[Guide] Small Arena Guide

[Al4crity]

Al4crity's small guide to starters in arena

Everything is written by me, this is not just a copy, you are free to repost whatever you might find helpful, but please give credit to me and mmowned.com. Do not repost and claim it as your own work. This might not be that helpful to all, but I am sure starters might find useful things.

@The people who suspect copy/paste, use the search function on forums and on google.



I. Getting started

1. Gearing Up
2. Add Ons
3. Macros
4. Communication
5. Basics - Tho sill Important
6. Class Specifics
7. Diminishing Returns
8. Creating a Setup

1. Gearing Up

So, you've just dinged seventy and want to enter the arena. Entering the arena with greenies isn't such a great choice, even though you do get points. You should start your team at once you get 70, and get the points just for the sake of it. Even if you make a 2v2 and lose all 10 games you'll get about 200 arena points.

When you ding 70 you got several choices, although I will write down the ones who works the best for PvP.

- Buying rep items, grinding the others.

With 2.4 there was released a blue PvP set which is available at the different outlands factions at honored. These aren't good, but if you can't be arsed to grind full gladiator, they are your best choice atm.

You can view the sets here:
WoW Inn » New Rare PvP Sets in 2.4

This set is however only 5 parts, and you would probably like to grind yourself the rings, trinkets and belt, bracers and neck.

- Vindicator's ring - 15300 Honor and 10 AV marks
- Veteran's Ring - 11934 Honor and 10 AV marks
- Vindicator's Bracers - 11794 Honor and 20 WSG marks
- Vindicator's Waist - 17850 Honor and 40 AB marks
- Vindicator's Boots - 17850 Honor and 40 EotS marks
- Vindicator's Neck - 1530 Honor and 10 EotS marks
- Battlemaster's Trinket - 30000 Honor and 40 AV marks
- 20 Resilience Medallion of the Alliance/Horde - 16983 Honor
- Dependant on class, a weapon and possibly an off hand. Price depends on which you decide to go for.

You can grind the full gladiator set aswell, but I personally don't bother to get anything else than these, it takes long enough already.

If you are a lazy ass, and you don't mind taking a slight risk, I recomend checking out;

Flo's AV PvP Bot - http://www.mmowned.com/forums/bots-p...waypoints.html

Pirox anti AFK bot - http://www.mmowned.com/forums/bots-p...tiafk-bot.html

If you bother to get all of that you'll have a very nice set to start of with, the most important thing in arena is how you, and your team mates play in the arena. Working together is really important!

So you got your first arena points, now what?
You now got two choices, start right away gearing up, or saving for 5k for next season and then spending them on 3 pieces then.

If it's still early in the season, you probably want to spend them, and hopefully achieve a high rating towards the end and manage to have a nice number of points even with a few pieces of the current gear.

Personally when I started I spent my arena points, but I started earky in a new season. So this choice is all up to you!


- Your Interface!

When you are in the arena, a good overview is important, you want to know where everyone is and what they are doing. You can't slack, use keybindings! Every second you lose means a difference.

You can keybind manually by having your spells on action bars, and going to keybindings and bind them. I do however use;
BindPad
WoWInterface Downloads : Graphic UI Mods : BindPad - GUI to set keybindings for spell/item/macro

BindPad allows you to keybind macros and spells without having them on your action bars, which allows you to have less on your action bars, which makes it look cleaner, and provides you with a larger view on things.

Personally I really don't like to use to many fancy add ons, I feel the current UI is quite good, tho here is some of the AddOns I find useful:

Proximo
This is a must if you are going in the arena! It provides you with a small frame listing your opponents, it shows their health, their mana and you can target them, focus them with a right click, or bind clicking them to macros or spells.
WoWInterface Downloads : Ace: Combat : Proximo



ProxDim
This is an optional addition to Proximo, it provides you with CC timers, and shows ow long the target will be affected by Diminishing Returns.
WoWInterface Downloads : Combat Mods : ProxDim Redux

ProximoCastBars
Another addition to proximo, it provdes cast bars to the proximo window. So you can see when an enemy is cating a spell, extremely useful for interrupting.
WoWInterface Downloads : Ace: Combat : Proximo Castbars

Afflicted
Afflicted provides you with visual icons which shows the cooldown on enemy imterrupt spells, I play healer classes in arena, and therefore it is extremeley useful to know when I can get interrupted and stunned.
WoWInterface Downloads : PvP/Arena/BattleGrounds : Afflicted

Natur Enemy Castbar
This is an AddOn which is used both in PvE and PvP. It shows timers for DoTs on your target, CC, cast bars, cooldowns. You can configure it however you want, and I mainly use it to track the length of my own and my team mates CC.
WoWInterface Downloads : Combat Mods : Natur EnemyCastBar

Spell Alerter
Obviously, this Add On alerts you for when a spell is cast, even tho proximo shows it, this one will provide a warning like the Scrolling Combat text. If you are getting mana burned, polymorphed or cycloned. Extremely useful.
WoWInterface Downloads : Combat Mods : SpellAlerter


That is basically all the AddOns I use for PvP. I don't use SCT nor Unitframes since I feel I get a better overview with the blizzard UI. And with the listed AddOns, there is no more info I would need.


- Macros

Macros! Don't you dare to enter the arena without macros! A macro is a beautiful thing it can CC enemies without changing targets, counterspell the enemy healer without changing from your nuke target, throw buffs like Power Infusion on team mates without changing targets. But how?

Of course I'm talking about the focus function! It's awesome!

You set your focus by writing /focus, this is however a slow way to do it. Go to proximo options (/proximo menu) and find Clicks. There you set right click to Set Focus. Whenever you right click an enemy in the Proximo frame now it will set that target as your focus.

Example focus macro;

#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus, exists] Counterspell; Counterspell

You may also want to use mouseover macros, when you click this macro while holding your mouse over an enemy it will cast the spell on that player instead of your target or focus.

Example mouseover macro;

#showtooltip Counterspell
/stopcasting
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,nohelp] Counterspell; Counterspell

If you want a deeper article about macros I suggest you visit:
Macro HowTo - Making a macro - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft


- Communication

In arenas, communication is really important! You can do arena without voice communication, but if you are going to do it serious, get ventrilo or TS. If you don't dare to speak, maybe you don't speak perfect english. Just do it! You're gonna get used to it after a few times, people on WoW generally doesn't speak perfect english, no one will care.

Communication is very important mostly for one reason; Crowd Control. So you are an RMP in the 3's facing Shaman, Paladin and Warrior. You don't want to waste all CC at once. Mage sheeps, then counterspells, then the priest fears, then the rogue blinds, and the mage sheeps, and then you'll have counterspell again. If the shaman isn't dead by now, then you suck at DPS

Tho the paladin will trinket and bubble(Priest will have mass dispell), this is just an example to show how important good communication is. If you get a sheep, fear and a blind on a target at the same time you basically wasted 30 seconds of CC on 8 seconds.

You also want to communicate so you can tell them when to do stuff, like a warrior charge just when his druid goes Travel form and gets away.

Communication is important!


- Basics - Tho still Important


Keep mobile!
Keep moving slacker! No further explanation required.

Keep an overview -
Always know where your opponents are, and what they are doing. You want to prevent them from drinking, restealthing, CCing freely and all other stuff which you have to do in addition to your main job. If you are dps try to look at your healer, if your healer is casting a 2,5 sec heal, don't swisch around the corner and go out of line of sight, rather wait those 2,5 seconds and then go back in.

Still! All things are situational, you might want to follow and dps if your target is on a few % and you can get him down. You got to use your brain, and use it fast! You can't alt+tab to bosskillers.com and read up on what to do while in an arena battle

Line of sight -
LoS is your friend! Especially if you are a healer, swisch around the corner to prevent a polymorph, CC, or just to prevent damage.

Line of sight should be (ab)used at every single opportunity!

If you can do something, do it!
Once again, do many things at once! Keep an overview, if you are a rogue, and dpsing someone and a healer standing just besides you healing, switch targets and to a fast kick or gouge and continue dpsing, that might make the differense in winning or losing. Even if it just helps you for a few seconds, every little bit helps!

Small margins count in the arena, even if you win with 4% HP, you still win. So do every little thing you can do to contribute. Don't be a lazy ass!



- Class Specifics

So, we'll be doing some class specific stuff towards the end. I can't cover all speccs, combos and what to do, but I'll cover some basic things you might want to think about.

- Druid
Don't stand still! You are a druid, hot em up and run around, drink whenever you can.

Use CC! Cyclone, roots and Feral Charge + Bash are powerful! Cyclone can be used to prevent incoming heals, if you got a rogue on 10% and his priest is loading a greater heal which you can't interrupt, cyclone the rogue and the priest will get "Immune" on the heal.

- Hunter
Traps, viper sting and wing clip are your friend! Viper sting drains the mana, and get a scorpid pet which does poison so it's harder to dispell, watch that you don't poison the target you are CCing tho! Frost trap is awesome with entrapment, you can kite like a God!

- Mage
Do many things at once! ;D Mages are hard to play good, which however can be said about all classes, I have only played with one really good mage so far.

You need to CC one target, sheep that rogue of your healer, freeze the melee nuking your healer with a pet ranged nova.

You are CC! Don't just think DPS using pet CC to keep your healer alive is a much better choice than having 2k extra damage on your target most often.

- Shaman
Use shocks wisely! Don't shock as if you have no CD, interrupting heals and CC should be priority, and versus a druid save frost shock until after a shapeshift.

Also, use totems and heroism/bloodlust wisely. Try not to place em where people can see em to easy, Windfury + a warrior is a pain, but windfury totems in the open are to easily killed. If you place them for example in blades edge under the bridge they have enough range to buff people on the bridge.

- Warlock
Warlocks don't need advice.

Use devour magic on your team mates and yourself, far to many warlocks just let their pet auto devour everything. You can devour polymorphs, dots and whatever magic effect you might like.

Spell lock is useable on other targets than your nuke target / the one your pet is on. You can make macros to cast spell lock with your pet on for example your mouseover or focus target. Check macro section if interested in that

- Warrior
Defensive abilities is your friend! Spell Reflect macros are awesome, intervene is awesome aswell! You can even intervene polymorphs

Don't be afraid to intervene to your healer and get healed if you get low on health, this is something many warriors perform badly. You aren't the ultimate killing machine when you are dead stay alive is more imporant than DPS.

- Paladin
Where is that Blessing of Sacrefice guys? Blessing of sacrefice is awesome, when you get polymorphed and you got BOSac on your team mate you will be taken out of polymorph. Also, use your stun wisely, don't waste it And LoS mana burns!

- Priest

You are an offensive healer, use offensive dispells, mana burn alot, and spend fear in a CC combo with others (Communication!).

Shadow Word Death can be used to prevent sheeps and other CC's. When you see a mage casting polymorph, cast SW just before it is done casting, and then the returning damage will hit you and break the polymporph.


- Rogue

Many rogues needs to learn the same lesson as the warrior, don't be afraid to go into "defensive stance". If you play rogue + priest, and your healer gets CC'd for a while, don't be afraid to CloS sprint away or vanish.

The best rogues are the ones who do more than one thing at a time, there are few rogues who manage tho. You are nuking someone, running past another enemy, swiftly change target and gouge. It requires some training tho, but eventually you'll get the hang of it.

Blind + Sap works together! When you blind an opponent it lasts long enough for him to get out of combat, you can then vanish and sap, and you'll have another 9 seconds of CC.

Diminishing Returns

Diminishing returns is a part of the game mechanics, this is a term I've used a few times through the guids, so a quick explanation.

When you cast a crowd control, for instance polymorph, or cheap shot for that sake. The next time you do a CC which shares DR with that spell/ability it will last less than last time.

When a spell with diminishing returns is used against a target in PvP, the first effect has full duration. On the second use of the same category of spell, that spell's duration is reduced by 50%. On the third use, the duration is reduced by 75%. On the fourth attempt, the target becomes immune to the spell.

You can read more about Diminishing Returns, and which spells share the same DR at Diminishing returns - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft


Creating a Setup

A setup is another word for what class combo you play in your team(s). Some setups works better than others, due to class dynamics such as interrupts, CC, and of course also damage and healing. I will write a bit about working setups in the different brackets, although I won't do strategies for individual setups, just explain some stuff about each bracket.

- Playing 2v2
Playing in two versus two can be very frustrating, in this bracket there are less viable teams, and win/loss depends largely on what team you meet. In this bracket, you can however play with only one friend, and do decent with bad combos if you are skilled. In 2v2 there are not really any magic formula combo to win, people play damage+healing and double damage. The only thing which probably wouldn't work is a double healer combo.

At the moment Druid+Warrior seems to be the FotM (Flavour of the month), and these combos can win many of the combos which used to be popular before. If you want to go high you want to play a counter combo to the current FotM, and thus winning matches against the team you most often meet. Sometimes, since this combo has been good for so long, you will only find them at high ratings, so playing other setups up there might be hard. But playing a counter FotM combo is a very good starter.

2v2 might be the worst bracket, due to the dependancy on meeting a good combo in order to win. I personally prefer 3v3 and 5v5, and I would wish that Blizz would remove 2v2 and rather make a 4v4.

- Playing 3v3
In 3v3 there are alot more possibilities, of course, since you get to include three characters. In this bracket you can play 3dps, 2healer+1dps, and one healer + 2 dps.
In the three versus three bracket the RMP (Rogue, mage and priest) combo has been very popular, you can look closer on this combo and see that it has every aspect you need. The rogue has wounding poison (-50% healing reduce), the rogue also has CC in his stuns, blind and sap. Aswell as the mage has sheep, slows, roots, and of course damage. The priest can mana burn, dispell offensively and defansively and heal very good. The priest als has PI to supply extra damage by putting it on the mage, or putting it on himselves to get extra healing.

In 3v3 you can play almost any combo and get quite high if you are good, double melee, double caster, double healer, you can see almost any combination in higher ratings. It's mostly about the players and their cooperation. Communication is important!

- Playing 5v5

Playing 5v5 is more challenging than the other brackets, in 5v5 you got to keep track of your team, aswell as 5 players at the other team. You also need to cooperate with all of them in terms of CC, heals and such. There are many combos, some might be harder, and some might be easier. Personally I find tri-healer comps very effective to play.

The combo I played was a paladin, priest(me), druid, warrior and warlock. We basically outlasted the other team, while the warrior did most of the dps, while me and the warlock mana burned + drained.

You can however also play almost every setup in this bracket, but CC is important. You can't enter 5v5 and do it significantly good without having decent CC.

Setups are important, but most of all, how you and your team mates play together!

Thanks for reading, I hope it was somehow useful.
If you see any mistakes, spelling or just general things you believe is wrong, please post them. I am not flawless at arena

And if the whole guide was just stupid, atleast I tried

- Al4crity

[Gulcasa]

if thats not repost/copy paste from other site then you deserve 10000+Rep

[Kronokel]

Wow... You really deserve a lot of rep if you didn't repost that one. Amassing reading though

[Discto]

i really hope this isnt a copy/past work,
anyway, i'll give you +2rep cause its a good guide if you're new to the arena system gratz on no longer beeing a leecher

[Al4crity]

Thanks for the positive feedback, it really isn't copy/paste work.
Feel free to try the search function, forums and google and see for yourself

- Al4crity

[Igzz]

Nice guide, you forgot about Rogues in class specifics .

[kims]

I like it+Rep

[Voltagex]

Well typed up, good job.

[Al4crity]

Nice guide, you forgot about Rogues in class specifics .

Thanks, added rogues now

[Zaxic]

repost copy from wow-eu!!!

[Al4crity]

Please post me a link, I know it's not true, because I wrote this by myself. Don't claim repost when it isn't.

I just searched the wow-eu forums and site to look for it, and I failed to find it.

*Waiting for answer*

[Phobie]

Nice

1+ rep

[Pression]

Thank you, I'll be sure to try this out! Nicely written.

[Unholyshaman]

repost copy from wow-eu!!!

GTFO leecher, he is trying to contribute, you don't just jump into a thread and yell repost, to me its considered SPAM, its useless and not needed. If you think its a repost, provide the link to the origional. I personally think its a very good guide and glad to have a new guide writter on the block who actualy takes tiem in writting his guide, not just throws together a few lines.

Prove it or GTFO
+2rep btw, gj man.

[Chenquie]

This guide is very nice. Good written and understandable.

Rep x2 for ya!