Teach me, great masters, how is it possible to defeat hunters and mages in a 1v1 fight ? I find that no matter how good I try to play there is no winning against these guys between their insane amount of cc and burst.
Mages seem doable. I haven't won a battle against a competent mage but the fight seems doable in theory. I don't get caught in deep freeze, it just seems the mage can beat me just fine with only novas, ice lances and frostfire bolts while keeping his distance.
Hunters seem utterly impossible for me. I have even been beaten by hunters in 4 or 5 seconds. If I somehow manage to avoid their cretinous burst, there is no way I can push enough damage through their scatter-trap combos and detterence while the pet hits like a truck. No point killing the pet either as then they'll just spam their cc at you and find a 5 sec window to ress it.
Mages can be either really easy or a real pain for you. Player skill and talent choices make an obvious difference. Blazing Speed for example significantly complicates the fight for you. Clever mages also know that Ice Block or dismissing his pet will remove your Karma, which can be real inconvenient if you are in a pinch.
I can't write a script for what to do, as the outcome cannot be predicted, but here are some tips.
-Use Healing Elixirs talent. I recommend this against every class, it significantly increases your healing output assuming you use it every time its up and you need the healing. Diffuse Magic may seem like a logical choice, as it removes magic effects (roots) and works as an excellent way to counter the mage's burst, but Healing Elixirs still provide overall better survival bonus.
-You don't have to sit in roots helplessly. Use Tiger's Lust to remove it, Paralysis to interrupt casts, Healing Spheres on yourself to recover a bit or even Spinning Fire Blossom to do some damage.
-Keep on track of the mage's Fingers of Frost stacks, this allows their spells to act as if you were frozen. This means Deep Freeze without roots, Ice Lance with quadruple damage, benefit from Shatter/Frost mastery. They always get 1 stack from Water Elemental Freeze, 1 periodically from Frozen Orb as long its doing damage. This helps you to judge which abilities to use. For example, after being frozen by Water Elemental, it may not be wise to break the root with Tiger's Lust, only to be Deep Frozen a second later. You can use addons to track them, like TellMeWhen.
-Don't be afraid of Deep Freeze, UNLESS the mage uses his burst (Frozen Orb / Icy Veins) along it, in which case you must immediately remove it and consider using defensives. Other than that I recommend just sitting it, if you can afford it.
-If you want to use Karma, use it on his pet. It's less likely that he will dismiss it than use Ice Block to remove it.
-Try to have Transcendence spirit up during the duel. In cases of being trapped in Ring of Frost for example, you can simply teleport out of it. Also good for getting close to the mage when he is near it. What I like to do before I start a duel, is that set up Transcendence and 3 Healing Spheres around it.
My duels against mages roughly go like this:
Mage opens with invis, in which case I paralyze him as soon as he becomes visible. This doesn't always work, and he polys me first, in which case I sit the opener (unless he bursts right away, in which case I trinket/brew and use defensives). If he doesn't start with invis or after opener, I paralyze him and use Expel Harm for 2 Chi as I walk to him. I break the CC with Jab + interrupt silence and immediately use Fists of Fury. He will sit almost the half of the stun until he blinks.
If he hasn't used Water Elemental Freeze as this point, I simply roll towards him and root him in place. There is a good chance he will pop defensives here. If he used Water Elemental Freeze before the blinked, I simply just sit that, expecting Deep Freeze, which I will either sit or remove depending if he uses cooldowns or not and then proceed to do the same I described earlier. After this, I try to keep him slowed permanently and do as much damage as I can and following the tips above. Try to get a situation where he blinks out of your root, and then Flying Serpent Kick / Roll over and stun him with Leg Sweep. This will most likely force his Ice Block / Trinket.
Hunter can be harder, good hunters are a problem even for me. But this is what I aim to do.
-Attempt to make his Bestial Wrath useless. You can time your Grapple Weapon for every Bestial Wrath for example. Opening with Paralysis will result in him using Bestial Wrath, in which case you can counter it disarm. If he trinkets that, you can follow up with Leg Sweep and do some nice pressure on him.
-Make a good use of your healing abilities; Healing Elixirs, Expel Harm, Chi Wave on cooldown, Healing Sphere if you need further healing.
-Best time to use Karma probably is when he uses Readiness (as of patch 5.3) and uses his burst again. Or if you have no other means of countering his burst, or simply cannot handle the damage.
-Pop Xuen early in the fight, he does a nice cleave that damages the pet too. In most cases to such low HP that you can finish it off.
-If being kited and you have no tools to close gap, attack the pet, farm Tigereye Brew stacks. Use your Chi wave on it to get faster heal ticks.
-Try to keep him always slowed / rooted. He can remove movement impairing effects with Master's Call, in which case you can respond with Paralysis into Fists of Fury. Or just wait for Paralysis to end, it has usually ran out by then.
-If you need to recover, you can Flying Serpent Kick + Roll far away from him or paralyzing / CCing him to buy yourself time to use your healing abilities. This applies for against every class.
The Cataclysm Classic Pre-Expansion Patch Arrives April 30
The Cataclysm Classic Pre-Expansion Patch Arrives April 30
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