Battlegrounds vs Arena

Last night, after our 10-man ICC run, a guild DK and I created an arena team, Volaticum Letum (2v2). Neither of us had any prior Arena experience before last night, so it was more an experiment of what to expect. After our ten fights last night, I expect that I will be respeccing my PVP build.

In Battlegrounds, my current PVP build has function. The faster fears, the slowdown on CoEx, the instant Howl of Terror and Master Demonologist for instant minion while in combat, all work wonderfully. The problem is (I believe) that they rely on other people to kill. I've slowed them and distracted them, so the masses can attack them. Great for WG, where flag runners hate to be slowed down! On the otherhand, I am seeing my damage during battlegrounds is low, at least compared to other players. If I can still dot, but also stun and use Chaos Bolt to penetrate defenses, I'd last a bit longer. Hmmm, worth consideration.

How an Arena battle begins:

1. Queue up and get rolled into 1 of 5 random arenas. For us, queue time was typically less than 2-3 minutes. 
2. When you accept, your character is 'wiped clean' of all raid buffs, pets and  long spells
3. You have 45 seconds to rebuff, summon minion and apply spellstones. No shard costs for anything. You can mount up now too.
4. At start, or maybe 1 second before, you can see what you are up against. I had name plates showing, so I'd just highlight to see what each was. Assuming one or both are not invisible. 
5. All 10 teams we played had a less than 100 arena score, like us. 

What did work:

• Communication was key. We were able to chat via vent and talk about who to attack first. When we coordinated to take out the healers first, we typically lasted longer.Of course, on the shaman/pally groups, the healer wasn't always obvious.
• GUI worked great. Didn't feel like I was stumbling to hit my spells.

What didn't work:

• As a DK + Warlock combo, we had no direct heals. I couldn't use my Endless Health elixir, and hadn't thought to buy arena pots. "only conjured and arena pots" are allowed inside, all else is disabled. :(
• DOTS are great, but they are slow. Destro build that includes stuns could be a bit more effective.
• Using my signature abilities too quickly. Death Coil and Howl of Fear have such a long CD that they were not likely going to be available for a second use. This is a training thing.
• Minions. I am still running my minions on auto-attack. To really make use of their abilities, I need to either macro or click their abilities when I need them.

Going Forward:
One more respec. It can't hurt to try out a destro spec. It's only gold and I can always come back.
More finger training (or a new mouse?). I really need to get better at using my minions at opportune times. Heck, I am going to be having to learn a new spell rotation again.


Useful Resources:

• ArenaJunkies - Updated regularly talent builds.Nice description and discussion on builds. Also a good number of useful macros on this site.
• RealmHistory.com - details most popular class builds, including warlocks. Unlike TalentChic, I can't seem to pull details on these builds. 
• Wowhead - Warlock's with 1400+ 2v2 Arena points and 1000+ gs
• Forums on warlock+dk teams 2v2DK, AJ

Great Video series by zUkuu that covers Destro Dueling. I've linked to it before.

Macros used and more from video info here