If the druid is in stealth, rogue searches for the druid while the mage kites the warrior using rank 1 spells fishing for clearcast and frostbite procs to slowly wear him down. If the druid is in tree form, the mage sheeps the warrior before the rogue opens on the druid. However, if the warrior is not gnome, then you can open with a nova on the warrior, as long as you manage to get the sheep at the end of nova without getting spellreflected or feared by the warrior.

Rogue equips double wound and opens with a cheap shot into a shiv into a gouge to stall out the hots and the mage shatters the druid as the kidney shot lands after the gouge. If you're ever in range of the warrior make sure to pop evasion pre-emptively so that the warrior doesn't trinket and get a hamstring/macestun proc on you.

When the warrior trinkets you either try to resheep or nova his trinket, but if its too inconvenient for the mage due to position or something else like a fear/intercept/pummel, then the rogue blinds the warrior and you keep tunneling the druid.

Use counterspell after the kidney on the druid to cover the rogue from faerie fire and to prevent hots.

If the druid is low enough at this point you can vanish premed garrote evisc (or expose armor if the druid is healthy) and keep training him down while slowing the warrior with rank 1 spells such as cone of cold and blizzard.

Optionally to play it safe you might want to reset on the warrior's trinket in the start if you feel like you haven't developed enough pressure on the druid to keep training him. In that case you just LoS faerie fire and restealth, or simply vanish and wait for DR's, and then repeat the initial opener from scratch.

This matchup is very opener dependent and also mage vs mage dependent. Whoever is winning the 1v1 has the advantage overall, as it will force the enemy rogue to make a play sooner or later.

Crippling should be equipped in off hand at all times in this matchup, and if you feel like you have time, applying mind numbing to main hand when you recognize that you're vs a rogue mage can also be very good, as we don't need the wound poison here.

I'm usually spamming step > premed > cheap shot on enemy rogue in this matchup. The reason for this is because if the enemy rogue opens on my mage with a garrote, I might accidentally shadowstep to the rogue spamming sap when he's in combat, and also if I were to sap the rogue, that gives the enemy mage a chance to knock me out of stealth. Another reason is that it gives the enemy rogue more time to react to the opener on him. And sapping rogue does not always mean that you can safely kill the mage, because the enemy rogue could always trinket the sap and blind me and vanish himself.

If I ever find the rogue, I press shadowstep > premed > cheap shot > rupture > hemo twice > 2-3 cp kidney, and then I vanish. At this point the enemy rogue is almost dead usually, assuming that my mage got to connect with some instant damage. If he trinkets the cheap shot, he'll most likely do it too late and still be ruptured, in which case I can trinket anything I want and vanish > cheap shot > kidney him. If he trinkets early, you have the option to shadowstep kidney him or blind him.

Another option if your mage is struggling in the 1v1, even sometimes if he's not struggling, just to put pressure on the enemy mage, is to invest a shadowstep > garrote (or ambush, if you're playing ambush spec) and then vanish immediately after.

This matchup is a game of stealth and there's a ton of different ways to go about it, but the main take-away is to be unpredictable with your stealth pattern. It can be either rushing straight in and looking for them in the room with your goggles/perception pop assuming they're saving their goggles/perception and maybe even pre-vanishing to cover yourself from getting found, or you can sit back in the room and come in late and pop your goggles/perception along with a pre-vanish, or you could run away and hide for 20-30 seconds and pop your goggles/perception around your mage.

The important thing is to mix things up and try to predict their stealth pattern in your head, and this comes from experience more than anything else.

If you're in pre-vanish you should be sapping one and looking for the other since you're covered by the pre-vanish. If you don't pre vanish then I'd look to sap and run away and let my mage open on the sapped rogue alone while spamming step > premed > cheap shot on the 2nd rogue.

Whenever I manage to stun one rogue, assuming the other rogue is still in stealth, I would premed > cheap shot > rupture > vanish and immediately press Preparation in stealth, and the moment the second rogue opens I would premed > cheap shot > kidney overlap on cheap shot and vanish again.

Sap the priest and have your mage run in and get into position to open on the priest alongside you. Equip crippling in your off hand so that you can apply crippling after cheap shotting the priest in case of stun resist. Premed > cheap shot > hemo/shiv > kidney and blast him with your mage. Equip wound in off hand once kidney successfully lands and depending on wound procs either shiv or hemo to build up your wounds to 4-5.

If the priest is dwarf, we have to blind him once he trinkets before he's able to stoneform desperate prayer himself back to full HP, and then try to sap him in between dot ticks and hold cloak until the second setup on him.

If he's not dwarf however, I suggest you don't even kidney shot him most of the time. Instead open with premed > cheap shot > expose armor > shiv crippling > swap wound OH > vanish > garrote and just blast the shit out of him as fast as you can. Your mage can follow up with a blanket counterspell after the garrote. Try to hold onto your cloak of shadows as long as you can so you don't catch a full line of dots after cloak.

Once the priest is dead you cross the map and your mage should be playing for your survival as a rogue is able to beat a warlock pretty consistently 1on1.

Equip double wound, sap the enemy priest, and open on the warlock with a premed > garrote > shiv twice > rupture and vanish before you get dotted. Then you press Preparation in stealth and re-sap the priest two more times into a premed > cheap shot > kidney on the priest and get back to banging the warlock.

If the priest trinkets you blind him quickly and resume killing the warlock.

If they're horde, you're free to roam the map and look for the rogue using your goggles and/or perception. I typically do a lap circling around the edges of the map surrounding the enemy priest, but you have to mix up your stealth pattern if you're facing the same team over and over.

If they're alliance, you can save your goggles and/or perception and let your mage create space by blizzarding around the map and by letting your mage push slightly to make it seem like you are actively looking for them. While your mage is creating space you sit back and hold your goggles/perception until a later time in which you assume their rogue has already wasted his perception.

Optionally your mage can also invis after the gates open, as this is usually a sign for the enemy team that you are pushing in.

If you can't find the rogue and get the optimal opener, waiting for the eyes to spawn is not a bad idea, as your mage will usually have eye-priority over the priest with slows and sheeps. Once your mage has the eye, he can send the pet on the enemy rogue and try to pet nova him out while communicating to you where the enemy rogue is.

If you choose to open on the priest you would equip wound main hand and crippling off hand so that you're ready to shiv the priest in case of a stun resist or trinket.

You premed > cheap shot > hemo > kidney, and counterspell at the same time your kidney lands, expecting the priest's trinket, and if your mage manages to cast a full shatter before this point, the enemy priest should be low enough to finish with a vanish garrote. Use cloak of shadows after cheap shot if expecting the priest to trinket and fear. Make sure to be ready to blind or vanish immediately in case the enemy rogue trinkets the sap or the incoming sheep after the sap.

If you choose to open on the rogue, your mage would typically run on top of the enemy priest and blanket counterspell into a sheep, then pop cooldowns and start casting on the rogue while he's in sap.

Once the priest is sheeped and your mage is casting on the rogue, you premed > cheap shot > hemo once > kidney the rogue. If he trinkets, you vanish off immediately and your mage looks to blizzard the enemy rogue out of vanish. If the enemy rogue manages to trinket and vanish cheap shot you, your mage can try to sheep the enemy rogue before kidney lands on you, giving you time to vanish or to blind the rogue. Otherwise trinket the kidney and blind the enemy rogue and look to restealth/vanish and sap him. Then repeat the same opener.

Look for the enemy rogue with your goggles and/or perception and once you sap him, look to find the druid too. If you manage to sap the rogue you kill the druid with premed > cheap shot > kidney and resheep/blind the rogue off of sap when he trinkets. Double wound should be equipped at all times vs this matchup and shiv should be prioritized over hemo to build wounds.

In the case that you don't find the rogue, you might be forced to open on the druid if he is harassing your mage with moonfires/insect swarm. In that case call a 3,2,1 go on the druid and premed > cheap shot > kidney overlap on top of cheap shot as your mage pops icy veins and pet on the druid to shatter him. That will force the enemy rogue to open and peel his druid.

The reason we kidney overlap on cheap shot is because we want to avoid getting stunned by the enemy rogue and forcing him to stop our mage instead of us. If he stops our mage at this point we can cheap shot him into a sheep and keep riding the druid with a garrote/blanket counterspell.

If the enemy rogue opens on our mage before we've even opened, depending on if the druid is outside of stealth or not, either cheap shot > sheep the rogue and vanish > premed > cheap shot > kidney the druid and kill the druid, OR just pop pet and veins and open on the druid alongside your mage if the rogue has no hots and spam blanket counterspell on the enemy druid.

Have your mage go invis and communicate to him where the hunter is (if for whatever reason he's not sitting on top of flare.) Once the mage comes out of invis he will pop his water elemental and solo the hunter with novas and cone of colds and veins and blocking/trinketing any cc thrown at him while keeping the hunter slowed.

When your mage is soloing the hunter, pop your goggles and/or perception and look for the druid and stun him immediately the moment you find him. Once you cheap shot him, put him into a gouge > kidney and run to the hunter and finish him off. Your mage should counterspell the druid after the kidney.

If the druid trinkets kidney you blind him and kill the hunter. I like to have double wound equipped here even though most hunters are playing dwarf, because the mage is already slowing the hunter.

A lot of the time the druid is sitting on top of the flare alongside his hunter, sometimes in treeform with pre-hots. But the strategy doesn't change usually.

This matchup is very similar to Warrior/Druid, but due to shock and grounding totem existing, a lot of the time you have to open on the shaman as your mage is sheeping the warrior simultaneously. Most people don't play gnome warrior in this comp, so usually no need to worry about escape artist.

Typically your mage just runs on top of the enemy warrior and novas him at the same time as you premed > cheap shot > hemo once > gouge shaman. Your mage sheeps the warrior and tries to shatter the shaman as the kidney lands, and blanket counterspells the shaman after the kidney (or even during, if you're expecting a trinket).

Similarly to Warrior/Druid your mage takes care of the warrior and makes sure he doesn't move while you're building pressure and stacking wounds on the shaman. I like to have double wound equipped vs this comp but sometimes I need to cripple the shaman to make sure he's in LoS of my mage.

Sap the paladin at the end of the sacrifice buff on the shaman, and have your mage come in on mount and try to nova > sheep the shaman. Sometimes you have to blanket counterspell in order to get the sheep here.

Once the shaman is sheeped, open on the ret with premed > cheap shot > hemo > kidney with double wound equipped and blast him together with your mage. Shaman might trinket in the opener in which case you either try to re-sheep or blanket counterspell him. Hopefully you manage to force either paladin trinket or bubble, and then you vanish away and have your mage blink away and escape as fast as he can.

At this point, wait in stealth for stun and sheep DR's and once they're off DR's, re-open on the paladin again with a nova > blanket > counterspell on the shaman and repeat the same combo.

Blind should not be used on the shaman in this matchup typically — it's much better spent on the paladin to force bubble or trinket so that your next stun is full. It can even be used after bubble to save your mage and to stall stun/sheep DR's for the next setup.

Look for the druid with your goggles and/or perception while your mage avoids getting dotted by the enemy warlock while running around pillars. Finding the druid vs this comp is very crucial, and if you don't, then it's most likely a lost game.

Once you find the druid shout to your mage that you've found him and have your mage make his way over there. Your mage might want to cone of cold and potentially nova the warlock after he uses his spellstone to get rid of the slow in order to keep him away.

You open on the druid with double wound equipped and premed > cheap shot > shiv > kidney the druid. Once the druid trinkets you have two options: either blind him in humanoid form and vanish immediately before you get dotted and then sap him to stall stun DR's and re-open kill him; or garrote/counterspell him after he trinkets and keep riding him down. Make sure to build wounds and prioritize shiv over hemo unless he's already 4-5 wounds and you have plenty of energy.

Watch out for death coil as well and try to vanish it if possible. Counterspelling the warlock on fear and preventing him from disrupting you is also a good option.