Uncommon Combos

[Szordrin]

So, most of you know I am a holy paladin through and through unless I am trying to do quests and get on my lulsavage ret gear.

My combo is with my best friend, Dominera (who is a lock), and it took a while until we really found a spec for each of us that -works-. Surprisingly it was a spec that I would have thought didn't have the saves for his squishiness, Holy 20, Prot 51(or something like that), opposed to holy 40, ret 31 like before.

I was surprised to see how... unbeatable I was even in holy gear. In fact, we dicked around a bit and I killed a few arms warriors alone in and out of skirmishes(once with Leoren while trying out the spec).


Anyone else have a combo that isn't the OPTrain(Paladin+DK as an example) and is doing well after some tweeking?

[Yatokth]

Full Prot Holydins has been the best Holy spec in 2s for awhile now.

Prot/Holy and Afflock is a top combo.

I wouldn't call it "OP" (In 2s, Druid/DK is probably the only OP thing atm. Some would argue Ret/Disc but I think they're full of shit.) but it's certainly not bad or even uncommon.

[Yichimet]

I'm finally going to have enough time to give a little attention to PvP, so I'm interested in comps for me again. I'll be fairly sure that my 2v2 team would end up being me (resto shaman) and my brother (hunter--whatever spec works best, probably survival) and I know that comp was pretty OP last season and fairly common, but how does it fare now after the hunter changes? I'd be interested in knowing how a 2v2 resto shaman/prot warrior would do, too, since I think I can probably rope someone else into that comp (*COUGH*LEYUJIN*COUGH*).

For that matter, what would a hunter/restoshaman/prot warrior 3s team be like? I'm so bad at PvP that I need insight from other folks. It seems like with the warrior, we'd have a good peeler, with the hunter we'd have decent snares and CCs, and a resto shaman's not a terrible healer in arenas right now, right? I guess the question is, would we have enough DPS to get someone down?

[Szordrin]

Full Prot Holydins has been the best Holy spec in 2s for awhile now.

(...)

not bad or even uncommon.


This might be true, but if you look on Arena Junkies, there are only two out of 100 top Paladin teams that have locks in them. I'd say they aren't as popular as Arms Holy or Unholy/Holy Pally.

Also, surprisingly enough, I havent seen a whole lot of Prot Holydins but this could be because I am still rising in the ranks.


Also, Yichi, I've noticed that Resto Shamans work extraordinarily well with Arms Warriors but I could be wrong. Someone else want to explain in depth for him?

[Yatokth]

I'm finally going to have enough time to give a little attention to PvP, so I'm interested in comps for me again. I'll be fairly sure that my 2v2 team would end up being me (resto shaman) and my brother (hunter--whatever spec works best, probably survival) and I know that comp was pretty OP last season and fairly common, but how does it fare now after the hunter changes? I'd be interested in knowing how a 2v2 resto shaman/prot warrior would do, too, since I think I can probably rope someone else into that comp (*COUGH*LEYUJIN*COUGH*).

For that matter, what would a hunter/restoshaman/prot warrior 3s team be like? I'm so bad at PvP that I need insight from other folks. It seems like with the warrior, we'd have a good peeler, with the hunter we'd have decent snares and CCs, and a resto shaman's not a terrible healer in arenas right now, right? I guess the question is, would we have enough DPS to get someone down?

Prot Warriors suck in arenas. Sorry. Especially in 2s.

Resto Shaman are the worst of the four healers right now, but they aren't -bad- per se. Resto Sham/Hunter is probably one of the few viable hunter combos still out there, but you're both gonna have to be real good to cut it a high level. Course, you can get practice on the way and everything.

You can -try- that 3s, though I'd recommend a Death Knight or something that has more burst damage, and will benefit from Bloodlust. You have MS via hunter, lots of CC via Hunter, you add DK peels (CHAINSOFICECHAINSOFICECHAINSOFICECHAINSOFICE) and some combined burst... Yowch.

If Leyujin has Arms gear you could potentially try that as well, though you don't really need 2 MS's, and DKs do more damage and peel better than Arms Warrs.

A Ret Paladin would also be a decent choice, he could BoP you against the overload of cleave teams running around, and he ahs sick damage, but less CC. I'd recommend one of those three, in this order: DK > Ret > Warrior.

Of course, since this server blows at PvP, if you can find a good player that's an Arms Warr or a Retadin, screw the class, take him.

As for Hunter specs, I'm not honestly sure, look up the top teams for your comp(s) on arena junkies and see what they spec - I know some hunters have gone marks, but some are still surv. AJ is a GREAT resource for any aspiring PvPer, if you're willing to wade through a bit of whining.

EDIT: In response to Szordrin:

Good luck finding a good Arms Warrior willing to play with a Resto Shaman - it's definitely the worst Arms/Healer comp, though it can work.

[Szordrin]

EDIT: In response to Szordrin:

Good luck finding a good Arms Warrior willing to play with a Resto Shaman - it's definitely the worst Arms/Healer comp, though it can work.

Hey, I've seen it done. : o But, yeh they were pretty skilled.

[Yichimet]

Good luck finding a good Arms Warrior willing to play with a Resto Shaman - it's definitely the worst Arms/Healer comp, though it can work.

Is that 'cause Hex is a poor man's CC? If so, I can change, baby. Really I can.

[Malethia]

Draekon and I started off as an Arms/Combat Swords team, and got our butts handed to us. Then I went to Mut/Prep, and he tried his Prot spec and gear just for kicks - and suddenly we started winning.

I usually die during the match, but in the process the other team usually loses one member and the other tends to be down around half health. The Prot spec means Draekon stays up long enough to smack the survivor down.

[Szordrin]

I hated mutilate spec till I went prot.

[Yatokth]

Is that 'cause Hex is a poor man's CC? If so, I can change, baby. Really I can.

No, Hex is actually quite good when properly used.

The combo isn't that great cause both shamans and warriors are heavily vulnerable to CC, a Warrior's peeling ability isn't as good as a rogue or a DK (better shaman partners in 2s) and both targets are fairly easy to kill once locked down.

There's still 2600+ sham/warrs, but it's definitely a tough road.


Draekon and I started off as an Arms/Combat Swords team, and got our butts handed to us. Then I went to Mut/Prep, and he tried his Prot spec and gear just for kicks - and suddenly we started winning.

I usually die during the match, but in the process the other team usually loses one member and the other tends to be down around half health. The Prot spec means Draekon stays up long enough to smack the survivor down.

The only double DPS 2s that a Warrior can MAYBE do well in is Ret/Warr.

And by do well I mean 1800, at least.

Prot is definitely hilarious in the lower brackets though.

[Yichimet]

HAH! I'm definitely not looking for 2600. I'll be happy with a gosh-darn 1600. I just want to have fun and get in there and get dirty. I used to do arenas in BC for a time and I miss it a bit. Plus, anything to make me suck less has to be good.

[Lailinarel]

I think I actually mentioned it in the prot pvp thread, but if you're gonna run with a prot warrior, don't run as a healer. A medium damage CC with a lot of survivability and a healer isn't really a sensible combo. The purpose of rolling with a healer is to make it so your dps can actually focus more on hurting shit and being aggressive rather than to turtle up. I would bet that prot/ret, or prot/elemental (or prot anything with burst and a little CC of their own) could be fun team comps if you played right.

To save myself some typing, I'm gonna refer you to my last post in here.
http://wow-tng.org/showthread.php?t=13723&page=2


Ok, all that said and back on topic, holy pally / disc priest was a funny as hell team comp. Double dps teams pulled their hair out trying to kill us, but our lack of offense meant that any team with even modest healing ability could eventually kill us.

Was still fun though.

[Szordrin]

Speaking of a double healer team, the one I faced in skirmishes was the worse. Double smite priest/disc priest hybrid. They did shit for damage and didnt even think to mana burn the holy paladin.. instead mana burned the warlock O_o buh?

[Yatokth]

HAH! I'm definitely not looking for 2600. I'll be happy with a gosh-darn 1600. I just want to have fun and get in there and get dirty. I used to do arenas in BC for a time and I miss it a bit. Plus, anything to make me suck less has to be good.

Well 2600 is a lofty goal - My tops is 2100 at the moment, I'm pushing for Glad this season hopefully, but it's a tough thing.

The thing is, the harder a comp is, the harder it will be to get to 1600 - I give examples of sham/warrs that are AT 2600 because it means the comp CAN be successful.

On the flipside, you don't see any warrior/mage teams up there, or even over 1850. Thus, not a successful comp.

Something that works at a high level with exceptional players has a better chance of working at a low level with decent players.

[Skaadvik]

I've been toying with a holy/ret hybrid spec that goes Holy as deep as shock, and then Ret all the way into Fanatacism. My 2s partner is a Ret Paladin right now, and it's not bad, though I'm sure there are better partners for the spec. I've also been playing around with the 20/51/0 prot holy spec, as it interested me quite a bit when I first heard of it.

[Szordrin]

I'd give the prot spec a try, Skaadvik. Leo and I did skirmishes .. maybe 10? Lost only once and he was ret, I was 20/51. It's a good'n.

[Daly]

I'm not 80 yet, but I have been thinking:

What about ret/spriest? I mean I know rogue/spriest is fairly viable, but with BoF, BoP, Dispersion, PH, Fade, and to a lesser extent fear, I should be a lot harder to just roll over.

And with silence, HoJ and repent, I would think we could lock down a healer to the point that something should die. I mean I can use PH offensively if we need a few more seconds too.

Or am I way off the mark here Pals?

[Szordrin]

I believe that's what Leoren is running with Mahkiel... They're in the 2k+ range or higher. I don't remember.

[Yatokth]

lol no, Mahkiel is disc.

Spriest/Ret would be a decent team, but it's a one-trick pony - no MS, no resets (outside of divine shield), but more defenses.

Seems to defensive minded for a double DPS, but you could try it.

Alternatively, find the bestest warlock evar and run old school spriest/lock ftw.

[Rhatizin]

I've been toying with a holy/ret hybrid spec that goes Holy as deep as shock, and then Ret all the way into Fanatacism. My 2s partner is a Ret Paladin right now, and it's not bad, though I'm sure there are better partners for the spec. I've also been playing around with the 20/51/0 prot holy spec, as it interested me quite a bit when I first heard of it.

I was doing ret pally/destro lock for awhile this season with zero success, we got stuck in the 1200 bracket in fact running it because we didn't have the type of CC that mage/ret have and because my warlock partner is just learning how to arena. Switched over to that prot holy spec though and made my warlock partner switch to affliction, we've only tried it twice so far but just yesterday alone we went 9 and 1 with it.

It's a good comp because every 30 seconds we have enough CC to rival any comp out there and the brunt of the DPS is over time so we can los ranged DPS and heal while waiting for my avengers sheild to come back up.

The reason affliction is so good is because my lock partner can move where as destro has to set up, so we utilize curse of exhaustion and hand of freedom to kite melee dps. It's also important that the lock gets improved health funnel to keep the pet up and fel domination should the pet die, because if the fel hunter dies we cant stomp totems, eat magic off ourselves and we lose the spell lock which helps us finish people.

The draw back of the holy prot spec is that you have to set up to heal, but with aura mastery you can do that easily in clutch situations since thats ten seconds you can't be silenced.

Were still learning but I think after a few more goes at it we'll climb with it.

[Szordrin]

lol no, Mahkiel is disc.



Totally misread. I know he's disc ._.

[Tylorvias]

I had a demo lock/ret pally combo that was doing omg amazingly well until my partner went and quit WoW (I still miss her).

Since then I've had Destro lock/mut rogue which is nice on the CC and burst but god forbid either of us screws up CC once or it's over.

Right now playing around with my best WoW friend as a destro lock/feral druid combo and finding that it's working quite well to start; with some practice and him getting some better gear as he just got into pvp I think we could potentially melt face.

[Sanrin]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Onyxia&n=Markco

He might not be the most likeable guy, but hes prot in 2's for arena and clearly doing just fine. There's another fellow like him that's doing quite well, although the issue with prot pvp in arena boils down to having the block value. With it, you can hit some reasonable numbers...at least as a warrior!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9azS-aWDio


As a paladin? I dont see prot really going as far, not enough 'boom' as it were.

[Yatokth]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Onyxia&n=Markco

He might not be the most likeable guy, but hes prot in 2's for arena and clearly doing just fine. There's another fellow like him that's doing quite well, although the issue with prot pvp in arena boils down to having the block value. With it, you can hit some reasonable numbers...at least as a warrior!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9azS-aWDio


As a paladin? I dont see prot really going as far, not enough 'boom' as it were.

Why do people keep doing this?

Look at his gear.

He doesn't have a PvP trinket.

Look at his specs.

The other is PvP Arms. With PvP glyphs. Nobody glyphs Hamstring for PvE Arms. Hell, no one at his gear level SPECS PvE Arms.

He PvPs. As Arms. And tanks for his guild. As Prot.

And that video? Is totally set up. Recklessness'd, Zerker'd, Shield Block'd, Block Trinket'd SS crits against opponents with very little resilience (possibly none) in lolBGs, who probably still turn with their keyboard. You'll never see crits like that in serious arenas.

Nevertheless, it's very entertaining. :D

P.S. I know there is ONE guy on Arena Junkies who's 2K+ in all brackets who -actually pvps as prot- and isn't just in his tank gear when he logs out. I forget his name though. He's an outlier, his success =/= prot warrs are great in arenas.

[Sanrin]

Uh no, he definitely pvp's prot. I know him, hes in my guild, ive seen him in his arena gear and spec. For a while he had one of the only 2k rated prot team, now theres a second guy whos surpassed him by a couple hundred (i believe they were last at 2400).

Not saying everyone can do it, definitely saying this guy does it. The video was just for lulz purposes. I hate dying to anything with a shield.

[Yichimet]

He runs a blog over at justmytwocopper.blogspot.com. His team hit 2555 last week, I think? He definitely PvPs prot. Dude has enough money to respec whenever he wants to, eighty frillion times a day--I don't think I'd be counting on his specs on armory listing what he actually uses.

[Yatokth]

-shrug-

Aight, my bad, just callin it like I see it.

It isn't impossible, you just gotta be uber, and your partners have to be uber, and it has to be a specific comp heh.

[Sanrin]

No, definitely not...but its very very very gear reliant. Not something that just everyone can do, but I think its pretty cool that its even possible to do it. That rating you don't exactly fight a lot of bad players.

[Yatokth]

No, definitely not...but its very very very gear reliant. Not something that just everyone can do, but I think its pretty cool that its even possible to do it. That rating you don't exactly fight a lot of bad players.

Approxamately none.

[Sanrin]

So it is assumed!

[Leyujin]

Block value from items is *doubling* next patch. Although I'm partially filled with glee, I also have this sudden sense of impending doom... that prot paladins will completely and utterly destroy me. The only change warriors have received is a minor attack power buff.

[Sanrin]

lol no more 2s! So much for that! And now its time for prot to try its hand in the 3's bracket?

[Szordrin]

I dont think that they are going to make the 2`s bracket completely useless. That would be silly.

[Sanrin]

Oh no, its not useless. You can still use it for points, just not gear. Your rating wont count.

[Skaadvik]

First trial period is successful. Ran Prot/Holy with a very inexperienced Arms warrior (and myself being pretty inexperienced with LK arenas) and did pretty well for ourselves, brought his team from 800 to 1k in about an hour. Hopefully it keeps going well.

[Yatokth]

Prot/Holy Paladins and Resto Shamans will be -ballers- next patch.

[Skaadvik]

Prot/Holy Paladins and Resto Shamans will be -ballers- next patch.

That's what I've been thinking with the current patch notes... so I'm gonna keep trying to get good at it.

[Bahlmoral]

I really enjoy it on my pally. I thought at first I would miss not having an insta-heal in Holy Shock, but I got over it pretty quick.

Even in dump PvP gear you manage to get a decent +bonus heal.

[Skaadvik]

I have more SP as prot/holy than I do as reg holy, both because there is more stam and the stam talent has a higher percentage. I don't lose much mana, either. It's basically a trade of holy utility for prot utility, which is more useful in a lot of PvP situations.

[Bahlmoral]

The trick with the spec that I've seen is load the hell out of stam. Basically all your gem slots should be pure +stam (blues) or a hybrid of +x/+stam.

One of the higher rated 2's in the world is running that spec with a DK (go figure) and he has something like 26K health.

Crazy...

[Phim]

Uh no, he definitely pvp's prot. I know him, hes in my guild, ive seen him in his arena gear and spec. For a while he had one of the only 2k rated prot team, now theres a second guy whos surpassed him by a couple hundred (i believe they were last at 2400).

Not saying everyone can do it, definitely saying this guy does it. The video was just for lulz purposes. I hate dying to anything with a shield.

Is this who you're reffering to?

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kilrogg&cn=Tar&gn=Last+Call

[Sanrin]

I can ask, I dont know their name I just know Markco's was chatting with them a lot the day their team went over his. Its impressive, although bittersweet since their bracket of choice is going to be taken off the 'to do' list.