Help getting better with PVP

Could anyone offer any good tips and guidance for getting into PVP. When I look up info on the web it seems to be predominately about builds and talents. Really just looking for some information on good places to start, best ways to improve. I see a lot of references on forums relating to PVP or Raid gear, is this different than normal gear in any sense ?

Once upon a time, there were special stats that were only useful in PvP (and were pretty important for PvP) which meant you needed speperate gear to be optimal in PvP and PvE. That’s no longer the case.

What will matter on gear is the secondary stats (crit, haste, master, versatility) and which ones you want will vary based on your class and spec. If you’re just starting out, though, they aren’t going to be nearly as important as learning to play your class in PvP. Secondary stats are something to worry about when you’re ready to really start fine tuning your PvP.

You may want to look and see if you can find some video guides of the class and spec you want to play. As with any guides, you’ll want to make sure you’re finding stuff that’s up to date. Right now, that means that you’ll want guides from 8.1. (Which came out in mid-December 2018 if you’re looking at dates on guides.)

The other thing I’d recommend is to start doing some random battlegrounds. Unlike PvE, PvP is far less predicable, and so experience really is the best teacher. If you’re nervous, start in the “epic” battlegrounds as they have more people so there will be less spotlight on you as you’re learning.

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Stats are completely irrelevant in instanced PvP. Every class and spec now has a “template” of secondary stats that they are automatically assigned on entering a PvP instance. The value of these stats increases marginally for every 2(?) ilevels you increase.

I would recommend looking for PvP streamers who play the class(es) you’re interested in for PvP and watching them and asking questions about why they do what they do.

Aside from that, just practice. Learn what your abilities do in PvP by playing PvP, although I’d recommend doing 2s or 3s arenas over battlegrounds, as the smaller scale will allow you to see what both your team and the other team are doing, and give you a better idea of 1v1 capabilities for your class.

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No substitute for experience. Just go out and join Battlegrounds and arenas and you’ll start getting an idea.

If you can find someone to mentor you, it will help a lot. Usually someone in every guild is gung ho on pvp. Ask them for advice, dueling against them, getting critiques, doing some arenas and bgs with them.

Some things you’ll notice become very important in pvp

  1. healing yourself (even if it’s a potion or healthstone)
  2. interrupts
  3. crowd control (slows, stuns, freezes, etc…)
  4. buff stealing/purging (your buffs can quickly become your opponent’s)
  5. casting/attacking while moving
  6. escaping
  7. thick skin (your’s not your character’s)

Fair fights are for suckers. Guys that run off solo become free kills for the other team.

While pvp can be a ton of fun, it can bring out the worst in some people. Most of your toxic behavior and trash talking will actually come from your own team members. Ignore anyone that’s a jerk, you’ll need the thick skin for that. You can’t fight negativity with more negativity. Ignore what you can but if someone is abusive of you or another person, report it. Zero tolerance is the only way.

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If you’re totally new to PvP in WoW, first thing to get past is that everybody dies repeatedly. If you get killed, don’t sweat it, just rez and get back to the fight.

Couple other things to keep in mind: don’t only focus on your own gameplay, watch what other people are doing too when you’re comfortable playing the class. Learning how other classes are played (firsthand or by observation) helps in knowing what to expect and how to counter.

Second, the overall objective is more important than a high DPS or kill count. Those two things do matter, but even in an arena, the focus is on your team surviving, not you doing all the damage or killing.

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They did away with the stat templates in BfA. They wanted people to have some control over their stats in PvP.

They do use scaling tech to keep gear differences from having a huge effect. So, while someone with better gear might do twice as much damage in PvE content, in PvP, they may only do 5% more damage. (Those numbers are made up, I’m not sure of the actually scaling numbers.)

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I appreciate all the input and advice. Been bouncing between a couple alts of different levels and there is just a whole lot of stuff going on to pickup at once. I turned on war mode with my main boosted toon and quickly realized I needed to work on that a little more.

You don’t have to worry about any differences on PvP or Raid Gear anymore that system is pre-Battle for Azeroth.

If you want to get started in PvP I’d suggest hitting Battlegrounds and practicing against every player that attacks you. It’s the best way to get a feel for every class. Knowledge is the most important thing in PvP. The boss in this content is the enemy player and each of his abilities is going to impact how you play in some way. Getting exposure to all the classes is easy in a battleground and the combat is frequent enough to learn from your mistakes while they’re fresh in your mind.

Start with one of those builds you found online and learn how the abilities interact, different ways to counter your enemy, and being comfortable with taking damage and surviving. The best part about playing a meta build is that its easy to look up additional resources on youtube, or maybe a streamer, and by asking questions here in the class , arena, or pvp forums because a larger audience of players has had time to learn and pass on strategies or tips using the same talent choices.

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I agree with the other posts here, good advice. Only way to get good in PvP is to jump in and do it.

That said, you should devise some “scripts” in advance and commit them to memory before you start, helps with the panic that happens as your health bar starts dropping.

  1. How to burst. May sound obvious, but you need to think about it carefully so you can do it in a coordinated fashion. You’d be surprised how many people suck at this. Then you have to start observing the flow of the fight to learn when to go.

  2. How to play defense. When a warrior is all over you popping CDs and your health bar is cratering and you can’t move and… what do you do? When a rogue opens on you and you’re getting blown up and STUNNED and… what do you do? When a lock is deleting you with Chaos Bolts… what do you do? Think about it when you’re calm so when it happens in a BG you know autmatically what to do.

  3. How do you escape? Two bad guys are smashing you and two more are about to join. How do bust out to live to fight another day?

Work through these most common scenarios until you have a plan on how to counter them or do them correct. Then go practice, see if your scripts are effective. Watch and learn.

Read.

The Arena forums are cancer but if you sort through it you can glean some knowledge from time to time. Wowhead and Icy Veins have good guides for every class. You may start learning to use your fav toon in some radically new ways which can be super fun.

I’m not the greatest in PvP, but I have a couple strategies for doing pretty well in Arena 2s
1) If it’s a healer/dps team, you really have to pick your time to strike. If you open up and pop all cds in the beginning, but it’s immediately healed, you wasted your cds. I tend to wait for the dps to be lowered significantly, then cc the healer A LOT. As a warrior I can chain a Storm Bolt, Intimidating Shout, and a Sharpen Blade to get like 15 seconds of a healer being useless.
2) A dps/dps team is pretty simple. Just choose whoever is more dangerous and stomp them from the start. If you’re fighting a pally, I recommend stunlocking him while he’s at low health to prevent him from bubbling. As soon as 1 person on their team is down, the fight is pretty much over
3) Don’t be afraid to ask your teammate for advice. If you don’t have a lot of experience in picking who or how to strike, they can really help you out. It’s even better if you can coordinate with your teammate and chain a cc even farther to take someone out of the fight