Hi,
I would like to ask you, what decks do you think are the most cancerous (as in irritating to play against)?
For me it would be Secret Paladin and Zoo. Secret Paladin and its Dr. 6, sometimes followed by Dr. 7 and/or Tirion. MC is one of the strongest cards in the game, as he can be worth up to 11 mana of cards for just 6 mana. There is Get Down! and Avenge combo in the paladin secrets, but they get played at the same time! 
Then there is zoo with its pesky minion buffing and flooding the board. There is also the Egg+Buff combo, which can ruin your day. Fearlessly tapping, they never fully run out of steam. 
Now, what are the decks you despise and why?

Hey everyone.
So I was playing my mage in WoD as arcane and was very happy with it. Know the prepatch came and I was nearly forced to switch to fire to stay on top.
But I think playing fire was more fun in "the old days" and now I am really struggeling what to play in Legion. On the other hand seems arcane really complicated now with Quickening and the conserve phase.

My question is, if anyone knows if arcane will become stronger again with Legion or won't it be worth playing?

Greetings and thanks in advance!

Introduction:
 
 
I would like to start a Discussion/Guide on Frost Mage 6.2 PvP, this is a sequel to my Frost Mage 5.4 PvP topic.  I will adjust this opening post as we get some advice from some experienced Frost Mage players.
As a Frost Mage, your role in PvP instances (arena, battlegrounds, etc) will be to deal damage to other players with the goal to kill them.
 

Strengths:
1) Great Burst
2) Basic spells will snare targets for at least 50% movement speed.
3) You have multiple Control spells that can root and incapacitate your opponents.
 
Weaknesses:
1) Very low healing capacity and health pool

 
Stat Priority:
 
There is a recommended gear layout below, so this section is redundant, but I'll explain why they are important anyways.
 
Haste > Mastery > Mutlistrike > Critical Strike.
 
Haste is king. Faster frostbolts that deal increased damage to snared targets.
Mastery: You should build up your Icicles right before you burst, they do deal alot of damage.
Multistrike: More Brain Freeze procs, and the spells that hits like a truck now hits like a train.
Critical Strike: Lowest priority because the Shatter passive will increase your crit.
 
Gear:
 
I'll be using the Season 2 Combatant (Honor) gear in the links, When going Best in Slot just use the Gladiator (Conquest) relevant upgrade.
 
So the first few things you get when gearing up, are the CC Break trinket (Unless you play Human) and then the 4-set bonus. Completing the 2-set bonus of your trinket is recommended to do first if you are going solo.
 
The recommended gear layout is:
The entire Silk Set (Head, Chest, Hands, Shoulders, Leggings). But when you upgrade to Conquest gear, you should exchange one piece for "... of Cruelty" piece (Remember to keep your 4-set bonus intact)
All off-set pieces should be "... of Prowess"  except one piece that should be "... of Cruelty".
Two trinkets "..of Dominance"
 
Wild Combatant's Silk Cowl -> Wild Gladiator's Cowl of Cruelty
Wild Combatant's Silk Robe
Wild Combatant's Silk Handguards
Wild Combatant's Silk Amice
Wild Combatant's Silk Trousers
Wild Combatant's Pendant of Prowess
Wild Combatant's Drape of Prowess
Wild Combatant's Cuffs of Prowess
Wild Combatant's Cord of Prowess
Wild Combatant's Treads of Cruelty
Wild Combatant's Band of Prowess
Wild Combatant's Band of Cruelty
Wild Combatant's Badge of Dominance
Wild Combatant's Insignia of Dominance / Wild Combatant's Medallion of Adaptation
 
Wild Combatant's Battle Staff
 
Talents
 
Recommended Default build is: 2/3/1/3/3/3/3
With Glyphs of Deep Freeze, Poly and Regen Ice Block
 
More Details:
 
Tier 1:
Evanesce - Not Recommended. With this you will not be able to heal with the Ice Block glyph.
Blazing Speed - Recommended. The Speed boost will allow you to get out of the range of Melee when snared. and catching up to other players without using Blink.
Ice Floes -Conditional - If you are playing on a environment without Line of Sight blockers and playing versus players without snares (which does not happen), this will be better than Blazing Speed.
 
Tier 2:
Alter Time - Conditional. When playing against MAJOR burst classes. Remember to manually trigger the effect before you die, since 10 seconds is a rather long time. Do not use Ice Block during this since it will not remove the debuff and negate the healing done. 
Flameglow - Conditional. When playing against DoTs and/or you have a healer, this will help, but latest changes to this talent has Nerfed it.
Ice Barrier - Recommended. ~10% absorb heal every 25 seconds. Great since Mages need heals.
 
Tier 3:
Ring of Frost - Recommended. Note this shares Diminishing Return with polymorph. But still great to chain with poly.
Ice Ward - Recommended for Melee. Note this can be casted on allies.
Frostjaw - Conditional. A extra CC Silence for healers. Great setup for Deep Freeze.
 
Tier 4:
Greater Invisibility - Not Recommended. Although this can be useful for Battlegrounds, Cold Snap simply beats this.
Cauterize - Not Recommended. 
Cold Snap - 22% heal is a lot, also gives you another Ice Block. Can be used while in Ice Block. 
 
Tier 5:
Frost Bomb - Conditional. Only in Battlegrounds where you have the time to cast this without being interrupted, can cause devastating damage when used with Frozen Orb and/or Prismatic Crystal.
Unstable Magic - Not Recommended. Breaks your CCs
Ice Nova - Recommended. One of the greatest bursts in the game.
 
Tier 6:
Mirror Image - Not recommended. Not as great as a passive like incanter's flow.
Rune of Power - Not Recommended. Requires you to stand still like a Target Dummy
Incanter's Flow - Recommended. Passive bonus damage, using Ice Lance and Ice Nova at 4/5 stacks is recommended aswell.
 
Tier 7:
Thermal Void - Not Recommended. You won't be generating that many Fingers of Frost.
Prismatic Crystal - Conditional. When using Frost Bomb and the Splitting Ice Glyph, you can deal alot to stationary targets.
Comet Storm - Recommended. Combo with Deep Freeze for increased crit change.
 
Glyphs:
Glyph of Polymorph - Recommended when you are playing with people that inflict Damage over Time debuffs.
Glyph of Deep Freeze - Recommended to allow you to decrease the time required to complete your burst and chain with Comet Storm.
Glyph of Regenerative Ice - Recommended. Gives you a great HoT while in Ice Block, but staying in Ice Block means your opponents can beat on your team members. Exclusive with the next glyph (of Ice Block) 
Glyph of Ice Block - Only recommended when you have a healer. You can cancel this and cast poly without worrying for interrupts.
Glyph of Icy Veins - Only recommended when not in arena, when you can use Time Warp. Allows your Ice Nova to deal even more damage more frequently. Note that Haste is more important than Multistrike.
Glyph of Spellsteal - Special mention. 4% heals are great, but note that Spellsteal costs alot of mana and can only be used 5-6 times before you are Out of Mana (OOM).
 

Spell Categories:
Your spells can be divided into the following categories
 
Survival-Control:
Freeze (Root)
Freeze
Frost Nova
Ring of Frost
Ice Nova - If you have enough haste, you can use Deep Freeze of this.
 
Slow (Snare)
Cone of Cold
Frozen Orb
 
Interrupt:
Counterspell
 
Lose Control:
Polymorph- Important: Don't use this spell on targets that are already injured unless its part of your plan/tactic. THIS SPELL HEALS THE TARGET FOR 10% PER SECOND!!!
 
Stuns:
Deep Freeze- Also a DPS-Cooldown.
 
Survival-Movement:
Blink - Important: Blink breaks Stuns!!
Blazing Speed
 
Survival-Absorbs-and-Heals (Imporant: Can be used while stunned):
Cold Snap
Ice Block (Glyph)
Ice Barrier
 
Survival-Control Breakers:
Blink - Blink breaks Stuns!!
Ice Block
Wild Combatant's Medallion of Adaptation / Every Man for Himself
 
Some other spells you can use are:
AoE Spells to reveal enemies in Stealth:
Blizzard
 
DPS-Cooldowns:
Mirror Image (if taken)
Icy Veins
Deep Freeze

Wild Combatant's Badge of Dominance
Wild Combatant's Insignia of Dominance
 

Gameplay:
In PvE, you have a DPS Rotation
In PvP, you have combos, and conditional casts.
 
Combos is where you cast certain spells together for an effect, like a Burst.
Conditional Casts is when you use certain spells under certain conditions for example using Blink when you are stunned by a Rogue.
 
Your gameplay mostly consists of completing Goals, these Goals can consist and be adjusted according to the instance you are playing and the type of opponent(s) you are facing. For example:
 
Goals when playing against Melee opponents:
 
1. Get some distance  (Survive)
Reason: If they are not close to you, they cannot hit you.
How: By using spells that Root / Snare them, or using spell to get away (Mentioned in the spell categories with "Survival" in their name)
 
Normally, you open with your Pet Freeze just to keep them where they are, and to generate a Fingers of Frost (Free Ice Lance or Deep Freeze)
If they are close to you, use Frost Nova instead. 
If both are on cooldown, you can use Cone of Cold to slow them, and then cast a Ring of Frost between you and them to block their path.
 
If these are on cooldown and they are getting close / used their anti-spell defensive cooldowns, use a "Absorb" type spell.
 
 
Goals to killing opponents:
1. The Setup (for a kill)
Reason: If you use your DPS Cooldowns while they still have their defensive cooldowns, you won't be able to kill them.
 
How: As you Root and Snare your opponent, you can cast your Frostbolts, Frostfire Bolts to damage your target. They will start using their PvP Trinkets and Defensive abilities just to counter the damage while rooted or snared. Another way to force someone to use their PvP Trinket is to use Polymorth (Do not cast on injured opponents).
When you know they have used their Trinket/Defensive Cooldowns, you can proceed to Burst them.
This also builds up your Icicle Mastery, causing your burst to do more damage.
 
2. Burst
Reason: Normal damage will allow the target to [cast heals/ to be healed]. Bursting is a effective way to kill someone without them getting heals.
How: 
First CC any healers nearby.
There is no set rotation to burst, you must understand what spells syncs with others, for example Deep Freeze combo'ed with Comet Storm deals alot, and using Ice Nova with 4-5 stacks of Incanter's Flow.
 
Here is a example:



Use your DPS cooldowns before you cast anything.
 
Recommended sequence:
Cast a Frozen Orb and use the Finger of Frost generated to Deep Freeze the target. Use Comet Storm, and then cast Frostbolt.
The Frozen Orb, your Frostbolt and the Comet Storm meteors will all benefit from Shatter. As the Frostbolt is finished casting, use Ice Lance (Benefits from either Deep Freeze or a Finger of Frost stack.
Use Pet Freeze and double cast Ice Nova and then Ice Lance with the Fingers of Frost generated from Pet Freeze.
 
If you want to, you can use Pet Freeze & Ice Nova first, and Deep Freeze&Comet Storm of the root created by the second Ice Nova if you have enough haste and then cast Frozen Orb.
 
 
Please leave some constructive comments/tips below.

This thread is for all Shaman specs tips, tricks and discussions in how to best handle the various boss fights throughout Hellfire Citadel. Feel free to contribute or discuss encounter-specific anything.
 
Hellfire Assault
Iron Reaver
Kormrok
Hellfire High Council
Kilrogg Deadeye
Gorefiend
Shadow-Lord Iskar
Fel Lord Zakuun
Socrethar the Eternal
Xhul'horac
Tyrant Velhari
Mannoroth
Archimonde
 
 
Hellfire Assault (top)
 
[Resto] [Heroic]
 
Well, my best advice for a resto shaman on this fight: respec to dps
It is a very easy fight in terms of healing, the raid rarely drops below 70%HP if doing the mechanics right. This encounter could be easily healed with 3 healers for 20 people on Heroic and a resto shaman is the worst performer here (would barely benefit from Mastery).
If you are healing this fight:
1. Go full Haste - 2-3 times of raid wide damage from Metamorphosis could be easily healed with your HTT and Ascendance CDs.
2. Use all your utility totems to help the raid - stuns, spell reflects, Spirit Link when having 2-4 Felcasters metamorphose together and cast uninterruptable Felfire Volleys.
3. Use your Fire Elemental and dps the boss on the start of the fight.
4. Dispel Conducted Shock Pulse asap: its damage is trivial but you can’t afford people being stunned for 6 sec (especially when this happens on top of the bombs)
 
This fight is really easy in terms of healing and if your raid is not using the tactic ‘gather everything and AoE it on top DPS’, resto shamans wouldn’t shine
 
[utility]
 
Archigos: Grounding totem can absorb the entire Volley of Metamorphosed Felcaster.
  Iron Reaver (top)
 
[utility]
Iron Reaver targets healers specifically with his Barrage ability (at least on Normal and Heroic). Assign all the healers to stay on the one side of boss while all the dps on the other side. Still don't forget /range 8.
Handling Barrage in this way will save you a lot of healing.
 
[Resto] [Heroic]
 
Very intensive Ground Phase.
I highly recommend you to stay full time in melee range and to ask your ranged dps to come closer - it helps a lot to avoid Barrage damage and move from Blitz. Do not chase people hit and dragged by Blitz, there's a big chance that you'll end in the same position.
Use your raid CDs on Pounding. Do not wait for it to start - drop HTT or cast Ascendance 1-2 sec before. The damage is very intensive and entering Pounding with 50-60% HP could leave you behind on healing and cause unexpected deaths from multiplied abilities.
Do not bother with Healing Rain because normally you should stay 8 yards apart from each other in order to not get hit by somebody’s Unstable Orb.
Do not hesitate to burn your mana with Chain Heals here - you will have plenty of time to regen it in Air Phase.
When the Air Phase starts, wait for the first Artillery targets announcement and Immolation. After it you’ll have enough time to channel your mana pot.
Help to dps Firebombs - there’s not much to heal in this phase while killing the bombs in time is very important.
 
 
Kormrok (top)
  [Resto] [Heroic]
 
You can dps in the first 20-30 sec of the fight - not much to heal during this period. HST, Riptides and Healing Rain on the melee camp would be enough.
Use your raid CDs during Pound cast. Our 3 min CDs align pretty nice with every Pound cast.
I would advise to use SLT on Grasping Hands. In addition, in this fight I’m using Int pot instead of mana pot for the healing boost during Grasping Hands/Pound combination.
 
[Enhancement]
 
demonardvark: When the hands are about to be cast run to the outside of your raid group and face in. You can spread your flame shock to most of the hands and fire nova for huge dps gains (and freeing your raid group sooner).
   

Hellfire High Council (top)
  [Resto] [Heroic]
 
I would advise to use both dispel glyphs here (double dispel and healing on dispel)
Do not dispel Mark of the Necromancer before it comes to 3 stacks and even here wait 5-6 sec before dispelling. In this case the amount of players affected by the debuff would be minimal.
Use your CDs during Wailing Horror and Windwalk. SLT would be nice if you raid is using ‘stack loosely in the middle’ tactic.
   
Kilrogg Deadeye (top)
 
  [Resto] [Heroic]
 
For this fight I’m using Ancestral Guidance when going to Death Realm. It aligns perfectly with the number of people and Realm CD.
In this case I can use HTT and Ascendance outside for Death Throes casts.
Two things to mention:
- Keep an eye on your buff stacks in Death Realm. In the second you get 20 stacks - jump into the fire, die and get out. You can’t get more than 20 stacks of buff so there’s no reason to stay there.
- When you get out from Death Realm, run immediately to melee camp and stay there for all the Death Throes casts while you have the buff: you will not be hit by missiles and your Defying Death buff absorbs 1m of damage done.
  [ele/enh]
 
Derienn: Frozen Power talent and the Glyph of Frost Shock were really useful for holding Salivating Bloodthirsters in place on Kilrogg.
 

Gorefiend (top)
  [Resto] [Heroic]
 
Well, you should use all the CDs during Feast of Souls. No need to use them all together, start from HTT - it would heal people while they are gathering up. Use both SLT during other healers CDs - it will help to redistribute the healing.
If you need to channel a pot, do it right after the end of Feast of Souls but I would advise for a regular mana potion for this fight - too much stuff could disturb your channeling.
Inside the stomach:
You definitely should heal the Tortured Essences on Heroic. And it’s not because of their AoE but because of the raid wide Slow debuff. Too much health they’ll have > more time to kill them > people are slowed and can’t run out with Touch of Doom or kite the Constructs.
I was using VuhDo target frame to heal them but it started to bug and disappear in the start of the fight so I wrote a macro that targets an add, put a raid mark on them, cast Riptide and two Healing Waves. It’s enough to heal the add to full or at least to 90% HP.
Normally you should be able to heal 3 Essences and HoT the 4th.
Macro:
/target Tortured Essence
/script if GetRaidTargetIndex("target")==nil then SetRaidTargetIcon("target",1) end
/castsequence reset=1.8 Riptide, Healing Wave, Healing Wave
   

Shadow-Lord Iskar (top)
 
[utility]
Your raid could benefit from a shaman grabbing the Eye on the start of the fight. Wolf + Unleashed speed buff could speed up the things and prevent the damage from Uncontrolled Radiance. It's not a 'must' - any class can grab the Eye with the speed buff but I would say that healers are optimal for this task - we have nothing to do on the start of the fight.
 
[Resto]
The only times to use our raid CDs are the Focused Blast casts. Drop SLT on the last seconds (it's a 12 sec cast so do not use SLT too early) and use HTT for the first Blast and Asc for the second.
Theoretically you can use a CD if things went ugly with Fel Chakram or Fel Bomb going off in raid but they are mistakes in handling the fight, so you shouldn't plan raid CDs for this kind of damage.
 
I would advise for healers to use Iskar Assist addon on this fight if handling Phantasmal Winds and Fel Bomb dispels only with Action Button is problematic for you.
Tick off everything in Options except of Phantasmal Winds and Fel Bomb debuffs.
 
Throw the Eye to another healer on 6 stacks of Radiance of Anzu debuff on Heroic (irrelevant on Normal).
 
No need to target heal people with Phantasmal Wounds debuff on Normal and Heroic - the damage is pretty trivial and is healed up mostly by HoTs and AoE healing.
 

Fel Lord Zakuun (top)
 
[Resto][Heroic]
The fight is very short (3-4 min) so you will have only one possibility to use your raid CDs.
Theoretically it's better to use a Holy Pala with AW or / and a Resto Druid with ToL or HotW during P2 (Disarmed) and to keep HTT and Asc for the last phase (P3: Enrage).
 
You have to direct heal Befouled targets - every stack of it absorbs about 100K healing on Heroic (about 300K total), so a couple of Riptided crit Healing Surges would be enough. Do not hesitate to use Healing Surge - it does some awesome crits for 100-125K HP and the fight is so short to go OOM.
 
 

Socrethar the Eternal (top)
 
[utility]
 
You can help with Exert Dominance, Shadow Word: Agony, Shadow Bolt Volley interrupts if your raid doesn't have an assigned rotation.
 
Bethie: Grounding totem works against Shadow Bolt Volley on Socrethar.
 
[Resto][Heroic]
 
Nothing specific we can do during P1 - it's all about damage mitigation on tanks - not a Resto Shamans call.
 
During P2 we should use all our CDs (SLT, HTT, Asc) for Apocalypse casts. I found out that the first Apocalypse damage is pretty trivial and could be healed with SLT and normal healing only. If it's the same for you, keep HTT for the later ones.
 
Dispels: use a Glyph of Cleansing Waters for this fight. Do not dispel Shadow Word: Agony immediately if its target doesn't have the Gift of the Man'ari debuff. Ask dps and interrupt by yourself Shadow Word: Agony casts if too many of them are going off because in this case you will just burn all your mana for dispels and go OOM.
 

Xhul'horac (top)
 
[utility]
During P2 and P3, Grounding Totem is perfect to soak Void Surge cast with subsequent Creeping Void patch.
A WeakAura to track the Void Surge cast:
 
[Resto][Heroic]
Use your raid CDs in the last phase (P4: Tearing Apart). The damage here is very high and getting higher during the phase because of Overwhelming Chaos debuff. The raid will take healvy damage from its AoE part every 10 sec., so it would be the best time for the raid CDs.
 

Tyrant Velhari (top)
 

Mannoroth (top)
 
[utility]
 
Bethie: Grounding totem works against imps on Mannoroth.
 

Archimonde (top)

Hey guys, 
 
The new 6.2 PTR patch notes have been released and theres quite some big stuff in it. (read all about it here and new class specific trinkets here)
 
PATCH CHANGES:
Restoration
Chain Heal now heals for 25% more. Riptide no longer increases Chain Heal's effectiveness by 25% on the primary target.  
TIER 18 SET BONUSES:
Item - Shaman T18 Restoration 2P Bonus (New) The critical healing of your Riptide is increased to 200%. Item - Shaman T18 Restoration 4P Bonus (New) When you Chain Heal, you also apply Riptide to the primary target.  
NEW TRINKET:
Casting Healing Surge, Chain Heal, or Healing Wave on a target with your Riptide on it has a 50.00/57.47/66.16 chance to spread that Riptide to another nearby ally
 
 
 
I'm still looking into it myself but im not 100% sure if i actually want to trade out tier 17 for tier 18. Chain heal has been buffed, equip the shaman trinket, get a few riptides out on the raid and just spam chain heals on riptided targets all day every day?
 
Further on i dont really like how blizzard makes resto shaman about 1 spell every raid tier... first chain heal and now riptide. And seems to me as well that stat priority might become a bit better for haste and crit. Its all about riptide and the crit value of riptide goes up to 200% with 2 piece. Stack a lot of haste and you get more riptide ticks and more casts off on riptide target that gives free riptides because of the shaman trinket.
 
What do you guys think of the patch, how will it influence resto shaman in general etcetc. DISCUSS!