PVP Tips & Tricks - Paladin

Today I’m continuing the mini-series of PVP from the viewpoint of the Marksman Hunter. I’ll cover each class and what you should look for each of them to do. We continue today with Paladins.

Paladin
Paladins come in exactly two flavors – chocolate & vanilla. No. I kid. The two flavors are the kind that are impossible to kill and those that kill you with all swiftness. No matter what I’ve called them. Both types are indeed killable. And since I always have to work extra hard to take them out, when they do go down it is especially satisfying. I guess what I’m saying is I like both chocolate AND vanilla.

Things to Watch for:

• Few paladins in BGs are anything other than healers.
• They will bubble. There’s not much you can do at this point unless a class that can deal with that pesky bubble is there with you.
• Paladins are energizer bunnies as far as healing goes. Even so, no mana supply is inexhaustible. I keep a Viper Sting up on them at all times.
• Auras cannot be dispelled. Blessings and Seals can.
• Silence Shot any heals. The three seconds of silence can be used to scatter shot, aimed shot or arcane shot a buff.
• Don’t attempt to preemptively apply scatters, aimed or stings to a paladin before the bubble. The bubble will strip most debuffs.
• If you’re one on one, when the paladin bubbles, bandage. If the paladin notices, he or she may attempt to consecrate and prevent you bandaging. However, if he’s running to your location, he’s also not healing. Also, paladins are unlikely to bubble unless they’re in danger of dying.
• Since the very act of bubbling will strip debuffs from the paladin, aimed shot is better used on the paladin’s healing target.
• Your Hunter’s Mark is cleansable by a paladin.
• A paladin will likely consecrate the ground they’re standing on and run auras that cause reflective damage. You may be better off putting your pet somewhere else other than on the paladin. The combined auras & consecrate will kill the poor pet pretty quickly

Interlude - Now that you've dinged

BBB wrote today about how Mrs. BBB dinged 70 and feels there's nothing left to do solo anymore. Just to give a little insight into what I have done since dinging...

• Grind Consortium Reputation. You can choose to either kill ogres in Nagrand for their war beads which the Consortium guys are happy to take or kill the Ethereal dudes just south of Area 52 in Netherstorm.
• Finish quests. If the ding actually occurred last week, there is probably a whole zone's worth of quests to see to. Many of them will be solo-able. There's good money there until you hit the group quests.
• Grind Scryer (or Aldor) Reputation. There are just a ton of mobs that will drop the Signets or Marks you need not to mention Arcane Tomes and Fel Armaments.
• Work on Tradeskills. Don't forget also your secondaries like cooking, fishing and first aid.
• Primals, Primals, Primals. There's a good market and many will be needed for crafting and enchanting.
• Grind recipes. There are a number of BOP recipes for a number of trades that drop from specific mobs in the wild. Find out where they are and begin committing genocide until they drop what you need.
• Since Mrs. BBB is a rogue, grind lockpicking up until 350 (if it's not already there)

That's just a short list. Hope some of it helped

PVP Tips & Tricks - Mage

Today I’m continuing the mini-series of PVP from the viewpoint of the Marksman Hunter. During the series, I’ll cover each class and what you should look for each of them to do. We continue today with Mages.

Mage
I hate fighting mages. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I thoroughly enjoy standing far away from a mage and plunking them full of lead (or arrows if I used a bow). What I don’t like is when the mage notices that he’s turning into a sieve and turns his or her attention to me.

Things to watch for:

• Ice mages (the only kind I ever find in BGs) will specialize at locking you down and killing you. If you break free, they’ll kite you. Don’t follow an ice mage to your death.
• Don’t rely on a mage’s cool downs, especially in frost. Cold Snap refreshes the cool down period on most frost spells.
• If you’re facing a fire mage, you must remove a buff with Arcane Shot every chance you get. Presence of Mind allows instant cast pyroblasts, and these hurt a lot.
• Use your trinket to get out of the first frost nova then don’t let them get close to you again.
• Silencing shot when it’s up. It’s better to silence something worthwhile (like a Pyroblast) or anything in the main tree, which is probably frost.
• Scatter shot can put them out of commission long enough to get an aimed shot off.
• Generally, Viper Sting isn’t going to drain enough mana to make it worthwhile. I tend to stick with Serpent Sting to keep the damage trickling in.
• Feign Death will deselect you as a target and get an elemental off of you.
• While resilience is important in all PVP, mage crits can get disgustingly big. If you’re gunning for mages, get all of this you can.
• Mages don’t have a ton of HP normally and only wear cloth. If you can get the drop on them, you can burst DPS them down.
• Mages generally blink after they ice block. However, dropping a freezing trap at their feet while ice-blocked can sometimes trap them.
• Fire and Arcane mages won’t kite you. They want to be close to you to capitalize on their short cast point-blank spells. Blast Wave at least also has a stun component. For these types of mages, use the strategy for melee types. Employ your movement impairing effects (Wing Clip, Frost Trap, Scatter Shot, and Concussive Shot) and keep them at range.

PVP Tips & Tricks - Hunters

Today I’m continuing the mini-series of PVP from the viewpoint of the Marksman Hunter. During the series, I’ll cover each class and what you should look for each of them to do. We continue today with Hunters.

Hunter
The mirror-match is always exciting. You should expect hunters to know your class inside and out. The winner of this battle will often be the hunter who knows the class better. Even if both hunters know the class equally well, the hunter who understands the difference in the specs will more often than not be victorious. As a Marksman hunter, you should know what to look for from both the populous Beast Mastery Hunter and less known Survival Hunter.
Things to watch for:

• Feign Death will cause an attacking pet to disengage. It will also deselect them as your target. Watch for this and get the pet back on them as soon as possible.
• Frost Trap will lock your pet in place (this is either immediately before or immediately after the feign)
• If you run into a BM hunter, the only way to deal with Bestial Wrath (i.e. Big Red Dinosaur) is to feign. Trapping will not work.
• If you’re a dwarf (like me), Stoneform will get rid of Serpent Sting. The sting you use is situational. I like Scorpid Sting for the hit rating debuff. Serpent Sting keeps a poison debuff ticking away and Viper Sting can drain their normally smaller mana pools.
• Hunters generally aren’t getting healed much in BGs, so Aimed Shot is wasted on them. If they are BM spec, it may make sense on their pet since the mend pet will then be cut in half.
• Neither aspects nor auras are removable with Arcane Shot.
• Feign Death can also get the snakes from a snake trap off of you. However, they may quickly reacquire you as a target.
• Survival Hunters have a chance to get an immobilization component with their traps.
• The 41-point Survival Talent is Wyvern Sting. This puts the target to sleep for 12 seconds and applies a DOT after the sleep expires.
• If a Survival Hunter recognizes you as Marksman, he or she may attempt to close to melee. In that case, use immobilizing tricks (Wing Clip, Frost Trap, Scatter Shot, and Concussive Shot) and treat them like another melee class. Most hunters will be very content to stay at range though.
• Because of the tree, expect Survival Hunters to have more health than other hunters.
• Since the pet’s damage is such a large component of a BM Hunter’s attack, the pet can actually kill you all on its own. You must keep a BM hunter in range of your attacks at all times.

PVP Tips & Tricks - Druid

Today I’m starting a mini-series of PVP from the viewpoint of the Marksman Hunter. During the series, I’ll cover each class and what you should look for each of them to do. We start today with Druids.

Druid
A battle with a druid will almost never be boring. Druids as a class are used to adapting their play style to the situation. They know when to go to bear and tank three mobs. They know when to pop out of animal form and entangle. As such, the fight will never feel scripted or formulaic. Expect a druid to react to what you do. If you don’t react to them, the battle will be over shortly and you’ll be the one waiting on the AOE rez near the Mage Tower.

Things to watch for:

• Druids can hibernate your pet. While a MM doesn't have a huge reliance on pet damage, any kind of interruption they offer can help. A druid can take your pet out of the game for 12 seconds.
• Druids will cast Entangling Roots on you or your pet. This will be to either neutralize the interruption from the pet or lock you in place to get inside your range.
• You can kite a bear druid with your various slowing abilities. Most druids don't fall for this as long as other melee counterparts will
• A pet on aggressive will often detect a prowling druid before you do.
• Both of the Druid HOTs are buffs and strippable with arcane shot.
• Feral druids won’t have as much mana as resto druids. Keeping a Serpent Sting up will consume their mana if they dispel it and their health if they don’t.
• Many druids are masters of switching forms in PVP. The bear, dire bear, cat and travel forms of druids are considered beasts and are vulnerable to Fear Beast.
• Feral druids will want to be in melee with you. Use your movement impairing abilities (Wing Clip, Frost Trap, Scatter Shot, and Concussive Shot) and get back to range.
• Druids in Moonkin form will be busy little casters. Interrupt their casts with your abilities and get the pet on them. Moonkin will have deeper mana pools than feral types, but with less than ideal itemization may wind up wearing a bunch of cloth pieces. This lowers their armor and can make beating them a little easier.
• Druids in cat form can Track Humanoids. If you suspect this, you can switch to Aspect of the Beast.
• Cyclone will take your pet, or more likely you, out of the battle for six seconds. Cyclone has diminishing returns if continually applied to the same target.
• If a druid is healing someone, you can interrupt with Scatter Shot or Silencing Shot (unless it’s an instant).
• When the battle is going against them, most druids will run. Look for the shift to travel form or cat form. A concussive shot can allow a dashing raptor or cat to catch up.
• Feigning death sometimes fools the druid allowing you to get up and freezing trap them. Druids tend to fall for this gimmick less than other melee classes.
• Leader of the Pack cannot be removed by Arcane Shot. If a feral druid crits you with this buff, they will heal.
• Druids have no good way of removing Hunter’s Mark. They cannot stealth while marked.
• If a feral druid does manage to close to melee, switch your aspect to Aspect of the Monkey for the increased dodge.
• Pounce is an opening move from stealth that stuns. Generally the druid uses the stun to set up a high damage attack from behind. If you trinket out of the stun, you can eliminate the high damage attack that is planned.
• A feral druid can also use Feral Charge to close the gap with you. This ability also has a root effect. This is a good candidate for using your trinket.
  

Versus

When Burning Crusade was about to come out, I remember there being a lot of QQing over the fact that the Alliance was getting Shamans and the Horde was getting access to Paladins. I also distinctly remember someone from Blizzard saying that since the classes were once available only to one faction (each) that the two classes had moved closer and closer to one another thematically for balance. Blizzard (or at least the alleged representative I recall) seemed excited that for once they'd be able to move these classes further apart so that they could be more thematically accurate.

A year has gone by. What evidence do we have that they've done just that?

To my unpracticed eye (my alt shaman is 29, my alt paladin is 8), I don't see much evidence. Not having played Horde much prior to BC, I can't say I'm an expert on Shamans. I can't really relate how they've changed since BC. I know in the little PVP I did prior to BC that they seemed to kill any of my characters with relative ease. Now that we're both 10 levels higher, shamans don't strike the fear that they once did. I mean, it's not like "Ohnoes. Run! It's a Shaman." Rather, I'm more like, "Okay, dead shaman coming up." All this says, is that to my unpracticed eye, this appears that most shamans still carry bruises from being beaten with the nerfbat. And reading over the changes it seems my analysis is mostly correct.

Paladins on the other hand have been greatly enhanced. The only viable spec for Paladins back in the day was holy. The added 10 levels have only allowed them to shine even more in this regard. The retooled trees also allowed them to effectively tank. And with recent changes, it seems like all three of their trees will be viable.

So, if by buffing paladins and nerfing shamans, Blizzard feels that they've thematically shifted the classes to where they belong, I think they've succeeded.

The Bad Instance

I'm not going to talk about a particular bad instance. I don't think that the same instance is most hated, or worst, or whatever for everyone. I think, instead, that there are things about instances that contribute to their "suck factor." I'm going to try to list some of the factors and instances that are strong candidates for sucking in that way.

1. Confusing Layout - It's hard to find your way in instances that are essentially circular. I can generally keep a pretty good mental map of an instance until I run in circles.. If those circles just happen to be in the form of ramps or staircases, you're quickly descending (hah! I pun) into the realm of circular maps with multiple overlapping levels. The sort of place that makes even the most die-hard orienteer crazy. You need look no further than say Gnomeregan or Sunken Temple to find this sort of layout. For an example of non-circular but nonetheless confusing, look to Mauradon. Wailing Caverns is also sort of weird in a semi-circular layout.
   
2. Too Long - We admit it. We're spoiled by instances that can be completed in two hours. We don't like spending our lives in a five-man. It's definitely high on the suck-fest quotient to make us go into long instances more than once to complete quests. This is most notable for the non-winged winged dungeons. I'm speaking of those places where you can go to various areas of the instance once inside but that are not separate entrances themselves. Look at instances like Blackrock Depths which has several ways to go all of which can be a longish dungeon crawl all by themselves or the two distinct halves of Mauradon. Even some low level instances (*cough* Gnomeregan) can be might long at level.
   
3. Midde of Nowhere - These dungeons lovingly crafted are far from flight paths. While these can vary highly by faction, some offenders for the Alliance are: Mauradon, Dire Maul, Sunken Temple, and any of the three in The Barrens (Razorfen Downs, Razorfen Kraul, and Wailing Caverns). In fact the Razorfen instances are not close to Horde Flight Paths either. If it weren't for the transporter in Ratchet, Gnomeregan is way far for Horde and The Deadmines is a trek as well. Uldaman is inconveniently located for both Horde & Alliance, but I think Horde has it worse.
4. The Graveyard is WHERE?!?!? - Wipes happen. Which means one (or more) of you is going to have to run back and accomplish the rezzing. Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire are both a HAUL back to the graveyard at Thorium Point. Before Blizzard removed the auto 6 minute release, it was nearly impossible to not run if you died in BRD. By the time someone got back, you had almost always autoreleased. And while not a five man, the starter raid Zul'Gurub fits this bill. It seems that with Outland, Blizzard mostly learned this lesson, however, the ghost walk to Coilfang is still tedious.
   
5. Why can't I go there? - Only two instances, and admittedly low level ones, are located inside capital cities. But Alliance can't easily go to Ragefire Chasm and likewise for Horde and The Stockades. By rights, these should be just outside the cities making them visitable, albeit challenging on PVP servers.
6. Poor Crowd Control Options - Anytime there is a dearth of humanoids, CC options become fewer. Usually this is made up for by substituting beasts or undead which still allow shackle & sheep (or hibernate). However, sometimes even those are passed over in favor of other non-CCable suckfests. Look at Mauradon (with its plants and elementals) and Dire Maul (with its plants and demons). Luckily, two often underutilized CC classes (Hunters and Warlocks) shine here. But your mages will quickly top threat meters without sheeping to attend to.
7. Poor Cost to Effort Ratio - With the advent of the Burning Crusade, many dungeons fell quickly into this category. The effort of doing a level 60 instance for substandard blues just became not worth it. Doing just a few (starter) quests in Outland will give you rewards that FAR outshine anything in there (even the epics). And here the list is long, Blackrock Spire, Scholomance, Stratholme, Dire Maul, and even BRD and Sunken Temple. I've even heard it said in my guild that raids like Zul'Aman fall into this category.

So, that's what I think kinda makes instances less appealing. I'm sure I've missed something, and I find it rather dismaying that my personal favorite instance, BRD, is actually high on the suck meter. But it that's what my analysis shows.