LOLCoil x4 + Pets + DoTs + AoE Healing + 5x AoE Fears = Win?

[Xzin]

The more I think about it, the 4x warlock 1x priest combo might be the best for 5v5 arenas. 5 Shammys is in a close second - the melee range issue might prove to be too much but I don't know.... the idea is pretty stupid good just thinking about it in theory. I intend to get the Zins to 70 but for variety.... getting a second crew of level 70s would keep things interesting.

My warlocks are only 21 or so, anybody have any experience with high end (60-70 but 70 preferred) warlocks in arenas?

4x chain deathcoils is just nasty.... and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

As warlocks, my only real fear in 5v5 would be grounding totems. Dots don't go off when a totem is up.

Can anybody speak to the viability and common matches a warlock/priest team would have? Leveling should be a TON easier as well, there are FOUR tanks and a dedicated greater healer. But I am mostly concerned with the PvP aspects. Can anybody weigh in?

Also - does shadowfury have diminishing returns :) Helllllo 8 second stun + 4x chain deathcoils + fear?

Truth be told though, dropping something like 20 dots on somebody then capping with an unstable affliction would just be unhealable. As long as they didn't get chain g heals or bubble or cloak or shield wall or ice block or .... heh.

The only downside I see right now is that casting dots takes time and when you are casting dots and waiting for them to tick..... they keep beating on you. It is ALOT easier to heal through dots than instant casts.

[Gallo]

As I continue to get my 5 PC setup going, I'm thinking more and more about a 1 priest 4 lock group. My question is, how would that group fair in an instance? Xzin, I know you have some experience with all cloth instance runs... how do multi-mob pulls work? I mean, did the aggro bounce around between the players? Most clothies can only take 2 or 3 hits from an elite before they're toast. Are any of the videos out there of you going through an instance where you're not totally overgeared?

[Steph]

I will be able to say something about that soon.

Which spec is the difficult question.

Affliction heavy should be the most attractive for PvP with Unstable Affliction as 41 point affliction talent. It takes you 3-5 seconds to dot a player with about 20k hp worth of dots, and unstable affliction makes dispelling them hurt badly. This also reduces your How of Terror AoE fear to instant cast and improves your life leeching capabilities. Throw dots, life leech and it looks like someone pulled the stopper out of the other guys healthbar.

Destruction heavy means you can have stuns on your destruction spells kinda like mage impact and of course Shadowfury. 2 sec for a shadowbolt can be a long time when people are jumping all around you.

Demonology gives you damage mitigation through soul link and the felguards, as well as respectable spell damage.

Tough to pick.

Regarding instances, I have done up to Slave pens with my lockx3/mage/priest team being approx 2-3 levels over the minimum level. The felguards with the talent given -15% damage taken and benefiting from their master's stam are quite useable as tanks.

I will finish the video of these encounters and post it so you can have an impression.

[wougoose]

Xzin,

I have had a lot of experience as a 70 lock in competitive arena teams and I will say the MOST important counter against a lock is in fact grounding totems and/or a rogue stunlocking. If our team ever went against a team with shammies, they always gave me a headache. If you can figure out a quick way to counter the totems, the setup is quite formidable. Curse of tounges is probably the most important curse to have up on healers at all times. Other than that, everyone dotted up and keeping the MS warriors off you and you should be good to go on outdamaging the healers. Not to mention, most locks at 70 are pushing 12-15k hp if you stack the stamina. Tie this in with Fel Armor which increases ALL heals on the locks by 20% and your priest is healing them for quite a bit.

Its a tough choice between the different specs, I tried them all. I personally preferred affliction tied in with the stam/imp hs talents.

Our strat that usually would almost always win games is drop their MS warrior first if you can, as they themselves have nothing to avoid your dots such as ice block/etc. Once that is taken care of, its cake from there. Not to mention, once their warrior is down, they usually have nobody calling the assist and focus fire (as that is usually the warrior's job) and they will get unorganized.

If the priest gets cc'd or dropped fast, you still have healthstones that crit for upwards of 5-6k with Fel Armor on :)

I could see losing a few locks, but once the 20 dots are on its GG for them as long as you can outlast them. That will be the trick. Toss on the dots and cc/run around.

Now if only I can aquire the time and money to try it out...

Its all great in theory, but we'll have to prove the theory by practice.

[Xzin]

Gallo,

No videos that I have actually made but TONS of FRAPS. In short, aggro bounces around so much as crits fire off that no single mage gets beat on for very long. If they are taking hits, they are not casting and not casting = drop of aggro. It is all quite elegant actually.

Heal aggro is low enough that Xzin rarely gets focus fired - the mages keep it and act as one "Voltron" style super cloth tank with 4x of a single mages hit points.

So it actually works out very well that way. I can heal one main mob boss and 1 off tank but thats about it. Not sure how the level 70 dungeons fare though. Those might be much harder with movement and more mobs.... but the amount of CC you have on the non boss immune fights is well.... amazing.

Wougoose, as for rogue stunlocks - I don't care about that. Not with 4 locks. As for the grounding totems.... they are at least possible to get rid of. That would be the only MAJOR problem with 5 undead warlocks / priest.

I would go affliction for PvP no doubt. Just run around and dot em up. I would be curious to see how many healers it takes to try to out heal the dots.

I assume Unstable Affliction stacks with other warlocks that cast it..... so dispelling it would be 5 second silence and what..... 5k damage? Ouch :)