1. #1

    Cool Rogue/RestoDruid 1700+ 2s Questions/Need exp advice

    Hello everyone here in rogue forms!
    I want to be as polite as possible and find out if anyone else has been pushing 2'a with rouge/resto druid this season. Currently my partner and I have been playing the last few weeks but bounce around the 1750's now and have a lot of trouble with a few of the comps we often see. I was curious if anyone had any tips for us as we encounter rogue/Mage and lock/paladin a lot in arenas. We don't seem to have much luck vs these comps and have a very low win % against them. I'm currently running combat with doa. Any tips/tricks/secrets would be very helpful.
    Our current strat for rogue/Mage is to try and sit the mage and cc the rogue as much as possible but we're constantly unable to keep pressure on the Mage.
    We currently handle lock/paly by sitting on the lock and keeping the paladin cc'ed with some minor switches here and there through bubbles and what not. Like I said, any advise from people who run this comp would be fantastic. Thanks all for taking the time to read/reply!

  2. #2
    Holy Paladins are definitely kind of a hard counter for all Rogues at the moment, especially if you don't have an offensive purge (which you don't get with Rogue/RDruid).
    Rogue/Mage should be a bit more of a tossup, but does require very intelligent use of CC breakers and avoiding some other CC.

    For Lock/HPal:
    Issues:
    You're going to have a lot of trouble killing the HPal here, since he's basically going to have a Bubble any time you want to burst. An Aff Lock is also going to put out a lot more pressure if left alone to freecast (and an HPal puts out a lot of pressure for a healer with Denounce spam too).

    Possible Solutions:
    Kill the Paladin
    If you want to kill the Paladin, you may have the most success doing so with a hard swap on him when he has no trinket. If you lock him out with a Step/Kick (not much reason to run Burst of Speed against this comp) or Deadly Throw (you may want Nerve Strike to keep the Lock's damage down), then he won't be able to Bubble for 5 seconds. Getting a Kill in 5 seconds is going to be pretty hard though and will probably require help from your RDruid with Heart of the Wild (however, he may want to be running Soul of the Forest instead to handle this comp's sustained pressure).

    Your other option is trying to force the Paladin to bubble out of a CC to save the Lock. Ideally you want to save your burst cooldowns here, and you're also going to probably need to force his trinket first. You may be able to force Trinket with Blind into a Sap, and get the Bubble with Bash into 3 Cyclones, but if the Lock is playing smart defensively there's a good chance the Paladin will just sit the CC.

    Otherwise you're basically just trying to PvE the Paladin down and hope he makes a few mistakes and the Lock doesn't peel much at all.

    Kill the Lock
    The Lock will take 20% less damage while a pet is up, but resummoning it can be difficult. If he has a pet that is (a lot will run Grimoire of Sacrifice). Killing the pet should be quite doable though with a little cleave damage (Blade Flurry if you're Combat; Death from Above; and your Druid picking up some free combo points on it if it follows you behind a pillar) and a quick swap.

    You can run Nerve Strike and focus most Kicks on the Lock to bring his damage output way down (plus Garrote and CoS).

    They don't really have an offensive purge either, so your RDruid should do alright keeping you up for a while.

    You'll then focus a lot of CC on the HPal, especially during burst windows. Bash into 3x Cyclone... Blind into Sap... even Kidney Shot into Sap. You can use Step/Kick to interrupt a heal as well, which could then be followed up with a Bash and Cyclone (combined that's about 19 seconds of CC on the HPal if executed perfectly).

    Your RDruid will want to have really good positioning too to try to make it really hard for the Lock to get any casts off on her.

    On some maps you can also prevent Demonic Gateway from getting placed if you Sprint at the start and then Shadowstep/Sap the Lock ASAP.

    Either way, this will probably go deep into dampening.

    For Rogue/Mage:
    Issues:
    Rogue/Mage has a lot of tools to turn the match into a 2v1 for an extended period of time. If you Trinket a stun, you're probably going to be Blinded instantly and then Sapped or Poly'd out of it (probably sitting 22 seconds of CC for trinketing). They also have some very good burst, although the sustained pressure isn't nearly as scary.

    Possible Solutions:
    First off, you want to deal with the CC as best as you can. That means for example your RDruid shifting any Polymorph casts to avoid getting Poly'd. If your Druid gets Deeped, then the Rogue should be ready with a Step/Kick, Gouge, or Garrote to stop the Poly. The Druid should also be quick to dispel Poly and roots on the Rogue.

    You also want to use your own CC to reduce their pressure as much as possible. For example, if the Rogue opens on one of you, the other should look to Bash/Cheap Shot him if possible, especially if he's Combat and popped AR or Sub and popped Shadow Dance. Also try to keep Faerie Fire/Faerie Swarm up on the Rogue.

    Because they're a burst comp, your RDruid should be running Tree and HoTW.
    Combat Readiness is probably your best bet here, as well as Internal Bleeding (whether you're Sub or Combat).

    Your ideal opener is probably on the Rogue (if you can somehow also Sap the Mage, you're golden).

    Save trinket as long as possible... you may need it for Blind.

    You both should have a good number of defensives to rotate for burst as long as it doesn't become 2v1 for too long.

    Kill the Rogue
    More than likely your best bet is to kill the Rogue. The Mage is going to have more outs with double ice block, unless he does something really foolish like yolo block and then Blink. The Mage is also tankier than you might think with Flameglow (and he can spellsteal your Druid's HoTs) and can kite extremely well.

    Ice Block does mean it will be a little more difficult to keep the Mage CC'ed though. However, if you're able to hold on to CoS until you have a good burst chance on the Rogue, there's little the Mage can do to peel you.

    The Rogue will probably be trying to hold on to their trinket. If they do use it, then the next time stun DR is off, you should have a great opportunity to kill (you can set this up with a Blind -> Sap to reset the DR too without him being any threat).

    A couple other tricks: You can Shadowstep in/out of a Ring of Frost as long as their back isn't facing the ring itself, and you can use Death from Above to get in/out (although more likely out, as it does give them ample time to move to the ring going in). The Rogue will have a lot fewer outs too with Faerie Swarm on him... if he is trying to use Evasion you can still Kidney Shot him from behind or Cheap Shot him from anywhere (if want to be 100% sure, you can Shadowstep/Kidney Shot).

    I like to run Shadowstep against this comp too since it allows me to both a) Step/Kick some important CC from the Mage like Ring or Poly, and b) If the Rogue tries to BoS away, a simple Step/Shiv is usually more than enough to finish him off, and is less susceptible to you being on global when he pops BoS and then not being able to Shiv/keep up. Your RDruid can also easily handle him running with Faerie Swarm.

    Disclaimer: I've played Rogue/RDruid and Rogue/HPal around 2k in 2s this season, although I haven't played much since 6.1 came out. I've played as both Sub and Combat (probably 70% Sub and 30% Combat).
    Last edited by dak1; 2015-04-22 at 05:28 PM.

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