I should state first and foremost that I run Mage/Druid/Warlock in 3v3, and focus on this bracket in my gear and specs much more than I do in the other brackets. However, I respec about once a day, so armorying me is worthless, and I should also say that I have multiple gear sets and a very odd idea about how to gear myself anyway - if you’re not familiar with exactly why I do this, please don’t take these to heart as HOW YOU SHOULD GEAR YOURSELF if you’re new to the arena, or whatever.

That said, I currently hold 2100, 2221, and 2159 rated arena teams in the respective brackets (impressive(?) given how little we care about rating =/), and have been gladiator both seasons (not that that means anything); but at least I can say it ~ (Ziss: I would think Agnos is more known for his achievements at WSVG…)

Below are my two not-run-of-the-mill specs to try out and discuss, specifically designed with a caster heavy makeup in mind, in 3v3.

17/33/11 - Nightfall, Soullink, Shadowburn. Aka the Agnos spec (by at least one or two fairly well known warlocks).

Disadvantages: While this is a jack of all trades spec, or something like that, this spec specializes in nothing. It grants a decent amount of survivability with Soul Link, but loses CoEx and Siphon from the popular SL/SL build. It has a good amount of burst between shadowburn and nightfall, although lacks the punch of SL/Ruin, and loses a point in Demonic Knowledge in order to get 2/2 nightfall for the uncontrolled but efficient burst power that the talent grants. While you have amp curse, it’s pretty much only going to be used on an agony - so i’d recommend stacking hit on your gear (i recommend this regardless of your spec) and putting points in CoA, rather than suppression or fel conc - you should be chaining shadowbolts with this, not drain life’ing.

Advantages: This spec is the ultimate shadowbolt spec. You have a good amount of instant (dot) damage for kiting and draining teams, but 17/33/11 focuses on putting out a lot of quick shadow burst with little to no warning or setup. Eventually, during a cast you’re going to get a nightfall, and that’s 4k damage to drop on someone (plus crits): excellent time to drop a kidney shot or shatter, depending on your team makeup.

Personal Experience: Speaking of crits, shatters, and kidney shots, my personal experience is that 17/33/11 works in 3v3, where its utility outshines sl/sl, as opposed to 2v2, when playing with a mage. A 5v5 team is usually less fluid, so it may be better to pick a more specialized soullink (or non SL for the VERY specialized teams) build. But in 3v3, a lot of things can go back or forth, especially when running druids (specifically, and from what I’ve tested, this works with mage/warlock/druid and rogue/warlock/druid). Crits are something most warlocks won’t ever expect to see, and the word being present in a strategy must make me seem like a retard. However, I’ve worn upwards of 21% crit on gear (plus talents) all of season 3, and have held high ratings doing so (even going from 2250 to 2300 in 3s as a full conflag spec, but that’s another story). When you play with a mage, the concept of BURST is important, and you never know when a well-timed 3k shadowbolt crit can tip the scales … or catch someone off guard and kill between cooldowns. (I’ve had marginal success in 2v2 as this playing with a rogue, but with a mage, sl/sl is still loads better).

On the topic of crits, I lead you into my next spec:
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Tags: Warlock · Articles

— 2345 Lineup —

Class Comp

Disc Priest / Holy Paladin / Elemental Shaman / Ice Mage / MS Warrior

Strengths

- Great switch ability with intercept from the Warrior and instant MS, along with easy switching for the mage/shaman

- Two offensive purges on targets can “clean up” opposing players very easy, especially when a BoP or BoF appears

- Bloodlust will help either defensivly or offensivly, including a big burst or fast mana burns, or quick CC and fast heals to counter a burst

- Two big burst stoppers with Pain Suppresion and BoP

- A very typical lineup, so mirror matches will occur often, meaning more skill will make the difference…. and some RNG.

Weaknesses

- Has been around for so long, that many know how to counter it well or realise how to play against it… including several lineups designed just to beat it

- Not a whole lot of strong CC, only sheep is really spammable

- Warrior can get caught if pushed up and stuck in beserker often

Overall Summary

This of course has been the most long lasting lineup all through the three seasons, and thus has gotten the name “cookie-cutter” as well, because it has been so popular and works so well. It is a fairly easy composition to run as well, and does give you a good amount of switch options, with plenty of burst potential. Even if the Shaman has already used cooldowns, he can still put out plenty of damage, allowing for multiple burst attempts through out a fight. It of course has potential to still be a top competitor in any BG, but has died off as the dominat composition, that is for sure. Still very fun to play, and worth while if you can get the players for it

— 2346 Lineup —
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Tags: 5v5 · Articles

Earlier tonight Blizzard announced on their official website that the test Arena Tournament realm is finally available.

You can access it by downloading the PTR, and the realm name should show up on the realm list.
You will be able to create any level 70 classes you want, and you will be able to purchase the gears needed from vendors!

As far as I know, the latency is fairly stable on the server as of now, and praying it will stay this way!

The Arena Tournament Item List was also released earlier tonight, as of now, only the Merciless Gladiator sets and Veteran sets are available, not sure if it will remain this way but we will find out!

Flametongue had a short update as well, it’s debuff now removes 25% of healing efficiency on the target for 5 seconds and stack up to two times. The duration remains 5 seconds.

Tags: PvP · News

Finally the PTR patch notes has been updated, mostly things’ are as expected,
not only has the changes previously extracted directly from the game files been confirmed, new changes has also been added. After nearly three arena seasons, Blizzard has finally decide to give enhancement Shaman some love!

Anyways here are the class change notes -

Druid:

Lifebloom - the healing coeffcient has been reduced. This spell will no longer cause error messages when interacting with Spellsteal or while the Druid is under the effects of a Mine Control.
Nuturing Instinct increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 10/20% while in Cat Form.

Mage:

Improved Blink: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Blink. Instead, it increases the chance for all attacks to miss the Mage by 25% for 2/4 sec after Blink is cast.
Icy Veins no longer stacks with Bloodlust, Heroism, or Power Infusion.
Mana Shield: This spell will now get a percentage of the Mage’s bonus to spell damage as an additional effect. (That’s 50% of your spell damage)

Priest:

Power Infusion: Infuses the target with power, increasing their spell haste by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Lasts for 15seconds. This will not stack with other haste effects, such as Heroism, Bloodlust, or Icy Veins.

Shaman:

Flametongue Weapon damage effects for rank 3 and above now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.
Flametongue Totem damage effects now also reduce healing done to the target by 50% and lasts 5 seconds.(???)
Ghost Wolf: Cast time reduced to 2 seconds, down from 3.
The Global Cooldown of all Totems has been reduced to 1 seconds, down from 1.5 seconds.
Healing Grace: This talent now reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 10/20/30%.The resistance to being dispelled modifier from this talent now applies correctly to Water Breathing.
Rockbiter Weapon: Tooltip and error messages have been adjusted slightly.
Shamanistic Rage is now a Physical ability instead of a Magic spell, and thus is no longer dispellable. It now reduces all damage taken by 30% and gives your successful melee attacks a chance to regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power. This lasts for 15 seconds with a 2 minute cooldown.
Toughness will now also reduce the duration of movement impairing effects on you by 10/20/30/40/50%.
(Removed from notes) Nature’s Swiftness and Elemental Mastery now share a 10 second cooldown.

Warlock:

Emberstorm now also reduces the cast time of your incinerate spell by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Life Tap: This spell now has only 3 ranks. Each now costs a fixed percentage of maximum health to cast, and grants the same fixed percentage of maximum mana: Rank 1 is 5%, Rank 2 is 12%, and Rank 3 is 20%.

Changes to Arena system and a tiny bug fix for battleground has also made it to the front page Arena:

Arena:

Matchmaking: If a queued player has a personal rating higher than their team rating, the matchmaking system will now use the highest personal rating of a queued member of that team for matchmaking purposes, instead of the team rating. In addition, when making a calculation for rating gains and losses at the end of a match, the calculation will use the higher of the personal or team ratings on the opposing team.
The benefits of drinking out of combat have been delayed while in the Arena. It will now take four seconds before the full benefit of the mana regeneration will come into effect.

Battlegrounds:

Battleground Rune Buffs: Speed, Restoration, and Berserking buffs received from battleground runes will no longer cause Stealth or Prowl to break.

Tags: PvP · News

The new builds has just been release on the PTR, and as Blizzard promised, new changes has been added to Lifetap and, of course, the long awaited buff to enhancement tree for Shamans.

Shaman:

Update: The global cooldown on casting totems has been reduced. It is now 1 second instead of 1.5

Feb 27th should be named Shaman Day imo.

Flametongue Weapon now reduces the effectiveness of healing spells on your target by 50%. Lasts 5 seconds and refresh every hits.

All I can say is WoW, a passive MS added to NORMAL attacks. That’s going to be superior to Rogue’s Wound Poison as well as free to maintain unlike Warrior’s. However, Enhancement Shamans usually pair up with one of those 2 because they’re able to snare the target reliably, unlike Frost Shock or Earthbind.

Toughness now increases your armor value from items by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the duration of movement impairing effects on you by -10/20/30/40/50%.

Another sweet change, many Enhance specs can already include several points in Toughness, now everyone will want to max it. With Hamstring and Crippling Poison(already removable via Remove Poison) sticking only for 5 and 6 seconds, the field is definitely looking brighter for Enhance.

Shamanistic Rage now let you regenerate mana equal to 30% of your attack power instead of 15. Duration reduced to 15 seconds. (Was 30seconds)

Sounds like a nerf, although you do get mana back twice as fast, you lose out on 15 seconds of 30% damage reduction. I guess undispellable 30 seconds of 30% reduction sounded like too much to the devs.

Warlock:

Lifetap now converts 5/12/20% maximum life into 5/12/20% maximum mana.

Nothing huge here, other than making Lifetap garbage at lower ranks.

Looks like they meant it when they said they wanted Enhancement to be viable for 2v2. With ability to healing debuff on AUTO attacks and 50% reduction on snare durations, Enhancement Shamans won’t be taken lightly once these goes live. (Don’t forget the instant Ghost Wolf from previous PTR build - will be powerful with snares at 50% duration.)

Tags: PvP · News