Let's talk about Hex!

[kidvid]

I'm the primary healer for a 4 ele shaman team and something we've given a lot of thought and discussion to is the best way to use Hex in a 5v5 arena. I've been doing some reading in this forum and some of the top rated players don't appear to use it much at all. Based on some posts from others though, it sounds indispensible!

What we're trying now is to have it set up so that every shaman will try to hex a different arena target upon key-press. What we've noticed though is that it doesn't seem to really help all that much. I.e., let's say shaman #3 has a hard-coded macro to always attempt to hex arena target #3. If Arena Target #3 is the other team's priest or main healer and you click on your hex macro, shaman #3 might be silenced at that point in time or have curse of tongues, etc.. It seems like that happens a lot more often than not, making me wonder if there's really any point in trying to rely on it as a game changer.

The other thing I was thinking about was whether it would make sense to have every shaman have 5 new hex macros that are all identical from shaman to shaman. Across all characters, macro #1 would try to make every shaman hex the same Arena target #1. Macro 2 would do the same for arena target #2 and so on. Then, even if half your team was silenced or interrupted, you'd get it off. Still though, I'm not sure how useful that would be given the casting time.

What are everyone else's thoughts about hex? Is it a game changer for you? If so, how do you have it set up with your macros?

[Littleburst]

I'm the primary healer for a 4 ele shaman team and something we've given a lot of thought and discussion to is the best way to use Hex in a 5v5 arena. I've been doing some reading in this forum and some of the top rated players don't appear to use it much at all. Based on some posts from others though, it sounds indispensible!

What we're trying now is to have it set up so that every shaman will try to hex a different arena target upon key-press. What we've noticed though is that it doesn't seem to really help all that much. I.e., let's say shaman #3 has a hard-coded macro to always attempt to hex arena target #3. If Arena Target #3 is the other team's priest or main healer and you click on your hex macro, shaman #3 might be silenced at that point in time or have curse of tongues, etc.. It seems like that happens a lot more often than not, making me wonder if there's really any point in trying to rely on it as a game changer.

The other thing I was thinking about was whether it would make sense to have every shaman have 5 new hex macros that are all identical from shaman to shaman. Across all characters, macro #1 would try to make every shaman hex the same Arena target #1. Macro 2 would do the same for arena target #2 and so on. Then, even if half your team was silenced or interrupted, you'd get it off. Still though, I'm not sure how useful that would be given the casting time.

What are everyone else's thoughts about hex? Is it a game changer for you? If so, how do you have it set up with your macros?

the macro you talk about is the way to go(#1 hexes #1, #2 hexes #2 etc). If 1 get silenced you still get 3 off. If 1 get silenced and you all let them hex 1 target, you only get 1 target hexxed. It has it flaws, but said macro is superior still. Besides that if you get silenced, you could see it in the slave's castbar and cast it at a later point.

It gets pressure off you and if the healers are sloppy and don't trinket, it's one of the best moments to get a kill.

[kidvid]

When do you generally use your hex macro?

Let's say you get someone down to 30% health. I figure at this point in the fight, you could either "waste" a GCD and try get a lucky hex with their healer before using your second GCD for the killing blow, or just use that GCD to throw out another damage spell and hope to finish them off healer or no healer.

The way we've been using it is when the fight is starting to go nowhere and we're in danger of running out of mana before the super important first kill. I.e., they rush in and fear, cyclone, curse of tongues sheep and just CC the hell out of us while a ret pally or warrior goes to town. In those situations it's impossible for us to kill one of them without getting lucky, so we'll trigger the hex macro and hope the gods smile upon us but ti has never contributed anything notable to our chances.

[Littleburst]

When do you generally use your hex macro?

Let's say you get someone down to 30% health. I figure at this point in the fight, you could either "waste" a GCD and try get a lucky hex with their healer before using your second GCD for the killing blow, or just use that GCD to throw out another damage spell and hope to finish them off healer or no healer.

The way we've been using it is when the fight is starting to go nowhere and we're in danger of running out of mana before the super important first kill. I.e., they rush in and fear, cyclone, curse of tongues sheep and just CC the hell out of us while a ret pally or warrior goes to town. In those situations it's impossible for us to kill one of them without getting lucky, so we'll trigger the hex macro and hope the gods smile upon us but ti has never contributed anything notable to our chances.

You hex and then kill, if someone is at 30% hp, by the time you finished your hex he's back to 100% easily. So Hex -> pressure. Besides that a warrior or ret shouldn't be able to go all out on you without getting instagibbed by flame shock + EM LVB. Or atleast having to go defensive.
I don't know at what MMR you guys are playing, but it's all about making a good swap and kill. It doesn't really matter if it's a dps or a healer, 4vs5 is better then 5vs5 aslong as you will survive. Vs a good 4dps team it will be useless to kill the healer, since they'll just continue to melt your face and win(unless they suck badly) Versus 3 dps / 2 healer teams, it can help a lot to kill a healer first, if you can stay alive and then finish off the dps asap. Since you should be able to instagib someone easily, with just 1 healer. Time it when stuff like penance,swiftmend etc are on cooldown.

It's all about changing targets, surprise their healers.

[heyaz]

Each shaman targets arean1-4 (or current target) if exists and nodead. You can make it better by having it cascade to where if any of arena 1-4 are dead, each shaman targets the next on the list. I usually use it either right when I bloodlust or if things get a little out of control right at the start.

Having windsheer + 4 on the macro helps as well

[Iceorbz]

Lets talk about youuuuuu and meee....





lets talk about all the good things and the bad things that mayyyyyy be......










.............Lets talk about hex!...............



..................... Lets talka bout HEX! ..............

[Kang]

ah salt n peppa..where are you now?...but we digress

[Mystic]

I want your hex
I want your.....hex

I swear I won't tease you
Won't tell you no lies
I don't need no bible
Just look in my eyes
I've waited so long baby
Out in the cold
I can't take much more
I'm losing control

I want your hex
I want your pwn
I want your.....hex

It's natural
It's chemical (let's do it)
It's logical
Habitual (can we do it?)
It's sensual
But most of all.....
Hex is something that we should do
Hex is something for me and you

Hex is natural - Hex is good
Not everybody does it
But everybody should
Hex is natural - hex is fun
Hex is best when it's....one on one
One on one


Don't you know I love it till it hurts me baby
Don't you think it's time you had hex with me

Hex with me
Hex with me
Have hex with me

C-c-c-c-come on

[Littleburst]

So far a constructive post >.>

[Mystic]

Sorry, trying to inject some humor.

I've always struggled to use Hex effectively. If it had range, it would be the bomb, but its small range is the real killer here.

Then you have to hope for a full rush from your opponents for it to be really effective. Again it is the range thing. Every time I tried to hex everyone, during being rushed, it never works as planned, either they are most of them still out of range, while my one toon is getting focus fired, or I get a fear bomb in my face before I can get the hexes off. Tremors recover me from the fear bomb, but then I'm swarmed, focused, and in a frenzy, which is not so conducive (for me anyway) to firing off another Hex attempt.

That said, Heyaz' take on the macro is right on, cascade targets using nodead, but usually, when it is most useful is when your opponents are all still alive.

Hopefully more of our top rated shaman teams will chime in as to whether they make much use of Hex in Arenas, and if it truly is a game changer for them.

I gave up on Hex being useful a LONG time ago.