Why Your Raid Leader Wishes You Would PvP

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Posted on Feb 15, 2011 by: Chris Stewart

Cataclysm has brought many new challenges for everyone in the game. The most talked about changes have come from the difficulty of heroics and raiding as the expansion begins. You can’t visit a WoW related site without running across endless chatter over the difficulty of the new endgame. Today, I’m going to give you a simple way to improve your play in every aspect of the game; especially when it comes to being effective in raids.

Cataclysm has given everyone more to be aware of when it comes to raiding. If you’re a DPS, a deep focus on your priority system leads to great damage output but can also make you less aware of the fire you happen to be standing in. Now more than ever, we need to be focused on staying alive and making the lives of those around us easier. But we can’t gimp out damage output either, else we’re letting our group down in other ways. So what we need to do is focus on being able to do damage while moving, while being aware of our surroundings, and utilizing the various utilities our class brings to the table we may often consider “PvP abilities” or not directly useful in PvE situations.

The best way to increase your situational awareness in this game is by participating in PvP. I’ve learned first hand how much more effective you can be in the DPS role by having PvP experience. PvP requires you to react to unscripted sequences, do damage while on the run, and simply think clearly in hectic situations. Simple examples of what I’ve been doing in PvP that have translated well to raiding are; properly utilizing Fel Flame while on the run in Baradin Hold, staying in the fire on Halfus for an extra 0.3 seconds to finish that critical Chaos Bolt cast, holding on to an instant Conflagrate for a half second knowing I’m about to move, timing all of my cooldowns for Bloodlust as if I were doing a hard switch in arenas for the kill, and many other examples.

Recently, I’ve been asked many times by other Warlocks I group with how I’m doing more damage than they are while we’re in the same spec, using the same “rotation”, and so forth. I believe PvP has given me a lot more experience in being resourceful and getting everything I can out of my gear and abilities.

What do you think? Do you feel like PvP experience has given you an edge in PvE content, or has it hurt you in some way? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Icesnake

Personally I think PvP convinced me to stop playing my beloved Mage. There are very few Mage spells that can be cast while moving that don’t have a ridiculous mana-to-DPS cost. I have better things to do with my time than lie around waiting to be spirit-rezzed in battlegrounds.

But then, I stopped raiding, too. I am probably the exception to the rule of “rush to end-game content.” And I have seen over and over again how Blizzard likes to punish those of use who *don’t* rush to the end-game content; the nerfing of whiptail spawns is merely the latest example. I didn’t rush to make 85, so I don’t get to benefit from the previous copious spawns. Oh, well. It’s their game, they can do what they want.

So, to summarize, yes, PvP has hurt me – a lot. It was a complete waste of my time, raised my blood pressure, and ultimately slowed my level advancement. But as I already said, I’m not typical.
http://wowphiles.com Jason Zimmerman

What spec were you using? From everything I hear from people, Frost Mages are pretty dominant.
http://twitter.com/chrisstewart Chris Stewart

PvP can definitely be difficult. It’s a meta-game within the game, for sure. With resil gear and some experience with the varied play style from PvE content, you get better and have more fun. I remember early in my PvP experience before I even knew what resil was, it was rather frustrating but I was inspired to get better and get better gear to hang with the better players. It’s taken awhile, but I like to think I do pretty well in BGs now.

Mages, especially if you run Frost, are incredible in PvP currently. The number of CC abilities they have make them very tough to beat. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve died at the hands of a Mage and his mirror images. I assume you’re not interested in PvP anymore, but if you do find yourself in a BG, be sure to take advantage of all of the CDs available to you. I can’t tell you how much it sucks to have a Mage down to 10-15% only to have them Ice Block. Grrrr!!!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OFHK3EEIWAO6ITTQO4YGTGS7M4 Brad Gremba

I’ve actually had pretty much the same experience with healing on my priest. I wasn’t very sure of myself when I started so instead of doing random dungeons to learn how to heal I started with random BG’s since usually randoms are grateful for any healing at all, even if you suck. Turns out I’m usually the last one to die on wipes & have pulled out some fairly clutch situations more than your average priest. Not because I’m that good or anything, just because I level’d up in PvP I think.
http://twitter.com/Icesnake1950 Icesnake Frostfyre

I was Frost. And my resilience was maxed out; I had the full set. Just as an experiment, I ran the same BG twice in a row, once in PvP gear and once in my usual raid gear. There was exactly zero difference in how long it took for a rogue to gank me.

Currently leveling a new Mage (Fire) on Terenas, and even though I can afford to buy all the best available gear, it’s impossible to complete a proper-level quest without dying. I can solo one mob, and then I am at 50% health and have to recover before I can take on another one. If there are two mobs linked, or within aggro range, I’m dead. Period.

The bottom line is that Blizzard obviously hates Mages. My Warlock made 85 almost accidentally. This poor Mage might never do it.