[WoW] PvP. Where do I start?

[Candelaris]

I recently respecced my Paladin Killerbiller from Protection to Retribution and I'm really happy with the change since I can now actually kill things really well and my defense hasn't suffered too much because of it.

He's now at level 32 and I was wanting to try out the arenas or battlegrounds, whatever they're called but I have no idea where to start. I've never done any serious PvP before and I'm on an RP server just so I can avoid it, but some of the gear you can get from the arena is fairly tempting.

So, I was wondering where I should begin and what kind of things I should be doing in there since I don't even have any idea of what the etiquette for that venue would be.

Here's the new Killerbiller (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackwater+Raiders&n=Killerbiller) by the way. Any tips would be certainly welcome.

:)

[nonsense]

Step 1) Enter battleground (you can queue up with the Battlemasters in your capital city of choice, or at the actual BG entrance out in the world). At your level, your only options will be WSG and Arathi Basin, which are both fun.

Step 2) Hit dude in the face with hammer.

Step 3) Heal (and especially dispel) yourself and others if need be.

Step 4) Hit other dude in the face with hammer.


WSG is a capture-the-flag match, and you can either run the flag (not generally recommended at the low end of the X0 - X9 level curve - you need a fair bit of HP) making wise use of Blessing of Freedom, or you can support a flag carrier (with BoF, heals, Blessing of Protection, etc.) You could do other things, like fight in midfield or what have you, but paladins are so good on the capturing end of the flag that it's a bit of a waste to do otherwise.

AB is a capture-and-hold-points thingy. Basically, follow the crowd, and hit people in the face with a hammer, especially if they're trying to capture a flag (any non-DoT damage will stymie a capture). Heal and Dispel as need be.

Basically, just go in and have fun. You'll get into the swing of things quickly enough.

[Eurhetemec]

The main thing in PvP is:

WEAR STAMINA GEAR.

For god's sake, I mean, the number of people I see in the BGs with tiny fractions of the HP they could have even with green +sta gear is shocking, and they spend 99% of their time dead on the floor. This is doubly true if you go in at a lower level. Stamina is the most important stat, by far, for lower-level PvP. Your gear at the moment isn't bad from this regard. Archeus is a dubious (if cool-looking) weapon, so don't be thinking you'll be going on any killing sprees in the BG, but you should be able to defend yourself.

The next thing after that is:

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE.

I.e. don't run around trying to kill people without regard for the match, don't heal people who are being stupid, and do constantly be thinking about the best place for you to be. Don't leave a flag in AB if you're the last person there. Never, ever "assume someone else will do it" about ANYTHING in PvP, unless you're in pre-made. Always try and click on the flag if you think someone is going to drop it in WSG. Always.

Most people in the BGs utterly fail at this, not because they're "dumb" or "noobs" or whatever, but just because they're completely failing to think about what's going on, and just running around like headless chickens, hitting/healing, sure, but uselessly. Even a couple of people who are actually thinking about "how to win" can make the difference between loss and victory.

Sometimes you need to sacrifice yourself, or your glory, so you can win. In the end, you get more points that way anyway (unlike most FPSes, or Dark Age of Camelot's PvP, for example).

After that;

COMMUNICATE

Whatever BG you're in, communication helps. You see people coming? Say how many and from where. You see the "EFC" (enemy flag carrier), shout out where he is. Enemy got your flag in WSG? Say where he seems to be going. Better to get behind and alert everyone in the midfield, than stay close ineffectually whacking him.

Finally:

IGNORE MORONS

However well you play in the BGs, unless you do nothing at all, someone will shout at you. Ignore this. They are an idiot. If you do heal, you will be shouted at for not healing enough or at the right time, regardless of how dead or OOM or on the other side of the BG you were. If you don't heal, people will call you a "Retardin" (with some reason, but they're still idiots).

For specific BGs:

WSG - You make absolutely ace support for the flag carrier. Run along with him purging movement-affecting effects off him, healing him (when possible), stunning people off him, and for god's sake don't BoP him unless you mean to grab the flag off him ;) (he will auto-drop it, as would you if you were carrying it and used BoP/DS on yourself). You also make good support for the offence, but are a very questionable defender as you can't snare people, and can't kill rapidly. So you probably want to run with however is getting the flag.

AB - You make a good flag defender, so don't be afraid to stay if everyone runs off. If you do get attacked whilst defending a flag solo, play maximum caution, and concentrate on:

A) Not dying

and

B) Stopping the enemy from successfully capturing your flag.

As people say "Fight on the flag". Don't chase someone on 5% health away for your glorious 1 HK and 4 honor, leaving the flag to be clicked on by a crafty Druid or Rogue (or anyone else!). Be like a mob and zip back to the flag when you reach your "tether" range (which should be about 9 seconds run from the flag, tops).

[Candelaris]

Thanks Eurhetemec! :)

I didn't really know any of that stuff about gear and about ignoring morons lol. I only have Archeus because it's the best thing I got from drops and within my price range in the AH. I'm trying to be better about my spending in the AH so I stuck with Archeus until I got a better reward or drop.

[TygerTyger]

Rank 1 Consecrate is marvy for flushing out stealthed rogues and druids before they do bad things to you.

[nonsense]

Run along with him purging movement-affecting effects off him, healing him (when possible), stunning people off him, and for god's sake don't BoP him unless you mean to grab the flag off him ;) (he will auto-drop it, as would you if you were carrying it and used BoP/DS on yourself).

Oh! I thought that only applied to Divine Shield.

Ok, yeah. Don't BoP. That'd be bad!

Eventually - and this won't apply for a while - if you're serious about PVP, you'll start to build up a separate set of gear with more stamina (and appropriate PVP enchantments) than your day-to-day wear.

You can also eventually buy PVP-focused gear from vendors for a bit of honour and some marks (which you'll get from playing BG matches; 1 per loss, 3 per win). The Defilers/Ugly Humies and Warsong/Sissy Elves boast vendors outside of their respective BG entrances out in the world, from whom you can purchase a variety of items in various level ranges. Not sure what's out there for pallies, but there's something for everyone, to some degree.

[Ratman_tf]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Khadgar&n=Kandaria

Here's my PvP alt. (Pretty well twinked out, I'm proud of her, she does well in the BGs)
Since she's a hunter, I focused on AGI and STA, but it might give you an idea of what kind of gear people shoot for in the battlegrounds.

And one bit of advice is to get your 9's. (19, 29, 39, etc...) before entering, since the level matching goes 10-19, 20-29, etc... That way you're never facing a higher level opponent.

[BethDragon]

But also don't be afraid to try out BGs no matter what your level is. Sure, you're going to get people scorning you for not being X9 of your level (and you're probably going to get beat down by higher level folks who see you as an easy kill), but how else are you going to get practice? And a 31 that knows what they're doing is more valuable (to me, at least) than a 39 that doesn't have a clue.

Beth

[Mr. Horrible]

One thing that was a little off-putting when I first started BGing was the terminology. Another was confusing over communication and maps.

So ....


Common Battleground Terminology and Shorthand


BG - battleground
O - offense
D - defense

(those are pretty rough, hah?)


inc - incoming
zerg - large group attacking (generally means "more than half the team")
turtle - most of the team defending
FC - flag carrier
EFC - enemy flag carrier
ninja - (a) capturing a node all sneaky-like. (b) a player who ninjas a node.


WSG - Warsong Gulch

FR - flag room (includes the small room-inside-a-room, though that's sometimes called the alcove)
balc - balcony (the 2nd-floor ledge overlook the flag room, and the bit of hallway leading to it)
roof - the roof (3rd floor)
GY - graveyard (SE for horde, NW for alliance)
tun - tunnel (the base's central entrance/exit point)
ramp - the exterior ramp (SW for horde, NE for alliance)
mid - midfield (the large open area betwee the bases)
boots - speed buff. There's one such buff halfway through each tunnel.
"EFC loc?" - where is the enemy flag carrier?


AB - Arathi Basin

farm - the farm (SE node, by the horde starting spot)
mine - the mine (NE node)
ST or stab - the stables (NW node, by the alliance starting spot)
LM - the lumber mill (SW node)
BS - the blacksmith (central node)


EotS - Eye of the Storm

BE - blood elf tower (SE node)
DR - draenei ruins (NE node)
MT - mage tower (NW node)
FR - fel reaver ruins (SW node)


AV - Alterac Valley

AS or aid - stormpike aid station (northernmost graveyard)
SP or SPGY - stormpike graveyard
SH or SHGY - stonehearth graveyard
SF - snowfall graveyard
IB or IBGY - iceblood graveyard
FW of FWGY - frostwolf graveyard
RH - frostwolf relief hut (southernmost graveyard)


north/south - dun baldar [north/south] bunker
IWB - icewing bunker
SHB - stonehearth bunker
IBT - iceblood tower
TP - tower point
east/west - [east/west] frostwolf tower


van - Vandar, the alliance general
bal - Balinda, the alliance captain
galv - Galvanger, the horde captain
drek - Drek'thar, the horde general


Starter notes

/bg - You will be put into a raid when you enter the fight. You can talk to everyone in the battleground by using the /bg channel (it works just like /p).
zone map and scoreboard - When you queue up for a BG, and when you're in a BG, you will have a horde/alliance symbol on the edge of your minimap. You can click on that to pull up the scoreboard, right-click on it to enter/leave the BG, or shift-click on it to pull up the semi-transparent zone map. It's usually a good idea to have that zone map somewhere on your screen at all times.


WSG

I'd recommend spending your first fight or so familiarizing yourself with the map. Poke around your base a bit, figure out how to get up to the balc and the roof. After that, you can get into the game.
As in all BGs, communication is key. If you see the EFC, try to announce his location, or the direction he's heading. "efc ramp" "efc mid" "efc behind gy". If you pick up the flag, announce which way you're going, so your teammates can come meet you.
WSG is very offense-oriented. If you don't have a strong O, the game will take FOR EHV AR. D is important, but O is far far more so. Try very hard to avoid random battles in the midfield. Always focus on the flags. You should generally be going for the flag, guarding the FC, or hunting/attacking the EFC.


AB

The map here doesn't really need much exploring, so just jump in and go hit those nodes!
There are 5 nodes. In order to win, you just hold more nodes than they do.
The rule of thumb: In WSG, strong O is what wins. In AB, it's solid D. (Like all such rules, there are exceptions, but this is generally true.)
The most important thing you can do in this battleground is guard a node. The second most important thing is attack a node.
Communication is valuable in all BGs, but in AB it's critical. Keep your eyes open and announce over /bg any time you see enemies coming. "inc bs 3+" means "three (or more) enemies coming to the blacksmith".




ABOVE ALL ELSE: HAVE FUN! :D

[Ikselam]

Step 1) Enter battleground (you can queue up with the Battlemasters in your capital city of choice, or at the actual BG entrance out in the world). At your level, your only options will be WSG and Arathi Basin, which are both fun.

Step 2) Hit dude in the face with hammer.

Step 3) Heal (and especially dispel) yourself and others if need be.

Step 4) Hit other dude in the face with hammer.

Really, if you want to maximize your value as a paladin in battleground pvp, especially at low levels, skip steps 2 and 4. Seriously, healing in pvp is totally awesome, because it's one of those things few people do, but which makes a disproportionately large difference on the final outcome of the match.

Arathi Basin is paladin heaven, since all the serious fighting takes place around stationary points. Warsong Gulch isn't great, because the flag is usually moving too quickly for you to effectively heal its carrier -- although I guess Ret paladins might like it now that they have the 15% increased speed talent, which is highly useful for a flag runner.

[Candelaris]

Thanks for all the info, it's really helpful!

:D

[Candelaris]

So I went in for my first time in BG and the people did everything you told me not to do. We basically bent over and let the Horde have their way with us. I was embarrassed to be on the team. Hopefully next time it'll be better.

Thanks again for the tips :)

[brooksd01]

So I went in for my first time in BG and the people did everything you told me not to do. We basically bent over and let the Horde have their way with us. I was embarrassed to be on the team. Hopefully next time it'll be better.

Thanks again for the tips :)

Don't count on it, there are always at least some "stables monkeys" (from my horde perspective - farm in your case) that just want to go try and fight no matter the objectives, but it's often few enough that you can still win =).

[hkgirl91]

My better half is a rather nice BG mentor, not that I'm biased or anything... :)

Expect to win some and lose some. Ask around in trade or general to get an idea of how often alliance wins in your bracket/battlegroup, but be prepared to take responses with a grain of salt.

I'm new to BGs myself; and tend to go for 'easy-mode' in that I almost always tag along with the spouse so I have access to verbal advice even when he can't type.

I would say run several in a session. And if you run into any friendly sorts on your server who'd be willing to show you the ropes, take full advantage of it.

[theckhd]

WSG - You make absolutely ace support for the flag carrier. Run along with him purging movement-affecting effects off him, healing him (when possible), stunning people off him, and for god's sake don't BoP him unless you mean to grab the flag off him ;) (he will auto-drop it, as would you if you were carrying it and used BoP/DS on yourself). You also make good support for the offence, but are a very questionable defender as you can't snare people, and can't kill rapidly. So you probably want to run with however is getting the flag.

Oh! I thought that only applied to Divine Shield.

Ok, yeah. Don't BoP. That'd be bad!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think they changed this. I seem to remember that when trying to BoP a flag carrier, it tells you they're not a valid target, so that you can't make that mistake. But the incident I'm thinking of was a month or two ago, so maybe I'm misremembering.

I do think that Divine Shield still drops the flag though.

But Eurhetemec is right, we make great support for a flag carrier. I usually follow the carrier tossing heals and cleanses, keeping Blessing of Freedom up, and using Hammer of Justice on the first real threat to get close to the carrier. The strength of Blessing of Freedom in this scenario really can't be stated enough.
But then again, I'm holy, so trying to "smash them in the face with a hammer" doesn't usually help my team very much. :p

[woodsmoke]

Also, as a healer (though this probably doesn't apply quite as much to you damn pallies, with your plate armor, and your tight pants and your rap music :p ), don't underestimate the value of being camped. My first time in WSG with Asurac I had 3 Allies tied up camping the GY, just waiting for me to respawn so they could put me right back down in the dirt. While they were busy entertaining themselves with the squishy tauren, my 9 teammates were busy stealing their flag and winning the match. ;)

[hkgirl91]

Also, as a healer (though this probably doesn't apply quite as much to you damn pallies, with your plate armor, and your tight pants and your rap music :p ), don't underestimate the value of being bait. My first time in WSG with Asurac I had 3 Allies tied up camping the GY, just waiting for me to respawn so they could put me right back down in the dirt. While they were busy entertaining themselves with the squishy tauren, my 9 teammates were busy stealing their flag and winning the match. ;)

Fixed your typo. :D

[Ikselam]

Also, as a healer (though this probably doesn't apply quite as much to you damn pallies, with your plate armor, and your tight pants and your rap music :p ), don't underestimate the value of being camped. My first time in WSG with Asurac I had 3 Allies tied up camping the GY, just waiting for me to respawn

It works exactly the same way when you're a paladin, except without the part where you die and have to respawn.

[Cortani]

An important part of PvP is your UI. While I generally suggest waiting till 70 before you start dropping a ton of mods into the equation I reccomend getting comfy with your hotkeys as soon as possible. One common "trick" is to move WASD a hop to the right, making it ESDF. This gives you more nearby buttons, while still keeping shift and ctrl close at hand.

Turning is a lot faster when done by the right mouse button compared to the keyboard. Although keyboard-turning be used to make people underestimate you if you've got something nasty planned.

Also, if you haven't already done so - go turn on enemy cast bars in the settings. While paladins aren't big interrupters in general, it's always better to repent/HoJ a cast at 2.9 seconds than 1.2, for example.

Good luck, don't let the twinks get you down!

[Ikselam]

Also, if you haven't already done so - go turn on enemy cast bars in the settings. While paladins aren't big interrupters in general, it's always better to repent/HoJ a cast at 2.9 seconds than 1.2, for example.

Going along with this, I'm a big believer in V-bars. When you're a healer, the raid UI is pretty useless in battlegrounds, since even if groups make an effort to stay together, they will inevitably become scattered by deaths and respawns; ctrl-V or shift-V lets you see the life bars of all allies within range. When you're a damage-dealer, having V bars up allows you to single out already-wounded targets at a glance and have your way with them.

You should also get a mod such as Capping or Deadly Boss Mods, which do handy things like automatically display who is holding the flag in WSG, or how long it will take to capture a control spot in AB.

[brooksd01]

Going along with this, I'm a big believer in V-bars. When you're a healer, the raid UI is pretty useless in battlegrounds, since even if groups make an effort to stay together, they will inevitably become scattered by deaths and respawns; ctrl-V or shift-V lets you see the life bars of all allies within range. When you're a damage-dealer, having V bars up allows you to single out already-wounded targets at a glance and have your way with them.

Grid is huge for this, and Pitbull as well if you want to spend the time setting it up. The fade out is great for making it obvious who is close enough to heal.

You should also get a mod such as Capping or Deadly Boss Mods, which do handy things like automatically display who is holding the flag in WSG, or how long it will take to capture a control spot in AB.

BattleGroundFu is also quite nice for this if you're a FuBar user.