The how to beat wizard cleave thread
The purpose of this thread is to create a list of strategies that have worked for others when going against arguably our most difficult comp, the wizard cleave.
A wizard cleave is any team with a destro lock and an elemental shamam.
The entire strategy of the team is based around the shaman and warlock being able to burst down targets one at a time.
Typically, a wizard cleave will have the above two mentioned classes, a melee (warrior or rogue usually
/.w ) and 1-2 healers.
The strategy is simple against us -- the melee distracts and pressures the shaman and healer while the warlock and elemental shaman two shot people.
The key to defeating this flavor of the month comp is by killing the elemental shaman as fast as possible.
This set up assumes you're running four elemental shamans + a healer -- priest works best, followed by a druid.
Positioning is key -- for this comp the multiboxer is on defense. On most maps the ideal defense place is just beyond the gates - with the exception being on blades edge where its the end of the bridge just above the ramps.
Required macros (for wizard cleave and all comps and general
Anti-fear -- the staggered tremor totem bound to it's own key.
shaman 1 -- /castsequence reset=4 tremor totem,,,,,,,,
shaman 2 -- /castsequence reset=4 ,,,tremor totem,,,,,,
shaman 3 -- /castsequence reset=4 ,,,,,,tremor totem
shaman 4 -- /castsequence reset=4 ,,,,,,,,,tremor totem
Totem bar drops
For your totem bars, I suggest having each shaman drop 4 grounding totems and also have a 4x grounding totem drop bound to another key (all of my totems are bound to various x-keys).
Shaman 1 -- grounding totem, totem of wrath, fire resistance totem - EARTH TOTEM BLANK
Shaman 2 -- grounding totem, frost resistance totem, mana spring totem, EARTH TOTEM BLANK
Shaman 3 -- grounding totem, magma totem, healing stream totem, TREMOR TOTEM
Shaman 4 -- grounding totem, magma totem, cleansing totem, EARTH TOTEM BLANK.
Here's the reason behind having blank earth totem slots on the totem bar. You have one shaman drop a tremor totem in case the other team rushes and you lack the time to drop the tremor totems seperately -- but in most cases the first minute is a stand off and you'll have time to set up. With the earth totem blank it prevents your staggered drop formation from blanking upon resetting totems.
Flame Shock Macro
Personally, I use have flame shock and lava burst bound seperately (to keys 3 and 4 repsectively). This means that I can put 4x flame shocks on multiple targets without having to immediately place it on a target prior to the lava burst -- this can be great for taking out a ranged healer or hunter.
This is the key to killing the elemental shaman
Shaman 1 -- /castsequence reset=4 flame shock,,
Shaman 2 -- /castsequence reset=4 ,,flame shock
Shaman 3 -- /castsequence reset=4 ,,flame shock
Shaman 4 -- /castsequence reset=4 ,,flame shock
Here's what happens -- the ele shaman and shamans in general will have their grounding down. If all four shamans shock at once, the grounding totem will eat all four flame shocks. However, with a slight staggering only the first flame shock is grounded and the other three land which means the shaman can be killed with 4 lava burst, 3 of which will crit and (probably) kill him.
Implientation
Go to your favorite defense positon -- in every map mine is just outside the gates.
Hit your totem bar to drop all totems, then spam your tremor totem to drop tremors in a staggered order. Don't worry about refreshing magma totems (I don't but once the fire nova changes goes through I'll change this to to keep them up or replace with longer lasting fire totems -- its going to be a great melee finisher move).
More then likely, the other team is on their side and its a staring match -- keep on eye on grounding and refresh it whenever it has less then 10 seconds or so remaining. During the fight itself, refresh grounding totems everytime its up -- get the mod "Doom_cooldownPulse" -- it will flash the spell's icon and alert you whenever cool downs become available -- seeing the grounding totem icon flash reminds me "drop them like its hot!" You can also get "Power Auras Classic" to alert you when the grounding totems are gone -- at least, I think that's how it works - I just got this and haven't had a chance to set it up but my partner told me that's how it works :)
You should now be facing the other team with your defensive totems and your healer behind something to provide LOS.
The opener can start roughly one of 4 ways.
1) (most common) the warlock charges in and does a shadow fury -- the rest of the team charges in after him. Resist the urge to flame shock and blow him up, chances are you won't kill him, infact you'll be lucky to drop him below 50%-- with nether protection, he's going to have a straight 30% reduction to fire damage (bull shit, I know!). As soon as they rush in your healer should pop their AOE heal, assuming you're running this with a priest or druid -- this will buy you some time by helping to negate a significant portion of their cleave damage. Having an AOE heal going gives you 6 seconds or so to kill your first target which is that fucking elemental shaman of course.
As soon as you're out of the stun, pop hero and look for the elemental shaman -- hit your shocks -- if your macro is set up, 3 flame shocks will land and you can blow his ass up with lava burst followed by an immediately chain lightning to ensure his ass goes down. Once the elemental shaman is dead the rest of the DPS is healable. Following the shaman's death its a good idea to take out the melee (there will be only 1-2) -- I prefer killing the warriors because, well, I fucking hate blade storm and the rogues can cloak of shadows and practically have spell immunity. When there is a hunter I like to load him up with flame shocks, change to another target, flame shock and then back to the hunter to unload lava burst -- good ones will pop deterence as soon as they see you're about to blow them the fuck up so this is the multibox version of "fake spell casting" except you get to actually do damage.
2) The warrior charges in and blade storms or fears (or both) -- ignore the warrior, look for the elemental shaman and blow him the fuck up. If your timing is better then mine, you can thunder storm him off just before he pops blade storm or "whirly twirly" as one of my shaman friends calls it.
3) The rogue stealths through your totems somehow and opens on your healer, trying to get you to blow elemental mastery while he cloak of shadows and LOL's IRL -- hit him with the chain lightning, frost shock nuke -- this often kills him -- don't flame shock or he'll just <poof> -- the chain lightning/frost shock is damn near instant and hey may not have the reaction time to cloak fast enough. If you're lacking the spell power, purge the rogue first, then chain lightning/frost shock his ass to HELL (where all rogues belong, fucking sapping my last shaman in the train in BGs, god I hate rogues).
By the way, that macro is -- /castsequence reset=3 chain lightning, frost shock -- all shamans have this exact same macro. Its bound to #1 for me. This macro is enough to kill someone with up to 25,000 HP instantly and hilarity ensures when used in battle grounds.
4) They all charge in -- usually only the newer cleave teams do this, because hey, it works for melee cleave right? inorite!? Ignore all others, find the elemental shaman and blow him up.
You may have noticed by now that in all cases the elemental shaman is the primary target -- kill him and you've cut off their legs and you're left with Joe from Family guy -- a lot of shouting but a greatly reduced threat. With staggered tremors the fears should be minimal.
So this is what's worked for me - so far our highest rating is 1720 with a new priest so you're millege may vary but hopefully this helps.
-Clov
