Ask a Gladiator Highlights - December

Engelbrecht from The Maelstrom, EU asks: My friends and I are playing TSG this season, going for t2 weapons. Should the warrior on our team spec slam? What are the advantages/disadvantages with such a spec or is it just up to the warrior's play style?

Vexxius from Illidan, US answers: Disadvantages of Slam (over Incite):

- Requires you to have decent latency to land Slams
- When you are snared or have moderately low uptime on a target (ie: against Mages), your Slam usage will fall quite a bit

Advantages of Slam (over Incite):
- Potential for much more burst (Slam is an Arms Warrior's hardest hitting ability with 3 stacks of Lambs to the Slaughter)
- Nice to have Slam when you pop Deadly Calm/Strength trinket up - lots of additional damage

Since you are playing with a DK in which provides awesome snares (via Desecration/Chains of Ice), I'd definitely say play Slam spec.

Editor's note: Hoodrych has a really insightful video about slam usage and damage. Make sure to check it out!

Furyfool from Sylvanas, EU asks: How do you avoid the CC from Jungle Cleave () comp? They do a chain of crowd controls consisting of scatter-freeze-silence-monkeystun-cyclone-HoJ/fear then rise and repeat! Is there anyway for us to avoid this cc chain? Since most of our matches against this comp we just turtle until I can top my teammates off, we lose most matches when the CC chain lands.

Teramo from Darkmoon Faire, EU answers: there are a couple of options to avoid cc.

1. Have your warrior intervene you when they scatter you (he will be able to eat the trap)
2. Try to SWD the scatter
3. Try to dispel the instant cast buff of the feral (Predator's Swiftness)
4. To avoid fear or HoJ, stand as far as you can away from the priest. Just keep in mind that you also want to fear their priest.

Editor's note: There are a couple more tricks for living through the Hunter Feral Druid CC Synergy. For dealing with scatter traps, if you max range the hunter, you can predict he will scatter you by looking when he moves towards you. If your teammates have quick reactions they can try to stun the hunter on the global between the scatter shot and trap. Cyclone also has a very short range, so by standing really far away you give yourself more time to react to the feral druid running to cyclone you. By standing at max range you also avoid things such as focus interrupts and the enemy healer's crowd controls. Also, try to position yourself such that you're in LoS of your teammates but there is something blocking you from the hunter's view.

The real way to win against a strong CC comp like Jungle Cleave is to put them on the defensive, so that the hunter and druid use scatters, instant cyclones and other cooldown based abilities on your DPS, and you gain the upper momentum. Remember that it is a double edged sword, though, and good teams will be able to deal with your aggressive play.

Fulkrum from Firetree, US asks: This is the first season I've played my druid in arenas. I'm currently running a pretty viable 3s comp consisting of a restoration shaman, a frost death knight, and myself as a feral druid. We are all wanting to take this season pretty seriously. I think we're at the point where we're starting to face the comps that are very decent such as MLS, RMP, etc. I wanted some advice on how to keep a positive outlook for the team, because we all love our comp, we believe it has potential, but when we're handed some frustrating losses, it definitely takes it's toll mentally on all of us.

Vexxius from Illidan, US answers: It is hard to keep a positive outlook after a series of losses. My best advice is to re-strategize a plan to beat certain comps with your teammates rather than saying things like "this game is so imbalanced" and "how can we lose when they're so bad." If a teammate is showing negative energy, it'll likely bring the team as a whole down and you'll all play worse as a result. On the contrary, if one person exhibits good energy, the other 2 teammates will likely show a positive attitude and overall play better as well.

Editor's note: I've always been a strong believer in keeping a positive outlook, especially if you're communicating with your teammates on Skype or Vent. People are really good at subconsciously recognizing signs of stress, lack of confidence and negative emotions in others' voices. Since we often change our own mood and behavior based on what our friends are doing, a negative vibe will quickly transfer to the whole team. I can't count the number of times I've played with the same people against the same teams, and on a positive day when we were joking around and having fun we'd end up winning 95+% of the games, and another time we'd end up tanking our rating because we started off in a bad mood.

Vanity from Frostmourne, US asks: After reading countless things on Arena123 and Focus123 macros I'm wondering whether or not these are essential for Arena. I've been using nothing but a single focus macro since BC.

I'm just wondering whether or not these macros are essential/crucial to use and if so should I be switching focus targets with a macro to CC or should I just have 3 macros for each individual target? What's faster?

Thaya from Outland, EU answers: You will be able to do things faster with less key presses if you have Arena123 macros. But it really comes down to preference, your hotkey layout, your fingers and whether you watch cast bars on arena frame.

I have macros to focus arena123 targets. It was definitely a huge improvement over having only a /focus key when I started using it.

Editor's note: If you ever find yourself struggling to crowd control the right person or interrupt spells, Focus123 and Arena123 macros will help you bring your game to the next level. Once you practice using them you will find that you're able to do things a lot quicker.
If you're unfamiliar with what Focus123 or Arena123 macros are, here's what they look like and what they do:

Focus Arena1 (top person on your arena frames) without having to click on them:
/focus arena1

Cast a spell on Arena1 without having to target them:
/cast [@arena1] fear

Having Arena123 counterspell macros is very good if you want to stop a Mage or Druid that is coming out of invisibility or stealth.

Shun asks: My friend and I are currently playing 2s, with the setup BM Hunter, Retribution Paladin. We often lose when the paladin gets focused. What can we do?

Kujaqt from Stormscale, EU answers: Hunter Ret is a strong setup in. Try to go Marksman as your spec, you can help him a lot more - even if MM burst is not as high in ACTUAL damage, the effective damage you can pull with silencing shot is higher.

Against melee teams you should always win, but casters are something Ret can sometimes have a problem surviving against. My ret uses glyph of divine protection for this reason (40% magic damage reduction). This, along with silencing shot and Roar of Sacrifice should be enough to help him live long enough.

Most games should be the ret getting tunneled rather than yourself - Hunters can have really defensive positioning and ret mobility is a little bad, even though they have freedom of self cleansing roots/slows - they have no means to quickly move around, which makes them a good target for most teams.

As the hunter it is pretty much your job to make sure your paladin can get on his target for a few reasons; a) so you can actually get a kill to reduce damage intake c) so he can get holy power through crusader strikes and thus heal more. BM might be great with a spirit beast healing, but ret healing is enough if he can play defensive too - you should be able to reset against most teams through pillar hugging, self healing and the ret drinking etc.

Editor's Note: Remember that the one thing Ret Paladins lack is a slow. It is up to you as a hunter to provide the slow on enemy targets, both for offensive and defensive purpose. Against teams with pets, your paladin can also LOS behind pillars with the pet attacking him, switch to Seal of Insight and heal himself up by hitting the pet to generate holy power.

Vixxey from Stormscale, EU asks: We are playing PHD and we seem to struggle against feral teams, Junglecleave more precisely. We are a bit clueless on who to attack and would appreciate a general idea on what to do!

Argspriest from Black Dragonflight, US and Frk from Kel'Thuzad, US answer: The best kill target is by far the enemy healer, as ferals can go bear mode and hunters can kite DKs. If you can survive the first CC chain and the berserk from the Feral (your hunter needs to eat traps) you have a decent chance. Your DK should look to LOS the hunter and at some point and look to getting a grip on the healer. If you get the healer in a spot where he can't trinket a strangulate or HoJ your hunter can try to fear the feral which is HUGE because the feral can't clone/bash the DK. Ideally your DK will want to have a trinket up or IBF (stun immunity) when he swaps healer. Until you swap healer play defensively and hit the feral to try and make him play defensively.

Tell your Paladin not to keep CDs. Use your cooldowns early, as the game is not going to be long. Do smart switches if you see an opportunity, as all 3 targets can die (ferals only inside stuns without trinket.

Notorioustom from Dreadmaul, US asks: Whenever I do 2s or 3s with my friends, I always seem to get jumped and die extremely fast. I don't know if it's me popping dispersion too early, my positioning or whatever else. What should I do as a Shadowpriest to live longer in arena?

Mindplay from Auchindoun, EU answers: Some things you could do:

- Try to fake cast Melee so you can get some VTs/MBs on them
- Dot everyone up with instants
- Kite them away (prefereble LOS them from their healer) and then try set up a burst with a CC on their healer
- Communicate with your healer about your defensive CDs. I like to use dispersion first when I'm getting low (it is only 1,25 min CD). After that when you get in trouble your healer can use his CDs on you. Your next dispersion should be ready soon if you get in trouble again.

Against hunters you can try to pillar kite them with the healer next to you. You will also be near the healer to take traps, even better than having to MD the traps! Once the hunters CDs are over you can start thinking of going in the open again.

You don't wanna go play very defensively for the whole game as a SP, but I think there's nothing wrong with kiting the enemy a bit when they use their CDs.

Editor's note: Remember that as a Shadowpriest the damage you deal with Archangel, Trinkets, Shadow Orbs and Shadowfiend up is a lot more than without those things. It is generally acceptable to try to set up kills from fears and silences rather than just running out in the open and trying to fight classes that are not as reliant on big cooldowns. And just because you're a Shadowpriest, it does not mean that you can't PW:S yourself or even cast an occasional Flash Heal!

Kallarn from Argent Dawn, EU asks: I'm more than a little annoyed when I get ripped to pieces by DKs 1v1. It just seems that they have a counter for everything I do, so that its extraordinarily hard to beat them without help. I wonder, is this normal? At the same time, I'm having a few problems peeling DKs and Rogues. I just find myself Ice Blocking to delay the inevitable.

I was wondering are there any tips for 1v1 vs DKs, Rogues, as well as kiting tips for DKs, Rogues, and melee in general.

Elelolxo from Sylvanas, EU answers: Let's start with 1v1's against DKs. I would try to get a pet nova on them at the start just before they pop AMS, as most generally do. Always save Blink for when they Death Grip. Skilled DK's will use their Dark Simulacrum ability once they Death Grip, so be aware of that and don't Blink, use Slow Fall on yourself and then Blink if they do that. You can CS them in a nova to land a shatter as well, so keep that in mind, and otherwise just cone of cold and pet nova as much as possible, trying to get their pet in it too.

Rogues are difficult, each one plays their own style. I would open with a pet nova on them and try to jump out of their initial garrote to get some distance. This will already give you the advantage. Always try and save your Ice Block for their cloak and save Blink for Kidney Shot if they ever use it. Depending on the Rogue, you can Blink their Shadowstep too. The idea is to bait their CDs without using yours as much as possible. Deep Freeze when you can, usually the aim is to just survive their CDs rather than doing damage during them. Once you land a full Deep without them having trinket you can usually kill them quite quickly with a shatter.

Editor's note: Another thing to remember is to keep up your Ice Barrier and Mana Shield. They give you that extra buffer against damage. Remember your two instant slowing abilities other than Cone of Cold. You've got Mirror Images and Frostfire Orb. Use these two to slow your opponent when you're at a distance but can't afford to cast a Frostbolt. Once you learn to aim the Frostfire Orb properly it will also give you a lot of extra damage by letting you get Fingers of Frost.