CHAPTER 7: COOLDOWN ROTATION

COOLDOWN ROTATION INTRO

Welcome to our defensive course on cooldown rotation. Now, if you've watched any tournament in the past few years, you already know that high-level games can go on forever.

What's the dang secret here? How can these teams stay alive for so freaking long?

A huge part of it really includes something known as cooldown rotation, which allows teams to infinitely extend games by following a simple formula. Now, we're going to be taking you into the perspective of Team Liquid and show you how their approach to cooldown trading can directly benefit your own gameplay.

WHAT IS COOLDOWN ROTATION?

Hey guys! Today's video will cover one of the most important concepts you need to know for having the most success in Shadowlands PvP.

This guide will cover one of the best 3v3 teams of all time and the crucial part of their gameplay that has led to their success at the highest levels of WoW PvP.

This video will cover defensive cooldown rotation by showing how Seedoo, Trill, and Mess utilize rotating their defensive CD's as a team at the highest ratings of WoW PvP. Even if you are new to PvP, you probably know about the importance of defensive cooldowns.

You already know that if your opponent pops an offensive CD, it usually forces you to use a defensive CD in response. But have you ever considered how you should be using defensive CD's in a 3v3 environment?

One of the biggest differences between your average opponent and a 3v3 player is the amount of time they spend on the CD. The most important thing is that you should be able to use the CD in a 3v3 environment.

The best arena team and the world's best arena teams is how they rotate defensive cooldowns as a team. Every class has multiple defensive cooldowns, whether it be damage mitigation, CD's, interrupts, or crowd control.

The best teams in the world are able to effectively micromanage their defensive CD's in order to plan cooldown usage based around enemy offensive CD's and damage. In Shadowlands, learning how to rotate CD's as a team is especially important considering how high burst damage is.

Because damage is so high, it is important that you use enough defensive CD's as a team so that you're able to survive offensive pushes while having enough CD's to survive future kill attempts.

One of the biggest mistakes teams make is either under-committing to offensive CD's by under-reacting to enemy cooldowns or over-committing to offensive CD's by using too many cooldowns at once. The best teams in the world are highly effective at efficiently using their defensive CD's.

They communicate in advance who will react to burst damage so that every offensive CD's will be used to counter the enemy CD's. They communicate in advance who will react to burst damage so that every offensive CD's will be used to counter the enemy CD's.

They communicate in advance who will react to burst damage so that every offensive CD's will be used to counter the enemy CD's. They communicate in advance who will react to burst damage so that every defensive CD's will be used to counter the enemy CD's.

USING YOUR PVP TRINKET EFFECTIVELY

One of the most important cooldowns available to every spec in the game is the PvP Medallion Trinket. Knowing how to rotate your PvP trinkets as a team is one of the most important mechanics for leveling up your game in 3v3 arena.

On its own, your PvP trinket is not that valuable. It may break you out of an important crowd control effect, but if you cannot pair it with another powerful spell, the value of your trinket goes way down.

The best healers in arena are really good at making sure that their PvP trinket not only lines up with enemy offensive cooldowns, but also with their own cooldowns. Once again, your PvP trinket is not valuable on its own.

Its value comes from its combination with other critical cooldowns. Rank 1 healers often combine their trinket usage with some of their most important defensive cooldowns.

Let's take a look at some of the ways trinket is used for each of the popular healers. For Holy Paladin, PvP trinket is often combined with Blessing of Sacrifice, Blessing of Protection, or Avenging Wrath.

Blessing of Sacrifice is incredibly useful. It will be powerful when combined with the ultimate sacrifice talent and can completely shut down a go from the enemy team.

Avenging Wrath can also be paired with PvP trinket in order to get some quick healing throughput out in dangerous situations. For Disciplined Priests, PvP trinket is often paired with Power Word Barrier or even simply paired with Power Word Radiance for some instant cast burst healing.

Using trinket with Power Word Barrier often has high value because it allows you to preserve pain suppression, which is usable in some forms of crowd control. For Resto Shamans, trinket is often saved to be used in conjunction with Spirit Link Totem or Ascendance.

Because Spirit Link is their most powerful defensive cooldown, it is often worth saving PvP trinket to prevent a guaranteed death with Spirit Link. For Restoration Druids, trinket often pairs well with Nature's Swiftness or Iron Bark by providing an instant cast burst heal or additional damage mitigation.

Finally, for Mistweaver Monks, it is often effective to combine PvP trinket with either Revival or Life Cocoon. Just like Resto Druids, this provides their team with an instant cast heal or powerful damage mitigation.

Combining PvP trinket with other defensive cooldowns is also incredibly valuable for every DPS class. Almost every spec in the game has one or more powerful damage mitigation cooldowns or mobility cooldowns that allow them to escape death.

In order to better understand how the best teams rotate all their TDs, let's take a look at one of the best teams in the world.

HOW THE BEST PLAYERS ROTATE CDS

Even if you're new to PvP, you're probably familiar with Seedew, Mess, and Trill. This combination of players is a household name and were the winners of the Arena World Championship Finals in 2018.

In Shadowlands, they have come to dominate the 3v3 ladder with their Windwalker, Frost DK, Holy Paladin team. One of the biggest strengths they have as a team is how effectively they rotate their defensive cooldowns.

Before going into some game analysis, let's take a look at some of the multiple defensive cooldowns available to this team. Holy Paladins have access to multiple small and efficient mitigation cooldowns with Divine Protection, Blessing of Sacrifice, and Blessing of Protection.

They also have Avenging Wrath and Divine Favor as throughput cooldowns. And finally, Divine Shield as a major multipurpose immunity cooldown.

Generally speaking, Blessing of Sacrifice should be used as a primary defense against major enemy cooldowns. Not only will it mitigate 100% of damage with the ultimate sacrifice talent, it will also prevent some CC on the Paladin for its duration.

Windwalker Monk is a very good defensive cooldown. Windwalker Monk is a very good defensive cooldown.

Windcaller Monks have Touch of Karma and Fortifying Brew as their primary damage mitigation cooldowns, as well as Damp and Harm or Diffuse Magic, depending on the talent selection. In addition, their transcendence also acts as a minor defensive cooldown, allowing them to quickly avoid enemy attacks.

While Death Knights don't have as many defensive options as Monk or Paladin, they do offer one of the strongest team defensive cooldowns in the game. Anti-magic zone Combined with a dome of ancient shadow PVP talent, this cool down is incredibly important into any team with high magic damage. magic damage.

DKs also have some personal damage mitigation. Most notable are Anti-Magic Shell and Icebound Fortitude.

Now let's look at how Seedoo's team rotates these cooldowns against one of the most cooldown demanding comps in the game, RMP. This game starts off with triple CC on Seedoo's entire team and hard opener on Trill.

Seedoo gets kidney shot and gets polymorphed immediately. Seedoo and Trill both tank CC until the moment Combustion is used.

Because Combustion is such a powerful cooldown, it demands a big defensive response. Seedoo trinkets out of the polymorph and immediately uses Blessing of Sacrifice on Trill.

Once again, Combustion is the most powerful cooldown available for RMP, so it demands a big response. Trinket with Avenging Wrath and Blessing of Sacrifice is a big enough trade to prevent dying to the powerful Combustion cooldown.

Because Seedoo was the one reacting to Combustion, Trill is able to hold onto his PvP trinket, which is especially important against Rogue Mage for avoiding death in Smoke Bomb. Let's see how Seedoo's team is doing.

Seedoo's team handles the next push from the RMP. The next skill attempt is aimed at Seedoo, but it's likely a bait to try and scare Seedoo into overreacting to the RMP's damage.

Without Combustion available, the RMP most work in damage buffs like Dark Archangel in order to create meaningful pressure. Seedoo gets put into a full kidney shot, with Power Infusion being committed by the Priest.

Once again, because Combustion is not available, this is likely a bait attempt on Seedoo to overreact to damage. Seedoo monitors for Dark Archangel.

Once recognizing that it is not used, all he needs to do is Divine Protection to deflect this small push from the RMP. The next offensive push from the RMP is with a Smoke Bomb attempt onto Trill.

Remember that Trill saved his PvP trinket in the opener. This will come in handy here, as trinket is one of the most effective ways to deal with Smoke Bomb.

Luckily for Trill, the Monk leaves a gap in their stuns, allowing Trill to escape with a smoke bomb. This gives Seedoo's team one less CD to worry about from the RMP.

On top of that, the RMP did not commit Combustion or Dark Archangel during the stun. The Rogue damage alone is rarely enough to kill in a single stun.

Recognizing this, Trill knows that the RMP does not have enough damage to kill during the smoke bomb. Always monitor enemy CDs and buffs, especially against comps like RMP.

Just because the Rogue smoke bombs doesn't mean you need to instantly burn a trinket. If there are no damage buffs from the enemy team, it is possible to sit and enjoy the RMP.

If you have a smoke bomb, you can use it to kill the RMP. If you have a smoke bomb, you can use it to kill the RMP.

If you have a smoke bomb, you can use it to kill the RMP. If you have a smoke bomb, you can use it to kill the RMP.

Leave it as it is. It's possible to sit an entire stun and conserve your CDs for a future kill attempt.

Nearly two minutes into the game and it is certain that Combustion is available again. This means that any kill attempt from the RMP could be one that requires major defensive cooldowns.

Seedoo has limited CDs available and gets put into a cheap shot from the Rogue, with Combustion and Dark Archangel being committed from the Mage and Priest. This is the worst possible scenario for Seedoo, who must now rely on his partners to survive this go.

Luckily, the RMP does not cross-cc mess, allowing him to get out a clutch anti-magic zone. Even if Mess were to get cross cc'd on this go, he has saved his PvP Trinket and Icebound Fortitude up until this point.

Because Seedoo has absolutely no options against the Combustion and Dark Archangel, using Trinket to AMZ would have been an appropriate reaction from Mess. Mess' heads up play to save AMZ for Combust was the game winning play against his RMP.

With no cooldowns available, Seedoo became the most vulnerable kill target on his team. The major takeaway from Mess' play is that sometimes it is up to the DPS to play the support role.

Saving Trinket and AMZ the entire game allowed Seedoo's team to react to the biggest offensive push from the RMP. With a preset low mana and without any of their major offensive CDs available, Seedoo's team now sits comfortably to finish out the match.

Their coordinated CD usage allows them to deflect enough kill attempts from the RMP in order to win the game. With effective cooldown rotation, Seedoo, Mess, and Trill were able to counter one of the most demanding comps in the game.

If you're looking to improve your gameplay, one of the best places to start is by getting better at rotating cooldown as a team. Remember that big offensive cooldowns require using one or more major defensive cooldowns in reaction.

Make sure you're getting the most out of your PvP Trinket by increasing its value in combination with other defensives. Finally, always coordinate cooldown usage in advance to reduce the chance of overlapping major cooldowns with your teammates.

Shadowlands Season 1 has incredibly high burst damage, and micromanaging cooldown usage with your team will be instrumental to your success. Alright guys, that does it for this one.

Thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.