Oct05,2009

Hello everyone, the guide you are about to read is written by Christoffer Toivainen (Ghingis). I have been playing this game since the start, but never really took it serious until arenas was implemented.
I started playing arenas on my warlock back in Season Two, since I had a mage earlier that I had gotten fed up with.  I really enjoyed the playstyle of affliction warlocks and since then managed to recieve Gladiator every season aswell as rank one in Season Four and Six. I dont have that much tournament experience more then Dreamhack in 2009, where me and my team ended on 4’th place (After SK-Gaming/iNNERFiRE and Ensidia), playing Rogue/Warlock/Druid with Reliza and Lykke. Im hoping to be able to get a serious team going within the next few weeks so I will be able to join more tournaments.
This guide will be focusing mainly on Warlocks, with the second part being directed towards warlocks and mls. I would also like for YOU to come up with ideas and what you would like to me write about. I will be going in to more depth later how i play aswell as going through different setups and what to think about.
If you have any questions or feedback regarding this guide you can contact me on the Bartov gaming forum.

Warlocks and MLS

In the second part of the guide I will be focusing mainly on the warlocks role in arena as a class, aswell as main tactics and pointers versus popular setups as Frost mage/Destruction warlock/Resto shaman, which is my current 3vs3 setup. A warlock's main role in arena is to control the game. When playing as destruction this role becomes abit easier, since you do not rely on DoT’s your job becomes more like a mages; CC when needed for peeling or scoring a kill, then nuke. However, when you play affliction, you can generally keep pressure up when you are playing a defensive game, which makes the gameplay alot different and is about managing your fears correctly aswell as your DoT’s.
One of the most important things when playing warlock as any spec in arena is to try and keep track of what every player in the opposing team is doing. If you do this, you will be able to sort your own playstyle out quickly and you will be able to use your cooldowns alot better aswell since you know what kind of damage/burst that will be incoming, and can use your abilities accordingly.

Allright, im now gonna start with the tactic part versus common setups as Frost mage/Destruction warlock/Resto shaman (MLS).

General

MLS is generally quite a strong setup, and has alot of tools to avoid tricky situations with all the CC available. The damage output of this setup is extremely high when timing it with eachother, ontop of that you have bloodlust to get that extra edge needed when your in a dangerous position.
I have been playing this setup for a month or so now, and the key to be able to stay consistent with this setup is CC, rather then damage, like alot of people think. Having both fear and polymorph available to you in the same team is extremely strong and you can keep someone without dispels out of the game basically the whole fight.
Something to think about is that you can allways switch with this setup, you do not need to stay on a target that has used all its cooldowns. Just switch and go on whatever is in line of sight if you start getting kited. Both destro warlocks and frost mages can do damage without having alot of cooldowns up.
When it comes to pet, it's up to personal preference. I started playing MLS with only using succubus but I have now ended up with using felhunter versus most teams because of the devour and spell lock being extremely usefull. I use felhunter versus every rogue team to avoid sap, aswell as every team with a shaman. It ultimately comes down to how the opposing team plays, sometimes you will be forced to change pet mid-game because you see that the current pet simply is not working versus this specific team. I would like everyone to try their own thing out and play alot with both pets to see what fits their playstyle.

Rogue/Mage/Priest (RMP)

RMP is one of the few matches where the games is usually over within the first minute. This is generally because the RMP need to open really hard and blow alot of cooldowns to score a kill, and after Cloak of Shadows and Pain Suppression is used, something will go down in the RMP really easily.
The vital part of the fight versus an RMP, wich is also the hardest part, is to survive the opener and manage to gain back control of the fight. Usually most teams tend to just rush our shaman and blow cooldowns to get him down. Your job as a warlock is to coordinate CC along with the mage in your team and try to get CC up on both the priest and the rogue just to prevent dispels and giving your shaman abit of time to heal. Usually the mage is forced to counterspell either the warlock or mage, if he still decides to land it on your shaman, make them pay for it by nuking whatever you have in line of sight.
Try and keep curse of tounges up on the mage as much as possible, and place yourself at a pillar so you have an easier time to avoid polymorphs. Don't be afraid to use your trinket either,as you will be stuck in CC alot versus this comp so just stay focused and be ready with trinket at crucial points.
RMP is one of the hardest setup to fight as MLS in my opinion.

Mirror (MLS/Wizardcleave)

This is one of the mirrors that are easily over in a second because of good/bad luck. If the warlock manages to get a crit streak on anything its basically over. Seeing as there is four different targets that you can go for in a mirror, there is alot of variety in tactics. Overall as a warlock you should try and protect your teammates and your pet. CC as much as possible to try and interrupt casts, then nuke when you have the opportunity to.
Usually my team ends up going mostly on the mage and when he is kiting us,we try and switch to pet for a gib on it. Getting the warlocks pet down is really good because you no longer have devour magic or spell lock to worry about.
Try and maintain control throughout the fight and hope you dont get unlucky. As far as positioning goes just try and avoid the mage as much as possible, you have tremor up for fears anyway, and sitting in a full polymorph is never good. I allways save trinket for extremely crucial moments and most of the time i link it with a death coil to save my teammates from dangerous nukes.

Death Knight/Warrior/Holy Paladin (TSG)

This is yet another setup that will force the game to be short. Basically whatever they choose to go for, you as the warlock will need to help your mage with controlling the fight as much as possible. This is an extremely hard task seeing as both warriors and death knighs can make themselves immune to fear, ontop of that the death knight has alot of ways to escape the mages CC aswell. What you as a warlock should focus on is mainly to see if you can possibly save Shadowfury, and try to use it on the pala to get a fear onto him. If you do this your mage can control the warrior and death knight by himself with frost nova/cone of cold/deep freeze.

As I said earlier this is usually a short fight and as soon as your start getting some control, nuke whatever is in line of sight as usual. Abuse the fact that paladins has to cast in order to heal versus a wizardcleave, a full counterspell on the paladin means that you force either the death knight or warrior to use every cooldown they have in order to survive.
If the paladin is ever caught anywhere that is not next to a pillar, make him pay for it and just nuke him, forces a divine shield very easily. If they target anyone else then you, position yourself between the paladin and his teammates.

Retribution Paladin/Rogue/Priest(RRP)

This setup is by far the biggest counter to MLS, and if they know what to do, the only games you will be winning is the games where you recieve the odd one-shots on someone.
Against this setup we try to control the start as much as we can, usually with bursting the retri pala before the opener just to hope for a oneshot. When the rogue opens we try to spam CC through dispels just to get some control over the situation since the damage this setup does in an opener is enough to be outhealable. After the rogue opens we try to go on him as much as we can, if he starts line of sighting switch to whatever you can.
The main problem when fighting this setup is that they have double dispel, and getting a fear/poly on both the paladin and the priest at the same time is extremely hard versus a competent team. They do also have hand of freedom to break deep freeze.
If you dont get bursted down really quickly, wich is really hard to avoid, just have your eyes open for CloS/Divine shield and Pain Suppression. If you manage to stay alive long enough for two of these cooldowns being used, you should be able to score a kill quite easily.
But as I said, this is by far the hardest counter to MLS and you should not be able to beat them consistently.

Holy Paladin/Priest/Warrior

Playing versus this specific double healer/warrior setup is really tricky, because they have two classes that can dispel, wich means that you need to coordinate your CC extremely well in order to beat a good team.
What we usually try to do is get fear/poly up on both healers at the same time early, so we can start pressuring the warrior and force cooldowns. If you notice that you have a hard time getting CC up on both targets at the same time, start nuking something to force to healers to heal, then get the CC up afterwards.
Its a stressfull setup to play since its up to the mage/lock to work their CC with eachother and try to really control the fight, while you have a warrior on your back with double dispels.

I will end the second part of the guide here. The best tip I can give all of you is to go and find teammates and just play alot, practice is the key to success in arenas!