My fights look nothing like Ellay's
Does Ellay not get warstomped, AoE silenced, stunlocked by 2-3 T6 rogues, shadowburned, etc?
I also today encountered a hunter that completely shut down my dps because he was in Feign Death for half the fight.. and my macros didn't work on that.
I'm playing at ~1500 rating on Cyclone BG EU, and from what I can tell the opposition looks a -lot- more competent than what Ellay faces in his training video. :)
Finished the week with two teams in the Top 100
Purge and not missing the nuke are Fundamental in beating any team. Mastering these things take time and practice. Purging effectively, remembering to do it, getting of as many purges pre-opener are all things that slowly put the odds in our favor.
I rarely miss a nuke on those Mages, man are they annoying. The Purge definitely ensures that I take them down with the nuke. I have also started to use the 1 button nuke, rather than a castsequence macro. I don't know what I was thinking but never realized that you need the "/stopcasting" in your nuke for it to go off instantly. I still spam the button but it definitely seems to land more.
The stopcasting in that macro also lets me stop a lightning bolt in mid cast and throw down the nuke. With mages the biggest problem I use to have after purge was I'd cast Lightning Bolts and then throw the nuke. I think mages are watching my casting bars and in an effort to squeeze out a little more damage they dont iceblock until they see the lightning bolts flying at them. Since my macro stops the casting of the lightning bolt they never see it coming. I have ran into a couple mages that can survive the nuke totally purged but I try to follow with an earth shock and it has been taking them down with no problems.
Mages have incredible damage and there's not a class in the game that makes me worry like they do. So if a team doesnt have a mage Im not so quick to throw the nuke out. Realizing that lesser healing is one of the highest healing spells in the game (terribly mana efficient) 5 healers can last through almost anything. Many of my wins are happening from letting them blow their cooldowns, sneaking in some purges, and then destroying the softest target. I then continue to heal through their damage and at some point Im really low on mana, thank goodness for Star's Tears, I drink up and kill the last 1-2.
Ellay's stratedgy on taking the DPS out of the fight is so unconventional, but so is 4 shaman and thats why it works. 4 lightning bolts is enough to keep any great healer busy. Add in our ability to switch targets and lay down the nuke and I am a believer there is no counter. Sure spam fear is a PITA and AOE silence is annoying but as long as you land the nuke its one huge step in the right direction. 4 beating 5 is very unlikely.