The flavor team that will give you problems in 5v5

[Ellay]

From Arena Junkies

Name: JAC for Jolly Asian Clams
Composition: Resto shaman, shadow priest, affliction warlock, ShS rogue, frost mage
Explanation: Named after the first team to run this composition, that ran this setup with a lot of PvE gear on all of their team members. This is pretty much the flavor of the month now for 5's. It's a Shadow Play comp on crack and is starting to pop up everywhere.

Notable things about the comp and how to deal with it.
It's VERY caster heavy so your groundings don't last at all. The tempo on this setup needs to be in your court, putting them on the defensive reduces their burst capability.
Grounding from resto Shaman hurts on volleys. Make sure to utilize your Searing Totems to drop Groundings without you having to work on it.
LoS the damage, Shatter combo plus Mind Blast / SW:D on top of a UA lock is pretty intense - make sure you've got somewhere to avoid it.
This team only has 1 healer, focus on using Chain Lightning as often as possible when it is up forcing them to heal multiple targets.

Tactics - This team is all about the burst, but they can keep it going for a nice duration - usually about the length of their Bloodlust then they are out of gas.
If you can actually survive that long, playing defensively can work.
I would suggest dropping any one of these 3 : Mage / Warlock / Priest, all are extremely squishy and the warlock/priest in this combo has no mitigation or escapes.
This is a team type that you can't panic and freeze up on, your initial moves need to be accurate and pre-medidated. Blow your cooldowns intelligently and make sure it lands. I've still won against this comp even if it fails but dropping a target ASAP is crucial from the get go.

If you have any specific questions against this let me know, just want to give a heads up on what you will be seeing a lot soon, since it is very easy mode for this team to excel.

[Naysayer]

Silence - spell lock - counter spell on your healer has to suck.

:(

[magwo]

Silence - spell lock - counter spell on your healer has to suck.

:(Not to mention blind and polymorph.

[merujo]

It's one of those teams, where everyone is squishy but they wont die :P

Thanks for the heads up Ellay.

[Ellay]

Ya I forgot to add in the silence train on your healer :) good times!

[Naysayer]

Ya I forgot to add in the silence train on your healer :) good times!Would rushing in dropping groundings+tremors and blasting the warlock immediately while your pally bubbles to avoid lockout be the best way to take this team down? Seems the warlock is the most dangerous offensively(UA) and the weakest defensively. Mage would be the second target, unless you feel the shaman might cause a bit more trouble.

[Tizer]

I have to say any team that has a priest and warlock in them bother me quite a bit and a mage just sends me over the edge :x

[Ellay]

The strats really vary on the skill level and way the opposing team plays it. If you rush in and they are able to find a LoS object, not much you can do - their rogue will keep the main locked down into place.

[Naysayer]

The strats really vary on the skill level and way the opposing team plays it. If you rush in and they are able to find a LoS object, not much you can do - their rogue will keep the main locked down into place.Your pally could JoJ the target in los and put BoP on the main when the rogue appears to keep the rogue from locking him down, couldn't he? Just theorycrafting here.

[Ellay]

I suppose you could throw down the BoP since there is only 1 DPS, and Hammer of Justice the intended target, relying upon being able to drop one while they still have a grounding totem - *shrug, it's a 50/50 against this combo, lots of stuff can go both ways.

[Dominian]

Swap your paladin for a priest and win!

One SWP is all it takes to take down grounding totems and its cheap compared to a volley of LB's each 15 seconds...

[Naysayer]

Swap your paladin for a priest and win!

One SWP is all it takes to take down grounding totems and its cheap compared to a volley of LB's each 15 seconds...purge

[magwo]

Problem is that purge takes a global cooldown, which can mean the difference between win or loss in many 5v5 games.

[Naysayer]

Problem is that purge takes a global cooldown, which can mean the difference between win or loss in many 5v5 games.A well timed purge if your healer is a shaman, or a well timed Arcane torrent if you have a pally.

I don't think the problem is spell selection, but rather the opposing shaman's good timing. I doubt he's leaving the grounding totem out for him.

[Ellay]

Really good resto shamans will sit way back but still make sure their teammates are in range for the grounding so when you throw out a volley, 2 volleys could end up going to 1 grounding, it's a bit much :)

[Alemi]

The only way I've beaten this combo is to blow up the lock ASAP. You can live through the silences/polys/etc., but the spell locks and devouring of the felhunter, and a GOOD lock in this combo will be spamming Curse of Long Ass Casting on your group constantly, he has to go first. The biggest killer in this group, imho, is curse of long ass casting on your healer - since only druid healers can remove curse, priests and paladins are highly vulnerable. Add in the silences, and mass dispels from the spriest to remove your bloodlusts and their damage will come faster than you can heal.

The 2nd place team on my bg was running this comp, now their shaman has respeced elemental (31/9/21) imp grounding/instant ghost wolf for escape, they've replaced the rogue with a holy paladin. Pure caster team, with the ns/em combo + shatter crits. IMHO, this is by far one of the best 4 dps teams out there with earth shock/counterspell/silence/spell lock at their disposal. Curse of Elements makes all the damage you take even more powerful as well. So they curse of elements one person, instant cast dots, heroism + nukes, plus a lockdown and cc on everything but their FF target and it's gg fast.

Edit: Oh, and against this team, I don't purge at the start and my priest knows not to dispel. I wait for a grounding to drop so I can purge it away instantly so my LB volleys don't go into the ground - which gives me about 10 seconds of damage before another ground will come down.

[Dominian]

Swap your paladin for a priest and win!

One SWP is all it takes to take down grounding totems and its cheap compared to a volley of LB's each 15 seconds...purge

Like ellay said a good shaman will wait for you to load your LB's then drop it. If you had a good priest he would watch your casting and trow of a SWP just before you fired your volley.