[5v5] Going drain, need advice!

[DancingDruid]

Ok, so after a few weeks of very succesful moonkining in 5v5 (together with an UA lock, warrior, pally and holy/disc priest) we've finally begun to feel like this setup might not be "it" for us. We've dropped from 2.1k+ to mid-1900's in just a few nights, for no apparent reason other then us getting generally pwned. SOOO, we're gonna try a full drain team. Our paladin has a well-geared hunter alt, and I am sporting a decent paladin, so we're switching places.

The setup is thus: hunter (he's gonna try some strange survival specc with wyvern to make up for the lost CC), lock (we'll probably force him to go full demo, or perhaps sl/sl, any advice?), holy/disc priest (who will probably go full disc in 2.3), warrior and me, holy pally.

Now, one of our major problems with our previous setup was that our priest got pawned hard and fast without me as moonkin constantly CCing his attackers and healing him. Dont ask me what our pally was doing, I suspect he's kinda lost on the LOS thing because he usually spends his time being CCed). The problem: how do we keep him alive with a hunter? Freeze traps and BOFs?

And generally, what target should you drain first? A dps? A healer? Anything else in general that we should think/know about?

[Opel]

http://www.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Darkspear&ts=5&t=Keepin+it+Real&select=Keepin+it+Real

they run the same setup, from listening in vent it sounds like they generally try to drop warriors first, or use mass dispel to their advantage and drop paladins. ive also seen them split dps (warlock and warrior on diff targets, moonkin assisting one or the other im guessing).

as a moonkin you do a ridiculous amount of dps that no one expects. i know lethi's wrath hits for 1200-1300, that coupled with a 1.5s cast time is amazing - use it to your advantage, but know when to heal and cyclone.

edit: i think ive heard them call it a 3dps team that plays like a 4dps team

[Alphatier]

If you say your paladin is a noob, why dont you just try with another one. Your setup was almost good, although you should have had an SL warlock, and your priest should never die (hallo, a Moonkin is a CC machine)

Seems to me it's not the setup that will help you. Setups don't support bad players

[goodolarchie]

Here's my comp:

http://www.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Runetotem&ts=5&t=Bacon+Pirates&select=Bacon+Pirates

I'm the warrior. Ignore the other people on the team, oursetup is: Holy Pali, Holy/disc priest, SL/SL lock, Resto Shaman, MS warrior. We are more of a drain/sustain team. I think this works better against 4DPS. Our downside is we have very little CC, but our burst drain is huge from bloodlust and we can heal through some crazy spike damage from 4DPS teams.

Our drains are usually split up. Our SL/SL lock will drain a DPS target. Priority is usually Shadow Priest, Ele Shaman, Frost Mage, Hunter, w/e. Our holy priest will always mana burn the other priest. I will stay on that priest to keep hamstring up (MB is easier to LOS than drain mana), and to keep pressure on it since I do about 70% of the damage done in arenas. Its extemely important I put the damage on a target that will reduce their efficiency with what mana they do have, and prevent OUR healers from getting MB'd by using pummel. Our shaman will earth shock a lock if they are using Drain mana.

Some tips:
Your priest is the most vulnerable but the trick is to make sure he/she can keep mana burning even when being focused. BoP is a good way to pull this off. Do it early if bloodlusted to get an extra 2-3 burns while your healers are keeping em up. If 1-2 targets have been drained then the priest has done his job and can then start playing defensive, pole dance warriors, use instants like dispel/hot/bubble to make sure your kills can happen.

The games we lose are usually ones that DRAIN US! Very few 4dps teams beat us by bursting, if at all. Against 4dps teams, our SL lock will lead in and whoever they are focusing will prepare to LOS them and stay back. I always get on the rogue to keep him hamstrung, Demo'd, or dead (lol, not too difficult).

The hardest thing about running a successful drain team, in my opinion, is knowing what to do after the drains have finished. Your team would have more burst than mine but you still need to make your move fast. This is why we try to kill a priest first, with dispels they usually go down fast. Make sure everyone has an /assist warrior macro for a quick holy shock, earth shock, SW:D, whatever. We've bursted a target from 50% - 0 with healers and dots. Next season will be even moreso.

Preventing them from drinking is huge, and harder to do than said. Good teams will use CC and distractions to enable somebody to get a drink and dragging the game out after you've done your drains becomes very dangerous. If you have 2 pets this will be a lot easier for you. When one enemy runs oom, put the hunter pet on it, then the locks, etc. We even use shadowfiend to make sure somebody doesn't get a drink. Our wins are locked if we can get our drains done right and then seal a kill. Good teams will plan out drinks and set you back. Drain them again.

Kill mana tide totems. Make a /tar macro for them.

Dispel innervates. Use SCT Spell alert or something to notice them.

I don't recommending killing a warrior first UNLESS you can really prevent their damage. If I get on the other team's warrior if leaves their priest free to burn, and feeds their warrior enough rage to quickly kill our priest. Warriors uncontrolled will easily cause us to lose, but we always dispel their freedom, try to hamstring or frost shock, use HoJ on them, or intervene > hamstring > intercept to get them off a healer. Rogues will be tougher for you since you lack solid poison removal.

Anyway, good luck draining. It's pretty fun.