Just getting into PVP for the first time with both my Hunter (BM/MM) and Balance Druid mains. It seems a little overwhelming with everything going on. Are BG’s/Epic BG’s the place to learn PvP for the first time? Should I just pick one of my two mains and focus on that specific one? I’ve researched both classes (guides, youtube, talents, etc…), downloaded some add ons such as Weakauras, what else should I be doing to improve my experience/not let my teams down?
I cant speak for everyone else, but it took hours of duels for me to feel comfortable in pvp. I can definitely see how it would be overwhelming to someone new.
I think if i were to do it over now, Id do it this way. Pick a main, and stick to it, then find a streamer, or youtuber of that class that you can actually stand to watch. Dont just go for the best because itll be mindnumbing to watch if they’re not entertaining, and itll be more difficult to retain the information.
Get a basic class setup from watching this person, and try to have a general idea of what’s expected of you by playing that class. Take your time and try to emulate the things you see that person doing. It doesnt have to be perfect, pvp is supposed to be fun, so just kinda go with the flow of it.
Im sure you’ll get lots of better players than me giving you better advice, but this is where i would start if i was starting again.
Best of luck to you, and i hope anything i’ve said helps
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Thanks a bunch thats helpful!
For a new spec I never played, I go on check-pvp and look at the top players see what build they use and try to understand their choices. Then I modify it to my liking if there’s spells I don’t like using or the style of fighting.
The best is to get out there and just keep joining battlegrounds. If you’re having a hard time in regular, stay in epic battlegrounds. The amount of people will reduce dueling and help you see what seems effective while having support around you.
Use a damage meter to see what killed you and what the other players of the same spec are dealing damage with.
On the talent point, don’t be afraid to make your own builds. Even if they’re not the top meta, sometimes it’s more fun to play your way.
Seems like you have a really good start to me. Don’t expect everything to come together at once and don’t overwhelm yourself. That is, look for incremental improvement at first. Once past these initial stages, you should record your own gameplay and review it to recognize things you did well and things you could have done better.
After you copy someone’s talent spec for PvP, if you don’t have anyone to duel, I’d suggest taking your toon into dungeons or LFRs.
Basically, you want to become more familiar with your various keybinds and damage rotation.
I used to suggest new PvPers go into random epic bgs to gear up and practice their abilities, but if you end up in a game against a premade raid, you’ll just have a poor PvP experience, get roflstomped, and not learn very much.
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This is a phenominal point. PvP can have a ton of intricacies to it if you get down to it, but the main thing (as a dps) is doing as much damage as possible, just like you would in a pve scenario. Every class has their niche, Figure out what your classes niche is and get really good at doing that damage. That alone can get you wins.
Make sure you have or buy the trinkets FIRST. Don’t get the passive cc one. Get the medallion that you have to key bind to break a cc and use it wisely.
The bloody token vendor sells a thing called Dragon Fruit. Always have it on your spell bars for a quick exit/flag carry.
Goblin gliders are cheap on the AH. Always good to keep on hand as well.
I loved typhoon instead of cyclone in BGs. But I played feral. So to each there own.
Healing potions and warlock cookies need key binds too.
Don’t leave the group of y’all start off bad. Once the masses rage quit you sometimes get a lot better players and turn the tide.
If your under geared don’t think your not important standing on the flag holding it and be ready to /I instance call out “inc”. It’s a game saver and anyone can sit there and do it effectively
I am trying to gear up with my hero set first. How do I craft armor/trinkets. Do I need sparks of shadowflame (not sure how to get these just pvping)?
The sparks will drop randomly at the end of the battleground.
There are optional “trophy” reagents you can get from a quest and the conquest vendor to craft gear that scales up to 450 ilevel in PvP.
In the beginning, you will die a lot. You may get frustrated but getting through that initial beginner phase is important. The streamers and youtubers that you watch will make it look a lot easier than you have it. They have lots of time into these characters and have some mastery of it. Keep plugging away and it will get easier.
Dungeons/training dummies are good for offensive output, but you’ll need to practice your defensives too. When to trinket, when to feign, when to turtle, etc. All of this gets more natural as you go.
I’ve always felt when starting a new class or spec, the learning curve is steep in the beginning, but will smooth out. Keep at it.
Trinkets you buy from honor/conquest vendor. They are a set bonus increase stamina and primary stat
^^^ super important. I didn’t know and wasted 1600 conquest about. When you win BGs you get a victors chest to open. click the quest item/ turn item into conquest vendor and you get these 2 super valuable trophy’s - you now can place 2 work orders and add the pvp option to them AS WELL as the shadow flame which you get from the same PvP reward box. When you do the crafting order the first box you select shadow flame. Then The bottom right box add the PvP trophy. Add some gold and wait for someone to make it. I just did a neck and offered 5k gold commission and I did NOT provide any reagents and someone still crafted it for me.
Also I’d recommend to the bloody token gear from WQ and air drops. There’s a weekly “sparks of life” to do world quests and what not in a specific zone. Each week you get trophy’s for doing sparks of life, and the bloody token gear from the taller vendor will upgrade to 447 with enough trophy’s. But your capped on trophy’s per week.
I also learned the hard way crafted gear cannot become tier set. So might want to have the healing spore cloak be crafted and the infurious boots
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Thanks all been very helpful all around!
There are also green trinkets which can be crafted with inscription, with the same set bonus. And they can be bought on the AH, like all the other green gear.
Once you have your keybinds set up and are ready to go gear wise you queue random bgs. From there you get destroyed thousands of times because you suck at pvp. But you gradually improve and if you stick with it you can consider yourself among the small fraction of playerbase that likes pvp.
Addons and macros are things you pick up along the way. I’d consider battlegroundenemies and weakauras to be mandatory. I also use bartender4 and tellmewhen, but not much else besides those addons.
Sorry last question: Just got my honor set of ilvl 437 gear. How do I get 450 gear now if all rated BG’s require exerience? Join a pvp guild?
Start your own group, or join YOLOs. Till around 1400, then go for games with some sort of voice chat. Do the other modes, anything that gives conquest. Especially the daily wins.
This is what I normally do.
Otherwise it’s just farm in randoms.
You can craft some 450 gear, you’ll get 2 trophies for free from a quest that you get from the strongboxes you get for a daily win.
Another path would be the wPvP gear, you need bloody tokens for the blue scalewarden gear from Malicia, and Trophies of strife, to upgrade it to 447 ilvl, from the weekly quest that Allith Stonebreeze in Gladiator’s Refuge gives.
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The absolute, 100%, full-certainty, word of God best way to learn PvP is actually through duels.
If you just hop into a random battleground, there’s going to be so much going on your learning experience is going to be overstimulated. Frequently you will not know or misidentify why certain events happen, like why you died or why one group won an objective.
But dueling is the most direct way to fully test your spec’s potential. Because dueling is 1v1, you can more easily identify what is causing what. Why you die. How to net a kill. What efficient CD trades are, etc. You will learn what giving and taking damage feels like on a spec per spec basis (I.E. what Rapid Firing into a Warrior feels like versus a Mage).
And dueling introduces you to other specs’ abilities as well. Make sure you are investigating spells and icons you don’t understand. Make a new character or use online information just to learn other specs’ strategies, talent options, and abilities.
Of course - dueling doesn’t give any rewards. It’s just the best teacher. Try to duel people around your ilvl so one player isn’t winning with raw output over skill. And duel every spec available.
Then, once you do instanced PvP there’s a whole other level of learning involved, such as map objectives, effective terrain use, and how team compositions play into each other. But Rule of thumb: Best way to learn PvP is to keep it small in scope. It’s easier to register in real time what is happening in a 1v1 or 2v2 rather than a 10v10 team fight.
If you want to be tossed into the deep end, you can do rated solo shuffles. That’s an arena thing.
But I really, really wouldn’t recommend it for new PvPers.
You’ll be going against people in conquest gear. And all of them will focus on you every round when they realize you’re undergeared.