I’m not sure how Blizzard intends it’s newer players to learn PVP. The best way to learn in my opinion is to take as many 1v1’s as possible to slowly learn how to fight each class, but there’s little to no situations where that is possible. There’s no 1v1 game mode and any fights I can take in world is an unfair 2 or 3v1 because alliance is swarming every world quest or crate drop. Do I really need to spend months playing, learning, and leveling every single class in the game to be able to do pvp? Or do I need to double or triple that playtime to learn while playing on one class?
Most experienced players will tell you to focus on one class. Once you get really good at one thing, you can play alts.
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Would you recommend starting on an overpowered or “easier” class? I don’t want to have better matches and feel like it’s only because I’m playing something busted xd
I’m not sure. I would say start with something you find fun. Picking something over challenging might be discouraging tho.
If you’re playing something difficult, like sub rogue, but you really enjoy it, I think it’s worth it. Because how fun something is will keep you going and playtime is the biggest determinant of getting good.
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Guess I’ll stick with mage then, I’ve been playing it in pve this whole expansion and I genuinely love everything about it. My friend wanted me to try hunter for pvp but I don’t wanna have to relearn and build new muscle memory for keybinds lol
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Spam hundreds/thousands of rated games, try to fix or focus on one that went wrong each game and compound off that (ie, blocking too early, not blocking at all, landing cc, landing interrupts, kiting, etc). Yes, keybindings, talents, addons, etc are important, but nothing beats banging your head against the wall and getting actual game experience. Its going to be really rough at first, but there will eventually be a light at the end of the tunnel
Hunter is pretty easy relatively (Ive been having a lot of fun on my hunter alt), and the bindings/playstyle are probably fairly transferrable to mage - there’s quite a few similar abilities/cooldowns, but its not like mage is in a bad spot at all right now, or like you have to play hunter to win
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If I was a completely new player, and wanted to learn how to PVP, I would simply ask questions and check the main games forums. From there, you just have to keep reading and learning, as well as (the most important) putting it into practice into actual pvp matches/world pvp.
If you want to be extremely good, yes, leveling every class, spending months yes, in general, it will take time either way. This is not call of duty, or pubg, or fortnite. This is an MMOPRG, where each class has allot to offer (and for new players, it can be quite daunting). I’m still learning new stuff and I’ve been playing since vanilla.
Moderation is key, ( at least it is for me) and if you overwhelm yourself, you’ll likely scare your own self away from pvp and possibly the game itself. You learn things and get better at them over time in video games, especially ones like this.
Really depends on all you want to do. You can absolutely play one class. I do. Does it gimp you? Meh, kind of (IMO). However, I do know when I started leveling other classes to max lvl at the very least to learn their rotation and abilities, my skill level in PVP went up because I had a basic understanding of what that class can do. Keep in mind, I didn’t do this until Dragonflight. My pvp skill went up much higher when I did this.
All in all this is an MMORPG and it takes time to learn these kinds of games. Especially when they’re changing things all the time. Moderation is key and play at your own pace. You will learn as you go and won’t overwhelm yourself in the long run, and if you ever need to, there is no harm in taking a break. Just took a week break myself, and I am refreshed and excited to play.
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Do bgs, duel friends, do skirmishes, level alts. Getting knowledge checked is one of the worst feelings and is easily fixeable
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Just play what you enjoy. All specs/classes have their time when they are good and bad. Finding someone with a similar level of skill and just spamming 2s can help. Being open to voice chat expedites the learning. There are plenty of people here that don’t mind playing with newbies as well. Being honest with people about your experience goes a long way.
I’d assume nearly all of us started learning PvP in bgs and duels. There are also plenty of addons that can help, though I’d highly suggest keeping those to a minimum as not to create information overload.
- Gladius / Gladiusex for Arena
- OmniCC for CD tracking
- Threatplates or Bartender for plate management
- Interruptbar or Omnibar for tracking kicks
- Weakauras (WA) has tons of tools for tracking enemy CDs. Mes has a full kit you can look for.
- Gladiatorlossa does the same thing but with audible alerts
- Bigdebuffs to make distillable debuffs much easier to see.
- Details for reviewing logs
- Losecontrol for seeing CC duration on yourself. WA has plenty of auras that do this as well.
You don’t need all of these by any means and there are plenty more you a get, but knowing what’s going on is important while not over loading yourself.
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my friend is relatively new and he’s 2k io he just started pvpign this season he was bad now he good
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1st play whatever class you want to, then master its rotation with the proper build in talents and gear, you can find these templates on most 3rd party sites, but personal experimentation is also good. Then practice, class rotation, battle grounds, and arenas. Avoid War Mode you will likely get over powered often by more of the other faction.
Just remember to have fun is the core of the game. But being good at said game takes time. Sadly most games don’t have a tutorial on how to pvp and ya learn by doing. Some classes will be easier then others to play, but again that’s up to you. Every class has the potential to be played well and do well. So keep at it. 
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Tbh. Skill capped and w.e streamer of your spec you prefer is a great source of knowledge.
Shuffle is a great place to spam games in between watching said content while you figure it out and get comfortable on your spec.
If your a mage Aeghis is the peoples champ of mages when it comes to teaching and putting out quality videos on youtube, answering questions on his stream etc. Dude has the patience of a saint and geniunely loves teaching people.
You can also get alot of important info from his discord.
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Pick a class, learn it’s rotation till you don’t need to look at the bars. This might even be achieved by smashing training dummies in the city. Then look at your class utility (sheep, nova, ice barrier etc) and start to think how you would use them against each class, when would you ice block against a warrior for example?
Once you have ironed out all possible scenarios, start playing casual PvP such as Skirmish or BGs to put things into practice. Once you start getting back to back wins and you believe it is from your own impact, move into rated which is a little step up again and will test you further but, you will have a good base to build on.
From there it’s all about practice and more practice. While you are in this phase, it’s also good to start watching streams, YouTube etc for good PvPer’s on your class that will give tips that you will now be able to understand the “why” they done that etc, it’s now also a good time to start analysing your own game play, could you have done something differently in that loss? When did the game become a loss? etc.
There isn’t an easy way regretfully and it does take some time, but playing a class you like goes a LONG way to helping with this.
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Blizzard doesnt teach people how to properly pve either. It’s all trial and error. As long as you dont have the mentality that you should win, you will be able to learn more. Some people have a problem with losing. Just remember you are new to something that a lot of these people have been playing for 10+ years.
Might take you a few weeks to really get going, but it is worth it imo. PvP is fun. Now some of these rating doomers will tell you otherwise, but dont mind their bitterness. They think they deserve 2400 every season.
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Its -really- fun and in theory the more you play the more you’ll be playing with people who are around your skill level.
If they repurposed Proving Grounds to train you for PvP (and raiding!) that’d go a long way to onboarding better, likewise if gear and even spec choices were rolled into a template.
But to answer our foxy friend, its worth it. There is nothing on the market that replicates what Arena feels like, for better and worse.
This is actually so true, the correct mindset is a massive game changer too. Personally I’ve been playing since TBC but never touched PvP until Dragonflight and I had to get into the mindset of being a total noob again. For example, I couldn’t understand why PvP needed different stat builds on the same class and spec than PvE. I thought I knew everything about my class but got DESTROYED when I first tried arena and had to learn from the bottom again.
If it hasn’t already been said, record your games, and watch yourself play. It’s a lot easier to notice how many missed opportunities you are passing on when watching than it is when playing.
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