Faction Champs

Long have I avoided the world of small-scale PVP, namely arenas, because of the incredible amount of stress it has created for me as a shaman healer. (My one dedicated foray into 2v2 was for the sole purpose of getting the LHW totem—no one has ever been more excited than me when I hit a 1500 rating.) But, over the weeks, this fight has become one of my favorites simply because of how much of an impact fast reactions and situational awareness can make. Good CC communication is also a must; managing diminishing returns can make the difference between a clean kill and the Champs running amok through your raid.

• Healing Setup: 6-7 heals, with at least 1 dedicated to raid cleansing. 1-2 proactive purgers (dps) are also helpful. Because of the variability of damage on the fight, our team uses free-for-all healing assignments with some exceptions. First, a good portion of the raid damage that can go out in this fight is in the form of poisons, diseases, and magic, so our disc priests are often dedicated to just shielding and dispelling. More important than healing on this fight is CC coordination (cyclones, roots, grips, polymorphs, stuns, slams, hexes, etc.) so our resto druids often have cc assignments that take precedent over raid healing. Resto shamans are expected to toss out a hex when they can but we are not included in main CC assignments.
• Raid Positioning: The majority of the raid should be positioned away from targets which are being isolated by DK grips. Generally we keep gripped targets against the east and west walls, with the raid spread out in the middle and to the south. Healers would do well to stay spread and away from the action since proximity has actually been proven to play into the Faction Champ’s threat tables.
• The Resto Sham: If you have a DK that is assigned to isolating a single target, ES him as he will be taking consistent damage while likely moving in and out of range. For the first minute or so of the fight, stick to CH since damage will be widespread and will likely be on grouped targets. Also, stay as far away from the action as possible; don’t be afraid to reposition if/when Champs make their move on you. Have Wind Shear and Grounding Totem at the ready to aid your getaway. Overall though, reaction time is key and the best advice I can give is to heal everyone as if you were the only healer alive.
• The Bonus: Champs can ”trinket” out of stuns and CC so to get them to blow their CDs from the start, we pull with a Water Elemental’s Frost Nova. (They pop their CD’s, we pop bloodlust, and the battle is on.) Also, a focus macro for Purge/Dispel is incredibly helpful if you want to help keep hots, Blessing of Freedom, or otherwise off one of the Champs. Lastly, the Champs will turn and nuke anyone who has a severe health deficit, so spreading your heals around can help mitigate the insta-gib that happens frequently.
• Shameless Plug: Amazing, amazing article regarding the Faction Champs AI. Even if your strat is mostly solidified, I’d still recommend reading it. The most worthwhile suggestion in here for us was having 1 player assigned to consistently dps one of the pets. The FC Healers will pour healing into it and, consequently, heal themselves or other targets very little. That alone dropped our average kill time from ~9.5mins to ~8mins.

Next Fight: Twin Val’kyrs >