Hey guys. As the title says, i'm a new player, but not a new player on this realm, a new WoW player.
I started playing like 2 weeks ago because a friend recommended this realm a long time ago and just now i wanted to give a try.
I really wanted to only PvP, so... I joined here. I'm not complaining, I do like a real challenge but everyone seems so much experienced (and that's not a surprise) that i can't even have a chance right now.
Then i started playing as Aff Warlock, read a lot of guides here and on AT forum, spectated a couple of games from Mercedesa and some other guys (espectated even a Demonology one), but even then i can't do better than a 1 win 5 loses on soloq. I'm ****** or everybody is really that better even on 1400 rate? Is there any chance for me to reach the skill lvl of someone who plays on, let's say, 2k? I'm really enjoying the game so far, and i like the concept of non-donor p2w here on Blackrock.
Again, i'm not complaining of anything i just want to know if there's any chance for me to reach a good rate if i started playing 10 years after the game realease, or if anyone started playing WoW some time ago and managed to get it.
Anyway, thanks for any answer. :)
edit: I will start to play as healer now, probably Resto Druid, and i would appreciate if anyone could waste some time doing 2v2 with me for practice purposes. A coach would help me pretty much.
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A new player
Edited: August 19, 2016
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Hello.
Guide for PVP: http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=285903
http://www.twitch.tv/darkml - stream for warlock and some other classes.
My Warlock PVP movies: http://www.warcraftmovies.com/pv.php?t=3&l=sleepyhead
Starting is hard, you have to learn what your spells do as well as other's spells. You have to play a lot of games to see whats going on in arena, see what are probably kill targets and so on. Positioning is important, stay at pillar when u're under pressure or u know u'll get a CC, push when you see an opportunity. There are a lot of factors to get better in arena, practice will show you them all. Thx 4 spectating my games and good luck !
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I Started playing in early wotlk. I was so bad, that i can't even start to tell you, how bad i was.
The first thing you need to do, is consider wether you wan't to choose a class, that is as complicated as warlock (this may not be an issue if youre experienced). - Warlocks need to have very good situational awareness, especially against melees. They need to control and move their pet around as well, all while also putting out pressure and not dying. My advice: Choose another class. Elemental shamans are fairly simple to play and also fairly tanky, even thought you can't compare them to affliction locks. Maybe consider a shadowpriest as well.
The second thing you need to do, is starting to get rid of bad habits/get good habits. It may take time getting used to, but its worth it.
What i have done through my time is:
- Bind "S" to something useful, like a spell. - Walking backwards is never EVER EVER useful.
Unbind "turn left" & "turn right" and replace their binds with "strafe left" & "strafe right" (in my case, i strafe left with "A" and right with "D".
- Getting adjusted to using focus macros and arena123 macros. This is really basic stuff tbh.
For example, as a warlock you could do a macro with following text in it: "/cast [target=focus] fear" . This will fear the target you have put on your focus, without you having to actually target the player.
The same with arena123. You can do macros like: "cast [target=arena1] fear" and it will fear the your arena1 opponent (arena1 is the top one, arena2 is the middle one and arean3 is the buttom one).
- Get rid of akward binds. Speaks for itself almost. Spells i use alot, are usually placed closest to my movement-keys. 1,2,3,4,5,6, C, V, R, F, G, S, Q, E, ½ and T. I use shift+12345rtvfg ctrl+12345rtvfg etc for spells i use less frequently.
- Some use targeting macros, like /target [arena1] for more effecient targetting.
I don't use that myself though, but will recommend that you unbind "target nearest enemy" from your TAB and instead bind it to "Target nearest enemy PLAYER". This makes sure that you don't have to target through pets, totems etc.
- Positioning - Positioning is one of the most important things to be good at, which is something new players in my experience are always bad at.
This is very very very roughly spoken, and don't take it too literal, because it depends on the situation in an arena. But you usually want to be in LoS of your kill target and your healer. Your healer should generally be in LoS of you and out of LoS of the opponents. - Roughly spoken.
- Also, you have to help your healer. - Don't force him to run into bad spots, where he will be crowd controlled and always be ready to Devour magic him with your pet ("/cast [target=party1] devour magic")
. Most importantly, keep queuing and queueing and queueing. Try to understand what is going on and solve what went wrong, the next time.
hope you can use it.
- Play other classes and specs, to get a better understanding of their spells, and make use of it while playing your main.
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Hi! Thank you for answer, i already read your guide and it was really helpful when i started playing on the past week. Sadly i can't watch your stream because i can't lower the stream quality (idk why).
About the position, i'm sure i'm failing on this, but sometimes i get lost. I mean, i know where i'm and i know that i need to walk around pillars to kite who's attacking me (and most of times they're attacking me), but i never know where to position myself to apply dots and where to run when something get wrong or i'm being pressured. Usually my matches aren't longer than 1 min because i die or i don't manage to save my partner.
What i usually do from when the gate open is: Run to pillar > put a portal > go spread dots and fear > if they're not on me, and that's a rare thing, they usually swap to me > when i'm at 40% +- i use the portal again to get safe, but at this point i don't have any defensive spells anymore and then rip
Well, ofc it's never the same thing and each match is a different match but, i just can't survive warriors, dks or any melee class and do damage at the same time. For some reason the arena i play better is the one with a huge waterfall at the middle and the arena i can do nothing is the graveyard. On the others sometimes i can do good and sometimes i'm useless :p
Hi, thank you for your time to answer me question too :)
Well, i noticed that Warlocks are pretty hard to start and that's why i'm going to try a healer now. I tried elemental shaman but it seems a little bit boring, played some bgs with it and everything i did was drop totems and burst the **** out of everyone lol
I will try shadow priest too, ty for your tip.
Really? I walked a lot backwards. That's something that i will change for sure.
I binded it to f1 f2 and f2, but i barely use, i feel more confortable to click on the addon Gladius frame. I also have the right button to focus on the Gladius frame and i'm just now learning how to fear properly, but as you said it's really hard because sometimes my focus isn't on the range or i can't cast fear on him and if i try to get the range i'm usually bursted to oblivion, and if i don't do anything at all, then the healer over-heal all the dps. I'm sure i should use those targets and focus on binds but right now i have to admit that i'm too bad for it :p
What i have binded is: 1-6 for spells that i use frequently and 7-0 for spells that i don't use at all, like the AoE spell to detect rogues (forgot the name, sorry)
Then i have Q E R T Y. On the other bar Z X C V B N. On the other bar Alt + Q W E R T Y. On the other bar Ctrl + Q W E R T Y. On the other bar Ctrl A S D F G
Ofc i don't use everything at all, but they are there and i'm adding more spells on each one everytime i improve my gameplay.
I just tested it and it's so much better, i tested on a BG and it's really helpful. Nvm i will spread dots on the totem by mistake. Ty again! :p
Is i said above, i think it's one of my biggest problems. I'm sure i'm failing at this but even spectating good players it doesn't help me with the position at all
I do queue, but not too much because i feel bad of making players lose because of me (and i know it's because of me, at least 90% of the time), they don't really say anything at all but i know it's because i know i make a lot of mistakes, i just can't fix it even if i'm trying. And i'm trying.
The other tip is a really good one, it's usually what i do on every game i play, but here i tried a few classes until now and didn't managed to play with them at all. Ofc i didn't played too much with them, only some bgs and duels 1 day with each more or less. I tried:
Warrior - for some reason my damage was awful and the only class that i could put some real pressure was a resto druid, priest or some other melee class was okay, but in the end they all leave with 50%+ hp when i was dead.
Dk - Idk i just suck with that class
Rogue - I suck with that class too, it's not hard but, well...
Ele shaman - I did pretty well kiting and doing damage at the same time, things that i can't do properly with my Warlock, but it seems really boring as i said. But ofc it's just me, i don't really like the class
Feral - Didn't played with it too much because it seems a little bit too hard for me
Warlock - The last one that i tried and i'm doing "okay" with the class, at least better than the others. I know i'm far from being at least good but until now it's the best for me
Now i'm going to test a healer, i'm thinking about resto druid. Do you think it's easy to start with or should i play with another one? And again, thank you very much for your effort trying to help me :)
edit: Forgot to say, i'm also using a couple of addons and they're helping me so far. I use:
Decursive (this one is helping me very much), Gladius, Tidy Plates, Plate Buffs, Bartender and X-Perl because i like the way it looksEdited: August 19, 2016 Reason: added addons
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First of all, i'm gonna say it again. Picking warlock as a first class for arenas, is really gonna give you headache. Generally, casters are harder to start with (some might disagree) because you can't just run up to your enemy and start hitting him. You have to kite, fake-cast (something i will explain in a second), cast crowd control and damage. AS warlock, you are really squishy (same goes for mage and priest really) and you also have to control your pet. - Doing this good seperates the decent warlocks from the bad, and the great warlocks from the good. It's so important but also makes it harder, because it adds yet another factor to your gameplay. + You are partially responsible for getting your healer out of cc with devour AND keeping the pet alive. You can't just have it run after your enemy with autoattack but you cant really just having it following you either.
Fake-casting (incase you don't know what it is and why you do it).
The idea is, to make your enemy interrupt you while you are NOT casting, so you can start casting freely after he used his interrupt (all melee have interrupts, except for paladins and some casters also have, like you have spell lock).
For example: You need to fear a healer so you can kill the warrior currently training you down. Then you cast fear and stop your own cast by casting an instant cast spell instead (like corruption, felflame, curse of tongues, etc). Repeat this untill he uses his interrupt, and then start casting freely for 10 sec.
Needless to say, this can be hard against teams with many interrupts, but is really gamebreaking when you start to master it.
I know some good players who use the click-to-focus way of setting focus, and if it works for you, it works. But it isn't the most optimal thing. It will always be faster having it bound.
Also, i recommend you use shift+12345 and ctrl+12345 .. even alt+12345 if it isn't akward for you.
On the pet-topic, i suggest you mage some macros and bind them as well.
/petattack
/Petfollow
/cast [target=player] devour magic (will dispel 1 magic debuff from yourself like maybe a polymorph)
/cast [target=party1] devour magic (Will dispel 1 magic debuff from your party 1)
/cast [target=player2] devour magic (same as above but for party member 2)
/cast devour magic (will dispel a BUFF from your enemy, like maybe bloodlust)
/cast [target=focus] !Spell lock (Spell locks your focus)
/cast [target=arena1] !Spell lock (spell locks opponent on the top frame in gladius)
/cast [target=arena2] !Spell lock (the middle opponent on gladius)
/cast [target=arena3] !Spell lock (buttom opponent)
If you start using these macros now, it will benefit your SOOO much when you've learned to play with it.
And to answer your initial question, yes, it's definetely possible to reach 2k if you make the right adjustments. But don't expect it to happen overnight.
EDIT: Oh, and regarding playing healer. If you are struggling with awareness of the game, positioning and fakecasting, don't pick a healer. It's probably the hardest role to have in arenas, at least as beginner.
From what you're saying, it sounds like you would maybe like playing a marksmanship hunter.
They also have a pet, with abilities, but it works abit differently. also, you don't have to cast, and you will train your movement and kiting alot while playing it. They're not simple or boring either if you ask me. Probably one of the most fun classes tbh.Edited: August 19, 2016
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It seems harder than what i was doing, i wasn't using half of my pet abilities tbh. He wasn't only following me the whole arena but he wasn't doing that much too, and now that you said, i understand that i should definitely pay more attention to him. But nvm, i will just pass warlock for now, maybe playing one or two arenas per day just to learn the class too.
I've heard about fake cast too but not many players use interrupts on 1400 from what i've seem, at least not everytime or i didn't noticed it. The only thing i notice is when that god damn warrior reflect my Haunt :p
Already created a Rdruid just to see how it works and the mechanic looks pretty fun. It's the same name of this forum account. Probably i can understand how to help a healer if i play as a healer, or how to position myself playing this way, idk.
I didn't wanted to create a hunter yet because i've read somewhere that it's one of the hardest classes, but i will give it a try too. And, eh, i don't expect to get better in a couple of hours but at least in 1 or 2 months i want to be decent :p
Ty again for your answer, you're helping me very much. :)
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You're right, 1400 players are not predictable to play against.
Well, you can fool around on other classes to learn how they work. That's really good. But don't swap too much around without a purpose. It's also important that you dedicate yourself to one class and in the beginning one spec.
Hunters have a high skill-cap. Most specs do tbh. - Even though people will tell you something else because they're biased.
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Hey. Just wanted to say that i've made a hunter and i'm enjoying it so far. I have a little bit of problem with melee classes, especially warriors because when i disengage they almost instantly charge me. What i'm doing when someone get on melee range is pop Deterrence, put a snake trap and a frost one, disengage and Concussive on him. But even then warrior can easily catch me, or Dks can grab me and burst me easily. If they do it before disengage i can scape, if they do after disengage then i'm fked :p
Rogues and ferals are a problem too, i literally don't know what to do, when a rogue appears and use Cheap Shot i usually just sit and wait for my death. I'm using crab and i can't charge him because the charge needs more range. I managed to kill a rogue only one time when a mate was near, then i used intervene on him and charge on the rogue, trinked the second stun and popped deterrence to stop the burst, trap him, disengage, canceled deterrence, rapid fire and everything i could pop (:p) and bursted. But didn't managed to reproduce it again and besides that, wasted all my cds when rogue used only cheap shot and the second stun.
But, yea, it's too early to say anything since i played only one day with the class. Had some fun with a uhdk on 2s too, but was only to get arena points, he was bad as fk and me too, we ended 1/9... (1 win against a warlock/shaman) lol
I will not update here everytime i do something, ofc, i just wanted to say it because you recommended hunter.
This is how my screen and key bindings looks like right now:
http://imgur.com/a/exFEaEdited: August 20, 2016
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Great. I hate this forum. I just wrote a really long post for you, as a hunter guide (as I main a hunter) and when posting it the forum bugged out and deleted it.
I'm not in the mood to write it all again, sorry. (And no, restore autosave content didn't work...)
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Meh...
Too bad it happened :/
Ty anyway
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Don't depend on deterrence every time someone gets in melee range.
For warriors (they have 2 gap closers, charge + intercept). If they use charge as the first (which usually is the case) just feign death+snaketrap and freedom (Master's call) . Then he will be forced to intercept you. Now you can use disengage and he has no gapcloser after. If you don't have snaketrap, you wing clip him instead.
With other melee classes, you basically do the same. -> force them to use their gapcloser, and then disengange.
Also, it's important to note, that you can be attacked from behind while in deterrence. Always have your front against melee, especially subrogues, as their main source of burst comes from behind.
Edit: Another tip on top of my head is against casters btw. You may already know it (kinda basic stuff) but you should feign death big damaging spells and stuff like fears etc..: They cast fear/lavaburst/Chaosbolt etc.. Press feign death like60-80% through their cast, which will cancel their cast.Edited: August 21, 2016
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I'll write at least one very useful Macro that I had in my post:
Sometimes you need to cancel your deterence because it's no longer useful and instead becomes a nuisance because you can't attack (same goes for blessing of protection). Example case: In 3v3, enemies focus you and you are taking beating and need to use deterence defensively. You use it but after you use it, your teammate brings one of the oponents below 20% health and the enemy healer struggles to keep him alive. You know it's now or never. You cancel the deterence and cast kill shot and kill the target.
For this I use a simple macro.
#showtooltip Kill Shot
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/cast Kill Shot
Since I have Kill Shot at a nicely acessible key binding, the ability to cancel those buffs will be nicely acessible as well. Since it is combined Kill Shot and not some other spell, it won't interupt your actions (because it will only cast kill shot if the target is below 20% and when that is the case, you don't want to be using other abilities anyway (in most cases, abilities that cost global cooldown).
One other advice I'll give you for any class: if you expect a charge, jump forward (mostly for ranged), if you expect a slow, snare or root, jump towards your target, even behind them (mostly for melee).
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Idk but i feel like they (warriors) have gap closers everytime, it's frustrating... Yesterday was the same thing, no matter what i did they could catch me everytime. I tried to stay between the charge range and my attack range when i had no traps and no disengage but it's even worse, or i'm doing something reeeeally wrong here.
What worked better for me was something similar to what you said. Wait for the gap closer, put snake and frost trap, wing clip, and i disengaged but at this point i'm low health and if they get me i can do nothing. But, eh, i'm sure it's just a matter of pratice.
For rogues i still don't know what to do. I tried using Ravager on bgs because of rogues but the stun doesn't seem to break the rogue combo, so, it doesn't really matter.
About the Master's Call, i "studied" a little bit about macros and i have exp with codes, but i can't figure out how to make one that use Master's Call on my partner if he's the target and one for me if i have no target or targetting a enemy. I created one but for some unknown reason it doesn't work everytime lol
I know i can do it with @player 2 but since i'm not playing 2s, only soloq, it's a little bit too hard to use this way. I will probably use the @player 2 when i go 2s.
And for soloq, i can make another and put it on another key bind but i'm trying to not have too many bindings.
What i created was:
#showtooltip Master's Call
/castsequence [@target] reset=2 Master's Call,n
/castsequence [target=player] Master's Call
If you tap the button 1 time and is targetting a enemy, the pet will use Master's Call on you. If you tap the button 2 times and have a friend targetted, the pet will use Master's Call on him. After that you need to wait 2 seconds without using the macro again and it will reset.
Hey. Ty for the macro, i will use this one now. I was using on a separate bind to cancel deterrence but it was weird..
Sorry for the dumb question but what's Hand of Protection? I can't see any skill with this name, or aura.
And why jumping forward? You mean, jump on the warrior direction?
edit: nvm, just googled what's Hand of Protection.
edit2: About the camera distance, can anyone give me a advice? Too far seems weirdEdited: August 21, 2016
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When you gain directional velocity, it is only reset by hitting the ground. When someone knocks you back using thunderstorm, you'll keep the velocity you have even when you hit a pillar and if you hit the pillar at a angle, you'll slide along the pillar and continue behind it. This means that CC also doesn't reset velocity. When you jump and get CC'd at the same time, you'll continue to move in the direction that you were jumping towards. This can be used in many ways.
Standing next to a pillar and mage wants to Polymorph you, so he summons a water elemental to freeze you in place so you can't avoid the PM. You see the elemental appear so you jump behind the pillar. He'll hit you by the frost nova by you'll still get out of LOS so he can't morph you.
A very common use that will help you extremely vs warriors because it allows you to completely avoid their gap closing abilities without you using your disengaging abilities. He charges and you jump. The charge will direct him towards the place you were when he used the ability but you will fly away from him. It is especially affective combined with pin from your pet which will pin him in place away from you while you are stunned. If you are mounted and time the jump just right, you can avoid him hitting you even without using any other abilities, he won't have enough time to catch up with you. It's also good to jump in the oposite direction from which the warrior is charging, because charge abilities put you in front of your target and not at your target's position and you'll get even further.
I don't think having super high camera distance (increasing it beyond maximum using the console commands) is really that great. At some point it becomes more annoying than useful and in arenas, you will often not be able to utilize it due to walls and pillars and stuff. Just put it somewhere you feel comfortable with.
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