How can a healer survive in PvP

[Deleted]

I'm currently learning a fire mage + shadow priest combo and most of the time shadow priest is trained it is either killed in 10-15 seconds, or survived because of dispersion and then dies because of further training.

Is chain ccing the only solution? The problem with that is that being two dpsers we do not really have a chance to stay long in the fight without killing something. If we go "casual ccing" we're dead since by the time we have some control we'd be about 50% health and then we'll start panicking for killing or healing.
I was wondering if there is an easy solution to keep the priest up but without wasting much nuking.

It doesn't have to be a lot, 1 minute may be enough. But it can't have excessive sheeping since that is a long cast with DRs, or similar methods.

[artem123]

your mage has to control imo

[ambigiouslynamed]

huh? shadow priests arent healers or am i missing something?

[Severusss]

It's all about control. Frost would work a lot better imo for that combo. It all basically revolves around the mage peeling like crazy the whole match to the point where you can put out enough pressure to force them defensive and then keeping chain cc on the healer or non kill target while the spriest bursts.

[Ynna]

huh? shadow priests arent healers or am i missing something?

I think s/he's playing with a Shadow Priest and a Mage, him/herself being a Discipline Priest. (Well, probably not Holy.)

[Krimson]

The joys of Shadow Priest PvP. You will be the focus target in arena 90% of the time because you are the easy kill. Your mage partner needs to be using his/her cooldowns to protect you while hopefully creating enough space for you to get your dots up and create pressure.

You need to be aggressive as a SP in arena. Fight on your own terms and try to get the jump on pressuring the opponents with chain cc's and big damage. If you end up on your backfoot as a SP you will probably not recover.

If dieing really frustrates you, you can always go Disc!

You should also be trying to use dispersion smartly. Use it to prevent damage rather then when you have 10% health left as a hail mary. Learn how to recognize a burst phase from your opponents so you can disperse through their burst. (ie: rogue shadow dancing on you).

[Vicarious]

couple of tips to throw out there:

Panicking is bad you will lose games if you panic, stay calm and assess the situation

Fire mages require dispel protection to play well and VT isn't good enough you need an aff lock or he should go frost. I wish VT was good enough to scare people but it isn't and you will just have the enemy strip everyone of all dots and completely lose momentum.

Mind spike is your friend if you are unable to help CC you need to use the only method of peeling available to you, pressure. You can easily have you and the mage do enough burst to force people to come off your healer or suffer the consequences. The mage will need to know his DRs and use frost novas effectively too in either spec. Against enemy healers you can get a lot of mana burns off if you root them with paralysis horror them and even fear all in a row with frost novas in between. Careful control is best for your comp regardless of spec, also always get up next to pillars and boxes it sounds like(although I don't know for certain) that you aren't doing that if you are dying to people training you as shadow. Fade dispersion ring of frost frost nova and dragons breath, it shouldn't be an easy kill.

Lastly the priest is going to need less constant peeling and more long duration peeling. By this I mean if you poly a rogue for 4 seconds great now hes energy capped and he comes right back, doesn't help a whole lot but if I have him on me until he pops CDs and you poly him then when hes at full energy and blanket silence the healer so he cant be dispelled and now there's a ring of frost on both of them and the rogue gets a nice impact stun as he trys to re-stealth now I'm out of range out of los full health drinking and didn't even need to use a CD

Disc isn't going to be the best for this comp its just sort of a weird setup, but regardless of mages spec he will need to be the main control of the group and help you with timed burst and good hard swaps when you can CC the healer out of los etc and the disc should be ready to make use of mind control to chain off the end of your CC while you make a kill if he can. The disc should get some on use sp trinket like the vp spirit one or the resil one from the pvp vendor because he will need it in some cases to keep you guys up, him being trained should never be the issue when played right (although it can be against TSG and the like, they are just going to be a problem because they eat disc priests) Lastly your job is going to change all the time well timed burst then solid control for a few seconds help peel with the mage when he calls for it get a healer in los with a few roots and get your priest to PI you for spam mana burns and he should get a few off as well (the only real special thing about this setup is the double burn)

Similar to PMR you will need to play well together and communicate your cc well to pull things off, you can't panic and if you are being forced out into an area you will lose in don't be afraid to break off and reset behind the boxes/pillars

[TaurenNinja]

From a very general viewpoint, PvP is all about heavy control and smart counters.

Not even a healer is able to survive 2 DPS on him, provided everyone is at the same level gearwise and skillwise. A more squishy healer like Priest and Druid can even die to just one DPS (especially Unholy DKs who are very good at killing healers).

Damage is higher than healing, always.
So, to be able to survive, you need to CC a lot and outsmart the others, counter their burst attempts by CCing them as soon as they want to start doing massive damage, purge all their important buffs, dispel their biggest debuffs, and try to gain every little advantage you are able to get.
Also, always be aware of *everything*. Punish enemies by slowing them if they are in a bad position (can be more efficient than a full CC) and things like that.
The really subtle things often grant you a win.

Also, don't just spam CC all the time, because of cooldowns and diminishing returns. You have to create pressure then line up/coordinate CCs for a kill.

In a heavy CC team such as spriest/mage you can keep the healer pretty much locked down 90% of the time, so you also have to use that (know your strengths!). If that healer is able to heal freely for just a few seconds he will be able to reverse everything you've tried so far and put you behind easily.

[Deleted]

Sry, it was meant to be shadow priest, the title got messed up.

Yeah the problem is with 2 DPSes there appears to be mainly time for nuking. CCing can be used and it must be used on higher ratings but it appears it must be kept to a minimum. The reason for that is that since 2 DPSes can't heal or heal properly, they can not afford going 50% health and then try to kill something since they might be killed on the process later. This is especially important when going against 2 other DPSes.

There is a possibility to keep all burning cooldowns for later, however, that might not be possible, and in many classes CC cooldown = DPS cooldown.

Practically if I go frost and I try to "protect" the priest, I may do it for 20-30 sec. But, that may waste a lot if not most of the damage.

[Deleted]

Practically if I go frost and I try to "protect" the priest, I may do it for 20-30 sec. But, that may waste a lot if not most of the damage.

These 20-30 sec the Priest can nuke free and use his own ccs to silence and horror, and get a nice burst onto the free target, you can't make up for that by playing fire.

[Deleted]

The mage should be frost and try to overlap CC on the dps with blanket silences on the healer so he cannot be dispelled. Say a warrior charges you, mage freezes him, banket silence healer, shield yourself and move away. Repeat this process until dps uses his trinket, sheep dps deep healer and nuke him with blanket silences afterwards. Basically kill whatever doesn't have trinket up.