This particular portion of the guide is aimed at how to play against specific kinds of enemies. These are only tips that may help you. Again, not something you must follow by the letter.
Death Knight
- Their pets are undead, which means you have guaranteed crits with Exorcism on them, and you can use Holy Wrath and Turn Evil on them.
- Icy Chains, Diseases, Mark of Blood, etc; You will want to Cleanse these as often as you can, whenever possible. Yes, Unholy Death Knights can make their diseases undispellable, but if you keep them cleansed, finding the right time for them to use Death Coil can become difficult and frustrate them. The purpose of cleansing such things is because snares are never good, of course, but also, many of a Death Knight's strikes rely on the number of diseases applied in some way. With more diseases applied, Death Strike heals more, Blood Strike deals more damage, etc.
- Death Knights that have Lichborne talented, be wary of them. If you can time it properly, you can hit them with Holy Wrath or Turn Evil while they are using Lichborne, as it turns them into undead for the spell's duration.
Druid
- Always cleanse Entangling Roots and Mangle. These are a couple of a Druid's primary CC effects, and can be removed with a single Cleanse.
- Try to keep Insect Swarm and Faerie Fire dispelled at all times. Why? Yes, they are very easily applied and very frequently. However, removing these can cut the Druid's damage by a decent amount. You can ignore Moonfire, primarily because the damage it does is rather terrible.
- Use Judgement of Justice whenever you can, especially if you are putting a great deal of pressure on the Druid. This way, they cannot change into Travel Form and easily run away.
- Consecration can be effective at getting a Druid out of stealth. Drop it on top of them if you think they may restealth when given the opportunity. Divine Storm is also useful when used right when they restealth, as it will knock them out of stealth if it hits them.
- Try to avoid using Hammer of Justice when the Druid is in Bear Form, as they take reduced damage in that form. The ideal time to stun a Druid is when they are in Human form. Also, using Repentance to catch a Balance or Feral Druid in Human form while they are healing can be very effective. Especially when you follow up with a Hammer of Justice and heavy burst damage.
Hunter
- Always try your hardest to stay in their "dead zone". This refers to the 5 yard minimum range that Hunters have where they cannot use any ranged attacks on you.
- Detterence cannot prevent a Judgement. Use this to your advantage if they are using Detterence when they are at very low health and within range.
- Only use your PvP trinket when frozen by a Freezing Trap/Arrow or when put to sleep by a Wyvern Sting. Try to save Hand of Freedom for Concussion Shot and Ice Trap/Snake Trap (slowing traps).
- Repentance is particularly useful when the Hunter tries to Disengage from you when you are in melee range. If successful, get back in melee range and follow up with a Hammer of Justice and burst.
- The pet can generally be ignored, unless it is a Beast Mastery Hunter. You will want to save your stun for the pet, then. Though, when faced with a Beast Mastery Hunter, they may use Bestial Wrath. This ability will turn the Hunter, and their pet, red. While under the effects of this buff, they are immune to stuns. Do not try to stun them, or the pet, while it is active. It's just a waste of the cooldown.
Mage
- Blink can be a particularly troublesome ability for a Paladin. Use Repentance to get in range of the Mage, since they cannot Blink out of it. (Pray they don't trinket it.) Position yourself between the Mage, and where they would appear if they were to use Blink right at that moment, then use Hammer of Justice. If done properly, right after they Blink, you will be already on top of them wailing away.
- Use similar positioning for when they use Ice Block, as Mages tend to use Blink just as they come out of it.
- Always keep Slow Cleansed. Cleansing Frost Mage snares is impossible at the current time due to snare stacking bugs. Save Hand of Freedom for a very good opportunity. Beware that most Mages will attempt to Spellsteal your Hand of Freedom.
- Never use Blessing of Kings when fighting a Mage. They will just Spellsteal it and it will benefit them. Use Blessing of Might instead.
- Countering Spellsteal is a lot simpler than some people will think. Do not be afraid to rebuff yourself, as Spellsteal is a very expensive ability, and will only force the Mage to go out of mana that much quicker. Always keep as many buffs up as possible, as they will play as "junk buffs" for the Mage to Spellsteal as they try to Spellsteal your Avenging Wrath (wings). The more buffs you have, the less likely Avenging Wrath will be Spellstolen.
- Mages are incredibly difficult to beat as a Retribution Paladin. Especially Frost Mages. Best of luck to you.
Paladin
- Holydins are not something you can kill without some help. It is futile to try. However, Protection and other Retribution Paladins are beaten in similar ways.
- Against other Rets, remember to keep up Sacred Shield at all times. Use your trinket on Repentance only. Use Hand of Freedom when they use Hammer of Justice on you. You can expect them to treat you the same way.
- It all boils down to doing more damage while keep yourself alive as best as possible. Often times you can use Divine Protection during a duel and get away with it, as it is hardly noticeable. Do not be afraid to use instant Flash of Lights with Art of War procs. Infact, it is encouraged to help keep yourself alive.
- Fighting a Protection Paladin is similar to fighting another Retribution. The differences are that they can take a lot more damage, have smaller but more frequent heals, and can silence with Avenger's Shield. If you can out last them with instant Flash of Lights from Art of War procs, you should do fine.
Priest
- Don't bother with Discipline Priests. Fighting healers is usually a waste of your time unless you have help or greatly outgear them.
- Watch out for Vampiric Touch. If you dispel this DoT, it will do massive damage to you. You can use Purify to remove Devouring Plague without fear of dispelling Vampiric Touch in order to minimize the damage you take.
- Use Hand of Freedom when they use Mind Flay.
- If the Priest is dispelling you a lot, be sure to rebuff yourself, especially Righteous Fury and Sacred Shield as often as you can.
- When Dispersion is used, keep track of its duration. When it is close to ending, that is an excellent time to stun them and burst as hard as you can.
- Be wary of heals. If you have been feared out of Hammer of Justice range, use Repentance to interrupt them and keep them from healing as much as possible.
- Try to pay attention to how long you are fighting the Priest. Their fear is on a 26 second (23 seconds for a Shadow Priest) cooldown. Trinket the first one, and try to avoid the rest if you can manage it. Back away from them just as it comes off cooldown, and you may get lucky.
Rogue
- Seal of Vengeance/Corruption is particularly useful here, especially if you have a relatively low amount of crit rating. This DoT will keep the Rogue from restealthing unless they use Cloak of Shadows.
- Do not ever use Hand of Freedom on the first stun when a Rogue opens on you. Wait for the second stun and use Hand of Freedom then. If you Hand of Freedom the first stun, the Rogue will just hit you with the second stun.
- Do not ever use your trinket on a stun. Save it for Blind, instead.
- You can coax Rogues to kick you if you hard cast a heal. (Means you actually cast it without an Art of War proc) This is essentially a waste of time and a short cooldown for them, as you can still use your melee attacks on them at will. This is particularly effective if you wish to cast Holy Light within the next 5-8 seconds. If timed properly, you can get the heal off before their kick comes off of cooldown.
- Do not be afraid to use Consecration, especially while the Rogue is unstealthed and in melee combat with you. This can make restealthing more difficult for them.
- Use Retribution Aura at all times. A Rogue's strategy against plate wearing classes usually involve ways to bypass armor, which will render Devotion Aura about useless. Since Rogues dual wield, this means that they will hit you many times and very frequently, meaning you will get that much more damage output from Retribution Aura.
- Use Judgement of Justice when you apply pressure to a Rogue, as this will keep them from bothering with Sprint, unless they use Cloak of Shadows.
- If the Rogue uses Cloak of Shadows and has intentions to restealth, or already has restealthed, use Divine Storm quickly to knock them back out of stealth.
- If a Rogue uses Evasion and tries to run away, or uses it as a defensive cooldown to keep attacking you, avoid using melee damage abilities. Use Judgement (Judgement of Justice if they are trying to run away), Exorcism, Consecration, and other spell related abilities to damage them and keep them in combat.
Shaman
- The only buff you should worry about keeping up is Sacred Shield, as a smart Shaman will keep you Purged.
- The largest threat a Shaman poses to you is from their totems. Keep an eye out for Grounding Totems, Stoneclaw Totems (for the damage absorption), and Earthbind Totems. Any of these totems listed need to be taken as a priority. Destroy them whenever you can. Stoneclaw Totems have a decent amount of health, but usually can be knocked down with a Crusader Strike. Their absorption effects are more powerful on the caster. Earthbind Totem's effects can be Cleansed. Use this to your advantage to get close and knock it down. Also, if possible Earthbind Totem can just be avoided.
- There really isn't much you can do against Restoration Shaman, unfortunately. Ignore them unless you have help.
- Enhancement Shaman can do a lot of damage in a hurry. Use a lot of instant Flash of Lights when fighting them.
- Elemental Shaman can be tricky, but if you can keep Flame Shock Cleansed, they shouldn't be too much of a threat.
Warlock
- Warlocks are kind of like Mages, as in they are very difficult to beat with a Retribution Paladin. Especially those that like to use Fear a bit ... too much.
- Since the pets are demons, you can use Holy Wrath and Turn Evil on them. Use this to your advantage. A well timed Holy Wrath and Turn Evil on a Succubus can leave its owner quite vulnerable.
- Demonology Warlocks are particularly interesting. By this, I mean that during their Metamorphosis, they are classified as a demon. Which means you can use Holy Wrath and Turn Evil on them. Fear spamming as a Paladin is really fun.
- Destruction Warlocks are somewhat tricky. If you see them casting Immolate, time your Cleanse to go off the very moment Immolate is applied, and you can avoid Conflagration.
- Affliction Warlocks are particularly nasty. Never Cleanse Unstable Affliction, as it will silence you and deal a great amount of damage. If Unstable Affliction isn't applied, spam Cleanse to get as many of those DoTs off as possible. If absolutely necessary, you can use Divine Shield to wipe off all the DoTs without worry of taking damage from Unstable Affliction.
Warrior
- Save your trinket for their fear. Use Hand of Freedom on Hamstring only. Ignore Piercing Howl.
- Do not use Divine Shield against a Warrior unless the situation is absolutely dire. Use Repentance to interrupt their Shattering Throw. This is probably the only time Repentance will be useful against a Warrior.
- You can use Hand of Reckoning to use up a Warrior's Spell Reflection.
- Try and use Flash of Light with Art of War procs as often as possible. If the pressure the Warrior puts on you is too great, which is often the case, don't be afraid to use Seal of Light.
Seal Dancing
This is an advanced technique, and is not recommended for beginners to try. When you have an elevated understanding of your opponents, your teammates, what goes on around you, and the effects of each of your seals - Only then should you try and bother with this. It isn't effective, and possibly even detrimental, when used without understanding how to. If used properly, however, it will win you arena matches and duels against opponents that you don't think you'd normally have a chance against.
You have two types of seals. Obviously, you have your damage seals, which have the first letter of their names in
red. The second type is the utility seal, and they have the first letter of their names in
blue.
The idea is to switch from your
damage seal to a
utility seal when it would be most effective, and know when to switch back to whichever
damage seal that is most effective for your situation. As the environment changes, you may wish to change from one
damage seal to another
damage seal when appropriate.
Seal of Righteousness -
damage seal - Standard PvP DPS seal. Use this as a "general use" damage seal, as it usually has the highest damage output.
Seal of Vengeance -
damage seal - As discussed earlier, this can be useful against stealthers. However, it can prove to be superior for damage if you are sitting on and DPSing an enemy stationary healer.
Seal of Command -
damage seal - While some Rets use this almost exclusively for whatever reason, I find it particularly effective when fighting a cluster of enemies. Prefferably when there are 3 enemy targets, or more, in a tight enough cluster to where the cleave effect will reach its greatest potential. This can be particularly effective in 3's, 5's, or in bottle-neck areas of battlegrounds (such as where the flag is in EotS). Note that while some say this will break CC effects, this should not be the case. The cleave is supposed to have a "smart effect" to it where it will not hit targets that are CC'ed by effects that will break on damage, such as Repentance or Polymorph.
Seal of Light -
utility seal - Think of this seal as your primary "turtle" effect. When you are being focused and peeled, and have one or more targets in your melee range, use this. Use this in conjunction with your Art of War proc Flash of Lights, Sacred Shield, and defensive cooldowns (such as Divine Protection or glyphed Hand of Salvation). This will make you exceptionally hard to kill, especially if you are not CC'ed, and have a great deal of resilience.
Seal of Justice -
utility seal - Using this while DPS'ing a healer, or a tough and hard hitting caster, while one of your teammates is focusing on them, can make their lives very difficult. Particularly effective when you and your teammates have CC effects ready and are hitting hard and fast on the target.
- One should also note that it is common that people will try to trinket procs from Seal of Justice. This is partially due to a reaction to the loss of control of their character, and the use of Seal of Justice is so rare, they hardly or don't even know what it is.