Need Advice on My User Setup/Playstile

I’m a resto druid sitting in the low 1800s. I get invited to a 3s group with a DK and DH last night. Around 1900 rating. We win four games, lose one, win one, lose one. On the last loss I’m booted from the group with no immediate explanation. I ask for feedback, wait a few minutes, then am told to watch Flop’s resto druid channel.

So I go watch Flops channel. He has very few buttons on his interface and seems to mouse wheel up and down to target enemies. He also runs feral affinity.

I’d like to describe my setup/playstyle then see if anyone has any tips on how to improve.

Addons

  1. I run gladius for trinket and cyclone DR monitoring

Buttons/Mouse

  1. I use a keyboard and 7-button Razer Naga mouse
  2. My most commonly used buttons are placed on my bottom bar, of the default interface, with less common buttons on my secondary bar
  3. For example: I hit 1 for rejuv and shift-1 for moonfire
  4. My 7 mouse buttons are set to,5,6,7,8 and 0,-,=
  5. I hold shift and my mouse button to use an action on the row above these
  6. I usually just click faceplates of friends/enemies to heal or throw dps

My Play Style

  1. I use guardian affinity to stun and for protection when targeted

My How-Tos Improve

  1. Flop uses feral affinity to leap and stun a lot, i’m going to learn and run this on my druid
  2. Set enemy targets to mouse wheel up-down-press for quick targeting

Your Suggested Improvements
What else should I be doing to improve my user setup?

Setup is personal preference I think it’s probably more of a game knowledge thing. Flop might play feral affinity if he is playing a setup comp where he can setup stuns for polys for his team or his own clowns. In dh/dk you play full vers and just try not to die and drink often so you don’t go oom! I’d recommend watching a Rdruid guide for arena it might help you.

As far as UI because that’s what your question was I use Omni bar, sarena and arena team tracker with base ui. You could look at 50 arena players and they will have different variations in keybinds/UI. I’d suggest playing around with things until you find something that fits your play style and that feels comfortable for you!

Lastly, I’d strongly recommend setting binds to target your partners and dispell 1,2. I think it helps a lot as a healer. I also have enemy arena 1-3 target macros and focus ones too. I use root and clone 1,2,3 also. Might take some time to get use to but I think it’s worth OR. For enemies use have focus binds, I.e. focus clone, bash etc.

I’d say overall if you are playing around 1900 just focus on positioning as it is a huge part of the game, when you trinket, juking kicks and understanding why you lose games and how to improve. Hope this helps!

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dont forget, there is a point where it isn’t you but your dps. I ran into that when I was trying to push as MW (keyword trying, I only got to like 2050 in 3s with LFG).

You can do everything right in a game, and still lose because your dps messed up, then they boot you.

record the games and see what you could have done differently.

+1 to the binding 123 dispells and immunities/CDs. like on my MW ive got 123 dispell and 123 bubble.

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I could be wrong but I believe guardian affinity is a good choice against R/M comps, and against double melee you think will focus you. Otherwise feral affinity is the better default pick for the potential extra stuns / movement speed / extra dps.

I think there are easier comps for Rdruid to play besides double melee in this meta. DK/DH will be your best double melee comp though so you aren’t healing as often and can focus on keeping yourself up.

Anything with a Destro / Mage you will synergize with better, more chances to invis / stun, less kicks on you for offensive clones.

You should probably only run Feral Affinity with a castercleave imo. You can just get punished hard for playing feral and die in a stun outside of form.

You could possibly upgrade to any 12 button mouse I guess for more binds. It might be more helpful in the long run.

100% this; especially since you aren’t sure what you could have done better.

If you aren’t running any other pvp specific addon, I’ll recommend Omnibar for enemy offensive cds. You could also run a party cd tracker (Omnicd? you’ll have to google cuz I’m lazy) to track party defensive cds to help you debate when its a good time to throw your own personal cds.

I’m 100% confused by this, I’ll assume you meant I use feral affinity to stun and guardian when you’re kill target.

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+1 to omnibar also! Being able to see when offensive CDs and kicks are off CD is a HUGE thing.

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/att

Arena team tracker
It will keep track of a few important cooldowns from your teammates, namely defensives, cooldown CC, and trinket use.

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/flyplatebuffs

flyPlateBuffs
This one is massive for being able to see a lot of the enemies offensive/defensive cooldowns above their nameplate. Probably my favorite addon for arena by far to keep my eyes focused on the field instead of buffs on the target frame

None of this matters in a material way for you to get higher rating. UI/Setup basically just has to meet a couple goals in a way that’s comfortable to you

  • Are your bindings comfortable?
  • Is your UI set up in such a way that the information you need is available to you? (It sounds like you could do with adding Omnibar to your addon list)

This is an okay idea, but by no means is it a good idea, especially at your rating, to assume that all games from now on should be played with Feral aff. Take notice of how often you’re able to either A) get a fair amount of cat damage out or B) make frequent use of restealth -> Rake stun. If you were unable to do much of A or B, try to think back through the game and understand why. Perhaps you had more opportunities you didn’t take, or perhaps it’s just not a matchup where you get much value from cat. Recording your games is the best way to look for the “I could have but didn’t” opportunities, and there’s probably a lot more than you realize.

Also go into this feral aff practice knowing that you’re likely to end up getting yourself killed more frequently while you learn how to do this without putting yourself in a lot of danger.

Improvements

I’m by no means a top tier druid, so feel free to take anything and everything I say with a grain of salt. That being said, I’ll share with you the points I’ve been trying to work on that I feel are helping me improve, in no particular order.

  1. Try to always be aware of when a stun is coming, and be in bear form before the stun lands
  2. Why are you standing out in Africa asking for trouble when you could be getting all the same things done from the safety of pillar
  3. Avoid overlapping defensives or using them unnecessarily.
  4. Always be looking for a chance to drink without falling behind.
  5. Maximizing innervate usage
  6. Don’t be OCD about everyone instantly being topped. Are the full hots on that target enough to sustain them currently?
  7. What can I be doing to add pressure to the other team, or reduce incoming pressure?
  8. Peek/hang out in travel form into mage teams, only be in caster when you need to be.
  9. Try to be more aware of everything happening in the game, rather than letting your eyes tunnel vision onto health bars.