Ret/Shadow arena 2's - tips and opinions

[Kraniel]

i'm about to start doing arenas this season, and i play ret. my buddie is gearing up his shadow priest. i've not done a comp like this before, and i can't find much (or any) information on the viability of a comp like this for 2v2.

can anybody offer any tips/suggestions, and their opinion of what the biggest challenges will be? any pointers?

i posted this in offy forums (first arena forums, and then paladin formus), and the only single response i got so far is "you're going to get focused alot" (refering to me).

any help would be appreciated. my buddie really wants to play his shadow, and i love my ret, so i really want to try and make it work.

thanks!!!!!

[apepi]

I have not played ret and shadow but me as a boomkin have played ret/boomkin. While I know they are not the same, they are similar. I think your main problem will be the burst classes, warriors, hunter and etc. Everything else, even dps+heal should die because the single dps should not do too much damage to get through both of your off heals.

[Tangra]

I've tried it, it's not terrible. You will be focused a lot. So far, the main problem we have is caster/healer. Mage/holy paladin is nasty, our pressure is really not enough to make a mage sweat (which also trasnslates to the Holy Paladin being able to do damage since he doesn''t have to heal much), so the game revolves around us surviving their cc chains and shatters, we can barely ever get much momentum going. Most other teams are not too bad actually. Mainly Holy Paladins and Restro druids have way too much cc, and we have neighter our own cc or good pressure to compensate for this.

Spec into repent for dps/healer teams usually. Get fist for other teams. Prism seems best, you need divine purpose just so you can heal more reliably, otherwise you get trained as soon as your cooldowns are gone. I recommend many targets switches since your shadow priest will get kited or line of sighted.

[Kraniel]

wow, tangra, very detailed. i appreciate it.

i was actually considering HA over DP b/c my buddie says shadow doesn't really have burst, but HA does'nt help when you're getting chain-cc'd i guess. it sounds like you're describing a battle of attrition, and i can see DP being more viable.

[mmmmmmmBacon]

HA is widely regarded as better for arenas as Ret, since it is guaranteed burst when it is up and you can find a good spot where you can get off the first Hammer of Wrath with it when stacked with Wings.

Paladins are great for starting off cc chains with Fist of Justice: you throw down the stun, at around 5 seconds your priest can drop a Psyfiend right next to the player or psychic scream if he's close enough, and then Psychic Horror or Silence after that.

While your team's burst isn't that great, you can take advantage of a shadow priest's offheals and focus on surviving the other team's cooldowns when fighting other double dps teams, and vs dps/healer teams, it's a matter of landing a nice chain of cc with your stun and fears. Once you've determined that the healer can't break the next full fear, you pop GoAK and let it start ramping up your strength, have your priest buddy fear the healer, and you pop HA+AW+Badge and lay into your target. If you fail, you just wait another 2 minutes to try again.

[akon]

Its so much fun that ppl are still confused DP vs HA.I think ill try again DP since it was more fun imo