Controlling Paladin burst cool downs against massive cc chains

[saett]

Hello all,

First let me thank anyone who takes the time to read and respond to this post, the community has been a huge help to me as I transitioned from a casual player into a more avid fan of PVP. I find myself currently having issues against a number of comps with large amounts of CC poly, fear, cyclone, and so on.

My largest problem as of late has been dealing with finding a proper time to burst on an opponent and not wasting my burst phases hovering in the air holding my wings. Druid exp with cyclone spam have been a real issue and even though as a paladin I'm staying on target the majority of the time I don't seem to be gaining traction on countering enough of the CC. My teammate in 2's has been disc who to be fair could probably do a little better job on his end with the pressure but overall is a good player.

I've been currently trying to work diminishing returns and timing my burst around the cc I can not eat with my trinket but I feel like I can do more. So outside of saying rebuke more cry less =) I was hoping someone might have an intelligent guide on diminishing returns per cc type or just your personal experiences on how your countering the massive amount of cc.

No I will not roll DK

[pld]

I did some 2s with a priest (he decided to play Holy though) and to counter getting constantly CC'd, we decided to play really aggressively. I started applying pressure early on (popping PVP on-use trinket) until we forced them to use their defensive cooldowns. The priest would help me set up a kill by fearing/MCing/rooting/etc. the non-kill target while I popped all my CD's and tried to blow up our kill target.

Not sure which t2 talent you're using, but the 30 sec stun is really helpful...especially right before you go in for the kill.

We mainly focused on 3s and only did 2s if no one else was on, but reached ~2000 by using this method, haha.

[saett]

I did some 2s with a priest (he decided to play Holy though) and to counter getting constantly CC'd, we decided to play really aggressively. I started applying pressure early on (popping PVP on-use trinket) until we forced them to use their defensive cooldowns. The priest would help me set up a kill by fearing/MCing/rooting/etc. the non-kill target while I popped all my CD's and tried to blow up our kill target.

Not sure which t2 talent you're using, but the 30 sec stun is really helpful...especially right before you go in for the kill.

We mainly focused on 3s and only did 2s if no one else was on, but reached ~2000 by using this method, haha.

I'm doing the same sort of thing, the problem seems to be focused around the general amount of cc neutralizing burst. For instance windwalker/resto lock/priest and mage/anything lol. I can counter mage's pretty easily, but displacer beast to cyclone has been my bane as of late.

[pld]

I'm doing the same sort of thing, the problem seems to be focused around the general amount of cc neutralizing burst. For instance windwalker/resto lock/priest and mage/anything lol. I can counter mage's pretty easily, but displacer beast to cyclone has been my bane as of late.

It may sound silly, but we employed a rule that stated: "If both opponents are up and chances don't look good after xxx mins, we leave".

2s is a very Rock-Paper-Scissors bracket so there are a handful of comps (like you mentioned) which can play off Ret's weaknesses easily. I found Monks (especially a good MW), resto shamans, and warlocks (on Blade's Edge) to be the most difficult. If we were getting the same team or comp over and over again, we would try to catch them off-guard by feigning a target switch and then hard switching after they used their defensive cooldowns. It works maybe once or twice before they wise up, but it wasn't worth the time and rage for us to try and figure out every combo. My only advice for druids is to stick on them as much as possible. I found that if I could force an Incarnation early on (big ugly, super tree form), they'll start blowing Cyclone defensively.

Also, /salute as another New Jerseyian. People might hate us, but we know we're awesome. /fistpump

[saett]

Thanks mate, the real issue for paladin's in 2's at the moment I believe revolves around so much of our damage being tied to burst and the inquisition timer. With enough CC and time off target the DPS impact is tremendous. Going forward I believe 2's will just have to be dual DPS for me even though in 5.4 due to gear scaling i might find my DPS to be just enough to push opponents defensive faster. With dual DPS Ret/Hunt Ret/Enh-Ele or Ret/Feral Both players will have opportunities to produce burst and someone is going to get hit fast and hard. If anyone has experience with playing these comps please feel free to leave some pointers here.

[Omaski]

As a ret pally, i like to play ret/feral b/c it take a load off me since a feral can offheal almost as well as i can and we both have crazy burst along with druid cc all you rly have to do is have good timing and you can win