Ellay: Looking for a bit of guidance :)

[Mosg2]

Well, my girls are finally pretty much geared (10k hp, 9k mana, 840 spell damage, 21% base crit, 350 res) and I'm doing 5's seriously now vice farming points off of some friend's 3's teams. I'm looking for some basic direction on strategy that has worked for you if you feel comfortable sharing. To begin with, what I'm doing now:

Blade's Edge: Set up totem farm at one end of the bridge, maybe a bit more towards the center.
Nagrand: Usually set up shop towards the center of the arena. My experience was that staying right next to a pillar allowed the other side to LoS me much easier than if I forced them to come out to me.
Lordaeron: Ugh, my least favorite. Usually we would go to the far right side and set up the farm. This way they have the smallest possible angle to LoS us over.

Totem farm consists of 4x staggered Tremor, 4x Grounding, 3x Poison, 1x Mana, 4x Searing. I go with Water shield as with only 9k mana I've had mana become an issue in many games. Target selection is usually Dps and then healers, with Hunters and Warriors being my first big targets. I'm using a Shaman healer who's in full S2 with a smattering of S3.

To be honest I'm floundering in the mid-1500's. I could say that part of that is the gear gap (Every team we've fought has been at least full S2) but I don't want to cop out; I'm looking for strategy help Do you have any suggestions? Are there any nifty things you've discovered that've made a big difference in your competitiveness? How do you go about target selection? What do you do against a team that can heal through LB/LB/CL chaining (We ran into a Hunter/Priest/Druid/Warlock/Shaman team that was easily able to heal through our full damage output ugh)?

In any case, much thanks in advance!

P.S. Of course anyone with insight is more than welcome to provide input. I wasn't trying to make this personal

[Ellay]

I've had company over the past couple of days, I'm planning on making a movie specifically for dual-boxers to show in game footage strategy of the "sweet spots" of where to be on each map - with lots of commentary instead of music
Also your spell damage is high enough no one should be able to heal through your damage, sounds like the opposing shaman was minimizing your damage with grounding totem.


Nagrand


#1 spot is against caster heavy teams, utilizing the pillar to minimize their burst potential.
#2 spot is against melee heavy teams, forcing them to come to you, making them unable to LoS you.

Blade's Edge


The blue outline shows the optimal areas to stand, the direct middle is bad because they can just mess wit you on the bottom throwing spells, but on both sides forces them to come up top and duke it out also they cannot LoS you, only jump off which means they left their team behind.

I couldn't find a good picture of Ruins of Lordaeron, so it'll have to wait until the movie

[bodefeld]

I've had company over the past couple of days, I'm planning on making a movie specifically for dual-boxers to show in game footage strategy of the "sweet spots" of where to be on each map - with lots of commentary instead of music

That's excellent, I'm looking forward to your movie!

[shiVen]

Thanks Ellay!! I'm pretty much in the same boat as Mosg2 in terms of ranking. Also ran into a transfer druid on my server that says he started out with your shamans when you first started up....Poochies ? Anyway, he was giving me advice on your tactics.

[samuraicow]

I'm planning on making a movie specifically for dual-boxers to show in game footage strategy of the "sweet spots" of where to be on each map - with lots of commentary instead of music

GOOD!!!!


cant wait !!

[Mosg2]

Thanks so much Ellay! That's even better than what I was looking for hehe.

My other big question is (if you have time, hope you have fun with friends/inlaws/family) what is the order that you try and kill people in? Do you go for DPS or healers first? Whoever is handy? I noticed in your first video that you swap targets a lot--Is that just to screw with the healers?

In any case, thanks again so much for helping out

[Boylston]

My other big question is (if you have time, hope you have fun with friends/inlaws/family) what is the order that you try and kill people in? Do you go for DPS or healers first? Whoever is handy? I noticed in your first video that you swap targets a lot--Is that just to screw with the healers?

I think Ellay commented this in response to the "who first" question in the past:

Fire Mage
Frost Mage/ Ele Shaman
Hunter
Ret Paladin / Warrior / Enhancement Shaman

Priest / Non Cheat Death Rogue
Warlock / Cheat Death Rogue
Paladin / Resto Shaman / Druid

As far as switching targets, I do it as well. I find that it's great to hit a target once with a LB and then if it goes LoS or retreats, switch to someone closer/better. This will generally start the healer on the 1st target and make killing the second easier. I will not chase someone, generally speaking. (Learned that the hard way).

Anyhow, I'm sure Ellay will chime in, but that's what he said his kill order was at one point in time. A couple encounters with a fire mage and you'll share his opinion...

[dizz]

More discussion here:

Arena Notes

Perhaps we should put this on a "4x shammy + 1 healer arena notes" wiki page.

[Ellay]

Ya we should definitely start putting this stuff on the wiki

I think the video will clear up a lot of the questions.

As for Fire Mages, they are straight up bad ( not in a good way) if your playing one. I had 3 all of Season 1 and 2. Against our comp though, if they have dragon's breath they are insane. It's those odd ball comps that never make a good rating that have a shot at beating us easily heh.

[yarr]

hey mosg looks like your gear should be good enough to start gaining rank above the 1500's, once you work the kinks out of your strategy =P

i remember back when aellie first released his first video of 2k+, and i think your gear is better than his was at the time. I'd say you probably just need more practice =D

I am lookin forward to when i hit 70 to try arenas