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Top addons and UI settings for PvP
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of Battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. While derided by some purists, addons are a very useful part of your gameplay. In my opinion, they're far from being something that only people who don't know how to play have to use. Addons can help you improve. It should be noted that at top-level Arena tournaments, teams have to play without addons, so if that is your eventual aim, bear that in mind and try to use them to learn rather than becoming dependent on them. I'm not the most technical of ladies, so what you won't find here is anything that needs coding skill or an intimate knowledge of .lua to edit. And, while basic UI modifications are often pretty straightforward, they can still help you enormously. So for the PvPer, what would I recommend? First things first -- let's get involved in that interface screen. Go into the Interface menu by pressing Escape, click on Combat, and put a tick in that Class Colors in Nameplates box. Why? Well now, instead of uniform red nameplates hovering over your enemies' heads, you have class-colored ones. Remember how I was telling you about reacting to situations? Well, if you don't know who's trying to kill you, how can you react? If you don't have enemy nameplates at all, head to Names and fix that right now! And get your hands out of your pockets!
Your first Battlegrounds as a PvP healer
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of Battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. You've probably heard it approximately a hundred times in Battlegrounds, particularly if you play as either Horde or Alliance. Yep, they both have their moments -- the faction you're not in is no better than the grass is really greener on the other side of the walls of Orgrimmar. But that aside, you've probably heard people bemoaning the lack of PvP healers. "Hey," you think to yourself (like a good, contributing member of the team), "I've got that healer I leveled ... Maybe I should bring that character along to the next Battleground I do!" That would be your first experience of the sheer, unadulterated joy of healing Battlegrounds. You may note a small quantity of sarcasm there; you'll be cursing your kind heart as you're repeatedly ROFLstomped by two DKs. So how do you avoid your repeated untimely demise and start topping the healing chart in your local Battleground? And how do you transfer your skills into the Arena? First and foremost, PvP is not PvE. Well, duh -- revolutionary stuff. But seriously, the skills you learned in PvE won't really apply here. The damage is not predictable. You can't prepare for it. There aren't phases. Standing in the same place in each encounter won't work. You don't have a tank whose job it is to protect you. And in one similarity to PvE, once people figure out you're the reason why they can't kill that warrior, they're going to be after you. Sadly, people can't be taunted, even with yo mama jokes. Also, none of this is true -- but I'll get to that much later.
Blood Sport: How should you prepare for season 11 PvP?
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. So you've had a week away from the arena. What have you been up to in that week? Playing in the autumn leaves? Finally cleaning your keyboard? Or maybe you've been frantically gathering a transmogrification set (once you'd got over the fact that you couldn't transmogrify your paladin into a power ranger)? I know I have, and I'm now in love with Kezzik in Area 52! Perhaps you've been running the new dungeons or flirting with the new raid? ...Or ganking your GM in the Darkmoon Faire's Deathmatch Arena, like @trimbleirl. If you are one of the people who has done enough hard work in season 10 to get a title, you should give yourself a pat on the back. Well done! You're well on your way to the upper echelons of PvP, and I hope you climb even higher this season! And if you're one of the people who has been working through Battlegrounds every day to get your conquest points, congratulations! You're going to be among the first to get your grubby mitts on the new gear. But moving on from what you could have been doing to what you could be doing now, what are the top tips to prepare yourself for season 11?
Blood Sport: 5 frustrations of PVP and how to overcome them
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? That's why Blood Sport is here! WoW is a big, big game. In most of the game, you get to hang out with friends, do your best, and eventually see all the content. Even if it requires extra levels, raid nerfs, and gear improvement, chances are you will eventually get the chance to kill every boss in the game. Play long enough and keep working hard enough, and you can be guaranteed to see all of the player-versus-environment content. PVP doesn't work that way. PVP is a zero-sum game. In order for someone to win, someone has to lose. The Arena doesn't end until one of the teams suffers a total defeat. In the Battlegrounds, one team achieves its objectives and the other team fails. The result of this zero-sum situation is that PVP can be very, very frustrating. We have some tips and techniques that will help you battle these frustrations, either by managing your emotions or overcoming the most annoying aspect of PVP.
Blood Sport: Welcome to Twin Peaks
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? That's why Blood Sport is here! The Twin Peaks battleground was introduced with Cataclysm. While it's a new battleground with a brand new map, Twin Peaks borrows a lot of elements from an old, favorite PVP location, Warsong Gulch. In Twin Peaks, the two teams face off to play a rousing game of capture-the-flag. The rules are essentially the same as Warsong Gulch. To win, you run up to the enemy flag, right-click it, grab it, and run it back to your own base. If your flag is in your base, then you score a point. If your flag is not in your base, you have to hang out while you wait for it to get returned. Like I said, it's essentially the same thing as Warsong Gulch.
Lichborne: Cataclysm PVP basics for death knights
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. This is about the time in an expansion's life cycle when PVE content is just getting a little too repetitive, to be frank. With only one instance at the top raid tier and only two dungeons at the top LFD tier, it's pretty tempting to try out a few battlegrounds or an arena or two just to spice things up. Personally, the RBG reward mount is one of my favorite-looking ones out of the whole bunch, so that's even more reason to try this PVP stuff out. This week, we're going to look at some of the most basic stuff you'll need to know if you plan to do some PVP as a death knight.
Blood Sport: Developing successful arena strategies
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple Rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. It has not been a good month of WoW in the Moore household. Starting four weeks ago, my internet went down for a good three weeks. Last week, I got in a motorcycle accident. The crash wasn't that bad, but I am now very wary of puddles. Very wary. This week, we'll be discussing how to create and develop successful arena strategies. Quick aside: I see many players confusing the terms strategy and tactics. Strategies are overarching game plans for how to defeat specific enemy teams. Tactics are specific skills used to accomplish strategies. If strategy is the blueprint to a skyscraper, tactics are the best way to weld steel beams together. Strategy We can rotate crowd control on the enemy mage and rogue while DPSing the priest after he trinkets. Tactic The rogue is on Fear diminishing returns, start using Polymorph on him.
Blood Sport: Having fun in the arena, part 2
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple Rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. My internet is still down. Yes, this has been two weeks of hell. No Google, no easy check on the weather (I have a motorcycle), no instant directions -- and most importantly, no images or videos of scantily clad ... orcs. World of Warcraft has been out of my bloodstream for yet another week. Having fun in arena is one aspect I don't necessarily need a WoW window open to write about, so we're going to cover some bases that I might have forgotten last week -- namely, how to be a good teammate and encourage a fun atmosphere, and having fun while both winning and losing.
Blood Sport: Having fun in the arena
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. My internet is down this week (lame!), so I'll be writing about a topic near to my heart: having fun in the arena. I was originally going to write about how to make the best use of your time in WoW when you don't have much of it, but then I thought two things: Everyone spends time in game differently. Some people like PVE, some PVP, some prefer the auction house, and others (mindbogglingly) enjoy reputation grinding. For me to throw out a list of how to best use your time would be madness, absolute madness. Considering we are WoW players, making the best use of your time might not be the most well-received article.
Blood Sport: Finding your PVP playstyle in arena, part 2
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. We talked last week about finding your PVP playstyle in an attempt to find better partners. People with the same view on how an arena battle should be won usually find themselves doing much better than otherwise. The strategy doesn't have to be necessarily the best strategy or tactics used, as long as everyone is on the same page. I've seen inferior strategies work wonders when everyone on the opposing team is in sync with each other. While we went over a variety of topics, including offense vs. defense, crowd control vs. damage, and leader vs. follower mentality, I don't believe I've quite done justice to healers or overarching views on arena. So we'll be discussing this for a bit more today, then moving onto something else next week.
Blood Sport: Finding your PVP playstyle in arena
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. I've found one of the most common excuses for not having an arena team is conflicting playstyles with past teammates. While often times these excuses are not really the problem (far too many arena players are self-centered and unreceptive to criticism), playstyle differences can be a factor in not meshing well with certain players. I'd like to provide you with a few common playstyle differences, my take on which side of the spectrum is generally more popular, which side is generally better, and what I tend toward.
Blood Sport: Iron sharpens iron, part 5
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Check out part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4 of this series on allowing others to shape your arena gameplay. Today will be the last installment of this extra-long series. I intended to end this last week, but wasn't content with the amount of content delivered concerning people who had shaped me as a gladiator. Names have been changed to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent.
Blizzard explains, apologizes for PVP Season 10 gear debacle
The last few weeks have not been kind to PVPers, to be sure. Despite the new arena season starting on Tuesday of this week, conquest points were accidentally down-converted to honor points a week early, with the excess irreversibly converted to gold. Then, making matters worse, Blizzard launched a new tier of ilevel 371 Season 10 gear on Tuesday without warning, just a week after making ilevel 365 Season 9 gear available for purchase with honor. It was a pretty unique double screw, and it rightfully had a lot of players incensed. In a rare moment of humility, Blizzard has taken to the official forums to address the pair of what the company is calling "mistakes." Specifically, Community Manager Zarhym (who looks adorable when posed next to a lifesized wyvern) had this to say: i365 Vicious vs i371 Vicious - Comparison Before getting into it, I want you all to know that we've maintained an open dialog with our developers over the past 24 hours regarding the way in which the PvP season transition went down since patch 4.2 (this includes relaying a lot of the feedback we've seen on the forums to them). We agree that the mistakes made were very unfortunate and unfair to a lot of players. We're currently exploring some options to try and alleviate some of the misfortune many of you experienced while purchasing PvP gear in the last week. source The full post, which is available after the break, gives a pretty good summary of the facts behind the case, and perhaps more importantly, what Blizzard intended to happen for the start of this and subsequent new arena seasons. In short: After an arena season ends, that season's PVP tier, previously available only via spending conquest points, will be available for purchase with honor points to give players one last opportunity to spend excess HP before the impending conquest-to-honor conversion (essentially, a one-week-only sale). When a new season begins, the old, sale-priced PVP tier will be taken off the market in lieu of new, better, current season gear.
Blood Sport: Iron sharpens iron, part 4
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Check out part one, part two, and part three of this series on allowing others to shape your arena gameplay. This has been one of our longer series here at Blood Sport, but that shouldn't really come as a surprise to my regular readers -- I love telling stories. This week, we'll be covering a hodgepodge of different player types I've encountered throughout my time in arena. It's amazing to me the diversity of players who at look to high-level arena for both a challenge and entertainment. I'll try to stay away from teammates that I've already talked about. All names have been changed to protect the innocent (and the not-so-innocent).
Spiritual Guidance: The basics of shadow priest PVP
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen regularly insults normal people, so you should never take his writing seriously. Fox encourages you to follow him on Twitter. I've been writing the shadow version of Spiritual Guidance for over a year and a half now. In actuality, it seems like forever -- like I've covered every topic multiple times. And yet, in all those columns, there's one topic I've never really taken the time to address: shadow priest PVP. There's a reason, of course. PVP in and of itself is a damn complex subject. With a PVE encounter, there's some randomness, but it's all contained within a predetermined set of variables that you can research on a resource such as Wowhead. You may not know when Onyxia is gonna use her Deep Breath ability, but you know it's coming. PVP is different. You don't know what your opponent is thinking (if he's even thinking at all). Some battleground teams head into battle looking for a street fight, hoping to win with raw brutality and no real strategy. Other teams choreograph their movements and communicate through Ventrillo or Mumble, approaching each battle like amateur Douglas MacArthurs. There's no algorithm that tells you how your opponents will act and react to what you do. I'm far from a PVP expert myself, so I can really only offer you some of the PVP basics to get you started. If you're looking for top-level strategy, check out Blood Sport. If you're looking to get your feet wet and start exploring the other side of the World of Warcraft game ... read on.
Blood Sport: Iron Sharpens Iron, part III
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Check out part one and part two of this series on allowing others to shape your arena gameplay. I feel like this recent series is a way for me to tell a bunch of stories -- and oh man, do I love telling stories. I've been growing very fond of a well-told anecdote. Transitioning to another arena bracket (5v5) If you'll recall from part two, my 3v3 teammates were content with a Gladiator title, while I was not. I told them I would stay on the team as a safety net, but that I was creating a 5v5 for rank 1. Both were very supportive and encouraged me throughout the entire process, even though they did not decide to join in my quest (they were already on high rated 5v5s). By this time I had a formidable reputation from being high-rated in 2v2 and rank 1 in 3v3. A lot of high-rated PVPers offered me spots on their already semi high-rated 5v5s. Most of the teams used the "weak-link" sales pitch. If you've never heard it, it goes something like this: "Our 5v5 would be rank 1 with ease if it weren't for a single member of our team. But if you replace him, we'll probably go undefeated to Merciless Gladiator." They usually talk a lot of smack on that "terrible" teammate when offering you the position.
Blood Sport: Iron sharpens iron, part II
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Check out part one of this series on allowing others to shape your gameplay. I'm constantly amazed how much wisdom others have for me, especially when I'm usually the most experienced player on the team. Remaining humble and always looking to improve yourself will keep your head in the right place when it comes to arena. Last article, I explored my past history and what I learned from it before I had any type of accomplishment or achievement attached to my character or name. This week, I'll be discussing what got me into the upper tier of arena -- those of you looking to make the jump might find this article particularly helpful.
Blood Sport: Iron sharpens iron
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. It's no secret that other people influence our lives. This is a widely understood precept of life, but one that is not often directly tackled. Parents look after their children to make sure they aren't "hanging out with a bad crowd." Nearly everyone has heard or spoken the expression, "It's not what you know, but who you know." Sciences have been created to study how people affect one another. Sociology and psychology are studies of human interaction. Advertising, marketing, and economics have a firm foundation in understanding influences that we exert on one another -- and this isn't a recent phenomenon. Ancient proverbs speak of men sharpening each other as iron sharpens iron. Skills are honed by the acceptance of constructive criticism. Arena is no exception. Doing arena with players who are better than yourself will make you a better arena player, and that's what we're going to be talking about today.
Blood Sport: Why do we play arenas?
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Why does anyone even play arena? Every time we enter, it's a deathmatch on one of five maps. No dragons, no intricate storyline, no phat loot. The same team compositions show up again and again. Titles only last for a season unless you have the drive and ambition to hit rank 1. It's pretty depressing when you think about it, isn't it? I'll tell you why we do it: competition. People are naturally competitive. We always want to be better than the next guy, and arena is an outlet for that.
Blood Sport: Staying offensive on the defensive
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. We'll be taking a detour from our guide on how to make a new character for PvP to discuss something a bit different today. I get questions from time to time about a variety of PvP-related issues. I mean, I'm verbose, but I didn't think I could write over 1,000 words on one question, until Veni recently asked: C. Christian, You say that you are at your best when you are being focused in arena, and you barely let your damage slip. I play a frost mage, and have only enjoyed success up to around 2k arena rating, and one of the areas I feel weak on, is sustaining damage when being focused. I consider myself to be very strong positionally, and mechanically. Does the ability to sustain damage and remain strong while being focused yourself come from a great knowledge of your oppenents abilities? when you can and cannot get away with that extra cast? or exceptional communication with teammates, knowing when they are going to peel, allowing you to squeeze in an extra nuke. Regards, a weekly reader
