Test Server Duels

Thanks to everyone who came out last night. ^^

Overall, it is a pretty frustrating test server on which to duel compared to some of the previous test iterations. One significant problem is that the PvP trinkets are bugged for some classes and only remove their old effects; this led to an extremely pissed off Valanmor. I spent the majority of the night dueling the other FH out on the lake (there must have been 15 of us), which was fun although more variety would have been nice. (I can duel FH players anytime!) Love to Chaq and gh0st for the few duels despite the griefing alliance.

I've been dueling resto druids and resto shamans significantly differently than I have in the past, and I havent' really seen other mages play it the same way so I'll explain.

Against resto shamans, I like to:

1. Lance the pre-duel grounding as I eat the first purge and dance out of range
   
2. As we collide back into range if I lanced before the purge hit, start a poly. If he was sluggish on that first purge and goes to purge cockily, you just landed a free poly. (always rank 1 btw)
3. The above won't probably happen, he'll grounding, and probably get 2 purges while you stopcasting lance the shaman to hit the totem instead.
   
4. Now he'll play keep away at range to avoid you trying to poly outside of shock range and won't close the distance probably until he has a new grounding. Don't waste mana nuking at 36, simply r1 fbolt, steal ES, and when you can and try to move in for a poly.
   
5. Eventually you'll probably fail at landing the poly, he'll move in with a grounding as protection for a frost shock, you'll nova to try to 30yd poly outrange his shock, he'll trinket it WITHOUT first wasting a grounding on it. (It's not a big deal, but everyone I duel drops a grounding on the nova first, which I don't see the point of really)
6. People watching the duel think you're getting ripped as you've taken decent damage and have been purged naked and have failed to do anything. (But you've burnt PvP trinket!)
7. R1 bolt as soon as he trinkets and quickly lance down any searing totems he's dropped as he closed in. (the ones at 40 yds from the start of the duel probably don't matter) He's going to try to get in close and flametongue/earthbind gay you, you have to kite him like melee to avoid this. With 3/3 perma, you're snare is just as good, and every time he frost shocks, consider a poly or fake poly to eat that grounding. Some players reapply ES, steal it but don't fall for ES->grounding to waste your 750 mana. (FILTHY)
   
8. Either you'll get a frostbite proc early, which depending on how he used groundings is a guaranteed sheep, or you're second nova comes off CD and you should be able to land a poly, often I've taken 4-5k damage and dealt none at this point. I've spent 1k mana, he's spent probably 2k. Bandage immediately as you avoid or take down searings. Resheep, summon pet, damage trinket and land a WELL-TIMED shatter combo. (this isn't really that pivotal tbh, I mistime it and get screwed by a fast grounding often)
9. As soon as lance leaves your hand, you should be running away, the goal is to get out to 30-36, he might try to chase or he might just grounding->heal.
   
10. Don't even worry about CSing too much, if he is spam healing himself and you're spam bolting at 35 yds with no grounding to deal with, this is great, you might even get a frostbite to generate additional burst and you're wearing down his mana hardcore. At some point, if you can, CS a heal that you think isn't bait, and try to force the NS; the goal of this nuke and this WE is to burn a few thousand mana and NS. As soon as you accomplish that, it is back to r1 kiting. R1 kite to space max rank fbolts, take out searing totems and groundings as necessary. Shatter combo second time.
11. Basically just r1 kite and abuse frostbite for damage, he'll start going hardcore mana conserv, watershield+r1 shocks. You can kite all day though with rank 1 bolt, and the lances you generate with bites are still more efficient damage than what he can regenerate with watershield. Often you'll slip up and he'll close the gap on you, this is no worry. Treat the duel as fresh and work on establishing a poly->bandage. If you kite the whole 2+ minutes until your first pet is off CD, you win as he can't outheal consecutive pets with how little mana he'll have. Just don't let him outrange/kite the pets.
    
12. It sounds pretty gay and it is, but it is quite effective even against players in BT/S2 resto gear. ^^ It's also sorta cooler than sheep -> shatter -> imp CS -> hope to crit that I see most people using.
    

Against resto druids:

1. Not start with pet. This is really debatable; the earlier your first WE is out, the sooner he is back off CD, with no Imp CS (I'm dueling as 0/18/43 with MoE as my generic dueling spec right now), you are not going to get an early kill on a skilled player who's remotely ready for it. Therefore, I like to play the fight REALLLLLLY slow and escalate the damage output increasingly as the duel progresses. Never blink out of pounce. (duh?)
   
2. Some druids like to just moonfire lightly and melee you in caster, don't use Barrier too much here. If they like to harass in travel or cat, IB to reduce damage and get more consistent frostbolts out. For the first 15-20 seconds of the duel I simply frostbolt and let MA do it's job, if you get a full DR impact proc (FULL 2 SECONDS YEAH), you can quickly nova->lance, this is nice as you almost always get the bonus damage while forcing the mana spent on shifting.
3. After you've both spent about 1k mana, hit a citrine, and start novaing when its up to force shifts. CS any early cyclones, and even use fireblast for additional damage after landing a CS. Obviously fake cast feral charges, don't blink or IB bashes, just let him heal.
   
4. When you start taking enough damage (after 3-4k for me usually), it usually means you're doing well on the mana/attrition war, and it's time to WE and push for momentum. Try to manual nova, he'll shift, and start bolt cast, shatter combo with good timing. If he cyclones early into your pet, IB it and keep the pressure up. If he does hardcore cylone you (immune), cyclone pet, and cyclone (you) again, don't trinket this unless you can CS a hard cast. Otherwise look for an opportunity to trinket->CS.
5. Your second nova is really where you're looking to kill if its going to be a fast duel, the first is just to keep him in the 2/3 health range to make such a thing even possible. If he starts playing keep away and just tries to kite the pet, make sure to r1 bolt to help keep him soaking up pet damage. If he keeps trying to shift/run away, keep r1 bolting, this is a BAD situation for him. It's too much mana on shifting.
6. If he get's too cocky and goes to bear with around half health and backs out to feral charge a bolt, this is a good time to use pet nova, use it early in the bolt cast, if he panics at being unable to FC that bolt, its probably GG; he has to shift and SM, if SM is still on CD, he probably has to NS.
   
7. After pet dies if you fail to kill, r1 bolt kite if he plays the slow game, and just wait for second pet. When you get it, use pets in succession for the win. If he starts to get aggressive, you might be forced to snap for second pet earlier, but don't do this till he wastes a lot of mana on moonfires or aggressive shifting.
8. This wasn't in much detail but I'm very sleepy. ^^ Oh, obviously IB before you Evo. If you start getting lamed by guy who never leaves caster, consider r1 poly spam on him.
   

I know most good mages play these fights pretty differently than me; I'm not saying these are the "GOOD" ways to handle the two gay resto matchups, but I find they work well, and they are fun strats to play/watch. It's pretty frequent to see 3-4 minute duels where you win almost no heatlh or mana but have set up that inevitable good shatter combo or simply won the mana war of attrition. These are some of my favorite fights to play; minute execution isn't pivotal -- you can miss a CS or mistime IBing a cyclone and still easily pull out the victory. The challenge is consistently being mindful of their short CDs (shocks, grounding, SM, cyclone DR) and adapting a lot during the duel to the current health/mana/cooldown landscape.

Anyways, gd to everyone who came out. I thought it would be frustrating to duel in my 5s gear, but the lack of stam/resil will probably only be a huge problem against locks and rogues.

I just discovered that GameRiot is pretty cool; I found a bunch of good blogs finally -- it is a bit intimidating to use as there are 6.022x10^23 emo blogs about nothing...oh wait. I didn't realize that quite a few of the players I highly respect run pretty active blogs on GR.