Shadow 3s - Team Comps that Work

[lobocito]

Hey guys, done some searching and haven't found a thread to the effect (besides a few pretty brief "wut should i run" threads. So, lets talk Shadow 3s compositions and what you guys have found that does work and doesn't work!

Effective Comps
Rogue/Priest/Shaman (RPS) - Probably our strongest comp right now, being dragged into the limelight by The Gosu Crew and Tmwizk and his tremendous talents. Rogue slows help us kite extremely effectively and heavy DOT damage allows for lots of pressure and target swaps. Kicks, stuns, and 30 second silences produce tight but frequent kill windows. Mania and The Last Word are kinda "off-spec" talents you can fit into this comp.

Priest/Hunter/Druid (PHD) - I actually haven't seen any discussion about this setup but this has been my favorite comp so far this season. The control this comp can provide is insane. Silence, three stuns, cyclones, 30 second traps, the list goes on. We've had the most success with the hunter playing BM. One of our favorite tricks is if the hunter misses the trap, to try to MC the healer into it. Last night probably one in three games the healer would trinket the MC right into the trap. As long as the druid spams lots of cyclones it is very easy to build up a substantial advantage with this comp, force defensives and take the kill.

Fire Mage/Priest/Shaman ("FPS") - This isn't a really super effective comp but it is SUPER fun. I found the fire mage was usually being tunnelled no matter what I did so I was playing maximum burst, running Dark Ascension and Psyfiend. This comp feels like it really only has two windows to get a kill: right off the opener or around the 1 minute mark. Go for a poly or a hex (whoever isn't pressured) on the healer and hold silence for the trinket. Silence immediately out of the trinket and follow up with psychic horror and a fear. The fire mage, psyfiend and mindbender will be absolutely murdering the kill target. Try to pre-cast mass dispel if your kill target is a paladin or a mage.

Boom/Spriest/Rsham - As another user suggested, this is a ridiculously easy comp to play. The peels you have with the Boomkin are nonstop and the burst is pretty crazy. Everyone on the team is capable of laying down a huge, momentum shifting CC to get the kill. The key to making this comp EZ is a boomkin who knows how to use his cyclone, the rest pretty much plays itself.

Rogue/Priest/MW Monk - Actually my most successful comp so far this season. Due to the nature of the CC's the monk can bring out, this comp has tighter kill windows and relies heavily on cleaving and target switching. In my experience we usually do about 1/2 the damage of the other team, with this being one of my most off-heal intensive specs, but are able to seize control of the game at around the 1 minute mark and usually hang onto it with an iron grip.

Frost/Priest/Druid - "GODCOMP" Personally I haven't played GodComp yet. But traditionally this comp is so known because of the complete control it offers. This comp can and should perpetually have one player removed from the fight and can pretty easily make 5-10 second windows of pure 3v1 with good coordination. It is my understanding that usually holy paladins can fit this comp pretty well as an alternative to the druid.

Ineffective Comps
Ret/Priest/Shaman - I've run this a fair amount and we haven't been able to make it work. i actually love playing low tier 2s with my ret friend and it feels like the classes should combine well but in 3s it feels like ret/shadow really struggles to match opposing teams pressure. Maybe a mistweaver or a disc priest to bring a little more offense out of the healer would make the ret/priest combo work.

Warrior/Priest/Druid - This just felt awful. We got a couple of wins just having the warrior stick to the healer while the druid and I try to 2v2 the DPS but unless the healer lets himself get WAY out of LOS we felt like we didn't have nearly enough control over the fight with this setup. IMO Warriors need another quick interrupt class to be effective. A shaman could be the missing link between warriors and priests.

Outlaw/Priest/X My experience with outlaw is probably more related to the rogue I play with, who is a friend of mine who somehow consistently manages to do 1/2 my damage. But outlaw and priest just don't feel good together.


So, what have you guys run and what have you liked? What comps have you made work that is a little unusual? What are your "musts" for an arena comp?

[Gungnir]

Bit strange that God comp wasn't mentioned in regards to "comps that work".

[lobocito]

well thats why I made the post! I haven't really seen anyone running god comp this time around and I haven't tried it myself. Well, I played maybe 4 games with it but my mage was terribad and basically spent the entire time running around aimlessly polymorphing stuff without ever putting out any pressure. In general I haven't liked playing with frost mage but that is probably more related to the player than the class. And is druid still the ideal healer for that comp or do you sub in something else this time around?

[Deleted]

RPS, God comp, Shadow boom rshaman is all great.

The later is insanely easy to play.

[lobocito]

Thanks for the suggestions Faylo. I actually played some shadowboom last night and you are right, it is a great comp and is pretty much faceroll. I was playing with the last word and the druid was dropping some excellent offensive cyclones that pretty much precluded any healing whatsoever on whoever our kill target was. The cyclone peels are clutch.

[Drench]

Rogue/Priest/MW Monk Is my favorite comp so far. Monks healing output with your saves makes you able to play the long game.

Was an easy 2k+

[lobocito]

Shadow boom rsham is becoming my favorite comp by far. I've played the comp with a great boom and baddd healer and great healer and bad (but overgeared) boom, both times with no comms, and have pushed up to 1775 with both before some lame shit knocked us back down to 1750. If I had more time to play this week I'd probably be able to secure 1800 easily with this comp. Even with the boomkin not doing any effective CC, our recovery is insane so we can dig our way out of a big hole and the burst damage is really, really good. I actually end up using void eruption fairly frequently right now, I just try to make sure the enemies don't have their burst before I do so.

[Ethidia]

You can't call the SPriest/Hunter/Druid comp PHD, there is another comp called PHD which is DK/Hunter/Hpal. I don't know if it is still called it, but SPriest/Hunter/RSham used to be called ScatterPlay, so it is kind of ScatterPlay, just with a druid instead of RSham.

Just so you don't confuse people, because I was really confused seeing PHD in the priest section

[bradyopop]

You can't call the SPriest/Hunter/Druid comp PHD, there is another comp called PHD which is DK/Hunter/Hpal. I don't know if it is still called it, but SPriest/Hunter/RSham used to be called ScatterPlay, so it is kind of ScatterPlay, just with a druid instead of RSham.

Just so you don't confuse people, because I was really confused seeing PHD in the priest section

That's called PHDK...lol