Any WoW gamers in here?

PvP preparation is like juggling. One hesitant ball, then two. Two to four, four to eight...etc. Practice as soon as you can, imo. I don't know what warlocks are like at the moment but they should have decent crowd control (don't be afraid to fear, then dot, anything that gets too close. Or use a VW sacrifice/Succubus seduction to catch your breath).

Any gear you collect pre-Northrend will get replaced, so I wouldn't worry about gear...you need experience. Leap into the fray and do everything to stay alive.
 
Spec Destruction IMO. Destruction is the most straightforward tank and spank spec. Use a voidswalker, it's easiest to play as well. Just bubble (sacrifice) whenever you feel in danger. You will need to macro your pet's ability to a key (/cast [target=player] sacrifice), because clicking is not efficient. If you want to use 'fear' effectively, you will need a mouseover macro so that you can easily fear someone who you are not targetting (which is normally the case), and set the cc target as your focus, so you can monitor the fear and know when he's coming out of it so you can re-fear or anticipate what he's gonna do. I use something like this:
/cast [target=mouseover] fear
/focus [target=mouseover]

You can set a separate macro to fear your focus target (/cast [target=focus] fear) but that may be too many keys for your nub self to keep track of.

The standard BG fight modus operandi is to fear someone who's not taking damage (cuz too much damage breaks fear), then burst damage down someone else (usually whoever's lowest on health, or a healer). And ENABLE YOUR NAMEPLATES. You can see name plates through walls, and it lets you see people's health easily for target selection and tactical purposes.

Usually people use felhunters. But, to be able to get off a good 'spell lock' is hard when you're new, and knowing the best time to defensive dispel ('consume') takes experience and anticipation as well. Succubus is usually not used, but it is used for 'seduce' which is a crowd control spell that does basically the same thing as 'fear', and shares diminishing returns with 'fear'. It has special purpose applications (like cc'ing something off of you if you're stunned or need to peel melee off of yourself, or cc'ing 2 guys at the same time).

Affliction is more about dotting up multiple targets, which requires some multi-tasking. Drain life is usually a big part of an affliction lock's play. It's where a lot of their value draws from, and that's how they survive.

Demonology is pretty tactical too, although this spec was designed for maximum survivability. There's more control, timing and positional work required in demonology. And more pet management.
 
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You can fear someone you're duelling too. The idea is that the fear buys you time. A fear will last 8, 4, or 2 seconds depending on diminishing returns. What you would do is fear, then DoT (corruption and curse of agony/tongues), then immolate or chaos bolt. Instead of allowing your opponent to wail on you while you're casting those, (s)he will be in a fear, so they're like free casts.

Or you can fear, then create a healthstone :)

A good time to fear is also when you've just death coiled your opponent, because (s)he won't be able to interrupt it, but that fear would only last 4 seconds because of DR. Enough time for... say... 1 dot and 1 chaos bolt.

Also note that death coils can be used as interrupts. Death coil and shadowfury would be your two main self-defense control abilities.
 
Warlock fear is the #1 CC spell in the game, and is effective even with shitty equipment. Priest fear has a 24-30 second cooldown, mage polymorph breaks on any damage AND heals the polymorphed target, druid cyclone only lasts 5 seconds, rogue sap can only be used when the target is not in combat, shaman hex has a 1 minute cooldown, any hunter or DK freezes break on any damage and I believe have cooldowns. A lot of people don't cc in BG, make sure you do! Use it a lot! Rotate targets etc.
 
Everyone plays on Aerie Peak - EU.
 
Gorefiend: 85 Fury Warrior, 85 Elemental Shaman
Lightbringer: 85 Resto Shaman, 85 Feral Druid
 
Radiant Shadow said:
PvP preparation is like juggling. One hesitant ball, then two. Two to four, four to eight...etc. Practice as soon as you can, imo. I don't know what warlocks are like at the moment but they should have decent crowd control (don't be afraid to fear, then dot, anything that gets too close. Or use a VW sacrifice/Succubus seduction to catch your breath).

Any gear you collect pre-Northrend will get replaced, so I wouldn't worry about gear...you need experience. Leap into the fray and do everything to stay alive.
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I agree that gear doesn't really matter until closer to the end game and that the best way to get better as a player in PvP is to just play (I like the juggling analogy), but I would like to point out that one of the biggest reasons for doing PvP early and often at lower levels is to accumulate Honor and Conquest points for the upper end PvP gear. This stuff is extremely advantageous. PvP gear has Resilience and possibly Penetration. These are two stats that increase or decrease damage reduction from and against other players. It doesn't apply to PvE, but it makes a tremendous difference in PvP. At level 85, every 1000 points equates to about 10% additional damage reduction, and the PvP gear is extremely heavy on Stamina.
 
VH said:
I agree that gear doesn't really matter until closer to the end game and that the best way to get better as a player in PvP is to just play (I like the juggling analogy), but I would like to point out that one of the biggest reasons for doing PvP early and often at lower levels is to accumulate Honor and Conquest points for the upper end PvP gear. This stuff is extremely advantageous. PvP gear has Resilience and possibly Penetration. These are two stats that increase or decrease damage reduction from and against other players. It doesn't apply to PvE, but it makes a tremendous difference in PvP. At level 85, every 1000 points equates to about 10% additional damage reduction, and the PvP gear is extremely heavy on Stamina.
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Yes, you're quite right about the useful stats and pro-activity for level 85 gear. I have no idea what they look like now because I left just before Cataclysm came out. Gear and experience are vital, but skill is required before you can be truly effective in PvP. That was my central point. If you're playing on a PvP server then I understand why the distinction is important. One thing about preparing for higher-end PvP is that dynamics change between level brackets - class skills, talents, and so forth - so there will still be a learning curve if you start early.
 
Right now I'd like my counterspells on someone I am not targeting to be more on point. Gladiator level mages will 99% see you casting something, and if they don't counterspell it, it's not cuz they're too slow or didn't see it, it's cuz they're saving their counterspell. I do counterspell, but it's real sloppy. I let big heals slip off too often.

I'd like my overall control to be more methodical as well. I do use all of my abilities, but I feel as though I'm sloppy. When I watch videos of top mages, they are very methodical in the way they play their characters. They use all of their abilities in a very synergistic way and have amazing control over situations. They don't have moments where they're thinking 'omg wtf do i do', they always know exactly wtf to do. There's a lot of big decisions that need to be made, like when to ice block, when to cold snap, where to position themselves. Strategic decisions like how to set up a kill, when to switch... although I am proud to say I used deep freeze as a cc for the first time a couple days ago :D

I used to watch instructional videos, and I think the greatest thing I learned was how to properly use cold snap. Apparently most mages think of it as a second ice block, but there's such a thing as 'offensive' cold snapping. Cold snapping for an extra icy veins and deep freeze. And never force an ice block just so you can snap.
 
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