by Rich Maloy

Being a hybrid class means there’s not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to making specs as one spec can serve us well through 10s, 25s, dungeons, and soloing. While PvE builds don’t leave much room for experimentation, I’ve seen far more variance in PvP specs, mostly depending on play-style.

Of course there are distinct PvP talents built into the trees and there are core talents for both PvE and PvP without which we’re just not enhancement shamans. But depending on your gear, team, and how your play you can customize your PvP specs for defensive, offensive, mana-rich, or anywhere in between.

Let’s start right out with the two of the more common builds right now:

PvE – 19/52/0 – this spec will serve most all enhancers well across all levels on content and is the spec I use on Stoney.

PvP – 16/55/0 – as I mentioned above there is far more flexibility in specs for PvP. I chose this one because it’s a good starter PvP spec that is highly mana-conservative and defensive focused. I’ve seen many different takes on enhancement PvP specs and experienced players will alter to suit their own play style. But if you need a place to start, go with this.

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by Zach Yonzon

Rogues. Those sneaky little bastards could be anywhere. Out of all the classes in the game, there is perhaps no class no more feared for their PvP prowess than rogues. Rogues gain a fearsome reputation by virtue of the nature of the class alone — they can Stealth. Because of rogues, everyone has to literally watch their backs. No place is safe because a rogue can be lying in lurking in some dark corner waiting to strike at the proper time. Through years of leveling in a PvP server, there is no sound in the game more unsettling than the low humming whoosh of a nearby stealthed rogue. In fact, rogue (and by extension, feral druid) stealth is the single biggest reason why I don’t PvP with music on.

And for rogues, it’s all about timing. In the Battlegrounds, it isn’t uncommon to find rogues preying on the weak, those low on life, the defenseless players eating or drinking. They can’t help it. It’s in their nature. The class encourages foul play through Stealth and a wonderful repertoire of attacks from behind. Rogues are at their best when catching their opponents off guard and are extremely capable of doing so. After the jump, we’ll take a closer look at the basic things to expect when fighting a rogue regardless of their spec.

Stealth

As mentioned, Stealth is a rogue’s defining ability. Learned at Level 1, every rogue learns to sneak around and pounce on an opponent. It’s their single biggest trump card, the ability to remain unseen. In Arena play, it’s critical for the rogue to get the opener, as some of her most powerful attacks require her to be stealthed. Taking a rogue out of stealth removes the element of surprise so it’s important to be on your toes. If you see a rogue from a distance entering stealth, always be on the ready. While it is practically impossible to get the jump on a very good rogue, the good news is that there are quite a lot of mediocre rogues who get too close to an opponent assuming their stealth will keep them undetected.

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by C. Christian Moore

The alliance have historically had worse PvP racials than their horde counterparts, but this might have changed in WotLK.

Remember back to a time when race changes didn’t exist. In vanilla WoW and The Burning Crusade, players had to reroll or deal with the racials that they originally chose, even if those racials got nerfed or buffed. These racials were also far more imbalanced than they are today, which added insult to injury for certain race / class combinations.

Dwarf

Stoneform: Activate to remove poison, disease, and bleed effects; +10% Armor; Lasts 8 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.

This racial is a shadow of what it once was. Pre-WotLK, this racial would give a 8 second immunity to poison, disease, and bleed effects. The difference is enormous — removing a 50% healing debuff in Wound Poison for an 8 second window allowed the dwarf to receive some massive heals. The racial was also on a three minute cooldown, but most PvPers will tell you that the shortened cooldown does not make up for the 8 second immunity. Dwarf priests and hunters had a much easier time surviving against rogues in The Burning Crusade, which is probably the reason the racial was nerfed for WotLK.

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by C. Christian Moore

Tauren

War Stomp: Activate to stun opponents – Stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.

This might just be personal bias, but I absolutely love War Stomp. It’s a racial that is often under-utilized — I see PvPers trying to use it defensively a lot of times. This thing is nothing short of an extra stun in a kill-target lockdown repertoire. It can also double as a silence to interrupt healers.

While War Stomp isn’t strictly better than Arcane Torrent, it comes pretty close. War stomp has a .5 second cast time, but works on everyone (silencing melee doesn’t do that much). The .5 second cast time can actually be a benefit, as you have more time off the global cooldown once the ability affects your target.

For an active racial (as opposed to a passive racial), it doesn’t get any better than War Stomp.

Endurance: Base health increased by 5%.

Because it’s only base health, this isn’t a big deal. If someone can tell me exactly how much hp this is, that would be awesome.

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by Zach Yonzon

Priests are an interesting study for this series, primarily because out of all the game’s ten classes, they are the only ones with two talent trees devoted to healing. This means that two out of three times, you’ll be encountering a healing priest. That’s not exact math, but you know what I mean. Shadow, the class’ DPS tree, has had an interesting history with viability and acceptance, having been known as a PvP tree in the game’s early years, later gaining raid viability and losing PvP luster. In the current environment, shadow remains a popular PvP tree but it is far easier to find success in Arenas and Battlegrounds with a healing spec. In this regard, discipline, the mitigation tree formerly considered to be complementary and gimmicky has shone.

Naturally, most fights against priests, particularly discipline-specced ones, will be long and difficult for most classes. That said, let’s take a moment to examine the various abilities used by priests on the battlefield. A priest’s repertoire of common spells is rather limited, and most of their key abilities will depend on their spec. A rundown of stuff to expect from them after the break.

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by Zach Yonzon

1Today we’ll get a little more specific and break down the three basic specs and their abilities in tactics. This should answer some folks’ question about why I didn’t mention Penance, which is arguably the most used priest heal on the battlefield. The answer, of course, is that Penance is the last tier discipline talent and not every priest will have access to it. You see someone in Shadowform, they’re not going to be using Penance. You see someone toss a Guardian Spirit — another awesome angel wing graphic spell — they’re not going to be using Penance. Now that we’ve got that little detail out of the way, let’s jump right into the different kinds of priests you’ll be encountering in the Battlegrounds.

The cool thing about the Battlegrounds as opposed to Arenas is that there’s a lot more spec flexibility. The relaxed environment allows for more freedom to play the spec you want to play as opposed to the spec you need to play in order to be optimal for competition. For priests, in particular, this means the freedom to play any of the three specs as opposed to necessarily speccing discipline in order to enjoy success in PvP. For you, the would-be priest-slayer, this means that you should expect to see priests of all kinds in play.

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by Tyler Caraway

this is going to be an introduction to balance PvP. I’ll examine talents, team comps, strategies, and gearing,. This isn’t the end all, be all of how to do balance PvP. There are lots of options, lots of things you can try or experiment with. PvP in and of itself is a very large experiment where you can test what can and cannot work. This may gloss over some topics, but I will try to provide as much information as I can. If you feel that there is anything of glaring importance that I missed, then leave a comment on the issue and I will correct it as soon as I am able to.

1. What is balance PvP?

The balance spec is the druid’s caster DPS tree. In PvP, the tree focuses on dealing damage, some control, and occasional healing.

2. Advantages of balance PvP

• Able to put out high levels of pressure if given the opportunity to free cast.
• Very solid levels of control against various targets, though more so against melee.
• A solid number of debuffs to act as a form of dispel protection.
• Solid synergy with multiple casters.

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by Zach Yonzon

Ah, Paladins. Otherwise known as the game’s God-class. Paladins, next to hunters, arguably have the lowest skill to success ratio among all classes in the game. This means that many players with low familiarity with the game can pick up a paladin and play the class with relative ease and have moderate success in the battlegrounds. Retribution paladins, in particular, are so easy to play that it can be addicting. Many players easily get the delusion that they’re good. This is what prompted Blizzard to call out the spec, saying that it issuccessful in lower Arena brackets but significantly less so against tougher competition.

Paladins also enjoy a significant psychological edge against a lot of players because of their reputation, giving them an advantage even before the fight begins. Well, today we’re focusing on how to fight paladins in our series of guides aimed at teaching players basic strategies against particular classes. We’ve discussed death knights, druids, hunters, and last week, mages. After the jump, we’ll break down a paladin’s strengths, discuss their frequently used skills, and eventually their weaknesses. As fearsome as paladins can be in combat, they suffer from glaring weaknesses, too. As long as you keep those weaknesses in mind, you should fare better against them on the battlefield.
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by Chase Christian

Let me say first that I’m not referencing some sort of vampire fetish, I’ll leave that to our resident Twilight fan. I’m talking about riding around Azeroth, slinking in the shadows, preying on the weak and undefended. Ganking is a great stress reliever, it allows you to vent all of your frustrations and shed your rotations: there’s nothing left but a pure kill. Coating your weapons in your opponent’s vital fluids and having their warm blood splattered all over your armor is the perfect way to christen your new gear.

A rogue’s ancient rite of passage, the art of the gank has been set aside by many for more important tasks. All work and no play will not only make you dull, but your weapons as well. As trained assassins, we are masters of destroying unsuspecting targets before they even realize what’s happened. Death from the shadows, we disappear as if we’ve evaporated. Built from the ground up as killing machines, no other class is as feared in the open world. Once your opponent hears the ‘whoosh’ sound of stealth, they know their life has come to a tragic end.

Always snare the victim

There are a few keys to ensuring that your target doesn’t escape your grasp once you’ve selected them for death. Crippling Poison is a must for enemies that will attempt to escape once you’ve engaged. A combat or subtlety rogue will be putting Crippling Poison on their off hand, while a Mutilate rogue will be able to use Instant Poison via Deadly Brew. Either way, slowing your target down is key to keeping them within your deadly range. You’ll want to use Wound Poison on your other weapon, because if you allow a healer to get any casts off, the gank could turn around very quickly.

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