[4xShaman Arena] Tactics Suggestions for Beginners

[Boylston]

The Triple healer Warrior/SL lock is amazingly fun to play against! I love getting those teams Just burn that warrior, keep chugging LB's on him.

Yeah, I guess that's our only hope. I tried the "pound one and switch off" strategy, but since I'm switching to a healer, they would all just head for the hills the second they saw a LB volley on them.

[Boylston]

I thought I'd update folks on my progress and learnings at the end of S3.

For the last couple of months, I've sustained a modest rating, between 1600-1650. My main healing partner (a Pally) and I learned a lot and really feel like we improved. The biggest limitation to our success has been spell damage gear, in our estimation. This has gotten better (850+3x760) recently, and I'm banking points for the start of S4 so that a few key gear holes can be plugged.

Unfortunately, my main partner left the game, so I've spent the last 2-3 weeks trying out other people, most of whom are a little undergeared still. The best fit so far has been a longtime friend who's playing a druid. The druid is nice because Cyclone can be a good way to buy some time (if used on a DPS) or cut off their healing ability (on a healer) for long enough for the first 1-2 targets to die. Cyclone is incredibly useful mid-fight-- I have stopped seeing us lose even after I burn the first 1-2 down because of Cyclone (and a barkskin+tranquility refill is nice too).

I am still struggling a bit with mana usage against better teams. Many times, I have lost to teams where we outnumber them, but my guys are almost OOM. Keeping up water shield and mana stream is helping, as is hiding a bit to allow regen.

The "resurrection game" is something I'm vastly improved at... we are using it ourselves more and more (I find myself rezzing my healer a lot, esp. since I'm running with some undergeared guys from time to time). It's been 2-3 weeks since I lost a match due to having multiple targets rezzed.

In any event, I'm happy with our progress in the last 4 months. The team went from 450 spell damage, 0 resilience, and 6600 HP to 750-875 spell damage, 380-410 resilience, and everyone at 10k+ health. We are definitely posting more weeks with good records (recovered 90 points of lost rating by going 15-8 this week with the new druid), and I'm excited about S4 starting.


As I progress to "intermediate arena multiboxer", these are the list of things I have to work on.

* Turning of alts to combat rogues/melees weaving through the group.
* Dealing with people who jump off bridges or flee for LoS as soon as you land one volley
* Becoming a little more aggressive with 4x+EM+NS+CL to get the first 1-2 dead.
* Mana management!!

[Groovy]

Boyl, you should make a vid with the druid as main healer, i'd love to see that in action.

[cepheus]

Fun to read your posts Boylston. You got about the same things to work on as me, and I can easly identify with your posts

I am only on about 1450-1500 rating atm, but I feel confident that I could be about 100 rating higher if I had spent all my points on gear (lost a lot of matches were the burst target was at 5-10% hp left) , however I chose to save them for season 4.
I have about 400 resilience and 600 spelldmg (+totem of void) at the momen, but when season 4 hits I will gain about 300 more spelldmg from gear+enchants.

Do you think that it is a good idea to gem your main with more resilience/hp than your alts? I have wondered abit about this, but I'm not sure if I want to go this route since I sometimes also do raids, and I want as much damage as possible.

Another idea might be to use full spelldmg trinkets on the followers and medallion of the hord(epic version)+Battlemaster trinket on your main.