-Updates-
07/07/10 - added my saved variables so my UI works better
07/02/10 - uploaded my UI
06/26/10 - added video section
06/24/10 - answered questions, fixed some mistakes
06/21/10 - even more tips!
06/20/10 - added some macros in the UI & Keybinds section
06/20/10 - added alternative gear choices
06/20/10 - added some tips&tricks
06/20/10 - fixed some minor mistakes in the text
Introduction
You probably ask yourself who I am. I'm a druid player who achieved Gladiator in 4 seasons on different realmpools, with different comps, different partners and different druids. Regardless of the combination I played with, we were always rank 1 worldwide (among our comp) from season 3 till today. My highest rating in TBC was 2378 with 91% winratio with Druid Priest Rogue and my highest rating in WotLK was 2854 with 82% winratio with DK Druid Mage (this comp was only 3 times above 2.2k worldwide, pretty exotic comp but STILL viable but this is a point I'll get later on).
Before we get started please don't expect that this is a bulletproof way to gladiator. This is just me trying to help you to improve your gameplay, your overview and your situational awareness. I'm probably giving you some tips you didn't know about, too.
What you should know
You've probably made some arena games before and came to a point where you are stuck. It can be the gear but in most cases it's not, the gear will get important if you play at your limit. At first you should realize that you can ALWAYS improve yourself, even at the top end.
If you still think it's the gear, ask yourself why other people with much better gear than you are stuck on the same rating as you are. Why don't they play higher?
If you accept this "rule" and if you're willing to improve yourself, then you're ready to enter the arena
Partners and possible Comps
As a resto druid you can play so many different comps that are viable but there are some differences between them. You shouldn't try to find partners for comp X or comp Z. You should find partners or know good pvpers and THEN ask yourself: Which can I play with them?. Bring the player not the class even counts for arenas .
The comp is important, but you probably won't get far if you focus on your comp only. A bad player will be a bad player in every comp. Some comps will carry him to higher ratings but that won't help you.
There could be also some comps that doesn't fit to your playstyle. I know a priest who achieved rank 1 with resto shaman, disc priest and mage but he couldn't play the well known rmp-comp. You will see what you can play and what not but I can't tell you this, you need to experience it for yourself.
To give you some ideas on what you can play as resto druid, here is a list of viable comps. I will order them from strong to weak, but this is only my personal opinion.
[spoiler]#1 LSD (Destro / Affliction Lock, Elemental Shaman, Resto Druid) - the top tier 'wizzardcleave' and one of the strongest combos if not the strongest.
#2 WLD (Warrior, Affliction Lock, Resto Druid) - this is a very balanced combo, it's strong and was very popular in TBC. Now it's even stronger, I guess
#3 MLD (Icemage, Affliction Lock, Resto Druid) - this is a 'wizzardcleave'-comb, too. You will win your games with coordinated cc's and some burst. strong and fun comp!
#4 Shadowcleave (Affliction Lock, Deathknight, Resto Druid) - this is the comp I'm currently playing and it's a balanced comp like WLD. You've got a lot of defensive cooldowns, you can control the game and can even burst targets. fun comp nonetheless
#5 RLD, RSD and 'Frostcleave' (Shadowdance Rogue, Affliction Lock, Druid / Rogue, Melee Shaman, Resto Druid and Deathknight, Icemage, Druid) - played RLD and 'Frostcleave' this season and I think that these comps (RSD too) are one of the weakest. They're still all viable and very strong but you probably need some time to get it working.[/spoiler]
remember: bring the player, not the class
Gear and Itemization
Stats & Gear
[spoiler] I suggest you to aim for atleast 120hit, 75 spell penetration and around 1.1k resilience while maintaining 3200+ spellpower, 27k HP and 21k Mana. This gear-setup is nearly perfect and should be your 'target' but it will be probably a long, strange trip.
At first you should get the full arena set and the pvp offset pieces, after that you can complete your gear. When you've got that, this is what you're going to do next.
Find a group for cc25 and loot the 'Solace of the Fallen' from Lord Jarraxus. (solace of the fallen - Wowhead Search) OR go to ICC25 and get the 'Bauble of True Blood' (bauble of true blood - Wowhead Search)
If you can't obtain these trinkets, get Purified Lunar Dust (Purified Lunar Dust - Item - World of Warcraft) for 60 frost emblems.
These trinkets are gamebreaking
While you're in ICC25, don't forget the 'Professor's Bloodied Smock (professor's bloodied - Wowhead Search) or, if you aren't lucky, get 'Circle of Ossus' for 80 frost emblems (Circle of Ossus - Item - World of Warcraft) and 'Marrowgar's Frigid Eye' (marrowgar's frigid eye - Wowhead Search)
Now you should craft the 'Blessed Cenarion Boots' (Blessed Cenarion Boots - Item - World of Warcraft) and farm your way to Ashen Verdict exalted
The weapon you need is the arena-haste-dagger (1800 version and 2200 version later) and the arena-haste-offhand.
Tip: [spoiler] get the arena-spellpen-offhand, too. You will need it against mage-teams [/spoiler]
The idol you're going to wear is the 'Idol of the Black Willow' Idol of the Black Willow - Item - World of Warcraft for 30 frost emblems.
When you've got everything from this list, your gear is perfect.[/spoiler]
Gems
[spoiler]
Meta: Insightful Earthsiege Diamond - Item - World of Warcraft
If you're JC, socket 43 spell penetration and enchant +35 spell pen to cloak.
Red/Blue: Runed Cardinal Ruby - Item - World of Warcraft
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft, if you lack hit Veiled Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft or if you lack resilience Durable Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft
If you're engineer, socket 3x +25 spell penetration in blue, enchant +27 spell power on cloak and pyro-rocket to hands. Use the blue socket in the hands for +23 spell power.
Red: Runed Cardinal Ruby - Item - World of Warcraft
Yellow: Reckless Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft, if you lack hit Veiled Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft or if you lack resilience Durable Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft
For every other profession I suggest you to base your gemming around the suggested stats as a rule, if it's possible,...
Red gems ALWAYS: Runed Cardinal Ruby - Item - World of Warcraft
Yellow gems ALWAYS: Reckless Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft, if you lack hit Veiled Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft or if you lack resilience Durable Ametrine - Item - World of Warcraft[/spoiler]
Enchants
[spoiler]
Head: Arcanum of Dominance - Item - World of Warcraft
Shoulders: Inscription of Dominance - Item - World of Warcraft
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Spell Piercing - Spell - World of Warcraft , if you're engineer -> spellpower
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats - Spell - World of Warcraft / Enchant Chest - Exceptional Resilience - Spell - World of Warcraft
Bracers: Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower - Spell - World of Warcraft , if you're leatherworker -> spellpower
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower - Spell - World of Warcraft , if you're engineer -> pyro-rocket
Legs: Sapphire Spellthread - Item - World of Warcraft
Boots: Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality - Spell - World of Warcraft
Rings: if you're enchanter -> spellpower.
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower - Spell - World of Warcraft[/spoiler]
Talents & Glyphs
Talents
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
This is my current spec. You can swap some points around and spec into "Living Seed" instead of "Living Spirit".
Glyphs
Major Glyphs:
- Glyph of Swiftmend
- Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation
- Glyph of Barskin
Minor Glyphs:
- Glyph of Dash
- Glyph of the Wild
- Glyph of Thorns
This is my current glyph-setup. You can swap some glyphs around (Glyph of Nourish/Innervate) but with my gear I don't need them. Decide it for yourself
UI and Keybinds
My UI
RapidShare: 1-CLICK Web hosting - Easy Filehosting
& Saved Variables
http://rapidshare.com/files/40552156...dVariables.rar
UI
Okay, let's talk about the user interface. The standard UI is okay, but I don't like the unit frames. They don't give enough information. I can't see all debuffs, I'm not aware of all buffs my teammates got so I'm using 'Shadowed Unit Frames'. Here's a screenshot of my UI (pally twink): [spoiler][/spoiler]
As you can see it's pretty 'clear'. You will need this, you just need the overview of the complete arena situation. My UI is just an example so that you get the idea
You will see it later in action and I will give you a downloadlink if you like it.
Keybinds
Before you start doing arenas, you should keybind every ability. And not only this. You're the healer and you need to target switch FAST. That's why you should keyind your partners, too. At the beginning it will be hard to switch from clicking to binds but you will get used to it and it will improve your gameplay A LOT. Also: download this addon, it will use the ability when you press the key. Normally it would cyclone your target when you release your key. This makes your actions faster
AddonLink -> SnowfallKeyPress : Action Bar Mods : WoWInterface Downloads
Here are my keybinds to give you an idea how much it is.. (German Keyboard Layout)
[spoiler][/spoiler]Code:1 Barskin 2 Roots 3 Healing Touch 4 Regrowth 5 Rejuvenation C Swiftmend V Lifebloom SQ Abolish < Remove Curse SE Moonfire SR Wild Growth ^ Tranquility B Nourish SideM8 Nature's Swiftness G Innervate SV Cure Poison S2 Wrath S3 Starfire R Cyclone SC Hurricane SF Hibernate 6 Drink ST Health-Stone T Insignia Z Bauble (if I had one) S5 Shadowmeld/Warstomp S^ Fearie Fire SW Nature's Grasp S1 Rezz A1 GotW F3 MotW F4 Thorns SG Innervate on Mate S6 Magefood SX Hand-Mounted-Pyro-Rocket . Flying Mount , Ground Mount Q Bear E Cat F Travel S4 Tree G15 Flying Form G14 Swim Form AQ set focus C2 focus Roots CF focus Hibernate CR focus Cyclone SideM1 target self SideM2 target Partner1 SideM3 target Partner2 SideM4 target pet (self) /there is no pet SideM5 target pet (Partner1) SideM6 target pet (Partner2)
Why focus? The answer is easy.
If you focus cyclone/root/whatever you don't need to change your current target. That makes cc'ing faster AND your opponents won't know WHO you gonna cc and won't LoS you (experienced players feel when they will get focus cc'ed and see that, too. But you will have a great advantage over 90% of your opponents with focus cyclones)
Tip:[spoiler]focus-hibernate other druids..~70% of them don't switch forms cause they don't realise it [/spoiler]
Addons
Unit frames: Shadowed Unit Frames
Combat-Text: Scrolling Combat Text
Bars: Bartender 4
Arena frames: Gladius+Gladminish
Cooldowncount: fortexorcist
Cast bar: Quartz
Macros
Self-Innervate
[spoiler][/spoiler]Code:/cast [@player] Innervate
set Focus
[spoiler][/spoiler]Code:/focus
Focus Cyclone
[spoiler][/spoiler]Code:/cast [@focus] Cyclone
Focus Roots
[spoiler][/spoiler]Code:/cast [@focus] Entangling Roots
Focus Hibernate
[spoiler][/spoiler]Code:/cast [@focus] Hibernate
All-In-One Faerie Fire
[spoiler][/spoiler]Code:#show Faerie Fire /cast [nostance] Faerie Fire /cast [stance:4] Faerie Fire /cast [stance:5] Faerie Fire; Faerie Fire (Feral)()
Spam-Dispell
[spoiler][/spoiler]Code:#showtooltip Abolish Poison /castsequence reset=3/target Abolish Poison, Cure poison, Cure poison, Cure poison, Cure poison
Step into Arena
Communication
Skype: Get Skype - Download for free
TS³: TeamSpeak - Downloads
Choose your destiny.
Communication with your teammates is probably the most important thing. You can't see EVERYTHING. They need to talk to you, they need to tell you what's their plan, they need to coordinate switches and they need to know if they should use defensive cooldowns, play defensive and so on. Talk with your team mates, all the time. Tell them every detail like "used insignia".."Instant heal".."Innervating, can you fear the shaman?".."going to drink now, stop them"
The same thing goes for the tactics..you probably have a tactic against lineup x but you will come to a point where your tactic doesn't work everytime at the first try. You're going to do a lot of switches, you maybe need to reset an arena fight and thats why you need to talk. Your partner's should say when it's the right time to switch. We, for example, play 'Shadowcleave' (Deathknight, Affliction Lock, Druid) and it goes like this. Lock: "okay, druid is fully dotted up, can you deathgrip -> strangulate him?" DK: "DEATHGRIP" Druid: "Going to bash him after strangulate! deathcoil when he trinkets!"
The same "rule" goes for defensive tactics..if you play against a wizzardcleave and you see that you fall behind on healing or get cc'ed announce that loud! "I'm feared" "Bloodlust, jump down, go behind this pillar" "outlast".
The worst thing that can happen is that you don't talk. Really.
Communication after the match
Whether you won the game or not. The first thing you think about should be what and how YOU and YOUR MATES can do better, it should be always your first thought. If you find something, tell them and talk about it.
If you lost a match, don't nerdrage. You will learn from it. You should make clear what went wrong and try to prevent these failures in the future. Tell your mates things like "You can't play SO offensive there while bloodlust is active, try to play more defensive and if we get Blade's Edge next time, lets jump down and reset there." "btw: we should switch more often to the locks pet, we can easily kill the lock afterwards. I guess that the lock is a way better target than the druid if we can't make a perfect switch."
Overview
You should always have the complete overview about the game. You need to see if your opponent is drinking, you need to see when your lock is feared, you need to know where your mates are. I suggest you to set raid target icons on your team mates. Using them will become very handy. Not only for you. Your mates can easily see you too through pillars and anything.
Also: FOCUS the other cc'er. Always set your focus to the target. Even if you don't kill this target. Example: Against an RMP (Rogue Mage Priest), focus the mage. You will see switches before the rogue gets away from his current target and you win time to re-position/prehot yourself or to HoT a mate.
Against LSD (Lock Ele Shaman Druid) ask yourself: What's more crucial? Where do you need to take care the most? Switches, fears on you? Cyclones on you? I would personally choose the warlock. He has longer CC than the druid and if you get caught by fear, you're going to be cycloned afterwards 95% of the games cause the other druid is free to do so.
Positioning
Positioning is, after communication, the most important thing for you. If you stand on open field like an idiot, you're probably gonna die in a split second against wizzardcleaves or you're going to eat the cc-chain-of-death and your mate dies. I will show you a clip of our team now and you've got the chance to see my UI in action and you can see that the opponent team hasn't got ANY chance to switch on me, except when I made a wrong decision and decided to run trough my mates (@1:16).
In this clip is also an example what COMMUNICATION is good for. @2:16 I got seduced by the lock's pet and my deathknight drops extremly low. BUT I don't trinket the seduce because the insignia is way more gamebreaking then my instant theal and my DK is safe because he has Anti-Magic-Zone, Ghoul Sacrifice and Insignia ready. You wouldn't know this if you don't talk and can easily lose a game this way. If you're playing arenas you need to make decisions. You won't choose the best decision all the time, but communication helps you to choose a better decision.
Clip: [spoiler] [/spoiler]
Healing
We are not in PvE, so I can't tell you something like "3x lifebloom + rejuvenation on offtank, 3x lifebloom +rejuvenation +regrowth on maintank. You will get CC'ed or your hots get purged and you often don't have the time cause it's not a static encounter. You need to play with LoS, you need to stop someone from drinking etc. What I can give you here are tips.
#1 Don't use your swiftmend on a target affected by "Wound Poison".Try to save it if you got the time, CC the Rogue and cleanse it or just try to cleanse it and use it in the split second where it isn't up. BUT don't let your team mate die and say "sorry, couldn't swiftmend you cause you had wound poison up." The same goes for warriors. If your teammate doesn't get raped by double melee or something, try to root/cyclone the warrior and save your swiftmend to CAP your mate when MS runs out and heal with nourish.
#2 Lifebloom > Rejuvenation! When you don't need to cap your mate with swiftmend, apply Lifebloom before Rejuvenation. Sometimes you will apply 2x Lifebloom before Rejuvenation. You will get the feeling for it
#3 Purge is our archenemy! Believe me. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing the other healer spampurging your teammate with heroism up and you can't do shit about it. You need to try to get rejuvenation on your target and swiftmend it before he purges rejuvenation. This won't work unless you're really lucky because he's ~0.5s faster with heroism. Apply lifeblooms in between the rejuvenations. If he purges lifeblooms, you will get small heals on your target and the chances of getting swiftmend up are doubled. If you can't handle it anymore use your instant heal or heal your target with Regrowth! Regrowth is a spell you're using rarely under normal circumstances BUT against a spampurger it's golden. If you cast regrowth, your target gets the heal, nonetheless the regrowth hot gets purged AND you don't have global cooldown after you've finished your cast because the GCD went off while casting and you can instantly swiftmend before the shaman/priest can purge your HoTs!
#4 Decide what's more important. Your instant heal or your insignia. Against some lineups you really need to make a decision. Against wizzardcleaves for example I would save my insignia.. If you get deathcoiled and afterwards silenced (Mage/Shadowpriest Silence) you're left to die without insignia..you can't use your barskin while deathcoiled/silenced and your instant heal is worthless, too. The insignia would probably save your life. You could trinket the deathcoil, barskin and run behind the next pillar healing you up with bandages if you want too. This is the same thing that goes for "HoT-Rotation" (#2) you will get the feeling
#5 prehot, prehot, prehot - prehotting is the most important thing while healing. You don't have oh-shit-buttons like a priest where you just shield and then have time to heal your target while it absorbs damage. You need to anticipiate switches and don't fall behind on time. You should keep yourself hotted all the time with at least rejuvenation and always be ready to react to switches on your mates. If you have 2x lifebloom&ejuvenation up on your mate before the melee gets to your mate, you've got a great advantage
#6 CC > Heal? Yes, sometimes when not most of the time it is. 6-9seconds cyclone on a hunter stops more damage than you could ever heal. Not only this. Your teammate can LoS the last second and get MS-Shot off. For RMP it's the same. If you don't focus the mage, cc the shit out of him. You should always cyclone/root the target you don't focus at the moment to stop damage and healers if you're going for a kill.
Fakecasting
outplay or be outplayed
In the times of WotLK you're probably gonna die everytime you eat a full counter. You just can't eat it. No!
In these 8 seconds every HoT on every mate is gone or, if they're on you, you can only watch yourself dying. To prevent this there's a "mechanic" called fake casting. You've probably heard from it. What you do is "fake" a cast and get the other casters to use their counter on you. If you watch my video again you can see me fakecasting @0:25. I'll try to get the spell lock from the lock pet but he doesn't counter me. This is the way you're going to do it. You start a cast and at 1/3 jump/cancel casting. Against experienced players you should change that and should try to fake at 1/5 and after it at 1/2 or something like that You can easily practice this in duels.
remember: not every interrupt is the same AND YOU NEED TO FAKE CAST SPELLREFLECTS, TOO. Don't spend your time faking shocks if you see the other shaman won't shock you. If you eat a shock, it's 1 second you lose. But if you stand they're faking for like 3 seconds, you're fu***. But this counts for SHAMANS ONLY
Tips & Tricks
#0 Turn 'SECURE ABILITY TOGGLE' in the Main Menu (-> ActionBars) OFF
This will allow you to LEAVE your form without global cooldown so you can shift out of frost nova for example to prevent a deep freeze
#1 No matter what comp you play, your team needs your CC. You aren't a paladin who stands there and spams heals. No, you need to CC the healer to get the kill and you need to cc the damage dealers to save lives.
#2 NEVER Cyclone or Root more than twice unless you're trying to get the kill now. Just cyclone a warrior 6 seconds, then 3 seconds and then root him. Don't cast a third time. You will trade 15s DR against 1,5 sec more cc but 18s DR
DR = Diminishing Return => Diminishing returns - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft
#3 Know your DR's and the ones of your partners. For example: Don't warstomp or bash a target when you're playing with a rogue. His Kidney Shot lasts longer. You can bash for half time AFTERWARDS if you want to.
#4 Always have enough arena water in your bags. 80+ for 2on2, 40+ for 3on3.
#5 Cyclones on kill targets CAN be golden. Yes, you've heard right. Cyclone can be used on kill targets as well, but you should know what you're doing. Cyclone makes your target IMMUNE to everything. Don't save your target with your cyclone, try to kill it. I will give you some examples. Ring of Valor, the opponent druid is on the middle of the map with rejuvenation (5s left) and 2x lifebloom (3s left). If you cyclone him now, he's in the middle of the map without HoT's after your cyclone. If you're playing with a silence class, you can beat him now. The same goes for cyclones like "oh, the warrior used shield wall. going to cyclone him." He will stay at low hp and his shield wall runs out, freekill.
Another example: If you're playing with a lock and your warlock manages to fear a druid fulltime and your kill target (warrior for example) drops low, MOST DRUIDS will panic and INSTANLY use swiftmend/natures swiftmend on the warrior. If you cyclone the warrior right after the fear runs out, you probably "catch" the instant heal with your cyclone and then you just quickly cyclone the druid and watch the warrior die.
All those things were examples. Cyclone is so versatile and you will feel it by time.
#6 Use your innervate when you're at about 50% mana. Don't use your Innervate too late! Since Season 6 your innervate only has 3min CD and if you use it early, you will have it twice or even more in one game without overmana'ing.
#7 If you're nigh telf protect your Innervate with Shadowmeld! Purgers can't get you that easy then and have to run to you before they can purge and in most cases it's already done. If you are tauren or shadowmeld is on CD and you don't play against meleecleaves OR don't need 'Natures Grasp' use it to protect your Innervate and it doesn't cost any mana. Throw some HoT's on you, too. Nothing is more frustrating than wasting an Innervate, believe me.
#8 For nightelfs again: You can use your shadowmeld to get out of the opponents focus and you can "vanish" casts like a rogue. If you see, for example, a deathcoil you can try to shadowmeld it.
It can be also used as an "oh-shit-button" cause your opponents will lose their target for a split second and casts will be interrupted then. Use it when you're @low hp and on openfield
#9 If you get a clearcast proc use lifebloom as you gain some mana back!
Videos!
Shadowcleave vs. LSD (@2550 on Live)
YouTube - Scleave vs. LSD@2550
Shadowcleave vs. RLS (@ATR)
YouTube - Shadowcleave vs RLS on ATR
Questions or Suggestions?
Feel free to post them here, this was my first guide
Shoutout
SPECIAL THANKS to Arcádia aka Stan for helping me with the translation <3
Guide by Classicclean for mmowned.com