Strategies

Druid/Hunter (Therst/Darkalpha)

Authors

Therst
Gorgonnash
US-Rampage
Darkalpha
Gorgonnash
US-Rampage

Druid/Hunter

VS.

Druid/Warlock

I hear a lot of comments about this combo, saying that it's hard for Druid/Hunter, and I'm not exactly sure where that stems from. If you know it's a Lock/Druid team put on some PvE gear if you have it, and if you want to cheese it, 120 or so SR. Remember to Arcane Shot both targets to get their buffs off.

Start off by running up to a pillar and dropping a frost trap, you will need it to kite the Warlock and slow his pet. If the Warlock rushes, start DPS on him, and Viper Sting him. Do this until his Druid pops out of stealth, and then throw a Viper and your pet on the Druid. Basically, your goal this fight is to drain the Druid's mana, take as little damage as possible, and kill the Warlock pets. Continue to DPS the Warlock, and when the Druid tries to go off and drink, or you have a good view at his pet (probably felhunter at this point), open up on it. Aimed Shot is incredible for killing pets, and draining mana even more. Have your Druid CC their Druid when he comes to heal the pet. Get out of Line of Sight of the fears the Warlock will definitely try to hit you with. If the pet is still alive, continue to DPS the pet, this essentially drains their mana faster than anything you could do with Viper Sting, and makes the Warlock eat stings. Once the first pet is dead, he will probably Fel Domination a Void Walker; you can anticipate this, have his buffs down, interrupt his casting, and dispel it with Arcane Shot if you timed everything well. I'm assuming that the Warlock will have his pet on your Druid, but if he has it is on you to avoid damage to it, or on your pet to eat HoT's, there is no possible way you can lose, so this is a good situation. If the Warlock gets his pet back up, continue to DPS him while Viper Stinging the Druid, and Silence the fears.

This is not a short fight; you and your Druid will need to drink several times. You must not allow your Druid to get mana drained, and you'll need to open windows in time very often for him to drink. Most of the time Warlocks will spam Drain Mana on the Hunter, which isn't that big of a deal, because you can Feign Death + Drink whenever you want to, and you should have a great deal of mana regen. If the Warlock chooses to bring out a VW with his Fel Domination they no longer have the ability to dispel and you can Freeze the Warlock in order to get him off your Druid. Whenever your Druid needs to drink, Wing Clip the Warlock pet, Warlock, and Druid. Do whatever else you can to stall them, such as Scare Beast and Scatter Shot. If they continue to DPS you when your Druid goes to drink, you'll need to LoS as well as you can to avoid damage until your Druid returns.

Once the pets are dead, start DPSing the Warlock down while not forgetting to drain the Druid's mana, even if he is at 0. Save all of your interrupts for hard recasts and don't waste more than what is necessary. Have your Druid help you, if you don't have an interrupt, have him Cyclone or Feral Charge. If the Warlock fears you, there is a good chance he is going to attempt a hard recast of his pet. Your Druid will need to take care of this.

This combo puts out very low DPS. One game my Druid and I got into a game that started off kind of rough, I was at 30% health, he was at 500 health, 500 mana, and we ended up winning the game through thorough use of LoS and Lifebloom.

Druids Perspective
This match requires the most communication between you and your Hunter more so than any other single DPS/healer combo. You need to talk to each other about his fear DR's and set up to kill the pet, who's going to stop the pet summon, and when you need to set up a drink.

At the beginning you need to make sure to stay out of LOS of the Warlock. If you're in Nagrand/Blade's edge, pillar humping is best, only coming out to Cyclone the Warlock when he drains your Hunter. On Ruins, you need to be in Bear Form because you can't LOS the drains as easily.

With your Hunter beating on the Warlock, the pet will take Soul Link damage, and when it drops to around 60-70%, throw a Lifebloom on and try to go for a pet kill. Drop to bear, and walk into LOS so your Hunter can burst the pet down. The Warlock will fear, so Feral Charge -> Bash him. From there, Rotate Cyclones on the Warlock and Druid so they can't CC the Hunter with Cyclones or Fears. (Cyclone one, immediately start casting on the other, immediately switch back, etc). If the pet dies, CC the Warlock and try to prevent the summon. If he gets it off (he usually will), simply repeat this strategy until it is down again.

This fight, while long, is actually one of our easier ones, they have almost Zero way to actually finish you off. Lifebloom can keep you alive through the Warlocks damage for a long time, so don't give up if you go completely OOM, you can almost always come back.

Comments:

BlarxFeb 6, 2008 - 1:31 PM (HideShow)
I actually like the fact that you say druid\hunter cant lose, but really really can. havent lost to one as lock\druid yet.
RepresentingFeb 9, 2008 - 5:50 PM (HideShow)
what are you supposed to do when theres the lock mana drain spamming your hunter?
UnionFeb 9, 2008 - 9:26 PM (HideShow)
dunno.. your strats looks so easy.. Lifebloom can keep everyone up and so.. so how you menage Lifebloom can kep you up if Lock is Shadowbolting and doting everyone? + cmon which Lock use Felhunter... they all the time use Woidwalker.. so killing him don't work well.. ya I CC the Pet but Lock is all the time after Druid + His Druid is all the time on my druid.. I dunno how you can menage to say this is easy team. dunno maybe your BG got such easy locks.. in mine they kinda do decent dmg.. and not only doting but shadowbolting and doing all to beat you. so your Druid need work pretty hard on heals.
JintarFeb 12, 2008 - 6:27 PM (HideShow)
From what 2v2 I have done on my Paladin, I never see a Warlock pull out a blueberry. Felhunter is guaranteed.
DarkalphaFeb 12, 2008 - 10:57 PM (HideShow)
I'll get therst to reply to these as fast as he can. He's more or less quit because I'm shipping out next week(His partner), but i'm sure he'd be more than happy to answer your questions.
CovaFeb 14, 2008 - 7:30 PM (HideShow)
Hunter/druid is counter comped by lock/druid. While this strat may work for inexperienced lock/druid teams the vets will have a field day with you.
DarkalphaFeb 15, 2008 - 8:40 PM (HideShow)
No, it isn't. We never lost to Lock/Druid, it's really not as hard as people will make it seem. 60/40 advantage, and very easily overcome by skill differences/timing/communication.
HexagonFeb 19, 2008 - 12:34 PM (HideShow)
If a lock loses his first pet, he's almost guaranteed to pop a blueberry. If he doesn't, then he is probably not the quality of opponent this guide is designed for.
ShaydeeFeb 19, 2008 - 3:04 PM (HideShow)
I run lock druid and when we fight hunter druid, we just OOM the hunter and I stay in bearform on the hunter and he can't FD/drink. We keep the hunter oomed... and the lock can keep life tapping and you have a 3rd target to heal (being the pet). With 3 dots on all 3 targets, an oom druid can only keep 2 up... we will usually then kill the pet i'll drink, and then we'll kill the druid.
NinesevenFeb 28, 2008 - 5:14 PM (HideShow)
I play hunter/druid against this setup. The strat posted above is not always going to work. With skilled warlocks and druids, most of the time, the lock plays aggressive, dotting all three targets, shadowbolting , forcing the our druid out to heal. Going OOM a lot faster than we can drain their druid. It's hard to put pressure on the lock's druid to get our of bear to drain.
JohnnybravoMar 1, 2008 - 10:03 PM (HideShow)
The guide is great until it just says "Once the pets are dead"...
I mean come on, how is a oom hunter supposed to kill a WV, I can ofc often drink for a few tics but he got waaaay to much HP/Armor for me to burst him down.
Atleast explain how you kill the WV, because you can't just flashnuke it like you can do with a felhunter...
AlyxisApr 4, 2008 - 12:37 PM (HideShow)
After the VW comes out I usually try to get full-ish mana by Feigning death behind a pillar, dropping a freezing trap, getting my druid to cyclone/root any incs, drink and shadowmeld. (even if I have DoT's it drops target a second time). I just can't seem to replicate this with my druid though. This probably won't work for whatever reason in the 2k+ rating, but this is just my experience from the 1700s
MooneternalApr 17, 2008 - 8:25 PM (HideShow)
I played hunter/druid on both my hunter and druid and I say druid/lock is the hardest team to beat. =( On my BG all locks start off with a bluebewwy when they see you're a hunter/druid team(they are almost always fast enough to finish their cast before I'm on their side) and there is not much to do, unless the druid is newb as hell and eating some tics of my drains. My druid (or me when I'm on my druid) goes oom alot faster than the other druid and we end losing. If he starts with the fel puppy you can kill it, but the next pet will be alot harder to kill, and you can't waste your time on it like you can on the fel puppy(that is squishy).

Also, if you have the chance to kill the VW, he will get an other one out. Fear+cyclone+roots(not dispellable)+los makes it impossible to interrupt, he will, sooner or later, get the cast off.
OsirusAnubisApr 22, 2008 - 9:10 AM (HideShow)
Well I just happen to be reading these strats, and as a warlock who has played warlock/druid at decent ratings, maybe I can provide a little insight.

Killing the felhunter is easy, everyone seems to agree on that. Voidwalker is harder to kill yes, but once he is out you can abuse scatter shot/freezing trap on the lock. This gives you 12 seconds fear-free to drink, dps the voidwaler, revive your pet, etc. Also, though the voidwalker is harder for the hunter to kill, the druid can actually root it behind a pillar and kill it quite effectively (or run away an drink while lock is frozen).

Freezing the lock means the lock's druid has to come out to play if they don't want a dead voidwalker or a drinking druid on their hands. The hunter can sting him if he needs to heal the pet, or scatter shot if he needs to protect his drinking druid, or whatever else you hunters do.

Yeah so I'd say CC is key, freeze lock every chance you get. cyclone, etc. A lock/druid team really can't stop you from drinking, and its impossible to stop both of you from drinking. That and just make sure you don't eat fears with los for those moments when you don't have CC available.
LolpewpewpewApr 25, 2008 - 2:45 PM (HideShow)
Do not underestimate a SL/SL lock's burst. If the lock stacks spell/damage, which is kinda common at the moment, he can burst you pretty fast.
CloduMay 1, 2008 - 2:54 PM (HideShow)
Well tbh i did much better using snake trap and rushig on warlock ...c'mon u can do a lot of damage forcing theyr druid to come and heal ...and your druid can try and cyclone theyr druid ...+ snakes delayes casting time, anyway more experienced warlock/druid combos eat u alive. Only ench shaman + druid is harder ...:(
PabnaMay 14, 2008 - 1:42 AM (HideShow)
Kill fellhunter, Scatter lock and despawn blueberries, win
ArnaMay 18, 2008 - 4:08 PM (HideShow)
Hunter/Druid has a very hard time against Warlock/Druid, but have your Druid spec the typical Boomkin healing spec (34/0/27), and it will be much easier to kill pets. They have no burst anyways, just lots of dots, which your druid should be able to heal through with the massive mana regen he gets with that spec. He pretty much should never OOM, especially since he can root a void walker and drink pretty easily.
JackellekcajMay 30, 2008 - 6:39 AM (HideShow)
i play with a restokin druid, we have never lost to this combo
DirigoJun 7, 2008 - 7:31 PM (HideShow)
Restokins have the dmg to kill a blueberry alone and sick mana regen
FotonioJun 13, 2008 - 5:15 AM (HideShow)
Yes but restokin wont keep u up against lock rogue combo or any other major 2 dps counter..
AxxJul 28, 2008 - 11:06 PM (HideShow)
I'd rather lose to double dps than a war or lock/druid team 45mins into the match :P

<3 restokin
TherstJul 31, 2008 - 3:02 AM (HideShow)
No
JackellekcajSep 6, 2008 - 7:39 PM (HideShow)
how the hell do u beat them when they have timballs crystal and druid is 11/11/39
ArjaanSep 12, 2008 - 11:25 PM (HideShow)
New Strat! DPS warlock, cc druid. When the pet gets low dps the pet. Main objective is to kill the lock and cc spam the druid. Treat as a Shaman/warrior team essentially. 7/41/13 is probably the best spec for this combo. Another biggy, keep your pet dismissed, you don't need and it will drain your druid's mana faster than anything else. Simple tactic but very effective.

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