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August 15, 2009, 02:56 AM

#1 (permalink)

Canadianpimp

Character Info
Kobekid
80 Human Warlock
Kilrogg US PvE
Guild: Good With Ketchup
Profile: Blizzard Armory
Talent Spec: 0/13/58

3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman

About Me:
Hey, this is CanadianPimp from Kilrogg-Bloodlust. With the next arena season, 2v2 will be largely irrelevant with top end gear and not being awarded from 2v2. I've been playing a lot of arena in Wrath of the Lich King, and would like to share some strategies about my 3v3 comp - Destruction Warlock/Rogue/Resto Shaman. It's one of the most popular and most successful comps for warlocks at the moment, and has continued to stay strong with the 3.2 changes (destro damage nerf, resilience change). It is a very offensive and fast-paced comp. It's a fun comp to play and has the loldestro burst in it, but also requires a lot of finesse with CC. We've reached 2355 rating with a current 2450 matchmaker rating.

Strengths:

Very high burst potential. Destro burst pretty much has the highest burst capability of any class right now. A rogue snring and stunning the target makes you a huge threat, especially with heroism.
Excellent CC. Sap/fear/blind/hex/variety of stuns.
One of the better comps with a warlock that deal with cleave teams.

Weaknesses:

Shamans are inefficient healers in terms of mana. If games go longer than 2-3 minutes, you are likely to lose. After rogue cooldowns and heroism are used, it is much more difficult to get a kill. When the rogue's defensive cooldowns are used, he must also play more defensively, making a kill much harder to set up.
The defensive dispel comes from the warlock's Felhunter. If the warlock is not aware, CC will slow down the team and you will not be able to get a kill.
Wizard cleave (2 casters) and outlasting teams (usually teams with affliction warlocks, hunters, and shadow priests) messes this team up.

Talents and Glyphs:
Lock - 3/17/51
Rogue - 41/5/25
Shaman - 0/18/53

The glyphs I use are Conflagrate, Immolate and Incinerate. Conflagrate is a must. Other viable glyphs are Shadowflame for kiting/peels and for Soul Link (if you aren't in great gear).

Gear and Gemming:
Honestly, I'm not targeted as much in other 3v3 comps I've played. 2 piece T 8.5 is pretty viable if you have solid PvP gear otherwise. Before the patch and the resilience change, I ran 2 piece Tier 8.5, a PvE ring, a PvE weapon and two PvE trinkets. With the resilience buff, I'm now running 5v5 Furious with Furious ring and WG ring. I do run 2 PvE trinkets since I'm human. I use Scale of Fates and Eye of the Broodmother. Scale of Fates is incredibly powerful with heroism and you should definitely use it if you have it. I macro it in to my Chaos Bolt so I don't have to think about it.

For gemming, I generally gem for spell power and resilience. Make sure you are also at around 130 spell penetration and 5% hit to reach the caps. Overall I run about 25K unbuffed HP with 850ish resilience with close to 2200 spell power.

Macros:
Devour macro - /cast [target=Kobekid] Devour Magic
I have three version of this macro. One for myself, and one for each of my teammates (remember to change the name when copying it). I also have one for my pet, but that's pretty optional/advanced.

This macro is a must because you are the only one who can defensively dispel on the team. This means you are the only one who can get dispel sheeps, fears, HoJ, Freezing Trap, Repentence, Frost Nova, etc. It is incredibly important to be familiar with this macro, and more importantly, be aware of when to use it on yourself and your teammates to get them out of CC. It will win so many games.

Spell lock - /cast [target=focus,exists,nodead, pet:felhunter] Spell Lock; Spell Lock
This macro is must for any warlock really. Just set your focus (I bind set focus to R) and you can silence casts without targeting your wanted target. If you aren't using focus already, you are limiting yourself severely.

Totem stomper - /petattack [target=mouseover]
Mindless totemstomping macros got thrown out with 3.2. Although not as good and requires some more proactive use, this macro can quickly dispose of a tremor totem without targeting it, sending the pet to attack it, targeting something back and fearing it. Really one of the only ways to get fears off against good shaman.

Shadowfury - /cast !Shadowfury
If you're like me, I hate those clanky targeting circles and tend to mash my buttons, which annoyingly removes Shadowfury's targeting circle. With this macro, pressing your Shadowfury key multiple times won't make the targeting circle flicker on and off.

Addons:
Gladius is the only real required one. I'm also a fan of Interrupt Bar and Party Ability Bars. There are a variety of other mods like DR tracker, Afflicted, Spell Alerter that are very good.

General strategy:

Start the match with Felhunter (honestly, never use a Succubus and very rarely use a voidwalker). Use Fel Armor unless faced against a 2 melee/physical DPS team. In that case, switch to Demon Armor when the gates switch.
Lay down your portal in the beginning of the match, and position yourself away from it in the beginning. You want to be able to escape to it. Putting it out of LoS of your healer is bad also, even sometimes in the middle of Blade's Edge bridge is a good idea and what I often do against cleave teams on Blade's Edge. On Ring of Valor, run behind the small pillar and immediately put a port down. You can get very screwed if you don't and I've found it's not worth the risk of immediately Shadowfurying and getting stuck without a port.
Take advantage of CC. We usually sap (usually a DPS, sometimes a Shaman healer), and follow that with a fear to force a trinket. This leaves him open for a hex a few seconds later (remember that hex shares DR with sap, so try and wait). Shadowfury --> Howl of Terror is amazing for forcing trinkets and especially peeling for your partners. Your shamans hex is best used on a class who can decurse (mage/resto shaman) so they must sit in it or trinket. Obviously you don't want to hex a druid because they can shapeshift out of it, so we usually get the druid in a fear or blind then hex another target. With amazing CC on one target and your rogue stunlocking the other target, you are essentially playing 3v1.
That being said, if you ever get a sap on the opposing rogue, take full of advantage of it.
To burst a target down, you want to CoE your target, then Immolate (Corruption is good too), then Chaos Bolt/Incinerate + Conflag for a 10-15k+ burst. If the opposing healer is dispelling Immolate, after landing an Immolate you can Shadowfury the healer or blanket spell lock the healer. This gets you the 2 or so seconds to get your cast off and landing the Conflag before the healer can dispel your Immolate.
Try to avoid getting counterspelled or kicked, but it will happen. If so, either fear if your fire school gets locked out or burst if your shadow school gets locked out.

Choosing a kill target:

Choosing the kill target is very important. You almost never want to kill the healer or a caster DPS. Here's our general rules.
Against cleave (double melee/healer), we get on the melee who interrupts the easiest (rogues, DKs, enhancement shamans) and CC the DPS without easy interrupts (ret paladins, warriors, feral druids). This allows the warlock to get casts off the easiest since warlocks are often targeted against cleave teams. When going for the kill, throw a fear on the healer and have a spell lock ready.
Against caster/melee/healer (RMP, rogue/lock/shaman), we generally get on the melee class (especially if they have an easy interrupt) and spell lock/shock the caster on top of CC. We will also sometimes switch if the healer puts himself in a bad position. Something like hunter/melee/healer can be tough since you cannot spell lock/shock the hunter and more damage will be incoming.
Against wizard cleave (2 casters/healer), we almost always have to do a quick switch to the healer or other DPS to get a kill. After getting their trinket down, get an immolate and CoE on your switch target then call for your rogue to do a quick switch and pray you don't get counterspelled.
Against double healer (usually a melee DPS/2 healers), we also have to usually switch to a healer to get a kill. We generally sit on the DPS to limit damage, then switch to the healer that can defensively dispel (priest or paladin, priests are obviously better targets for a switch) while CCing the other healer and try and gib him.

Specific Matchups

Rogue/mage/priest
Difficulty - 2.5/5
Kill target - rogue
Strategy - RMP can be pretty overwhelming to deal with with all the CC, stuns, and burst that they have. They have the ability to go for any target successfully. However, RLS can farm RMP pretty well if you remain calm. Essentially, this match depends on how well you can limit the mage's effectiveness by using CC, spell locks, shocks, and devours. Generally what should happen is you should sap the mage, and your shaman and yourself should get in combat by purging the mage and scaring him with some false burst. Eventually the rogues will open and you will want to kill the rogue. You will rarely get a quick kill, and need to slow down the initial burst, so using CC and forcing trinkets early is best. To CC the mage, we like to sap him and then fear him to hopefully force a trinket or ice block. Then we hex him and go back to fears or blind. If you've made it this far and force the rogue to cloak, and you should have the capabilty to burst him down.

Warlock's role - Set the mage to focus. Devour all polymorphs and spell lock frostbolts. This is really the key to winning. Between you and your shaman, he should not be able to get a frostbolt off. Once you have feared the mage a couple times, your shaman should try and get a hex off, which is when you need to stop bursting. To get the final kill, switch fears to the priest and the rogue will go down easily without cloak.

Ret/rogue/priest
Difficulty - 4/5
Kill target - rogue
Strategy -This comp can be pretty tough because of double defensive dispels, especially if the ret helps dispel immolate. Sap the ret and either open on him or the priest (if the priest is in a bad spot). You should be able to force the rogue to come out which is when your rogue should jump on the rogue and you should start fearing the ret to force his trinket/bubble. Hex the ret after and possibly throw a blind on him. Hopefully you have forced a cloak/pain suppression by now and should be game for the kill. If somehow your rogue got found or the opposing rogue didn't open, have your rogue open on the ret and throw a blind on the rogue. Either the ret will be forced to bubble or the rogue will trinket, both is what you're aiming for.

Warlock's role - Shadowfury is amazing against cleave teams. Shadowfury --> Howl of Terror is never a bad idea. Be prepared with quick CC if they try and gib your shaman or rogue. Remember that you can devour HoJ, repentence, and fear off yourself and your teammates. If they are on you, kiting with your port is key and remember to switch to Demon Armor.

Warrior/DK/paladin (or druid)
Difficulty - 4/5
Kill target - DK
Strategy - This comp can sheerly outmuscle you and will if you do not try to control the warrior. We start off with a sap on the paladin and the jump on the DK. Hexing the warrior here will almost always force his trinket at the same time while bursting the DK should force some of his CDs. You should then blind the warrior and finish off the DK. If you don't you have probably lost unless you can somehow live until your shaman's next hex.

The paladin and druid variant are both tough. If it is a paladin healer, you sap the paladin and you may have to Conflag right after Immolate if he is on top of dispels, which makes burst tough. If it is a druid healer, hexing the warrior to force a trinket is going to be tougher because the druid can dispel. Ideally, you want to fear the druid and then hex the warrior so the druid is unable to decurse him. Also, you cannot sap the druid since he will start out in tree form. To deal with this, we like to sap the warrior and open on the DK. This will get him to berserker rage out, and you can force his trinket by fearing him once or twice after Berserker Rage is over, and then hex him + fear the Druid. Burst will be easier because the druid can't dispel Immolate.

Warlock's role - Same as any cleave. Shadowfury both the melee and go in and howl if it's safe. Honestly, you can force a surprising amount of people to trinket if you shadowfury them and the death coil them after. Doing this to a warrior and making him trinket and eat a full hex will singlehandedly win you the game.

Frost mage/destro lock/resto shaman (or druid)
Difficulty - 4.5/5
Kill target - Lock, with a switch to the healer
Strategy - Incredibly tough, as this comp has more tools to control you and sitting on one of the DPS is very difficult of the other DPS has any idea how to peel. You will almost always have to switch to the healer and gib him, and pretty much pray you don't get counterspelled. They will always try and kill the rogue, and the rogue can get globaled without cloak so it can be scary.

We get a sap on the mage or shaman and the rogue starts off on the lock. I'll either start bursting the lock or the pet while trying to fear the healer. The shaman has to be on top of shocks on the mage and should try and hex the mage. The two things you want to happen before you switch is you want the lock to trinket (likely a kidney) and the healer to trinket (likely a fear). When both these happen, blind the lock and switch to the healer and kill him ASAP.

Warlock's role - Put the mage on focus and spell lock him. You need to spell lock his frost bolts with your shaman's help as well. You need to also devour any sheeps. Your goal is to try and force a trinket from the healer. Make sure you kill tremor against a resto shaman. You will eventually get counterspell the best time to do this is when your fire spells get counterspelled from DPSing the warlock. As a little tip, if I'm worried my fear will get devoured instantly, I'll cast a Corruption on the target I feared instantly after landing the fear so there is only a 50% chance it gets devoured.

Destro lock/elemental shaman/holy paladin (or druid)
Difficulty - 4/5
Kill target - Elemental shaman with a switch to the healer.
Strategy - This is another variant of wizard cleave which is tough. You need to sit on the elemental shaman to prevent shocks and also because shocking/spell locking him isn't as useful since he DPSes with both nature and fire spells. Like most two casters teams, they will try and kill your rogue. The strategy is very much the same as lock/mage/shaman. With a paladin, you will need to force a trinket and a bubble from the paladin before you can switch (bubble being the more important one, but most paladins will trinket before they bubble). Fears along might not be enough, so you may have to use your hex on the paladin. Like the strategy for lock/mage/shaman, once the shaman has trinket and the paladin has bubbled and trinketed, blind the shaman and switch and kill him quick. Hopefully your rogue still has cloak for this moment so he can stick on the paladin.

Warlock's role - Set the warlock to focus. Your shaman should have fears under control from the warlock with tremor so spell lock the fire spells. Make sure to devour any fears that the lock may land on the shaman without a tremor. Another thing that really will help is to devour Immolate and Flame Shock from your rogue. Since tremor will take care of the fears, this is a good use of devour. For example, if your spell lock isn't up and you see the lock casting a CB/Incinerate, devour the rogue to deny him the CB/Incin + Conflag combo.

Rogue/destro lock/shaman
Difficulty - Mirror
Kill target - Rogue or shaman
Strategy - Pretty much every RLS mirror we've faced goes for our rogue or our shaman. Both strategies are viable, but the rogue is usually the better kill target. You will want to be spell locking and shocking the lock. Sap the lock and start off on the shaman or the lock's pet. When the rogues come out switch to their rogue, helping your rogue gain control of the other rogue with a Shadowfury. The key to forcing cooldowns to lead to a kill is to hex the shaman, which can then lead into a fear since you can then kill tremor while he's CCed. Either way you will force a trinket and CDs and can then burst the rogue down then, or can outlast until you can hex the shaman again so the rogue will fall. Blind can be used on either the lock, the shaman or you can start with a blind on the rogue before getting on him to bait his trinket (so he's easier to stunlock and kill).

More to come, continually being edited and added. As always, let me know if you have questions.

__________________

Last edited by Canadianpimp; August 15, 2009 at 04:30 AM..

4 members liked this post. 0 members didn't.

August 15, 2009, 04:53 AM	#2 (permalink)
Supernex Status: Sit vis vobiscum. Character Info Supernex 80 Gnome Warlock Drak'thul US PvP Guild: Epic Drops Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 0/20/51	Re: 3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman Excellent! I currently play on a RLS, (I started out on a Wizard Cleave: Lock/Sham/RDruid, but the Druid went AWOL from WoW for a while...so I formed a new RLS, and now the Rogue is AWOL, lol)...fun setup. __________________

August 18, 2009, 04:54 PM	#3 (permalink)
Dakou Character Info Dakou 80 Orc Warlock Akama US PvP Guild: Lovely Bunch of Coconuts Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 3/13/55	Re: 3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman I just joined a 3v3 team as DK/Hunter/Lock. I have been gearing up and watching videos. So far no matches though.

August 18, 2009, 07:57 PM	#4 (permalink)
McColgan Character Info Dot 80 Human Warlock Thunderhorn Euro PvE Guild: The Rise Of Brutality Talent Spec: 54/0/17	Re: 3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman hey, awesome post (Y) however im currently playing shammy lock hunter instead of rogue.....can you give any advice on this comp...i asume its pretty similar to shammy lock rogue. it seems we choose our nuke target and basically pop everything during heroism while a tying to get a full cc roatation on the healer usually. however im playing affliction in 2's again and wonderign how viable affliction is in ths comp? much more sustained damage and pressure but we have to outlast more fights and i dnt know if hunter/rogues are good at that with all the cleaves going around. should i jst leave and get a shadow priest or warr druid if i am to stay affliction?

August 19, 2009, 01:18 AM	#5 (permalink)
Vanbodian Character Info Vanbodian 80 Blood Elf Warlock Barthilas Oceania PvP Guild: Hidden Leaf	Re: 3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman Hey McColgan, What kind of hunter are you playing with? Affliction doesn't work with a rogue in high end arena. Definitely get a shadow priest, shadow play is back baby!

August 19, 2009, 05:39 PM	#6 (permalink)
McColgan Character Info Dot 80 Human Warlock Thunderhorn Euro PvE Guild: The Rise Of Brutality Talent Spec: 54/0/17	Re: 3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman hey....my hunter is sv at the moment bt think he is changing to bm..not sure...... i ment playing affliction with hunter shammy...at the moment i am destro and its crazy damage but wasnt sure how viable aff is with hunter and shammy....seeing the games are going to be much longer. but failing that..yep heard good things about SP lock shammy....jst hard to find decent SP's on my server.....failing that....good old warr dk druid seems to be strong again....or il try wizardcleave

August 20, 2009, 06:19 AM	#7 (permalink)
Canadianpimp Character Info Kobekid 80 Human Warlock Kilrogg US PvE Guild: Good With Ketchup Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 0/13/58	Re: 3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman We often face a very tough affliction lock/MM hunter/resto shaman team on our BG who's rated 2700. We've never really come close to beating them, so being affliction is definitely viable with that comp, probably moreso than destro. You want to roll dots on everythign you can and switch a lot pretty much. Get as many UAs up as possible and use frost traps and ports to kite. It's a very frustrating comp to play against since it is hard to put in damage with shaman shocks and hunter/lock peels. __________________

August 29, 2009, 09:08 PM	#8 (permalink)
ShY Character Info deathbeckons Orc Warlock Lightning's Blade US PvP Profile: Blizzard Armory	Re: 3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman RLS is definitely fun but I wish our shaman actually went resto instead of being elemental. We sort of hit a ceiling at around 2260 as triple DPS but it was nice having people congratulate us on getting so far. =X

October 15, 2009, 12:07 AM	#9 (permalink)
Terrabad71 Character Info Terrabad 80 Gnome Rogue Kilrogg US PvE Guild: Good with ketchup Talent Spec: 44/2/25	Re: 3v3 guide: Rogue/lock/shaman Hey sexy wanna play RLS sometime or RLDK