So my friend and I used to just do casual PvP when we played in BFA. Pick a fight in wPvP, or run / defend bases together in BGs. This was great, but he plays less and less now.
I still want to do these things, but I’m a little more mindful now of what I can accomplish by myself. I wanted to know what classes / specs lend themselves well to 1-on-1 encounters against most other classes, and still provide at least OK value in BGs.
I know 1v1 isn’t what the game is balanced around. I know this isn’t a performance metric that most people care about. Even still, I’d appreciate if some folks would lend their thoughts in the comments and list a handful of specs they think meet both criteria.
Sub Rogue (especially Nelf) is the best 1v1 spec because of all the ways it can reset a fight and wait out important enemy CDs. The trade off is you’re less strong in team fights.
If not Rogue, probably Ret because of its super strong burst and defensives. However, you may be annoyed in BGs with how long your invulnerabilities are on CD.
Augmentation can do crazy damage and is hard to kill too. But will oom if it has to heal itself too often.
I know Sub, by virtue of the kit, is always going to be relevant in this conversation, but I actually hate sub gameplay wise and thematically, so I’d rather not play it if possible.
I noticed Ret get mentioned a few times. Are there other specs that can secure their own kills in 1v1s without relying on much, if any, outside assistance?
Or, maybe this will help get an answer more in-line with what I’m looking for. Below I’m going to list specs that I really enjoy playing. They may not be as optimal as sub rogue, but I do favor fun over performance (although I would like a mix of the two ideally.) Of these specs, could you let me know which ones would be best at 1v1s and BGs?
Any Rogue still a good 1v1 option. I’m not sure how strong Sin’s burst is atm, but I’m under the impression Outlaw is more about sustained damage.
Affliction/Ele might be the best 1v1ers on your list because of their control, self-sustained healing, and damage. Affliction eventually wins by default, Ele has strong burst.
Downside is everyone has counters and sometimes the strongest 1v1 specs have no answers when mobbed by multiple people. (Unlike Ret or Aug, which do.)
You also should consider if something is a good dueler ONLY when it has full cds, or is something generally just a good 1v1 spec because it has frequent cds or strong sustained damage/healing. Survival is up a creek w/o Turtle and Eagle.
If you really want specs that make you feel like you can play w/o a Healer and go fight on off-nodes and away from team fights, you should probably pick Rogue #1, (followed by Ret/Dragons), followed by Shaman, followed by Warlock.
Hi there, I’m sorry for the late reply! I didn’t get notified anyone commented further.
I feel like my FAVORITE favorites are Assassination > Affliction > spriest >Destruction.
Assassination is a ton of fun I think, and despite not being as strong as Sub still has some basic Rogue kit that’s always useful like CC and stealth, but having your primary damage CD be curable by mending bandage or Dwarf racials feels kinda crappy. Even when it’s up, at least when I’ve watched better PvP players than myself using it, the burst doesn’t seem particularly threatening.
Affliction I think is a ton of fun, and the value to a group is obvious with gateway and healthstones. I think the PvP talent to portal people to your circle is also really good. Oblivion hits harder than I would’ve thought too, but people seem to really hate Aff players. A lot of people also say the damage doesn’t mean anything since it’s not immediately threatening, but my line of thinking is any damage eventually needs to be healed so it has to contribute in some way I’d imagine?
Destruction feels like the on-demand serotonin. Succubus and fear CC seems to facilitate your own periods of casting to get off big hits like Soulfire and back-to-back Chaos bolts. Having buttons to press on the run too like occasional instant cast incinerates, shadow burn, portals etc is cool. Plus you have the support all warlocks have with gateway and stones.
spriest is so cool with the micro CC and utility and honestly it’s the caster I’ve had the most success with in these game modes, but maybe it’s just the most intuitive here. My only real hangup with Shadow is that it’s the only Priest DPS spec and I’m worried, like I assume many spriest are, that if I want to play another dps spec when shadow is REALLY bad, I have to go to another class, whereas I could just reroll another spec on my warlock or rogue.
I would actually LOVE to play an Evoker. Devestation might actually be my favorite spec ever, even though it’s outshined by Aug, but I can’t get over how dracthyr look / run. If Evoker ever gets the opportunity to stay in their chosen identity / humanoid form I’ll be a Devoker until I quit playing the game.
It’s arcane hands downs watch some dalaran duels sometime cvark wil slaughter mulitglads back to back. Wish I could pull it off but can’t it’s tough to learn and perfect but when you do watch out.
Ret is tough, arcane is great also but it’s concept is “cheesy” try to do damage while simply not being able to be caught up with.
My favourite to play is aff right now while sure can get bursted down with the right talents, they are tough and with most specs, it’s you better kill the aff asap because if it starts to go on too long, it’s going to be a loss.
Sub rogue nothing else even close. That being said me and my 3 IRL friends made MM hunters and all run together and camo, then all open together with sniper shots and one shot people its pretty funny. But Sub is just too good and straight broken with resets and solo oneshot ability
This man is crazy - arcane is one of the hardest specs to play and do well in - especially in BGs. The fact alone that your mobility, CC, defensives and burst are all one school makes mistakes insanely punishing.
OP, assa has crazy burst for BGs so if that’s your first love, you can be fine with it and just keep on movin.
If you want to just thump and always be effective though the absolute easiest is MM. You can kite and burst just about anyone, you have very few ways to be stopped at a range no one can replicate, you have a ton of “oh crap” buttons and you can still stealth and scratch the rogue itch.
I can’t think of any spec that you could learn faster or do more with earlier than MM.
Assassin is a very bad choice currently because the two piece bonus totally breaks the class. It adds a proc when your rupture tics that will prevent you from being able to reset with stealth or even vanish (it pulls you out instantly). This has been broken forever now.
Just don’t run the 2P. I mean OP is in greens at Honor level 28, he’s not stacking conq gear any time soon. And TBH, if he runs Kingsbane BG fun build, he can crank insane numbers (I can get to about 130-150k DPS through 4-5M dmg on my alt on a go) and have a blast doing it. Plus he can spec into IC and just toast groups all day if he wants to.
He loves assa; he can totally play it and do great in randoms - no need to respec just to feel viable.
Duel tournaments are in an arena where you can start with all your CDs and it’s a guaranteed 1v1.
Take Arcane into BGs and you will start getting ripped apart by multiple RDPS. Especially with how MM is so popular. Arcane is good 1v1 against melee, but falls apart once things enter that small scale skirmish phase at off nodes.
I saw your rogue in BfG on the weekend! I recognized the guild name and had to do a check-pvp. You finished me off at the Lighthouse flag when I tried to defend it.
Was a bad game for us. We started out 8 vs. 10 and never filled past 9. The tenth slot would have been a healer because we had none.