(WOW) State of PvP now? (Gone for 2 years)

[Clovis]

Hi everyone,

In short, my question is how is the RBG PvP with 4-5 Shamans now?

A bit about my background. I quad boxed shamans in WOTLK and enjoyed battle grounds. Paired with a good healer we could steam roll every node and every pre-made wanted to have me in their group. With a healer partner I did 5s but that was an excersise in frustration. We peaked at around 1950 in Season 7. I came pretty close to paying for the server xfer/faction change to roll with the other boxers on another server but now with cross server premade battle grounds... oh hell yes??

I got burnt out waiting for rated battle grounds and canceled my accounts in Feburary 2010.

Fast forward today. Like a bad habit I re-activated one of my accounts (my tank paladin) and upgraded to Cata. In about a week and a half I went from level 80 to 85 and 385 iLevel PVE gear.
The end game PVE content is kind of disappointing. Dragon Soul is easy on normal mode that after 2 clears I'm bored and ready to cancel my account. I really have no interest in waiting all week to run it in a pug just to maybe hopefully gradually bump my gear towards 397.

However I am interested in running as a PvP setup again.

I re-activated my IS Boxer account and I've been running my shamans through instances. I'm still working on the setup but I found that running my own 5 man is pretty hard but running just as the 3 DPS and letting someone else tank/heal is a lot easier. They're all at maxed level 80 xp.

I have this fantasy of running my quad shamans in PvP again or maybe 5 shamans since I do already have a 5th at level 80 (just rarely played in WOTLK).

My question for you is... Before I drop another $160 to upgrade my 4 remaining accounts to Cata, which in self is a tough pill to swallow (ever feel like Blizzard is fleecing us?), how is the PvP action? Are Shamans still viable? A few people were just starting to run multi ret Pally/DK combos when I left and it looks like that's still going strong but hopefully not the only "real" option left. I'd prefer not to have to re-level a whole new team.

Thanks!

-Clov

[Destahd]

No response on your other points... But you can buy Cataclysm for $25ish on amazon. Saves a bit at least... http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft...0086010&sr=8-1

[zenga]

1. Welcome back
2. You can only queue up with 5 people at once for random battlegrounds. There is an alternative with an addon called Preform AV enabler, which basically queues up everyone in a raid individually and shows the status to the leader, often getting more (but not all) people from the same raid in the same bg.
3. Ele shamans are the squishiest spec in the game at the moment. With 4 stacked you obviously have some more tools to knock melee away, but it ain't as easy as wotlk.
4. Doing random bg's as 4x ele with friend healer is still a blast.
5. Doing rated bg's as a boxer is not optimal. There are some maps you'll get away with it, but any capable team will lock you down.
6. BG's are no longer restricted to your battlegroup, so (compared to the time you were playing) every bg's is going on 24/7 (back then on my BG there was no nightly AV for instance) with faster queues than in the past.

[valkry]

i still have heaps of fun in random Bgs with my 4 shams (no healer).

[Jeremiah]

PvP has become a CC game nowadays. Frost mages, rogues, DKs can silence and slow players down enough to make even the most patient people rage quit.

Ring of frost seems to have been designed to rule out shaman multi boxing :P

I still PvP and box but my shaman team just doesn't have the impact it used to. Not without a priest casting mass dispel every time i encounter a frost mage or two.

If you are keen to PvP in Cata and mists, I'd roll a set of DKs and get them to 80 and then upgrade. Seems like DKs are going to be the main boxing class for now.

I agree with Zenga. Ele shams are about the squishiest class in the game now. Your knockback WILL get resisted about 60% of the time nowadays. No idea why, this is just the case. Chain lightning still destroys though lol. If you get into an AV and find yourself in a turtle, you will still top DPS, KB and HKs. Just you can get destroyed faster now if things go wrong

Regarding RBGs:

You will not be able to use 4 shamans as a viable addition to a rated team. Nowadays skilled PvPers will just slow and silence you down, instead of killing you, in an RBG. If you have your toons following a master, RBG DKs will work together to split you up and force you to res at different times. It's a whole new game compared to BGs. I'd recommend you box 3 toons at most in an RBG and NOT elemental shamans.

[Invisahealz]

roll as enhance. when i 5 box i use 4x enhance and a prot pally. the 4x healing stream totems grants me 5k heals per second as long as all my shamans and pally are in same group + 80k+ instant shaman healz when needed are amazing. I rarely ever die in bgs. And I have a flag carrier (prot pally) which is awesome. Then when u pop ghost wolves you heal your self as well a lot. Enhance is pretty awesome right now

[Clovis]

Thank you for the replies, insight and advice!

I hated Circle of Blood. There were so many games that we ended up losing despite killing 3 off the bat. A lot of teams had 3 or 4 ressers and the two surviving members could just evade us and sneak off to res while line of sighting us to the point even a elemental mastery+lava burst couldn't go off.

I hadn't thought about 4x enhance and prot pally. I already have the prot pally.

With the DKs are people rolling 4 DKs and pairing up with a healer or running with their own pally healer?

[Ualaa]

I'd have to say, for WotLK + Cataclysm, the top boxing team from a PvP perspective has been 4x Death Knights (Frost) with a Healer.
If you're running Arena, the top choice is a Paladin but a Holy Priest is good because they can continue to heal after their death.

The main DK attack is Howling Blast (Frost Rune).
With talents and the glyph, you're hitting everyone within a 10 yard radius at a range of 30 yards from the DK.
Anyone hit has Frost Fever on them, which besides being a DOT also snares them to 50% movement.
Most of the DK abilities do additional damage, based on which diseases are on the target.
Necrotic Strike (Unholy Rune) does damage and negates some healing the target would receive.
You can 2x HB and 2x NS, plus 2x (or 1x + 1x) either or the other ability on a full set of runes.

You also have Obliterate (Frost + Unholy), which is single target and hits really hard.
And hits harder with more diseases on the target.
This combines well with Hungering Cold, which is an point-blank AoE freeze, like a Hunter's Ice Trap.
Disease damage does not break this, but any other damage will.
You can 3x Obliterate on a full set of runes.

Death Strike is the third attack option.
This can heal the DK's for a decent amount, but once your healer is down... it's not a good situation regardless.

DK's have two resource mechanics.
They have their Runes, two each Frost, Blood and Undead.
Frost spec DK's always have their Blood Runes count as Death Runes (wild-card runes).
They also have Runic Power, which is like Rage... you gain it with the use of your Rune abilities.
Frost Strike (melee range) and Death Coil (ranged) are both Runic Power dependent moves.

DK's have a few cooldowns, which in battlegrounds can be used on demand, but in arena can be used preemptively.
- Icebound Fortitude breaks Stuns and increases their damage dealt.
- Pillar of Frost makes the DK's immune to knockbacks like Typhoon or Thunderstorm.
- Lichborne makes the DK's immune to Fear, Charm and Sleep effects for the duration.
- Anti-Magic Shell reduces spell damage taken and prevents the application of any debuff with an icon for its duration.

The DK's essentially negate snares/root effects uses against them, because of Death Grip.
They can be snared, but Howling Blast will snare for an equal amount which essentially means being snared is not a penalty.
And while rooted, they can Death Grip anything into melee range (plus Howling Blast and Death Coil are ranged attacks).

Here's a write up of my DK method.
http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/3...n-DK-Manifesto

[EaTCarbS]

roll as enhance. when i 5 box i use 4x enhance and a prot pally. the 4x healing stream totems grants me 5k heals per second as long as all my shamans and pally are in same group + 80k+ instant shaman healz when needed are amazing. I rarely ever die in bgs. And I have a flag carrier (prot pally) which is awesome. Then when u pop ghost wolves you heal your self as well a lot. Enhance is pretty awesome right now

The main problem I had with enh shamans was roots. those freakin mages, man!

[Nikita]

Elemental shamans doesnt work these days when multiboxed in arenas. Your able to get your cap ofc, but doubt you`ll get any high ratings. Stealth teams are a bitch to counter, FMP + 2 random, RMP + 2 random, and all sorts of teams with stealthers are gonna be hard to kill. Ele shamans die within 1 smokebomb if your healer is too far away. Your best bet is to go 4 DKs or 4 Rets with a healer friend for 5v5. Ive shelved my shamans now, since Im struggling @ 1600 rating. Losing to sub 1500-1700 players aint fun in the long run.

With LFR weapons/trinkets on most players the dmg is too much for a single healer to handle. Im patiently waiting for MoP to hit, I`ll be tearing arenas up then with my 4 ele shamans