The Colosseum: Beffyjunk, Boomkin, pt II
WoW.com: What do you do about rogues?
Beffyjunk: While there are several answers to that question, the best one is: I sick Rieku on them. He is a terrific rogue to play with and does an amazing job peeling rogues off of me.
In addition to having a strong teammate, wise use of your abilities is the only real way to survive a rogue. Barkskin with the glyph makes you pretty much uncrittable for 12 seconds, assuming you have at least 900 Resilience. The use of Typhoon and Faerie Fire are also key ingredients to controlling a rogue.
I have had countless matches where I took a shot in the dark with a Typhoon and broke a rogue's stealth and then forced him to use Cloak of Shadows by keeping Faerie Fire and DoTs up on him. Once those cooldowns are gone, the rogue will inevitably reopen on me, at which point my teammate will harass him while I get Cyclone on his teammate. I then help to burst the rogue. One on one, Boomkin versus a rogue . . . well, I hope that I have some cooldowns at my disposal, and that the rogue does not.
WoW.com: I know you play with Comotu -- how about your other teammates. You mentioned your partner. How did you all come together?
Beffyjunk: Finding my 2v2 partner was some serious luck. We met in a 2v2 skirmish. I was truly shocked to find a rogue that I played so well with in a skirmish of all places. Rieku and I seemed to automatically fall into a rhythm in 2v2 matches, going from 0 rating to 2k rating in our first week together. I had almost given up on finding the perfect teammate to 2v2 with after the arduous process of playing with as many people as possible to find the team that worked best for me.
My 3v3 team has changed composition nearly as often as I change clothes this season. I started with Dobson. He is a really solid Restoration shaman, and a warrior recently renamed Request. We started season 6 with no lofty expectations and managed to push our way to a 2k rating.
Request decided to move on to create a Cleave team. Since then we have played with several mages, warriors and Retribution pallies and managed so stay around 2k. After my success with Rieku in 2v2, I decided to bring him on to our 3v3 team and we have done reasonably well.
Dobson recently left to create a warlock, Resto shaman, rogue 3v3 team, and I wish the best of luck to him. Rieku and I are currently playing with a Discipline priest named Cobaine, and it is going well.
A brief and funny side note. Last night as we were doing 3v3 matches, I got a tell from Request saying that he was 3 points from 2200 on his 3v3. The queue for my 3v3 match popped as I was returning his tell by wishing him luck, only to get a message saying "that character with that name does not exist." It meant he was up against us in the 3v3 match that was about to begin.
Request and I exchanged killing blows to have Rieku and Cobaine 2v2 the remaining Resto druid vs DK match. We won that match, taking away 16 points from our friend and delaying his 2200 achievement. Immediately after our victory, hilarity ensued.
As for my 5v5 team, it's a work in progress. On some days, it is also an exercise in futility. I have an idea of what I would like to see in the future for that team, but only time will tell. I found everyone on the 5v5 team by word of mouth or having met them, when I began the search for certain classes to fill the team. A few names came to mind just from having met them while playing various battlegrounds or PvE encounters.
I like to experiment with different compositions until I find something that has great synergy. As of yet, we really haven't fully accomplished that in the 5v5 bracket. I remain optimistic about the future of this 5v5 team, though I do intend to rename it next season. The current name "rofl my copter" is due to me inheriting lead of this team last season, I did not choose it.
WoW.com: Okay, so when the gates open, how do you personally try and set up for the match? What are you looking to do first?
Beffyjunk: First thing we do is identify our opposition and work out what we are attacking first and coordinate our crowd control. In an ideal situation in a 2v2 match, one of the enemy players will be focused for a long CC chain. Rieku will Sap one of them, and we open up DPS on the other one.
As Sap breaks, I will Cyclone him three times, one after another. In most situations, the CC target will be forced to use his trinket, at which point he gets hit with Blind. At this point, we either have already killed someone or we are looking to reset the fight in some way.
WoW.com: Which actual attacks do you use? I assume you don't Moonfire spam, but which are your key attacks in a "PvP rotation?"
Beffyjunk: Generally, I like to open with a Starfire cast when the opportunity is available. It has the potential to crit for around 10k in my PvP gear and if it does crit I get an Eclipse proc out of it. This increases my damage with Wrath significantly. I will usually spam Wrath and keep up both my Insect Swarm and Moonfire DoTs as the fight goes on.
If I get focused, my rotation becomes more situational. If a melee goes after me, I will use Nature's Grasp and then hit him with as many Wrath casts as possible while he approaches. Once the melee gets to me, he gets rooted and I will attempt to create some distance between us. At that point, I like to summon my Treants and Shadowmeld, forcing the melee to drop target usually. I can get another long Starfire cast off before he gets me targeted again. Roots will break and when the melee resumes pursuit of me, I Typhoon them back and get a Wrath or 2 off before rooting him again.
Against a caster, I use my Typhoon as a spell interrupt, as well as Shadowmeld. I sometimes run away from a caster and use line of sight while casting Heal over Time spells to draw them around a corner and build their confidence. I have found that when you run from a caster, they think they have you against the ropes. I try to exploit that confidence at the right moment and drop them with whatever I have left.
WoW com: How does a Warlock versus Druid battle tend to go? It seems with their mastery of DoTs, and your mastery of HoTs AND DoTs, it's going to turn into some weird cat and mouse game.
Beffyjunk: It really depends on the type of Warlock I am up against. Fighting against an Affliction lock is very much a game of cat and mouse, with no certainty of what the outcome will be.
When I'm fighting against a Destruction lock, I try to get as much damage off on them without making myself a target. What I mean by this is that I like to use my Treants and Starfall and Shadowmeld. This allows me to get them down to about 70% before I give them a target. I will come out of stealth with a Starfire cast, and usually immediately I need to start healing, as a combination of Immolate, Chaos Bolt and 2 global cooldowns will let a Destruction lock do massive damage. Once I survive those cooldowns, most warlocks will Fear, which I will immediately trinket and then Typhoon them to stop the sure-to-follow second fear. At that point they will use Death Coil and some more Fear to restart their burst rotation. I try to get out of their line of sight to heal up then come back out for the kill.
WoW.com: There's a lot of people out there who want to Arena, but won't ever get ratings to really be able to get what feels like meaningful gear. It can be frustrating for them. What would you suggest those folks do?
Beffyjunk: My best advice for anyone that is struggling in Arena would be to keep at it, and make sure you are having fun. It took me several seasons to even get on a competitive level, and I have a long way to go towards earning a Gladiator title. I also highly suggest taking the time to figure out what other classes are able to do, and work on some ways to counteract that with the abilities you have at your disposal. Even classes or specs that are considered to be underpowered and weak have the ability to win fights. All it takes is getting the maximum use out of the tools you have at your disposal.
The Colosseum is an interview series by WoW.com, meant to reveal strategies, compositions, and tactics from the Arena fighters who use them. For more PvP information, be sure to hit up Blood Sport and the Art of War(craft).
