Vazu

I got to thinking about parts of my arena PVP game which I know I'm not very good at.

Please, share your own!

- Totems
I really, really hate Shaman. It's just incredibly difficult given everything going on around me to stop and stomp totems. I'm at a point where I just wanna ignore them altogether, because I spend way, way too much time trying to break through Grounding / Tremor Totems in particular. I mean, 4-5 seconds to wand down a couple of totems seems like a minor amount of time, but it usually means the difference between life and death when the totem is used defensively to soak a Spell Lock or Deathcoil. Yes, I know you can use pets just as effectively and it frees up all sorts of global cooldowns. What I'm getting at is the tunnel vision aspect of something like that. I end up paying way too much attention to getting a Shaman feared and by the time I'm successful at it, sometimes we're already in deep trouble. Not to mention that Paladins just cleanse it off. Feels like a giant waste of time. Everytime we zone into a 2v2, 3v3 or a 5v5 and I see a Shaman, it just pisses me off.

Oh, did I mention my 3v3 has a Shaman?
(Paladin/Warrior anchors and then a 3rd - elemental Shaman or 24/37/0 Warlock)

 

Braids

I would say my biggest weakness is that I am mostly a clicker. This is more of a practical issue as I played 4-5 classes competitively in pvp premades before TBC came out, the logistics of keybinding and memorizing things for every single class (not to mention I have medium length nails) would be a nightmare and a steep curve for me to get over. If I ever decided to just stick to 1-2 classes, I would keybind everything in a heartbeat, but atm I enjoy variety a little too much.

Oh btw, I hate totems too atm because Grounding Totem will absorb X of my Lock spells until it gets hit by 1 direct damage spell. So while the tooltip says it absorbs 1 spell every 10 sec (or whatever the time period is), you could try DOTing and COTing a million times on a Grounding Totem and they will all be absorbed.

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◊ Vontre

I'm kinda bad at counterspell. It's pretty bad, I miss fast spells constantly, because I always forget there's a lag between me hitting the button and the spell reaching the server. So .3 seconds left on the spell is not a good time to hit CS, but I can't seem to get a handle on the reflex.

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Argat

Right now, I'd say my biggest problem is with handling burst DPS teams. I'm fairly good at dodging counterspells - so much so that I take it for granted that a mage will CS me, and when they never do, I've wasted valuable healing time. However, even when I know there's a huge burst coming, like when there's two melee on our warlock, or we're facing a AP/Fire mage, I still have trouble keeping people alive during that.

I also despise warlocks. Curse of Tongues is so ridiculously powerful.

 

• Calantus

My biggest weakness is I have difficulty seeing the enemy to do damage. My focus is always on my teammates, just have a support mindset I guess, so when it comes to having to target the enemy I have difficulty finding targets quickly so I kinda get lost any time I have to play an offencive class/spec. This somehow doesn't apply for CC and disruption, I can switch to a healer and silence them midcast easily, and on my warlock I was a right bastard with CoT and fears, but for nuking... I don't know I guess I subconsciously don't care enough about doing damage.

 

• Snowy

My weakness that I'm working on is getting better at always getting a dispel or two off in the initial skirmish -- payed off big today when I did get 2 dispels off on a priest so when he cast pain suppression later on my first dispel got rid of it.

A previous weak spot which I corrected for the most part was knowing when to drop shadowform at the start of the game -- pretty silly to be sitting in shadowform vs a pally/warlock for example. Being able to toss a renew/pom on myself or my rogue partner has won more than a few games.

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Lalar

My biggest weakness is letting a lot of spells sneak through while my global is active and I use pummel and the server lag lets the spell go through and my pummel is now down for 10 seconds. My other thing is always blowing my fear as another warrior on my 3v3 or 5v5 team fears and now both of our 3 minute fears are on cooldown.

 

Redpath

1) Sometimes I get tunnel vision and I don't assist my paladin partner as well as I should when he's under fire

2) Using Viper Sting to its full advantage. Sometimes I simply forget to use it mid fight because of the cooldown, or I don't use it as effectively as I should (using it while the paladin is mid-heal, for example).

3)Blades Edge Arena in general. Even against other ranged classes I tend to get played more often then not in using the various terrain to my advantage.

4) Staying slippery enough versus rogues and warriors without being a heal sponge.

 

• Wodin

Switching targets is my big weakness. I just can't make myself do it, and if I call an initial target wrong or the situation changes it takes a goddamn miracle to drag me off the person I was trying to kill.

Oh, and using my pvp trinket with C -> click because that's how we did it in the old days.

 

panny

Switching targets is something I could work on better too. I have macros set up to mouseover interrupt healers, but in the hustle of 5v5 I don't do it as well as I can.

Tying into this, I need to manage my global cooldown better. Between totems, purge and lag, I mess up my interrupts more often than I should.

Finally, I should probably spec out of Enhancement, or perhaps play as more defensively (primarily as a distraction rather than a pressurer).

 

Arv

First post on these forums, I figure that it would be appropriate here since I've been playing arenas a lot lately.

I find my problems lie in 2v2 and 3v3. Shaman is really difficult to play in arena, especially 2v2. Not having a reliable way to break out of crowd control really sucks. I mean sure, I can grounding totem a sheep and tremor can break fears, but a majority of the time people can just swipe at them, and I can't re-set totems easily with global cooldown. I have to focus on healing my partner, and then I'm easily crowd controlled. I guess I could probably try and be smarter about when to set my totems and possibly try to shock more spells.

I rarely have issues in 5v5 with the current set up we're running. I stack up on solid star of elunes and resilience, since shaman tend to be the target of choice. Our teams current set up also suffers a ton when we play on Blades Edge, especially versus a team with entrapment hunters.

 

Leto

For me I'd say its being able to shift seamlessly between offense and defense. If I set a defensive role at the beginning I'm fine switching to offense when the situation arises, but if I pick a target to burst, I have trouble noticing if my priest is in need of assistance unless he's on top of me.

This mainly happens when classes I don't usually control are bursting my priest (say a rogue on him instead of a warrior).

Rogue at heart.

 

Berkut

My only trouble in Arenas is between the opening of the gate and the end of the match.

5v5 I do so-so, but I tried 2v2 and 3v3 last night, and it was not pretty. Seems like I spent 90% of my active time dazed/stunned/snared/feared/sheeped. Rogues simple own me - they get on me, and I don't get away from them again, typically.

I used to kick ass at PvP...now, not so much. Not really certain why, just have to keep practicing I guess.

How important is healing in 2v2 and 3v3? At least in 3v3, it seemed like we never won against teams with healers - simply could not put out enough damage to kill through it.

 

• Dragooner

I'm inclined to say that I tend to die to warriors. Mainly I do priest/warrior 2v2, but whenever we fight paladin/warrior or rogue/warrior.. Makes it quite messy.

 

Altima

I get so caught up harassing the other team's healer/totems, I often mentally block out the fact that someone is beating on me... and I call for BoP way too late. Also, while I focus on the harassment I'm just not aware enough to toss DoTs on the target our warrior is beating on.

Also... shaman with totems on the Blade's Edge arena pillar brings me endless woes. I can't make my Felhunter chomp on it, and without a fast wand clearing them is painful.

 

Gulaja

I am not yet experienced enough at the support/healer class and I think I made a mistake by rerolling one for the expansion. Sometimes it's very hard for me to switch from complete support, to holy shock/Hammer of Wrath, and than back to support. I've personally lost us a few games by simply failing to heal our warrior when I get in the "kill" mindset.

I also have a bit of trouble communicating with my teammates. I've played this game since Day 1, and some of the people on my team are fairly new (our warlock started this year and his first PvP experience was ~three months ago.) We used to go games where I would ask why we continued fighting the warrior in-range/LOS of the SoR'd Priest, etc. Even now they still aren't 100% used to every ability and aren't aware of what different team set-ups will do. We've lost matches against burst teams which I *knew* were burst, I just failed to call out.

 

GamingManiac

Longevity. I only do 2v2s with a rogue partner nowadays and we aren't a burst team. If the fight is longer than 30 seconds but less than 2-3m, we'll probably win it. Why less than 2-3m? By that time (or less if against an MS warrior/wounds rogue) I'm pretty much oom and if they kill my partner the only hope I have for killing someone is if they're at 10% and cloth. It makes me insanely mad to be in a fierce rogue/paladin v. rogue/shaman fight and it's pretty much evenly matched until I go oom and then I look at the paladin and he's resting easy at 75% mana. And my gear isn't half bad.

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Grailyn

Best thread on the forum.

My biggest problem is tunnel vision. I get so focused on doing my job I often totally miss out on what my team mates are doing.

There will be games when I'm on top of everything. I've got my guy locked down, swapping targets flawlessly, putting all kinds of pressure on the other team and all my stuff is just working in general. Then when I see the perfect spot and call for the assist all I hear in vent is "Umm it's just you were all dead".

Other games I'll be playing for shit. Missing pummels, getting cc'd out of LOS etc and start to panic. Crap were gonna lose 30pts to this shitty team when I realize the rest of my team just went pro and were up 5-1.

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Leto

This seems to be the pivotal difference between good and great teams I'd say. A lot of people are mentioning focus in some form as an issue. Its difficult to focus on all aspects of a battle effectively unless you've mastered your role.

If you are not completely comfortable with your role, you will focus more on it, to the point that you cannot catch easily subtle moves by your opponent, or the status of your team in the larger environment.

Simply put, that is what mastery is, being able to perform a task gracefully with minimal thought.

Rogue at heart.

 

Trippy

My biggest weakness has got to be timing my interupts.
I'll often miss a vital cast with my Spell Lock/Fear/Deathcoil (be it a Polymorph, Heal, or Fear). Sometimes it costs us a match, other times everything works out. Deathcoil is a very powerful spell, and I'm trying to find the perfect point to use. I'll often use it after an iHoT or Fear runs out, so I can keep a person locked down as long as possible. I also try to pop it as a Warrior uses Deathwish, just so they'll get off my back.
Also, I'm pretty bad (but, getting better!) at using trinkets. They'll often just sit on my hotbar and I'll never use them, even though the effects they bestow are very useful in arena play.

 

Huntemup

Judging when to DPS vs. when to heal. My Warlock friend and I do pretty well, but we have lost a few matches that could have been won by me either A.) Shifting out and healing earlier or B.) Nuking rather than healing. Its a difficult call sometimes, and it can be a deal breaker. Its hard to say, ya I had to let you die so that I could finish off that pally/shaman. Everyone likes to end it 2v1, but there are difinately times where it is better to let your partner die, and finish the game off 1v1.

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Latham

Definately biggest weakness is wasting pummel. Funny thing is I have no problem pummeling heals when we play teams from our own server but it seems to lag when we get matched against teams on other servers. It's frustrating to pummel a target and see the heal just go through.

 

• Symbul

I have that problem too, and not just in Arena. Going to just bind Xi'ri's Gift trinket to FoL or HL soon. I will "waste" it sometimes but that beats having it sit unused on my bars from start to finish.

 

• Erongg

Could be interrupt resist from Imp Concentration Aura + the Blood Furnace neck + talents, too.

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• Deris

I think I waste my AOE silence/HOJ on non critical moments.. but always feel like I should be using them asap. Same with BOFreedom/BOP.