Wizard cleave

[Clovis]

Ughh, so now that we've hit 1800 just about every team we face is a wizard cleave -- I mean every team.

We did 12 games tonight against 12 wizard cleaves.

The problem I'm having is any team thats good or 1800+ beats us, every time and the ones were we simply out gear (ie, 1600 rated teams) its extremly close -- if we win we gain like 1-3 points but we'll lose 20.

Killing the shaman first doesn't seem to be working -- basically regardless of the team its the same strategy.

A melee rushes in, either a warrior for MS or a rogue to spam fan of knives -- then the rest open up -- I'll get flame shocks off on the shaman, then its aoe stunned and feared and before I can even trinket one of me is dead.

Melee cleave isn't such a problem anymore, and its become wizard cleave is the only team we can't seem to beat, it hard-counters us every time.

I finished up with 1832 for tonight so I'll be about 20 points shy of having enough for weapons but I'm hoping between weapons (about 140+ more spell power) and the battle master trinket (+4800 HP for 15 seconds, I'll bind it with hero) we can survive, but with wizard cleave their spells aren't on cool down.

For those that are 2k or simply beating this, what are you doing or what am I doing wrong? Normally I would purge but their burst is just so rediculiously fast I'm dead after a purge if I even get one off -- I mean, dying within a 2 second stun, gg?

Some nights we'll get this paticular wizard cleave from our server that's 2200+ -- today the shaman was on my vent and supprise he's 15 years old but he went on for 10 minutes about he could just target any one of me and global me and how it was sooo bad ass, good lord.

*frustrated!

[heyaz]

We're running into a ton of wizard cleaves too, and what sucks is even some 1600 MMR teams can cheese us to death for a win and -18 points. I haven't figured out a real strategy, and we're still trying to grind up, but we're beating some and other getting real close (2200+ ones).

Couple things I switched up once we broke 1850:
1. LoS teams that kill grounding totems then immediately charge - I let them all drop and save the cooldown. That is their entire strategy - to kill totems, shadowfury, then gib my main when they are on cooldown. I trick them by waiting for the bloodlust + charge then laying new ones.

2. Focus targets. Mage gets pressure right away, ele shaman is on focus. Mage usually ice blocks (or if they're under 2k they die lol), ele shaman gets blown the f*** up.

3. Spell alerter. With sound effects. Gotta know when important things happen - like grounding totems

4. 4x hex macro. I use it immediately if my initial burst doesn't kill my target, or if things just get out of control. If your healer can cc or fear, you may get full durations. It's a curse so a lot of people won't (or just can't) dispell it.

5. Grounding totems like mad. Before wizard cleave I'd easily go 10-20+ seconds without realizing I didn't have grounding down. Now I spam the button.. considering moving it to the a mouse button I can spam.

Not really a thorough strategy, and I imagine you're doing most of that already, but it's all i got. We still got rolled by some 2100+ wiz cleaves tonight for sure, couldn't even kill their damn shaman. Did have a couple nice matches though... we were on fire tonight but healer maid me promise we'd quit when we hit the rating for enough points to get his weapons.

[Clovis]

That's a good idea with waiting for the grounding totems -- each time we go against it I'm constantly refreshing grounding every time it has about <10 seconds remaining and refresh it through out the fight.

Btw, a great mod for quickly telling if grounding up is Power Auras Classic -- you can set it to show a nice big graphic on your screen (I use a circle just below my character) that appears when grounding is down and disappears when there are zero groundings - my druid healer uses this too to remind me when groundings are down during the battle.

When you put focus on the shaman, what are you casting on him? Or is just for the hard switch to shaman?

Wizard cleaves with frost mages are easier, arcane mages just blow me up -- most however have a warlock or ele/warlock/mage (the worst).

On the bright note, I'll have enough points for the weapon on my main tomorrow but the others along with my healer will have to wait for next week to get enough points =/

[heyaz]

When you put focus on the shaman, what are you casting on him? Or is just for the hard switch to shaman?

I have a nuke macro on a mouse button that goes to the focus, it's all cooldowns, lvb, cl, etc. in a castsequence. I usually pop a few LB's or purges on my dummy target, then start mashing that mouse button to hit the focus.

don't let me act like I have any idea wtf my focus macro does - ask Taj he invented it

[Naysayer]

What would be the con's of trinketing shadowfury?

Trinket, drop another set of groundings if it's up, then blow up the shaman?

[heyaz]

What would be the con's of trinketing shadowfury?

Trinket, drop another set of groundings if it's up, then blow up the shaman?

Cons are if they have a good CC rotation you get feared right when you do that, or 1-2 shaman are cc'd in some other way and your burst is ineffective. I've tried it a few times, tough to say whether it works at this point, I'd have to see videos of my games... might be viable on Ring of Fear, just to get off the damn platform and put down totems that work

[asonimie]

Sounds like you might be blowing EM a little early Clovis. If you're getting shadowfury'd between FlameShock and LvB, you need to wait a little longer. Be ready to immediately drop groundings after the SF, and go to town - you have 15 seconds to kill that shaman til the next OP stun.