Glyph of Stoneclaw totem

[asonimie]

Not to start a flame war here. Just to discuss the options.

I might be too focused on the problem and did not look at the whole picture. Statistically, I don't recall losing any of my matches due to fear. Sometimes, I even want them to fear me. So I take less damage when spreading out (30% dmg reduction when feared). I am having trouble staying alive when cleave team melee AOE me. Since all my guys are standing together facing one direction, when they run in and melee AOE, I have to either turn or move, avoid damage is only one of the reason. More importantly I have to make sure my guys are facing the melee. This turning and facing takes time. I think stoneclaw buys some precious time for me. Combined with divine sacrifice, I am buying a few seconds that I don't have to worry about dying. Around 1500, no teams are dumb enough to take me head on. They come from behind and start with CC. When I am heavily CCed, they start their AOE game.

Now if you are saying you can just instantly kill the melee , no need to move at all, or you can move turn and face in less than 1 GCD, or even your gear and healer are good enough to keep you alive. Then by all means, add more dps, reduce that CD on TS.

So the question is how exactly do we deal with melee. Veteran boxers seemed to have mastered it. Please share the wisdom.

For the record, I've been TS + root these guys. But paladin with freedom, rog lock down, and warrior with shield always have their way with me. and I've been dropping stoneclaw all this time to buy time.

You're exactly right, stoneclaw totem buys you time. Unfortunately it costs time too. Time is everything in 5v5. I'll touch more on this in my guide I'm writing, but one of the main themes of real 5v5 is Kill a DPS ASAP. What you're observing is true, those stoneclaws are prolonging your death.... but when it's done you'll still die.

And I wouldn't say any of us have "mastered" melee. They suck and its difficult to out-dps healers on a melee sponge who's weaving around you. Honestly I usually either kill melee after a TS, or I kill the ranged support and completely ignore the melee. I once put down magma totems and then put so much dps / interrupt pressure on the healers causing them to run away... that 2 melee died from my magmas lol. Good times. I'll leave it at that for now as I'm already writing a huge post on general arena info.

Also spreading out isn't very viable. It will reduce the damage you take but it completely kills your precision and dmg output. Facing issues FTL