Post by Icelandic
Thanks for the info. From this it seems like I haven't been playing offensively enough. I've restrained from moonfire because it uses so much mana, but I guess what's the mana mean if we can't down anyone.
One comp in particular that's giving us a problem is Rdruid/ Warrior. With MS always up it takes twice as much healing, and with their druid cycloning all the time and healing, it seems that we can't get either past half health. Is there any certain move combo we should wait for before nuking or is this group gonna be one of our hard counter?
Hi, Darkmyth. I played a lot of DK/Druid in Season 5, and 6, so my experience is a little outdated, but I think for the most part, I can help.
Before I get into any specific strategy, I'm going to note that in arena, your best option is to go offensive before the other team does. Meaning whoever dominates with cyclones/roots/HoJ/fear/etc, often wins the match because CC has a snowballing effect--if you don't start offensively, you often find yourself in trouble.
Never start a fight in catform/stealth. Pounce is nice and all, but starting in Tree with a Regrowth/Rejuv on both of you as the match starts is invaluable. Plus, you can't get sapped, which is pretty huge.
Now, on to strat:
First, Insect Swarm spec is going to be your best option in 2s. As you didn't post an Armory link, I can't be for sure that you don't already use one, but for the most part, this is going to be your cookie cutter:
24/0/47a variation if you're going for haste:
24/0/47Whichever you decide (haste or not), your basic strategy with DK/Druid should be as follows (I'll use the Warr/Druid as an example):
Druids, on their own, can lock down a warrior very well, and have to do very minimum healing, if they are adequately prepared. When you involve your DK teammate, you should almost take the warrior out of the equation all together.
Pick up a
DR Tracker if you don't have one already. The basic idea will be to outlast the other Druid's mana, while incurring very little damage on your own.
Start with cyclones on the warrior to stifle his offensive pressure, while your DK begins to pressure the other druid. As your DK's runic power builds, the warrior's rage won't be that great. After you've cycloned twice, drop him in a roots as he leaves the cyclone. Depending on how many hits the warrior has landed, he may now have enough rage to Bladestorm. If he does, Barkskin + Travelform away from him. If he doesn't, drop him in another roots. After both Cyclone and Entangling Roots are on diminishing returns, you have a few options. If you already have HoTs rolling on yourself, you can go ahead and tank the damage from the warrior, waiting for diminishing returns to end. If you don't have HoTs readily on yourself, your DK can sacrifice one of his frost runes to Chains of Ice the warrior, keeping him slowed and off a target.
The one thing you will have to look out for, (and what I fake-cast for) is Spell Reflect. If he spell reflects a cyclone, then it can be a nasty bit of pressure on you. If he spell reflects a roots, you can powershift out of it and cast another on him if you're fast about it, and don't get charge-interrupted.
The lovely thing about Insect Swarm spec, is that you can keep Insect Swarm up on both of your enemies for around 500 mana, MUCH more efficient than Moonfire. Also, try to keep Faerie Fire up on at least the Druid, so that he can't catform-drink or Pounce, and to let your parnter DPS harder. Between Insect Swarm and the DKs 3 diseases on both targets, you should be putting out some decent pressure, meanwhile, their warrior should be locked down most of the time. Once the other Druid starts to get low on mana, get ready to Nature's Swiftness+Cyclone his Innervate. He won't gain any mana while cycloned, and if you start casting a 2nd cyclone with less than 1 second left, he'll have regained very little mana. You can couple your NS+Cyclone with an innervate of your own, if you'd like, since you won't have any worry of losing it to a cyclone on you.
All of this assumes that the warrior starts on Druid. If Warrior gets on the DK (who knows why), your best bet is going to have him go into frost presence, and try to take as few hits in the back as he can. Your main task will still be to cyclone/root the warrior off of the DK, and announce when he's coming out of CC so that your partner knows when to expect a charge. The DK can try to LoS it if he wants, it usually has varying results.
The last little bit, is Bear form -> Enrage -> Bash/Demoralizing Roar. You can use it pretty much as you like. Against Warrior/Druid, I often use it to wait out DR on the warrior so that I can put him back in Cyclone and hurt his offensive pressure. You can also use it against the druid, to stop a Nourish cast, or in a CC train with your DK in such a fashion:
Enemy Druid has no hots on himself: DK deathgrip -> ghoul stun -> plague strike (for desecrated ground) -> strangulate -> (Druid Roots enemy druid to slow him slightly as he comes out of desecrated ground) -> bear bash.
All of ^that while a gargoyle is popped can pretty much win you a game against any comp, or have them blow some serious cooldowns at the very least.
WALL OF TEXT CRITS FOR 99,000!
But no, really, I hope that helps, and I'm sorry if I went into too much detail, I can never assume what people know, and don't know, so I figure it's worthwhile to go into too much detail and have people skip over the useless parts. I'm more than happy to answer any questions that you have about that mess I just posted =P