Ziss: Errelno has decided to share a very well written and detailed strategy to share with us about Warrior Holy Paladin vs Warrior Druid. He has also decided to become a regular writer here at PvP Source so expect this to be first of many to come great articles from him.

Warrior/Holy Paladin vs. Warrior/Restoration Druid

A match-up perceived by the public to be an easy counter, this is certainly not the reality against well played teams… In effect, the Paladin team is supremely limited by time. You are given only a few chances to win, because a Paladin’s offensive abilities are on long cooldowns and killing a skillful Druid is a product of coordinated teamwork. The ability to manage your mana (a ticking clock in this situation more than others) is absolutely paramount. This means getting drink ticks when the situation presents itself, such as when the enemy Warrior intercepts your Warrior to Hamstring and the Druid is not in danger. When a kill clearly isn’t in the cards, don’t waste mana on Holy Shock or Righteousness.

This matchup is based upon your ability to kill a Druid, so it’s very important that you manage your cooldowns well. A misfired Hammer of Justice or a poorly used Death Wish can set your team back minutes. You must ensure that you never waste multiple cooldowns to counter a single druid skill. Communicate interrupts. Do not make amateur mistakes such as missing a Pummel, because you will be forced to use an alternative method of interruption like Hammer of Justice or Arcane Torrent (if you are Horde) to stop a Cyclone. One too many Cyclones can easily spell defeat. Do not approach this fight with the aim to outlast; you will not run any skilled Druid out of mana.

The method of engagement is very important and will dictate how the match proceeds. The best case scenario is both members dismount and start out sitting on top of the Druid without having to use Intercept. If you’re Human, then activating Perception before the gates open and charging is a strong idea. Unfortunately. this doesn’t happen a lot of the time because stealth detection can be somewhat random, but keep in mind that it will happen more often if you play properly. The following are a few possibilities:

1) Hawk Kiting (© Clicker) — With Crusader Aura active, a mounted player Hamstrung moves faster than a Warrior following on foot. Early on, run around on your mount (with shield out) and do your best to avoid their Warrior. In doing so, you can often find their Druid in Stealth. When their Warrior Charges or Intercepts your Warrior, he’s going to proc Second Wind which will heal some of his damage and give you an amount of rage to open up on their Druid. Be sure to run around obstacles to block line of sight and prevent Intercepts whenever possible. Once you see their Druid, you can Piercing Howl to prevent a Pounce and have your paladin join you immediately for a Judgement of Justice. Mace Stuns and Improved Hamstring procs can break this strategy and force you to dismount and heal, but it’s still worth a shot.

2) Alternatively, if avoidance doesn’t work out, you can sit on their Warrior and wait until the Druid reveals himself. From here, you should proceed by engaging the Druid when the situation is as favorable to you as possible. If the Warrior sticks to yours, then your Paladin should cast Seal of Justice, mount up, and Judge it on the Druid. Your Warrior should Intercept and proceed from there, applying Blessing of Freedom when prudent. If the Warrior attacks the Paladin, Intercept the Druid and harass him. You should be able to pillar kite the Warrior while regenerating mana to remount and help with the Druid, but if unable to, then your Warrior may need to help each other and heal through it.

3) You can wait for see invis gems to spawn if you do a combination of waiting on your side and Hawk Kiting.

Once you’ve engaged them, it’s important to make sure you are both communicating with clarity. Druids have several tools that they will try to control you with; you must counter them with your own so that you can stay on top of the Druid.

1) Nature’s Grasp specifically needs to be called out in Ventrilo. A good Druid will try to drag you around a pillar and hit it so that your Warrior is out of line of sight of Cleanse or Blessing of Freedom, so it’s important to try and get Freedom just before you run around the corner if you are anticipating it. Freedom is the fastest and best counter to Roots because of the failure rates on Cleanse. Your Paladin should be hitting the Druid at every opportunity because this serves two purposes. First, it refreshes the Judgement, second, the Paladin can often proc the Grasp so the Warrior doesn’t take it, and third, it denies the Druid an available target to Feral Charge. If you have Tactical Mastery and rage, you can Spell Reflect and then hit the Druid to break it.

2) Following Bash, your Paladin needs to be aware that he needs to Hammer of Justice the Druid if he tries to run away. If he attempts to Bash and Cyclone, your paladin can Arcane Torrent (if Horde) instead or stun him to interrupt it. Further, if your reflexes are fast enough, you can use Blessing of Protection to break the Bash and remove it via macro or click. You can swap it with another Blessing, but you will first have to wait through a global, so it is not optimal.

3) Your Warrior must save his trinket for Nature’s Swiftness Cyclone until the Druid has used his Nature’s Swiftness.

4) If he begins to slip away with Travel Form or Feral Charge on your Paladin, look before you Intercept. If he’s not near a pillar, has a 5s+ Hamstring on him, and is in Bear Form, you can run towards him. He’ll either have to wait for you to close distance or shift. Intercepting when he shifts is obviously better.

Try to save Death Wish for when you’re in a good position to kill the Druid. Intimidating Shout has questionable value in this matchup. If their Druid is starting to get away you can Intimidating Shout after a Deep Wounds tick to cover the distance. In addition, if the Warrior is nearby you can target him quickly to fear the Druid.

A good percentage of time that you’re on a Druid he’ll be tanking you with HOTs on himself in Bear Form. At this juncture, it’s important that you aren’t wasting cooldowns. Keep Hamstring and Mortal Strike applied and stack Sunders; they are a tremendous help when he is in Travel Form or caster. Conserve rage. Understand that aren’t going to significantly damage him, so set yourself up to smash him when he comes out to heal. Never underestimate the strength of Paladin damage. Don’t hesitate to use Divine Favor offensively in this matchup, and don’t hesitate to Divine Shield when going for a kill. It’s not necessarily a survival tool here, but a way to stay on top of the Druid. The Warrior will always Intercept your Warrior when you do, but he’ll be feeding your Warrior rage and providing little defensive support outside of Mace Stuns because Blessing of Freedom will nullify his Hamstrings. Always remember to reapply Judgement of Justice if he trinkets at any point. Remember that you have Avenging Wrath available. Many matches can be won with properly coordinated burst from the Paladin – in fact, the Paladin’s damage will be required against the best Druids.

When a Druid no longer has any available options of keeping your team off of him, he will die and you will win.

Ziss: Big thanks to Errelno’s Pally for contributing to this strategy, this strategy has been added to Arena Matrix as well.

Tags: Warrior · Paladin · 2v2 · Articles

6 Responses to “Warrior & Paladin Strikes Back”

1. Zure Says:
   February 4th, 2008 at 10:45 am

   Very nice summary. As someone who occasionally plays druid/warrior, we find paladins that execute well to be a big problem.

   One note, I don’t believe that trinket removes JoJ, as it is not technically a movement impairing effect. Your post can be read to suggest otherwise.

   Just to get the ball rolling on a counter-strategy discussion:

   As warrior/druid, we have our warrior stay on the paladin, to limit the warrior’s rage generation, keeping hamstring on the warrior. This means that one of the two will eventually fall behind the druid since there is only 1 BoF at a time.

   If it is the paladin, the druid then has a feral charge target after baiting an intercept. If it is the warrior, the druid is free to cyclone him in between intercepts.

   Of course, when the paladin doesn’t play aggressive on the druid and the team opts to go warrior to warrior, we simply deny all heals with cyclone/feral charge/bash/maim combos on the paladin and cyclones on the warrior when the paladin bubbles. The opposing warrior will usually die with perhaps 1000-2000 total healing done by the paladin.

2. Glave Says:
   February 4th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

   Trinket removes JoJ. It was changed a few patches ago iirc.

3. Ohmgracer Says:
   February 4th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

   Your over complicating the matchup… Its more like combat drink/los the cyclones and have your warrior swap targets to waste the druids mana/deny cyclones. Free points unless you get chain CCed down but your team has more then enough tools to avoid that.

4. nevermore Says:
   February 5th, 2008 at 5:15 am

   A great strategy article.

5. Moonfurby Says:
   February 5th, 2008 at 10:01 am

   The only flaw that I could see in this strategy (playing a Warrior/Druid) is that if the Warrior was to go for the me(the druid), then my Warrior would switch onto the Pally, a pally wouldn’t be able to kite a Warrior indefinitely (latency + Piercing etc). While a Druid can easily shift into travel and run around a pillar forever. This is what we usually do anyway :).

6. Errelno Says:
   February 7th, 2008 at 4:02 am

   This article was co-written with the paladin I play with, Dares.

   “The only flaw that I could see in this strategy (playing a Warrior/Druid) is that if the Warrior was to go for the me(the druid), then my Warrior would switch onto the Pally, a pally wouldn’t be able to kite a Warrior indefinitely (latency + Piercing etc). While a Druid can easily shift into travel and run around a pillar forever. This is what we usually do anyway :).”

   The paladin plays aggressively. You switch to a kite/pillar strategy when we’re running low on mana or don’t have the cooldowns necessary to kill the druid.

   “Your over complicating the matchup… Its more like combat drink/los the cyclones and have your warrior swap targets to waste the druids mana/deny cyclones. Free points unless you get chain CCed down but your team has more then enough tools to avoid that.”

   Maybe at low ratings, but at high ratings this just won’t fly. The druid will get away and you have no way to stop him from sustaining his mana pool indefinitely. If you’re on the warrior, he’ll throw hots, warrior dstance/shields up and the druid will travel form -> drink, as you have no way of stopping him. Even if you chase after him, he’s going to get off enough ticks each time he does this to sustain his team indefinitely. A strategy which attempts to run the other team out of mana will only work on idiots.

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