DiscPriest/Mage: The best combo in 2v2, EVER (strategy guide)
 
July 9, 2008, 9:24 pm
DiggFacebookCommentPrintI've been playing on assorted 2v2 teams over the last couple weeks because of the new season. Anything ranging from discipline priest / rogue to Shadow priest feral druid has been fairly successful thus far, and I'm surprised a number of these combinations work. However, not a single one of these compare to Discipline priest / frost mage. The potential is there for my 2v2 comp to beat almost anything with a high success rate (barring RNGs and occasional mistakes). Because of this, I've decided to make a strategy guide in the hopes that more people will discover the setup.
 
First of all, your priest should be specced something similar to 42/19. Reflective shield can work (although I've never seen the need for it) well, but you aren't playing a game where you're trying to do consistant damage, you're trying to burst and cc.
 
The mage needs to be specced 17/0/44 because improved counterspell is an absolute must against good druid teams.
 
Strategies against specific teams
 
Druid / Warrior: This comp is, bar-none, the most common setup you'll see in 2v2. There are two strategies you can use depending on the other team. You'll need to start out with some good burst on the warrior (don't use any cooldowns) and get the druid to pop out with some HOT's. After the druid wastes a good amount of mana healing him, polymorph the warrior and either go after the druid or go drink. If the warrior trinkets, sheep him again and nova afterwards. Your priest needs to get a fear off on the druid in caster form as soon as possible to force a trinket. Make sure you drink early and often and rotate CC / burst on the warrior. Once your priest gets a good fear on the druid when both warrior / druid have their trinkets down, you can burst either the warrior or the druid (we usually do the druid because it's easier to cc the warrior while you do it). Improved CS after you do your shatter combo and hope you can dispel enough HOT's or NS to get a good kill. You have to reset and drink a lot, a lot of our fights last over 20 minutes long and we just keep resetting until we get a good situation to burst.
 
Druid / Rogue: We have a high win ratio against this setup, but it isn't easy to beat. Most would call it a "counter-comp". Your priest will need to get the druid to trinket a fear before you attempt any burst on the rogue or druid (we usually kill the rogue because most of them waste cloak on stupid things). You have to try and keep the rogue CC'd until you find a good opportunity to burst. Drink a lot.
 
Shaman / Warrior: Another difficult setup to beat. You can kill either player, but we have the most success killing the warrior because shamans are easy to CC after you get a good sheep off.  You can burst the shaman as well if NS is down. These fights don't last much longer than 5 minutes because of the shamans ability to play offensive and shock / purge us. If you don't get any drinks off you won't win this fight without good aggressive play. Make sure earth shield is spellstolen or dispelled and get bloodlust off asap when they use it. Make sure that all totems are killed quickly.
 
Paladin / Warrior: Play like you're fighting druid / warrior. The fortunate thing about fighting paladins with a priest is you have the option of draining the paladin while your mage does some good CC. Burst the warrior early in the game and force the paladin to trinket / bubble. Reset if they manage to survive and then burst whichever target is the most vulnerable. Don't frost nova the warrior unless the paladin is sheeped or around a corner and dispel blessing of sacrifice / freedom as fast as you can (or spell steal it).
 
Druid / Warlock: We have a high win ratio against this comp, but most people who play this setup are completely retarded. You have about a 1% chance of winning against a good druid / warlock. The best way to fight them is to try and kill the pet. If your priest can't fear the druid it's difficult. Make sure you dispel all HOT's on the pet before you try to kill it. Keep winter's chill stacked to 5 on the warlock and sheep him every time you can. If you do manage to kill the pet, play very aggressive and force the warlock to use fel dom. at a bad time. You have a good chance of dispelling / spellstealing it if they are pressured hard. Very rarely will your mage get a good shatter combo off on the pet so your priest will need to be smiting to try and get good dps out. Prayer of mending is your friend here.
 
Mage / Rogue: They won't win if they get on your mage and you don't make a mistake. Make sure your priest dispels the mage so you can keep icy veins / ice barrier off. Focus the rogue. Try and use fear on both the rogue and mage at the same time. If they focus your priest, make sure your priest is quick on dispels for your mage or you'll fall behind in heals and lose.
 
Warlock / Rogue: Focus the rogue and counterspell fears. If they get on your mage you win easily. If they focus your priest, make sure you dispel the fears on your mage instantly so he can help CC the lock / rogue. Dispel COT if they use it on your priest. The game seldomly lasts more than a minute so you can use your cooldowns quickly.
 
Druid / Hunter: There aren't many of these teams anymore, especially at higher brackets (you can thank shaman / warrior for that). You'll need to try and burst the hunter hard early and quickly. Focusing the pet is an option, especially if you get a fear off on the druid / hunter at the same time. Depending on your playstyle, you can go for a quick or long game. It's near-impossible to kill a druid with a hunter peeling, so focus on the hunter. As always, dispelling HOT's is the best way to pressure that druid into making a mistake (and following him around of course).
 
Priest / Rogue: Difficult to beat, you have to focus on the rogue. A good sheep > fear > counterspell combo with the priest's trinket down is how you'll win most of the time. Dispel the priest's instant spells as soon as they go up and make sure you don't fear anyone with fear ward up. Your mage will need to peel a lot early and watch for mana burns with counterspell. As soon as the enemy priest uses his trinket go for some CC and burst. It's nearly impossible to drink against this combo so you'll have a quick game.
 
I think I covered most of the cookie-cutter combos. Hopefully the gameriot trolls will be fed well.
 
For those who are wondering, our 2v2 team last season peaked at 2415. Unfortunately, Saltygrapes (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Zuluhed&n=Saltygrapes) didn't have the PR for gladiator so I had someone else join the team to tank the rating down to 2344 to be within 100 of Saltygrapes' PR.
 
Enjoy.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Hafu, Glickz, and Rhaegyn on their first place finish at MLG Orlando ($12,000 + 3*HP Blackbirds).  
 
Holding the 19th seed overall, staying in the Winner's Bracket was pretty unconceivable at the very start, and winning the entire thing was even more farfetched, but they managed to pull it off while making it look somewhat easy in the process.  On the way, they took out some big name players with big name sponsors, with Hafu managing to provide some good entertainment in an attempt to get under MoB Godfather's skin with a "Hi Godfather" sign.  Nonetheless, the feat was amazing, and you could clearly see that just by looking at the teams they had to beat to get there.
 
 - No Mods No Chance TSG (Veex, ?, ?) [3-1]
 - SK Gaming (Neilyo, Glorin, Serennia) [3-0]
 - MoB G. Family (Offcell, Kollektiv, Mazud) [3-1]
 - Got Game West (Hoodrych, Didy, Greenranger) [3-0]
 - Evil Geniuses (Azael, Zyz, Spoh) [3-0]
 - Frag Dominant DGFG (Emolol, Celex, Ely) [3-1]
Total: 18-4 W/L
 
Now the question here is do they deserve it?  Being a totally subjective matter, my answer would be YES.
 
Hafu played a lot more calmly during this LAN tournament compared to the previous one in San Diego.  She managed to extend far enough when needed, but made sure to not overextend.  She did a very good job LOS'ing whenever she could, most notably in the final round vs FD when she was oom and innervated with Ely chasing her spamming Dispel (she managed to get the entire duration Innervate).  And above that, Hafu did a good job coordinating drinks with intercept/hamstrings + fears.  Aside from that, I think Hafu proved that she is indeed a top druid.  Being totally subjective again, I would say Hafu's defensive plays this tournament was that of a top druid, but her offensive play lacked and there are areas where she could improve, those areas being offensive cycloning (see Celex) among others, as there were definitely times when matches could've ended earlier.  Again though, overall a good performance.
 
Rhaegyn played amazingly this tournament, theres not really much bad things to say about his performance really.  I mean, being a Warrior and placing top 3 would be impressive in itself, but taking first?  Rhaegyn managed to do an amazing job peeling for Hafu, and that's probably because of all the shìt Hafu gave him when he messed up in San Diego.  I mean, there was this one match against either DG or FD where Hafu was caught in cat/human form by the Rogue, and less than a second later, the Rogue is stuck in an intercept stun + disarm.  In another match, you'd see Emolol intercept stunned and hamstrung immediately after opening on Glickz.  Combine all of this with clutch aoe Fears, Spell Reflecting, and keeping as many people Hamstrung as possible, I would definately say Rhaegyn was a huge part of Team Orz winning this tournament. (The other big part is Glickz)
 
Glickz was definitely the MVP on the team with his multiclass play with Ret Pally and Warlock, but his skills definitely shines as a Warlock.  Between spreading and reapplying DoTs, Glickz did a perfect job CC'ing players with Fear, keeping CoT up on targets, Devouring Magic on teammates, and Spell Locking enemies.  It's hard to comment on his micro-management and his multi-tasking because it's at such a high level.  For example, you'd see a sheep/root/nova on Rhaegyn, and it's devoured almost instantly, assuming the ability is up... which may seem like a very small play but is infact a huge difference in the match as it lets Rhaegyn keep pressure/MS up as well as saving the trinket.  But in the end, between being on top of everything else, Glickz' Fears, clutch Spell Locks, positioning, and perfect management of globals are definitely his defining factors and what separates himself from other Warlocks like Didy.  That incredibly clutch Spell Lock following a long mace stun (perfectly timed, not doubling up) in the final game on Ely while Celex was Ice Blocked was what sealed the deal in crowning them the MLG Orlando champs.  If I had to choose an MVP for the tournament, it'd be between Glickz and Celex, and I actually find it odd how Glickz' role in Team Orz winning could be so easily overlooked.
 
 
Overall, it's the synergy of the players that won them this tournament.  Hafu said somewhat jokingly "I'm carried by Glickz and Rhaegyn" after nearly insulting Rhaegyn's clutch plays as luck during the closing portion of the stream, but I'm going to definitely agree with her on that one as she was indeed somewhat carried by two very good teammates.  She played well, don't get me wrong, but it was Rhaegyn's and Glickz' CLUTCH plays that ultimately won them the tournament.

Don't quote me on this, but I think if you're in combat already and you have some type of totem down (mana spring, poison cleanse etc) on a partner that's also in combat, he can shout spam to keep you in combat like the old arena start bloodrage bug.
 
 
At least, that's what I heard. I've yet to try it out on my sham.