Ok bit about me first, my main is a lvl afflic 70 lock and I have a lvl 60 enhan shammy.
one of the main problems that shammys (and other classes have) when fighting locks is you cant tell what spec they are straight away (unless they have gone fully down the demo tree and have felguard. Not knowing this creates a significant disadvantage. You may think this doesn't matter as you will be able to nuke em down (either melee or through spells). This isn't the case.
Affl locks have a high range on there dots and cant be dispelled by you, the dots are also instant, I can cast, improved cor, drain life, immolate and agony in a matter of secs, in addition to drain life and the best of all unstable affliction. So in the 5 secs it takes you to get to me, your life is ticking away. I then run like hell, lol, you chase me (Benny Hill music playing in the back ground), so then u whack me!! OUCH!! At which point I use my Howl (massive fear, instant through aff talents) or sedduce u, by this point ur gonna be down to 30%, then I shadowbolt you to death. The problem for aff locks is if you have a dispel class with you (pally/priest etc), however if they try and remove the unstable afflic, it stuns the healer and does around 2k damage to them. While all this is taking place and I'm running like a crazy woman, I will have instantly dotted the healer (if in arena), so what do they do dispell/heal themself or you? If by chance the healer removes all the dots off you then succy becomes thier best friend and sedduces them, rinse and repeat. Aff locks are very very mana efficient and will life tap and drain you for more mana.
You may ask, how can I fight them then? Answer is simple, you gotta ghostwolf to me as fast as u can and pop Tremor and Grounding totem straight away, most locks will instantly try and use fear, not gonna work if you have tremor out then beat me to death shocking me as much as possible, I'll go down fast.
Slightly different on a Ele Shammy, then same applies, dot ya and keep out of ya lightening range.
Demo Locks are different, they dont have the range of affliction or destuction locks. The advantage of this build is they can instantly summon correct minion for correct job needed. Ignore them. DPS lock whether you be melee or spell. Demo's share damage with minion so we are a little harder to take down, however there is a trick. Demo locks only have one instant fear (death coil) which will be wasted with tremor totem. We also only have one instant dot (agony) so if u get close get close or if ur ranged stay at range limit. The main advantage that all shammy builds have over this lock build is that fact that demo locks cant move and cast.
Finally destruction, this build has long range dps, high crit chance on shadowbolt and dd damge of immolate and incinerate. They also posses a talent called backlash with prov quite alot, hit a lock with ranged or melee instant shadowbolt. The disadvantage is mana, they will use it v fast and be as useful as a chocolate fire guard.
Anyway that sums up lock info 101, I'm sure alot will disagree but I dont have any problems taking down shammys except restro (but all heal classes are a pain)
Cheers
one of the main problems that shammys (and other classes have) when fighting locks is you cant tell what spec they are straight away (unless they have gone fully down the demo tree and have felguard. Not knowing this creates a significant disadvantage. You may think this doesn't matter as you will be able to nuke em down (either melee or through spells). This isn't the case.
Affl locks have a high range on there dots and cant be dispelled by you, the dots are also instant, I can cast, improved cor, drain life, immolate and agony in a matter of secs, in addition to drain life and the best of all unstable affliction. So in the 5 secs it takes you to get to me, your life is ticking away. I then run like hell, lol, you chase me (Benny Hill music playing in the back ground), so then u whack me!! OUCH!! At which point I use my Howl (massive fear, instant through aff talents) or sedduce u, by this point ur gonna be down to 30%, then I shadowbolt you to death. The problem for aff locks is if you have a dispel class with you (pally/priest etc), however if they try and remove the unstable afflic, it stuns the healer and does around 2k damage to them. While all this is taking place and I'm running like a crazy woman, I will have instantly dotted the healer (if in arena), so what do they do dispell/heal themself or you? If by chance the healer removes all the dots off you then succy becomes thier best friend and sedduces them, rinse and repeat. Aff locks are very very mana efficient and will life tap and drain you for more mana.
You may ask, how can I fight them then? Answer is simple, you gotta ghostwolf to me as fast as u can and pop Tremor and Grounding totem straight away, most locks will instantly try and use fear, not gonna work if you have tremor out then beat me to death shocking me as much as possible, I'll go down fast.
Slightly different on a Ele Shammy, then same applies, dot ya and keep out of ya lightening range.
Demo Locks are different, they dont have the range of affliction or destuction locks. The advantage of this build is they can instantly summon correct minion for correct job needed. Ignore them. DPS lock whether you be melee or spell. Demo's share damage with minion so we are a little harder to take down, however there is a trick. Demo locks only have one instant fear (death coil) which will be wasted with tremor totem. We also only have one instant dot (agony) so if u get close get close or if ur ranged stay at range limit. The main advantage that all shammy builds have over this lock build is that fact that demo locks cant move and cast.
Finally destruction, this build has long range dps, high crit chance on shadowbolt and dd damge of immolate and incinerate. They also posses a talent called backlash with prov quite alot, hit a lock with ranged or melee instant shadowbolt. The disadvantage is mana, they will use it v fast and be as useful as a chocolate fire guard.
Anyway that sums up lock info 101, I'm sure alot will disagree but I dont have any problems taking down shammys except restro (but all heal classes are a pain)
Cheers