Ways of dealing with close in melee.

I'm finding I suck at dealing with close in melee on my 4 shaman team. I find that warriors and paladins are the worst, but geared up rogues can be a nightmare too.

To a certain extent some of this is level and gear mismatch but I've been looking at what I do and thinking of ways to improve. Thought I would share it here to help others, but also to get additional ideas.

1. Spreadout macro. This has helped a bit. 1 character strafes left, 1 strafes right and the third backs up. I run in a different direction on the lead shaman. Key problem is that back up moves slowly. Resulting in my main and the backing up shaman being too close during bladestorms, and getting blitzed. Getting to 80 and gearing up will help, but I want to get better. I was thinking having two shaman strafe left, one strafe right and the lead character running off. Problem would be if the warrior went after the two - then again they are moving at speed so he might not catch up. Is there a better way?

2. Thunderstorm. I've got a macro that blows them all at once. Does a big chunk of damage, and buys a bit of breathing space. if it doesn't kill them (which it rarely does against an 80 melee) they'll be back on me in an instant. Especially If i'm in a bunker and the walls limit the blast. I'm thinking of trying a round robin macro as an option as well. So the round robin would thunderstorm on one, then I could possibly frost shock, then possibly earthbind , then when they get back to me thunderstorm again on another shaman etc. (The frost shock might not be a great idea in this macro due to timing).
At the moment I'm not earthbinding, or frost shocking. Against a paladin with hand of freedom this may not work (does hand of freedom stop the blow back from thunderstorm?)


3. Interact with target. I've struggled with this. But I think I've sussed out why. I spread out and the shaman aren't necessarily facing the target. So i hit my assist key then my interact with target. Unfortunately this results in my shaman running back in to the target which for a bladestorming warrior is fatal (plus it makes it easier for melee to run round all my characters so I'm not facing the right way). I've realised today that I've been hitting both keys one after the other.
I only need to hit the assist key once. After which I can hit the interact with target. I should also hit the key then my drop follow key very quickly afterwards. I just want them to turn, not to run back in. I'll have to examine how quickly the turn is executed.

4. Glyph of stoneclaw. I've got it on all my shaman as of yesterday. I've found it a great help on my level 80 enhancement shaman in pvp - thinking anything that can help me to get through the initial burst period of melee would be good.


Anyone else got good tactics for dealing with melee? I've definitely improved a bit with each change I've instituted and it will become less of an issue when I'm 80 and geared, but If i get good at handling them now I'll be a handful later.

I found LB was useful against some of the close in melee players ... i was able to kill 80 melee with FS + EM + LB (and sometimes TS) - but it's got a 3min CD, and you need to be specc'd elemental. Spreading out is key - don't have 1 toon run back. 2 strafing one direction is still better than all taking an AOE hit.

As you mentioned in your post, put your thunderstorm on round robin and refine your system for interacting with target (to get them facing the correct direction).

Thunderstorm on round robin, first and foremost. Second, if you're all shamans, put insta-ghost wolf in your talents for PvP. I just GW and get out of range, and throw an instant FS/EM/LvB and they're most likely dead.

I think warriors are immune to knockbacks or whatever when they're doing that whirly spinny thing of death, so that's when you just run. If it's another class that's not immune to knockbacks, TS 'em to oblivion and then roast 'em.

Have macroed a castsequence of FS + LVB

Then have the following totems:

Tremor, Healing, Grounding (one cleansing totem if its a rogue), MAGMA

When a paladin comes to you with this totems combo you can ignore him at all in most cases. The groundings will eat all his spells and judgements and the healing totems will outheal his consecration. You can just Fire Shock him and let magma totems finish him off when his bubble is over. The white damage they do is usually quite lower.

For spinning warriors I have found that fire shock + magma totem + all thunderstorms at once finishes them quite fast while I spam chain heal. They cannot kill me while I spam chain heal and they also cannot avoid the totems damage, so they die in a couple of seconds.
Add a cleansing totem to this combo if it's a rogue and you will be ok. The only problem I have had with rogues is when I didn't drop poison cleansing totem and got the slow casting poison, so chain heal was very slow to cast.

For hunters with long range shots the most funny thing I have done is to kite them. My Flame shock is 40 yards range, so I just flame shock them and run away. By the time they come again in firing range they are dead. If they activate aspect of the fast run (whatever its name is) they get dazed due to the damage. Most hunters expect to kite you, but in Soviet BGs my shamans kite hunters. They die before realizing that they have to run in order to get to me :)

All other clases are basically a pew pew fight.

Whenever I play as my shaman team, I generally rely heavily on my Magma Totems. 4 of those does a dangerous amount of damage. I keep all five Thunderstorms as a kind of, "Oh Crap" button, and after five of those, you can generally pick them off with a second volley of Shocks. Even if you don't Thunderstorm them, with 4 (or 5) Magma Totems, if you just outheal their DPS, the totems will wear them down. I'll Magma Totem and then Shock them. Do a chain heal, or wo, then do another Shock. It's usually game over by then. I've had multiple people run up to me at once, just to get mowed down by those totems, while I stat there casting Chain Heal x5.

You allies also like to huddle around the 20 totems, as they see you as sort of a walking safe haven, so you're generally not alone for took long (if ever). I have people specifically follow me around in WG just to provide support and keep themselves relatively safe.

If you don't want to blow all five Thunderstorms at once, however, I'd suggest the Thunderstorm Round Robin, like you mentioned, but instead of wasting the four other cast potential, to maybe throw in a Frost Shock and a few Earth Shocks, too.

/castsequence reset=45 Thunderstorm, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock,
/castsequence reset=45 , Thunderstorm, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock
/castsequence reset=45 Flame Shock, , Thunderstorm, Frost Shock, Earth Shock
/castsequence reset=45 Earth Shock, Flame Shock, , Thunderstorm, Frost Shock
/castsequence reset=45 Forst Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock, , Thunderstorm

You'd have to target them however you preferred method is, but at least this time, each time you press your "Oh crap" macro, you'd knock them back, slow their movement for a bit, and do some extra damage. Four of Five shamans would be doing at least some sort of damage each time you pressed this, while still only blowing one Thunderstorm cooldown.

That's all hypothetical, though. I've not actually tested it out, anyway. I'm more of a 5 Thunderstorm kinda guy, myself,a nd that generally works fine. Only if I'm deep into enemy lines and get real outnumbered do I tend to get overly bogged down with multiple melee.

Have fun!

Oh that's brilliant, totally didnt think of adding spells in RR to TS to up DPS. Doh!

Someone mentioned this in another thread (relating to turning the Tide as horde in AV),
and it is just brilliant. So simple and effective - I can't believe I didn't think about it.

When defending or capping the bunkers (won't work in the towers) , place your guys opposite each other, in a north south east west arrangement.

Facing towards the stairs. I've had my guys on top of each other, which means that pallies and warriors have a field day in the confined space on my team. (thunderstorm doesn't knock them far and they are straight back on me.)

The above formation should ensure that you have coverage of each other and 3 can be dpsing or healing the 4th.

Can't wait to try this out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ridere

/castsequence reset=45 Thunderstorm, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock,
/castsequence reset=45 , Thunderstorm, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock
/castsequence reset=45 Flame Shock, , Thunderstorm, Frost Shock, Earth Shock
/castsequence reset=45 Earth Shock, Flame Shock, , Thunderstorm, Frost Shock
/castsequence reset=45 Forst Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock, , Thunderstorm

---

I had to admit I first looked at this macro and thought - it will get held up due to shock cooldown.
However after thinking about it a bit more I think it's a bit of pure genius.

It's not meant to be spammed. it should slow that melee down considerably, before they get back to you.
I'm also thinking now of working in staggered earthbind totems.

e.g
I only have 4 shaman so my macros below would be
/castsequence reset=45 Thunderstorm, Earthbind Totem, Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock,
/castsequence reset=45 Flame Shock, , Thunderstorm, Earthbind Totem,Frost Shock, Earth Shock
/castsequence reset=45 Earth Shock, Flame Shock, Thunderstorm,Earthbind totem, Frost Shock
/castsequence reset=45 Frost Shock, Earth Shock, Flame Shock, Thunderstorm, Earthbind totem.

So for example, thunderstorm blows them away and they are slowed by frost shock.
If i then time it right I've got them rooted by the earthbind. They then get out of that and come for me again,
getting sent flying by thunderstorm and frostshocked again. Rinse and repeat.

I figured a paladin with hand of freedom could screw this up temporarily, but I'm sure hand of freedom can be purged.

Going to set this up tonight. Brilliant stuff.

Let me know how it works out! Admittingly, I've not really optimized my boxing teams for PvP. I enjoy doing it, but most of my macros and spell configurations are still PvE questing based. I'm curious to see how this turns out.

I did my first 5v5 Arena stuff yesterday, and I wouldn't mind trying to struggle up to 1100 rating if possible, so I may start working on that. I don't see it happening, as my gear is pretty bad, and my PvP skills lackluster :D

Had a blast, though.

Looking at my version of the macro - inserting earthbind may not be the smartest move.
it will conflict with the thunderstorm. I guess I'll keep earthbind on a separate macro so i can interweave better.