08-23-2007, 02:21 PM
Chickenscratch area for improving my 5v5 group's rating. Currently we keep hovering in the 1700's and always seem to put together a string of losses every time we're one game away from 1800. Group makeup is MS Warrior, Mutilate Rogue, Resto Shaman, Holy Priest, feral Druid. This is an extremely non-traditional setup, and we know we're never going to be super-uber with this composition, but I feel that we could be higher than we are.
Our general weaknesses are a lack of crowd control and a lack of a Paladin.
Our general strategy is to have our Warrior and Rogue focus fire on a target. If the enemy team consists of two melee, they will focus on either myself (Holy Priest) or the Shaman, so our Druid does a Cyclone/Root rotation on them to keep them clear. With two of our team players starting in stealth, we play a "wait for them to come to us" game. I'm not always sure this is the correct strategy though, because it allows the other team to get the initiative. A well timed Warrior charge with stealthers in place to pounce simultaneously would be harder to execute but more rewarding overall, I think - I've seen other teams pull this off well and it's highly effective at putting the other team on the defensive.
Our typical target order is cloth, healers, dps, Warrior. I also start to wonder if this is the best strategy. We're not a DPS-heavy team; we're an outlast team that is highly adaptable to different situations, but will never be a burst team.
Our lack of a Paladin really shows when we face the 4-DPS, 1-Healer gib teams. One of us simply gets blown away and there's no way to stop it, and if the other team couples the DPS with high crowd control, we're smothered fast. That's when you really miss BoP.
A few thoughts I'm having:
1) We need to go after Paladins first more. We *never* go for them first, and I think that's a mistake. Yes they're plate and we're a melee-DPS team, but often Paladins don't gear for PvP because they're so rarely focused. If you don't do anything to them at all, they spam Flash of Light on our focus target and eventually BoP it. If we focus them, they don't spam Flash of Light (as much) because they're being stunned a ton, and eventually BoP themselves - in other words, we could get a faster kill in. Crowd control should focus on their DPS to allow more freedom on our side to continually purge/dispel the Paladin, especially Mass Dispel the BoP. And consider that CC like Blind would be more effective if the Paladin's too busy getting wailed on to Cleanse it.
2) Perhaps we should consider using our Rogue as crowd control more than DPS. Yes, this means our DPS is cut severely. But we're not a burst team anyway; all of our wins are going to be protracted battles of mana control. The idea of using our Rogue as CC on a DPS'er is to once again limit their DPS on us so that our Shaman and Priest can take more offensive actions (Mana Burns, shocks, purges). We can win the mana war with Mana Burn abuse, but only if our Priest isn't getting focused by 2-3 players.
3) In general, crowd controlling their DPS seems more important than trying to disrupt their healing. If their DPS'ers are handled, we have Mana Burn to take care of the enemy healers and force them to run off and drink - then we can try to burst focus a player and get them killed.
4) Enemy Hunters should be crowd controlled, not attacked. They're too slippery and attacking them doesn't limit their DPS like it does other DPS'ers - any intelligent Hunter will keep attacking a ranged target, not switch to useless melee'ing of whomever's in their face (sans a Wing Clip). Anyone getting targetted by a Hunter often (basically, me) should try to play LOS games as much as possible and get off Mana Burns otherwise. In a 2v2 engagement, it's easy to have both players just follow the Hunter around to limit his DPS, but in a 5v5 game, that doesn't play out.
Comments/ideas from anyone welcome.
-Bolty
Our general weaknesses are a lack of crowd control and a lack of a Paladin.
Our general strategy is to have our Warrior and Rogue focus fire on a target. If the enemy team consists of two melee, they will focus on either myself (Holy Priest) or the Shaman, so our Druid does a Cyclone/Root rotation on them to keep them clear. With two of our team players starting in stealth, we play a "wait for them to come to us" game. I'm not always sure this is the correct strategy though, because it allows the other team to get the initiative. A well timed Warrior charge with stealthers in place to pounce simultaneously would be harder to execute but more rewarding overall, I think - I've seen other teams pull this off well and it's highly effective at putting the other team on the defensive.
Our typical target order is cloth, healers, dps, Warrior. I also start to wonder if this is the best strategy. We're not a DPS-heavy team; we're an outlast team that is highly adaptable to different situations, but will never be a burst team.
Our lack of a Paladin really shows when we face the 4-DPS, 1-Healer gib teams. One of us simply gets blown away and there's no way to stop it, and if the other team couples the DPS with high crowd control, we're smothered fast. That's when you really miss BoP.
A few thoughts I'm having:
1) We need to go after Paladins first more. We *never* go for them first, and I think that's a mistake. Yes they're plate and we're a melee-DPS team, but often Paladins don't gear for PvP because they're so rarely focused. If you don't do anything to them at all, they spam Flash of Light on our focus target and eventually BoP it. If we focus them, they don't spam Flash of Light (as much) because they're being stunned a ton, and eventually BoP themselves - in other words, we could get a faster kill in. Crowd control should focus on their DPS to allow more freedom on our side to continually purge/dispel the Paladin, especially Mass Dispel the BoP. And consider that CC like Blind would be more effective if the Paladin's too busy getting wailed on to Cleanse it.
2) Perhaps we should consider using our Rogue as crowd control more than DPS. Yes, this means our DPS is cut severely. But we're not a burst team anyway; all of our wins are going to be protracted battles of mana control. The idea of using our Rogue as CC on a DPS'er is to once again limit their DPS on us so that our Shaman and Priest can take more offensive actions (Mana Burns, shocks, purges). We can win the mana war with Mana Burn abuse, but only if our Priest isn't getting focused by 2-3 players.
3) In general, crowd controlling their DPS seems more important than trying to disrupt their healing. If their DPS'ers are handled, we have Mana Burn to take care of the enemy healers and force them to run off and drink - then we can try to burst focus a player and get them killed.
4) Enemy Hunters should be crowd controlled, not attacked. They're too slippery and attacking them doesn't limit their DPS like it does other DPS'ers - any intelligent Hunter will keep attacking a ranged target, not switch to useless melee'ing of whomever's in their face (sans a Wing Clip). Anyone getting targetted by a Hunter often (basically, me) should try to play LOS games as much as possible and get off Mana Burns otherwise. In a 2v2 engagement, it's easy to have both players just follow the Hunter around to limit his DPS, but in a 5v5 game, that doesn't play out.
Comments/ideas from anyone welcome.
-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.