Random filler: General PvP tips

Hey, most of you will know me, if not; check out my introduction (it's almost as awesome as me and yes, it is difficult to fit through doors with my abnormally large egocentric head).

I'll be mostly talking about general tips on how to get better at PvP, not to tell you how to beat every class because honestly, you should try to figure most of that out by yourself (I will include class breakdowns and what cooldowns to look out for, etc. in later guides though). What I will give you today is the tools to have the right mindset, which I find is the most important thing you can have when trying to get better at something.

List of most important things to remember:

1. HAVE FUN! Play with people you like, don't play with people who are 'good' at pvp but have bad attitudes, they'll complain at you whenever you make a mistake and bring the moral down and in turn make you feel like crap. Even if you and your mates aren't the best, as long as you take it light-heartedly and own up to your mistakes (very important, will explain next) and don't get mad at eachother, you'll enjoy PvP and want to get better, together.

2. Take responsibility for your mistakes, if you make any. Did you trinket unnecesarily? i.e. could you have sat in that fear for 4 seconds so you don't eat a 8 second hex? Could you have used barkskin to nullify icy veins? Did you sit in the open so you got CC'd? Think always about what YOU can do better, rather than blaming your partners. If you all admit to your mistakes, you'll get better as a player and a team, together. (I'll keep saying this because being a team is really important! The better you know how people play, the better you'll know how to react to situations and rely on your team-mates more often)

3. Communicate - arguably the most important in high end pvp but not AS important lower down the arena ladder. Are you kidney'd? How long for? Do you need to trinket? Did your opponent trinket? Did they pop cd's? etc. etc. The more information you provide your partners, the better. Don't feel you're saying obvious stuff, people might not notice it. You cannot watch 2-3 people all the time and not miss something, if you see they used a CD, call it out! You might be able to make a swap on the healer and kill it once he's used nature's swiftness, etc. because you noticed it.

4. Track cooldowns, did they just use a defensive cooldown? If so, force the healer to trinket and start using offensive cooldowns to build pressure, if you put on enough CC to the healer, they might die. Make sure you notice when the enemy uses offensive cooldowns too, use defensive cd's to negate them (a good example is when a mage pops icy veins, a 20% damage boost, esssentually. A druid should use barkskin, which is a -20% damage reduction). Cooldown management is highly important, only use a defensive CD if the enemy have used offensive cooldowns and you can't keep up with the damage, otherwise try to get CC on their DPS. Knowing classes cooldowns inside and out gives you an edge over the average joe and can lead to clean, impressive kills or... Prevent them.

5. Make sure you use keybinds and a clean UI! If you're not keybinding, start now. Check out my last post on the importance of it, I won't harp on here. A clean UI is very important, you must be able to see everything that is going on while having information that is useful, I'll address UI's in my next post.

6. Positioning. Make sure you're always in line of sight (LoS) of your healer if you don't have a trinket, or they'll stun you out of LoS and kill you or put your healer in a bad position to CC them. Make sure as a healer that you're close to LoS so you can use it to stop CC on you. Positioning is key to winning some matches, avoiding that poly that would kill your team-mate is game-changing. Try to put raid markers on your team-mates so you know where they are at all times.

Some good tips when PvPing is to learn how to kite (if you're ranged or a healer) or to avoid being kited (as a melee). Kiting is done by using slows or roots, you use cooldowns to avoid them but I would just call out "rooted" on skype / vent and let your healer dispell, if they are in a CC / stunned then use the cooldowns normally if you think you can score a kill or build pressure. Be careful on using defensive CD's offensively (like cloak for rogues) because your opponents might take advantage of this. If it means you'll score a kill though, go for it.

Trinkets. Don't use your PvP trinket unless it will score you a kill or prevent one. Simple as that. You need to think in that split second whether they have more CC they're waiting to chuck on you, if they've used it all and it will save your partner or give you 10-15 secs without CC for a kill, go for it. This is just something you have to constantly remember and learn by yourself.

Tips for healers:

I've played a druid healer (arguably the worst healer this season) to 2k so far. How to survive: Kite damage using roots / travel form. Keep hots up (IMPORTANT), if you see people rushing towards you and CC on your partners, lifebloom / rejuv yourself. Cyclone as much as possible to build pressure (best CC in the game, imo) but not if it puts you in an awkward position. Use your cooldowns to nullify the enemies cooldowns, don't pop tree unless you can't do enough healing without it or need to cast instants. Don't pop it too late, either. Remember it takes up a global cooldown. Most other classes can use these tips too, priests can use a 5 second silence immunity every 45 secs for a free top-up, just spam flash heal. Shamans can use spiritwalkers grace to kite while healing and paladins................ Can spam instants 'till something is full hp.

Hope you enjoyed the guide! I'd love a bit of feedback so please, if you did or didn't enjoy reading this, tell me with a reply. It'll take 5-10 minutes and it really helps me!

Thanks Zax!
Very helpful guide.
Agree completely to the first part that first of all you should have fun, the only way to get better and learn from the game.

I`m doing some pug 2v2 for the fun and the gear. You ask why pug..well I guess I´m promiscuous and like to switch..and like the yelling too when we lose, to nourish my masochistic mind. Another reason is that I want to learn the classes I team with as well as the foes. Practise is important. What happened to skirmish? Are they still around or disappeared ewith cata?

A good rule is to know your own class good, your team mate better and the opponents best.

One more thing I learnt last weeks is that you can`t just walk in to the arena after reset just to pick up and cap your CP. Lot of good Pvp:ers do that and it doesn`t mean that your are lousy ( not necessarily) if you lose.

Yeah I agree, I like to do 2v2 with loads of different people and class combo's, though I'll usually do it with my mates for familiarity and to get my points quickly (we generally have a 80% win ratio when we 2's for points!) But as soon as I got my gear, I'll probably just 2v2 for fun to help people get their cap and, like you said; learn my class and other classes better.

I remember in wotlk when I did random 2v2 with people and I lost 6 matches in a row with 1 person who was about as good as me at around 1700-1800 mmr and he tried with a dps class instead and got 6 matches won in a row! Sometimes it's just that you don't know the combo that well, he was better with double dps, I'm better with healer and melee. I learnt I don't partner well with ranged classes so I'm working on that.

They did remove skirmish btw mate but they have a feature called wargames if you want to practise vs your friends, maybe. I'd be more than happy to woop your ass on my alts or if you're particularly daring, my main.

Thanks for the feedback about the guide, I really appreciate it.

8-0 with frost mage yesterday....and we stopped at 10-3. He´s gear was vicious and bloodthirsty. His skill a bit over average and mine a bit below... so I guess the combo was good...had same experience with a lock a few weeks ago. Both times a played on my disc. Hate when I meet 2 melee. Hard to get away as priest

Priest mage is an amazing combo, mainly because frost mages are OP and priests healing style compliments mage play-style. (Priests aren't good at keeping people up when heavily CC'd but heal for alot if left alone to cast and mages can use nova's / sheeps to let them have that time). To stop melee from screwing you over, use the 4 piece to your advantage, pop shield (or w/e it is that stops movement hindering effects), get your mage / lock / w/e to root or slow them and dart around a pillar to heal. Also, using inner focus and flash heal spamming will top you up nicely once they've used their stuns. Most waste interrupts 'cause they don't see the big shield icon too so, 10 seconds of free casting instead of 5! On a 45 second cd (less if you can use your abilities) that's amazing.

What I love about playing with my warrior mate is every time we re-make the team, our MMR resets! So if we want points we generally 8-0 it every time due to facing sub-par teams. Only trouble so far is vs feral / enhance shaman....... Bloody damage and CC is insane.

Enhancement shammy is nasty in pvp indeed.
Team Icecream with me as enhance, Xar as resto and Len as whatever Len is, makes a really nice trio for 3v3, imo. Even tho I have been 40% pvp gear and some of those pieces still been bloodthirsty I can burst out same amount of dmg as Len and get the opponents down quite fast when popping CD's and wolves.
As resto I usually only have troubles with enhancement aswell, wolves bites through earth shield faster then anything else and the constant wind shearing is a pain to fake cast

Yeah wind shear being on a 10 second cooldown and a 30 yard range is a bit of a pain. Their damage isn't majorly worrying, it's just the instant hex and shears that are a pain. Though, a good enhancement shaman is such a pain since they can stick on you easily with grounding / earthbind / tremor. Very hard to peel off a decent enhance shammy

You love having a decent enhancement shammy licking your neck tho

Depends if that awesome enhance shammy is you, then yes. I prefer biting, though.

You're such a naughty boy!

Whaaat? Licking is a little boring. I like a bit of pain.

I'll give you pain if you give me more pvp tactics!

I'll write an addon guide at some point, maybe a dueling guide at work, too.

Ooh, both sounds great tbh! Maybe a short classguide? With the most important pvp skills for each class/specc, like the shatter thing you told me about for my mage think that would be very helpful

Yeah, I might do that. Basic PvP cooldowns and rotations and maybe a few tricks for staying alive or setting up burst. Thanks.

yea a classguide would be great, can ask me about mages fire vs frost spec later in /w. both are quite good, but i think i was better in bgs in my fire spec as it had 3 mass slow spells with cds similar to that of a frost mage. would have to look it up to remember tho.