Some Ideas i'm Kicking around

[Nixi]

So I peaked at 1890 before I got knocked by down to the low 1800s. Problem teams were 4 DPS teams that killed me faster than I could blink, and a well played two healer team (disc priest, holy paladin).

Both teams were very tough to beat because they read me like a book. I think they were watching my main's target. I bit the ice block, spell reflect, bubble, and pain suppression and it's been a long time since I've wasted so many Nukes.

Against the two healer team.
I'd switch targets rapidly, but they were right there with the heals on whatever i was going after next. [target=targettarget,help] heal ftw!

Plus when i'd switch for a kill shot, yep, there was the iceblock. I felt like such a newb against this team.

I can switch mains on the fly with my setup, but in those macros I use,

/focus [target=ToonA,exists]
/follow focus

The follow makes it obvious who the new main is because all my toons re-arrange themselves behind him. I was considering this method of targeting:

When the battle starts, if it isn't a rush, select an enemy target with each of my 4 guys. When the battle starts, switch focus's on the fly to change targets.

I'd have to take the follow out of my buttons to switch focuses, but i think this is a good method to switch up targets without your opponent knowing ahead of time who you're going after.


Another idea i had to surprise people, was set my nuke up to look like this:

/use [target=mouseover,exists,nodead,harm] 13
/use [target=mouseover,exists,nodead,harm] 14
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead,harm] Elemental Mastery
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead,harm] Nature's Swiftness
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead,harm] Blood Fury
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,nodead,harm] Chain Lightning

(all the macro options are there so you don't blow anything if you don't have the mouseover target)

First an explaination. When I do pve I always use the macro option, [target=mouseover,exists] . Basically I can set my unit frames on the corner of my screen and when I move my mouse off that WOW window the mouse will get stuck on top of that one unit. As long as I keep my mouse off of that wow client, it will always have the same 'mouseover' target. I use this in PVE so i can have guys healing different people on the fly by moving my mouse off the screen at the correct location, and when i want to switch I put the mouse back on the client and exit the screen on a new target.

I was thinking that you could set proximo on the side of your screen, and do a similar thing. Your alts could have a mouseover target and then you could have a stealth attack with your nuke, or even have earth shocks ready to hit their paladin.

I'm not going to do this, but I put the idea out there in case anyone else wants to try. The problem with this is in PVP it's not very dynamic. It takes awhile to get the mouse stuck in the right position and requires a more concentration than you should be devoting to a micro-management task. Plus i don't even know if mouseover will pickup a proximo target. I think it should though.

[Naysayer]

Sounds like you're just targeting the wrong guys imo. Mage and pally are a bad choice to nuke.

As for switching targets, if you're having that much trouble you could set up an /assist "healers name" macro and have your healer pick the correct target while you switch through different targets on your guys to fool the other team. Then when they rush, /assist the healers target and blow them up.

[Alemi]

Sounds like you're just targeting the wrong guys imo. Mage and pally are a bad choice to nuke.

As for switching targets, if you're having that much trouble you could set up an /assist "healers name" macro and have your healer pick the correct target while you switch through different targets on your guys to fool the other team. Then when they rush, /assist the healers target and blow them up.

I blow up mages all the time with instant, never in the thick of things however. Usually at the start when they're trying to bait me and are in a nice place to die. I can't remember the last time I tried to instant down a pally, even ret. They're just not as big a threat except on maybe a bm hunter/ret pally/mut rogue setup.

4 dps teams basically come down to me downing someone FAST and not letting a shaman die. Ele Shaman/Frost Mage/Sl Lock/Marks Hunter/Disc Priest is just a mean combo with their burst. Double AOE fears to disorient you enough to take some burst damage, bloodlust/heroism on their side, while having the ability to mass dispel spam your bloodlust off. Heck the #1 on my BG up until this week was Affliction lock/Mut Rogue/BM hunter or Frost Mage/Shadow Priest/Resto Shaman. Their burst, cc, and the inability to remove dots is just insanity.

Nixi - you saw my comment in the other thread on using focus to mask the target and completely negates the [target=targettarget] healer strategy that a lot of these teams are using. Another thing to note is that with a holy pally/disc priest setup, the priest is limited healing from my experience. They're mass dispel spamming to remove your water shields/clearcasts/focused castings procs and/or mana burning, while tossing prayer of mendings/pw:s/ps/pi out. IMHO, they're as much a target as anyone else until they start healing.

I'm not a mouseover kind of person and never liked it, even healing. I prefer keyboard pressing, which allows me to mouse turn etc but if you're a mouse person, then it seems like a viable alternative - I use my mouse for too many other things however.

[Naysayer]

Sounds like you're just targeting the wrong guys imo. Mage and pally are a bad choice to nuke.

As for switching targets, if you're having that much trouble you could set up an /assist "healers name" macro and have your healer pick the correct target while you switch through different targets on your guys to fool the other team. Then when they rush, /assist the healers target and blow them up.

I blow up mages all the time with instant, never in the thick of things however. Usually at the start when they're trying to bait me and are in a nice place to die. I can't remember the last time I tried to instant down a pally, even ret. They're just not as big a threat except on maybe a bm hunter/ret pally/mut rogue setup.

huh? They're bad choices, period. If you catch a bad one, you get lucky, but it doesn't make it a good choice to blow your load on.

I bit the ice block, spell reflect, bubble, and pain suppression and it's been a long time since I've wasted so many Nukes.

[Nixi]

up until last night in the high 1800's I've always been able to take out a mage with my kill shot if he's dancing around ice lancing and gets a wee bit too close. I'll purge everyone on their team that's in range, and I'll use shocks, and if the mage is in nuke range after i've taken down a little bit of health, you bet your bottom dollar he's doing down. I've never smacked an ice block during pre-engage fire, only last night in the thick of things did I fail. Basically I was throwing out a couple volleys on one of their guys (it doesn't matter who i was trying to kill, they were healing him WAY to well) and then I'd switch my target to the mage as the last volley was going off (giving a second for my alts to catch up on who the target was) then BAM nuke followed by shocks. I was stunned to see that the mage already knew what was going to happen and ice blocked. I fought the same team again and I thought, "okay, i'm gonna try to nuke their shaman instead of the mage this time" . Same deal. I was putting pressure on another target, then when i switched up to nuke the shaman, pain supression was on him and my nuke barely took off half his health. I was like, "omg, how in the hell are they reacting so fast".

They were a good team. Watching my targets and puttign enough pressure on my guys that I HAD to take out one of their targets or die myself. When I tried to heal through the dmg I just died anyway. Warrior/priest fear rotations can knock out my healing long enough for them to waste a shaman.

And all my guys have over 400 res and over 11k health. They aren't slouches.

I am having a bit of trouble settlign on trinkets again. I managed to get

Battle Master's Audacity
Icon of the Silver Crest
Medallion of the Horde (+45 res)

I was using the Medallion and Icon last night and I still felt good about nuking a target that was already softened up, but I couldn't straight nuke one without softening.

[Alemi]

huh? They're bad choices, period. If you catch a bad one, you get lucky, but it doesn't make it a good choice to blow your load on.

I agree with you on pallys, but on mages, it's extremely easy to instant them down without any fear of an ice block. Easiest way: Wait till they're casting a poly or frostbolt or right after they cast an ice lance. Even with a /stopcasting, /cast Ice Block, they'll eat a GCD before they can block. And if your instant takes longer than 1.5 seconds, then there are far more seriously problems that burning instant into an ice block.

I was using the Medallion and Icon last night and I still felt good about nuking a target that was already softened up, but I couldn't straight nuke one without softening.

Most anyone on a team I'll face has 10k+ hp unbuffed and has 400 resilience. I never feel comfortable instant casting without at least a set of shocks on them.

[Boylston]

The only time I'll risk blowing my big EM+NS+CL combo on a mage is if there are TWO of them and I really need to roll the dice and try to burn one down before the arcane explosion spam starts. I've killed a lot of mages with a Lightning Bolt + EM+NS+CL combo... basically landing all the DPS at once before they realize they need to ice block. I have had a fair amount of success by launching my initial LB volley against a paladin in order to force him to bubble, then immediately popping one of the mages.

I agree with everyone else though, prioritize classes that don't have immunity options, or at least force the immunity options to be used up early. Teams that are doing the target=targettarget can be a pain, but if you keep switching, you can use that against them so that they're healing the wrong/old target...