Hpwnwork Assignment #1 – Team B
Continuing our assignment, we now look at the other team, Team B. Team A’s setup and strategy can be read HERE.
Here is another look at the assignment:
Part One:
“For each class involved, pick a spec for them that you think works for the particular makeups.”
Time to work on the bottom team! Here is a look at Team B’s setup.
Team B:
Part Two:
“Pick a map that you think best suits the strengths of the top team. Then pick a map that best suits the strengths of the bottom team.”
Team B: Ruins of Lordaeron
This would be a good map to kite the Warrior around the tomb with Frost Traps, and keep line of sight from the Mage and Water Elemental. Hunter can do some damage if he takes the top of the tomb.
Part Three:
“Break out your crayons. Start drawing lines as you see fit for each class on each team. Highlight any specific reasoning behind your choices, or any that you feel are the key decisions for each team.”
Virtual Threat:
“Virtual threat implies the potential danger and damage (not just DPS, CC and healing and utility included) you can dish out without even having done anything in the first place.” Some more information on Virtual Threat by Out of Mana
Hunter – Virtual threat will be mainly on the Warrior. Not DPS him down, but to keep him out of the game. By using a combination of Ice Trap, Frost Traps, and even Wing Clip, the Hunter will try to keep the Warrior from doing any DPS if he can. Hunter will also throw up Viper Stings on any Mana users.
Paladin – The Paladin will harassing the Priest with any stuns to interrupt the Priest’s heals. Paladin must also do his best to avoid being Mana Burned by the Priest. Of course he will also be healing.
Shaman – The Shaman will be a thorn in the Paladin’s side with well timed Earth Shocks. Shaman will also be purging Team A whenever he can. Grounding totems will be dropped whenever the cooldown is up to distrupt the Mage and maybe the Priest’s Mana Burns.
Warlock – The Warlock will be picking on the Mage. Since Team A has three casters, the Felhunter will be out, and on full time on the Mage. The Warlock should be manually casting the pet’s Spell Lock, and will be using it mostly on the Mage’s Polymorph attempts. Warlock will be keeping the Mage out of the battle with Fears, and Drain Mana. Banishing the Water Elemental helps too.
Warrior – The Warrior will keep MS up on the Shaman, and keep him hamstrung and slowed for most of the fight. Will also be Pummeling the Shaman’s heals.
Actual Target:
“Represents actual targeting, at least for the early moments (within the first minute) of the Arena match.”
Hunter – Will be DPSing full time on Shaman, using Arcane Shots to dispel any HoTs and Earth Shield. Viper Sting will used on all mana users whenever possible. Frost Traps will be put down so that the Healers can get away from the Warrior if targeted.
Paladin – Same as Virtual Threat. Will be healing, and interrupting the Priest whenever possible.
Shaman – Same as Virtual Threat. Will be healing, and tormenting the Paladin.
Warlock – While the Mage is feared or occupied by the Felhunter, the Warlock will be dotting up the Shaman as well. Possibly draining the Shaman’s mana as well.
Warrior – Same as Virtual Threat. The Warrior will keep MS up on the Shaman, and keep him hamstrung and slowed for most of the fight. Will also be Pummeling the Shaman’s heals.
Potential Swap:
“A target swap down the road, which could either be planned from the beginning (eg switch to this after X class uses Y defensive cooldown) or as a fall back plan (eg if the other team properly reacts to our attack plan on target X and it’s not working, swap to target Y).”
Team A has many “get out of jail” cards with Ice Block, Blessing of Protection, Bubble, Pain Suppression, and Nature Swiftness. Team B will do their best to force Team A to blow all of these cooldowns early. With those out of the way, Team B has to outlast Team A’s mana in order to win. When they manage to get the Shaman to go out of mana, Team B will make the switch to go all out on the Priest. With only the Paladin left to heal Team A, the Priest should go down pretty fast with Bloodlust/Heroism and Bestial Wrath popped.
Also, if you manage to get the Mage to Ice Block twice, a switch to the Mage, and timing CCs on the healers could be another potential swap. A squishy Mage with no more Ice Block goes down fast when focused.
Focus Target:
“Target that class would most likely have as their focus target—all the goodies of macros that involve [target=focus] will be applied here.”
At the moment as I write this, I changed my mind on the Focus Targets I’ve selected earlier for Team B, so please disregard the picture. I’m too lazy to make another one.
Hunter will have the Paladin on Focus, to keep Viper Sting on him whenever he can, while still DPSing the Shaman down.
Paladin will have Priest on Focus while healing his team. Paladin will throw stuns whenever he sees the Priest trying to use a big heal.
Shaman will have Paladin on Focus to use Earth Shocks on the Paladin heals. Warrior will also have Paladin on focus for Pummels. The more the Paladin’s heals get interrupted, the more chances he will Bubble early.
Warlock will have Mage on Focus to use the Pet’s Spell Lock on big spells.
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I would like to thank Megan for providing this assignment. It has gave my brain a good exercise, and it has also taught me some things about Arena. This assignment was long and tough. I would hate to see what you would come up with if you made quizzes and exams.
There is not “correct” way for Arena matches. Quick thinking and quick reflexes will win matches. Sitting down and planning ahead for potential match-ups your team might face is great practice. When you face a team in Arena, you won’t have a couple of days to think of ways to beat them, you have a few seconds. Going over potential match-ups will keep you prepared for when you do face that team, and everyone will know what they should be doing.
Again, if you have anything to add, change, or comments, let me know. It has been awhile since I’ve talked about Arena and strats. For the specs for each class, I didn’t know the exact talents to take, but I had an idea of what to get, though I could be wrong. Actually, I’m pretty sure my Hunter and Warlock is pretty failed.
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I dont agree with the strategy for team B, targeting nor map selection.
Lets start with map selection: Team A is a classic swap/nuke team. In the span of a GCD, they can bloodlust swap, shatter, and blow someone up. This means that open maps such as RoL and (to a lesser degree)Nagrand favor them as 2 of their dps need LOS. As a BM/Lock/Warrior team, Blade’s Edge or Nagrand are much more favorable than the openness of RoL. Yes, the tomb can be used to LOS casters, but with your only healers being ‘stand and cast’ healers, your players are forced to stand in LOS of each other -and- the opponents (hi standing on the tomb) unlike the other maps.
As for targeting, the main target should be the priest as clothies die quickly to a windfuryRNGlol burst and BW, and because manaburn is going to screw your hunter’s dps and your healers. However, setting this up can be difficult, so swapping back and forth between the priest and the shaman or mage (depending on Water Elemental being out or not) is probably the right call. Force the priest to heal.
As for individual targeting, here’s what I have
Class: Target: Focus Target: Reason
Warrior: Priest: Pally or Mage: for focus intercepts to preven heals or cc
BM Hunter: Priest: Mage: focus viperstings on the dps first to put a time limit on their game. Viper the priest after the mage goes oom.
Warlock: Mage: Any Caster: focus fears/spelllock. The lock should be making sure that CoT is on every caster for the entirety of the match and rotating fears and kiting the warrior through frost traps. Pet should be on mage for pushback, but focus spelllocks on healers can turn the tide.
Pally/Priest: Varies due to healing/mana burning needs: Shaman: the eleshaman directs the burst for all 3 as all they do is stand and cast purge/lightning. Knowing who theyre going to burst means you can start to precast heals.
Since the first target should be the priest, the swap target should be either the mage or the shaman, although any target that gets low from dots can be a legitimate swap target.
Spec wise, on a non 4dps 5′s, most hunters are Marks due to the additional control. Viper into Silencing is deadly if you can cc their poison specific cleansers or force them to heal instead. Forcing the pally to waste gcd’s as opposed to the shaman (cure poison as opposed to cleanse) is a better option as cleanse can hit all the crud magic debuffs as well. You can play this setup as an outlast setup, with 3 forms of mana drain (Viper, Drain Mana, Mortal Strike). A burst style can work with a BM hunter, but your warlock’s burst isnt going to be anywhere as strong as the other two (pain suppression/bop kinda kills 2 physical dps burst).
As for the concept of ‘virtual threat’, many of these classes are ‘high threat’ targets for multiple classes, and as such, really cant be represented by only 1 arrow. The Hunter should be a threat against the Mage, Priest and Warrior, everyone should fear the Lock, the Priest and Mage should fear the Warrior most, and any class that relies on tons of buffs (Mage/Priest) should fear the shaman. Of course, this is really just an issue of class favorability when it comes to individual matchups and honestly it should represent the targeting and strategy used (actual targeting/swap targeting) as any virtual threat should be neutralized so it doesnt become an actual threat.
Oops, mistake in the explanation there. I thought that you had a priest instead of a shaman, so where it says Pally/Priest, it should say Pally/Shaman
For the arena map selection, I was only thinking from a DPS perspective, and never thought to look from the healing side. That and probably because I for some reason have trouble playing on that map (as a Mage). You are right about other maps being better for “stand and cast” healers.
Good call on the MM Hunter. I was thinking BM Hunter for the burst, but MM Hunter would be better for Team B for outlasting your opponents.
Sorry for the newbie question, but what does RNG mean or stand for? I thought it maybe had something to do with “Ranged” but I’ve seen it associated with Warriors so now I am not sure anymore. ^_^
RNG = Random Number Generator. It’s like when you get crit 5 times in a row when you have 400+ resilience or you get mace stunned 5 times in one arena match.