#0 - Feb. 1, 2010, 10:45 p.m.
READ THIS BEFORE POSTING:
After dueling a bunch of people on my warrior alt and winning a bunch of fights I came across a feral druid whom i dueled for a while. Seeing as i was doing pretty good in my duels despite my lack of gear he asked me if i could provide him with some advice on how to play the warrior class in pvp since he had one himself but wasn't very good at playing it. I agreed to write him a guide explaining the very basics of warrior pvp and i ended up writing what i am about to post here.
This guide is in other words meant for people who find themselves to be bad in warrior pvp and if you are an experienced warrior player you will most likely learn little or nothing from reading this. I would also like to ---->CLEARLY STATE<---- that i do not in any way proclaim myself to be a warrior expert among the best of the best so please don't bother to post any elitist comments in response to this post.
I do however appreciate feedback and suggestions.
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Brutalinax’s Guide to the basics of the warrior class in pvp.
Key bindings:
Binding as many spells as possible will allow you to react faster and will smoothen your game play significantly. One thing that is crucial to key bind for a warrior is the stances. I have these key bound to the keys:
Shift+1 (battle stance) shift+2 (defensive stance) Shift+3 (berserker stance).
You can key bind these spells directly in the stance bar you don’t have to put them on action bars. These stances can be found in the key bindings section under “Action Bar Functions” named: Special action button 1, 2, and 3
Once your stances are key bound you should find it a lot less painful to use these during fast paced fights. To make these key bindings extra useful I key bound the 3 charge spells on 1, 2, and 3 in each stance. In other words:
Shift+1, 1 = battle stance, charge
Shift+2, 2 = defensive stance, intervene
Shift+3, 3 = berserker stance, intercept
In addition to key binding your stances it is also important to key bind all of your standard spells. I recommend using some of the following key bindings:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, F, G, T, R, V, C
These can all be combined with both Shift and Control.
They are all located close to the basic movement keys: Q,W,E,A,S,D and will make them easy to use. I do not recommend key binding Q and E since these can be important for strafing which a lot of people finds comfortable to use along with the mouse to move around smoothly. Whenever you release the right mouse button A and D will become turning keys which is near useless so having your Q and E buttons ready whenever you need to click on anything (targeting or something you can’t figure out a good key binding for) they will come in handy.
Macros:
The most important macro for a warrior is the spell reflection macro.
Here is the plain and simple version:
#showtooltip
/equip [Weapon]
/equip [Shield]
/cast spell reflection
/cast defensive stance
This macro switches to defensive stance and casts spell reflection. This is useful because even if you don’t manage to get your spell reflection off you will still benefit from the 10% damage reduction in defensive stance.
(note that you might need to spam this macro a couple of times for it to go off)
HOWEVER! This macro is based on having 3/3 in tactical mastery and the animation of defensive stance might just serve as a warning to the enemy caster. Another alternative to the spell reflection macro is:
#showtooltip Spell Reflection
/cast [stance:1/2,equipped:Shields] Spell Reflection; [stance:3] Defensive Stance
/stopmacro [equipped: Shields]
/stopcasting
/equip [Weapon]
/equip [Shield]
This macro does not switch to defensive stance if you are already in battle stance and will be useful if you wish to use spell reflection without burning down your rage and giving the warning signal that is defensive stance.
There are many additional macros you can use to improve your game play but these are often based on the style of the individual so if you want to know more about macros I suggest you look at one of the following links:
http://www.arenajunkies.com/macros/warrior/#tar19
http://www.wowwiki.com/Useful_macros_for_warriors
1 on 1
Warriors aren’t exactly the easiest class in the game to play with in one versus one. This is mainly because their means of regenerating their own hp is limited. Warriors are generally quite good at taking down healers but chances are you will get drained down slowly if your opponent has too much resilience. Technically the warrior is incapable of killing most classes in a 1 vs. 1 fight but this does not mean that you are chance-less at all. Warriors’ burst in close combat is massive and if a kiter screws up against you, you will have a good chance of winning. The most important 1v1 aspect of the warrior is their fear factor. If you can make an opponent panic you might get him to play defensively and this puts you in advantage because most classes cant defend themselves vs. a warrior for long.
1v1 vs. Druids
- Restoration druids
Restoration druids are good at maintaining their hp vs. a warrior because the main part of their healing is based on instantly cast healing over time effects. This means that your chances of using interrupts or relentless assault are minor. When you fight a restoration druid the hardest part will be maintaining your hp. Most druids are specced into insect swarm and when this is combined with moonfire (and especially if they are glyphed) the dots can do devastating dmg which you most likely won’t be able to withstand for very long. Fighting a restoration druid single handed is something you should try to avoid but if you do end up in the situation the best cause of action is to get him down as fast as possible. You can give up any idea about draining a druids mana since you will be dead long before that happens and even if you succeed he will quickly regain it with innervate. If you are fighting a druid with low resilience you might be able to rush so much damage on him that he will be completely incapable of dealing damage to you. It is important that you don’t let him regain at any point and keep pressing him down. Your chances of killing a druid with low resilience are very good. If the druid is well geared and has a lot of resilience you will most likely be incapable of killing him. One thing that is very useful here is to cheat the druid into thinking that he has much more control over the situation than he actually has. This is done by doing stuff like stacking up x5 sunder armor on him + whatever means you have of increasing your damage. The druid might not notice this or consider it to be a worthless attempt to increase your damage which is not causing him any trouble at all. If you are lucky he might even switch out to normal form and start trying to nuke you. This is your chance to exploit his overconfidence and give him an all out burst. Timing is crucial when this surprise burst is launched. The best possible time is when he has few hots up (especially if he has no life blooms).
Feral Druids:
Feral druids are squishy in their cat form and this begs for overpower spam. When you fight a feral druid in a duel it’s a good idea to start in defensive stance with a shield equipped to decrease the dmg he deals during his initial stun. However it is important that you do not dwell like this for too long without having either shield block or shield wall up as he will just outdps you that way. Feral druids are much better at regenerating their hp than you are so this means that you will have to keep a high pressure on them. Most likely the druid will sooner or later switch into bear form. Either out of panic or just as a part of his rotation. While the bear form may appear to be near immortal its important to keep your head cold and keep the dps up. If you withdraw to play defensively (except for using shield wall + frenzied regeneration or alike) you will be beaten down slowly. The bear form is not as immortal as it looks. Its only evasive rating is dodge which means that you can overpower it every time it does so. Its damage is relatively low and its only means of defense is a regeneration cooldown and high amount of armor. If you have a lot of armor penetration you shouldn’t find it hard to best it. If he at any times switches out of form to heal it is important that you do everything you can to get him down since this basically lets down all of his defenses.
Short summary: keep going, don’t get too defensive, pop frenzied regeneration!
Balance Druids:
This fight is stressing and will most likely be over within 30 seconds (often much less). Basically you need to keep the dps up on him at all times and get ready to spell reflect whenever possible. The most fearsome spell in the Balance druids arsenal is the treants. The best way to ward yourself against these is to cast fear but this might not be convenient if you are under pressure and the balance druid is winning the dps race. Keep the druid locked down and pop as many cooldown as you feel necessary to outburst him. If you can reflect one of his casts it can turn into a great advantage but don’t count on it.
Finally I would like to remind you that travel form is a brilliant way to escape bladestorm and you should try to time this cooldown to either escape a dangerous CC effect or place a burst while he is busy hotting or casting a spell. If he does escape your bladestorm quickly interrupt it and intercept / charge him.
