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Strategies
Arcane Mage/Discipline Priest
Author
  | Abni Mal'Ganis US-Stormstrike |
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| 1. | Bilsteele   |  | 2889 | 317 - 20 | US-Stormstrike | Mal'Ganis | |||||||||||||||
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| 2. | got shaderlold | | 2872 | 338 - 52 | EU-Cyclone | Stormscale | |||||||||||||||
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| 3. | frakilicious regelts | | 2808 | 202 - 53 | EU-Blutdurst | Aegwynn | |||||||||||||||
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| 4. | Wanted Midgets | | 2789 | 191 - 48 | EU-Cyclone | Ravencrest | |||||||||||||||
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| 5. | РоКС КИС Фамир инк | | 2762 | 221 - 52 | EU-Шквал | Свежеватель Душ | |||||||||||||||
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Top Builds View All
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General Information
Mage/Priest is an extremely fun setup to play. There is always a chance at winning against any team. Think positive while playing, excuses are for baddies.
The general strategy:
Kill someone while the healer is sheeped x 3 + (mind control) -> Fear + CS + Resheep. We keep both Priest DoTs and Slow on our kill target. We save our mana and play defensive when the healer trinkets/bubbles or when they use defensive CDs (such as Anti-Magic Shell/Zone, Shield Wall, Icebound Fortitude, Cloak of Shadows, etc.)
*When the healer is in your CC chain, make sure BOTH of you are going all out on DPS on your kill target. Keep both priest DoTs and Slow up!
Tips:
Strengths:
Mage/Priest setup has an incredible amount of Crowd Control, the capability of resetting countless times, and peals for each other.
Weaknesses
The main weakness is druids. I believe they are the only counter to mage/priest. They are immune to sheep, which is our main CC. However, they can be killed if played correctly. I will discuss the strategy against druid teams later in the guide.
The general strategy:
Kill someone while the healer is sheeped x 3 + (mind control) -> Fear + CS + Resheep. We keep both Priest DoTs and Slow on our kill target. We save our mana and play defensive when the healer trinkets/bubbles or when they use defensive CDs (such as Anti-Magic Shell/Zone, Shield Wall, Icebound Fortitude, Cloak of Shadows, etc.)
*When the healer is in your CC chain, make sure BOTH of you are going all out on DPS on your kill target. Keep both priest DoTs and Slow up!
Tips:
- Against warriors and rogues, use highest rank of Amplify Magic
- Against warlocks, use highest rank of Dampen Magic.
- Get Turtle Polymorph, it's awesome! But really, it's easier to see on Gladius. If you don't know what Gladius is, go get it: GLADIUS
- NEVER GIVE UP!
Strengths:
Mage/Priest setup has an incredible amount of Crowd Control, the capability of resetting countless times, and peals for each other.
Weaknesses
The main weakness is druids. I believe they are the only counter to mage/priest. They are immune to sheep, which is our main CC. However, they can be killed if played correctly. I will discuss the strategy against druid teams later in the guide.
Builds
Mage
There are 2 common builds for mage/priest, Arcane and Frost. I use Arcane, 51/0/20.
Priest
My priest partner, Pynergy, uses 60/11/0.
Gear
Mage
Full PVP gear. In order to reset many times and allow your priest to drink, you need to be able to stay alive as long as possible, especially since it takes about 4 seconds to start drinking now.
Priest
Full PVP gear. Surviving is a major part of this setup.
Note on Strategies: For each strategy there will be a rating of 1-5 for difficulty (1 being easy, 5 being hardest) and a 1-5 for how often the setup appears.
Note on Strategies: For each strategy there will be a rating of 1-5 for difficulty (1 being easy, 5 being hardest) and a 1-5 for how often the setup appears.
Matchups
Comments: | |
|---|---|
| Huskarr | May 25, 2009 - 4:59 PM (HideShow) |
| not a very in-depth guide... | |
 Gransamor | May 25, 2009 - 5:28 PM (HideShow) |
| thanks | |
 Pecans | May 26, 2009 - 12:02 AM (HideShow) |
| What's your damage rotation like? You go into frost and get shatter with your build, how do you get big damage before the nova breaks? | |
 Babybluu | May 26, 2009 - 5:19 AM (HideShow) |
| that spec does less damage than deep frost lol ^^ | |
  Menjinko | May 26, 2009 - 5:38 PM (HideShow) |
| i heard that mage warrior was the best 2s comp. Why would you do 2s with a disc priest? | |
 Drawven | May 27, 2009 - 12:59 AM (HideShow) |
| That Spec Makes Kinda No Sense On The MAge's Side,It Loses Alot Of Dps... | |
 Slyboogie | May 27, 2009 - 6:39 AM (HideShow) |
| Spec makes no sense? Ofc you know better than one of the highest 2v2 mages in the world... | |
| Anthropo | May 27, 2009 - 11:11 AM (HideShow) |
| i like the guide a lot, straight to the point, very good-looking, though I'm not sure whether I should drop icespecc for arcan, wanna see a movie from yours^^ | |
 Zuulo | May 27, 2009 - 8:25 PM (HideShow) |
| Grrr abn.. i wanna see less mages, stop training them! | |
 Haivo | May 27, 2009 - 9:56 PM (HideShow) |
| Hey 3s partner, I can't believe your guide made it in, this is BS. Its not even in depth! I'm going to yell at you in vent later. | |
| Evintar | May 28, 2009 - 1:29 AM (HideShow) |
| i play this comp at around 2100, going for more but we seem to lose to almost every warrior team with a dispeller... all the warrior has to do is sit on me and i cant do anything how do u get around that? between charge, intercept, and dispelling my slows i cant get a cast off, and without casting how am i supposed to get damage in? we win if the other team is bad but thats about it. | |
 Ptomely | May 28, 2009 - 4:51 AM (HideShow) |
| I was browsing the frontpage of AR and saw this and was like "Woah, Abn put up a guide here?" Now I'll have to stop my partner from running off to join a disc priest >.> In all seriousness though, great job on the guide. You should stop by Org again sometime, and I'll see if I can beat you this time :D. | |
| Ptomely | May 28, 2009 - 4:51 AM (HideShow) |
| I was browsing the frontpage of AR and saw this and was like "Woah, Abn put up a guide here?" Now I'll have to stop my partner from running off to join a disc priest >.> In all seriousness though, great job on the guide. You should stop by Org again sometime, and I'll see if I can beat you this time :D. | |
| Ptomely | May 28, 2009 - 4:51 AM (HideShow) |
| I was browsing the frontpage of AR and saw this and was like "Woah, Abn put up a guide here?" Now I'll have to stop my partner from running off to join a disc priest >.> In all seriousness though, great job on the guide. You should stop by Org again sometime, and I'll see if I can beat you this time :D. | |
| Riverasho | May 30, 2009 - 5:47 AM (HideShow) |
| dude why does AJ let bads make guides?? abn is like a 14 year old kid in high school who likes to talk shit and gets picked on, hes never been glad except for s5 as arcane early in the season when arcane 1 shot ppl, aj going down hillllll | |
| Abn | May 30, 2009 - 10:33 AM (HideShow) |
| 17, and i still 1 shot ppl what are you talking about | |
| Xaki | May 31, 2009 - 12:36 AM (HideShow) |
| why do you have imp frostbolt instead of ice floes or something? o_O | |
| Abn | May 31, 2009 - 1:31 AM (HideShow) |
| cuz i use frostbolt...? =P | |
  Kelbilla | May 31, 2009 - 2:21 AM (HideShow) |
| Abn, whats your xfire | |
 Driamathas | May 31, 2009 - 6:30 AM (HideShow) |
| I can't really see the reason you're using Frostbolt instead of Arcane Blast as arcane blast is costing less mana and doing way more damage...The only reason i can see is either that you can spamm it or maybe being able to slow two target...Im gonna try this combo out myself so i really want to know ;) | |
| Shrunk | May 31, 2009 - 5:12 PM (HideShow) |
| I love you abn <3 never go into the mold by speccing frost! You should stream your games, it would be a lot of fun to watch. | |
| Híde | May 31, 2009 - 5:39 PM (HideShow) |
| very interesting spec... I'm curious what your damage rotation is like with the whole arcane/shatter thing going on. You should make a movie :P | |
| Aramezzet | Jun 1, 2009 - 5:06 AM (HideShow) |
| I think you should post a guide to your spec (assuming that's even possible). The way you play it is very clearly different than how people seem to think Arc plays. All I can gather is rather than ramping Arc Blasts into Barrages you go for two-shots with Frostfire Bolt->PoM-Frostfire Bolt and use Frostbolt as filler between Barrages (for Frostbite procs, maybe? I'm not sure how the mechanics would work, I fear it might break from the Barrage without the Barrage benefitting from Shatter). Maybe you should post a thread in the Mage subforum. | |
| Vondee | Jun 1, 2009 - 6:09 AM (HideShow) |
| At last, a strat for the arcane/discs around us! ty so much! :) | |
| Sagdar | Jun 2, 2009 - 10:37 PM (HideShow) |
| Always these arcane and frostmages. Am I the only one who plays with a mage who wants to roll as fire (having PoM ofc)? >.< | |
| Boomkindruid | Jun 3, 2009 - 12:03 AM (HideShow) |
| I love how so many people criticize him when he has a 2700 2v2 team playing the spec, he's clearly not bad. | |
| Mgmimimi | Jun 4, 2009 - 9:25 AM (HideShow) |
| what about healdruid/DK??? thats for me the hardest comp to beat. | |
  Tainor | Jun 4, 2009 - 3:03 PM (HideShow) |
| Not a special guide at all... no in-depth as many others have said before me.. you should write more about what each of the players should do... like in priest / mage vs priest / rogue would it help if you told that the priest should not fear the priest but fear the rogue to help his mage get the rogue off him... | |
| Tainor | Jun 4, 2009 - 3:04 PM (HideShow) |
| I'm sure you play good but just this guide pretty much just say what target is the kill target... gief more info! | |
| Abn | Jun 4, 2009 - 10:35 PM (HideShow) |
| the small stuff i thought didn't really matter, because it's all situational. i just wanted people to know what to do vs each comp. i mean, during my games i just improvise it all really =P | |
| Extrinsic | Jun 5, 2009 - 6:25 AM (HideShow) |
| our BG has a ton of ret / rogues that shit on us. We finally beat our first team last night but it was hella-close. how do you handle them? | |
| Tainor | Jun 5, 2009 - 11:30 AM (HideShow) |
| ok well this guide doesnt help anyone else than complete un-exp ppl about this combo, and it cant help you get high rating really... | |
  Bacon | Jun 7, 2009 - 2:31 AM (HideShow) |
| Abn touched my funny spots in a skirmish once =/ | |
| Ottizzle | Jun 8, 2009 - 6:14 AM (HideShow) |
| I don't mean to come across as a troll or a "hater", but this guide is extremely vague / badly written. Also, we played you as DK / Priest, and to be completely honest you guys are really not good at all. You really just rely on drawing the match out until the other team losing focus / concentration, and begins to make mistakes. Thank god we don't lose concentration, and managed to annihilate you guys. | |
| Implosion | Jun 8, 2009 - 9:21 PM (HideShow) |
| U r probably a very skilled mage m8 , but i will agree with the most of the rest of the ppl here the guide is bad written ... like u were bored to go into details (which r demanded if u rly wanna help some1) | |
| Idontusedots | Jun 9, 2009 - 10:41 AM (HideShow) |
| Menjinko is awesome!!!!!! | |
| Neari | Jun 9, 2009 - 3:05 PM (HideShow) |
| hai abn heard your coming to dentard | |
| Fiftycentyo | Jun 10, 2009 - 4:52 AM (HideShow) |
| why the fuck you need guide to this retard setup? oh nvm i got reseted again while writing this whinepost! | |
| Drawven | Jun 10, 2009 - 1:27 PM (HideShow) |
| Now That I Actually Done The Spec... It Is Alot more viable, But Really, Melee Overload Just forced Me Frost.But The Spec Is Good, If You're Priest Can Keep You Alive. | |
| Chessiekék | Jun 12, 2009 - 11:05 AM (HideShow) |
| "Spec makes no sense? Ofc you know better than one of the highest 2v2 mages in the world..." I'm higher rated then him on a better battlegroup and I can still say that spec can be changed _ALOT_. | |
| Abn | Jun 13, 2009 - 1:39 AM (HideShow) |
| No. you are not higher rated than me. And no, your BG is not even close to as good as Stormstrike. | |
| Pynergy | Jun 13, 2009 - 1:48 AM (HideShow) |
| ok ur a joke he is 10 times better than you, for one thing our highest rating was much higher then urs ever was, another stormstrike is by far the best bg in the world, and his threes team was number 1 in world at one point. And for the dk/priest we dont know who you are, but im betting it was when we tried to stream and failed cuz i lagged cuz we dont lose to dk priests. | |
| Verix | Jun 14, 2009 - 1:31 AM (HideShow) |
| Hey, I was just wondering how you play. I am an arcane mage trying to get into PvP with a decent/bad PvP set. I was pretty much running around spamming instant casts and slowing/sheeping/missile barrage when it procs. it would be cool if you added in how the spec plays more. I assume frost bolt is your main nuke, what spell do you use when they are frozen? do you really use any arcane spells other than arcane barrage? | |
| Boomkindruid | Jun 14, 2009 - 7:31 PM (HideShow) |
| So, as it appears this guide is just taking a lot of crap because of how its written. So imo Abn, add a little more depth, and post your dmg rotation so people stop giving you crap. | |
| Xeufi | Jun 15, 2009 - 9:03 PM (HideShow) |
| "stormstrike is by far the best bg in the world" ROFL ! You don't know what is the real PVP level, Anyway Ottizzle is right, you try to make lack of concentration to opponent by a lot of control / drinking and it's the aim of your comp. BTW nice spec with a good healeur against bad player but can't win against european insane bursts. The guide looks like a child work about the cat and what he eats, you should give more or givre streams. | |
| Xj | Jun 19, 2009 - 7:24 PM (HideShow) |
| I assume you are a skilled mage Abn, but everything in your strat is shit. You don't explain anything, there are no movies, and it seems you have a very lucky BG if the frequency you see dks/druids and p/r is so low. In my BG i can assure you about 1/5 games is NOT one of those combos. When I played arcane, I managed quite well vs warriors/druids/priests/locks/palas... but what do you do against rogues (assuming I don't have 1k resi like you, i'm only at 620). When a good rogue puts pressure on me (and uses crippling poison), I feel like i'm helpless. If I don't manage to kill him or the priest in time, it'll be close to impossible to drink. He can just re-sap us over and over (specially now with the 4 sec drink timer). | |
| Abn | Jun 19, 2009 - 7:57 PM (HideShow) |
| there are many druid/DKs and rogue/priests on our BG. we have every DK/druid on farm and rogue priests are not common at high ratings because they are countered by druid/DK. what you have to do against rogues is go offensive right away. pom+sheep the priest if you have to then get on the rogue. dispel the rogue in the beginning and if the priest trinkets sheep, either fear him or wait out the DR by playing defensive(it's only 18 sec). | |
| Xj | Jun 20, 2009 - 5:03 AM (HideShow) |
| I see, so you pressure the rogue as much as you can. Now, regarding you spec. What shatter combos do you use? FB+IL+BARRAGE, or AB+IL+BARRAGE, or what exactly is the rotation? | |
| Abn | Jun 20, 2009 - 12:29 PM (HideShow) |
| FB BARRAGE | |
| MagicBarrage | Jun 20, 2009 - 3:50 PM (HideShow) |
| Great mage thats all i got to say fun dueling you outside org ;) | |
| Flamo | Jun 21, 2009 - 6:57 PM (HideShow) |
| Arcane is terrible for this comp good lord. | |
| Donut | Jun 22, 2009 - 12:20 AM (HideShow) |
| yeah clearly terrible :s only 2800 rating.. wtf l2specc | |
| Chilton | Jun 28, 2009 - 1:33 PM (HideShow) |
| I like that ppl at 2k rating are saying he's bad. | |
 Capriestsun | Jun 29, 2009 - 4:44 PM (HideShow) |
| US stormstrike best bg in the world? better than EU cyclone? l o l | |
| Kaligon | Jul 1, 2009 - 2:58 AM (HideShow) |
| lol, this setup looks alien. A deep arcane mage casting Frostbolts and barrages for primary damage? What kind of Frostbolt crits do you get on a target dummy with a slow up on it? What are you hitting resilient targets for? What scores kills? Some sort of FB pom FB AP Abr + priest damage? Have you tried playing this "pure" arcane? Pickup the AB (maybe skip this for IV) and AM glyphs get the requisite talents and spec something like 57-3-11 stack up blast to two pop a pom blast as a third hit then AP missile barrage + Abr or something? Don't let the haters get you down, whatever you're doin is obviously working for you =D | |
| Bloom | Jul 2, 2009 - 9:11 PM (HideShow) |
| Yeah I admit that your spec looks really weird, could you explain your dps cycle when your burst or whatever? | |
| Ravor | Jul 11, 2009 - 4:01 PM (HideShow) |
| Best shatter combo I've found is Missile Barrage Proc + PoM FFB (150% crit if you use shatter spec). At range this can deal a ton of damage, especially with AM glyph. I would also say that putting 51 points into arcane only to use ABarr is a bit useless. Why you would spec arcane but continue to use a frost playstyle is beyond me. Arcane = Burst Frost = Survive But don't listen to me, I'm a bg pvp'er at heart. P.S. you mention how druids are counter, and said rogue/priest doesn't matter because druid is their counter too. That's just silly, you're still going to play them. And unless your priest is talented and on point, you're gonna have a hard time. | |
| Demant | Jul 11, 2009 - 8:18 PM (HideShow) |
| Trying this spec and reading this guide were the best two things to happen to our 2s ratings. But Druids still make me want to kill myself. | |
| Kimberz | Jul 13, 2009 - 9:58 AM (HideShow) |
| shit guide | |
| Dingundead | Jul 14, 2009 - 11:45 AM (HideShow) |
| it would be my suggestion to use the T7.5 2x set bonus. that mana gem sp pwr is nice when you pop IV and AP. | |
| Brutallus | Jul 16, 2009 - 12:16 PM (HideShow) |
| hey ur spec is very nice du , with 2300+ spell power 120 penetration on ful fruios rog crit in nova 10k+ frost bolt and birrage 7k (shatter) , its nice.... but see.. tell tacs vs shaman resto and dk(facerollz spec's) how we can won it. I think kill DK cc sha , but fu totemz and shocks+ dk silance its not easy.. but tell me ur tacs if u can , ty.. | |
| Demant | Jul 18, 2009 - 8:05 PM (HideShow) |
| ABN~ i know it hasn't happened yet, but do you think your spec will hold up once they roll out the mortal-strike-frostbolt with less casting time? i feel like blizz is making deep frost mandatory for PvP... | |
| Abn | Jul 19, 2009 - 9:37 AM (HideShow) |
| MS will still be in the spec, it's early in the frost tree. but i dont think mages even need MS, we can never kill through heals anyways. we need to CC healers or kill them in a CS. For deep frost, the less casting time is nice but not worth speccing over. I'm definitely sticking with 51/0/20. | |
| Gleek | Jul 25, 2009 - 10:55 PM (HideShow) |
| Hmm, what's the reason behind this spec? It doesn't offer any more survival and the burst decreases significantly. J/W, not tryin' to hate :P | |
| Defior | Aug 3, 2009 - 3:44 AM (HideShow) |
| Ive been using this spec for my new team, and I'm liking it a lot, it has more versatility than the other specs imo. Still having a bit of trouble with druids, because like you said, you either have to CC them or get them with a CS which can sometimes be a pain. I'll be sticking with this aswell, possibly dropping the points in Frost Warding for the Permafrost MS, that may help with the druid issue. | |
| Kqproz | Aug 8, 2009 - 3:18 PM (HideShow) |
| whats your main dmg source? frostfire bolt and barrage? | |
| Abn | Aug 11, 2009 - 1:13 PM (HideShow) |
| yes | |
| Khadi | Aug 13, 2009 - 9:24 PM (HideShow) |
| Looking to raise our team's rating so I'm considering the option of going arcane. When you nova someone, you go FFB -> PoM FFB -> Abar right? Is there ever a time when you're using arcane blast at all? Thanks for any assistance! Khadi | |
| Disquldor | Aug 14, 2009 - 4:08 AM (HideShow) |
| wow is a joke :S | |
| Boneknight | Aug 22, 2009 - 12:22 PM (HideShow) |
| Why there's no Lock/Pala matchup? It seems to be hardest to win, nerf pallys! | |
| Domla | Sep 19, 2009 - 11:41 AM (HideShow) |
| is the spec viable for a 2v2 with rogue ? | |
| Abni | Sep 19, 2009 - 2:40 PM (HideShow) |
| yes | |
| Wijkx | Sep 23, 2009 - 4:44 PM (HideShow) |
| You don't really tell how to do it.. i better follow mage/lock guide alot better! | |
 Xabre | Sep 27, 2009 - 10:43 PM (HideShow) |
| just stick with frost ;) | |
| Manastealer | Oct 5, 2009 - 5:56 PM (HideShow) |
| Hey there I'm a noob mage just steppin onto the pvp scene and I just have a couple questions about this spec. Is there any sort of rotation you use? What are the strengths of this spec compared to Frost and Mainstream arcane specs? | |
| Cardtrick | Oct 5, 2009 - 8:43 PM (HideShow) |
| Ingenius spec, props on making it happen | |
 Independance | Oct 12, 2009 - 8:47 AM (HideShow) |
| no tips on beating sham/dk? :P | |
| Sallysasalot | Oct 20, 2009 - 3:01 PM (HideShow) |
| Sorry if this was already answered but, for everyone asking why an arcane mage is specced in frostbolt, you'll notice they are usualy specced in the talent that gives a 20% healing reduc with chill affect. I as well use this with lvl 1 frostbolts then use my arcane burst. Also, as arcane warriors with a dispelling partner absolutely shut me down, cant keep any distance with all the charges. Does anyone have any advice other than play frost? lol | |
| Øutcastlol | Oct 27, 2009 - 11:13 PM (HideShow) |
| Not a in depth guide?This is here to give you strats not teach you how to play.... | |
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