Arknoodle
Legend
I didn't want to mess up your thread but would hate to leave all those errors in there, they would besmirch its awesomeness. So here be your guide with them all edited out http://www.twinkinfo.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.png :
Hello folks! Sooo most of you probably know me from these forums or from in game so hopefully I don't need to worry to much about introducing myself and can get straight on to the point of this thread! This point being to help players who are genuinely new to PvP or even the game itself learn the basics of PvP so that they can start heading down the path to success! Let me first say that this is strictly the basics! Just enough to separate yourself from the hundreds of noobs out there and give you the potential to really improve your game!
Now on with the show!
Index
1. Keybinds
2. Macros.
3. Situational Awareness.
4. Class Awareness.
5. Addons. (Just a few)
Keybinds
In my personal opinion this is one of the biggest problems I've run into in this bracket, It's full of keyboard turning and backpeddling. So if you are serious about improving your game you will do one of the following.
Bind strafe to the left to your A key and strafe to the right to your D key. You will unbind any keys that turn your character to the left or right.
(Note if you are more comfortable strafing with Q and E feel free to simply unbind A and D and leave your strafe on the default keys.)
You will also unbind your S key.
Now you may be wondering 'how do I turn my camera now?'. The answer is hold down your right mouse button and use your mouse to turn your character. This will greatly improve your turning speed and combined with proper strafing will make you that much more able to adapt in a PvP environment.
Now I realise this may be hard to get used to so I recommend taking the time to level a toon from 1-20 while getting used to your new movement keys, it helps a lot!
So now you're asking 'Well mister arknoodle sir um how do I click my powers if im using my mouse to turn all the time?'
YOU DON'T!
Now you must bind your powers to even more keys! Keys that are easily reachable with your keyboard hand. The benefits of this are huge, the main one being reaction time, once you get used to your binds it is 100x faster to push that button then it is to move your little gauntlet mouse cursor over each ability and click on it.
Since chances are those taking anything away from this guide are new to binding their abilities I've provided a map of the keybindings I use on every character.
Blue are spells and abilities
Red are movement
Lasly, MASH your ******* keybinds. You should be charging before your in range, holy shocking before your in range.
MASH THOSE BUTTONS, that split second can be life or death.
Macros
Now to start macros have many many many functions half of which I couldn't list if I wanted too, so instead I'm going to talk about different parameters that can be used inside macros and provide a few examples so that you can develop your own macros based off of what you need most.
(Note: Parameters are placed inside a macro with [ and ])
Firstly one of the greatest functions of macros is the ability to make one keybind into three!
This is done by implementing [mod:shift], [mod:ctrl], or [mod:alt]. this feature can have all sorts of rediculous benefits some of which being, not having to drop your current target to cast a heal on yourself, being able to bind multiple abilities into the same keybind, and the list goes on.
Again since macros is such a huge topic I'm going to try and keep it basic on the use of modifiers, with a little imagination and the use of google you will be able to find anything your looking for because trust me, it's been done.
Example: /cast [mod:shift] Healing Surge; [mod:ctrl] Purge; Flame shock
This macro will cast flame shock on my target, if I hold control and press the macro it will cast purge and if I hold shift it will cast healing surge.
Two more extremely useful macro parameters are Harm and Help. These can be used inside of your brackets to cause a helpful spell to be cast if your target is friendly, or a harmful spell if your target is an enemy.
Example: /cast [harm] Moonfire; [help] Rejuvination
This will cast moonfire if your target is an enemy and rejuv if your target is friendly.
Finally the last thing I will cover in the macro section is targeting. You can add targeting paramaters into your macros in order to make them even more versatile, they look like this [target=player]
Example of it all put together /cast [harm] Purge; [help] Cleanse; [mod:shift, target=player] Cleanse; [mod:ctrl; target=focus] Purge
This macro I used on my 85 shaman, it will cast Purge if my target is an enemy, Cleanse if they are friendly, Cleanse on myself if I hold shift, and purge on my focus target if I hold control.
Situational awareness
Okay so past all the movement and binding and playstyle and all that hoopla it's time to talk about PAYING ATTENTION.
That's right. This is about knowing what is going on around you at all times. No who's on your team where they're at where the EFC is where your FC is where your healers are ETC. This is something you need to keep on top of at all times in a PvP environment. Something to help with this is by holding down shift and pressing the M key, this will bring up a small map of your current zone, and it should be open at all times in a BG.
This is so god damn important it's not even funny. You need to know what you can do best in every situation to improve your teams chances of winning and the only way to do that is to know whats going on
Example: Let's say you're a rogue about to kill the EFC and you start going tunnel vision so you dont see that you've got one or to of your team mates right on your tail. Well now one of the enemy healers shows up and you decide "**** this efc is almost down I got this!" Then said healer and EFC proceed to rape you and your teammates.
If you are aware of what's going on around you then you would know that you need to shadowstep and gouge that healer giving the 2 teammates following you time to open on the EFC and kill him.
I know this sounds like a stupid point to be making but I see it happening all day everyday, people ignoring everything thats going on around them. Don't be afraid to use your camera, holding down the left mouse button instead of the right and looking around to see what's happening.
Secondly under the situational awareness section is doing the right thing when inserting yourself into a situation. Take a minute to say hey, should I just unload on this mother ****er or should I root him to give my FC some distance so he can toss up a heal.
It's little things like that that win games.
This goes for FCing also, I've sometimes spent 2 plus minutes sitting on top of the horde tunnel just watching the play of battle with people screaming at me to go, but sure as ******* rain an opening presents itself that wasn't there before and we are one cap ahead because of it.
THINK BEFORE YOU CHARGE.
Make sure to avoid tunnel vision, always know what's going on around you and what has the potential for entering your imediate combat territory.
Class Awareness
This is the last major section of this guide but it is none the less a very important one.
Learn about all the classes in the game! Go HERE and take the 30 minutes it takes to read about each classes defensive and offensive cooldowns. Knowing what your opponent has up his sleeve can save you time and time again.
Example: Priest getting low on health and it's been over 30 seconds since it was last used, I quickly pop out of melee range while the priest sure as **** used his fear to buy a moment of precious time, now hes dead.
Knowing these kinds of things can save you alot. It doesn't take long to learn about and it can definitely
take you from being good to being "THIS DRUID JUST JUKED MY SCREAM" Trust me it's fun.
Addons
The real last section of this guide is for addons. Theres only 2 addons I'm going to mention because in my honest opinion they are the most beneficial to my gameplay.
Battleground Targets - This is the first one because it goes hand in hand with situational awareness, it helps you keep track of whats going on in your BG even if your not right there looking at it.
AND
OmniCC - This is a very simple addon that merely puts a timer on your spells and abilities with their remaining cooldowns. This is very useful so instead of saying "Eeeehhhhhh my WoG should be up halfway through this fight" You know for a fact it will be.
Also goes well with button mashing as you dont have to gestimate anything.
And this finally concludes my probably much too long guide ._. Hopefully some of you on TI benefit from this and improve you 'game'.
Questions comments concerns feel free to PM me or post here.
P.S if you want or need help making more detailed macros feel free to ask me at any time in game or on the forums!
GL HF!
EDIT: Thanks to the awesomeness and generosity of Kearbear all spelling errors have been fixed http://www.twinkinfo.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.png
Hello folks! Sooo most of you probably know me from these forums or from in game so hopefully I don't need to worry to much about introducing myself and can get straight on to the point of this thread! This point being to help players who are genuinely new to PvP or even the game itself learn the basics of PvP so that they can start heading down the path to success! Let me first say that this is strictly the basics! Just enough to separate yourself from the hundreds of noobs out there and give you the potential to really improve your game!
Now on with the show!
Index
1. Keybinds
2. Macros.
3. Situational Awareness.
4. Class Awareness.
5. Addons. (Just a few)
Keybinds
In my personal opinion this is one of the biggest problems I've run into in this bracket, It's full of keyboard turning and backpeddling. So if you are serious about improving your game you will do one of the following.
Bind strafe to the left to your A key and strafe to the right to your D key. You will unbind any keys that turn your character to the left or right.
(Note if you are more comfortable strafing with Q and E feel free to simply unbind A and D and leave your strafe on the default keys.)
You will also unbind your S key.
Now you may be wondering 'how do I turn my camera now?'. The answer is hold down your right mouse button and use your mouse to turn your character. This will greatly improve your turning speed and combined with proper strafing will make you that much more able to adapt in a PvP environment.
Now I realise this may be hard to get used to so I recommend taking the time to level a toon from 1-20 while getting used to your new movement keys, it helps a lot!
So now you're asking 'Well mister arknoodle sir um how do I click my powers if im using my mouse to turn all the time?'
YOU DON'T!
Now you must bind your powers to even more keys! Keys that are easily reachable with your keyboard hand. The benefits of this are huge, the main one being reaction time, once you get used to your binds it is 100x faster to push that button then it is to move your little gauntlet mouse cursor over each ability and click on it.
Since chances are those taking anything away from this guide are new to binding their abilities I've provided a map of the keybindings I use on every character.
Blue are spells and abilities
Red are movement
Lasly, MASH your ******* keybinds. You should be charging before your in range, holy shocking before your in range.
MASH THOSE BUTTONS, that split second can be life or death.
Macros
Now to start macros have many many many functions half of which I couldn't list if I wanted too, so instead I'm going to talk about different parameters that can be used inside macros and provide a few examples so that you can develop your own macros based off of what you need most.
(Note: Parameters are placed inside a macro with [ and ])
Firstly one of the greatest functions of macros is the ability to make one keybind into three!
This is done by implementing [mod:shift], [mod:ctrl], or [mod:alt]. this feature can have all sorts of rediculous benefits some of which being, not having to drop your current target to cast a heal on yourself, being able to bind multiple abilities into the same keybind, and the list goes on.
Again since macros is such a huge topic I'm going to try and keep it basic on the use of modifiers, with a little imagination and the use of google you will be able to find anything your looking for because trust me, it's been done.
Example: /cast [mod:shift] Healing Surge; [mod:ctrl] Purge; Flame shock
This macro will cast flame shock on my target, if I hold control and press the macro it will cast purge and if I hold shift it will cast healing surge.
Two more extremely useful macro parameters are Harm and Help. These can be used inside of your brackets to cause a helpful spell to be cast if your target is friendly, or a harmful spell if your target is an enemy.
Example: /cast [harm] Moonfire; [help] Rejuvination
This will cast moonfire if your target is an enemy and rejuv if your target is friendly.
Finally the last thing I will cover in the macro section is targeting. You can add targeting paramaters into your macros in order to make them even more versatile, they look like this [target=player]
Example of it all put together /cast [harm] Purge; [help] Cleanse; [mod:shift, target=player] Cleanse; [mod:ctrl; target=focus] Purge
This macro I used on my 85 shaman, it will cast Purge if my target is an enemy, Cleanse if they are friendly, Cleanse on myself if I hold shift, and purge on my focus target if I hold control.
Situational awareness
Okay so past all the movement and binding and playstyle and all that hoopla it's time to talk about PAYING ATTENTION.
That's right. This is about knowing what is going on around you at all times. No who's on your team where they're at where the EFC is where your FC is where your healers are ETC. This is something you need to keep on top of at all times in a PvP environment. Something to help with this is by holding down shift and pressing the M key, this will bring up a small map of your current zone, and it should be open at all times in a BG.
This is so god damn important it's not even funny. You need to know what you can do best in every situation to improve your teams chances of winning and the only way to do that is to know whats going on
Example: Let's say you're a rogue about to kill the EFC and you start going tunnel vision so you dont see that you've got one or to of your team mates right on your tail. Well now one of the enemy healers shows up and you decide "**** this efc is almost down I got this!" Then said healer and EFC proceed to rape you and your teammates.
If you are aware of what's going on around you then you would know that you need to shadowstep and gouge that healer giving the 2 teammates following you time to open on the EFC and kill him.
I know this sounds like a stupid point to be making but I see it happening all day everyday, people ignoring everything thats going on around them. Don't be afraid to use your camera, holding down the left mouse button instead of the right and looking around to see what's happening.
Secondly under the situational awareness section is doing the right thing when inserting yourself into a situation. Take a minute to say hey, should I just unload on this mother ****er or should I root him to give my FC some distance so he can toss up a heal.
It's little things like that that win games.
This goes for FCing also, I've sometimes spent 2 plus minutes sitting on top of the horde tunnel just watching the play of battle with people screaming at me to go, but sure as ******* rain an opening presents itself that wasn't there before and we are one cap ahead because of it.
THINK BEFORE YOU CHARGE.
Make sure to avoid tunnel vision, always know what's going on around you and what has the potential for entering your imediate combat territory.
Class Awareness
This is the last major section of this guide but it is none the less a very important one.
Learn about all the classes in the game! Go HERE and take the 30 minutes it takes to read about each classes defensive and offensive cooldowns. Knowing what your opponent has up his sleeve can save you time and time again.
Example: Priest getting low on health and it's been over 30 seconds since it was last used, I quickly pop out of melee range while the priest sure as **** used his fear to buy a moment of precious time, now hes dead.
Knowing these kinds of things can save you alot. It doesn't take long to learn about and it can definitely
take you from being good to being "THIS DRUID JUST JUKED MY SCREAM" Trust me it's fun.
Addons
The real last section of this guide is for addons. Theres only 2 addons I'm going to mention because in my honest opinion they are the most beneficial to my gameplay.
Battleground Targets - This is the first one because it goes hand in hand with situational awareness, it helps you keep track of whats going on in your BG even if your not right there looking at it.
AND
OmniCC - This is a very simple addon that merely puts a timer on your spells and abilities with their remaining cooldowns. This is very useful so instead of saying "Eeeehhhhhh my WoG should be up halfway through this fight" You know for a fact it will be.
Also goes well with button mashing as you dont have to gestimate anything.
And this finally concludes my probably much too long guide ._. Hopefully some of you on TI benefit from this and improve you 'game'.
Questions comments concerns feel free to PM me or post here.
P.S if you want or need help making more detailed macros feel free to ask me at any time in game or on the forums!
GL HF!
EDIT: Thanks to the awesomeness and generosity of Kearbear all spelling errors have been fixed http://www.twinkinfo.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.png
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