2v2 Discussion
Here, I'm going to discuss comps and counter comps, as well as specs for each individual on the team. I'll only be discussing the main "tried and tested" teams, as off-teams aren't really worth the time to talk about, as it will take a truly amazing team to get to 1800+.
The format will be as follows:
Comp
Brief explanation of strategy/specs
Pros:
Cons:
Counter Comp: listed and how to attempt to deal with said comp(s)
The Comps
Disc Priest
As noted, the priest is going to be Disc. Preferably manaburn/reflective shield specced.
I personally suggest a shadowstep spec in this comp for dealing with druid healers, as that's one of the weaknesses of this comp. Overall, though, this comp is very strong if your priest is good at playing disc, which is much different than a holy priest.
With how short the PW:S cooldown is, you can feasibly have both of you covered by the shield, though with how much survivability shadowstep gives a rogue, it's easiest to just have your priest hump on a pillar if there are any ranged classes trying to go for your priest, which puts much of the focus on you.
Most teams will go for your priest first. This is the comp where peeling is insanely important. Shiv, gouge, restealth for a CS -> SnD combo to switch back to your main target, etc. I usually go with a shiv or gouge -> SnD while switching back to my main target.
Pros: Very durable, can outlast most teams due to the survivability that Pain Supression provides and manaburn. Paladin healer teams are incredibly easy with mass dispel and manaburn, as should shaman teams.
Cons: If your priest is bad, your team will be bad, pretty much. You may get to 1600-1700, but you won't get past there. I speak from experience.
Counter Comp: Hunter/druid is going to be one of the hardest comps. Easiest way to counter this comp is to get the hunter's pet on your priest, LOS the hunter and druid at the start so the pet is behind a pillar, and kill the pet. Otherwise the pet is going to be putting a strain on your priest's healing.
Most druid healer teams are going to be hard even if your priest is good, but with Mind Control, Psychic Scream, and Manaburn, you should be able to keep the druid out of LOS or in bear form while you take down their partner. This strategy is useful versus the other hard comp, the infamous warrior/druid. Peel the warrior so he has to fight you, and your priest should get the druid out of LOS as the warrior gets low on HP. Dispel HoTs (yes, even if LB is going to proc the full heal) and Abolish Poison as much as possible on the warrior.
Shadow Priest
This team specializes in burst, and pure burst. Personally on this team I still like shadowstep, but with Mind Flay, Mutilate can be very viable. I'd go Heavy Poisons Mut for this setup if you're not going shadowstep. Mut can be a very potent part of this build, so if you're at all inclined to go Mut, I'd do it. With a Silence -> PS -> Blind -> Sap -> PS combo, you can keep a healer locked out for an insanely long amount of time, and with Mass Dispel, paladins are cheese.
This is not an outlast team at all. Burst, burst, burst is the name of the game. If a game takes more than 5 mins, you're probably screwed. Basically you need to just blow up one target while unleashing the chain-CC combo that I described previously.
Pros: Heavy burst, can counter most common setups, and the addition of silence is amazing for beating healer teams. Again, as with disc priest, paladins are cheese.
Cons: Lack of healing and the squishiness of a spriest.
Counter Comp: Hunter/druid, again, is going to be one of the biggest issues that this team can face. Silencing shot is a complete ***** to this setup. Again, as with the disc priest comp, you need to burn down the hunter's pet. Most hunters are going to have Imp Revive Pet, so you need to get to the hunter to interrupt with some speed. Either shadowstepping to the hunter for a gouge/kick or your priest using silence will do the trick. Keep in mind it's a 4 second cast with Imp Revive Pet, so you need to be quick at recognizing that he's re-summoning.
Mage/dpriest is going to be another tough comp. The best way to pull a win off against that team is to CC the priest and blow all buttons on the mage. You will need to MD Ice Block, and probably MD Pain Suppression if the priest trinkets/WotFs/Fear Wards a spriest fear and blows a couple cooldowns to keep his mage up. CS is a ***** in this comp, and can royally @#%^ you over. This is definitely one fight where being shadowstep is going to help a lot. Kick/gouge water elementals as you go past in chasing the mage. Make sure your priest is aware of shatter combos, and that he's good at dispelling the freeze effect, otherwise you're going to be hurting very, very fast.
Mage
As a double DPS team, this is quite honestly one of the strongest we can use. If both the rogue and the mage are good, there are extremely few counters to this team. The main strategy is the following: CC one class, burn the other hard through use of shatter combos (Water Elemental/WE Nova/Frostbolt/Ice Lance), and constant DPS. Because of a mage's inherent ability to snare, this team absolutely destroys any team with a druid healer because the druid isn't going to be able to cleanse Polymorph on their partner and they'll waste a veritable sh*tton of mana shifting to get out of snares.
Pros: Incredible power, amazing control. Possibly one of the hardest comps to counter if played well.
Cons: Priests royally @#%^ this combo, locks as well.
Counter Comp: I'd say it's a mix between lock/spriest and lock/druid. Lock/spriest is rarer to find at high brackets, but a good lock/spriest team will bone this team hard because of all the CC/silence/lockout effects. Lock/druid is hard because with a felpuppy on your mage, he's going to be seeing a lot of pushbacks even with the lock Poly'd.
Important note when Sheeping Locks: DO NOT USE MOLTEN ARMOR. Because of how Soul Link works, Molten Armor will proc on the felpuppy and break your mage's sheep.
Retadin
This is a strong comp as well. With the survivability that a ret paladin has, as well as how well they counter druid healers, this comp has been extremely strong this season. With how durable ret paladins are, you're probably going to see a lot of damage being focused your way, as the rogue. As such, survivability is important. Having your retadin aware of how you're doing in terms of health is vital, as if he can throw a BoP on you with a CloS, you can actually get some heals and bandage to recover quite a bit of health.
Pros: Great damage, decent control (both of your vanishes should be saps off of HoJ, Repentance, or Blind), and still having some healing available in a pinch. The added bonus of bubble helps in caster situations where they're going to focus your paladin hard.
Cons: Good priests.
Counter Comp: Hard to think of one comp that will completely destroy this team. Mage/priest is the likely candidate. Blowing bubble will do nothing, so hitting the mage hard to bait a PS/IB will be the best bet, then switching to the dpriest with a Repent/Sap and HoJ/Sap combo on the mage when he comes out of IB/PS will probably be the best way to counter. You need all your burst on this counter-comp to go towards the priest.
SL/SL Lock
This is much like having a mage partner, only he's a hell of a lot more durable and a lot nastier on casters. He's also going to have ~13k HP if he's got good gear, and roughly 1k damage. The concept of this comp is very, very similar to a mage/rogue comp, except that Fear -> Fear -> Fear -> DC -> Blind -> Sap becomes an insanely deadly chain-CC combo. With a felpuppy on a healer, there's not a whole lot that a healer can do with all the pushbacks you'll be giving them in addition to Spell Lock and Devour Magic, it puts healers pretty much at your mercy.
Pros: Good warlocks are pretty damn OP.
Cons: Finding a good warlock that doesn't have a druid partner.
Counter Comp: Rogue/druid is probably going to be one of the hardest, as will lock/paladin. I'm fairly unfamiliar with how locks deal with paladins and druids other than spamming CoEx, so I'll just wait to fill this in until someone is nice enough to help me out.
Resto Druid (credit to Jordster for this section; great write-up)
This is a survival comp. You should be ShS spec.
This team is going to rely on both the Rogue and Druid's ability to stay out of harms way. Thinking hard about how and when to use cooldowns is going to be the difference between winning and losing.
For one thing, getting a solid opener and forcing the other team to catch up is huge in this comp. Sapping a healer and opening on a DPS will either (a) force an immediate trinket from the healer or (b) force the healer to play some serious catch up, often costing them their cooldowns. If you can get this ideal opener off, you will usually win. If the healer DOES use their cooldowns (I.e. a Druid or Shaman uses NS) you can either continue to attack their DPS while cycloning their healer or switch and cyclone their DPS and jump on their healer, who is now without the benefit of their healing cooldowns, and possibly without their trinket, too.
Knocking someone else out of stealth at the beginning can also make or break the match.
Success in this comp relies on coordinating DRs, knowing which opponents have blown trinkets, and using cooldowns effectively.
Your Druid should be spec'd 11/11/39 so that they can help out with Feral Charge, as well as double-DoT'ing your target (MOonfire, Insect Swarm) to help w/ DPS if their mana allows.
Splitting the cyclones and DPS can remove a lot of effectiveness from most enemy teams.
Pros: Versatile and fun to play.
Cons: Blind and Cyclone share DR timers. Watch that you don't overlap them. Games can be longgggg.
Counter Comp: Warrior/Druid is a hard fight unless you're well geared enough to stand toe to toe with the warrior. Ghostly Strike and Evasion can really help. Rogue/Priest can be a tough match due to Mana Burns forcing your druid into Bear.
Most double DPS can be beat with this spec - just blow your defensive cooldowns early as needed and survive their initial onslaught.
Rogue/Rogue
Basically, this team is all about control. As you guys are rogues, I don't really need to tell you what/how our class works, but generally the way I like to run this setup is one rogue as ShS with Vile Poisons, the other with Imp EA. On an opener, Imp EA rogue immediately puts up Imp EA on a cloth focus target and you both go to town, CCing the other target as needed, generally at vital times, like as you both blow an offensive trinket when your opponent is at ~20% HP.
Blind -> Sap is a required skill for this comp. Good footwork is required for this comp. Good coordination is required for this comp.
Pros: Great survivability, you both have ******** of outs, and insane control when timed properly.
Cons: Hard comp to master, as it requires two very good rogues to pull off at high ratings.
Counter Comp: Rogue/druid, primarily. The rogue is going to be able to get out of most of your CC, so you need to get on the druid and stick to the druid. Staying on the druid with shadowsteps, DTs, etc is really the only way you'll win against this comp. Luckily, there are two of you, so keeping the druid snared/stunned will be pretty easy.
Side note: DO NOT STUN THE DRUID IN BEAR FORM.
So that's all the VIABLE partners for a rogue at 2200+ in 2v2. I'm going to include my own experience with a feral druid, as I really do love this comp. Every time I see Deep 6 I love it a little bit more, and I'm hoping to run it enough in S4 to get to 2k.
Feral Druid
This is an incredibly hard comp to play, as pretty much any good team is going to ********** your druid hard while you try and keep them from doing that. The bonus is that your druid can put out insane amounts of burst damage if he's geared, he'll have hots to toss out, and he can cyclone if it really comes down to it (it shouldn't). I'm going to be doing something a bit different with this team, and running through strats for each of the most common comps to face at high ratings.
Pros: High burst damage with your druid, but not much else comes to mind. The main pro in my mind is that if you can get to 2k, you're pretty much pro.
Cons: Druid is easily CC'd and bursted on by any team with a lock.
Counter Comp: The main thing you need to be wary of with this comp is locks. Both you and your druid should have (in the druid's case) the 15% fear resist talent, and (in your case) Enveloping Shadows. Getting a resist on any AoE fear can save you a lot of heartache in this comp, as fear is one of the main things you need to look out for.
So, as far as comps and strats go...
Warrior/druid: Open on the warrior with full bleeds from both of you. As the druid comes out of stealth, you should immediately Vanish and ShS to the druid, splitting damage. Your feral will be in bear form tanking the warrior. The druid will have to choose who he puts healing on, and this makes it very easy for you to down this team.
If the warrior shifts focus to you while you're on the druid, a quick root by your druid will enable you to stay on the druid and get him down. If the warrior trinkets the root, a Blind will have him out of commission to burst down the druid.
If the warrior stays on your druid, it's pretty much GG. Warriors can't beat bear druids.
Mage/rogue: This comp is easy. The rogue is the main priority to get down on the other team, as the mage really poses no threat to your druid with shatter combos (your druid will shift out of nova).
Hunter/druid: Basically the same as warrior/druid, the hunter just has a few more tricks, and roots won't really do much unless you're kiting him around a pillar. Either way, a hunter really can't do much to you, so get the druid down asap.
Rogue/dpriest: This is a match where Enveloping Shadows/15% fear resist comes in handy. If you don't have them, your druid is going to be spending a lot of time wandering around, as this team has a lot of CC. Basically damage on the rogue, applying bleeds, and as the rogue gets low on HP, apply CC to the priest. If the priest ever tried to get OOC to drink, Vanish -> ShS -> Sap will give you a nice little burst of CC.
Rogue/spriest: Druid opens on spriest, grabs a SW:P, runs the hell away. Rogue opens on spriest, and they'll probably switch targets to you. They'll try to burn you down, but pop evasion/CloS and stay on the spriest as your druid comes charging back and burns the crap out of the spriest. Your druid is gonna eat a PS, which he will trinket, then a Blind if the team is good. Luckily, he grabbed a SW:P earlier, and his Blind will break, allowing you to down the spriest. GG.
Shaman/warrior: Probably one of the harder match-ups, honestly. You're going to have to play very defensive on the shaman while your druid whomps on the warrior in this setup. A good way to get a sap on the shaman is to wait until he shifts out of ghost wolf to heal and sap him before he gets his LHW off. Then you can open on the warrior, and Vanish as Sap is coming to an end to re-sap. Then open as normal, using CS, and NEVER DRAIN YOUR ENERGY BAR.
That's what playing defensively means as a rogue on a healer; you should always be able to kick/gouge/KS a heal.
With the warrior receiving no heals but a NS heal, GG you win.
Locks: Locks deserve their own section in feral/rogue, because they **** us so bad. If they can get a DC -> Fearlock in, GG, your druid is dead. That said, if they think your druid is a restokin, they're gonna send their pet after him. If you can, kill their first pet and quickly ShS to the lock to kick Feldom if you can. It's a 0.5 sec cast, so if you can't kick it, don't worry. LOS again, drawing the pet away, and kill it, then get on the Lock. Don't let him breathe.
Of course, this is only for SL/SL locks. Those are the only hard locks. Any other is cheese.
If you can't kill his pet, get him down and prevent him from casting fear on your druid. Good God, I can't emphasize that enough. If your druid is feared, you're *******
That's about it for 2v2s, boys and girls. Happy hunting. 3v3 will start up soon.
Edited, May 6th 2008 10:05pm by Theophany
