chaoticsoul

And now for, in my opinion, the hardest team to beat in the game as SP/Rogue…

2v2 — Shadow Priest/Rogue vs. Frost Mage/Rogue

Difficulty
Shadow Priest Gear Level: High — 10/10 (Extremely difficult)
Shadow Priest Gear Level: Medium — lol
Shadow Priest Gear Level: Easy — rofl

Gear
Shadow Priest: VERY important for the shadow priest to have TOP notch gear when fighting Mage/Rogue, even against mage/rogues in season 1 gear. Seriously.

Shadow Priest’s Rogue: Slightly less important, but still crucial for the rogue to have excellent gear.

Mage: In the ideal fight, you’re going to be killing the mage, not the rogue… but all frost mages have great base survivability anyway so gear doesn’t matter much.

Mage’s Rogue: If he has good gear, it’s going to hurt.

Strategy
Unlike last season, this season my rogue partner and I have been going for the mage in Mage/Rogue. Weird, right? Well, not really. Mages are arguably the easiest caster class to lock down when being focused by melee. With not much burst available unless they can sit there and Frostboltlol/Shatter Combo you, you can prevent a lot of damage by going for the mage. Anyway, that’s the reasoning behind that.

Also, keep in mind that most of Mage/Rogue is reacting to what the mage/rogue is doing. So there’s not a strat set in stone for this matchup. You’ll see me saying a lot of “If this happens, then do this…” and sorry for that, but it’s the only way to describe how we play it.

How we start off the fight is I stay mounted in the back, refreshing shield every time it comes up. My rogue stealths in as early as we can (as early as we know it’s mage/rogue basically) and opens on the mage and starts 1v1′ing him. As soon as he does this, I jump out, getting ready to dismount and assist him, but I don’t dismount quite yet, and I never go into range of the mage. The only time you should dismount before you (as the shadow priest) get opened on or your rogue gets opened on is if your rogue gets Polymorphed or the mage Ice Blocks.

IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE YOUR ROGUE NEVER TRINKETS POLYMORPH UNLESS HE ABSOLUTELY 100% HAS TO AND YOU’LL LOSE IF HE DOESN’T! Since you’re going to be DPS’ing the mage anyway, it’s not hard to see who and when he’s polymorphing, so Polymorphs shouldn’t come as a big surprise. The only annoying thing is when my rogue gets polymorphed and I have to eat a full dura Kidney Shot at the same time or something.

But anyway, going back, have your rogue blow all of his CD’s (he should be AR/Prep or Shadowstep anyway so it’s not like CD’s are an enormously huge sacrifice). He has to do everything he can to avoid being Polymorphed or CC’ed in any way (yes, even if that means blowing cloak early).

So now that we’ve settled that to start off the fight, the rogue has to 1v1 the mage and the SP has to stay mounted and avoid being opened on as best he/she can… we move into the “ifs”.

If the mage Ice Blocks, immediately dismount in a good position where you can LOS and Mass Dispel. Now you have to kill the mage before Hypothermia comes up again, which honestly is NOT that hard.

If the mage gets a Polymorph off on your rogue (focus proc or something maybe), you have to dismount and dispel the sheep off him. Use this time to be as offensive as possible, with putting your dots up (at least SW:P and VE anyway… only VT if you have time).

If their rogue gets on your rogue, take a couple of GCD’s to dot up the rogue (yes, you’re killing the rogue now unless the mage is at low HP or he already blew Ice Block), then immediately shift out and start healing your rogue (do NOT let him drop below 80%. Seriously. No. Seriously.). The idea behind this is that if you happen to get Counterspelled on a heal, your rogue will still be in relatively good shape, although he may have to pop cloak (in fact, he should. and vanish.). Also be aware of your LOS with the mage. Ideally, you want to be in a position where you can heal your rogue, but their mage is out of LOS of you. Unfortunately, that’s not always possible, so you’ll be forced to be aware of SW:D’ing polymorphs (it’s not that hard, just take some time to practice it in duels with a mage friend or something). I would suggest blinding the mage very early in the fight if this happens (particularly to interrupt a cast), then you can move in to fear him to interrupt another cast. Then Silence for another.

For the strat in the paragraph above, I run with a Ar/Prep rogue, so his Rogue vs. Rogue is very good (most rogues in Mage/Rogue are Shadowstep). If your rogue is Shadowstep, you may want to still stick on the mage even with their rogue on yours. I have never played with a SS Rogue before though, so I wouldn’t know.

If you get a sap off on their rogue, that’s wonderful, but still go for the mage. You can also use this time to be extremely offensive on their mage with DoTs. If you have a good internal clock, you can VE the rogue right before he gets unsapped so he can’t get off a restealth. Don’t DoT though, in case your rogue finds a good time to Blind him and can’t.

If they get a sap off on your rogue, that’s not wonderful, and you’re going to lose 99% of the time. Just be aware of this against Human teams, and make sure you stay a safe distance behind your rogue, so you can always book it if he gets sapped.

If their mage gets opened on at the same time that you (the SPriest) gets opened on, play defensive and shield every time it’s up, and run to a place where you can LOS the mage. Don’t worry about DPS unless you have an open GCD. Have your rogue still stay on the mage, and you just work on staying alive. If you kite the rogue far enough away from the mage, your rogue can safely trinket Polymorphs as well. Fear every time it’s up, since you want to be able to get a full duration fear on the rogue so you can go assist your rogue with the mage.

If you get opened on before your rogue opens on the mage, you’ve already lost. There’s like a 0% chance that you can recover from a situation like that. The best thing you can do, unless your rogue can open on the mage in the next few seconds, is to have him open on the rogue, and you go 100% completely defensive (you’ll have to with the mage nuking you and crippling / wound / stuns / novas constantly proccing).

That’s about it, it’s an extremely fast paced fight and the SP/Rogue team can NOT mess up if they want to win, and even then it’s beyond difficult. So I wouldn’t be too worried if you’re being farmed by these teams. :p

Positioning
Nagrand Arena: Stay near pillars. Never leave them. Ever. Also, if their mage is closing in on you, stay mounted and keep LOS’ing him until he gets opened on.

Blade’s Edge Arena: Stay on top, on your side, behind the thin pillars. Your rogue has to rush in either straight under the bridge to them, or to the right. If he goes across the bridge, it’s fine as long as their rogue isn’t human and your rogue won’t get sapped. I still prefer it when my rogue goes straight to them, rather than across the bridge though.

Ruins of Lordaeron: Stay in your base, but when you come out to assist your rogue with the mage, don’t go on top of the tomb. LOS and movement can get pretty buggy up there, so it’s best to just stay on the ground around the tomb.

Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I keep getting opened on by their rogue before mine can do enough damage to their mage.
A: It’s not absolutely necessary that you stay in the same spot for the opening. The main thing is, you need to be far away from the mage so he can’t summon an elemental and Freeze you in place.

Q: What do I do when we can’t see anyone? The mage is invisible and it can be either a Mage/Rogue or Druid/Rogue.
A: Move out from the starting area and stay near your rogue (but not near enough to get opened on in case he gets sapped). Move and jump around randomly (lol but don’t get dc’ed!) in case you get lucky with game lag and you can see their rogue or druid. You also want to jump around and move around constantly because if it’s mage/rogue, the rogue will be communicating to the mage where you are so he can get a good opener on you. Just try your best to make it hard on them to do that.

Q: I keep getting Shatter Combo’ed and I die instantly.
A: This can be one of two things: You aren’t dispelling fast enough or your rogue isn’t locking down their mage well enough. As for dispelling, it’s very easy to dispel Nova’s before the mage’s GCD is up again (harder with Water Elemental Freezes), but both can be somewhat easier if you use a self dispel macro (dispels self without losing target)–
((

#tooltip Dispel Magic
/cast [target=player] Dispel Magic

))

Unfortunately, I can’t help with the problem if it’s your rogue not locking down the mage well enough. The only thing I’d suggest is your rogue dueling mages often and practicing locking them down.

Q: The team we’re facing is double undead. What. The. &#*@?
A: That’s what you should be saying. Fears are so unreliable, especially if you’re trying to stay alive against the rogue. Just make sure your rogue is blinding their rogue when he can. Luckily for us, we have almost no good Mage/Rogue undead teams on our battlegroup (mage/rogue in general is lacking actually).

Q: What do I do against the annoying Water Elemental?
A: Fear it if you can, but don’t go out of your way to do that. The next best thing to do is to LOS it. Definitely fear it if you get a chance though.

Q: When does my rogue Blind?
A: It’s very situational. His blinds should always be relatively early if their rogue gets on you (shadow priest). If you’re getting on the rogue, he should be Blinding the mage to break a cast. If the mage is out of range, he should be trying to take the fight out of LOS/range of the mage.

Q: Offensive dispels important?
A: On the mage, yes, especially if he’s the target you’re killing. Also to get Dampen Magic off the rogue, but that’s only one dispel. Even if you’re killing the rogue, you should try to find an open GCD or two to knock off Ice Barrier. Frost mages have no pushback resistance until 2.4 (Icy Veins, which you can dispel then too), so you can put a Shadowfiend on them to interrupt their Frostbolts. Don’t underestimate it, it can prevent a lot of damage. If he Ice Blocks it, that’s too bad but it also gives you a free fear or blind on him (he should have had to trinket earlier in the fight from something).

Editting later!