Quick Guide for New PvPers Struggling in Arena.
As someone getting back into arena, I figured I will share with new players what helped me. I am by no means a r1, or even a glad. In fact, this is only what I consider my second PvP season. I’ve dabbled in arena here and there before and reached 1800 but that was without any of the intentions to climb past 1800 (transmog in BFA). The first season (8.3) I played arena seriously (more than 150+ games) I reached 2200 in all brackets through LFG. I got 1800cr on the first day pvp season was released in SL before jumping into mythic +. Currently at 2150. So just know that I am only an above average pvper telling you what helped me when I first started rated. Please take everything I say here with a grain of salt as these are all of my opinions and only adopt from here what works for you.
I’m going to brake this up to 3 section key foundations that improved my gameplay.
These will all be micro fundamentals such as character mechanics, spell execution efficiency, and tracking abilities. Through this you should be able to climb up to 1800 before finding yourself short on macro knowledge (compositions, setups, positioning, ability trade offs). I also won’t be including factors that’s outside my control such as your ilvl. Those are something that I won’t be covering here as it’s something I don’t feel qualified to answer. It’s also something I feel one learns best from experience as that’s what makes pvp so enjoyable compared to pve for me, unlike mythic +, there will always be new playstyle you counter and its up to you to adopt and figure out what does and doesn’t work for you.
First to start off is macro. This is an especially important aspect if you want to push ratings. Macro will allow you to combine your targeting and spell cast into one button instead of having to target then cast. Hopefully the time that macro saves you will allow you to be calmer during the match instead of having to worry about all the buttons you need to press in an inhuman speed. For me this was something I found myself struggling a lot where there’s just too much going on that once (lets me honest, if you are new it can be overwhelming when your tracking the enemy cd, your dps’ cd, as will as positioning and when you should use your spells to trade bursts), often than not I would panic and over trade defensives costing my team the match as we would have nothing left for their second opener or when I’m stunned. You can have a separate modifier for each arena opponent as well as your teammates. Those macro modifiers are shift, control, and alt respectively.
Below are two of the macros I use, since I also heal +18 keys I have a mouseover included for instances outside of pvp such as raids or dungeons.
Example #1:
/stopcasting
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift, @party1] Holy Shock
/cast [mod:ctrl, @party2] Holy Shock
/cast [mod:alt, @party3] Holy Shock
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][exists,nodead,nomod][@player] Holy Shock
Example #2:
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift, @focus]Hammer of Justice
/cast [mod:ctrl, @arena2] Hammer of Justice
/cast [mod:alt, @arena 3] Hammer of Justice
/cast [@mouseover, help, nodead,nomod][]Hammer of Justice
Quick note, before you bind an ability to modifier sure that exact modifier + key isn’t bound to something else, if it is, the macro won’t work with the intended target when the modifier key is pressed. Test this in the open world before going into a match. Macros such as these above will allow you to stun/interrupt the focus/player automatically via holding down the modifier key + spell key instead of tab targeting the off focus to cc/stun and then switching back to your target. The same goes for defensive abilities that you can use to peel/use for your teammates such as bop or freedom. Just by pressing shift + spell key you can cast bop on your dps or healer without having to change your target.
Second is add-on. If you are new to PvP, having these is like having a perfect 20/20 vision. I would personally recommend Nameplatecooldown, AbilityTeamTracker, GladiusEX, and GladiuslosSA2. These four addons will allow you to make key factors such as when to go offense or when to peel and play defense.
Nameplatecooldown and AbilityTeamTracker goes hand in hand as they will let you see what cd your enemies have including trinkets/stuns/kicks, AbilityTeamTracker works the same way as Nameplatecooldown, expect it track’s your teammates spells and abilities. These combined lets you predict enemy setups as well as setting up your own play. This should help you reduce overtrading both offensives and defensives abilities. This is very important, as using your defensives/trinket when your healer isn’t stunned or when the enemy team isn’t popping their offensive cds puts your healer in a pressured position. What normally follows is the enemy team cc your healer and swap to you knowing you have no cds just to force out the trinket from the healer before applying the second cc secure the kill on you.
GladiusEx is basically like an arena frame that includes trinket, class, buffs, and debuts for both your team and your enemy’s. While GladiuslosSA2 is just an announcer for all enemy abilities both on and off your screen. It’s announced as they are cast even if they are outside your line of sight.
Third and final is targeting and movement keys if you do not have it already rebound. If you are using the keys A and D to turn left and turn right then I would change that to strafe left and strafe right respectively in key binds; This will offer you the ability to move left and right while keeping your camera still. This will negate the struggle of using turn left and right where a lot of the times you can get that error message where you aren’t facing the right orientations for your spells. This is especially important for classes such as paladin where you need to generate holy powers from melee spells from spells such as crusader strike. This way you won’t lose yourself to turning and miss a cast that signifies the enemy team is setting up for an opener ie. incarn -> convoke.
If you also would like to keep the camera turning that’s perfectly fine, but I find the default setting to be very slow, to change that type:
/console turnspeed 320
Default value is 180
Next thing I would point out is If you have X for sit, and Z for sheath weapon, get rid of those binds so that you can bind more important spells in their place. Second is to bind targeting to enemy player only for those of you Pvers, this way if you need to tab switch it will only target players instead of their minions. Another addon for those who needs target nearest enemies for pve activies is RETabBinder where it automatically changes your targeting to player only in a pvp instance such as arena, bg, or duel.
Hopefully what helped me can also help you if you are new to PVP, or act as a catalyst for those who find themselves stuck in 1400 or 1600 due to key binds, inefficiency spell execution, or not knowing when to trade abilities efficiently due to you not keeping track of both your teammates and enemies’ abilities.
Lastly, please do keep in mind these are just gameplay improvements that helped me, and it might not be the same for you. Arena is a lot of self-analyzing on what went right and what went wrong. Try not to immediately jump into another game if you don’t know why you lost, I think it’s healthy reflect after every match what you struggle with. Get an addon like Reflex arena historian where it keeps track of the all comps you won and lost against at the mmr the match was played at. Often than not, you will notice a trend on what compositions you are struggling with for you to work up a solution.