Elemental x5 Arena and BGs - Need Advice

[Ualaa]

/Targetenemy is the equivalent of hitting Tab.
However, /Targetenemyplayer will not target npc's, which include pets.

[daanji]

Thanks. I'll update my macro.

Over all, /targetenemyplayer done multiple times should tab through the enemy list and should make each shaman target a different player right?

I've tried it in BGs and seems to work, but not well.

[Ualaa]

Each line is the equivalent of hitting Tab.
Unfortunately, it is from the perspective of each toon.
Which isn't always exactly the same, depending on range and facing.

If you are in arena, you can target by arena frame number.
And get an exact target on each of them.

[daanji]

Yeah, in arena it works well and gives me enough time to blow someone up while everyone is confused.

I got about 800+ resilience on my shamans now. I've been doing arenas and practicing a bit. I can survive a lot longer now, but still tend to lose most of the games.

I tried x5 ele shamans and x4 ele + x1 resto. But configurations have the same results though.

I think I need to find a dedicated healer to run with, perhaps a paladin or druid would be fine.

[daanji]

So I got some decent gear now. I have all the non-set Wrathful pieces and accesories, the relentless hands, and 1-2 furious pieces.

The resilience on my main is 1100+ and the alts are 900 or so.


So I've been running 5s. First, I tried it with just me x5 eles and I won a couple games, but most I've lost.

So I dropped one of the alts and found someone to heal for me. A very well geared resto shaman. Still, I can't see to win so perhaps I'm going about it entirely wrong.


I have tremor staggered, with x5 grounding totems. If melee get on my group, I drop magma and fire nova them.

At the start, I do a chain lightning on some target then quickly switch targets and try to nuke someone else down.
However, this rarely succeeds. I think the healer is getting off an immunity right before my Lava Bursts hit.

Although I have magma and fire nova going, it doesn't seem to even phase the melee standing in it as they proceed to pummel me into the ground.

So am I better off just ghost wolf and running away? Should I constantly be moving and LoS and only dps with Flame Shock + Lava Burst is up?

In some games, I've focused on trying to nuke down an opponent, but just can't seem to out dps the healer (a lot of teams I've faced seem to have 1K+ resil).

If you look at the link to my team, you'll see my gear is pretty good now. However, a few pieces are terrible. So perhaps they are holding me back.


For my setup, I don't use the FTL system. Instead, I use the basic idea and the macro sets the leader as the focus. and I /follow focus. I found it much easier to setup and manage.
From reading the forums, I probably should use the FTL system for arenas? That would free up my focus and I could have all the alts target random members I don't intend to nuke.

I've toyed around making dps macros for each of the opponents. That way I could switch targets on the fly and never actually have to target or set a focus.

For example, on each toon I would create macros like this
/castsequence [target=arena1] Flame Shock, Lava Burst

and

/cast [target=arena1] Chain Lightning

By doing this, I could switch targets on the fly by just pressing that button for that arena opponents.

Also, I should make a IWT macro? To interact with the target? So if I do this, the shamans will turn to always face the guy I'm targeting and walk towards him?

Does anyone has good videos of x4 eles doing arenas? I need to learn how to play better.

Thanks!

[mrmcgee21]

You need to purge targets before nuking them if your having trouble killing people. Even in my gear I'm finding people with more than 35k hp pools often times don't die even from a well executed FS>LvB>CL combo ( use this combo as well ). Also go download an add'on called "SpellAlerter" and configure it to play a sound effect you like anytime a person uses defensive cool-downs such as grounding totem, iceblock, bubble, pain suppression, shield wall, spell reflect, and the list goes on for awhile but I'm sure you will think of them all as you do more games. Ideally you want to DPS each target ( what target you might fire at first can be random based on the match ) until a defensive cd is used and THEN change targets. Don't just rotate targets for no reason, any given player on the opposing team can be killed through continuous nukes if they do not line of site or pop a cd ( one exception are destro locks ). I didn't look at your gear either but you want to be pushing 3000+ spell power with flametongue to really be competitive ( aim for 3000 without flametongue to push the envelope ).

Trying to AoE people is usually a bad idea in my experience as well, there has been a few pure cleave(pure cleave meaning 3 or more melee dps) comps that I have used it to pressure healers to come out into LoS of me so I can kill them, but I wouldn't ever expect the AoE to actually kill anyone.

Trying to ghostwolf kite as a multiboxer is usually not going to work either. First off your chars are all going to be running different speeds due to some being snared some not being snared. Next your going to LoS your healer, and lastly your going to range your totems. LvB isn't the end all be all of killing people, I probably kill just as many people with LB and CL as I do with LvB so don't think its just GG as soon as your lvb doesn't land a kill. Now if you just don't have a good person to nuke at that moment and are still taking a lot of dmg, just help your healer out and drop some chain heals while you wait, make sure your dropping grounding totems every time they are up, and lastly use that hex macro if your in real trouble.

As for the not having a focus key, that can hurt in some matches but to be perfectly honest it won't really matter until your getting into the 2000+ teams and even then I use it sparingly still. FTL setups are superior in my opinion so changing to one sounds like a good idea for more than just arena to me.

Lastly I just want to add that I use /target arena1, /target arena2 macros on my chars, all bound to shift-f1 shift-f2 ect. For me this has been the fastest way to change targets in arena, it takes some getting used to in that you have to process what f key to punch for each member of the enemy team at the start of each match but it works best for me. Making individual nuke keys for each person on the other team would eat up a TON of hotkeys and be very cumbersome ( I'm sure you would end up with some very awkwardly placed hotkeys to try and hit ).

[daanji]

Thanks for the advice.

I've been seriously considering just making separate nuke / dps keys for each arena member.

Sure this will eat a quite a few keys, but my entire numpad is currently unbound so it seems possible with some modifiers thrown in.


Here is my current plan.

Create two basic macros for each arena member. IE

/target arenaA
/castsequence [traget=arenaB] reset=8 Flame Shock, Lava Burst, Chain Lightning

/target arenaM
/castsequence [traget=arenaN] reset=8 Lightning Bolt


Notice what I did here. First, all my shamans will target arenaA, but my actual target is arenaB.

So, as I change kill targets my main target changes.

Since all shamans will being targeting the same guy, but actually dpsing another, it will keep the opponent guessing and confused.

Thoughts?

[Littleburst]

Thanks for the advice.

I've been seriously considering just making separate nuke / dps keys for each arena member.

Sure this will eat a quite a few keys, but my entire numpad is currently unbound so it seems possible with some modifiers thrown in.


Here is my current plan.

Create two basic macros for each arena member. IE

/target arenaA
/castsequence [traget=arenaB] reset=8 Flame Shock, Lava Burst, Chain Lightning

/target arenaM
/castsequence [traget=arenaN] reset=8 Lightning Bolt


Notice what I did here. First, all my shamans will target arenaA, but my actual target is arenaB.

So, as I change kill targets my main target changes.

Since all shamans will being targeting the same guy, but actually dpsing another, it will keep the opponent guessing and confused.

Thoughts?

i wonder how much that's gonna add. I use focus just for casting all spells. slaves assist focus. my main = their focus. And well, it really doesn't matter that much if they can see who you're targetting. I've had plenty of games where i just targetted my kill target from the start and blew him/her up without to much difficulties.

If someone doesn't die, it's because he/she is able to los before my CL hits, not because of the healing.

So, i guess it can help a bit, but don't expect anything big. Gear is a real big factor.

[daanji]

I met a multiboxer in arena today (boomkin + 4 shamans). The first time we met, he got me. However, we met two more times and I smashed his team with ease. It was a lot of fun.


Ok, so I setup a system where on my number pad with the following macro

/use 13
/cast Elemental Mastery
/cast Berserking(Racial)
/target arena5
/castsequence [target=target][target=arena1] reset=8 Flame Shock, Lava Burst, Chain Lightning

I have five of these macros and each one targets a different arena enemy.

I also have a set of dps macros that will attack my current target.

I begin the match by hitting my target (which all the shamans are targetting) with chain lightning and Lightning Bolt.

Once they immune, I smash the corresponding key for the person I want to kill.


So far, it has worked for me fairly well and have won me a few games.


I think my main problem right now is synchronization. It seems as though 1-2 shamans are either stunned, CCed, silenced, etc. so when I try to nuke, it just isn't enough to kill and they enemy gets topped off.


One match lasted for 5 minutes. I nuked down two people, while they killed one of mine.

At that point, they just CCed, silenced, interrupted, feared, and danced circles around me.

Eventually, I lost due to lack of mana.

I'm getting better and my rating is now 1070, but pushing 1800 seems so far away.


Thanks for all the help everyone!