A Warrior's Guide to PVP
' how to kill something before it kills you '
Written by Jai Stuart, for the game World of Warcraft
The latest version of this FAQ can always be found at
http://twilightindustries.blogspot.com
Table of Contents
i. Disclaimer
ii. Revision History
1. Introduction
2. PVP Basics
2.1 Macros
3. The Arena
4. Talent Builds
5. Gearing Up
5.1 Weapon Choices
5.2 Armor
5.3 Trinkets
6. Warrior Vs. Class Breakdowns
6.1 Druids
6.2 Hunters
6.3 Mages
6.4 Paladins
6.5 Priests
6.6 Rogues
6.7 Shamans
6.8 Warlocks
6.9 Warriors
7. Frequently Asked Questions
8. Useful Mods & Links
9. Credits
10. End
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i. Disclaimer
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Unpublished work � Copyright 2007 Jai Stuart. All rights reserved.
This document is protected by US Copyright Law, and the Berne Copyright
Convention of 1976. It is for private and personal use only. Editing,
altering or changing this FAQ is prohibited. It may not be reproduced or
distributed in any form, in any way, without my permission. This FAQ is a
free document that may be accessed for private and personal use by the
public.
It may not be sold, for profit or otherwise, nor can it be used in any other
commercial transaction. Do not sell it. Do not include it as a bonus gift
to something. Do not use it as an incentive to buy/purchase. You do not
have my permission to translate this FAQ into any other language, nor do you
have my permission to HTML-ize it. This FAQ was created and is owned by me,
Jai Stuart <[email protected]>. All copyrights and trademarks are
acknowledged and respected that are not specifically mentioned herein.
This FAQ may be found at the following web site(s):
Twilight Industries <http://twilightindustries.blogspot.com>
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This document may be uploaded on your web site has long as it is freely
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Breach or violation of this copyright can and will result in legal action.
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ii. Revision History
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v1.0 01/09/07 First submission, mostly everything complete, though
contributions would be nice, warriors that play 2s with
different classes and had tips would be great. 3s and 5s
sections need a bit of filling in, though it's hard thinking
of anything worth typing in there that isn't covered
elsewhere.
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1. Introduction
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I started playing World of Warcraft a year and a half ago. The first class I
rolled was a Rogue. He made it to level 13 on my trial account, and I left
the game for 6 months until I purchased it out of boredom. The next
character I rolled was a Warrior. He's been the only character I took past
level 25, and the only one I play now.
I wanted to write a FAQ on some aspect of WoW. Being that World of Warcraft
is an MMORPG, content is always subject to change, be upgraded, become
different. Skills will be moved, tweaked, nerfed. As a writer, there is
only so long guides can be updated, and eventually the mechanics of WoW will
move beyond this guide, whether it be when the level cap is raised to 90, or
100. I will hopefully still be kicking it to write to 80 - I hope. ;)
With this in mind, I decided to focus on Warrior PVP, and create a primer and
reference that could hopefully teach players tips and tricks they don't know.
For the advanced arena players, you will probably not read anything here you
haven't learnt already, and I at least hope you guys will find the FAQ a fun
read. I also acknowledge that there is only so much that you can read, and
that the best teacher is practice. However, whatever can be learnt through
text, I hope can be learnt here.
Please note that the stuff written here is aimed at level 70 pvp. Although I
do hope to write some things on lowbie pvp in a future version, at the moment
this guide is aimed at the 70s in mind.
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2. PVP Basics
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Mortal Strike and Burst Damage
------------------------------
Arms is the spec you want to pvp as a Warrior. This is pretty much the first
and basic rule - Arms combines the greatest burst to gear ratio, along with
the greatest debuff in the game, Mortal Strike (50% reduced healing on the
victim, lasts 10 seconds). What burst to gear ratio means is that you get
more burst out of your gear - Fury MAY surpass it at Hyjal/Black Temple gear
levels, although I haven't been that far in progression to comment, nor have
I seen any geared Fury Warriors make PVP videos at that level. In either
case, the point is moot; Fury doesn't have Mortal Strike, which is what makes
the Warrior a competitive class in Arena.
To start with, what is burst damage? Burst damage is the amount of damage
you can put out instantly, or near instantly - within 4 or 5 seconds, maxing
at around 6 seconds. Anything longer is hard to consider 'bursty'. If you
have the rage for it, along with 3/5 Flurry (or more), you are looking at (at
least):
2x auto attacks
1x Mortal Strike
1x Whirlwind
1x Imp Slam (used first, and assuming you opened with an Intercept charge
which will guarantee it hitting before they escape the stun)
Again, this is considering a slow 2-handed (2H) weapon, 3.6 or slower, Flurry
up, and a lot of rage. You will rarely, if ever, get a chance to do that
entire sequence on one-target without being interrupted, or CC'd, but it
demonstrates what exactly burst is. Why is burst damage important? First of
all, it's instant (or near instant) damage, and because of it it is
incredibly difficult to heal through, to retaliate against, and it also
psychs players out watching their health drop like that. It gives them less
chance to counter through.
Second, it is the only type of damage you will be capable of in a PVP
situation as a warrior. Warriors are incredibly weak against CC (crowd
control, such as sheep/Frost Nova/snares) and because of this there are MANY
times you will only get to be on a target for a limited amount of time,
before you are snared and they are out of melee range. In short, in a 1v1
situation, it can quickly become difficult to do sustained dps on a moving,
snaring target. You must burst. In some situations, such as high-end 5v5
Arena, this isn't true - your priority shifts then. But 1v1, small-scale pvp
(2v2, 3v3), and in battlegrounds, burst is key.
The inability to stay on a target is part of the reason dual-wield Fury is
less effective in pvp, as Fury is mostly geared towards constant, sustained
dps. Crit is an important stat here, although countered once resilience
starts being stacked.
Gear
----
Warriors are gear-dependant classes. Some classes (Mages instantly come to
mind) have effective skills that can be supplemented by good gear. Warrior
skills are very basic in comparison, and rely on gear to make them awesome.
The difference in the scales is there - a Mage may be 50% skills and 50%
gear, while a Warrior is at least 60%/40%. The skills of other classes often
come with debuffs, snares, or stuns - Warrior skills lack these as a whole,
and gain a large increase in power through base increases such as Str/Attack
Power and Crit.
Your weapon is ESSENTIAL - this is as important at the lower levels as the
higher ones. A slower weapon with higher top-end will always yield a higher
dps increase than upgraded pieces of armor, given the two pieces of equipment
are of relatively the same item level. Why slow weapons? Usually because
they have a higher top-end damage (important for Mortal Strike, Whirlwind and
HS, since top-end weapon damage is what these skills are 'based' off). In
this regard, slow weapons are also more bursty.
Other gear is also important, as it provides the stuffing to your weapon's
turkey. Before The Burning Crusade, the only way to get geared was to raid,
or make it to rank 13/14. Both options were effectively out of the picture
for most casuals, especially because of the old honour system. What TBC
changed was the ease of getting 'competitive' gear for pvp. The honor gear
can be farmed for at your own rate, and all arena gear takes is an hour of
pvp each week for points. There are also the blacksmithing weapons
available, Thunder, Lionheart Blade and Lunar Crescent and their upgrades,
which are substantially easier to obtain than a 40-man raid drop and so much
better than anything previously obtainable, when effort to reward ratio is
considered. It was a great change.
PVP Trinket
-----------
Insignia of the Alliance/Insignia of the Horde
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Use: Dispels all movement impairing effects and all effects which
cause loss of control of your character.
Cost: 2805 Honor Points
Medallion of the Alliance/Medallion of the Horde
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Use: Dispels all movement impairing effects and all effects which
cause loss of control of your character.
Cost: 16983 Honor Points
The pvp trinket (Insignia of the Alliance/Insignia of the Horde) is hugely
important for you, and some outcomes in 1v1 matchups will solely depend on
whether or not you had it on you and if it was off cooldown. It is THAT
important. The Insignia costs 2805 Honor Points. The Medallion costs 16983
Honor Points. Both prices are as of 25/08/07. The Insignia has a 5 minute
cooldown, while the Medallion has a 2 minute cooldown and gives 20
resilience. Both have the same use effect ("Dispels all movement impairing
effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character").
Why is trinket this so important? Because Warriors are arguably the weakest
class against cc. Having an on-call cc break (and now it is ANY cc) is
extremely important - if not vital in certain matchups.
Everyone should at least have an Insignia, and have it equipped at all times
should you be pvping. Is the Medallion worth the Honor Points? Yes, easily.
The 2 minute cooldown is amazing: it helps in world pvp, 5v5 arena (and the
other two brackets should the fight drag on past the 2 minute mark), and
battlegrounds. If you intend to pvp, it is important to have your trinket on
and ready. The other trinket slot is up to you, though some are reviewed
later on in the guide for their general pvp use.
Key Bindings
------------
As melee, you must bind your abilities to keys. This is so vital if you want
any chance of doing well. Melee often involves you having to turn sharply to
keep your opponent in front of you. Range has the advantage of a larger
range to open up in. Melee range is short and often has people trying to
strafe out of it.
Along with binding abilities, I also highly recommend setting up A and D to
strafe left and strafe right respectively. They turn too slow. Strafing
opens up far more possibilities. The best way to turn is holding down the
right mouse button and swinging the camera with it. Combined with strafing
this is easily the most effective way of moving.
Here are my bindings for reference (at least the important ones):
A = Strafe Left 1 = Battle Stance 5 = Intimidating Shout
S = Back 2 = Defensive Stance F1 = Deathwish
W = Forward 3 = Berserker Stance F2 = Piercing Howl
D = Strafe Right 4 = Sweeping Strikes F3 = Throw/Shoot
R = Mortal Strike F = Heroic Strike Sh+2 = Victory Rush
G = Overpower/Whirlwind Q = Hamstring Sh+3 = Trinket Slot 2
C = Charge/Intercept/ B = Thunderclap/ T = Attack Macro
Taunt Berserker Rage Sh+` = Heavy Netherweave Bandage
E = Execute H = PVP Trinket X = Rend/Pummel Macro
Sh+F = Battle Shout
Sh+G = Commanding Shout
Sh+E = Slam
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2.1 Macros
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There are several macros I use to make certain things easier. They are all
relatively simple macros, but that's how I like them, and they do make
certain things easier. To use them hit Escape > Macros, the click New. Put
in a name and choose an icon for the macro, then hit Okay. You can now type
the macro into the small field there, and then drag the icon onto your menu
bars and hotkey it.
Attack (swing) macro:
/startattack
Perhaps the most important macro I have. When you bind a key to Start Attack
in the Key Bindings menu, one press will turn your auto-attack on, and
another will turn it off. If you need to jump from target to target it can
sometimes be EXTREMELY hard to register whether or not your auto-attack is on
or off for at least a second, if not longer - this is a second wasted. By
making a simple /startattack macro, you can bind this to a key instead - one
push will start your auto-attack, but another WILL NOT turn it off. To stop
attacking press Escape. Now you'll never be unsure whether or not your auto-
attack is turned on.
Pummel macro:
/stopcasting
/cast Pummel
Spamming buttons can sometimes create tiny, miniature action queues in your
interface - and if you need to quickly Pummel it'll occasionally lag a
millisecond or two. /stopcasting kills the queue, which at a certain latency
range can save you this millisecond. Just make the macro and drag it to
wherever you usually keep your Pummel. Tell me how it works for you.
Simple Overpower
/cast Battle Stance;
/cast Overpower
/cast Berserker Stance
This is the simplest Overpower macro ever. One push of the macro will move
you to Battle (if you're not already in it). A second will cast Overpower,
and a third will return you to Berserker. Easily spammable, just make sure
you're in range for the second time you push it. Occasionally useful for
saving you a keybinding.
Self-bandage
/target charname
/cast Heavy Netherweave Bandage
Replace charname with the name of your character. This will automatically
bandage yourself, without having to drop target if you have a friendly
selected.
If you have any of your own, send them in.
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3. The Arena
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When BC came out, the arena quickly became the place to be, and after people
started gearing up Warriors started to dominate. Mortal Strike combined with
the support of a team has made the class excel. Before BC and the team-play
the arena brought, Warriors were often cited as weak in 1v1 situations while
being one of the most dominating classes when supported. Seems like they
were right and despite waiting so long for the advantage in group pvp to mean
anything, we're all happy about it.
What this means for you is that if you 1. have the gear, 2. have the spec and
3. have the skill you will be able to get into basically any arena team you
want. Now, most arena matches played by people of equal skill are going to
come down to luck - this luck comes in the form of class balance (what
classes you have, and what classes you come up against), and the smaller
things such as crit streaks, lucky procs, whether or not Mortal Strike misses
or lands.
Class balance is the big one - ESPECIALLY in 2s, and sometimes 3s, what
classes you have vs. what classes the other team has is one of the biggest
factors to whether or not you will win. And there is little to nothing you
can do about it. 5v5 is the least affected by this, because of the different
combinations possible and the fact that more classes are often represented.
However, class balance is still prevalent in 5s as well.
There is also something else to consider: you need teamwork. You have to
find 1, or 2, or 4 other players that can learn to work as a team, can jump
on a vent server for quick callouts, and who can learn from their mistakes.
No matter how good YOU are as a Warrior and as a player, you cannot pull the
line for 4 other people. You can only do so much as you can do, get better
at the things you can get better at, and then find a team of likewise players
that all want to succeed. For many reasons, this is why a lot of players
avoid 5s and play 2s or 3s. It's much easier finding one other good player
that will listen than it is to find 4.
Mortal Strike MUST GO UP
------------------------
When running with other dps and against enemy healers, your priority goes
straight to getting MS up on the kill target. This is vital. If you can't
put MS up, your team's dps is going to be healed through - it must go up
and unless you are baiting heals/faking players out it must STAY up.
Your target must be slowed
--------------------------
Something has to keep the kill target slowed - if you can't stay in melee
range, your dps drops to 0. That's it. If you're not in range, you're not
dealing damage, every second you're not dealing damage when you SHOULD be
is wasted time. Hamstring is best for this, you can keep it up, you can
refresh it, you know when it's going to expire.
Shout rogues out
----------------
Watching out for rogues is key. When an enemy one vanishes, move to it's
spot (you should already be close, as rogues are the first things to kill
once they leave stealth) and Piercing Howl, then hit Tab. Chances are
you'll have brought it out of stealth, and Tab will bring it up as your
target. Rogues out of stealth can't use their openers, saving you a
possibly lethal Cheap Shot or Ambush. It takes practice to know when to
expect the Vanish, and also to KNOW where the Rogue is going to go to once
it does Vanish. Is it going to move to one of your partners, is it just
going to hang around and get another opener in? Once you're decent you
have no excuse for letting a rogue regain stealth once it leaves it.
If you spec Booming Voice, Demoralizing Shout will have a greater aura of
effect than Piercing - it's up to you to decide which to use in that case,
though the snare of Piercing Howl is great against rogues.
Berserker Stance
----------------
Come out of the gates with Berserker Stance on. Count the enemies. If you
realise there's enemy stealthies around, sit in Berserker. If a rogue
manages to sap you and you're not in Berserker, you are going to have to
blow your trinket to get out of it. Sap can be Berserker Rage'd out of.
If a rogue sees you switch to Berserker (as in you come out of the gates in
another stance) they're not going to bother sapping you - and if they do,
you can wait until they reveal themselves before breaking Sap and nuking
them. At a certain rating Rogues stop trying to sap you, as they know
you'll just break it on them anyway.
Staying mounted
---------------
Staying mounted is a great advantage that many (surprisingly) do not take
advantage of. It allows several things: a quick rush into the enemy, your
team-mate that is the enemy teams kill target to stay on the move and LOS
their damage, and protects you from a team that employs this exact strategy
on you and stays mounted themselves. For a Warrior it also allows you to
quickly get into melee range without relying on Charge. With a team that
has your back you can simply move in - much less riskier than moving on the
ground and attempting to get into melee.
If your entire team stays mounted and the enemy team does not, you
initially have a huge advantage, as you can time and choose when to rush.
Move fast
---------
As soon as you have the targets sighted up in your arena mod, and calls are
called out, go! The less time the enemy has to formulate a plan the
better, and if you move in on them fast enough SOMEONE in their team is
going to panic, and you can start pulling them down.
Charge/Intercept/Intervene
--------------------------
Having Intercept off cooldown makes you many times more dangerous. For
this reason, it's important to open up with Charge as OFTEN AS YOU CAN, or
moving in mounted, saving Intercept for when you really need it. If you're
not comfortable with opening with Charge (afraid of sap/being opened up on
in Battle Stance/know they are going to put you into combat before the
Charge), simply ride in on them.
Intervene is usual for getting around as a 'free intercept', when you have
a friendly next to an enemy player.
Choosing when to open up - trinket/Deathwish/Battle Shout/burst
---------------------------------------------------------------
Timing your Deathwish and trinket is important - your other classes decide
how long of a time limit you actually have, and then it's up to you to
choose when to open-up within that time limit. With healers you can hold
it longer - with dps heavy teams you have a certain time limit to kill
before something kills you.
Choosing when to fight defensively - LOS/Shield Reflect/run
-----------------------------------------------------------
Many caster-heavy teams, when faced with a balanced setup including a MS
Warrior, are going to FF you. In 5s this means switching to sword and
board, staying in Defensive Stance, and keeping MS up on your kill target
while staying alive and buying your team-mates time. As often as you can,
LOS their ranged dps, but be sure to stay WITHIN LOS OF YOUR HEALER. If a
caster-heavy team cannot kill their target, eventually your dps is going to
start cutting through them. If you are focussed it is your job to buy
time. And you'll know when you are focussed, because many different dots
start popping up over your screen, along with your health rapidly starting
to disappear.
If this happens in 2s against a double caster team, you have less options,
as you're most probably going to need your own dps. Even in 2s the golden
rule applies: don't DW if you're focussed, ESPECIALLY if they have dots
ticking on you. If you run with another DPS partner (rare), try to LOS
them while he opens up on one of them, then move out for the kill. It's
hard, but doable (my 2s partner at the moment is a Hunter). It really
depends on what class the casters are.
Choosing who to call
--------------------
You are most probably going to be a rather large part of any arena team you
join. This is narcissim, or whatever the class equivalent is, it's just
the truth. Teams that bring you have a massive advantage in MS, and the
great dps you can put out. You are going to be an integral member and if
you're competent and know what you're doing, you should be doing the calls.
It allows MS to go up instantly, and for you to instantly move from range
into melee without hesitation. With a MS warrior, chances are your dps
needs MS to go up - and if it doesn't you are going to cripple them.
Switching and Assists
---------------------
In most cases (unless you're splitting your dps up in order to shut down a
healer while you bring down someone else), your dps in arena teams wants to
work together and focus fire. Because of MS, you should always be one of
the first to switch and once you switch CALL IT OUT ON VENT. This is all a
lot of writing for that first simple rule: the kill target must have Mortal
Strike up on it. Tell your dps to make a macro to assist on you. I'd also
recommend making an assist macro yourself, and macro it to the best dps
class you're running with. If the shit hits the fan, you get rushed early,
etc etc, and that dps class opens up on somebody, you want to be there to
help bring his target down.
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3.1 2v2
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2s all depends on what class your partner is. Although the top-rank warriors
all run with healers, you can still have fun with a second dps partner
(though in most cases you'll be hard-pressed to break 1800).
Running with a healer
---------------------
When you run with a healer it's your job to kill - the fight is pretty much
you vs them 2 with heals coming your way. A few general rules:
* Always keep LOS with your healer, unless for some reason (they are cc'd,
mainly) they cannot heal, and the call comes out to break LOS with
enemies until they come out of it (when my old pally partner used to get
cs'd in Blade's Edge Arena, he'd call it out and I'd head under the
bridge if I needed to)
* Know when to move behind the pillars. Certain 2 dps teams are going to
take you down even with good heals, especially if they get off a lucky
interrupt on your healer. In these cases hug the pillars until they get
closer/until they screw up, and you can get in some hits on one while the
other is out of LOS.
* Stay together as much as possible, if a team is hiding behind pillars and
just will not budge you have to go make sure to get in LOS of your healer
occasionally for heals.
* Know what classes can take your healer down and FF accordingly. Warlocks
use to give my pally shit, as did Mages because of CS. Warlocks
especially had to be taken down quickly, before Pey was making love to
their felhunter. Rogues could be troublesome, but he was much better
equipped to deal with them - and once a rogue popped I was all over it.
* When up against an enemy healer, you have to get all over it, depending
on how squishy their partner is. If you're certain you can take down the
dps while keeping their healer cc'd (you personally have Pummel,
Intercept, Intimidating Shout, a paladin partner has Hammer of Justice, a
druid has Cyclone, a priest has Fear, shamans have Earth Shock), AND you
feel their dps is threatening to you or your partner (usually a warlock),
you can kill it. Usually though, in 2s, healer first.
* When facing two dps teams, always take the squishiest one first. BM
hunters are not squishy until Beast Within is down. Frost Mages are also
not squishy, because of Iceblock. SL Warlocks that stack resilience are
retardedly not squishy. Identifying what you're up against is key in 2v2
as it is MUCH more easier to quickly call a kill target than in 5v5 - and
calling the right one makes your chances of winning so much higher.
Running with another dps
------------------------
It's possible to run, and win, with another dps, assuming you both got the
skills and the gears. Is it harder? It all depends on what you come up
against, though yes, in my experience double dps is weaker against more
teams. It also depends on whether the dps is physical or magical (rogues and
hunters are physical, mages/locks are magical obviously). With 2x physical
dps, good paladins are going to SMASH you.
* Kill quickly! As you're lacking heals, your HP is pretty much it, and
you must kill one of the 2 you're up against before you lose a
significant amount of it. Commanding Shout has a 2 minute timer (3 if
you specced Booming Voice). If you hide behind the pillars for 2 minutes
you just lost 1000+ HP. 2 dps teams have absolutely no advantage in
letting a fight being drawn out, you can't last that long.
* Keep things off your partner. I 2v2 now with a BM hunter. Once his
Beast Within goes down he becomes so much more vulnerable to rogues and
locks. Piercing Howl spam keeps rogues off him while he kites and I
kill. Little things like this help you win.
* Your interrupts will win you the game, especially against healers.
Assuming you time everything perfectly, charge > pummel > intercept >
fear > pummel, those things will LOCK down a healer for a massive amount
of time, while your buddy is busy opening up on them. As you play and
more arena you will start to play games that you lose, and that you know
you would have won if you had gotten that fear off.
* Commanding Shout is your friend in 2s, especially if your partner is
ranged.
* Do as much damage as you can before you die, especially with dots
ticking. Rogues have a good chance of killing my hunter if Beast Within
is down. If I can push it and put in one last MS on the rogue before I
die, and should that MS crit, thats a solid 2k+ damage my buddy doesn't
have to do to win us the game. Vice versa if we're playing a frost mage,
and I'm left 1v1 with him.
* Kill the burst dps first. Especially pom pyro mages - keep them stunned
and feared as much as you can while you burst them down. Pom pyro mages
are actually not that bad at all once you start stacking resilience, but
if they get lucky on a crit it still hurts massively. You have to shut
them down while your partner burns everything to kill them.
* The aim of the game with 2 dps is to effectively drop one of them quickly
enough that you can capitalize on the advantage - if you drop one too
slowly you'll have dots on you, their partner will already have started
destroying your health bars, and the 2v1 can quickly become 1v1 and then
a win for them.
* While you are at a severe disadvantage in drawn out games, it is
important to play smart too, and not in a zerg mind-set. LOS whenever
you can, and whenever it would be advantageous to do so. Draw people out
of the pillars by auto-attacks, quick bursts and staying out of their LOS
while you do it, so your buddy in midfield can start unloading.
* BRING BANDAGES, LOTS OF BANDAGES. Bandaging wins you games! Bandage if
something is cc'd before you break it. Bandage if you're on the run and
manage to buy a little time. Basically every time it would be to your
advantage to bandage you SHOULD be doing it. I've won 1v2s (not many of
them, that's for sure) by bandaging and having enough HP to burst the two
guys down. Would I have won it if I hadn't bandaged? Nope, I killed the
rogue with 120 HP left. Bandages is one of the few consumables allowed
in the arena, you should always have some with you.
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3.2 3v3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3s is all about smooth execution - moving in, throwing cc up, heals coming
quickly while you shut-down the other team. Strategies employed are mostly
dependent on your two team-mates.
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3.3 5v5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5s is the bracket where it's less of the individual things you do, but more
of a combined team effort to win. Control can be passed off to classes with
better cc, and your job is to get MS up on the kill target and bring it down.
5s requires a slightly different mindset in that:
a. You can be more of a glass-cannon, with healers at your back
b. You are most probably not going to be focussed, therefore;
c. There's no excuse for not using Deathwish, and Battle Shout should go up
once you enter combat, as you probably gave all the squishies Commanding
Shout in the prep room
While it's still important to be a skilled warrior in 5s, many factors are
out of your hands, and you singly have less of an impact in the game as you
do in 2v2 and 3v3. 5s is all about good communication, having FIVE good
players, and lots and lots of practice.
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4. Talent Builds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warrior talent builds for pvp all center around a deep Arms tree build.
Mortal Strike is king, as is its burst damage. Mostly all arena warrior
builds follow the same basic talents - they spec to Mortal Strike, and at
most 2 points more (for Second Wind). 41 Arms is unheard of. In the Fury
tree, Improved Intercept is a must, as is Death Wish, Cruelty and Piercing
Howl. Other points may be adjusted (Improved Execute for Improved Slam).
Here are three you will predominantly see in arena warriors: 33/28 with
Second Wind, 33/30 with 5/5 Flurry, and 33/25/03 with Tactical Mastery.
1. Second Wind + 3/5 Flurry 33/28/0
WowHead link: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=pV0xdAboxozbZE0zm0gRc
This build is solid overall, though missing points in Tactical Mastery.
Second Wind is most useful in the smaller brackets of arena (2v2 mostly,
some 3v3). In 5v5 you are more likely to be ignored and 5/5 Flurry will
help you generate more damage while lacking rage from incoming attacks.
In 2v2 survivability is key, and you are more likely to get cc'd and
therefore more likely to proc Second Wind. Second Wind is an amazing
talent for pvp - though like I stated, 5/5 Flurry is more firepower for
the 5s where you are going to need it.
2. 5/5 Flurry 31/30/0
This build was favoured more before the Flurry nerf in recent patches that
dropped 5/5 Flurry from 30% increased attack speed to 25% increased attack
speed. However, it is still the most damaging Warrior pvp build - 5/5
Flurry helps immensely in 5s arena where a lot of times you won't be
getting attacked, and therefore missing rage from recieved damage. At
lower brackets where you will face a lot of no-resilience teams 5/5 Flurry
can shine, along with the 5v5 arenas as I said.
3. Second Wind + 3/3 Tactical Mastery 33/25/03
This is the most survivable Warrior pvp build, and it has one major
benefit that the other two don't - 3/3 Tactical Mastery (TM). 3/3 TM
guarantees enough rage to switch from Berserker to Battle/Defense and
Spell Reflect. This increases the effectiveness of Spell Reflect
massively. Due to the fact you will be sitting in Berserker, without 3/3
TM timing Spell Reflects is near impossible; when you need it NOW you
won't have the rage to switch and use it.
These are all solid PVP builds. They share most of the same talents. A list
is below:
Arms Fury Protection
5/5 Deflection 5/5 Booming Voice #/3 Tactical Mastery
5/5 Iron Will 5/5 Cruelty
2/2 Improved Overpower 1/1 Piercing Howl
1/1 Anger Management 4/5 Commanding Presence
3/3 Deep Wounds 2/2 Improved Slam
5/5 Two-Handed Weapon 1/1 Death Wish
Specialization 2/2 Improved Intercept
2/2 Impale #/5 Flurry
1/1 Sweeping Strikes
5/5 Weapon Specialization
1/3 Improved Hamstring
1/1 Mortal Strike
#/2 Second Wind
Improved Slam can be switched with Improved Execute. 5/5 Booming Voice can
be switched with 5/5 Unbridled Wrath, though after trying both I decided
Booming Voice was more useful. Weapon Specialization = Axe/Mace/Sword Spec,
whichever you prefer (more on those later).
Which spec should you use? It's really up to you. Out of the three of them,
they each do better in different arena brackets, in different team
combinations, and in different ratings. Second Wind + 3/5 Flurry is usually
the staple. 5/5 Flurry is usually more effective in 5s if the extra dps is
needed from you by your team setup. 3/3 TM is just more versatile. It
allows you to switch out of Berserker for SR, it allows you to switch and
disarm Rogues on the fly, it also lets you instantly light up Sweeping
Strikes and switch to Berserker to Whirlwind. These micro-games, on the
whole, can be played without - however some matchups you have no chance 1v1
without them (like a frost mage while your healer is cc'd and doesn't have
your back).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Gearing Up
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warriors are often quoted as being the 'most gear dependent class in the
game'. What this statement means is that Warriors are the class that rely on
gear the most to power up, as opposed to caster classes like Mages that get a
certain boost to effectiveness each time they can learn new spell levels. Is
it true? In many ways, yes. Warrior skills are rather 'basic' - they have
little side-effects or debuffs, and see more effectiveness by raw stat
increases. Also, the higher attack power/crit/damage you can deal increases
the amount of rage gained, which in turn increases the amount of special
attacks you can put out and therefore more damage. This is all increased by
better gear.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1 Weapon Choices
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As stated, your weapon is extremely important. Arms Warriors do best with a
slow 2H. This is because your instant attacks Mortal Strike and Whirlwind
(also Slam) are based on top-end weapon damage - and when comparing two
weapons of equal dps, the slower weapon of the two will have the higher top-
end. Slower weapons are also more bursty - they hit harder, they crit
harder.
At 70 there are several choices available for competitive weapons. There are
raid drops from Karazhan+, the Arena weapons, and of course the epic
blacksmithing weapons.
Gorehowl Gorehowl drops from Prince Malchezaar in
Binds when picked up Karazhan. It's top-end is reasonably high
Two-Hand Axe compared to its competition - the Agi also
345 - 518 Damage Speed 3.60 equals out to 1.30% crit and 1.43% dodge.
(119.9 damage per second) Another huge plus is the 51 Stam, making
+49 Strength Gorehowl a great weapon for pvp, assuming you
+43 Agility can take down Prince.
+51 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 70
Despair Despair is a drop from Julianne, from the
Binds when picked up Romulo and Julianne opera event in Karazhan.
Two-Hand Sword It's a great entry-level into competitive
319 - 479 Damage Speed 3.50 pvp. It's fast, and lacks stam, however the
(114.0 damage per second) proc is great (about as good as procs get).
+52 Strength The 600 damage is unmitigated by armour, is
Durability 120 / 120 buffed by % power increase buffs (DW, Enrage)
Requires Level 70 and can crit at your melee crit %.
Chance on hit: Attempts to
impale the target, causing 600
damage.
Axe of the Gronn Lords This is a drop from Gruul - it lacks the crit
Binds when picked up of Gorehowl, but has 26 more attack power and
Two-Hand Axe 15 more Stam. It has the exact same top-end
345 - 518 Damage Speed 3.60 and speed. Which do you take? Whichever
(119.9 damage per second) drops first. Axe of the Gronn Lords drops
+66 Stamina off Gruul.
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 70
Equip: Increases attack power by 124.
Thunder Thunder is the tier 1 Master Hammersmith 2H.
Binds when picked up The Thunder line has the highest top-end of
Unique the crafted weapons, along with a huge amount
Two-Hand Mace of stamina. Thunder itself is a very strong
333 - 500 Damage Speed 3.80 pvp weapon - it has great stats and combined
(109.6 damage per second) with Mace Spec it dominates in arena. The 37
+37 Strength Agi = 1.12% crit and 1.23% dodge.
+37 Agility
+55 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 70
Requires Master Hammersmith
Lunar Crescent Lunar Crescent is the tier 1 Master Axesmith
Binds when picked up 2H. It's top-end is lower than Thunder,
Unique though it has higher AP and crit. At low
Two-Hand Axe levels against low-resilience opponents Axe
324 - 487 Damage Speed 3.70 Spec can cause havoc - and Axe Spec is the
(109.6 damage per second) reason people why some take LC over Thunder.
Durability 120 / 120 However, Thunder itself is the better weapon.
Requires Level 70 The axes line has also no stamina.
Requires Master Axesmith
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 47 (2.1%).
Equip: Increases attack power by 96.
Lionheart Blade The Lionheart line is easily the weakest of
Binds when picked up the BOP blacksmithing epics. It has the
Unique lowest topend of the three, with a lot of the
Two-Hand Sword item-level points wasted on useless stats.
315 - 474 Damage Speed 3.60 The Agi = 1.27% Crit and 1.40% Dodg - if it
(109.6 damage per second) were 42 stam the weapon would be so much
+47 Strength better. The 5% Fear resist chance is also
+42 Agility wasted itemization - with Deathwish you
Durability 120 / 120 already have two Fear breaks and 40 seconds
Requires Level 70 of back-to-back immunity. Disappointing.
Requires Master Swordsmith
Equip: Increases your chance to resist Fear effects by 5%.
The Merciless Two-Handers
The Merciless Gladiator weapons are fantastic - they each have 365-549
damage, a speed of 3.60, 42 Str, 55 Stam, 18 hit, 42 crit and 33 res (except
for the axe, where instead of 42 Str it has 84 AP, giving hunters and shamans
a good choice too). They cost 3750 arena points, which is a fair amount, and
depending on your ratings you may be saving for a while. Are they worth it?
Definitely, though you have to ask yourself, weapon or armour first?
Realistically if you can get your hands on a Gorehowl, or one of the
blacksmithing BoPs, you should probably take the armour first.
(This however is subject to change if they bring the season 1 arena set into
honour gear in the next patch. Then you should definitely grab the weapon
first and take season 1 gear via the honour system. Watch this space.)
Which should you grab? It depends on what weapon spec you want to roll with,
though Deep Thunder is quite comparable to the Bonegrinder, if not better.
There are a variety of other 'good' axes you can choose in regards to the
Decapitator, however the Merciless Greatsword is the second-best sword in the
game right now - around equal to Twinblade of the Phoenix, a drop off
Kael'Thas, and beaten by Cataclysm's Edge, a drop off Archimonde. Even then,
Cataclysm's Edge lacks the 2% crit and resilience of the Greatsword.
With these things in mind, it is easy to straight up say grab the sword if
you're unsure.
Axe vs. Sword vs. Mace Spec
---------------------------
One of the most common questions on the forums is 'which is better?' Each
has their pros and cons, and while the usual answer is to spec to the weapon
you have, the question arises often due to the choice afforded by the
blacksmithing and Arena weapons.
Mace Spec
---------
Mace is generally the favoured spec among top-rank PVP Warriors. This is
because of the huge chance of the mace spec stun to proc. With a 3.8 speed
weapon, the chance to stun is roughly 11% on every attack. 11% is a huge
number, considering it applies to instants, auto-attacks, and every target of
Whirlwind. The 3 second stun is invaluable for stopping runners,
interrupting casts, and at 11% is also bordering on reliable. With good
gear, crit and stats, you can effectively lock down a target until
diminishing returns set in and they become immune.
NOTE: Mace Spec has diminishing returns, but only with itself - on-call
stuns such as intercept and Concussion Blow are on a different timer.
Mace Spec is popular in part due to the Thunder line's 3.8 speed - it's less
effective with a faster weapon. The Mace Spec stun is one of the most
disrupting cc in pvp right now.
NOTE: As of 27/08/07 Mace Spec is facing a nerf, it is already on the PTR
and reports state it has been dropped to a roughly 5% chance to proc, just
like swords. This is a rather large nerf - I'll keep you updated as the
change goes live.
Axe Spec
--------
Axe is usually considered the least effective pvp weapon spec, once
resilience comes into the picture. Some argue that 'axe spec helps overcome
the crit disadvantage you have against high resilience opponents'. This is
true, however, resilience also affects the amount of damage crits do,
effectively nerfing a large bonus of the 5% crit that Axe Spec gives. How
much damage reduction are we talking?
There are several things to consider here. The first is that Axe Spec gives
a higher chance to proc Flurry, increasing your dps. The second is that it
also boosts Impale, since your yellow attacks will be critting more. The
third is that both Mace and Sword Specs give you rage on the procs (unless
the sword spec proc misses/is dodged/is parried) - the 5% crit will only give
you bonus to rage generation in white swings, not on specials.
Sword Spec
----------
Sword is usually the damage spec of choice in high-end arena, since it's proc
isn't mitigated by resilience unlike axe spec. Sword Spec procs also give
rage off the attack. A crit only gives rage if it crit off white. With 300+
resilience opponents, sword is ultimately going to outburst Axe. The chance
to proc sword spec is roughly 5%.
Which is best?
--------------
Overall I'd say maces, though arguments can be made for swords, especially in
5s where you aren't going to be focus-fired, and when your team needs the
extra dps. Maces in 5s are great when you are running with a firepower heavy
team however, especially in 4-dps rushdown setups where the mace stun can
keep the kill target from LOS-ing your dps. It also depends on how badly
mace was nerfed.
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5.2 Armour
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are several sets of armour you can go for when making a set for pvp.
Obviously the most effective is the season 2 gladiator gear, the Merciless
Battlegear set, however season 1 is great too and it's also okay to include
tier 4/5 if you raid and have access to the pieces.
Merciless Gladiator vs. Gladiator Stats
---------------------------------------
[1875/1630 Points] Helm: +5 Str, +2 Stam, +14 Hit, +3 Crit
[1500/1304 Points] Shoulders: +7 Str, +6 Stam, +4 Crit, +1 Res
[1875/1630 Points] Chest: +12 Str, +11 Stam, +2 Hit, +5 Crit, +1 Res
[1125/978 Points] Gloves: +5 Str, +4 Stam, +3 Crit, +3 Res
[1875/1630 Points] Legs: +7 Str, +8 Stam, +2 Hit, +7 Crit, +1 Res
Overall +36 Str, +31 Stam, +18 Hit, +22 Crit, +6 Res
8250 Points/7172 Points
First things first, always grab the Merciless pieces with your points - this
is because of the talk on the forums of season 1 gear being able to be
brought with HONOR in the next patch. The order that you buy the pieces is
really up to you - if you have any raid epics that would do well in a pvp
set, save those ones for last to upgrade to Gladiator gear. Assuming you
don't have any, I personally would go with the shoulders first, as they will
likely kick the crap out of anything else you could have up to this point -
they're also cheaper.
Next is up to you - assuming you're in ANY sort of raiding guild, remember
the tier 4 gloves and helm drop in Karazhan off Curator and Prince
respectively, with High King Maulgar and Gruul dropping the shoulders and the
legs. Do you have access to those pieces? Then you may want to start
gearing up other slots.
I put a small chart up there to show you the extra stats season 2 has over
season 1 - incase you are in the relatively rare position of having 5/5
season 1 and wondering which piece to upgrade first. Look at the chest, or
the helm if you're missing hit.
Tier 4
------
Tier 4 Warriors are going to munch everything below a equally geared season 1
warrior. The pieces are great if you can get them, as they can effectively
fill a spot while you spend points on another one. The helm is great, the
shoulders and legs are also good, while the gloves are a little weak. Don't
worry about the chest as it is so much easier to get a Gladiator one then it
is finding a guild to take down Mag. Tier 5+ is basically, can you get it?
Then use it. Merciless Gladiator however is the best there is right now.
Fresh to 70 Gear
----------------
You're going to ding 70 in a load of crap. The first thing to do is join
some arena teams (even though you have crap gear, if you can get in on any
teams at all DO IT, it's best to start arena early no matter what..some
points > no points). The second is to farm enough honour for the honour
epics (Boots, Belt, Bracers, and then Cape/Neck/Ring). Inbetween doing all
this however you sure try your best to gear-up in whatever you can. A quick
outline on what you can grab while doing your weekly arenas/raids/bgs is
here. Any Gladiator/Honor gear is left out of this section, as
you can assume it's better than anything else listed.
(For quest information/info on how to obtain the gear, please visit
www.thottbot.com)
Helm: Grab the Overlord's Helm of Second Sight. It's a reward from a
Shadowmoon Valley quest chain. The helm is light-years ahead of
anything else comparable in the blue range. 29 Str, 22 Stam, 13 hit
and 24 crit. It also has 3 sockets. For a blue this thing is a beast.
Shoulders: Alliance can grab the awesome Sylvanaar Champion's Shoulders (36
Str, 22 Stam, 20 crit) - these things are the best dps shoulders
until Doomplate/Tier 4/Gladiator+ and SO much easier to obtain.
If you're Horde, Mech Tech Shoulders are probably your best bet
until you can grab the honour ones/Gladiators. (Mech Tech are 23
Str, 25 Stam, 9 hit rating and 12 crit.)
Chest: Chestplate of A'dal is great and available to both factions. It has
35 Str, 27 Stam, 22 hit and 25 crit and is available from an easy
quest line. You'll probably stick with it until the Gladiator chest.
Another option is the Doomplate Chestguard off the last boss in
Arcatraz. (30 Str, 27 Stam, 19 crit and 3 sockets.)
Gloves: Good blue gloves are relatively hard to find. There's the Gauntlets
of Cruel Intention that drop in Botanica (30 Str, 25 Stam, 21 crit),
which is one of the few options. What I did when I dinged 70 however
was have a pair of Felfury Gauntlets crafted. They are mail, however
they have 30 stam, 40 attack power, 27 crit and two sockets. In
comparison there are the crafted Steelgrip Gauntlets that are plate,
have 28 str (56 AP), 36 stam, two sockets and make you immune to
disarm. Due to Weapon Mastery (talent in Arms tree that makes you
immune to disarm) everyone assumes you are already immune and doesn't
bother to disarm you anyway - so I took the Felfury and the 27 crit.
Legs: The Slayer's Legguards from Halaa are great entry-level pvp legs. They
have 25 Str, 39 Stam, 17 crit and 25 res. They also have a socket.
These things are extremely easy to get, you just need to get a raid
together on Halaa for a little while, and the 39 stam combined with
great other stats makes them (apart from the honor legs) the best blue
pvp legs in the game.
Belt: The Slayer's Waistguard is the second Halaa armour piece, and another
great entry-level one for pvp. It has 22 Str, 24 Stam, 19 crit and 19
res, and like the legs is easy to get assuming you can get a Halaa raid
going. Another option is the Deathforge Girdle which is a drop from
the last boss in Sethekk Halls. This has 22 Str, 25 Stam, 20 crit and
two sockets. If you end up with the Deathforge one while running
Sethekk keep it, otherwise go for the Slayer's belt.
Bracers: Demolisher's Bracers aren't bad (14 Str, 21 Stam, 13 hit, 14 crit),
they're a reward from an easy 5 minute Netherstorm quest, definitely
pick them up when you ding 70. Black Felsteel Bracers (26 Str, 15
Stam, 22 crit) are also good and double as awesome pve dps bracers,
though they will cost you 200g+ (they're a crafted epic). Get
Demolisher's and skip to Veteran's if you're broke.
Boots: Sha'tari Wrought Greaves are easily the best blue boots (24 Str, 21
Agi, 22 Stam, 2 sockets). They're a quest reward from killing Murmur
in Shadow Labyrinth.
Weapon: Assuming you didn't take blacksmithing, there are a couple different
weapon choices you have. The best blue is either the Apexis Cleaver
(2H Axe, 268-403 Damage, 3.60 Speed, 46 Str, 39 Stam, 19 crit) or the
Crystalforged War Axe (2H Axe, 253-380 Damage, 3.50 Speed, 50 Stam,
27 crit, 80 AP). Alternatively you can buy one of the BOE
blacksmithing epics. Out of these go with either the Felsteel Reaper
(2H Axe, 295-443 Damage, 3.40 Speed, 30 crit, 112 AP) or the Fel
Hardened Maul (2H Mace, 286-430 Damage, 3.30 Speed, 50 Str, 46 Stam,
21 crit). Felsteel Reaper has more firepower, the Maul has 46 Stam.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.3 Trinket Choices
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Insignia of the Alliance Medallion of the Alliance
Binds when picked up Binds when picked up
Unique Unique
Trinket Trinket
Classes: Warrior Requires: Level 70
Use: Dispels all movement impairing Equip: Improves your resilience by 20
effects and all effects which (0.5%)
cause loss of control of your Use: Dispels all movement imparing
character. effects and all effects which
Cooldown: 5 min cause loss of control of your
character.
Cooldown: 2 min
Your first slot should always be given to your pvp trinket - if its off
cooldown it should be equipped, period. Everyone should have the old
Insignia (5 minute cooldown) - it's only 2805 Honor Points. If you don't
have one, buy one ASAP. The Medallion is an awesome upgrade, and drops the
CD to less than half. Is it worth getting? YES! It's great for world pvp,
bgs, and arena games that go over 2 minutes. Most arena games do, unless you
play a zerg team in 2s or 3s. Again, get one ASAP. The Medallion costs
16983 Honor Points.
Note I highly recommend using a trinket-switch mod - these mods automatically
switch trinkets once you drop combat if you use one and it goes on cooldown.
I personally use TrinketMenu - check out the links section on where to grab
it. A cool feature is that you can queue trinkets up - use one, drop combat,
the next one gets queued, use it, it queues the next, etc etc. It's great.
There are several good choices for the second trinket slot, and they are all
relatively easy to get. Unlike the Insignia/Medallion none of them are
"vital" - use what you can get. Note however that in all pvp cases a trinket
with an 'on-call' AP boost is going to be better than a proc-based one (aka
Hourglass of the Unraveller). The Hourglass procs are way too random to be
of use in competitive pvp - you may not crit, you may crit and it may not
proc, you may proc on a killing blow or proc and not be able to attack anyone
in the 10 second buff. Use trinkets allow you to bring the pain when you
need it.
Statistically Bloodlust Brooch is the best - Abascus is great as well, except
the 20 second buff of Bloodlust Brooch beats its 10 seconds. Use Bladefist's
if you have nothing better.
Bladefist's Breadth Bloodlust Brooch
Binds when picked up Binds when picked up
Unique Unique
Trinket Trinket
Equip: Improves critical strike Equip: Increases attack power by 72
rating by 26 (1.2%). Use: Increases attack power by 278
Use: Increases attack power by for 20 sec.
200 for 15 sec.
Cooldown: 1.50 min Cooldown: 2 min
Hourglass of the Unraveller Abascus of Violent Odds
Binds when picked up Binds when picked up
Unique Unique
Trinket Trinket
Requires Level 68 Requires Level 70
Equip: Improves critical strike rating Equip: Increases attack power by 64
by 32 (1.4%). Use: Increases haste rating by 260
Equip: Chance on critical hit to (24.7%) for 10 sec.
increase your attack power by Cooldown: 2 min
300 for 10 secs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Warrior Vs Class Breakdowns
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are all strategies you should keep in mind when facing certain classes
in general pvp.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.1 Druids
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resto druids are the most competitive pvp spec of their class. In arenas
resto druids enjoy great healing abilities while being able to massively
abuse LoS - they cast their hots, switch to travel form, and run. They also
get to start out stealthed, and if they are lucky they may be able to open
with a Cyclone. It's important to remember that all snares/slows are removed
from the druid when he shapeshifts, meaning Hamstring has to be reapplied
over and over.
If you start fighting restos that heal and run, you have two options. One,
you can try to stay on him as long as possible (which while in itself is very
doable, is much harder if their partner is trying to snare you) and try to
bring him down , or two, you can kill his dps while keeping him on the run.
Either strat works better depending on your class makeup and theirs. It's
important to remember that if you choose to stay on him, you must hamstring
every time he switches to travel form. Try to stay a little 'ahead' of him -
due to latency your character won't actually be in front of his, but it does
give you the breathing room if a Hamstring misses/is dodged to lay out a
Piercing Howl before he gets away.
If you choose to kill his dps, build as much rage on the druid as you can,
and then when a prime opportuntiy presents itself just double back on his
partner and nuke him with everything you've got. Ideally the druid will let
you have a second or two while still running in travel form, and if you time
the switch perfectly with your team this will be all you need to kill his
partner.
Good ferals can also pose a rediculous threat 1v1. The fact of the matter is
they have much more tools at their disposal than you do - and as you both
gear up the advantage swings more into their favour. Their mitigation is
rediculous - they will often have the armour of a prot warrior in sword and
board, higher dodge and a lot more damage. They can also chain together
Cyclone, Feral Charges and bleeds, which start becoming a pain in the ass as
fights drag on. Save your trinket for the Feral Charge they use on you
before switching to caster to heal, and burst them for as much damage as you
can in the few seconds you get. Also, keep hamstring up at all times and
kite them for the 3.6/3.8 seconds of your swing timer, staying just a little
out of their melee range. If they move backwards, mirror them, so they can't
bash or charge you. Fighting them this way makes the fight much more
managable.
Moonkins are easily dealt with both in 1v1 and groups. They squish far too
easily to pose a threat, and should be focussed as soon as you see one.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2 Hunters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To a warrior, hunters come in two flavours. Beast Master (BM) hunters, and
everything else. BM hunters can often be a MASSIVE pain in the ass, and a
fight against an equally geared/skill one is often 50/50 in favour of the
hunter. First I'll talk about the 'everything else' hunters. Mostly ones
that spec deep marksmanship, but you will even run into a couple of survival
hunters out there (they are the ones that can put you to sleep).
Marksmanship hunters can effectively be considered a squishy to you. Does
the hunter know you're there? Is this arena? Then he's probably standing on
a trap. You have two choices: you can intercept the hunter, trinket the trap
(it's most probably freezing), and then stay on him and start bringing him
down OR if he's closer, just start moving towards him and Challenging Shout
the pet as you run by. With the pet taunted you can run over the trap on
purpose and the pet will break you out of it. This is risky since that
hunter has a few seconds to light you up. If the pet is already on you, you
can Challenging Shout > Intercept the hunter, however you have 6 SECONDS from
the shout in which the pet will stay taunted and break the trap off you. Can
you get to him in time?
If the hunter has the pet next to him, this may not work. I don't think I
have ever been able to shout after intercepting (maybe due to latency, or
even the gcd) before getting frozen. Another thing is Intimidating Shouting
the pet while the hunter is hamstrung. The primary target of IS is stuck non
-moving in a fear that breaks on all damage. However any AOE targets of it
get a different effect, that only breaks after a certain amount of damage.
If you hamstring the hunter beforehand, then he moves around slowly and
you're free to get in a couple of hits before the fear on him breaks.
Marksman hunters often Scatter Shot you (its that shot that makes you move in
a daze for a few seconds) before dropping a trap on your feet. Depending on
which way you move while in the daze you can sometimes move out before the
trap gets you. However, this is the trap I recommend trinketing, as Scatter
Shot has a 30sec cooldown, and if you can stay on them immediately after they
use it you have 30 seconds of messing them up.
Also, Hunters, once disarmed, cannot Wingclip you. Assuming you're wary of
traps and stay on top of them, disarming them removes their last trick of
getting back to range. Playing smart, the only traps you should HAVE to eat
is the opening one while they are at range (and only then if they have their
pet with them) and any you take while Scatter Shotted. If they are right on-
top of their trap, you can swing at them without the trap proccing. Do so.
BM Hunters are different - they have the Beast Within, that makes both them
and their pet immune to fear/snaring/roots/slows/stuns for 18 seconds, with
the pet doing 50% more damage and the hunter 10%. They also have
Intimidation, which is a 3 second stun from the pet, that has a 1 min
cooldown. Basically both these talents mean the hunter WILL get back to
range, and once they do they're going to start dishing out the pain. You
can't hamstring them, fear them, or basically stop them once they're red.
With Intimidation/Wingclip/Freezing Traps kiting you is also very easy.
Staying within a BM hunters deadzone is the best way to win against one.
(The deadzone is a range where they can't do anything; it's out of their
melee range, and too close to them to fire at you. Basically, stay JUST out
of their melee range for as long as you can.) Once you see them go red and
use Intimidation, you must stay within the hunter's deadzone. When he runs
away, follow him. When he comes close, move away. Mirror him while
spamming Demoralizing Shout/Thunderclap on the pet (a macro to switch to
Defensive Stance/sword and board also helps here). IF YOU INTERCEPT
HIM HE WILL WINGCLIP YOU INSTANTLY, AS INTERCEPT WILL NOT STUN HIM. Once
Beast Within is nearing its duration, switch back to berserker, and come up
on him. Watch out for traps and start nuking.
Equally played and geared BM hunters are very hard fights, and most of it
comes down to whether or not the hunter started at range, or whether you had
the jump on him. If you get the jump on one and trinket his Intimidation,
the fight is much easier than if the hunter had jumped you at range, while
sitting on a trap. This is all solo advice for fighting a BM hunter, in
arena the best strategy is to just leave it alone for the 18 seconds of BW.
Unfortunately the worst thing about them is that you can never guess who is
BM and who is not, as unlike SL warlocks with felguards/frost mages with Ice
Barrier, there is no distinguishing features between BM hunters and MM ones,
until you've attacked and they go all red on you.
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6.3 Mages
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mages are annoying though less so in arena, where they can be focussed down.
They come in two general flavours - pom pyro mages (arcane/fire) and frost.
Pom pyro are capable of extreme burst - they trinket up, use Presence of Mind
(which makes their next spell with a 10 second or less cast time instant) and
Pyroblast you. If they spec Arcane Power, they can also increase their
damage by 30% for 15 seconds. This all equals some crazy burst, and is
pretty much fatal if it crits and you have 0 resilience.
The second, frost mages, are the most deadly. They have various talents that
buff their slowing/snaring capabilities along with great defensive skills and
a pet that does solid dps. Ice Block however is why they're deadly - they
can immune themselves from all damage for up to 10 seconds at the cost of
being unable to move themselves. However, Ice Block can be cancelled at any
time within that 10 seconds, and while they're immune their pet can still
attack. Basically this means that to kill a frost mage you have to deal with
a potential 10 seconds of immunity, while ordering your dps to switch targets
and then waiting for them to come out of Ice Block. They also have several
other talents that help them survive, and basically be pains in the ass.
Mages are often called the warrior counter-class. Assuming you have decent
resilience (200+) you can go toe-to-toe with pom pyros, the focus being to
shut them down as much as possible. Mace spec helps a lot here. You will
most probably eventually have to eat the pom pyro - if you run with TM you
can try reflecting it, watch for the red trinket animation along with flames
of fire coming up over the mage. Pyro is usually the next thing they cast.
Never intercept a mage before it blinks, unless you have a very good reason
for doing so. Force the blink with hamstring + pummel + burst, basically get
in their face and freak them out. ALWAYS interrupt polymorph. If a mage
frost nova's you and your trinket is on cooldown, you can Intimidating Shout
to lock them in place for a few seconds while you wait to come out of the
nova. If they're undead, only use IS as an interrupt, it's useless as a
stun. You can also use it to catch up to running mages, just spam the button
as you get close.
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6.4 Paladins
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paladins are usually only a threat when combined with a team - solo you
should beat any spec of them, unless you fight a well-geared ret while you
yourself are in greens. Holy Light is an easy pummel - Flash of Light a
little more difficult, though still relatively easy. When it bubbles, run.
A Paladin also has Blessing of Protection - a second bubble that it can cast
on either itself or its friends. Blessing of Protection immunes the target
to all physical damage, namely yours, for 10 seconds.
In arenas Paladins are extremely strong. If a Paladin Blessing of Freedoms
itself, you are in for an extremely tough time of keeping damage/rage up, and
your groups focus fire must be right behind you. Because of their ability to
easily LOS your dps with Freedom, their plate armour and their relative
survivability, fighting a Paladin is often more about shutting down their
heals instead of killing them. Bubble effectively means you have to kill
them twice. Also, if a paladin does manage to abuse LOS on you, your dps
often only has seconds to readjust before being ripped into.
Against bad Paladins you may be able to kill them before they bubble, by
pummeling Holy Light/Flash of Light while they're on low health and nuking
them between the school lockdown runs out. Interrupting paladin heals is the
most critical thing to beating them - often one pummeled heal could win you
the game. Unlike priests and druids, they lack a hot - except when bubble is
up all of their heals can be interrupted. Lock it down whenever you can.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.5 Priests
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Priests are probably the easiest of the healing classes to take down. 1v1, a
holy priest specced for healing won't be able to do anything to you. Simply
descend upon them like the reaper and destroy them. Keep MS up, Pummel
anything you see that has a cast time, and intercept stun them after - this
is because good holy priests will start casting Mind Control on you, and if
you pummel it they are free to start healing, as their heals and MC are on
different trees. You can't just let them land the MC on you - this is
especially destructive in Blade's Edge Arena on the bridge. If a priest
manages to MC you up there, he's quickly going to throw you off where you'll
be useless to your team.
Intercept stun after the pummel helps with this, and is great for putting
some pressure on the priest. The only way a holy priest is going to beat you
is if he lasts long enough for backup to arrive - and with holy priests that
stack resilience, they are better at this than you may think. One of the
best survival talents they have is Blessed Resilience - when specced 3/3 any
critical hits you land on the priest gives him a 60% chance of being immune
to crits for 6 seconds. In short, crit strings on geared holy priests are
few and far between, and you may have to pace yourself a little in bringing
him down. Just don't let him get heals off.
Shadow priests are a tough fight once they start getting gear, due to the
fact that as of 30/08/07 dots aren't affected by resilience (though this is
apparently coming in the next patch). I can't offer any great insights into
beating geared shadow priests - stay on them, save your rage until they
bubble, then burst it down (good rule for all priests - you don't get rage
attacking bubbles, so without it it's much harder to burst them), and you may
want to try switching to Battle after you've blown Intercept/Whirlwind, as
the 10% more damage taken is killer here. Also be extremely wary of using
Deathwish - though using Deathwish in Battle Stance is going to have you
taking less damage than simply by being in Berserker.
At low levels of resilience you will go through shadow priests like a hot
knife through butter, but as you gear up the fight moves to their favour, at
least until the incoming dot nerf.
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6.6 Rogues
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rogues are generally only an annoyance to arms spec warriors, and ESPECIALLY
if you catch them out of stealth they should be insta-gibbed. If one pops in
an arena game - and you are confident of your team-mates ability to quickly
shift targets - call it out and SMASH it. Never trinket Cheap Shot, save it
for Kidney Shot or Blind. Always leave arena gates in Berserker - if a rogue
saps you, you can wait until they reveal themselves (usually by opening up on
your partner), then Berserker Rage out of it and destroy them. If they see
you switch to Berserker they're less likely to try and sap you. Smart rogues
eventually stop trying to sap you altogether.
Intercept stun is one of your best assets against a rogue - they can't
dodge/parry/whatever while stunned. This is also the best time to put MS up
on them, since they dodge it a lot, and MS being dodged is always incredibly
bad. Luckily once one lands they're pretty much gone, assuming your dps is
on the ball. If MS is on cooldown while they're in the intercept stun, slam
them (assuming you specced imp. slam). Basically general burst damage rules,
except you REALLY want to hit as much as you can in the 3 second stun,
because of their high dodge.
1v1, if a rogue pops Evasion, Whirlwind (only if you have the rage to burn,
or no TM) > Berserker Rage > Battle Stance and wait for Overpowers to light
up. Berserker Rage before the switch will make you immune to Gouge for its
duration. Other options include Intimidating Shout and bandaging while
waiting for Evasion to run out (it lasts 15 seconds, Intimidating Shout lasts
8), or Piercing Howling the rogue while getting into intercept range
(Hamstring has trouble landing, and this only works if you don't have
crippling poison on you), then Intercept > MS > Whirlwind, Piercing Howl and
start kiting again until Evasion is gone.
Or use both. It really depends on whether or not the rogue has his trinket
up, whether he's Undead, and what cooldowns he has left at his disposal
(sprint may get you). Hamstringing rogues is also a great way to keep them
off ranged dps - they have Sprint, their pvp trinket and possibly Prep which
gives them a second Sprint. That's it. If you run with other dps and the
rogue becomes your kill target, your focus is getting Mortal Strike to stick.
Finally, as I mentioned before, once a rogue vanishes Piercing Howl
IMMEDIATELY. If you're good and quick enough you can catch them, though it
may be a second before they reappear (there is a tiny minor lag inbetween
Piercing Howl hitting and them dropping stealth). Piercing Howl > start
hitting Tab to find them. If you spec Booming Voice, Demoralizing Shout gets
a larger range of effect than Piercing, however the snare of Piercing is
invaluable if you catch them with it. If you have Booming Voice and enough
rage, Demoralizing Shout > once they reappear Piercing. If not, Piercing all
the way. Bringing the rogue out of stealth is a massive advantage, as they
can't open with Cheap Shot and lose the opening combo points.
It's also important to work out WHERE the rogue is going to go once it
vanishes. Do you have a ranged dps he's going to start running to? Was he
low on health and is going to try and drop combat? Was he just vanishing to
get another opener in? Where would YOU go if you were him? You don't need
specifics, you just need to work out which direction he would have started
running in from the point he vanished. This is easier to get good at
predicting than you may think.
Rogues can be disarmed - once disarmed they can't use Sinister Strike,
Riposte, probably a whole lot of other stuff but most importantly Kidney
Shot. Disarming a rogue can effectively keep them off one of your squishies
for 10 seconds.
Also, make sure you have your Sound turned up in Options. If you ever hear
the shnnshhuu noise of somebody going into stealth, you know a rogue or druid
just came past.
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6.7 Shamans
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The cool thing about shamans is that you're going to encounter all three
specs at least SOMEWHERE out in the WoW universe. Restos are the healers,
Elemental are the range/magic ones, and Enhancement are the melee ones.
Resto shammys are easily the healer I have the most difficulty in shutting
down. This is because their smallest heal, Lesser Healing Wave, is the
fastest heal in the game and they spam it massively. At 250+ latency you
have half a second to hit Pummel once you see the cast-bar pop up - which
doesn't sound so bad, however because of the gcd a resto can start a heal the
second it sees Mortal Strike pop on its debuff bar, or it sees you Whirlwind,
and you won't be able to stop it. Earthbind Totem also makes it hard to get
to Intercept range for the stun, and so even if you do manage to interrupt a
Lesser Healing Wave, you probably won't be able to interrupt the second.
At low levels of resilience they are quite a bit easier to burst down, and
assuming you land your Pummels, fear wisely (bandaging helps here) and make
it to Intercept stun range as much as you can, it should be an easy win.
Once resilience starts getting stacked its much harder, you have to land
interrupts much more, and you must play much tighter. You are still going to
win, as they simply don't have the the dps to bring you down, though they ARE
most probably going to be able to stall you for a good while (especially if
you mess up). 1v1 this doesn't matter, however in arenas/bgs it's much more
important - a lot of times a resto will be able to stall you out long enough
for his buddies to come round and kick your ass.
A resto shaman's weakness is being focus fired - they simply don't have the
skills/mitigation/get-away skills to survive being focussed. If a resto does
not break LOS quickly after he gets focussed, he will die. Druids can shift,
run and LOS, priests get Blessed Resilience, a hot and a shield to by
enough time to LOS, pallys have their bubble but a shaman has nothing.
Beware shamans near pillars however, as if they DO manage to LOS you, they
can heal to full extremely quickly. In arena while focussing a shammy, get
MS up ASAP, so that his Nature's Swiftness heal is cut to 50% - Intimidating
Shout is also great to tag him with if you need the extra interrupt.
Basically if you choose to focus a resto shaman you MUST kill it, and that
means letting him heal as little as possible.
Elemental shamans are extremely squishy, and go down quickly - they're a
great target for first call focus fire. They are capable of crazy burst -
however most of it comes from spells with fairly high cast times (easily
susceptible to Pummel), and because of it they are easily shut down.
Enhancement shamans are also great calls for focus fire. Their dps mostly
comes from lucky Windfury procs - however if they DO proc on your clothies,
they are surprisingly quite destructive. They have nothing to defend against
from focus fire, and being melee are much harder to use LOS to their
advantage. You should have no problem taking an enhancement shaman 1v1,
unless they outgear you significantly, and even then you should still be
putting up a fight.
Telling the different specs apart from one another is easy. Restos will
usually have a brown ball flying in circles around them (Earth Shield) - they
can cast this on their team-mates instead, however they are most likely to
have it on themselves in 5s and it is easy to spot in 2s and 3s even if on
somebody else. Enhancement shamans have a blue lightning ball flying in
circles around them (Windfury Weapon). If you see a shaman that looks like a
resto, but you can't see Earth Shield anyway, assume it's an elemental.
One last thing, please hamstring the Earthbind Totems. Hamstring is the best
way to take totems down - you don't want to waste a 3.6 second swing on one.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.8 Warlocks
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warlocks are another fight that gets progressively more difficult as you both
start stacking resilience - your crit gets diminished, but their dots don't.
At lower resilience the fight easily favours the warrior - however later on
(especially Soul Linked warlocks), this isn't the case.
The two flavours of warlock you will encounter are the Affliction specced
sort (buffed dot damage) and the Soul Link/demo sort (extreme survivability).
Afflictions are a lot squishier than the latter - they have a couple of
instant cast dots (Curse of Agony, Improved Corruption which most spec for),
which in a 1v1 situation ARE going to start hurting. Afflictions go down
easily assuming you can stay on top of them. You can even trinket the
Deathcoil if you want, though this is only worth doing if you can trinket it
instantly, before you're too far away.
Once you're skillcoiled they'll either cast Unstable Affliction or Drain
Life. Pummel UA and intercept stun Drain Life - Pummel does not always lock
down the school of channeled spells. I've seen it spammed again immediately
following a pummel, and other times not, leading me to think this is either
working as intended or something to do with lag. Either way intercept stun
the first Drain Life if you can. In a 1v1 situation you can even try
switching to your shield after the charge to SR the Deathcoil, as there's a
good chance it'll be what they mash after they see you charge them.
SL warlocks are the second type - they have massive damage mitigation
talents, namely Soul Link (20% of damage dealt to the warlock goes to the
pet). They also have massive HP, due to their increased stamina and health
talents (most likely an equal geared SL warlock will have more health than
you). Once Gladiator gear is into the picture you are going to have extreme
problems bursting through their HP, and once they have dots ticking they are
going to start drain tanking you - drain tanking is basically them spamming
Drain Life on you and outhealing the damage you put out, or at least stalling
it significantly while their dots destroy you.
There are not many things you can do to beat a high resilience SL warlock -
they are extremely difficult 1v1 opponenets.
In the arenas Warlocks usually drop very fast - they are also focussed
extremely quick, due to the fact they can do most of their damage while
avoiding LOS and felhunters really make a mess of casters. In 5s Deathwish
is your best friend - however in 1v1 and even 2s or 3s if you're getting
focussed use it with extreme caution.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Frequently Asked Questions
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Which weapon spec is the best?!?!
Like I've said before, they each have their pros and cons. Strictly pvp?
Maces, or Swords. Do you PVE on the side, and have a fondness of bgs? Axes
are great for both - the 5% crit shines for proccing Flurry along with the
low res opponents you'll find it bgs. Can't decide? Maces.
2. Which blacksmithing weapon should I make?
From a weapon-only point of view, the Thunder line are the best MS weapons
out of the 3 - they're the slowest, and bring along massive amounts of stam.
However, this question also ties in with which weapon spec you want to use.
Can't decide? I've known many people who switched from Lunar
Crescent/Mooncleaver to Deep Thunder. Whatever you do however, stay away
from the sword line.
3. Is Improved Hamstring as worthless as it seems?
Many people agree the talent borders on broken, especially with 3 points in
it that gives it a 15% chance to proc. However, I find 1 point in it great
filler to get to MS - this 1 point also gives you the chance, albeit small,
to proc it on every Hamstring you do. While small, when it does proc it is a
great bonus under almost any circumstance. 3 points in the talent does seem
wasteful however.
4. Do I have to spec Weapon Mastery? Do people Disarm often?
Because of the mere availability of Weapon Mastery, taking the chance to
Disarm an Arms warrior is rather risky - especially since many Arena specs
forego TM now, and unless premeditated the Disarm is going to cost you a lot
of rage when you switch out of Berserker. There's just no good reason to try
it - I don't think I have ever been disarmed in the arena by another arms
spec warrior, they just assume you have Weapon Mastery and you assume they do
too. However, rogues can still disarm with riposte (very annoying) and any
prot warriors you encounter will probably try to disarm you too (not so
annoying).
5. How much hit rating do I need to not miss my auto-swings?
5%, which is around 80 hit rating. Missing is very bad - make sure you get
the 5%. No hits = no damage = no rage. Frost mages have a talent called
Artic Winds - when specced 5/5 this talent lowers the chance melee and ranged
attacks will hit the mage by 5%. As in, dropping your hit rating by 5%.
That's why you'll see misses against frost mages.
6. How should I gear up to help in the arena? I want to get good gear before
I go in!
See section 5.3 Armour for a list of fresh-to-70 gear. In short, grind the
honour epics, grab the Halaa gear, and start arenas as soon as you hit 70.
Even the first day you ding, with 4 other players, some skill, and 10
games a week you can pull at least 400+ points - this is assuming for one
reason or another you break even, and sit around the 1500-1600 ratings. If
you're on good teams (1800, 1900+) you can turn that into 800+ points a week.
For this reason it's important to start arenas as soon as you can, to get a
head-start on gearing up. Even if when you first ding 70 you have to play on
crap teams, do it! Everyone who posts on the forum that they're 'waiting to
gear up to start arenas' is silly - there's just no benefit when you can
start right now.
7. Which enchants should I get?
Head: Glyph of Ferocity (34 AP, 14 hit, requires Cenarion Expedition revered)
Cloak: Either +12 agi (1x Greater Planar Essence, 4x Arcane Dust, 1x Primal
Air) or +12 dodge (3x Nexus Crystal, 8x Large Brilliant Shards, 8x
Guardian Stone)
Chest: Either +150 HP (8x Arcane Dust, 4x Major Healing Potion, 2x Large
Brilliant Shard) or +6 stats (4x Large Prismatic Shard, 4x Arcane
Dust, 4x Greater Planar Essence)
Wrist: +12 str (6x Arcane Dust)
Gloves: +15 str (12x Arcane Dust, 1x Greater Planar Essence)
Legs: Both the Clefthide Armor Kit (+30 stam, +10 agi) and the Cobrascale
Armor Kit (+40 AP, +10 crit) are great choices. Once you break 10k HP
I'd go with the Cobrascale, however Cobrascale is much more expensive
if money is an issue (save it for something good).
Boots: Surefooted (2x Void Crystal, 4x Large Prismatic Shard, 1x Primal
Nether the enchanter must have) is easily the way to go. It's 5%
snare and root resist and 10 hit rating - if you take it make sure you
grab the minor speed meta gem, as minor speed is very important.
8. Which meta gem is the best?
I'd say minor speed is so important that your choice of meta gem should come
down to whether or not you have it on your boots. Minor speed itself is like
a 7% increase to your run speed. It seems minor - however, that 7% is
massive if someone kiting you has it and you don't. Assuming he's smart, and
moves away from you in straight lines, you're never going to catch him.
There's five ways of getting it - three boot enchants have it, and two meta
gems. There's only two appropriate choices for you, Boar's Speed and the
Swift Skyfire Diamond meta gem.
A large majority of meta gems are also trash. Many see the Brutal Earthstorm
Diamond (+3 Melee Damage & Chance to Stun Target) and think it's good,
however +3 melee damage on a 3.6+ speed weapon is almost nothing, and the
stun has been parsed out to have a proc rate of around 1%. The stun lasts
for 1 second - rather short, though good for interrupting casts. Due to the
low proc rate however you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere.
Two of the better ones are the Swift Skyfire Diamond (24 AP and minor speed)
and the Enigmatic Skyfire Diamond (12 crit and 5% snare and root resist). If
you have Surefooted on your boots, grab the Swift Skyfire - if you can't
afford Surefooted and have Boar's Speed, grab the Enigmatic Skyfire.
Boar's Speed and Enigmatic Skyfire Diamond = minor speed, 9 stam, 12 crit, 5%
snare and root resist.
Surefooted and Swift Skyfire Diamond = minor speed, 10 hit, 24 AP, 5% snare
and root resist.
If you're below 80 hit rating, Surefooted is easily the best combo - at
higher levels of resilience AP also scales more than crit, however if you're
already at 80 hit rating it's really up to you. With any other meta-gem take
Boar's Speed on your boots.
9. Mongoose or Savagery?
If you're unsure, go with Savagery.
When I first made Thunder, I went with Mongoose due to the fact I was in
crappy gear and I really desperately wanted that 3.63% crit. However, there
are some things that must be considered about Mongoose. The first is that
it's a 1ppm (proc-per-minute) - this is boosted by instants however. The
second is that unlike rogues we get no AP from agility - so when Mongoose
procs all it boosts is our crit. The third is that Mongoose is really a proc
for a proc - when it procs, our CHANCE to crit goes higher. Do you
understand what I'm getting at here? I'm not the best at explaining gameplay
mathetmatics.
Mongoose needs 2 'procs' to be effective, first itself, and then any crits
that you make in the time frame that it's up. It can proc, and you'll end up
out of melee range for its duration. However, it can also proc, and then you
do no crits at all for its duration.
Savagery on the other hand is a static enchant, and that 70 AP is going to be
up on every single swing you do.
10. What spec do I use? I can't decide between TM and Flurry!
Flurry excels against opponents with lower resilience. People with low
resilience are often found in the lower brackets. What brackets are you
playing at? Once you start seeing people running around with a lot of
Gladiator, the effectiveness of Flurry is going to start diminishing, and the
value of TM is going to start going up. Spend the 100g, and try both specs
out. You'll soon see which suits your playstyle and ratings more.
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8. Useful Mods & Links
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ArenaMaster
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/6948/
ArenaMaster adds a small, moveable and resizable window to your screen
whenever you enter an arena. By moving your mouse over enemy players in the
arena, their names, class and health percentage are added into this window,
allowing you to quickly scan and see what you're up against. It also gives
you an easy way to target, as clicking on the name of a player in the window
brings them up. This mod is amazing - make sure everyone on your side has
it.
TrinketMenu
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/675/
TrinketMenu is a small mod that makes trinkets use a lot more managable. It
brings up a small window in your UI that shows the two trinkets you currently
have equipped, allowing you to change them via this window, along with
dynamically binding the two choices to key bindings (instead of having to
bind every trinket seperately).
Its best feature is that it can 'queue' trinkets up for you - when you use
one and it goes on cooldown, once you drop combat the next trinket in the
'queue' will get lined up and equipped instantly. Trinkets with strong 'on-
use' abilities can be instantly changed out for trinkets with strong passive
stats. Queues can be setup for both trinket slots.
ItemRack
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/1482/
ItemRack allows you to create sets of gear via its UI, selecting choices
based on what gear you currently have in your inventory, and then saving
those choices under a name and icon - this becomes an equipment set. Sets
can be changed with a click on a button, foregoing the painful process of
equipping items back and forth, one-by-one. Sets can be binded to keys for
even faster changes.
RatingBuster
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info5819-Rating_Buster.html
RatingBuster adds little extra tooltips to the stats of items, converting
things like crit and hit rating into percentages, along with Agility into
crit/dodge percentages. The Agility conversion is probably the best thing
about this mod, though it does also offer a small breakdown on the stat
summary of any piece of equipment.
Scrolling Combat Text
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/111/
Even though WoW now has its own version of SCT, the original is still the
best. This mod provides a scrolling combat text (hence the name) of many
actions/skills that happen in combat - HP loss, buffs you gain, debuffs you
gain, when Execute lights up, etc etc. It can all be customised fairly
easily, allowing you to turn off anything you don't want to see displayed.
Cooldown Timer Bars
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/2036/
CDT Bars gives you several different bar lists that start ticking once an
ability or item goes on cooldown. This ability/item and the remaining
cooldown appears on screen under its respective bar, giving you an easy
glance to tell how long exactly, say, Intercept has before lighting up.
Thottbot
http://www.thottbot.com
Thottbot is a massive online database of everything in WoW, coupled with a
strong userbase that can post further help and information through a
messageboard feature on every page. Everything is listed here; equipment,
items, and probably most importantly quest chains. If you need any help with
quests or loot, go here.
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9. Credits
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blizzard, for making the game. Everything in World of Warcraft is (C)
Copyright them.
Thottbot (http://www.thottbot.com), for being an amazing resource and
reference checker.
Wowhead (http://www.wowhead.com), for being the best place to go plan talent
trees.
Curse Gaming (http://wow.curse.com), for being a great mod resource, and
hosting those linked to in this guide.
WoW Interface (http://www.wowinterface.com), for being the go-to place for UI
mods, and having some things Curse doesn't (namely RatingBuster).
Silvia, for being a great companion.
Predators, my homeboy.
The Warrior Forums
(http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=10022), for helping me
out with various questions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. End
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's the end of this guide. Thank you for reading and coming this far.
I'm of the opinion that getting good at 'pvp' is just about playing a lot,
learning from your mistakes, and having the mindset of wanting to get better.
I do however hope this guide helped you learn all of the basics, and
everything that such a guide could hope to teach.
Jai/Haste
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