This post's alternate title is "Everything you already knew about Arena that I'm just catching up on." Because I'm a total and complete scrub who, as my boyfriend ever so gently puts it, has "no PvP instincts whatsoever."
So! I've been doing arena for two weeks now after stopping in the dying throes of Burning Crusade, I'm a winner all over the world as of last night, and with such triumphant traveling comes this great knowledge I will now impart unto you. Ready for it?
1. Not Understanding How Your Partner Can Help You Will Lose Games
So, Warriors have this thing called Bladestorm where they spin like a top and smash into you and hit a lot and hard. You can't Root them, you can't Cyclone them (or my unlucky Immunes were flukes!) you just have to run away. Or, you know, drag them by your Warrior partner who can disarm them and make them simply a pretty, ineffectual spinning ballerina. And if you don't know this? Well, unless you can get away, you're kind of probably maybe going to die (it hurts). Guess what? I died.
2. Panicking Gets You Killed
Yes, the warlock just crit you for 10k despite your Resilience. Yes, he's also got DoTs ticking. Running in a straight line away from him when you could simply LoS him by jumping off the platform because you're in a state of blind "OSHI-" panic is not going to help. It's going to get you killed. Just like the slow-running bimbo who trips and falls in front of the axe murderer, only you don't even have to trip because the fire can SEE YOU.
3. Talking Is Really Important
Unless you and your partner are telepathically mind-linked, you kind of have to speak up about what you're going to do. I have trouble with this. I think of my arena partner/boyfriend as all knowing (he can be quite scary with how often he gets unsaid stuff right, too) and so I just...well, I don't speak up. He can obviously see I'm dying to the Rogue behind the boxes while he's trying to focus down the Paladin because I've already had to use my trinket once and Barkskin is also down. OBVIOUSLY. I am working on this.
4. Cyclone Is Awesome. Cyclone Also Sucks.
Forgetting to use Cyclone is a terrible thing. Cyclone is "rigged" in that you can stop someone in their tracks, wasting their cooldowns and healing, get away from them and frustrate them. Knowing when to use it requires some experience and communication with your partner. I once Cycloned a Ret Paladin for the full duration of his wings cooldown. We lost that game, but at least I felt like I may have pissed him off. But you can also completely screw the game over by Cycloning a target just as your partner pops all his cooldowns, and then you've got a full duration immune target laughing his ass off at you.
5. Warlock Priest teams are EVIL
Warlocks hit like a truck. My HoTs are getting eaten and dispelled off all the time. I can't keep anything on my partner. I HATE THEM.
Moving on...
6. Just Because Your Comp Is Really Powerful Doesn't Mean You Can Completely Faceroll
Last night we went into a match against a Priest/Mage, supposedly one of the toughest combinations to beat. I mentally resigned myself to this being a doomed "practice match" where I'd just try to keep myself and my partner alive as long as I could.
And then we won. I LoS'd, kited, Bashed, Cycloned, Rooted, Moonfired, Insect Swarmed, and, of course, Healed my limbs off (it is hard to kite with no limbs) and my Warrior partner smashed in faces with his brand new Aesir's Edge and did his Warrior thing (see point number 1) and we won. Though we are in the little leagues (have only played 20 games so far, so we haven't exactly broken into the area where you start losing points), knowing that powerful comps are truly killable at least makes me feel a bit better.
7. WARLOCKS SUCK
Do you guys just get used to winning games in the first ten seconds? I mean, holy crap. I'm also looking at you, Enhance Shamans. I've only met one of you my first week but you just exploded everything into a pile of sticky gore.
But at least I'm wondering "WTF do I do to live through this??" instead of crying "AMG NERF NAO QQ"
7 comments:
So, I play a destro warlock. One thing to say. Wait until you see a team with one of us and an elemental shaman. Two classes that can hit for two 10k crits in the space of one GCD is a bunch of hurt.
Now, I don't know if you can remove it, but it's the immolate debuff that allows us to do that. Basically, as soon as you see a warlock casting Chaos Bolt, you want to either get immolate off, or line up a big heal, because as soon as he gets that spell off he'll hit his other nuke, which is an instant cast (but requires immolate debuff up). Hence the giant burst damage. I think it works similarly with elemental shaman.
Also, don't be in tree form against a warlock, ever. You give them a whole extra game-winning CC.
Try not to be close to one; they have an AoE fear as well as their single target.
If the warlock has his Felpuppy out, cast as little as possible, because, if he's good, he'll lock you out for 6 seconds as soon as you do.
If the warlock has his imp out, he's either really, really stupid or he's in PvE spec. In which case he is squishy, but can pump out damage. Really squishy. And a lot of damage. You probably won't see this often.
If the warlock casts his AoE stun (shadowfury) or uses Immolate, he's destruction. If he puts up a lot of DoTs and you see Unstable Affliction and Haunt, then he's Affliction.
Affliction warlocks, unlike destro, have no burst damage. At all. But lots of DoTs, an insta-fear, and some auto-self-healing from spells. Should be easier to beat in 2v2.
Good luck!
I'm trying to get started in the arena. In your opinion, what do you think are the minimum stats to start out?
Thanks!
Your warrior needs to play as defensive as possible until their burst cooldowns/trinkets are over with. Warrior/druid isn't nearly as fun as it used to be because the other healers have better ways of mitigating insane damage. Pain suppression, sacrifice, bubble, hand of protection, power word shield, the list is long.
Make a macro that /rw's when you use your cooldowns, and on whom. It helps so your partner knows when you're out of tricks, because they've already been used.
For fighting priest teams, never kill anything but the priest since you have a warrior partner.
Download Spellalerter, because it will let you know when the burst is coming, or when you're about to be CC'd so you can get one last swiftmend off. I also have Gladius, but the default UI for seeing the opposing team isn't so bad. Gladius can sometimes let you know their specs, however. Most useful for facing hybrids to see if they're healy or not. Also, I didn't look at your armory, but gemming for PvP is very similar to PvE, especially for 2s. Sp/resil for yellow sockets if the bonus justifies it, sp otherwise, and sp/spell pen for blue sockets. You need a little to help with resists.
Remember, pillars are your friend, and best of luck!
Just as a tip, cyclone also makes them immune to mana gains along with health gains. So you can screw over a paladin Divine Plee, or a Druids inervate, etc. with a cyclone. Does wonders on healers, who when oom are doomed.
"Cyclone Is Awesome. Cyclone Also Sucks." -- LoL I love that :)
im 99% certain that you cant be disarmed mid-bladestorm.
conrad is 100% correct
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