I plan on doing an article on every class in WoW to help you beat them in PvP. These guides will not be based on specific class vs class, but more on how to identify what talent spec your opponent is, the dangers of his spec, the weaknesses, and how to defeat them.
Hunters
All hunters can be defeated by taking advantage of the dead zone. The dead zone is the area a few yards around the hunter. You want to be in this area as much as possible. All hunters have to deal with this regardless of spec. Once inside the dead zone, use all skills available to you to keep the hunter as close as possible. Be aware you will be wing clipped if you get into melee range, which is similar to a warrior's hamstring.
All hunters also have access to traps. Traps commonly used in pvp are frost trap, freezing trap, and snake trap. Freezing trap entraps your character in a block of ice, preventing all actions from you until damage has been caused. Once broken, you must close the gap fast in order to stand a chance of beating the hunter. Frost trap places a patch of ice which slows down movement of all enemies standing upon the patch. This trap also has a chance to snare your character if the hunter is specced with the appropriate talent in the survival tree. Snake trap releases many low level snakes that cause poison damage to whoever they land on, usually used on healers to make them focus on cleansing themselves.
Other notable skills all hunters have regardless of spec are concussive shot, viper sting, flare, and hunter's mark. Concussive shot slows down your character shortly, but also increases the damage of steady shot for the hunter while concussive shot is active on you. Viper sting drains mana fairly quickly, and should be removed ASAP if you are able. Flare will take stealth classes out of stealth if you are close enough to the flare. Hunter's mark will also allow the hunter to see you in stealth, however it is not a big deal for classes that do not have stealth.
Identifying the spec of the hunter.
I recommend you read all specs, due to hybrid specs. However if you ever see a 41 talent point ability used, you can rule out 21 talent point skills of another talent tree.
Beastmaster
Pet damage will be higher than other hunters. Also look for how fast skills like claw are occuring. Beast mastery gives hunters a talent granting their pets increased energy regeneration. While Marks hunters get a similar effect, it's not as consistent as beast mastery.
Beast mastery also gets 2 unique skills; Intimidation and Beastial Wrath/The Beast within. Intimidation is a 3 second stun, and when cast, a blue-ish aura will radiate from the pet. Beastial Wrath/The Beast Within is easily seen. Once cast, both the pet and hunter will grow in size, and become red. Once this happens, the hunter and pet are immune to all CC's and get increased damage.
-=- Defeating Beast Mastery Hunters -=-
A significant source of DPS from beast mastery hunters comes from the pet. In group pvp such as the arena, it may be worth your time to kill the pet. Stuns should be used whenever possible on the hunter. While the hunter is stunned, he cannot cast bestial wrath and trigger the beast within, or intimidation. You're going to want to kill beast mastery hunters quickly, and avoid the beast within at all costs.
If the beast within is triggered, you have to either stay in the dead zone, or somehow get away for 18 seconds. Hunters with the beast within active are very deadly. It's basically a god mode for hunters. Some classes can escape the hunter pretty easily though. Rouges can Cloak of Shadows and vanish, or frost mages can double ice block, if you chose to use those cool downs. A good healer should also be able to manage to keep you alive as well.
Overall, once the beast within is gone, beast mastery hunters shouldn't prove to be that tough to take down.
Marks
Marks spec hunters are not easily identifiable visually, however they have some unique skills that can be easily seen. Burst damage is a lot more common with marks hunters, if you're hit by a 3.6k aimed shot followed by a 1.5k multi shot, you're most likely facing a marks hunter. Pet damage is low, unlike beast mastery hunters. Casters can immediately a marks hunter if they are ever interrupted by Silencing Shot.
-=- Defeating Marks hunters -=-
Marks hunters are somewhat glass cannons, due to most stacking high Agility and attack power gear to get the most out of their damage. Once you close the dead zone for the first time, expect to be scatter shot and possibly trapped. If you are trapped, once again close the gap and use all possible CC's to keep the hunter slowed down. Ranged classes are going to want to avoid being nuked by the hunter, due to the high burst damage that is possible.
Marks hunters don't have as many options for survivability as the other specs, however, skilled marks hunters offer the highest threat to you. Avoid letting them get far away from you, and they should fall easily.
Survival Hunters
Survival hunters are generally more PVE oriented and pose the least threat to you as a PVP opponent, unless they are extremely well geared. Survival hunters have increased trap durations, and all traps can snare you with the entrapment talent.
Survival hunters have 3 abilities that can be activated by them; Deterrence, Wyvern Sting, and Readiness. Deterrence increases the hunters chance to dodge and parry by 25%. Deterrence can be easily countered by staying behind the hunter, making it imposable to dodge and parry. Wyvern sting is more of a PVE CC ability. Once shot, you will remain sleeping for 12 seconds, then get a DOT which causes 942 nature damage. Any damage will awaken you. Readiness acts just like rogue's preparation. Readiness will put all of the hunter's cooldowns back to 0, so expect some trap abuse.
-=- Defeating Survival Hunters -=-
Once again, due to survival being PVE oriented, you can generally just use simple hunter tactics to beat them. Get in the dead zone, keep them there, and drop them. However readiness allows the hunter to use some unique strategies, such as chain trapping. If chain trapping occurs, you should trinket out of the second trap, not the first, then close the distance. If you trinket out of the first trap, you may run into the 2nd one right after, and have wasted your trinket. Using your trinket on the 2nd trap will insure you cannot be trapped again for another 30 seconds. I recommend you get some add on that will alert you of the use of readiness, such as Natur Enemy Cast bar.
All specs of hunters are best taken down quickly. If the hunter is ever at a distance from you, and you have no skills off cooldown to reach the hunter once again, consider yourself dead. Identify the talent spec, expect and deal with abilities the hunter has available to him, and remain in control.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Fighting Hunters in PvP
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Rare Spawn Mobs can be a great moneymaker.
In the World of Warcraft, nothing is more important than gold. It allows you to do all of your everyday activities, such as repairing, and you can never have enough of it. I've found some rare spawn mobs that can be farmed for easy gold.
The mobs I'm talking about are:
The Razza - http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=11497
Skarr the Unbreakable - http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=11498
Mushgog - http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=11447
These mobs always drop 1-2 BoE blues which can be sold on the Auction House for a good amount of money. All 3 mobs also have a chance to drop the Orb of Deception (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=1973), which can be sold anywhere from 100-1000 gold, depending on the server's economy.
To get to these mobs, you first need to travel to Feralas.
Dire Maul is in the middle of Feralas, and the Arena that these mobs spawn in is located directly in the middle of the inside of Dire Maul. There are a few 55-60 mobs blocking the way, but if you are 70, you can just run past them.
The mobs spawn in the Arena approximately 6 hours after they are killed, which makes them easy to farm. They share a spawn time, meaning no two will be there at the same time. The exception to this is Mushgog, who will spawn along with one of the other two mobs, making him considerably harder to kill.
The mobs share a teleport ability that will port the player to the middle of the arena, so a kiting tactic is not possible here. I can easily solo them as a level 70 Paladin, keeping up Seal and Judgement of Wisdom. Feral Druids can solo this by going in to bear form and just tanking the mobs down. Most other classes can DPS fast enough to kill them within a few seconds, so they shouldn't be a problem at all. If you are getting low on health, a good tactic is to kite the mob to the side of the arena, so when they port you to the middle, you will have a chance to bandage uninterrupted. The Orb of Deception is around a 10% drop rate, so if it doesn't drop your first kill, don't give up. I have made oodles of money using this method, and I hope that you can, too!
Control Your Character Like A Pro!
One way to drastically and instantly increase your skills in WoW is to have a comfortable control setup and be efficient using it. In this guide I will cover how to turn the default WoW UI into one I have found effective and efficient in all aspects of WoW.
First off, we have to make some adjustments to the default UI. Open your interface settings by hitting escape, then clicking interface options. Check Buff Durations, and then click the advanced options tab. from there, check "enable floating combat text" and any options you feel you would like to see. Buff durations will put a countdown underneath the buff once it is cast upon you, allowing you to see exactly how much time is left on that buff. Floating Combat text will show numbers above your head when you take damage, dodge, parry, etc.
Now we will discuss the default UI. I personally hate the default UI, I feel it doesnt give you enough information and has too much excess crap you don't need on it. Once all your bars are filled with icons, it takes up a decent portion of your screen as well. Luckily, add ons can solve these problems.
Add ons are basically third party interface additions that can do many things from giving you more information to making it easier to change gear sets. There are literally thousands of add ons available for download. There are some add ons I consider a must have for any WoW player.
Natur Enemy Cast Bar - Shows the cast bars of your enemies, cooldowns of your enemies, duration of your debuffs on your enemy, and much more. WoW has incorporated this feature into their own UI, but I feel Natur does it better.
Some form of Player/target frames - New frames can clean up and provide more info than the default frames. I recommend AG unit frames or Perl Classic Frames. AG unit frames seems to not be updated as fast as Perl though.
A bar mod - These add ons will give you more action bars to place icons on and allow you to move them around, scale them, etc. I personally use Bartender3. Bartender also lets you hide current parts of the UI, like the bag bar and mini help bar.
Those 3 add ons I couldn't play without. I play with other add ons as well, but none that drastically change my UI such as those listed above. To install these add ons, simply create a folder in your interface folder named "addons" The default path for this folder is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\addons.
Once you have found add ons you like, place and configure them in a way that is comfortable to you. I personally like my bars in the bottom right corner, chat box lowered in the lower left, all frames showing the bare necessities, and my enemy cast bars in an easy spot to read quickly.
Next, key bindings. If you currently click your skills, stop. Even if you are comfortable doing it and can click your skills without looking, stop. Anyone efficient with key bindings will always be faster than you. You could also miss an important spell interrupt which could cost you a loss in an arena game because you click your spells and abilities. Key bindings take some getting use to at first, but once you are comfortable with them there is no going back. I highly recommend getting a mouse with some side buttons on it, to bind more skills to your mouse hand. Another option is to get a gamepad, such as the Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52. I have no personal experience with one of these pads, but some players love them.
Onto key bindings themselves. I recommend on your main action bars you have keys set up as 1-5, then SHIFT + 1-5, then 2 mouse side buttons to replace "-" and "=". This set up allows your never to have to adjust your hand from its position. Movement with this setup should be done by clicking both the right and left mouse button simultaneously. WASD is fine for moving when you're not in combat. If you're using a bar mod, you can set another bar with more key binds. I use SHIFT + SPACE for actions I use a lot, such as bloodrage, stealth, or hunter's mark. Alt+1-5 is also easy to hit on the fly, as well as SHIFT + mouse buttons.
To set key bindings, hit escape then key bindings. If you're using bartender like me, your main bar will be labeled "Bartender3 Bar 1" Click each red button and then press the button you would like to assign that button to. Other bars are found at the bottom of the keybinding list if you are using Bartender3.
Player preference will be a huge factor in setting up a UI, so experiment and try to find what works best for you. I feel the above UI is basic enough for any player to use, but also efficient for veteran players.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Gearing Up For Arena
With the release of TBC, the arena is no doubt the most successful thing to have been released in a while. It has established WoW as an E-sport, and tournaments are popping up everywhere for the top teams. In order to be successful in the arena, you're going to need some gear. This guide will help you get the best possible non-raiding gear to insure your success in the arena.
First off, stats. Resilience is HUGE in arena, and should be your primary focus going into arena with no gladiator sets. Resilience cuts the damage of crits and reduces the chance you will be crit. 39.4 resilience rating gives you a 1% chance to not becrit, and 2% less damage taken from crits. Fortunately, resilience gear is easy to acquire before your team has the points for gladiator sets.
Stamina is also important in arena, and all of WoW for that matter. What's the use of your great 30% crit rate or 2.5k attack power if you die in seconds? Dead players do no DPS and cast no heals. In my opinion, stamina should be taken over attack power/agi/str. Once you get some gladiator armor pieces, the high DPS will come. The main thing about gladiator sets is that they also have nice stamina/resilience, so you can afford to start focusing on increasing your DPS.
Crit rating should also been taken by DPS classes. Higher crit allows you greater burst damage, which is the best kind of damage for arena. Any good healer can heal their teammate getting a constant source of small number damage, such as warlock dots. But it would be significantly harder to heal that same teammate when he or she is getting hit by 5k+ damage in a matter of seconds. Crit rating, unfortunately, isn't extremely easy to find pre-raid gear, but some pieces are still out there for you to get.
Now onto the gear itself.
Head: You have 3 real solid choices here. You can opt for the Honor PvP Helm, your dungeon set 3 helm, or the helms from the quest-chain in shadowmoon.
PvP helm will cost you 16,065 honor points and 30 AV marks. Note the meta gem socket.
Dungeon set 3 helm also has a meta gem socket, and drop from various instances depending on your class.
The quest chain helms which are the easiest to obtain start with these 2 quests.
Alliance - A Ghost in the Machine
Horde - A Haunted History
Neck - Veteran's Pendant. Cost is 15,300 honor points and 10 EoS marks.
Caster DPS
Healer
Melee DPS
Shoulders: The PvP shoulders are the best to get here, resilience and decent stats.
PvP shoulders will cost you 10,098 honor and 20 AB marks.
Back - Sergeant's Cloak/Cape will cost you 9,435 honor points and 20 AB marks.
Caster
Melee
Chest: PvP Chest will cost you 16,524 honor points and 30 AB marks. Notable enchant here is +15 resilience, solid enchant and not too expensive.
Bracers- Veteran's bracers. They have a version for every class and spec. Cost is 11,794 honor and 20 WSG marks.
Hands - PVP gloves are almost a must for every class. Each gives you a special ability that is unavailable to you without the gloves equipped. Rogues' deadly throw gets a silence affect, simply a must have for any rogue serious about pvp. The cost for these gloves are 10,098 honor points and 20 AV marks.
Waist- Once again, the veteran's belt for your corresponding class and spec. Cost is 17,850 honor points and 40 AB marks.
Legs- PVP pants are 16,065 honor points and 30 WSG marks. There are some quest alternatives that offer higher DPS, but you would lose resilience.
Feet - Veteran's boots for your corresponding class and spec. Cost for the boots is 17,850 honor poitns and 40 EoS marks.
Rings- Get both the season 1 pvp ring and season 2 pvp ring. Season 2 rings cost 15,300 honor and 10 AV marks. Season 1 Rings cost 11,934 honor points and 10 AV marks.
Caster DPS - Season 2 Ring / Season 1 Ring
Melee DPS - Season 2 Ring / Season 1 Ring
Healer - Season 2 Ring / Season 1 Ring
A notable alternative are the rings from collecting 50 spirit shards. These however would take longer to obtain.
Melee
Caster
Trinkets: There are so many possible trinkets that will work well for arena that I couldn't possibly list them all without missing some. A lot comes down to personal preference too. You may like increasing your attack power with trinkets and another player of the same class may want to increase crit raiting. I'd recommend going to wowhead and browsing through the trinkets.
Weapons: Once again, same as trinkets. There are so many possible weapons to get that you may want to browse through them as well and see which are most accessible to you. Some of the best require heroic instance runs, such as the best ranged weapon and 1h mace pre-raid. Warriors however, have access to the best 2h weapons for a while. The weapon smithing exclusive weapons will last you a long time and each have an individual bonus to each of them, such as the sword's resistance to fear effects.
Anyone in a raiding guild will obviously have better gear accessible to them to choose from, so take advantage. Another thing that I would recommend would be to stack stamina gems and enchants, even if that means not getting a socket bonus. If the socket bonus is small like +3 agility, it may be worth it to put a stamina gem in the slot instead of the corresponding color. Also, be sure you at least get 2 pvp pieces for the +35 resilience set bonus. This will provide an easy boost to your resilience.
Stumble It!