On Teamwork

Back in Season 8, there was a distinct division between the Hardcore and the Casual PvPers. The Hardcore spent most of their time in arenas, as the only way to get into the best gear possible was to save up arena points and hit 2200 rating. Of course, at the very end of the season all the Wrathful gear became available for honour points (excluding the 2200 weapons which had to have been earned during the season), but for the duration of competitive PvP, arenas were where it was at.

The Battlegrounds, while certainly played by Hardcore and Casual PvPers alike, were a place of casual, for fun, play. Sure, you earned honour with them, and you could use that to buy epic gems and make a bit of profit, but once you'd gotten all your honour gear, BGs became sort of useless. The lessons they had to offer were learnt only during the very rare premade and even then it was always against PuGs, thus a distinct lack of challenge.

Arenas and PvP

Arenas still offer the best rewards in the PvP world in Season 9, but with one key difference. You can run Rated BGs for the same rewards. Running Rated BGs also gives you access to the old PvP titles, which have been brought back for Rated BGs. Running arenas all the way up to 2200 rating will net you the best weapons, once they come out, but they won't do much more than that, since rating below 2200 doesn't get you anything, except 1500 which gives you extra Conquest Points every week.

But outside of material rewards of arena play, what do they teach the PvPer? Lots about how to take down an opponent 1v1, and how to win in small-scale PvP. But they don't really teach one of the most valuable lessons of large-scale PvP. Teamwork.

Rated Battlegrounds, and Teamwork

Now before all the arena junkies out there gut me, don't get me wrong. Coordinating with your arena partner, or partners, takes teamwork. I am absolutely not belittling that fact. But it doesn't teach the kind of teamwork I'm talking about here, and that's the kind that, to borrow from the other metagame, you learn by raiding.

Raiding requires a pile of coordination. Your RL has to be able to keep 9 other, or 24 other players on track for several hours while you down bosses and battle mechanics. Rated BGs require a similar amount of focus. You have to keep 10 players together, and keep them so together that they co-ordinate better than the other team. It becomes much less a game of gear (although gear does matter, to a certain extent), and one of pure skill.

In a Rated BG, if you don't have tactics, you don't have a strategy, and you don't have micro and macro-management skills you lose. Plain and simple. Because you aren't playing a herd of unorganized PuGs. You aren't fighting a pre-programmed boss. You're playing very real, very smart, human opponents. They've got an organized team, that uses teamwork. You need to have one that has more.

A Shift in the Spectrum

The point I'm trying to get at here, is that the whole landscape of PvP has changed forever. With arenas now, in some ways, a side game played to get Conquest points for gear, Rated Battlegrounds have become the site of hard-core competition. Players are judged on their RBG rating, and the 3k+ players who have already topped the ladders are mini celebrities.

PvP is no longer about your ability to burn down that stupid disc priest and rogue and mage buddies. It's about complex coordination between teams. It's about more than just having the fastest reflexes. It's about strategy and teamwork.

With all that said, it's more important than ever before to work together effectively with your team when you run Rated BGs. If you're your guild's RL in RBGs, then set up some training runs, get your guild used to focus firing, to coordinating crowd control, and working as a team. The season is still relatively young, and Rated BGs are something brand new to the WoW metagame.

In a couple seasons, incredible Battleground coordination will be par for the course. While everything is still being tried and tested, in other words right now, is your best chance to get really good at Rated BGs. And really, you've only got two choices, catch up and learn some serious teamwork fast, or get left in the dust.

A New Strand of the Ancients... again

I think it's relatively safe to say that in recent times in the World of Warcraft, no BG has gone through quite as many changes as Strand of the Ancients. With Cataclysm, the Battleground was completely redone, but it turned into something of a ridiculous zerg-fest, forcing Blizzard to rework the BG again, into its current incarnation today.

With all the confusion surrounding Strand, I figured now would be a good time to give everyone a quick primer in the ins and the outs of the BG, as well as some solid tactics for keeping on top, and pulling wins out of the fastest battleground.

The Basics

For those of you who aren't already Strand veterans, let me give you a brief introduction. You'll start off randomly put on one of two boats, heading towards shore. This is the time to buff up, as the game starts as soon as you land.

Once you land you'll be on a beach, facing either a green gate or a blue one, with two demolishers at your disposal. The goal is to break down those gates, get to the red, and purple ones behind them and then finally break through a final yellow gate to get into a courtyard and breach a room called “The Relic Chamber.” Once you do that, you'll win the offensive round.

However, there is also a defensive round, (which could actually happen first, it's just RNG), where you play the side holding the demolishers off. This is pretty simple, CC the demos and the bad guys, shoot down the demos, and keep the bad guys from getting into your relic chamber. The team who has offence first sets a time, and the second group to play offense has to beat it. If they do, they win, if they don't, they lose.

Simple enough, right? Now – how do you win?

Offensive Strategies

First of all, it should be noted that in the new patch the demolishers no longer have an extra two seats for ranged dps to park themselves in. The only person who can be in the vehicle is the demolisher. With that in mind, it's more important to have solid CC on the ground than ever before.

The name of the game on both sides of Strand is Crowd Control, and the secret to winning is to successfully CC the defending team enough that your demolishers can get ahead of them. Once the demos break away they opposition will be stuck playing a hopeless game of catch up, and the win will be yours.

There are two main tactics to pulling this off. The first is stacking demolishers. I can't emphasize enough how important this is. The demolishers now move extremely fast, and doors are pretty weak so if you get four (or sometimes, even more) stacked on a door, it'll go down extremely fast. Then you can sprint ahead to the next one, and so on and so forth.

Well-stacked demos lead to an easy win.

The best way to win Strand is to have demos stack on either blue or green, break down that gate, grab the GY behind it, break down the next one, CC the crap out of the other team, get ahead when you get to yellow, and sit back and relax and you faceroll the courtyard to win.

The trick here is both effective CC, and the other main tactic on offence in Strand. Dispelling. You NEED a paladin, or another class capable of purging crowd control from the demolishers because if they get slowed regularly, the other team can and WILL catch up with them, and they'll get burst down.

You need to have a paladin on your team riding ahead with your demolishers on strict dispel duty. Have him mount up, catch up to your demos and STAY WITH THEM. If you can successfully keep the demos at full speed, or close to it, they'll outpace the other team and you will almost always pull a win.

Defensive Strategies

Winning on defence is a little more tricky. Offence is much easier now due to the huge speed of the demolishers. The best way to stop a demo now is with a frost mage, as they can freeze them in place, and keep them rooted pretty well. You'll want to get a frost mage (even in PuGs, most groups have one) on the gate the other team rushes and have him on root duty. If he can hold them long enough it'll give you time to burst the demos down.

Guns are also viable on defence again as they have been buffed significantly. If you get both guns on a gate pounding on the demos attacking they will actually go down, so it's definitely worth it to make use of the guns again.

The secret to winning on defence is to break the initial zerg of demolishers. If you pull a solid offence, you'll make it to the relic chamber with your first batch of demolishers. As a result, if you kill the first group of demos on defence (though it's better if you can stop two waves) the opposition will generally fall behind enough that even if they regroup quickly – they won't have time to get to your relic.

A good way to make sure you're effectively burning the demos down is to have the group leader use raid icons on them. Then call out in BG chat (or vent if we're talking Rated BGs or a premade) “Kill skull, kill cross, kill star,” etc. It's important to ONLY hit the actual players on the other team when all the demolishers are down. If there are demos up on a gate, you should be hitting those, and NOT the players, just CC them until the demos go down. A lot of people get caught up in HK farming and fall behind the wave of demos, which is a sure formula for a failed defensive.

Conclusion

Overall, Strand has changed a lot since its incarnation in the earlier days of Wrath. But I think it's easy to like the changes. It's now the fastest BG, win or lose, which makes it great for farming honour, especially on its holiday weekend. Strand is also a very interesting BG, as unlike focusing on objectives (the flag, territory control etc.) and killing players to do it, Strand focuses almost entirely on non-player goals. Kill demos, kill gates, etc.

The only thing you really want to do is crowd control the opposing players, except when you've got nothing else to do on defence. It makes Strand unique, as it's probably the only BG so focused on NOT killing players. Does that make it good or bad?

That's up to you.

Until next time, practice safe Death!

~Onike

The Complete 2h Unholy Tool Kit

Season 9 is here, and with it serious PvP is back in style.  I won't say I don't miss the lax attitude of the last couple months, but the fact of the matter is, if you want to seriously PvP in this season, now is the time to work at getting geared and ready to go.  The best time to get into PvP is at the start of a season, when the gear playing field is level.

With that in my, I'm taking a bit of a break from my informal Cataclysm leveling guide to walk you through pretty much ever current viable PvP spec, so that you can choose how you'd like to be playing this season.  I'm starting this off with 2 handed Unholy, because it has slightly higher dps than the other DK specs, and also has the most general utility.  Although frost and blood as a LOT more viable than they were last season, at least for the time being, Unholy is back to being the "it" spec.  A bit a shame?  Maybe, but that's just how it is.

The Spec

The basic spec, packing the best combination of dps and PvP utility (more or less, I haven't gone miles into the theorycrafting) is 0/8/33.  You aren't give a whole lot of choice with your Unholy talents, and in the frost tree there is absolutely no choice at all, because you need to pick up Lichborne, and Endless Winter.

So now you've seen the basic talent rundown, but what exactly is this spec packing?  Well dps rotation aside (we'll talk about that in a sec), it's got the standard Strangulate silence (which isn't a talent, so every DK spec features), a free mind freeze every 10 seconds and the additional ghoul stun.  This means, that if you need to lock down a caster, you can interrupt a cast with DG, chains of ice, strangulate, mind freeze, ghoul stun, mind freeze again, then drop dark simulacrum.  They won't know what hit them.

The spec is also packing Lichborne, one of my favourite frost talents, which makes you immune to those pesky stuns and gives you the ability to heal yourself with Death Coil.  The macro for that is:   

#showtooltip Lichborne
/cast !Lichborne;
/cast [target=player] Death Coil 

(Courtesy of arena junkies).

Let's talk glyphs

You don't have a ton of choice when it comes to your prime and major glyphs.  This list comes from Elitist Jerks, for optimal dps, and I'd say it's pretty solid for PvP as well.

Prime:
[Glyph of the Ghoul] 
(as a side note, the mouseover for this won't work properly.  Please ignore wowhead's lack of a glyph of the ghoul atm, and just go with the name.  I'll fix that soon as I can.)
[Glyph of Scourge Strike] | [Glyph of Death and Decay], for AoE/DW (Yes I know thsi post doesn't discuss DW.  More on that in a future post).
[Glyph of Death Coil] | [Glyph of Icy Touch], for AoE.

Major
[Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell]
[Glyph of Pestilence]
[Glyph of Blood Boil]

The minor glyphs in EJ are left up to your personal choice, and I'd agree with that.  They aren't going to affect your dps too much, so I wouldn't worry overly about it, take whatever floats your boat.

The Rotation

Okay.  So as I've already stated in a few past posts, the days of set DK rotations are behind us, in their place is a world of priority systems.  Now if you've PvPed before, you're probably already familiar with the concept.  PvP has never really had a set rotation, it's all about reaction to your situation.  Sure, if a friendly rogue has your target stunlocked, you may as well open up your pure dps rotation, but that's not gonna happen very often.

But, for purely academic purposes, and so that you have a rough understanding of the raid rotation, here's the priority system, once again courtesy of EJ:

Diseases > Dark Transformation > DnD*/SS if both Unholy and/or all Death runes are up > FeS if both pairs of Blood and Frost runes are up >
DC if SD, 100 RP, will overcap RP with anything else or if RC isn’t up > DnD/SS > FeS > DC > HoW.

HOWEVER, this is the raid priority system.  Yours will have to be different because of PvP.  Therefore, with that in mind, I've altered the system a little bit to account for PvP.

Diseases>Dark Transformation>INTERRUPTS*>Dark Simulacrum (vs. casters only)>DnD/SS if both UH and/or Death runes are up>FeS if both pairs of blood and frost are up>Necrotic Strike if one unholy or death rune is up>DC if Sudden Doom procs, or if you're at 130 RP, or about to ovecap>DnD/SS>FeS>DC>HoW.

 *Interrupts take precedence over everything if you are fighting a caster, especially a healer, and they're casting a spell.

Okay, so that probably seems really complicated.  Let me make it much simpler.  This PvP rotation is basically the same as the raid one with a few things in mind.

First, when a caster is casting, if you CAN, you SHOULD interrupt them.  Always.

Second, when you have your diseases up and have one unholy rune up, or one death rune, you should always necrotic strike as much as possible, unless it is impossible for that target to be healed.  In most cases, they'll have self-heals or the possibility of a healer jumping in to save them, so stacking necrotic strike as much as you can just makes sense.

Besides that, the dpsPvP is all about rolling with the punches and being ready for anything.  The benefit to knowing the rotation is just understanding how to dps.

 

Conclusion, and some thoughts on Ghoul Control

So, before I wrap this up, I want to run through a few basics EVERY Unholy DK should be aware of.  First, your ghoul is important, if it's dead and your raise dead is off CD, you should be bringing it back.  Second, you should have leap and gnaw keybound, not set automatically.  Got an ally running away?  Leap and stun.  Need an on-the-fly interrupt for that big heal, but have mind freeze and strangulate on CD?  Gnaw it up!  

Don't let the computer decide when to interrupt!  That's your job as the player.  I only leave Claw on automatic (since he should be using it every CD), and turn of huddle entirely, it's a complete waste of a GCD, when aggrro is meaningless in PvP.  Learning to use your ghoul effectively is one of the best things you can do as an Unholy PvPer.

Anyways, to wrap this up, Unholy is a very strong spec in the early days of Season 9.  2h UH packs the most utility, and according to most theorycrafters, the most dps.  If you're into min-maxing, this is probably the spec for you.  If you don't like unholy, never fear.  There's two other trees, and even a DW variation on UH and frost to come, so don't fret.  The difference between specs isn't too enormous, so you've definitely got options.

Until next time, Practice safe Death!

~Onike

Season 9 Begins December 14th

This doesn't seem like a piece of news that has been a big deal throughout the blog-o-sphere, and the WoW community in general, but today while I was staring longingly at those blank Conquest tabs on my PvP screen, I saw that a little message had been added to the foot of them.

Season 9 will begin December 14th 2010.  This means, for those of you not near a calendar, or not being particularly endowed mathematically, it goes live exactly one day after Cataclysm goes live.  Also, by no coincidence, I'm sure, both these events take place on a Tuesday, just in time for maintenance.

What does this mean?

Besides the obvious, it means Blizzard is intending to make competitive arenas and Battlegrounds available almost immediately after Cataclysm goes live.  If leveling in Wrath was any example (which despite the increase in level being cut in half, I think is a fairly good estimate), then we can expect very few people to be 85 in less than a week.  Sure, some people will have played the beta and already figured leveling out 100%, and then take time off work and ding in a few very short days.  But I'm assuming most of you don't fall into that category.

Personally, I'm estimating at least two weeks (probably more) to get from 80-85.  This means That by the time the average player hits max level again, they'll be able to delve right into serious PvP.

But this also means, that if you haven't started thinking about putting a PvP team together already, you should be.  We now know the next PvP Season is going to be live in less than three weeks.  If you want to catch the first wave of PvPers, you want to be ready with some kind of a team by the time you're at 85.  In terms of arenas, this may mean simply grabbing a few friends who are already max level too.  But rated BGs may require you to wait for slower levelers, like yours truly, due to the larger size.

Get Ready to Rumble

Sounds cheesy, right?  I agree, it is.  But the fact of the matter is that if you're a PvPers, there is no reason for you to stay out of the ring longer than you have to.  Season 8 has been over for almost a month now, and I don't know about you guys, but beyond the amazing new questing content, I'm pretty excited about getting a chance to sink my teeth into some major PvP again.

So, gear up, get those leveling boots ready, and don't hang up your sword just yet.  Things are about to get really interesting all over again.

Until then, practice safe Death!

~Onike

Hardware: The Hidden Basis of PvP?

I recently had the misfortune of losing what is, to many gamers, a very important piece of equipment.  My mouse.  It was a wirless mouse with two extra buttons alone the side (which I had bound to FS and HB), and I was sorry to see it go.  But this put me in an interesting place.

See, I run WoW on a laptop.  Which means, technically speaking, I have a trackpad, which is a built-in mouse.  I'm actually extremely comfortable with the laptop's built-in mouse, so I figured I'd take a crack at playing WoW using just this.

Bad idea.

I'd always had a vague notion that in the world of PvP, 'keyboard turning' was a major faux pas.  You don't want to ever tell another PvPer that you *gasp* keyboard turn, because that immediately puts you at the very bottom of a long ladder of PvPers.  It seems like the PvP community believes there is a special circle of Hell reserved for keyboard turners. 

I'd always largely considered this a bit of an exaggeration.  I have a friend who keyboard turns (granted, she plays a warlock, which is a casting class.  Melee classes like the DK move a whole lot more than they do), and she does fine.  What's the big deal about keyboard turning?  I'll just keep one hand on the arrow keys, and one had on my keybindings, and I'll tear it up?  Right?

Wrong.

I think I ran a total of three Battlegrounds keyboard turning my little DK around, and it was more than enough to last me a lifetime.  If I never find myself without a mouse again, it'll be too soon.  Maybe in less movement-intensive raid fights you can keyboard turn.  Maybe.  And maybe casters can sometimes get away with it.  But PvPing a melee class, I simply can not.  Which meant one thing.

It was time to go shopping.

The Mouse

Everyone has heard of crazy mice such as the legendary Razer Naga, which has an additional 12 buttons, just down the side, let alone everything else packed in.  But I needed a mouse right away, and didn't want to wait for it to be shipped in (no store within many miles of my house would ever carry specific gaming gear like that).  I've also heard mixed things about the Naga, people saying it's too cramped et cetera, et cetera.  So I went to a local Staples, and perused their selection of mice.

Eventually, I settled on the Logitech Marathon M705, in part because it was on sale, and in part because it is a very comfortable mouse to hold  (which is important when you use it as often as we WoWers do).  As it turns out, the mouse actually has a lot more features than my old one, with two buttons down the side (as before), but with also a left and right wheel button (triggered by pushing the wheel left or right) and a hidden button beneath the padded side (below the two standard ones).

What this means is that I've been able to bind a lot more of my abilities to my mouse, and this has (not surprisingly) seriously increased my performance.  Muscle memory hasn't quite set in yet, but a lot of my cooldowns and defensive OMG buttons are now a quick movement of my thumb away.  Where I used to have to clumsily hold CTR + A for my Chains of Ice (sure, I could have bound it to something else), I now simply twitch my thumb.  Where Army used to require a complex bending of my keyboard, I now flick my middle finger (taking flipping the bird to a whole 'nother level, if you ask me).  It's a lot more intuitive, especially for PvPers, where quick timing is everything.

Beyond the Game

 This whole situation, of course, got me thinking about hardware in general.  How much of a difference does it make?  Does buying a fancy keyboard, or a really nice mouse greatly improve you game?  Will I take some rogue apart the next time I PvP because my mouse is better than his?

No, obviously not.  PvP is largely about skill, and simply understanding your class well-enough to kill other classes with it.  Does my mouse define my skill as a player?  Absolutely not.  But it does make a difference.  And maybe at some point I'll duel somebody and beat them with 100 health left.  And then I'll be talking to that person and learn they have a standard mouse, with a left and right click and a wheel in the middle, no extra features packed in.  And I'll be glad I've got my Marathon M705, because in that case it probably mattered.

Does a gamer's hardware define their play-experience?  Obviously your computer does.  Another notable DK in my guild runs WoW on a largely custom-built gaming rig.  She pulls a remarkable 50 fps while idling, with every setting turned up to Ultra.  Apparently the lowest she ever sees her fps is 30, and only in high stress raiding/PvP.

Whereas my Inspiron, with a built in chip-set for its graphics card, and a fairly small amount of RAM pulls an average of 8 fps, with every setting turned down as low as it goes. 

Does THAT make a difference?  Well... yeah.  It's a huge difference.  But not everyone can drop the kind of money that computer cost.  So it boils down to the little things.  Your mouse, your keyboard.  And sometimes, hardware can matter.

That's not to say a hardcore arena player could not sweetly kick my ass into the next millennium, regardless of mice or hardware.  I'm a horrible 1v1er, and the first to admit it.  But I've got a mouse that does everything I want it to.  And I've gotten a little bit better as a result.

So what can you take away from all this?  Maybe nothing.  But maybe the next time you let loose that SHIFT + CTR + ALT Q super-combo spell, you can consider how easy it would be with a mouse button.  And the next time you see a sweet mouse on sale, you might just pick it up.

Understanding Battlegrounds: Premades and Group Make-Up

With Cataclysm fast approaching, one of the highest priorities on this list of many PvPers is how everything will play out with the implementation of Rated Battlegrounds.  These will act as arenas have in the past, yielding a rating which will increase with every win, and allowing the purchase of high-end PvP gear with Conquest Points (which will be earned though arenas and rated BGs).  Since Season 9 is scheduled to go live a couple weeks after the release of Cataclysm on December 7th, by the time you've got a team of players up to level 85, you will most likely be able to jump right into competitive PvP.

What does this mean for us now?

It's in your best interest right now, to familiarize yourself with premades and group make-up for PvP.  Especially if you've not had a competitive PvP experience in terms of BGs through the duration of Wrath, or even BC and vanilla.  You should start thinking about putting your premade group for Cataclysm together now, not after the release.

That's not to say that if you can't find a team now, you won't be able to run Rated BGs come Cata.  You'll absolutely be able to fine one after the expansion releases, in fact it will probably be easier after the 7th.  Why?  Because lots of teams will be recruiting.  But you'll be missing out on one of the most important things you can gain between now and Cataclysm.

I'm not talking about gear, or character progression.  And I'm not talking about the bragging rights to say you tore it up in one of the most broken periods of PvP history.  I'm talking about one, last, valuable thing you can gain before Cataclysm.

Experience

Yes, it matters.  If you get a team together NOW, and you practice with them NOW, you'll have a leg up on everyone who's still trying to figure Rated BGs out after the expansion goes live.  You'll have a chance to really get used to working with your group,and what each individual player can accomplish, as well as what you can pull together as a group.  So, with that in mind, I'm going to be posting a series of posts running you through some strategies to try to consider once Cataclysm drops.  And today I'll talk about group make-up.


The Team

The size of your premade group depends entirely on how many PvPers you can  get together.  Maybe your raid group already wants to PvP and you'll be able to jump right into Alterac Valley (which is going to be a 25 man come Cata).  Maybe you're smaller, and you'll be running only 10 mans, and PuGing five players to run 15s.  Or maybe you'll be creating more than one BG team, because you have  so many players.

As Cynwise pointed out a while back in his post on Rated BGs, it's probably a good idea to shoot for AROUND 15 players.  That way you can always run 15 mans, or 10s if everyone doesn't show.  Or you can run an Alerac Valley with a few PuGs if you get extra.

But once you've decided on a rough number, a lot of the decisions about how you want your team to function is up to you.

Ask yourself this question:  "How do I want my team to work?"

Do you want a super-aggressive, all-out beserker team?  Do you want a team that will capture objectives, then turtle them effectively?  Or do you want a balanced, all around team that you'll adapt on the fly.

With those questions in mind, let me introduce you to the four kind of players I'm grouping PvPers into.

1.  The Melee dps

Melee dps is your front line in a Battleground scenario.  While other kinds of players will hang back and attack from behind, melee dps rushes right in (or maybe sneaks in if we're talking ferals or rogues).  They're very important to the group as a whole, because as long as there's a bunch of crazies breathing down your throat, an unorganized team won't have the smarts to take a minute, and focus down your healers (more on that later.)  Melee dps also often has a lot of interrupts available (especially if we're talking DKs) and can be a huge asset in bringing down the opponent's healers.

The Melee's biggest weakness is that it tends to die.  A lot.  Before casters go down, and sometimes before even the healers go down, it's not uncommon for a group to just go after whatever's right in front of them.  And in almost every situation, that's going to to be your melee dps.  Losing this front line means your squishier players are vulnerable, so if the other group takes the bait and goes for your melee, it's important for healers to keep them alive.

2.  The Ranged dps

Ranged enough.

The ranged dps essentially performs the same tasks as the melee.  They do damage.  Lots of it.  But unlike  the melee who need to be right beside a target to blow it up, ranged dps can nuke those baddies from behind your melee.  They can also be positioned more strategically, like little turrets, standing up on higher ground, or in other clever places, out of reach of the enemy melee dps.

The ranged dps also suffers from the unfortunate weakness of generally being fairly squishy.  A warlock is, as a general rule, easier to kill than a paladin.  Sure, there are some specs, like frost mages, that have more defensive cooldowns

3.  The Healer

Possible one of the most important roles in a BG, the healer is that guy that keeps everyone alive.  Once we've had a chance to get our feet wet with premade vs. premade Battlegrounds, I suspect one the main  points in team-building will be the number of healers to bring vs. the number of dps.  A healer doing their job can make or break an encounter.

With this in mind, it's EXTREMELY important to do your part (assuming you aren't healing) and keep your healers alive.  Keep those pesky dps CCed and off your heals as often as possible.  A poor-playing PuG (which is what a premade will probably streamroll a lot of before Cataclysm) might not target your healers, but count on other premades focusing yours down in the blink of an eye.  Healers are what makes Crowd Control in larger-scale PvP just as important as it was in places like the arenas.  Heals make or break a group.

4.  The Off-Healer or the Secret Healer

This is one of the sneakier things you can do with a premade group.  When your team breaks up into little groups to capture certain objectives, you can cleverly plant a player that can heal, but doesn't.  This means you have a character who is specced to heal, and geared and experienced enough to do the job, but have them dps, or pretend that they are.  See, in most cases (with the possible exception of a Holy Paladin, which has a much greater mana pool than any other pally spec), it's almost impossible to distinguish a healer from another member of your group.  Lets use the example of a priest.

What you would do with said priest, is have them specced for healing (let's say disc), but cast a lot of shadow spells.   Now a group that's got their wits about them will notice the priest isn't in shadow form.  But they're probably not going to be looking too closely at that, they'll be going after the paladin a few feet away that's healing like crazy.

Until the group's ordinary healer starts having trouble, you have this closet healer just pretend to dps.  Keep them off the enemy's radar.   THEN, once your main heals starts having trouble, they switch gears and start healing up a storm.  If the other group took the bait, and hasn't been attacking that first healer, this will almost certainly wipe the other group.  However, expect it to only really work once, after you've tricked the other team, they probably wont' fall for it again, and your secret healing player will be up at the top of the hit list with the rest of your heals.

Trees before 4.0.1:  The ninjas of the healing family.

Making the Group

Now, once you've got a rough idea of how you're planning to use each kind of character, you'll have to think about how exactly you're going to put them together.  Working with your team mates, and gaining some serious team synergy, is one of the greatest challenges you'll face as a Battleground group.  But if you take some time now, and practice, you'll find you've left this expansion with something lasting and important, that will carry you well into Cataclysm.

Experience

3/31/2 - Frost AoE PvP

Since my last post that discussed specific spec/rotations really left a whole lot more questions than answers, I decided to throw up a more in-depth run-through of the spec I've been playing basically since 4.0.1 dropped.  No credit goes to me for creating this spec, or this rotation- I heard about it from Felandis (Also on The Venture Co. US), but I'm not sure he invented it either.  At any rate- let me dive right in.

The spec, done out nice and clearly in the WoWhead talent calculator is this.  Glyphs aren't a huge deal, the same standards apply to this spec as to any other frost DK spec.  If there's any confusion about what glyphs work for Frost PvP, I may discuss that in a future post.  For the time being, allow me to explain a little bit.

Howling Blast

It's your new best friend.  This spec takes advantage of the new mastery system, introduced with the patch- which essentially gives you an extra 2% frost damage for every point of mastery rating you can get (Note:  mastery RATING, and you overall mastery are different things.  For example, my master is around 140, but my Mastery Rating is 14, giving me a 28% increase to all frost damage).  I'd recommend reforging crit on all your gear to mastery (since if you're in PvP gear, crit is really the only thing you can drop), since the bonus from mastery is better than pure crit.

What all this means, is that basically ALL your frost abilities are going to be hitting a lot harder.  And for the purpose of WPvP and BGs (which is really the only kind of PvP you can do until cata drops, since the arena season is done), being able to hit a LOT of enemies, really hard is a very nice thing indeed.  Howling blast with reforged mastery and my wrathful 1800 weapon hits for around 3.5-4k ish, (not including crits, obviously- those are exponentially higher) on every target.  This means assuming healing support, it's not impossible for you to AoE down an entire pack of allies (or horde, if you're on THAT side) with this spec.

The Rotation


I discussed this a little bit in my first post, but managed to confuse more people than I helped, so let me lay it down right here, very simply.  First, this spec does not use obliterate.  The reason being that obliterate ties up a frost rune, which eliminates one howling blast each time you use it.  One very important thing to keep in mind is that this is an AoE build.  Obviously in 1v1 situations, using the normal frost rotation makes a lot more sense (more on that later).
So with all that in mind, the way the rotation for AoE basically works is you start off with HB/HB then while your frost are on CD hit a couple PS (to get up another disease) then two BS.  As soon as your frost are off cooldown use HB x4 (since you should now have two death runes), then ERW, and rinse and repeat.  When Killing Machine procs, use FS (since OB ties up that sneaky frost rune).  Eventually you'll either be bursted down, or everything in sight will be dead.
Let's shoot for the later.
Single Target?  I know the question is going to be asked, so let me explain right here- that rotation makes less sense for single target dps.  Single target frost is a whole other animal.  It's a priority-based system which boils down to this:  1.  Get diseases up2.  Obliterate if both frost and unholy runes are all up (Or if both Death runes are up, OR if Killing Machine procs).3.  Blood Strike (if you've got two blood runes up)4.  Frost Strike5.  Rime (= HB)6.  Obliterate7.  Blood Strike (if only one rune is up)8.  Horn of Winter (a buff is better than doing absolutely nothing- and this should be kept up as much as you can).  This chart is a priority chart (for those who haven't seen one before), tier 1 is more important than tier 2 which is > than tier 3 etc. etc.  Conclusion:  AoE>Single Target  Here's the thing though, in a Battleground or in WPvP, 1 on 1 combat is pretty rare.  So, you're not going to find yourself single-target dpsing very often.  With that in mind, this spec really focuses more on AoE, and contributing a lot of dps to a lot of targets at once.  If you're totally new to frost dps post 4.0.1, and are planning to PvP extensively, I'd recommend learning to understand the standard AoE rotation before you worry about learning single-target dps (which is what you're going to have to understand if you raid a lot, obviously). Anyways, that basically covers AoE frost PvP.  Expect to top out damage frequently, but probably not get as many killing blows as other classes/specs might, since they go after one character at a time.  Used properly though, you can be a huge asset to your team with this tactic.  Bombing all the enemies down makes picking them off much easier for the rest of your dps. That's it for today folks! Practice safe death! ~Onike

Death Grip: Fun toy, or life-saving purple-y beam of doom?

Although DKs are sadly underrepresented in the blogging community as a whole, the few blogs that are written to our credit have covered one ability perhaps more than any other.  It has been one of the most controversial DK abilities, as well as one that caused more forums complaints that any other (besides perhaps miss-use of Army of the Dead in a raid).  You all know what I'm talking about:  Death Grip.

While this ability remains something of a niche tool for tanking in raid content (used only to pull casting mobs and such), it is absolutely invaluable in PvP.  As a Death Knight, Death Grip should ALWAYS be on your action bars, and if you aren't using it, I invite you to bust out your purple beam of doom loving self, and give it a whirl.  Just please, practice safe Death.

The don'ts.

While Death Grip may seem like a safe bet at any point in a PvP encounter, there are some major don'ts that you should keep in mind when using it.  First, keep in mind DG has a 30 second cooldown.  While not a tremendous number, that's 30 seconds that you will be without arguably the best peeling move in the game.  So, keep these things in mind when DGing it up.

1.  Is my enemy a healer, or a damage-dealer?  If the answer is damage-dealer, look around and make sure there are no healers nearby.  While pulling that annoying boomkin might seem tempting, killing that sneaky priest behind him is infinitely more valuable for your team.

2.  Is my enemy fairly close to me?  If so- don't DG.  Just chains of ice him, then run up and take his head off.  Simple, beautiful, and elegant. 

3.  Is my enemy extremely far away?  While chasing after that elusive rogue sprinting away may be tempting, I wouldn't recommend it.  If the enemy is out of range of DG, and just ignore them.  Running into the enemy team at random to pull them towards you will only end one way- and it won't be pretty.

4.  Is my enemy running towards me anyways?  This might seem obvious, but seriously- I've seen it done.  And done it myself before.  Sometimes that shiny DG button is just too big a temptation.  But let me state here and now, that if you enemy is a melee class, and running towards your team ANYWAYS, you should NEVER DG him.  He'll reach you in a few seconds anyways.  Don't waste that precious CD.

5.  Is my enemy over-geared, or tough to bring down?  The main purpose of DG is to pull dangerous, ranged enemies towards your team.  Especially when two groups of players are standing off against each-other, that one key squishy being dragged towards your side against his/her will can be a huge moral boost to your side.  Your team will probably instinctively focus on the DGed enemy, even if you're in a worst-case, random PuG scenario.  If you pull someone that has either A) a ton of AoE damage potential, or B) is just tough to kill, you're actually working against your team.  You'll either be significantly weakened, and easy prey for the remaining Alliance (or Horde if you took the wrong side), or you'll spend so much time trying to kill that freakin' paladin, that your team will find itself overrun with enemies.

The Dos

Most of the things that can go WRONG with DG in a PvP situation are pretty self-explanatory.  But, there's a subtle difference between not using DG wrong, and using it oh-so right.  So, let me list some of the best times to launch your enemies to their own demise.

1.  The interrupt.  It may be a little-known fact among DKs that haven't spent much time PvPing, but DG actually acts as an interrupt.  If you see a healer, within range of DG, casting a big heal, pulling them towards you will not only bring said healer within range of your vast array of weaponry, but also stop the heal they were casting, leaving anything short of a very good healer disoriented, and easy picking.  This is possibly the best, and most general use of DG in PvP.

2.  The mob factor.  When you're in a situation in one of the larger BGs or just in a big showdown in WPvP, where you find yourself in a face-off with the other side, DGing ANY enemy usually spells certain doom for them, since no one can take 10+ players single-handedly.  Sometimes, when the healers (which even in this situation should be your main target) are out of reach, just picking off the enemies one by one with DG can be a good strategy.  Also, in Alterac Valley, this method can be applied to your boss' room, before too many of your towers have been capped.  DGing a baddie into the throne room with you will sick the NPCs on them, and you probably won't even have to lift a finger.

3.  The CC.  While DG on its own is not a direct CC, it can turn into one.  In situations where slowing an enemy is the best thing for your team, combining DG with Chains of Ice, can give your team the boost they need to succeed.  Some of the big times this is especially worthwhile:  On the enemy flag carrier in WSG, or on that obnoxious melee chasing your destroyers in Strand.  CoIing your opponents after a DG is just good practice in general, but sometimes the precious seconds it buys make the difference between victory and bitter defeat.

4.  The chain.  Probably one of the more niche-y tactics that work with DG, this is actually a cool enough idea that I will probably discuss it in a future post.  But, let me say that it basically boils down to have DKs line up, and use DG one after the other, essentially pulling a bad-guy much further than DG normally should.

The conclusion?

DG is more than a cute toy, it's one of the most deadly abilities in the PvP DK's arsenal.  But like all weapons, it can be misused, or abused.  Just try to keep common sense in mind when applying it to your game, and you'll find it slowly seeping into the core of your DK.  Eventually, you'll probably come up with plenty of epic ways to employ it that I've never even dreamed of, and when you do, I'd love to hear about them.

But for the time being, keep your head about yourself and try to practice safe Death.

Season 9 Models Revealed

Earlier today, MMO Champion revealed the new models for the Season 9 armour sets.  For those of you living on a proverbial PvP rock, Season 9 will be the first PvP season of Cataclysm, bringing with it all the beauty of a new arena season, and, for the first time ever, rated Battlegrounds.

All kinds of awesome

I was complaining earlier this week to a guildy about how, although DKs have a history of getting some of the coolest PvE tier gear EVER (tier 8 and 10 are both absolutely amazing in my opinion), our PvP gear has been somewhat lacking throughout Wrath.

But no more, this new DK tier set looks absolutely badass, and I think I'll actually feel like a hardcore harbinger of doom running around in this, unlike my somewhat plain armour from season 8 (and don't even get me started on the helms we've seen lately... our relentless helm looks like a fish on the undead model).

Warlock?

It also hasn't escaped my notice (and, I'm sure, the notice of other DKs around the world), that this new set looks almost... warlock-ish.  The horns on the helm, especially, seem like they belong on a warlock to me).  But the skull with the chest plate certainly looks like it belong on a Death Knight.

Regardless, this is just one more thing to look forwards to with Cataclysm.  I can't wait to get my paws on this stuff, and to put it to the test.