Hello. I started playing WoW during the launch of BfA.
Despite playing the game an obscene amount and having multiple max level characters, I have never ever partook in any PvP related activities.
I am afraid to. I have no idea how it works and what the objective for the modes are, and have no idea what targets to go after/etc. I suffer from anxiety issues and it even translates to WoW - I play on the lowest populated US realm because of it.
I believe I can hold my own in PvE content, but I have zero knowledge about PvP scenarios and am worried about angering my team for performing poorly.
Am I just overthinking things? Is PvP hard to grasp? Why do tanks exist in PvP? Canât you just ignore them and dive the healers and cause the world to explode and end the game? pls help, i am smol anxious girl
Just do random Battlegrounds to start off, donât take anything anyone says to heart, if they start insulting you or saying you suck ignore or brush it off. If you donât take it seriously it then doesnât become a serious thing and enjoy the chaos, win or lose.
Treat it like LFR, you go in, do whatever you want, leave.
Honestly you are better off doing m+ and raid finder for gear. PvP gearing is horrid.
You can yolo up until 2k for 2âs/3âs if you are in sync with your partner. RBGs is a hit and miss category since, well. Horde is the favored faction. Iâd suggest asking on the PvP forums next time.
As a DK you want to play unholy. You can literally PvE rotation to a win kind of like DH and Rogue. All I know, best of luck.
Fellow anxiety/panic disorder sufferer here. I feel your pain. PVP is a lot of fun though with friends. Do you have anyone you can bring with you? I started with friends and eventually started doing stuff myself as I got more confidence.
If not you can look up some guides on wowhead or youtube to see how each BG is run and the objectives.(Like below for instance)
Get started with some epic BGs. 39 other people means no one will really pay attention to what youâre doing.
A few tips.
Stick with a group.
Donât use mechanics until you know what youâre doing (using tanks, running bombs, grabbing the flag).
Shift+M (you can change the settings by right clicking the tab on the top left).
Ignore the crybabies calling you names.
Blood DK has a lot of âdancingâ to do in PvP. You might not want to give too much to what people âexpectâ from you, and do what you feel right until you get it.
If you are pugging, people always will blame you or expect from you things they even shouldnt. Most people prey on anyone who wont prey on them first.
Just go learning you class and what it offers on PvP and then you will know what you can do better than what people âexpectâ you to do.
Every one starts at some point. But before you know it, you are doing 3 flags on WSG and doing it like second nature.
I did some low level pvp tanking on this guy this morning, and itâs hard. I didnât win a single game I donât think? Maybe won one, ⌠no I donât think I did. With the tank damage taken increase in pvp and inability to taunt people like you can in Everquest 2 itâs difficult to protect healers or anyone, so the main thing to do is carry flags and objectives in BGs that feature those, or tank the boss in epic BGs that have end bosses to kill.
I did Battlegrounds, first on my Hunter then on this character, when they were for âlast seasonâs arena set for Battleground Honor.â My Hunter did it for the season one set, while this character did it in MOP (If I remember correctly, think MOP because I remember the set was not even replaced for PVE until the timeless Isle stuff.)
In both cases, on both characters, I just âtried.â I certainly have no skills. Since people were often AFKâing or junk, people just seemed to care that you tried at all.
What Iâd try to do would be to chase some other Alliance, who seemed to kind of know what they were doing (especially if any of them seemed like they might be a healer.) Then Iâd try to do/help them do stuff and attack the dudes they attacked.
I also remembered it was a BLAST to death grip, when someone tried to run
So donât stress too much
I wish to heck they had sets like that again, so I felt like there was a reason to do battlegrounds again.
If youâre anxious, you probably arenât going to like it. I didnât, and havenât done it more than a few times since Wrath. I donât like the whole ârun through and spin aroundâ that results from a lack of player collision, among other things, but my knowledge is so dated Iâll just say you can try it out, it might be okay, but if you decide against it you probably arenât missing much. I go to dedicated pvp games if I want to pvp.
Dont be nervous.
Just have fun with it.
There isnt an actual goal of PVP.
Yes, you can say the goal is to kill the guy with the red name.
But⌠you could also say that your goal is to assist your team mates and make sure they dont get killed by the guy with the red name.
You could also have your goal be to annoy the guy with the red name.
Or to distract the guy with the red name.
To inconvenience the guy with the red name also works.
If you die? Oh well. That happens.
As for tanks⌠You caaaaaan ignore them⌠But theyâll do their best to try to get people on them by causing the healers grief or shoving themselves right in the middle of everything⌠Which falls under one of the âgoalsâ I listed
Give a couple of BGâs a try or roll around with a WM group for a bit. See what feels right to you.
Do you want to focus on making people dead? Do you want to focus on being a distraction? Do you want to focus on keeping others from being nuked? Or do you want to simply be an annoying little pest that jumps in, blows everything, and then runs off giggling without being caught and killed⌠Only to keep doing it over and over again whether or not it actually does anything more than annoy the other dude. ( My personal fave )
Low level random battlegrounds are the best place to start learning imo, smaller toolkits, no random garbage like corruptions and essences flying all over the place, just the classes themselves.
Thereâs usually quite a few people with no PvP experience in them too, just open the scoreboard and usually half the team has no/very low honor rank so thereâs plenty of people in the same boat with you.
Neither do 90% of other players in random BGs from my experience over many years lol.
I promise you, if you queue up for a random BG and have no idea what youâre doing, you will blend right in.
Random BGs are some of the most worry-free content in the game with zero accountability, so my advice is to jump in and have fun. You gotta start somewhere.
I think the main trouble people have is separating the idea of characters being killed and characters dying. Youâre killed, you res, no problem. Follow the group, watch chat for call outs, focus healers, and practice interrupts (!).
A lot of PvP is knowing the capabilities of the various classes and knowing what to stop. Still, through pruning itâs become less about counter play and more delivering your rotation. Advanced topics like line of sight and juking can be learned once you get some experience in the basics of 1 on 1 PC combat.
Regarding things like battlegrounds - hereâs the real deal. BGâs are the bottom of the competitive barrel. All you lose when you lose is time. Ensure you play the objective, and target prio is a big part of it. In most situations, you should absolutely ignore the tank and just go after a healer, or a dps that is a high threat. Fire mages, destro locks, shadow priests, etc. These should be people you focus down immediately. Tanks, on the flip, provide utility, and a lot of it. Utility and a lot of peels.
In arena, there is something to lose and the situation becomes more complicated, and involves a little bit more finesse and understanding of situations, but every situation in arena is different and that conversation is lengthy.
Shad#1132 - if youâd like, add me. I coach, and help teach where I can.
What Jerauld said below you is spot on. Do battlegrounds. They are very fun and youâll be able to get a feel for what youâre doing and you will love it.
Pvp is very fun. Unless you want to become very competitive, donât worry about anything. Just have fun.
)