Advurb
10-03-2008, 08:16 PM
Wrote this up for another forum, so I might as well contribute.
Basic Arena Techniques
Line of Sight
Line of Sight (LoS) is the most basic and most important aspect of arena maneuvering. Almost all crowd control abilities can be avoided by simply running behind a pillar. When being targeted in a match, it's usually a good idea to do what is commonly called pillar-humping, or hugging a pillar and keeping your pursuing opponent on the other side. (Pressing V to bring up name plates helps tremendously with this)
It should also be noted that it is possible to line of sight your healer as well, so always make sure that you stay in their line. Good healers will try to get close to their teammate if they try to avoid damage by using line of sight, which makes it easier to heal.
Crowd Control (CC)
CC is also a fundamental part of arena. Abilities like Fear, Polymorph, Blind, Cyclone, and any other ability that slows, stuns, or causes loss of control of character is considered CC. CC is what makes an Insignia of the Horde/Alliance (the use of which is referred to commonly and in this guide simply as trinketing) absolutely vital to success in arena. Being able to trinket out of a 10 second blind/fear/sheep/etc when your teammate is at low health is extremely important.
In higher end arenas, CC is often coordinated and plotted out to decide matches entirely. This is why rogue/mage is so powerful in 2v2, and makeups like rogue/priest/frost mage and rogue/rogue/druid are popular in 3v3's.
Communication with teammates to plot out CC that doesn't share diminishing returns to keep your opponents out of the fight for excessive amounts of time can be devastating. Examples of this are polymorph into a blind for 9 seconds, followed by a vanish/sap and then a re-polymorph as the sap fades. Cycle in things like frost novas on classes that are easily CC'd (warriors for example) and fears from a priest partner, and you can lock down people for ridiculous amounts of time. (Thanks Fhen)
It's a smart idea to keep track of your opponents' trinket as well. Rogues, in particular, benefit from an opponent using his/her trinket because it leaves them defenseless to a 10 second blind, usually followed by a vanish and sap. Because of this, saving your trinket for an ideal time is very important. Trinketing a 5 second Hammer of Justice or a Frost Nova is much less effective than getting out of a 20 second blind/sap.
CC can also be used offensively by rooting or stunning an opponent out of line of sight of his healer, causing him to lose all healing until his teammate can reach him.
Mana Draining and Drinking
Drain teams are comps that are made to win by draining a healer's mana. Priests (Mana Burn), Hunters (Viper Sting), and Warlocks (Drain Mana) are three of the best drain team classes. It is very important as a healer or other mana user to use line of sight or CC to avoid being drained.
In higher end arena, matches generally take longer than three minutes. Since mana is such an important part of keeping you and your team alive, drinking is vital to success. Arena water (Star's Tears) is available at the Officer's Lounge/Hall of Champions. Even if you only get one or two ticks of water at a time, it keeps your team alive for that much longer. Often, arena matches are decided by which healer runs out of mana first.
Dispels (and cheesing the mechanic)
Priests and Shamans (and sometimes Mages) can offensively dispel enemies. It's not uncommon to see a Priest or a Shaman purging all of their team's target's buffs right off the bat. Buffs increase your opponent's health, mana, and other stats by more than you might think, so dispelling them is vital to getting them down that much faster. Spells like Blessing of Protection, Divine Shield, and Innervate are buffs that should be dispelled especially quickly.
Defensive dispels are generally used to remove a CC ability from a teammate. Polymorph, Fear, Psychic Scream, Freezing Trap, and Crippling Poison are examples of commonly used dispellable CC abilities. Abolish Poison is extremely effective against Rogues and Hunters, because it ticks over time and allows you or your teammate freedom to cast heals instead of spamming dispels. Defensive dispelling is also very important against Hunters because abilities that cure poison effects can remove Viper Sting, which is a big time mana drain.
It is possible to cheese the dispel mechanic and defend your buffs (and debuffs) in two ways. The first is by using talents like Paladin Stoicism, which causes dispels to fail more often. The second is by covering it with other, similar buffs/debuffs that will take the fall for a more important one. For example, most Marksmanship Hunters use a Scorpid pet in arena because its 5 stacking poison covers up Viper Sting and keeps it from being instantly removed. As a defensive example, a Discipline Priest that is being targeted and is in trouble should put Pain Suppression on himself to cover a paladin teammate's Blessing of Protection. Pain Suppression causes dispels on its target to fail almost every time, which makes sure that the Blessing isn't removed instantly. Before an arena, all buffs, even trivial ones like Underwater Breathing, should be applied to all teammates and pets for this reason.
(More to come)
Basic Arena Techniques
Line of Sight
Line of Sight (LoS) is the most basic and most important aspect of arena maneuvering. Almost all crowd control abilities can be avoided by simply running behind a pillar. When being targeted in a match, it's usually a good idea to do what is commonly called pillar-humping, or hugging a pillar and keeping your pursuing opponent on the other side. (Pressing V to bring up name plates helps tremendously with this)
It should also be noted that it is possible to line of sight your healer as well, so always make sure that you stay in their line. Good healers will try to get close to their teammate if they try to avoid damage by using line of sight, which makes it easier to heal.
Crowd Control (CC)
CC is also a fundamental part of arena. Abilities like Fear, Polymorph, Blind, Cyclone, and any other ability that slows, stuns, or causes loss of control of character is considered CC. CC is what makes an Insignia of the Horde/Alliance (the use of which is referred to commonly and in this guide simply as trinketing) absolutely vital to success in arena. Being able to trinket out of a 10 second blind/fear/sheep/etc when your teammate is at low health is extremely important.
In higher end arenas, CC is often coordinated and plotted out to decide matches entirely. This is why rogue/mage is so powerful in 2v2, and makeups like rogue/priest/frost mage and rogue/rogue/druid are popular in 3v3's.
Communication with teammates to plot out CC that doesn't share diminishing returns to keep your opponents out of the fight for excessive amounts of time can be devastating. Examples of this are polymorph into a blind for 9 seconds, followed by a vanish/sap and then a re-polymorph as the sap fades. Cycle in things like frost novas on classes that are easily CC'd (warriors for example) and fears from a priest partner, and you can lock down people for ridiculous amounts of time. (Thanks Fhen)
It's a smart idea to keep track of your opponents' trinket as well. Rogues, in particular, benefit from an opponent using his/her trinket because it leaves them defenseless to a 10 second blind, usually followed by a vanish and sap. Because of this, saving your trinket for an ideal time is very important. Trinketing a 5 second Hammer of Justice or a Frost Nova is much less effective than getting out of a 20 second blind/sap.
CC can also be used offensively by rooting or stunning an opponent out of line of sight of his healer, causing him to lose all healing until his teammate can reach him.
Mana Draining and Drinking
Drain teams are comps that are made to win by draining a healer's mana. Priests (Mana Burn), Hunters (Viper Sting), and Warlocks (Drain Mana) are three of the best drain team classes. It is very important as a healer or other mana user to use line of sight or CC to avoid being drained.
In higher end arena, matches generally take longer than three minutes. Since mana is such an important part of keeping you and your team alive, drinking is vital to success. Arena water (Star's Tears) is available at the Officer's Lounge/Hall of Champions. Even if you only get one or two ticks of water at a time, it keeps your team alive for that much longer. Often, arena matches are decided by which healer runs out of mana first.
Dispels (and cheesing the mechanic)
Priests and Shamans (and sometimes Mages) can offensively dispel enemies. It's not uncommon to see a Priest or a Shaman purging all of their team's target's buffs right off the bat. Buffs increase your opponent's health, mana, and other stats by more than you might think, so dispelling them is vital to getting them down that much faster. Spells like Blessing of Protection, Divine Shield, and Innervate are buffs that should be dispelled especially quickly.
Defensive dispels are generally used to remove a CC ability from a teammate. Polymorph, Fear, Psychic Scream, Freezing Trap, and Crippling Poison are examples of commonly used dispellable CC abilities. Abolish Poison is extremely effective against Rogues and Hunters, because it ticks over time and allows you or your teammate freedom to cast heals instead of spamming dispels. Defensive dispelling is also very important against Hunters because abilities that cure poison effects can remove Viper Sting, which is a big time mana drain.
It is possible to cheese the dispel mechanic and defend your buffs (and debuffs) in two ways. The first is by using talents like Paladin Stoicism, which causes dispels to fail more often. The second is by covering it with other, similar buffs/debuffs that will take the fall for a more important one. For example, most Marksmanship Hunters use a Scorpid pet in arena because its 5 stacking poison covers up Viper Sting and keeps it from being instantly removed. As a defensive example, a Discipline Priest that is being targeted and is in trouble should put Pain Suppression on himself to cover a paladin teammate's Blessing of Protection. Pain Suppression causes dispels on its target to fail almost every time, which makes sure that the Blessing isn't removed instantly. Before an arena, all buffs, even trivial ones like Underwater Breathing, should be applied to all teammates and pets for this reason.
(More to come)