Arena Guide - General

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Welcome to the TenTonHammer General Arena Tips! We'll be following a few basic guidelines when it comes to gear and tactics everyone should follow!

Gear

As a rule of the thumb, you should always be seeking out gear that improves Resilience and Stamina the most, if you need some pointers just look at your class's Arena and PvP armor, which you will be wanting to get eventually. 

Resilience is a secondary attribute that serves several important functions in PvP and Arena play. First, and most important, is the reduction in the chance for you to be the vicitim of a  critical strike, this was intially the sole focus of resilience gear when it was first introduced. Resilence gear also protects you from the amount of damage a critical strike deals to you as well as reduces the overall damage you take from other players. High resilience will also signifigantly lower the effect of mana drain spells on you.

An "ideal" level of resilience is over 700, but you shouldn't stop there, the more you have, the better you'll be since you will be surviving a lot more hits from your enemies, giving you the extra seconds you need to deal with them!

Coupled with Resilience, Stamina should be your next concern, and for this there's no real limit, get as much as you can, and get it as soon as possible, a few Hitpoints may mean life or death within the arena, especially against high burst damage. 

You must also always wear your Insignia of the Alliance or Horde to a match, it's a free 2 minute cooldown dispel (if you bought the best one) that removes all effects that could harm you; if you use this early on during the battle you might be able to use it again at a critical moment and turn the match over to your side.

Try to wear a burst damage trinket in your second slot, the ones that say "Increases your attack (or spell damage) by ___ over 10 or 15 seconds", these trinkets will let you open up with more damage and possibly boost you once more during the battle. While the damage may not seem that noticeable, if you score a critical strike on the enemy while the buff is ongoing it'll be that much devastating!

Tactics

Stay calm! nervousness and/or overconfidence will net your opponents some starter points - be confident in your abilities and face whoever comes at you head on! they're players just like yourself, so there's no reason to get nervous nor overly excited to the point you forget your abilities!

Always keep an eye out for the opponent's tactic - are they both going to attack? who's playing support? figure this out quickly and attack the weakest contender, once you take them out, you can start moving on to the strongest one.

Don't attack non-healers if they have a healer with them! kill the healer first. This is very important since if you go all out on the tank or DPS class, you will expend all your cool downs and special abilities while they simply absorb the damage. Try to ignore them or crowd control them as soon as possible. It is important to play this tactic smart however, if your main target becomes invulnerable or immune to damage then switch to the healer to keep pressure on your opponents. 

Use your full abilities against your opponents! lesser used abilities like banish, spellstones, cone of cold, thorns, stings still hurt and/or impair your opponent!

If you're supporting your team you can still play for disruption of strategy in key moments, be smart about your psychic scream or your hammer of justice, those few seconds you buy or disrupt the other team's attacks could be vital.

The more you know about the opposing classes and how they can work out within the arena, the better off you are to devise a counter quickly. If you can discern quickly how Demonology and Affliction warlocks differ, how Fury or Arms differs, what to expect from a frost or fire mage, if it's a shadow or a holy priest, you've already got a good advantage in knowing their advantages and limitations.

If you have any sort of Crowd Control and are running low on hitpoints, consider entertaining them and trying to sneak in a quick bandage or the use of an arena potion, drink, or food item! the few hitpoints you gain back may be the difference between life and death.

Bind your most common abilities and spells to easy to reach and easy to remember keys, fumbling around with your mouse is a sure fire way to get owned the arena.

Take every loss as a learning experince. Paying attention to what killed you, what was effective and what flat out didn't work will make you a better player and make your team a stronger unit. Take a few minutes to discuss what went right and what should never be tried again between each match, and when you find that one team that you just can't beat, look at how they win and see if you can incorporate their tactics into your gameplan. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Try to use a voice service  to communicate with your team if you're serious about the Arena - voice communication is essential since there's no time to type during the match, yet holding a key is far easier and lets your teammate(s) know about your situation or plan quickly, should it change.

Stay tuned for more updates to this guide, remember, you will win some, you will lose some, but in the end, play to have fun!

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Got different tactics, tips, strategies, questions or comments? Email me at [email protected]!