Blood Sport: Seeing the big picture in PvP, part 2
by C. Christian Moore 
Dec 21st 2010 at 7:00PM
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. 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.
It's natural to observe what we're doing with our target (and maybe our focus).
We all started playing WoW by having our character jog up to some oblivious animal and obliterate it with spells or steel. We watched intently as that boar flopped over after we clicked our mouse a few times (or pushed 1,1,2). We then decided we would run straight towards its corpse (shortest distance from A to B is a straight line, after all) and happily right-click to loot some sweet gray sword. Over time, boars became bandits, bandits became basilisks, basilisks became banshees and the banshees became bosses. Eventually, we're slaying dragons and throwing around high fives like they were baseballs.
However, notice throughout this scenario of improving our characters that we're not looking around suspiciously at other players, trying to learn where other enemies would flee to or attack us (or, more importantly, why and how they attack us). Of course, this is to our detriment, once we step inside an arena or battleground.
Side note: That sentence of alliteration took me like ten minutes to write. Do you know how hard it is to think of mythical creatures starting with B? (I came up with beholder and brownie too, but WoW doesn't have many of those).
Tunnel vision and you
Some classes suffer from tunnel vision far more than others. Melee classes need to be focused on their enemies (and stay right beside them), or they won't be able to put out damage. Casters, likewise, usually have a broader scope of the battlefield but are still primarily trying to kill only one opponent. Healers can be much more understanding of the big picture than others -- but they can also be focused so heavily on health bars moving up and down that they lose it entirely!
The key is to always be looking around, constantly surveying what people are doing. Sometimes, you'll see a healer running away to drink -- this is an optimal time to load up tons of burst on your opponents. Communicate their weakness with your team and quickly formulate a strategy to punish their disadvantage.
This is even more important in battlegrounds. When you're defending a key objective with two other people and you see five enemies arriving, what do you do? Do you automatically stay and fight? Most people do.
There was probably very little decision-making with that decision, however. Did that defender take into account the classes of the defenders as well as the classes of the attackers? What about health totals? Mana totals? How about who these people even are (you can check what type of player they are by the scoreboard pretty reliably)?
Everyone has the same tendencies
Think of the last time you were defending (or attacking) an objective. When you enter combat with five other people, who is the one you immediately target and start to kill? The one closest to you. Don't believe me? Look for it the next time you play a battleground, and you will be absolutely amazed how close this is to 100 percent.
This kind of thinking isn't just in WoW; it's in first-person shooters as well. If your enemy sees you and a teammate pop around different corners, he will almost always go for the one closest to him. Not only is it a larger target (due to perspective), but it is more deadly to him as well. It's a protective instinct.
This is why good healers stay far in the back. They also stay around other players, even if those players are just other healers. Not only is there safety in positioning (staying back rather than rushing in), but there is safety in numbers. How often do you see someone barrel into five players by themselves, far in front of the group? It happens, but it's pretty rare. Usually teammates will wait until a large group of other teammates arrives before they make their assault on a large force.
Use this to your advantage! Start looking for the healer who is trying to avoid being hassled. Try rushing into a bunch of opponents to tie them up on time if your team needs it (this is one of my favorite strategies for capturing nearby objectives).
Use your focus
If you haven't been using focus, you've been missing out. Focus is a brilliant built-in user interface option that works kind of like a secondary target. Set focus is a keybind in your keybinds menu that allows you to see what another player is doing (usually a healer) who is involved with the battle but not your kill target.
It's helpful for two reasons: It allows you to see cast bars you normally wouldn't be able to see. You can see who your opponents are healing and when that heal will go off. It also allows you to create macros to interrupt those spells or do funky things with Charge, Fear, and the like.
/cast Polymorph
This, if put in a macro, it will turn your target into a sheep, because without a target modifier, the target is your target [target=target].
/cast [target=focus] Polymorph
After you've set your focus and created the above macro, you can use this macro to Polymorph not your target, but your focus! This allows you to surprise enemy players who expected you to cast that Polymorph on your target instead of your focus (which is hidden information for them).
You can do this with any ability that has a target. You can Charge your focus target, Spell Lock, cast Flash of Light, or anything, really. The sky is the limit.
Future PvP videos
On another note, I got the go-ahead to make some PvP videos for you guys. I'll probably be doing a few rated battlegrounds videos as well as arenas in the upcoming weeks. I downloaded a way to record today and will be tinkering with editing and uploading to WoW Insider's YouTube page. I haven't done this in the past, so don't expect greatness. It might be two weeks until the first one is up, but don't worry!
I'll be starting with my warlock, Ceftobiprole of Auchindoun. He's currently my only 85 (I've been really busy lately, OK? Don't laugh at his gear too hard). I might be leveling up my paladin, warrior, mage, and death knight shortly as well to get them in on some PvP, especially if these videos go over well.
Listening Music: 2 Bit Pie with Colours. Just song -- no video, because I couldn't find one. I like this one a bit more than Here I Come, although that one is pretty sweet, too.
Want to ascend the arena ladders faster than a fireman playing Donkey Kong? We'll steer you to victory with the best arena addons and let you in on some rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets. If you're looking for the inside line on battlegrounds and world PvP, read The Art of War(craft).
It's natural to observe what we're doing with our target (and maybe our focus).
We all started playing WoW by having our character jog up to some oblivious animal and obliterate it with spells or steel. We watched intently as that boar flopped over after we clicked our mouse a few times (or pushed 1,1,2). We then decided we would run straight towards its corpse (shortest distance from A to B is a straight line, after all) and happily right-click to loot some sweet gray sword. Over time, boars became bandits, bandits became basilisks, basilisks became banshees and the banshees became bosses. Eventually, we're slaying dragons and throwing around high fives like they were baseballs.
However, notice throughout this scenario of improving our characters that we're not looking around suspiciously at other players, trying to learn where other enemies would flee to or attack us (or, more importantly, why and how they attack us). Of course, this is to our detriment, once we step inside an arena or battleground.
Side note: That sentence of alliteration took me like ten minutes to write. Do you know how hard it is to think of mythical creatures starting with B? (I came up with beholder and brownie too, but WoW doesn't have many of those).
Tunnel vision and you
Some classes suffer from tunnel vision far more than others. Melee classes need to be focused on their enemies (and stay right beside them), or they won't be able to put out damage. Casters, likewise, usually have a broader scope of the battlefield but are still primarily trying to kill only one opponent. Healers can be much more understanding of the big picture than others -- but they can also be focused so heavily on health bars moving up and down that they lose it entirely!
The key is to always be looking around, constantly surveying what people are doing. Sometimes, you'll see a healer running away to drink -- this is an optimal time to load up tons of burst on your opponents. Communicate their weakness with your team and quickly formulate a strategy to punish their disadvantage.
This is even more important in battlegrounds. When you're defending a key objective with two other people and you see five enemies arriving, what do you do? Do you automatically stay and fight? Most people do.
There was probably very little decision-making with that decision, however. Did that defender take into account the classes of the defenders as well as the classes of the attackers? What about health totals? Mana totals? How about who these people even are (you can check what type of player they are by the scoreboard pretty reliably)?
Everyone has the same tendencies
Think of the last time you were defending (or attacking) an objective. When you enter combat with five other people, who is the one you immediately target and start to kill? The one closest to you. Don't believe me? Look for it the next time you play a battleground, and you will be absolutely amazed how close this is to 100 percent.
This kind of thinking isn't just in WoW; it's in first-person shooters as well. If your enemy sees you and a teammate pop around different corners, he will almost always go for the one closest to him. Not only is it a larger target (due to perspective), but it is more deadly to him as well. It's a protective instinct.
This is why good healers stay far in the back. They also stay around other players, even if those players are just other healers. Not only is there safety in positioning (staying back rather than rushing in), but there is safety in numbers. How often do you see someone barrel into five players by themselves, far in front of the group? It happens, but it's pretty rare. Usually teammates will wait until a large group of other teammates arrives before they make their assault on a large force.
Use this to your advantage! Start looking for the healer who is trying to avoid being hassled. Try rushing into a bunch of opponents to tie them up on time if your team needs it (this is one of my favorite strategies for capturing nearby objectives).
Use your focus
If you haven't been using focus, you've been missing out. Focus is a brilliant built-in user interface option that works kind of like a secondary target. Set focus is a keybind in your keybinds menu that allows you to see what another player is doing (usually a healer) who is involved with the battle but not your kill target.
It's helpful for two reasons: It allows you to see cast bars you normally wouldn't be able to see. You can see who your opponents are healing and when that heal will go off. It also allows you to create macros to interrupt those spells or do funky things with Charge, Fear, and the like.
/cast Polymorph
This, if put in a macro, it will turn your target into a sheep, because without a target modifier, the target is your target [target=target].
/cast [target=focus] Polymorph
After you've set your focus and created the above macro, you can use this macro to Polymorph not your target, but your focus! This allows you to surprise enemy players who expected you to cast that Polymorph on your target instead of your focus (which is hidden information for them).
You can do this with any ability that has a target. You can Charge your focus target, Spell Lock, cast Flash of Light, or anything, really. The sky is the limit.
Future PvP videos
On another note, I got the go-ahead to make some PvP videos for you guys. I'll probably be doing a few rated battlegrounds videos as well as arenas in the upcoming weeks. I downloaded a way to record today and will be tinkering with editing and uploading to WoW Insider's YouTube page. I haven't done this in the past, so don't expect greatness. It might be two weeks until the first one is up, but don't worry!
I'll be starting with my warlock, Ceftobiprole of Auchindoun. He's currently my only 85 (I've been really busy lately, OK? Don't laugh at his gear too hard). I might be leveling up my paladin, warrior, mage, and death knight shortly as well to get them in on some PvP, especially if these videos go over well.
Listening Music: 2 Bit Pie with Colours. Just song -- no video, because I couldn't find one. I like this one a bit more than Here I Come, although that one is pretty sweet, too.
Want to ascend the arena ladders faster than a fireman playing Donkey Kong? We'll steer you to victory with the best arena addons and let you in on some rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets. If you're looking for the inside line on battlegrounds and world PvP, read The Art of War(craft). Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Pyromelter Dec 21st 2010 7:16PM
For macro's, I like the 2-in-1, making it cast interrupt or sheep on my focus target if i have one, or if I don't have a focus, then it will cast it on my current target. It looks like this:
#showtooltip Counterspell
/cast [@focus, harm, nodead] Counterspell; Counterspell
This will cast your interrupt at your focus target; if you have no focus, it will cast it on your current target. This works great on boss encounters too! Like on Jaraxxus, you can interrupt without having to switch targets off of adds.
A good tip for bg's: Healers are your biggest enemy. It's always a good idea to look at the scoreboard. Click the "Healing done" column and see who has done the most healing on your opponent's side. Then spam the crap out of that name i your /bg chat. That druid with 2 million healing, you should be training him and keeping him in ghost form as much as possible.
gamerunknown Dec 21st 2010 10:34PM
I'm in a bit of a conundrum on my warlock at the moment (my first 85 too, after having only priest at 70 and 80 for 2 whole expansions).
I tried making a macro that selected for mouseover first, then focus, then current target for fear (and spell lock), but if I constantly had to mouseover a target to make sure it didn't fear my focus target, I may as well have just had a mouseover macro and ignored the fear component. I use bartender so "button modifiers" aren't the answer, since I have everything from alt q-r, 1-5, F1 - F3 (ctrl, shift and unmodified as well), and various other bindings like z, Ctrl Z, alt shift 1, alt shift 2 bound as well. I was thinking when I went to arena I could have two sets of bindings for my numpad keys, where numpad 0 would target arena enemy 1 and numpad 5 would focus target arena enemy 1, but in that case the macro I'd need to use would be "target x, focus them, targetlast", which would give them a warning that I'd switch anyway. What I'd really like is another modifier key that would cast all spells into my focus without the taletell sign of an incoming interrupt or switch... but I'm playing on a laptop with a mousepad, so no Razr for me :P.
Another problem I've had in PvP on my priest (and a lesser extent on my lock) is that I relied heavily on harm/heal macros. For example, I could click the portrait of the rogue on my team, hit 5 to shield him, then press assist, and hit 5 again to mind blast the enemy. However I've found that with the new latency queue it chooses heal spells when you have the enemy targeted, absolutely useless when you're trying to get a shadow: word pain off on a rogue and you constantly renew yourself instead. Separating my damage spells to different binds means that I now have to practice keyboard gymnastics in PvP, it wouldn't be too uncommon for me to have to hit, for example, five to shield myself, ctrl + tab to shackle a ghoul, then alt+shift+left mouse button in order to mind spike the DK. Similarly on my lock I bound unending breath to fear, as I figured I'd never have to cast fear on a friendly target. However when I was attempting to fear my enemy with somewhat heavy lag, I ended up casting unending breath on myself about 3 times instead and dying.
On a brighter note, I've found focus targeting supremely useful in BGs. Bring up your map or use the minimap to check who is solo defending a node. Focus them and if you notice they are losing health, sapped or debuffed, you can call out an incoming, as someone who is solo defending might be too occupied to do so themselves. Warning players of the specific classes (and the cooldowns they've used) can sometimes come in handy too... For example, a team of a warrior, a priest and a paladin would probably happily take on any number of destro warlocks and shadow priests, whereas a shaman and a mage would probably be fairly wary taking on a resto and a feral druid.
sandfleaz Dec 21st 2010 7:48PM
One of the basic principles of -
How to write good is, always avoid alliteration !
Baba Dec 22nd 2010 4:15AM
I see what you did there!
Susano Dec 22nd 2010 11:33AM
Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villian by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished.
However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengence; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous!!
Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.
Matthew Dec 21st 2010 8:03PM
Hey gang! I'm going to be a part of our guilds arena team. As a shaman, I can go elemental or resto (I am unable to play enhance)
Which would be better for the team, do you think? (assuming there will be a mage and a ret pally for sure, not sure on other makeup of team - I do know this is important.)
I used to play a disc priest, but I wanted to do something different for Cat. Thus, begins the shaman.
Crazyates Dec 21st 2010 8:57PM
My first toon was a prot pally. I stumbled thru a few dungeons at lower lvls, and still remember the ele shaman yelling at me thru SM over a year ago to keep aggro. "huh? aggro?"
Anyways, taking that pally thru multiple battleground around 40-60 was what taught me all about situational awareness. Watching where ppl were coming from, looking for healers to harass, and player positioning. I always tried to be the closest player to their skirmishes, assuming that as prot I couldn't do much dmg, but I could survive a lil bit longer than most. If they attacked me rather than my neighbor mage, we might have a better chance.
I'm not the best pvp'r, but that "big picture" or situational training is what helped me be a (somewhat) competent tank @ 80. I can honestly say low lvl pvp is what made me love tanking. It's also something my boomkin brother severely lacks, and why he cant play anyone but a spellcaster ha!
Pyromelter Dec 21st 2010 9:15PM
Pvp, especially in battlegrounds, really helps teach people situational awareness.
wutsconflag Dec 21st 2010 9:14PM
Back before cross-server battlegrounds, I used to see mages go barreling into the enemy masses to AOE and cause general mayhem. This tactic was used to great effect because the enemy would scatter and also move backwards while killing the mages. This tactic worked over and over again because people naturally attack the closest target, and while they were busy attacking the mage, the rest of the mage's teammates would press forward.
While I played a warrior during BC, I used the same tactics to great effect. Fighting on the road in AV, you generally have two large groups of players, along with a few stragglers going around. In order to help my team, I'd ask for shields, mount up and run right into the middle of the enemy, dismount and immediately fear. Inevitably, the same thing would happen (the enemy would switch to me, I'd die pretty quickly, but my teammates would push forward a few yards and the enemy would fall back).
It always amazed me how well it would work, but it amazed me more when more people didn't do it. I guess the author's right, and people would rather wait for their teammates than sacrificing themselves to gain a few yards...
Pyromelter Dec 21st 2010 9:19PM
There is one class and spec that can do that, AND also survive it:
Elemental shaman.
This ESPECIALLY works at the flag in EOTS. If you see 10 people by the flag in EOTS, ride in, hit Thunderstorm. You will laugh your bleeping arse off all the way to victory. The other big place for this of course is by the flag at the Lumbermill; however, this works really well on the road north of Icewing Bunker and the Stormpike Bridge in AV.
A crazy mage might be able to mount up, ride into a skirmish, frost nova and then invis to survive, but usually is going to die. The shaman way is way more fun and way more effective. And did I mention how fun it is?
Crazyates Dec 21st 2010 9:50PM
Situational Awareness 101: When you see a lone shammy running into your group guarding the flag in EotS, either run or sheep him.
Matrillik Dec 21st 2010 11:17PM
boomkins. also the people you are able to knock off have no awareness in the first place and would probably go down easy anyway.
Nonette Dec 21st 2010 11:02PM
http://www.wowpedia.org/Beholder
You were saying?
Banaoil Dec 22nd 2010 7:34AM
Isn't there a beholder boss in Auchindown right after you cross the Bridge of souls, and again as a boss in Violet Hold, right next to puppy?
Suul Dec 22nd 2010 8:37AM
My only disappointment was that the end of the article didn't have a point hammered home as hard as hell, like in the beginning. A fun article that everyone who PVP's should read.
As a long time veteran of battlegrounds, I'd like to add some small advice about target selection. Are your team members smart enough to figure out for themselves who is the most deadly offensive weapon on the opposing team? Are they CCing her?
I seem to always end up being the one who dies for the cause by charging in and disrupting their overpowered holy paladin with the Arena Master title. No one else seems willing to acknowledge that the frost mage is controlling mid and needs to die.
Players, please play like pros and lock down the real "players."
Overhead Dec 22nd 2010 11:47AM
You say that you can use focus to see who the enemy is healing. Do that many decent PvP healers actually target their healing target? I had just assumed they all mouseover heal, and use their target as a way to watch a castbar.
Preyy Dec 23rd 2010 4:47AM
I think a cleaner syntax for the "focus if presetn, target if not" macro would look a bit closer to.
#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead,exists][] SPELL NAME
The back to back square brackets exist as a blank conditional and will ensure that the spell will be cast normally if the previous conditionals are not met.