Spugnort's

Posts Tagged ‘Arena’

I hope that everyone enjoyed the first section of the five part blog, and you now have your new interface all setup and ready to go.  Now we will need to make some tweaks to this interface so that it is more conducive to use in the Arenas and Battlegrounds.

The key to being successful in PvP is to not click ANYTHING, EVER!

In order to do this we will need to utilize two different aspects of our new User Interface. First we will need to use proper key bindings so everything is within the stretch of our fingers, and we can also use macros and the addon clique to reduce the amount of spells and abilities we need to have on our action bars.

If you love to PvP and enjoyed this content you will definitely want to check out Spugnort’s PvP Guide!

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KEY BINDINGS

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If you have downloaded Bartender3 or a similar action bar addon you will have a customizable setup now.  Along with this you will be able to change all the key bindings for each and every bar.  The most typical setup is to take Bars 1-3 and stack them on top of each other in the bottom middle of your screen.

Here is how I set up my action bars:

Combat Mode:

Stealth Mode:

Action Bar 1

Action Bar 1 is seen at the bottom of my screen, it has typical Key Bindings of my most used actions.  Places 1-6 are abilities I need to have very easy access to.  Now you can see at the end of the bar abilities that are usually bound to 0, -, and = are all bound to mouse actions. The normal = slot is bound to Mouse Button 4, which is the side mouse button.  The normal – slot is bound to mouse button 4 and shift at the same time, while the 0 spot is bound to Ctrl and mouse 4 at the same time.  These are all spells I use a lot while I am on the move, and my fingers need to be free for movement keys instead of spell keys.

Also you will notice that I have many macros bound to my keys.  One of the most important macros is a start attack macro for me.  I bind this to all of my start attacks, so if I am short on energy or the talent is on cooldown, then my character will still start attacking and I am not chasing someone around doing nothing waiting on energy.  This also allows me to leave a standard attack button off of my bars, and is key for all melee classes.  An example of this macro:

/startattack
/cast Shiv

This is a must have for all melee classes, and hunters!

Also you will notice that my Stealthed spells correspond directly with those on my normal action bars.  For example my shadowstep garrote macro lines up with my shadowstep shiv macro.  Obviously if I am garroting an enemy I will want a guaranteed snare on them immediately.  Think about lining up stance bars like this for easier use, and so they are able to be used with button spamming if you are lagging slightly.

Action Bar 2

This bar is bound the same as Action Bar 1 except that spells 1-6 are bound to shift and their corresponding number.  This is very easy to access even while moving your character with the movement keys.  Try it out and you will see your response time decreased significantly once you become used to this.

At first you may become frustrated with it, but over time you will become used to the setup and will begin to love it and see its advantages.

Normally I save this bar for my most used cooldown abilities such as sprint or evasion as a rogue example, or Howl of Terror or Amp Curse for a Warlock.  This gives you easy access to cooldowns without having to click them, which can keep you from moving and shorten your response time.  Which could mean  the death of a teammate, or the other person being healed to full before you can finish them off.

Action Bar 3

This bar is bound to Ctrl and the corresponding action number 1-6.  This is much like action bar two, and gives you easy access to 6 more spells while maintaining full control of your character.

What this does for you

Overall you should have easy access to at least 21 (6 on each action bar and 3 mouse binds) different spells and abilities no matter what stance you are in, which is a great increase over the normal 5 to 6 and then clicking everything else.

This means a faster reaction time to an extra 15-16 abilities, some of which you may have not even used before but needed!

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Macros

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Every successful PvP players uses tons of macros, from mouseover macros to buff synergy macros they all help you accomplish your job on the battlefield.

Cast Sequence Macros

This is a great type of macro that will help you save even more space on your action bars.  If you have two spells that you always cast in the same order then you can put those into a cast sequence macro and make two different buttons into one button.  For example, a Deathcoil into a fear macro, this is a must have for a Warlock.  A Warlock will almost always follow a deathcoil with a fear, binding them to the same button just makes sense.

Other examples would be Warlock DoT spells, often you will want to cast all your DoT spells in succession, so you can setup a macro that will cast Unstable Affliction -> Corruption -> Siphon Life -> Curse of Agony.  All your DoT Spells bound to a single button can you imagine how much that will open up for you on your action bars.

/castsequence reset=combat/target Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Siphon Life

These types of macros are also spammable for instant cast spells, you can simply just mash the button and when the Global Cooldown is over the next spell will cast.  The reset will allow you to stop in the middle of the cast sequence target a different player and it will start from the beginning of the cast sequence.  Or if you were to drop combat then the macro will also reset.

These are just a few examples of what you can do with cast sequence macros.

Mouseover Macros

Not having to actually switch targets but still cast a spell is an amazing feature of macros.  My favorite mouse-over macro is for Blind, but the same macro could be used for any crowd control effects like sheep or cyclone for example.

#show blind
/cast [target=focus,harm,exists,modifier:shift]blind;
/cast [target=mouseover, harm, exists]blind;
/cast blind

This will cast Blind on your mouseover target, or cast it on your current target if you have no mouseover target, or you can use shift and this to blind your focus.

This will also work with Hammer of Justice and any other effect you would like to use here, simply replace blind with the spell you would like to use.This is probably the most powerful type of macro you can use.  This allows you to keep your current target and cast something on a completely different target very quickly and efficiently.

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Clique Addon Usage

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This is one of the most powerful addons for use in PvP you will find.  This is mostly for use with caster classes, and mostly healers.  As a healer you can use this addon to heal your entire party without ever changing your target, in fact you can have an enemy targeted while you liberally heal and dispel your party.

You will be able to use mouse binds and key binds while over a unit frame to cast the corresponding spell on that character. This will allow you  to switch between targets much quicker than most players can by clicking on the unit frame to select the player and then click the spell you would like to cast.

To set this up go into your spell book by pressing “P”, and there you will see this addon has added an extra tab at the bottom.  Click on this tab to start binding your spells.

As an example when I play my Paladin I use:

• Mouse button 4 (on the side of the mouse) as my button to cast max rank Flash of Light.
• Shift and Mouse 4 will cast a Holy Light Rank 7, use this every10-12 seconds in place of Flash of Light in order to keep the Lights Grace buff active.
• Then max rank Holy Light is bound to Ctrl and Mouse 4.
• Blessing of Protection is the Middle Mouse Button.
• Cleanse is bound to Alt and Mouse 4.

These all increase my abiltiy to switch targets and cleanse effectively.  These are a requirement for healers in 5v5 matches where opposing teams will use a switch DPS target tactic to try and catch opposing healers off  guard.  With this addon it is much less likely that will happen to you!

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All of these ideas above should serve to increase your reaction time, and if you start using all of them you should see an enormous effect on your PvP ability once you get used to them.  In PvP, when every millisecond counts, these will make the sole difference between a loss and a win.

And we all know everyone loves to win! Check back later for Part 3……

First of all, lets explain what that big long title above means about this article.  This is meant to be a resource for players who are just starting to PvP, and wish to get into competitive arenas during season 3.  The guide will be divided into five sections, that I feel are the most important in preparing you for success in the Arenas.

1. Preparing Your User Interface for PvP
2. Prearing Your Macros and Keybinds for PvP
3. How To Gear for PvP
4. How To Acquire Your PvP Gear
5. Strategy and Communication in Arenas

Preparing Your User Interface for PvP

Contrary to what many players may believe there is a HUGE difference between the customized interface a PvP player uses versus that of a PvE player.

A player who is focused on PvE content does not need to see what his party and his raid are doing in great detail.  He is expected to perform his portion of a battle while they are expected to perform theirs. What a player does in PvE content is generally not solely dependant on the actions of his raid and party members. In contrast to that a player who is PvP focused, especially in arenas, will need to know everything about his party members.  They will need to have a focus target, casting bars for everyone, and a battleground or arena assistance mod.

All of this may seem a little overwhelming for many players upon first exposure, but just like anything after a short time of using this you will see that you become just as used to it as your old interface.

Addons all PvP Players MUST Have

All these addons can be found on Curse Gaming WoW Addons.

Unit Frames Addon

For PvP combat the blizzard unit frames will just not cut it.  They are not highly customizabel in any way, they don’t show casting bars for pary and raid members.  They are not able to show you group members targets, or the opposing teams targets.  All of these unit frames will become extremely important, as you try to coordinate your efforts with 2-4 other people while in an arena match.

There are a ton of choices, but the best overall choice is PitBull.  Pitbull is the most customizable unit frame addon available to players in World of Warcraft, players can choose from a very simple setup to a an extremely complex setup for each unit frame.

Simple Pitbull Unit Frame	Complex Pitbull Unit Frame

As you can see these unit frames are extremely different in makeup, as a competitive arena setup I prefer to use something similar to the simple unit frame on the left.

Why Pitbull and not one of the other thousand of choices available.  Pitbull integrates a casting bar into each and every unit frame.  This will allow you to monitor what your party is casting, who they are target and what their target is casting.

Why does that matter?  For example if you have a Warlock and a Druid on the same team they can easily see who is getting feared and who is getting cycloned.  They will not have to say everytime who is getting crown controlled, this is just one example of how raid frames make your life a million times easier in PvP if properly configured.

For a healer, Pitbull will also use your past healing to estimate the amount of health each of your heals return on average.  When you target a player and begin casting that heal it will display a green bar added to their health bar representing where their health should be after the heal.  This is great for healers to avoid overhealing, and to prepare for a second heal immediately following if this heal will not be enough.

These are not the only reasons why Pitbull is far superior to any other Unit Frame in World of Warcraft, these are just a few examples of its superiority.

Casting Bar Addon

The single most important addon any PvP player can have.  You will use this for your casting, your target’s casting, and even your focus’ casting.  These types of addons are krucial to timely interrupts of casting, and timely casting of your own spells and abilities.

The best casting bar addon I have ever used is Quartz.  The key to quartz is it will sample your latetency to the server and then use that latetency as a gage of the lag in your spell cast.  Meaning you can actually cast spells faster than you think, take a look at the screenshot below and I will explain how to use this properly.

During this frostbolt cast you can see the red portion at the end of the casting bar.  Once the yellow bar reaches that red area you are able to begin casting another frostbolt, or even hit an instant cast spell then.  Many players have seen as much as a 20% increase in their damage output with proper usage of this addon.

Quartz is also highly customizable and you can change the leangth and width of all the casting bars very easily.  It can also be used to monitor buffs and debuffs with ease.  This is a must have for all PvP players!

Scrolling Combat Text Addon

Once again the Blizzard version of scrolling combat text is not going to cut it for the competitive arena player.  You will need a mod that tells you where the damage is coming from, and frankly makes it look a little nicer!  You best option for a scrolling combat text addon is SCT, this addon allows your combat text to be highly configurable, which will help you situate things they way you like.

Here are a few examples:

Arena Unit Frame Utility Addon

This addon will list members of the opposition when you mouse over them in the arenas.  These addons will often also list the talent spec of the opposition so you see if you are up against a shadow priest or a healing priest for example.  The best addon for this is called Proximo, and can be seen here:

The best part about proximo is it comminucates between group members if you all have the addon.  Many of these addons will only update the opposing players health if you target them, but Proximo will send you udated health bars for all players your team has targetted.  Proximo also have the option to display each players talent spec.

The real kicker is that you can select a main assist for your group to target and that player will be highlighted with a box around them.  This way all the DPS know who to target and try and kill very easily.  Your party members can also use the announcement to say in party chat players who have low health and could be easily killed.  Overall this is great addon and a must have!

Action Bar Addon

No this isn’t an addon that helps you find the nearest location to buy alchohol to get your player drunk!  This addon will allow you to customize your action bars to a format that is more useable.  You can place the bars anywhere on your screen and they can be configured in any dimension you wish to use.  Bartender3 is most likely the easiest and most useable action bar addon and is what I currently use.

Visual Combat Log

The extracts the important information from the blizzard combat chat log and will display it to you in a much easier to read fashion.  The simplest, and most easy to use visual combat log is called Eavesdrop.  This is a spectacular addon that once you have it, you will not know what to do without it!

These are all examples of the awesome things you can do with eavesdrop.  First of all you can mouse over any of the lines to get more information as seen in the top right.  Then after combat has finished you wil get a recap of everything that happened.  The best part is, if you get a HUGE crit against someone all you have to do to link it is open a chat box and shift click that line!

This is a great visual utility that all PvPers should use!

Clique Casting Addon

This ia great addons for caster classes, especially healers.  Many healers have to take the time to select their target with the mouse then press a button the keyboard in order to cast the heal.  Clique allows you to NEVER switch targets and cast or heal whoever you want.  It will take different mouse binds and link them to a specific spell.  When you put your in-game cursor over that persons unit frame it will attempt to cast the spell you have bound to that mouse key.

Here is a screenshot of the setup interface, showing you how you can bind mouse strokes to spell casts.

You can see that three different spells have been bound to different variations of the left mouse.  This makes it very easy to focus on other things while continuing to cast spells with ease.

Time to go get your new UI!

These are the addons i feel you must have, and some players will want to add more into the mix obviously as we have just listed the basics.  Now you need to head to your favorite addon download site and grab these and get to configuring them!

Configuring these addons can be a really big headache until you figure it out, but remain patient and remember the great setup you will be rewarded with when you are finished.

Hope you enjoyed this and found it informative, Part 2 should be up on Monday!