Advice on tactics in 3s for a new lock

[moode]

Please excuse the long post and please avoid l2play responses because that is what I am trying to do. If you want to skip all the ranting just head on down to the last two lines. I have searched all over for any guides or posts related to this specific comp or playing affliction in 3s and have not found much of anything. I can find lots of info on Affliction/rDruid 2s but those strats don't really convert to 3s.

Here is my toon, feel free to laugh and point. I have a basic cookie cutter afflic PVP spec. I am considering replacing corruption glyph with shadowflame glyph to help kiting against melee.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...edivh&n=Chewee

So I have never played arena or BGs as a dpser. I have been resto druid or resto shaman. I switched to playing a warlock because it was the only alliance toon I had and I wanted to play with some co-workers.

Here is my issue. I am on a 3s team afflic/unholy/rDruid. I have done a lot of arena as a resto shaman with a DK partner so I am familiar with arenas, what procs to look out for, that kind of thing but my partners are not real familiar with arena. The druid is an unbelievable healer and I am sure he will be able to carry us higher than we probably deserve. All of our gear is pretty poor right now. Me and the DK are sitting around 500-600 resilience in mostly Titan-forged/Hateful/Deadly type gear. I am running right at 20k hp and 2100 sp WITH fel armor (I know it is low but hell I have only been 80 for about 3-4 weeks). The DK and druid both wear mostly ulduar gear in spots where they don't have PVP gear.

My question is with this comp what role should I be playing in the matches? It seems like f'n chaos in every match. Do I dot up this guy, do I kite that guy, do I fear the healer. Bob's got a debuff I need to get off, our healer is getting his face melted by a mage, etc, etc. By the time I finish fearing, peeling , devouring, or spell locking I have no dots on anyone. Our goal is to be a high pressure team to put the healer in a bad situation and then finish someone off with a stragulate/spell lock/cc chain on the healer.

Problem I am running into is I seem to have to make a decision between damage or doing all the other stuff (peels, cc, dispel) all the while trying to escape a warrior/rogue pounding my face in. Is it viable to have the DK be the primary damage dealer and I try to control the match with fears, dispels, and kiting? Is my damage secondary to me controlling the match?
Should I focus more on the cc/devour/spell lock side or do I focus on maximizing the number of dots I have spread to everyone? I assume there is a middle ground somewhere and once you find it you become a good lock in arenas.

Basically, if anyone has any tips for playing an affliction lock in 3s it would be appreciated because I assume 90% of playing an affliction lock is the same no matter the comp. We are not aspiring to be gladiator or anything like that. I would be extremely happy if we got to 1800 next season.

One of our problems is aggressive teams. The ones that come out of the gate mounted and charging before we can assign who is on who (seems coincidental that these teams almost always have a warrior). If we can survive the initial onslaught from those teams the tide usually turns in our favor pretty quick but we have a tendency to get zerged down.

So again, anyone who has run this comp or just general affliction advice for 3s (not 2s please, that is a completely different animal)

I would be more specific on asking for strats against certain comps but really right now while we are all learning every comp gives us trouble. We either gain control at the start with timely cc or we get zerged. Maybe if I get a few general replies I can be a little more specific later.

Thanks to anyone that actually offers advice.

[Dizzygnome]

Here is my toon, feel free to laugh and point. I have a basic cookie cutter afflic PVP spec. I am considering replacing corruption glyph with shadowflame glyph to help kiting against melee.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...edivh&n=Chewee

You have curse of exhaustion, I don't see why you'd want to use shadowflame.

[nimhen]

Not trying to be an ass or anything, but I would suggest browsing the AJ forums.

http://www.arenajunkies.com/forums.php

Lot of good basic strats, ideas, suggestions. I'd recommend also looking at some threads about other comps, maybe comps that are giving you trouble and see what they are having problems with.

[moode]

Not trying to be an ass or anything, but I would suggest browsing the AJ forums.

http://www.arenajunkies.com/forums.php

Lot of good basic strats, ideas, suggestions. I'd recommend also looking at some threads about other comps, maybe comps that are giving you trouble and see what they are having problems with.

Been over there a good bit. There is a guide for affliction/druid 2s which gave me some ideas those ideas don't really hold the same when you add a 3rd.

And I have found over the years, that this site is a little more accepting of players asking for general advice than AJs.

You have curse of exhaustion, I don't see why you'd want to use shadowflame.

70% snare > 30% snare. CoE works fine if the person you are trying to kite is at range and you are not snared but once they are on top of you it is worthless. I would probably look at getting rid of CoE if I got the glyph but haven't thought about where I would put the point.

[gherkin]

Affliction isn't about damage, its about control and distraction. You're there to make them go "What the shit?" You're there to slowly whittle down all their hp's equally so that when you finally have an opportunity to burn someone the healer doesn't need a lot of CC. You're the ranged interrupt. You keep their healer in combat. You make the other team angry.

As such, you're always the target too.

Searing Pain is your friend.
Nightfall procs can really freak the shit out of a healer who thinks he's now the focus target.
Learn how to think 10 seconds ahead of time so you can maximize your teleports.

[moode]

Affliction isn't about damage, its about control and distraction. You're there to make them go "What the shit?" You're there to slowly whittle down all their hp's equally so that when you finally have an opportunity to burn someone the healer doesn't need a lot of CC. You're the ranged interrupt. You keep their healer in combat. You make the other team angry.

As such, you're always the target too.

Searing Pain is your friend.
Nightfall procs can really freak the shit out of a healer who thinks he's now the focus target.
Learn how to think 10 seconds ahead of time so you can maximize your teleports.

Thanks, I started to realize this may be my role last night amongst the chaos. I started under the impression that if I could get a full set of dots ticking on two targets it would cause the healer too much damage to heal through and the DK could burst one of them down.

After about 25 games played this never worked out and i really do like the idea of pissing people off.

[Kelpie]

Your playstyle also can have a lot to do with the type of strat your team is running with.

Keeping healer in combat and CC'd is always important, but its your job to peel dps off your healer when they start to focus them, especially if its 2x melee or when the situation involves a frost mage. CoE, Howl and silence are always useful here. Don't be afraid to use death coil ( don't waste it on a Cloak'd Rogue ) to give yourself time to get a proper fear off.

I recommend you get ahold of Natur's Cast bars, specifically for tracking DR. Fear their healer twice, fear the dps until healer is off DR, then immediately go back to fearing healer. Also, DC is not a fear, its a horror effect, so just because the healer is immune to fear doesn't mean you can't get another couple seconds of CC off (in the case that your DK is close to finishing one of theirs).

It is ridiculously aggravating to feel like you've spent more time silenced and feared than actually doing stuff with your character.

[moode]

Fear their healer twice, fear the dps until healer is off DR, then immediately go back to fearing healer.

I think I am going to try and see how this goes tonight. We can also throw a cyclone on the healer while we wait on the fear DR to run its course. We have always thought this comp was about massive control but I couldn't seem to keep control and put out alot of damage. Seems the damage takes a back seat to control and should help us win more.

Thanks for the input.

[gherkin]

Two full sets of dots ticking would be nice, but a single druid can heal through that and still have time to Cyclone your DK. You have to do this while your dk applies the pressure while you CC the healer to force them to panic-heal and blow cooldowns while staying alive through the healer's two partners.

If you have a druid healer, you guys need to work on a "who saves who's ass" configuration. You need to peel off Druid. They need to peel off you.

Basically, you're the only class in the game that can't save themself, can't kill anything by yourself without dying first, etc. That said, you're the most powerful class in the game if left alone. You have to figure out how to be left alone long enough to piss them off and cause a win.