WoW Inn - Arena calculator

Well i have recently formed a new 2v2 arena team with a friend Warlock and did a search on Arena/PVP Forums & Blogs about this Combo. As I have zero experience with this combo (a couple of days playing only at 1700 rating), most thoughts will be taken from somewhere, check referrers at the end of the post.

Lets begin this guide with talking about the popularity of the warlock/paladin and the advantages/disadvantages of it. First, warlock/paladin is an extremely popular build in the middle brackets and somewhat towards the upper end. However, this combo is 100% capable of being in the top 5 of your battlegroup. This combo is based on around a class that can last forever, a warlock. A warlock unlike other class does not go out of mana and can always be dealing out damage. Yet, this comes at a cost of his healer’s mana pool. If you have a paladin geared enough this combo can last for a very long time. Paladin/warlock matches are tough and many will last a very long time. However, do not get discouraged. Keep trying out different strategies and figuring out what works best for you. This guide can offer some hints but it is not the end all for this combo. I am writing this from a paladin PoV and from what works best from when I played this combo. There are many strengths with this combo and many possibilities arise. It is endless what crazy ideas one can come up with when playing with a warlock.

Builds

Paladin: 41/20/0 It’s a common Holy Paladin build, with Improved Concentration Aura and Stoicism in the Protection Tree.

Warlock: It needs a variation of a SL/SL build. Most locks prefer 24/37/0, 23/38/0, 25/36. As the Paladin need to get out of sight of his opponents to avoid mana burns and cc, lock must have Soul Link & Siphon Life to keep him alive.

Matchups

vs Warrior/Druid

Warrior/Druid doesn’t have the advantage over a PvE geared Lock. I usually have my partner start with Voids do to the nature of a warrior rush. This way we still have Fel Domination right from the beginning. In addition, I have my warlock sit the pet in the middle of the arena without being on the druid. I will go toe to toe against any druid’s mana pool. Full pressure on the Warrior is what is needed. You HAVE to make the druid heal here. When he comes out to heal you have to be quick with either a death coil or a fear. Now he is easily mana drained and you begin to have an advantage. A paladin is free to drink whenever he pleases. Your lock has to be smart about controlling his pet and therefore I am usually using Blessing of Freedom on the pet rather then my lock. You can force a druid a specific way and when he is forced that way Judgement of Justice needs to be applied.

If you’re going to try to burst down a druid/warrior team, its very useful to use BoP to allow your warlock to free cast during your CC combo. Any decent warrior will be scrambling to stop any casts done by your lock during this time, and a BoP nullifies everything he can do. We always start our combos with a HoJ, since theres a high chance fears break during direct damage. Our combo will generally go: stun, BoP my warlock, avenging wrath, judge-holyshock, arcane torrent and call for a death coil and fear. At that point if he had minimal HoTs on he should be near death and brought down within the fear.

What you find against experienced warrior/druid teams is that they become very aware of your burst capability. It’s quite simple for them to avoid the burst altogether by having the druid LoS and keep 2 life blooms ticking. This kind of defensive play turns it into a mana war, with them gunning to drop your warlock’s pet.

Generally the warrior will stack 5 sunders on your lock, and try to put a massive amount of pressure on while the druid CC’s at crucial times. Trying to heal a fully sundered warlock isn’t how you’re going to win the mana war. Use HoJ’s and freedoms to help your warlock establish a kite around a column (RoL is a bit trickier). The warrior will be forced to switch targets, most likely to the pet. I find keeping BoSac on the pet at nearly all times (except when you need to drink) is more beneficial than Light, as it mitigates nearly all soul link damage and large amounts of the direct damage as well. Communicate to your lock on when his pet needs to pulled back to a safe point, which is best placed in the center where it can be healed from a large amount of angles. During times that the warrior is on the pet, your lock needs to go to control the druid, trying to get mana drains and fear off. It’s essential that he’s able to fear the druid during a time where the pet may die due you catching a cylone chain. If the druid exposes himself, HoJ the warrior to allow your lock to get uninterrupted fear and mana drains off.

If your lock is able to kite the warrior, keep dots up, get a few mana drains off, and not run out of pets while the two of you are working hard to not let the druid get too many drinks while drinking yourself, they should be out of mana far before you do. At that point you must play very offensively, Judgement of Justice the druid and stick to him while dishing out as much damage as possible to both targets and one of them will go down.

vs Rogue/Discipline Priest

Blessing of Freedom and Curse of Exhaustion work extremely well together. You need to time them after a Kidney shot. However, do not even bother focusing the priest at this point. Only thing you need to do is dot him up. Focus the rogue. Really damage him. Make the priest heal. A paladin’s mana pool will outlast a priest’s easily. When the rogue does blow a kidney it should immeaditely be followed by a CoX and then a BoF. 4-5 steps is all you need. I tend to try to bring the priest out of LoS when I am about to do Blessing of Freedom so that it isn’t dispelled. Once the rogue is feared more dots and then if you would like you can drain a priest. However, kiting a rogue and keeping pressure on him is the best way to handle this team. Rogue is doing zero damage, means that your lock will stay alive.

When the Paladin casts Blessing of freedom to your lock after a kidney shot use your Hammer of Justice on the Rogue at the same time. Usually he will use pvp trinket, since the priest is busy trying to get the freedom off your lock. The rogue will pop sprint to go closer to your lock, at that time you should apply a Judgement of Justice. The rogue will pop cloak to get it off, so now you have your warlock kiting a rogue who has used all his CC breaks. He will most likely catch your warlock one more time using prep, but just rinse and repeat the combo and you should have established a kite. Do your best to avoid the priest fears and mana burns and the game should be yours.

vs Warlock/Druid

Paladin/Warlock should always win this combo mainly because druids can’t dispell. Dot Warlock’s pet and watch the druid panic. Paladin needs to be doing exorcism or holy shock depending on how low opponent pet is… also As long as you have a pet out on the druid he shouldn’t be able to drink. nine times out of ten their strategy will be to drain the paladin and if the Paladin is good he can avoid it dispelling the Mana Burn after one or maximum 2 ticks.

vs MM Hunter/Discipline Priest

Until you are out of mana, the paladin should remain near 80-100% hp. Viper Sting & Psychic Scream both lasts 8 seconds .
From the point of paladin being out of mana with a Viper Sting on him, opponents would have 8 seconds to burn you down while you remain at 0 mana, as soon as the Viper Sting wears off, priest will use his psychic scream making a total of roughly 15 seconds to burn you down. That’s considering you have ALL paladin’s cooldowns down.

With trinket, bubble, hearthstone, and getting out of LoS while having your Warlock fearing, mana draining, curse of tongue, exhaust, w/e. No hunter should be able to burn you down. If they fail, paladin should be able to keep himself alive with low ranks healings. By then while the priest has exposed himself trying to support the hunter burning the paladin down, your Warlock should have got enough drains on him AND the hunter almost ooM.

It will be quit helpful if your warlock mana drains the hunter before he vipers fully the paladin. This will cause him to autoshot to burn the paladin down which is almost impossible.

Referrers

http://www.arenajunkies.com

http://www.gameriot.com

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com

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Tags: 2v2, SL/SL warlock, Warlock Paladin

Filed under: Arena, Paladin, Warlock on March 16th, 2008