Hi guys, I thought it would be interesting to change it up a bit since this site does not have much on PVP in general... to begin with, this is a guide on how to ENTER arena and what to do to get started, and in general talks more about 3v3 because, well, 2v2 is imbalanced and dead. if you want more in-depth stuff, I have links here, but that is research and practice that is hard to include in a guide like this.
HUGE WALL OF TEXT INC
General terms:
CC - crowd control, a term describing abilities that make others lose control of their characters. Can go from fear to polymorph to blind.
DR - diminishing returns, which is when a certain crowd-control reaches it's limits on someone. For example, first polymorph will last 10 seconds, then 5, then 2.5 seconds.
Tunnel vision - to singlemindedly pursuit one task, most of the time being trying to kill one target only, but can apply to being too focused on dispelling or healing
Globaled - to be killed from full within a global cooldown, IE in 1.5-2 seconds.
Preparing:
1. Class, spec, talents
2. Getting gear
3. Choosing arena partners
4. Knowing yo shiz
5. Mods
6. Macros
Strategy basics:
1. Communication
2. Switches
3. Crowd-control
4. Positioning
Part 1
[Classes, spec]
To begin in arena, you first need to think about what spec you'll be playing, and that in regards to yourself in strengths and weaknesses. For example, (and this is a generalization), FPS players may prefer rogues ,f .ex Neilyo, Reckful, Shindo all come from highly competitive FPS gaming backgrounds; this also shows in stunts such as vanishing blinds or hammers, or just reacting to things before others do. On the other hand, RTS players may find more success in playing a warlock or a mage; these classes have strong control, ability to initiate team actions, and stronger field vision, and are often the leaders of the comps they play.
Specing and glyphing correctly is important; most players do this by copying the top players of their class in arena (Hydra for disc priests, or Pookz for frost mages). This is fine in most cases and as you're progressing through lower ratings, and certain classes have cookie-cutter specs. However, you should be aware enough of your classes'- and your teams, as well as your own strengths and weaknesses; certain classes thus are able to make choices based on that. A good place to start looking up specs would be to simply glance at the SK-100 (World of Warcraft Arena Ranking | SK Gaming), which indexes all the top players in certain categories.
[Getting gear]
A lot of players make the generalization that resilience is the pinnacle of arena gear; that is not necessarily true, rather than it's just the starting point for arena because without resilience people would get globaled. Start by doing WG and BGs for gear; two piece furious set gear for the resilience bonus (set consists of chest/helm/shoulders/gloves/legs), 164 resilience trinket or wintergrasp trinket (though I recommend the 164 one because it's just so well itemized), and wintergrasp shoulders should be enough for you to begin with.
Gear is not the determining factor in arena once you reach a certain gear point (5300 gearscore+ is plenty to hit 1800+) unless you run sub 600-700 resilience, and it is also dependent on class; some are better with more resilience, some choose to go with less resilience. Regardless, gear is an advantage to have, and you should definitely aim for having more gear, but don't use it as a excuse for not researching or for your defeats, because most of the time there is SOMETHING you could have done better. Going back to the idea of armorying top players to copy their gear and choices, although they may choose to do things a certain way, you must keep in mind that games in 2500+ ratings are way faster than games below their rating; they execute moves with pin point precision, thus their gear choices reflect their own situation.
[Choosing arena partners]
It is crucial that you choose partners that are around the same level as you; for the purposes of this guide, let's assume that you don't know anything about arena. If so, you should find a partner that's around the same level as you; people with more credentials probably won't want to arena with you, and if they do you're just being carried, which is detrimental to learning. Some classes are able to be carried, while others are much harder to do. If you start doing arena with someone the same level as you, I am sure that you will have more fun than if you're getting yelled at by someone who's far better than you (and rightfully so, what are you doing in the 1800 bracket as a sub1500 player?)
On the note of getting yelled at, your partner should be someone you can get along with well. Yes, it's true that there are some players who are unbearable to play with and yet achieved high ratings (cough Serennia) but those are the exception; to excel in arena, you really need to be on top of the game, and being angry at your partner won't help with that. You need to be able to communicate all the time with your partner, and visa versa. Essentially, you're trying to achieve synergy with your partners, so again, pick well. Though, when you begin with, it may be useful to experiment with playing with lots of different players.
[Knowing your stuff]
Arena is difficult because, unlike PVE, it basically expects you to understand all the mechanics about other classes; not just their abilities, but how the other player will use his abilities, and how the other player will use his abilities to counter your abilities. Then similarly, you must learn how to counter their counters, and how to react to their actions, and how to force a reaction out of them. A good player can act on what someone else does; a better one can react before they do it.
To do this, again, you just need to understand other classes extremely well. Learn all their important abilities, learn how they'll use them. Playing on the test server or the tournament realm and trying other classes is probably one of the most valuable things to do; not only do you learn to multi-class, but you learn more about the others. Similarly, you'll also be able to identify and differentiate excellent play from average play, and learn to develop strategy against that.
[Mods]
Most high level players nowadays frown on using mods, but it's mostly because in tournaments mods are not allowed. I'd say limit the number of mods you use, but use them anyways; as long as you have no tournament aspirations, then you should be fine, I believe that mods should be used to help you see things that are too trivial to count (such as another's trinket cooldown). On the other hand, using too many mods will hamper your ability as a player; not playing with mods essentially makes you far more aware of things happening.
1. Gladius - Addons - Curse
Back in BC most people used Proximo, but Gladius is basically an extension of the current arena frames, with more customization options, and also shows more things. For example, you can set Gladius so that their trinket is shown as a huge icon (as well as the CD), and it will also show important things such as duration on crowd-control or important cooldowns like bubble or innervate. Gladius also has a click-options function, meaning you can set it so that when you left/right click a frame, it will do a certain action. For example, for me, right clicking a target in Gladius will make them my focus, and shift right clicking blinds them (I only use this for 5v5, since alt/ctrl/shift is enough modifiers for 3s and 2s).
2. OmniCC - Addons - Curse
Most players should have this already, but basically it is a tool that turns your own cooldown clocks (the shading clock thingy) into numbers; makes it far easier to visually see when you have something on cooldown, instead of mashing something mindlessly.
3. InterruptBar - Addons - Curse
An simple mod which tracks the cooldowns left on your enemy's INTERRUPTS (not silence, I think). Helpful for casters and healers to fakecast and know when they're able to cast freely without being locked out.
4. SnowfallKeyPress : WoWInterface Downloads : Action Bar Mods
A mod which basically makes your reactions slightly faster. Basically, what it does is that it modifies your WoW so that when you press a key, the spell goes off, rather than when you let go of the key.
Part 2
[Communication]
Communication is paramount in arena; WoW is a complex game, and there are many things going on. Even then, you need to learn to filter out the important things from the less important things, and then learn to communicate that. For example, if a druid pops innervate, you should call it out, even if the dispeller knows it already. Or, if you're about to go defensive, call for it so that your team can position themselves properly and not risk getting globaled when the team switches off you to your teammate.
Communication is also part of developing synergy- you need to be able to react uniformly to certain situations, and your team needs to have the same reaction to every thing that happens; if a paladin pops bubble, it's not just your priest's job to mass dispel; your mage may want to frost nova his partners in place to stop them from peeling your priest off the paladin.
[Switches/swapping]
Branching off from communication, a target switch is probably the most basic team executed move in arena; a switch basically means you hop from target A to target B. Switching should be done under these circumstances:
1. Your current target will not die.
2. Your other target is too powerful to be left alone (and all crowd-control is on diminishing returns, meaning he can't be crowd controlled for a while)
3. Your other target is vulnerable and may die if you switch to him. At the very least, it may cause the healer to panic and burn more mana, putting him in a bad position.
A switch is a calculated target swap to another target; it is not a clumsy move where you split dps (meaning your damage dealers are attacking different targets) and then 5 seconds later move to another target. A switch should be called out before hand over VOIP and done fast; that is a proper switch.
[Crowd-control]
Once hailed as the determining factor of a classes' success in arena in BC, CC is no longer the ultimate factor in arena, but still plays a large factor in success in arena. CC is not something you dish out randomly (most of the time), rather, it should be a calculated move to prevent a player from doing anything. CC can be used in many ways, for example
1. To prevent a healer from healing.
2. To stop someone from damaging you.
3. To make someone blow their trinket, so that they are vulnerable to a switch.
4. To force someone to blow a cooldown (for example, your current target may be forced to blow bubble/vanish/shield wall if his healer is CC'ed)
As with switches, CC should be called out over VOIP; this can stop your teammates from unfortunately breaking CC on a target, but has other uses, such as letting them coordinate a CC chain (putting CC on a target right after something else ends) or letting them know that they're safe to tunnel vision a target for a little while.
[Positioning]
Positioning is basically where you are on the map in relation to other players; it is the most important thing for beginner healers (arguably) to learn so that they can avoid CC while healing, though it can be equally important for casters such as warlocks and mages. Positioning is more of an individual skill rather than a team skill, though it can be determined by your communication with your team; for example, you may choose to sit in the middle of the tomb on Ruins of Lordaeron so that you can easily line of sight any incoming spells. Positioning basically determines these things:
1. Your ability to hit a target
2. Your ability to heal/dispel (defensive spells) your teammates.
3. Your ability to avoid a target's abilities (line of sighting or ranging)
4. Your ability to not be a swap target (as in, hard for them to switch off to you).
[Conclusion]
It's getting late, and those who are veteran arena players may recognize that there is much missing from my guide. But I think that I've gone indepth enough for one to get a feel for what arena should be like; I think that, to get better at arena, you need to practice, but you also need to make efficient use of your time so that you're not just practicing being bad. So, researching strategies or class specific things, or keeping up to date with those is extremely useful. Dueling outside of durotar/ironforge is also pretty useful, as arena is essentially an extended duel; dueling skills may not necessarily help you in arena, but learning to learn how other classes work is essential.
That all being said, you have to accept that it is hard to get into arena and it is hard to get good at it; lots of arena players may say WoW is easy, but you can't get anywhere without putting some effort to it. And really, try to have fun with it; my mage tends to play like shit when he starts getting angry, but when we're in a good mood we tend to kick ass and climb up.
Some links below to help you get started (and which I drew from heavily) in arena:
WoW Riot | WotLK, Wrath of the Lich King, WoW, World of Warcraft, Arena Season 5 (blogs in wow in general, but has much content on the current pvp scene)
Arena Junkies - World of Warcraft PvP Strategy and Discussion (doesn't have as much stuff as it did back in BC, but still worth looking at)
http://www.hydramist.net (more blogs, focusing even more on the PVP scene in europe)
skill-capped.net (pay-for arena development site, has some great stuff for some classes in the form of videos, and some less great stuff.. still developing)