sight in arenas (each has a TON of line of sight, even ruins). that's all there is to it. don't let them shoot you, lol. Use the poles in nagrand, the tomb in lordearon, and the entire stage in blade's edge. Know where they are at all times and you'll be fine.
Shaman:
Shaman are my bane. they're the scariest class in the game for me. Not because they can kill me in the arenas (they can't), i just line of sight their casts if they're the main DPSers, but because they can absolutely obliterate my warrior if they get lucky. Enhancement shaman my warrior tears through, so not too much issue there, just be careful they love to spam purge, so keep lifebloom up at all times so your warrior can get 1500 healing every 1.5 seconds for 200 mana. Elemental is the scary spec. an elemental shaman with good gear can burst your warrior for close to 10k in about 3 seconds if he gets a lucky proc. 6-7k without it, and he can purge your heals. basically, a good elemental shaman, if he times it right , can kill your warrior before you can react and cast a regrowth. For the most part, elemental shaman roll with another dps class, whether it be warlock or a rogue or whatever, so you've also got them to deal with. Like I said, I hate this class, and I always will. Keep lifebloom up and keep your finger on your NS healing touch macro... and pray he doesn't crit everything or that your warrior can reflect something.
Warrior:
This is probobly the class you'll face the most in arenas 1v1. Warrior/anything but paladin is pretty easy, natures grasp, run, bash run, cyclone run. pretty cake. duel warriors to get good at this. Remember you can hit natures grasp in bear, bash gives you enough time to cast a lifebloom or rejuv, AND cyclone/roots, if you do it properly. i recommend, bash, casterform rejuv and walk 3 or 4 feet (out of pummel range, but inside intercept range, then cyclone/roots). barksin anytime you catch an intercept in caster form, use lifebloom mostly (mana efficient) but don't be scared to cast rejuv to swiftmend later if you know he's got control, and definitely dont be scared to NS healing touch yourself, because if the warriors on you, your warrior wont need it.
The problem with warriors comes with paladins and the spell blessing of freedom. Blessing of freedom effectively cuts your escape options in half...but at the same time, it allows for some ridiculous kiting if you know what you're doing. How? when a warrior gets freedom instead of the paladin, hes coming for you, no doubt about it. you cant bear charge, you cant roots, you cant grasp, but you still have bash, frenzied rejuv, barkskin and cyclone. Whenever a warrior gets freedom, i know its my job to move the hell away from the paladin. i bash/cyclone or anything you have available, and run. Throwing HOT's, going bear, barkskin if needed before bear. basically what you need to do is get as far as humanly possible from the paladin and stay alive during that time. 15 seconds is what you need to survive. if you do this, natures grasp will win you games. pop it once freedom is down and now you've got the warrior on lock for 10 seconds and you can go help your warrior kill the paladin with bear charges and bashes. if the paladin isn't low at this point, just root him, he'll usually freak and cast freedom on himself, so the warrior can't just unload on him, and then you've got easymode warrior kiting again.
Mage:
There's 2 types of mages. PoM and not PoM. Pom mages are usually low ranking teams (before resilience owns their big crits), and elemental (non PoM) are higher ranking, sustained damage, but needs casting time. Both are pretty much easy. against a Pom mage, always keep rejuvenation on, so you can swiftmend after they Pyro you. done. NS if its a gigantic crit. elemental mages or frost mages are very easy too. keep hots up on yourself (lifebloom is usually enough) and make sure you're ridiculously fast at cheetah forming out of frost novas and back to caster to reapply lifebloom. that's all there is to it. use Line of sight on the elemental mages, always be ready for the pyroblast if they're PoM. you won't know what the mage is the first time. but keep in mind, at higher levels of pvp, PoM wont be very viable because of resilience. use your own ranking as a guide. just be quick on that cheetah form in novas! oh, you can also cheetah form out of sheep.
Paladin:
What, ret? trinket out of the first hammer (they do extra dmg if youre stunned). cyclone spam him whenever he pops avenging wrath. keep HoT's up a when your pvp timer says about 1 minute left (2nd hammer is coming) so you're healed during the hammer, and then trinket out of the 3rd hammer. >_< thats pretty much it.
Warlock:
Warlock is pretty easy pretty much regardless of spec. I'm not going to bother with bad warlocks... line of sight their fear casts, keep hots up. if theres a felhunter, cast lifebloom first, so he dispels it for 1400 free healing, and 6 seconds to rejuv or relifebloom yourself. thats it. thats how you beat a bad warlock.
good warlocks: if devour magic is on autocast (the felhunter will put a circle over your head every 6 seconds at the beginning of the match), always cast lifebloom first. it'll dispel it for 1500, and then you have 6 seconds of any buff you want. for example, if you have to innervate while a felhunter is on you, cast lifebloom, dispelled, hit innervate, another lifebloom and natures grasp, then cast cyclone, that will all but guarantee you a full innervate against a felhunter. maybe even thorns, if youre paranoid. continue line of sighting the warlock so you don't get feared, decurse CoA, and pole kite him for days. when you get deathcoiled, wait for the fear, trinket out and continue to kite him.
Small tip tho: My alt is a warlock, and i expect trinkets on fear. so when you DO get feared after that deathcoil, don't trinket RIGHT away, because they'll be expecting it. wait a second and when they begin redotting or casting a shadowbolt, then trinket.
this was fun!