Introduction
Well then! It's been a long time since I updated this guide, new strats below. I have been playing this combo from the Druid's point of view since the beginning of season 3. The talent builds for this combo are as follows:
24/0/47
Druid Glyphs: Barkskin, Rejuvenation/Insect Swarm, Swiftmend. I personally have been using rejuvenation this season, it doesn't seem to make a huge difference.
51/5/15
Rogue Glyphs: Vigor, Hunger for Blood, Mutilate.
Addons
Here is a list of the addons I (the Druid) use that have anything to do with Arenas:
Gladius – Gladius is a unit frame addon for arenas that displays the opposing players' health bars, mana bars, and whether or not they have a trinket available.
Spell Alerter – Spell Alerter is a very simple and blunt addon that warns me when any spell, buff or debuff is casted or gained by anybody around me. If a Priest begins to cast a Mana Burn, a large brightly colored Mana Burn symbol appears in the middle of the screen, followed by Preistname-->You (if he's doing it on me).
Bartender – Easy Keybinds. Another nice thing about bartender is that you can set bars full of keybinds you know by heart and which have no cooldown (Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, moonfire etc), and hide those bars.
Cooldown Count – Cooldown Count displays bright and large numbers on your abilities when they go on cooldown so you can see when they will be up again.
Deadly Boss Mods – DBM now has shadow sight and game start timers.
Macros
I don't use many macros for this combo. I have the standard Nature's Swiftness+Healing Touch Macro which looks like this:
Line 1: /castsequence reset=30 Nature's Swiftness, Healing Touch
The first keystroke activates Nature's Swiftness, and the second keystroke casts healing touch on your target.
My partner uses several macros that all have a basic framework. The framework below will Blind your focus target, and if you hold down shift and then hit this key it will Blind your target. My partner uses this type of macro for Blind, Shiv and Dismantle. To change this macro for any ability simply replace all instances of the word Blind with the name of the new ability.
#showtooltip Blind
/cast [nomodifier, target=focus] Blind
/cast [modifier:shift] Blind
/stopmacro [nomodifier]
Another macro he uses is for a Cold Blood and Eviscerate. If you hold shift it will activate Cold Blood then cast Eviscerate. If you don't hold down shift, it will just cast Eviscerate.
/cast [modifier=shift] Cold Blood
/cast Eviscerate
Professions
I am currently an Inscription+Jewelcrafter. Inscription has a shoulder enchant that grants 61 spell power and 6 mp5, Jewelcrafting has extra large gems.
Gear
The Druid
As the Druid, I recommend 2 pieces of Wyrmhide and 3 pieces of Kodohide gear. For this comp it is ***CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT*** that you reach AT LEAST 5%, or ideally 6% hit. You can do this with off set pieces, by choosing the +hit versions instead of the +spirit versions, or with the Wintergrasp items.
I highly recommend using a main hand and off hand weapon instead of a staff, due to the relatively low spell power on many staffs.
Gems
Meta: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond
Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby
Blue: Glowing Dreadstone
Yello: Durable Ametrine
Prismatic: Runed Cardinal Ruby
Trinkets
Battlemaster's Ruination
Titan-forged Rune of Audacity
The Rogue
Once again, it is ***CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT*** that you reach 6% physical hit (for racials and talents). You want to go for the slowest daggers you can find for the biggest mutilates.
Westify currently uses a set with nearly full PvP gear, 900 resilience and plenty of boom.
Trinkets
Platinum Disks of Battle
Battlemaster's Rage
Game Play
The Opener
This combo hinges on your opener, a bad opener will leave you behind in the game, and if the other team doesn't make any major errors, they WILL win. This means you need to get a Sap off, and a clean Cheap Shot. The key to a good opener is patience. The only thing “forcing” you to open is shadow sights, and if properly line of sighted, even those can be negated.
Tricks for Your Opener
Pounce: Pounce is the oldest trick in the Druid arsenal. Not only is Pounce a stun, but it provides a bleed effect to start your Rogue's Hunger for Blood.
Sprint: Slow Stealth is a killer. For the best opener you want the longest amount of time on Sap as possible, and thus need to get from Player B to Player A as quickly as possible. Sprinting before you go in to open is the best way to deal with this.
General Tips
Intelligent key binding can be a life-saver in this combo. Clumsy openers due to complicated keybinds requiring certain forms to see various abilities are bad news for this combo. Think your keybinds through, and make sure to correct them if you find yourself unable to cast a spell because you're in Cat Form (or Bear Form or whatever).
The Druid
The name of the game here is mana efficiency, and that means lots of quick choices for your Druid, and lots of kiting and gouging on the part of your Rogue while waiting for Kidney Shot cooldowns. As with any long game, drink whenever possible. Clearcasting is amazing when partnered with Lifebloom. Not only is this around 7-8k healing (depending on your spell power) per stack of blooms already active, but it returns the 500 mana to you at the end of the bloom as if the Lifebloom cost something in the first place.
Don't forget about Nourish! If my Rogue needs topping off, I toss a Nourish on him (unless I'm worried about Counterspell).
Nature's Swiftness is a clutch ability. In general I try to save my Nature's Swiftness for an instant Cyclone or a Healing Touch, depending on the team and the circumstances. Don't be afraid to use Nature's Swiftness for a Cyclone, but don't use it unless you see an imminent kill. The only other time I recommend a Nature's Swiftness Cyclone is to stop innervate from returning mana.
The Rogue
Don't just Kidney Shot randomly on cooldown. Look for a time when your target is standing out of their healer's line of sight, or loses a stack of hots. Kidney Shots, if timed well, are a win condition and not just a measly crowd control. Kidney Shots should also be used defensively if it's needed. A Kidney Shot-->Gouge is almost 9 seconds of crowd control. Plenty of time for hots to bring your Rogue up to working HP again.
Use your Evasions wisely. While it can be tempting to randomly mash buttons as a Rogue, thinking about when you want to use your cooldowns ahead of time often are the difference between life and death.
Sprint is a knee-jerk ability. Use Sprint when you need to get somewhere fast, don't think about it and don't wait to see if you need Sprint. If you do, it's probably too late anyways.
Matchups
*=Easy, *****=Very Hard.
The section labeled as
Worst Case Scenario: is the section that describes what you DON'T want to happen. If it doesn't happen, trinkets and cooldowns need to be used to avoid a loss.


****
Your goal here is to kill the Rogue as quickly as possible. We currently stay stealthed for this combo. As your Rogue opens on the Mage, you should shift in to Tree Form. When their Rogue opens you should switch to him and burn him down. Heavy Hotting is required here. Vanish should be used the first time your Druid gets Counterspelled. Their Rogue needs to be running or dead by the time Counterspell comes off cooldown the second time around.
Worst Case Scenario: Locked out. Don't get locked out of the Nature school.
Tips:
If you're in a good position on healing, try to fake-cast to draw a Counterspell to get it out of the way.
If you stand 30 yards away from your Rogue, and you're on the opposite side of the Mage, that's a lot of distance. If you're safely out of the Mage's range (don't forget he can blink) then you can cast heals, which will be required against better geared teams. Use your positioning to beat the burst. If you don't, you'll probably lose.
Be sure to get behind the opposing Rogue for Kidney Shot, especially if Evasion is active. A dodged Kidney Shot will probably result in a loss.
If the Mage is Frost (Ice Barrier is the give-away), don't forget that you can use Vanish to escape shatter combos.


*** Discipline
This team can either be the easiest team you will play, or the hardest team you will play. It depends completely on the luck of the draw, and the opponent's play style. Mana burn sucks. If a good Priest Rogue opens on you while you are in Tree or caster form, you will come out of the 9 second stuns with around 3-6k mana. Because of this, stay Stealthed. Your Rogue should Sprint in to the Priest and open on him, at this time your Druid should Faerie Fire the Priest to get in combat, then prepare to Cyclone the Priest as the opposing Rogue opens on your Rogue. If he opens on you, it is best to have your Rogue switch to him until you can get some HoTs going. This game hinges on your Rogue dominating the other Rogue in both damage and crowd control. If their Rogue is on your Druid, then your Rogue should be on the Priest. The switch from Rogue vs Rogue to Rogues vs. healers needs to be fast. Every Mana Burn from the Priest during this transition will put them ahead. As soon as their Rogue runs out of Evasions, stick on him until you get a kill. If you are having difficulty killing him, simply keep the pressure high until the Priest runs out of mana. Finishing off the Rogue here should be no problem. If you don't have enough mana to do that, then you've let too many Mana Burns land.
Worst Case Scenario: Rogue Kidney Shot's your Druid while your Rogue is Feared/Blinded, allowing the Priest to burn you. This will result in a loss unless you get lucky or manage to get big drinks off late in the game.
Tips:
Never stand next to your partner, ever. Double fears will just ruin the game for you.
Make sure both you and your partner are positioned in a way that lets you dodge Mana Burns while still healing when things get rough.
Cyclone should be used as soon as possible in this fight to shift the momentum. Cyclone the Priest early in the game and you should notice a big transition from defense to offense. (That's good, by the way.)


**
This combo is becoming more common, and we've found the most effective tactic to be to go for the Warrior. Give your Rogue time to apply Deadly Poison to an Offhand Dagger. Sap the Paladin and open on the Warrior (if they are any good, your Druid will need to do something to prevent the Warrior from simply running away preventing an opener. Roots/Pounce are equally effective). Your Druid should keep an Insect Swarm on the Warrior whenever possible. Follow the sap with three Cyclones and try to keep the damage on the Warrior high. As the last Cyclone on the Paladin lands, your Rogue needs to Gouge/Kidney Shot the Warrior to allow you to switch to Cycloning him without the danger of Spell Reflect, locking his HP. During the time the Warrior is Cycloned, your Rogue needs to be interupting the Paladin. Cyclone the paladin as soon as he is no longer on DR, and the game is yours. You should cyclone the Warrior to prevent heals, or the Paladin to stop them in the case of any of these abilities: Bubble, Shield Wall, Diminishing Returns on one of them Preventing Cyclones. SOMETHING needs to be Cycloned the whole game against this team.
Worst Case Scenario: Bladestorm. Whatever you do, don't get stunned while the Warrior is blade storming.. this will result in a loss more than 90% of the time. Trinkets should be used here. Cloak should also be used to avoid a stun while the Warrior is Bladestorming.
Tips:
Be ballsy. You have to take this game from them with Cyclone. It takes practice, properly executed the Warrior's health will simply melt away.


****
This team is extremely difficult. The only way to win is to open on the Warlock and stay on the Warlock. Pre-Hotting is required here, full Lifeblooms recommended. Be extremely cautious in regards to target switches, because from this team they are devastating. If they open on your Rogue, Cyclone their Warlock and get full HoTs on both of you. Your Druid should focus simply on staying alive, and spend the whole game in Tree Form aside from that initial Cyclone. Your Rogue needs to get the Warlock down in good time, or the game is a sure loss.
Worst Case Scenario: Any crowd control on your Druid. Don't let it happen. Your Rogue should be kicking Seduce if a cast does land.
Tips:
Ignore your mana and mash Lifebloom etc. This game will be over well before mana is an issue.
NS early, they will do a lot of damage during the 10 seconds they or you are alive. Don't be afraid of a cross kill either, as Druid vs. Rogue is a good joke.


***
Ride the Warrior to his grave. The Shaman will run out of mana extremely quickly in this match up. Simply stay on the Warrior, watch out for Bladestorm and don't let the Shaman drink. Your Druid should spend down time meleeing totems. Simply keep your Rogue up until the Warrior bites the dust. If the Shaman is purging it will be a loss, guaranteed. Your job is to keep him on the defensive so he never has time to purge.
Worst Case Scenario: Purge. This game needs to be spent keeping the Shaman healing, Earth Shocking, and running. If you let the Shaman play offensively at any point during the game, you will lose 95% of the time.
Tips:
They will be OOM before Bladestorm is up again most likely, especially if you're keeping totems down like you should.
Nourish will be needed here.
The more times you try to Cyclone the Shaman, the better. Every global cooldown spent on something other than Purge is a victory for you.


****
A lot can go wrong against this team. Go for the Priest off the get-go and never take your eyes off of him. A fast kill is the only way to win this game. We've had great success with simply Cycloning and rooting the Warrior and going for a fast kill on the Priest. If your Rogue gets feared off of the Priest, be sure to Cyclone the Priest to prevent him from healing and HoTing up in your Rogue's absence.
Worst Case Scenario: Fear. Your Rogue should trinket the first fear, your Druid should trinket the second one and Cyclone the Priest to freeze his health.
Tips:
Entangling Rooting the Warrior while keeping pressure very high on the Priest will make him unable to dispel He won't have the globals for it.
Kick Penance!! I've never seen a Priest fake cast a Penance.
Use your head! Don't Vanish just so you can Cheap Shot. Wait until the Priest is in a good spot, you have solid crowd control on the Warrior, and Kidney Shot is off cooldown.


*****
Due to the popularity of this combo, I'm greatly expanding this section and deleting or shrinking some of the less common teams' sections.
This combo is the most annoying thing you could see. Every time you get close to the Druid the Death Knight starts spamming Chains of Ice and ruins anything you had going for you. Because of this, stay on the Death Knight until the Druid runs out of mana. Your Druid should spend all of his/her time preventing the opposing Druid from drinking. Your Druid may have to assist your Rogue in reaching the Death Knight when the Death Knight starts to kite.
If you're playing against a Frost Death Knight, be sure to save Cloak of Shadows and use it ONLY when your Druid is Death Gripped while Hungering Cold is off cooldown. This will prevent your Rogue from being frozen. If done properly, your Rogue should be free, your Rogue then needs to interrupt the Cyclone being cast by the Druid with Blind, Kick, or whatever is available. If your Rogue does NOT escape Hungering Cold, one of you must trinket immediately (Don't wait for the Cyclone that is coming from the Druid, trinket IMMEDIATELY). Set this up ahead of time to be sure only one of you trinkets. If executed flawlessly you should be able to beat this team, but the RNG skills of Frost Death Knights make this still stupidly difficult. Why just yesterday we got the Death Knight to 10%, Cycloned and then Blinded the Druid (wrong order, but that's how it went). He proceeded to use Hungering Cold on my Rogue, Death Grip me and then dump 3x 6600 Frost Strike in to me while I Strangulated.
/sigh
If you're playing against an Unholy Death Knight, you're in better luck. No fancy strategy is needed for this team, just spank.
To get a kill against


(of all specs):
Step One: Live until the opposing Druid uses his Innervate.
Step Two: Use Nature's Swiftness (if you have to) to Cyclone the opposing Druid. Spam it to stop his Innervate Mana. Your Rogue should now kill the pet if possible.
Step Three: He will either have already used his trinket, and thus have very little mana returned from his innervate, or he will trinket the first Cyclone. At this point you need to spend a little mana hitting the Death Knight with DoTs (Insect Swarm/Moonfire). Blind the Druid and rail in to the Death Knight with everything you have for a kill. Be sure to follow the Blind with a Cyclone (make sure you're out of Death Grip range or line of sight to prevent him from ruining the Cyclone entirely.
Good Luck!
Worst Case Scenario: Hots timing off of your Rogue will likely be a game over. Make sure (s)he's hotted up at least partially at all times. A simple Rejuvenation should do the trick for times when (s)he's not being targetted.
Tips:
Death Knights cant get out of Entangling Roots.
99% of Death Knights are horrible and fail at interrupting. A simple fake cast will draw the interrupt almost all the time.
Whatever you do, don't let the Druid drink. Ever. Don't interrupt his drink, keep him in combat so he can never drink.
Your Druid should stay as close to their Druid as possible.


**
While this combo can be intimidating, you should have no issues beating this team so long as you keep your head in the game. None of the damage available to this team will randomly kill either of you, none of their stuns etc can be chained in a manner that could kill you if you play a smart game. Always keep at least one Rejuvenation on both of you, Nourish to fill the gaps, and watch for good opportunities to drink. There is no doubt the Paladin will out-mana you, so drink often. Even just a sip is worth the time. Your Rogue should focus on kiting and crowd controlling while you are drinking. Be careful that the Paladin doesn't drink, however. That's just not cool for anybody. If the Death Knight goes on your Druid, your Rogue should switch the Paladin and take him out. While the Death Knight switches to peel your Rogue off of the Paladin, hot up your Rogue then try to slip some drinks in. As with any Death Knight team, a burst will be impossible on their healer unless one or more (more is better) of these three things are true: 1. Death Grip is on cooldown. 2. The Death Knight seems to be afflicted with tunnel vision. (It happens a lot to Death Knights) 3. Your Rogue is firmly out of the Death Knight's line of sight.
If all three of these things are true, go for the gold.
Worst Case Scenario: Mana. You will hardly ever lose to being bursted down, keep your mana up and simply wait out the Paladin.
Tips:
Death Grip is lame when partnered with Hammer of Justice and Frost Strike. Watch out for bursty abilities like these chained together, and don't let those hots time off.
When the Death Knight is going for your Druid, keep him as far away from the opposing Paladin as possible. This will make a kill on the Paladin more likely, and certainly make the game less frustrating for your Rogue.
Divine plea returns no mana if the Paladin is Cyclowned when it would tick (every 3 seconds, 12 9 6 3 0).


*** Restoration or Dreamstate
The best plan here is simply to out-play them. They will likely try to do everything you do, you have to do a better job of it. Open on their Rogue if possible and beat the crap out of him. If your Rogue eats a Cyclone, Cyclone their Rogue too. If you don't have to, don't cyclone their Rogue while your Rogue is on him. Cyclones should be saved and used if you need to stop the damage, not for random crowd control. Make sure you keep Faerie Fire up or you will find yourself getting beat by re-openers. Try to save up for 5 point Kidney Shots if at all possible. A 5 point Kidney Shot is just devastating against opposing Rogues, especially when partnered with Cyclone and Starfire. Try to keep a good amount of hots on your Rogue, including Rejuvenation. Don't ever try to heal through a Kidney Shot if you can Cyclone the Rogue. Watch out for cloak, though.
Worst Case Scenario: Mana. You will most likely lose to nothing but situations where you run out of mana. Drink, drink, drink.
Tips:
Using Gouge to confirm your Kidney Shot will land is not a good idea here, in my opinion. It gives your opponents warning as to when the big numbers are coming.
Crowd control will play a crucial part of this game. Cyclone often and try to keep them on the run.


**** Retribution and Discipline
This combo is a righteous pain in the.. well you know. The most important part of this match will be keeping them healing. This means lots of Cyclones and lots of damage from your Rogue. It's unlikely you will get a kill before the Priest runs out of mana, so try to sit in Tree Form and heal while waiting for Cyclone diminishing returns. Open on the Priest. Ideally you want to go for the Priest for the whole game, though switching between the two of them as Cyclone comes off of diminishing return is also effective. It's important to note that despite our best efforts to kill the Priest, we almost always end up killing the Paladin. You should still go for the Priest, just look for good opportunities to switch for a kill. Never let yourself get double feared. Your Rogue will be taking a ton of damage so do what you can to keep his HP high and mighty. Retribution Paladins can easily crit for 9-10k with a single ability and a melee swing, so watch out. (4k crusader strike, 2k martyr crit, 3k white crit, 2k martyr crit=11k with one global cooldown)
Worst Case Scenario: Paladin cooldowns+Dispels from the Priest. Retribution Paladins make giant numbers without the help of Avenging Wrath. Whatever you do, don't get crowd controlled here.
Tips:
Any Retribution Paladin worth his salt will save his hand of freedom to dispel Kidney Shots from him or his partner. (Don't forget he can do this while Sapped and Blinded, though not Cycloned) Because of this, you can slow him with Crippling Poison and kite. He will spend his time feverishly dispelling instead of killing. Call it crowd control.
Power Word: Shield should be popped as quickly as possible. During an opener, the best way to make Power Word: Shield as little hassle as possible is to open the second he freshes it. Then he can't refresh it for another 12 seconds or so, instead of him being able to put up a new one as you break the old one.


*** Retribution and Restoration
While this combo can certainly be more terrifying than Priest+Retadin, it's a little bit easier. Your Druid should focus on Cycloning the Shaman whenever possible. Your Rogue should spend all his dps time on the Paladin. If the Paladin uses freedom, Kidney Shot. Otherwise I'd recommend using your combo points on something else. I'm not saying you shouldn't Kidney Shot if you're about to die, I'm simply recommending you spend your combo points on something more damaging when you can afford to. The Shaman will run out of mana very quickly, survive Heroism and the Paladin's first round of cooldowns, keep the totems down, and you should walk away with all your body parts in order, and another victory in your score book.
Worst Case Scenario: Purge+Heroism. OK, so it's bad enough that Retribution Paladins hit really really hard, and Shamans can ruin your healing with purge. Now they do it 30% faster. A mixture of Nourish and Lifeblooms whenever he stops purging will allow you to heal through this button mashing bonanza of purges and crusader strikes.
Tips:
When your Druid leaves Tree Form to Cyclone, be very careful of the Paladin switching to you. This will likely result in your death unless you are careful about your positioning when you go for Cyclones. Stay away from the Paladin, keep a hot or two on yourself, and watch out for grounding totems and earth shocks.
Get hex off of your partner quickly.
Repentance doesn't work against Tree Form.
Shammies can't dispel Entangling Roots! Entangling Root them around corners when going for the kill on the Paladin.


* Discipline or Holy
This is perhaps the easiest team you'll run across. Your goal is to keep the Priest in combat and pressure the warlock. If at any time you see a potential pet kill, go for it. Once the pet is down you're sailing free and clear. One of the best ways to get the pet down right off the bat is to: Sap the warlock, Pounce the pet, Cyclone the Priest, open on the pet. Chances are, that should be plenty. Just keep the pressure high on anything you can find to dps and make sure your Druid never runs low on mana. If you don't disconnect you're going to win. Just keep stabbing and chuckle your way to victory.
Worst Case Scenario: You get bored and fall asleep.. It's really that easy. The worst that could happen to you, is that you get the warlock healing debuff stacked up on you.. Just try not to get full dotted with it up. Honestly, you can't lose.
Tips:
Keep hitting stuff and the Priest will run out of mana, then you'll win.
Don't stop hitting stuff.
Be sure to apologize when the game is over, because it's just not fair that they had to play you.


****
This team is a fairly difficult one. You should be on the Druid for the whole game, and your Druid should be crowd controlling the Warrior the entire time. After a minute or two of this pressure their Druid should die. Insect Swarm and Faerie Fire should be on the Druid for this whole fight. If you keep the pressure properly high, the Warrior will spend all his time peeling instead of killing, resulting in a win. Don't just try to kill the Druid, the crowd control is very important. Warrior damage output is too high for you to make any headway by just healing.
Worst Case Scenario: The Untimely Bladestorm. Try to keep yourself out of any position that would lead to your untimely demise should the Warrior choose to Bladestorm.
Tips:
Watch out for spell reflect. Your best option should you find yourself being faced with spell reflect is to cast a wrath. It costs the least amount of mana and does the least amount of damage. If you're worried about getting locked out of balance then cast a Faerie Fire. Their Druid will probably have it on you anyways.
Bladestorm breaks Entangling Roots. Watch out.
As a wrap up,
Feint reduces Whirlwind damage
Bladestorm is Whirlwind damage
Just thought I'd throw that out there.
I'd like to apologize for some of the matchup guides being a little short, I ran in to the character limit (30000) and had to cut some stuff down or out.
If anybody has any questions about strategies for specific talent builds or situations, you can send me AJ mail or post a reply, I'm always happy to answer.