Arena Segment: Fighting POM pyroblast mages

I figured going over my strategies fighting POM pyro mages woould be a great way to start working through how I am successful (am i? perhaps only marginally, but I have fun so bite me!). Mages are a pickle of a fight for a non-bm hunter, but if you are patient and careful you can hold them under control with a little creative style.

POM Pryo mages: These mages are bundles of joy to deal with. I will say, when you dont have resilience and/or low health, these mages will feel over-powered. Nothing like a 5k damage head start followed by a 2k fireblast and arcane blasts as you try to get into the fight.

- Strategy One: (If you have Low health low resilience) - I am not going to lsugar coat, sometimes the wtfpyroblast + fireblast ends your chances all at once. Beating this mage is all about control. His pyroblast will make him feel in control, it is your job to take that control away. First, try to remember that 80% of these mages will pop the pyro to start the fight, so try to be tricky in the beginning. As he approaches try a feign death -> arcane shot to get lucky and steal the POM from him (now that is awesome luck if it happens).

Also, realize that the pyro mages will fade in numbers as you rise in level, so odds are these mages don't have much health. Try to dps them a bunch if you know they will burn you quickly (no pun intended), thus maximizing your partners chance of surviving after your demise. Also, remember to burn your cool downs! Drop snakes, scatter shot him, wyvern sting him...make sure you have no other resource you could have exhausted. In a normal fight against this mage I will do something like: FD -> arcane shot -> wyvern sting==if they trinket out, i use mutli-shot next, if not I use aimed shot followed by a nice healthy mutli-shot then arcane shot.

If they get you low make sure to become defensive (or smart if you will :)) and do a little LOS on the mage while you await a cool down. At this point you can usually freeze trap them safely and bandage or simply get another powerful aimed shot combo to finish them off. Scatter shot should be used anytime the mage gets too close to shoot. You don't want to be overwhelmed by a blink and then sporadic casting and jumping. Maintain control and this wont be hard!

Strategy Two: (now you do have high hp and resilience). Now this fight is a cakewalk. Nothing really special to note except for the same idea as the end of the last fight. Keep them away from you and make sure you use all your cool downs all the time! No need to mana sting these mages, keep serpent sting, snakes and wing clip on them and you won't have issues (dps is key). If you are strong at kiting this will be quite the easy fight for you. I hated pyro mages at 65 resilience and love them now at 243!