Hi guys, I am Brawx and I spend a lot of my free time in WoW outside Orgrimmar just dueling. I believe it helps me the most to learn about other classes without having to play them myself and therefore it teaches me a lot for actual rated PvP.
I have spent a long time dueling in BFA and I managed to beat pretty much every spec in the game as Fury and wanted to share my strategies with you. Keep in mind there are some specs which are impossible to beat if they are played by a good player, such as Assassination rogue, Fire mage, Feral druid, BM hunter, Ret paladin, and Windwalker.
Before we start I'd just mention that certain Azerite traits will help you a lot, especially in low iLvL. I run 2x Azerite veins which can heal you a decent amount especially if you get kited. Helps with cancer kiting matches like feral druids and hunters. The azerite fortification one that heals you when rooted/stunned can help against druids and mages, but mages are often not a problem anyway.
Worth noting for future readers is that this is accurate as of BFA season 1.
Let's start:
Warrior - Arms
In a Fury vs Arms duel, the first one who uses his defensive loses. His goal is to get you to use Enraged regen as early as possible so he can parry it and prevent healing. Your goal is to burst him as fast as possible to force his parry so you can then heal when parry is down. The proper way to duel this is to immediately open with Stun and then burst.
Arms vs Fury duels are very short and quick so its vital you open with your stun because you will maybe get to use it again in the duel if you open with it. A good arms player will burst you really hard on the opener. Your advantage is that you can remove hamstring with bloodthirst and you can snare from ranged. If the Arms overgears you, you must kite him and let your 2xraging blow talent heal you. If you outgear the arms you will usually be able to burst him down and force parry really early, and even not be required to used regen at all.
Mage - Fire
This fight is a mind game. I usually mount up and stand on top of the mage. Right as the duel starts I immediately bladestorm to try and avoid the Dragon's Breath stun. What most Fire mages will try to do is to Poly you and then greater pyro you. You should trinket -> spell reflect right before the greater pyro cast is done.
Spell reflect will reflect the greater pyro if its active when the cast finishes, not when the visual fireball hits you. You can also choose to save spell reflect to the combustion. Overall, remember that with Furious charge and Enraged regen you can heal 50%+ with 1 bloodthirst so if he managed to get a greater+burst on you, you always have a quick burst healing option.
Most fire mages are an easy win, but some very good ones (the ones that don't even use the crappy greater pyro talent) will be able to completely melt you from 100-0% in 2 seconds and prevent all of your healing. They will know to Dragon's breath you when you charge them, unlike most bad mages who only waste it to try and get a poly off. General tip against all mages: If you are stuck inside a ring of frost with no way out, wait for him to cast something offensive, then touch the ring just as his cast finishes to make him instantly break the CC off of you.
Mage - Frost
A lot of melees think its impossible to win against a frost mage. It's actually fairly easy for a fury warrior. You have to bloodthirst as much as possible as it removes all slows. Bladestorm is mandatory to remove yourself from a root. Double time helps but Stormbolt is good enough as well.
Spell reflect should be used when ray of frost is about to finish channeling as that is when the mage is going to get 2 instant procs which deal heavy damage and will usually spam them without thinking much. Overall, frost deals very little damage and even with the kiting you should be able to heal through all his cooldown. Remember to use the water elemental to clear your snares.
Mage - Arcane
A very hard fight without Double time, but doable. It's very easy to make the arcane mage burst his face down with spell reflect as after they use presence of mind they usually start blowing big dmg instantly without thinking much. Always start this fight mounted and on top of the enemy, don't waste your charge right at the start. You can get good value from mounting, making him waste a blink without you wasting anything.
Paladin - Ret
This fight takes practice, and you will be kiting a lot.
Your main motive is to wait for his first Bubble/BoP to fall and then you have less than 30 seconds to burst him down and win. Start the fight ranged, if he is bad he will waste pony to try and reach you. If he slows you, clear it with bloodthirst then kite again with slows. When he uses wings you must stun him, if he trinkets it you can then fear him and let the wings fall. Always kite his cooldowns. Save heroic leap for a dire situation.
Keep a mental track over when he last used his stun, you can reflect it if you are smart. If you think he has it up and you used a cooldown like burst, you should follow it up with a spell reflect about 1 second after. He will often stun himself.
Rets also tend to stun you just to reach you if you're kiting. If you have a winged ret running to you with pony+freedom he will likely stun as soon as he connects 10/20 yards with you. Be ready with a reflect, dont use it too early as they can see the visual above your head.
Druid - Balance
This fight is easy if they don't take the ridiculously broken 8 second disarm on a 30 second cooldown talent. If they do take it, just make sure not to use your enraged regen if you think their disarm is up. A smart boomkin will want to use it only to prevent your healing, force it with your burst. Remember to spell reflect the Thorns.
Druid - Feral
If the feral plays with a certain cancer playstyle, you cannot win. That playstyle is spam moonfire from 40 yards. If warrior gets close, root/stun and run. If you duel a feral like that, don't reduel him :P
Most ferals however who actually use buttons that are not moonfire you can win by proper trading of cooldowns. Firstly remember that when he uses Thorns you should do the following: Spell reflect -> rampage -> bladestorm. This will chomp up about 60% of his health is less than 3 seconds.
You can trinket any stun you want against a feral, Some save it for bash, i don't think its wrong to trinket his opener stun either tbh. Just keep your hots up on you and keep spamming slow when he is shapeshifting. Use regen when you think his bash is off cooldown, unless you have trinket ready. Fear can be used to waste his incarn if you know he trinketed the stun, or you can fear him when he is rooting you and trying to run for healing.
Shaman - Enha
Fear the doggies, kill counterstrike totem, spell reflect ascendance. Outheal him. Easy.
Shaman - elemental
LoL.
Priest - Shadow
OmegaLuL.
Warlock - Demo
If he uses the big demon PvP talent which stuns people in the circle, target that demon and use fear to make the warlock run outside of it with fear, then when he is far enough away, re-engage him. Alternatively, you can use fear to reduce pet damage.
Warlock - Affliction
Try to spell reflect the unstable corruption spam. Prioritize your healing over your dmg. After he puts unstables on you wait for those unstables to go down then you can stop worrying about healing and just burst him down. If he starts with a succubus, use bladestorm about 0.5 seconds after the duel starts to immune the seduction.
Warlock - Destro
Spell reflect LuL.
Death Knight - Unholy/Frost
They don't do enough damage to kill you. They will usually not even duel you.
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Monk - Windwalker
Super hard fight. You have two primary goals:
1) To burst on the last 3 seconds of karma with your spell reflect up.
2) to kite the first few seconds of karma and his serenity.
You can fear his spirits and tiger but its not a big deal, most of the monk's damage comes from his fists anyway. Their burst is bonkers, wear your big boi pants. Hope the monk does not have disarm.
I don't see many windwalkers in durotar these days, so you likely won't face this duel a lot.
Demon Hunter - Havoc
He usually does a Blade dance every 4-5 seconds, so if he didnt do one in a while, wait a second before you Rampage/Bloodthirst as you might get juked into it being dodged more often than you think if you just press buttons without thinking.
If he uses darkness, obviously move away from it so he cant dps you for free. If he flies up, use spell reflect instead of running away. Should be an easy fight. Save CC for his meta. If he trinkets a stun, just fear and wait. Their meta usually only lasts 15 seconds in PvP.
Hunter - Survival
If you get kited, use pet to clear snare / heal. If he is 40yards+ just kill the pet. If he is smart he will send the pet back to him. You can try to Taunt the pet back but sometimes it won't work. Some hunters just stand still as the duel start and wait for you to charge them. This is textbook "I have a freezing trap on me" play. Just Spell reflect and charge. Keep slows up as much as you can. They clear snares all the time with disengage and stuff. When he turtles, just heal off pet and kill it.
Hunter - BM/Marksman
Same tips as survival hunter, but some of these ranged hunters will often just try to kite you and stay 40 yards away. This is cancer play and sometimes its unwinnable if they don't send their pets to you. I recommend you accept this duel near Line of Sight, such as the house near the little pig farm. If he 40 yards you, LoS.
Rogue - Assassination
You are given a choice here: Trinket blind or trinket kidney. against a decent Assa rogue, that choice is the win or lose choice.
The opener:
Assa rogues will either open with garrote or cheap shot. If they open with garrote you can immediately turn and stun them / bladestorm to prevent the cheap shot.
Good rogues can garrote you without breaking the sap with a /stopattack macro. If they do that, you can berserker rage the sap after they garrote and then stun before the cheap shot. This needs to be done in lightning speed.
Regardless, this is still bad for you because you stun before they use a vendetta which is a bad trade.
If they do use something you need to kite like Evasion/Vendetta you can slow them, clear snares with bloodthirst then run away. Wait for their shadowstep and then leap away. If they trinket a stun you can always fear them. Undead assa rogues are very hard to beat due to will of the forsaken.
Really good assa rogues you simply cannot beat, they will burst you down to 30% with DoTs up on that first kidney opener, and if you trinket it they will blind you and do it again. If you ever get a free moment they will evasion your healing. I rarely see rogues this good in durotar however, but they are always fun to duel and its always a close fight even if I lose.
Rogues - Outlaw/Sub
Sub does not do enough damage for you to worry about, you can outheal all his burst without worrying.
Outlaw can be annoying with his long parry + disarm but generally they also don't do enough damage for you to be concerned. Easy win tbh.
Good luck!
Super hard fight. You have two primary goals:
1) To burst on the last 3 seconds of karma with your spell reflect up.
2) to kite the first few seconds of karma and his serenity.
You can fear his spirits and tiger but its not a big deal, most of the monk's damage comes from his fists anyway. Their burst is bonkers, wear your big boi pants. Hope the monk does not have disarm.
I don't see many windwalkers in durotar these days, so you likely won't face this duel a lot.
Demon Hunter - Havoc
He usually does a Blade dance every 4-5 seconds, so if he didnt do one in a while, wait a second before you Rampage/Bloodthirst as you might get juked into it being dodged more often than you think if you just press buttons without thinking.
If he uses darkness, obviously move away from it so he cant dps you for free. If he flies up, use spell reflect instead of running away. Should be an easy fight. Save CC for his meta. If he trinkets a stun, just fear and wait. Their meta usually only lasts 15 seconds in PvP.
Hunter - Survival
If you get kited, use pet to clear snare / heal. If he is 40yards+ just kill the pet. If he is smart he will send the pet back to him. You can try to Taunt the pet back but sometimes it won't work. Some hunters just stand still as the duel start and wait for you to charge them. This is textbook "I have a freezing trap on me" play. Just Spell reflect and charge. Keep slows up as much as you can. They clear snares all the time with disengage and stuff. When he turtles, just heal off pet and kill it.
Hunter - BM/Marksman
Same tips as survival hunter, but some of these ranged hunters will often just try to kite you and stay 40 yards away. This is cancer play and sometimes its unwinnable if they don't send their pets to you. I recommend you accept this duel near Line of Sight, such as the house near the little pig farm. If he 40 yards you, LoS.
Rogue - Assassination
You are given a choice here: Trinket blind or trinket kidney. against a decent Assa rogue, that choice is the win or lose choice.
The opener:
Assa rogues will either open with garrote or cheap shot. If they open with garrote you can immediately turn and stun them / bladestorm to prevent the cheap shot.
Good rogues can garrote you without breaking the sap with a /stopattack macro. If they do that, you can berserker rage the sap after they garrote and then stun before the cheap shot. This needs to be done in lightning speed.
Regardless, this is still bad for you because you stun before they use a vendetta which is a bad trade.
If they do use something you need to kite like Evasion/Vendetta you can slow them, clear snares with bloodthirst then run away. Wait for their shadowstep and then leap away. If they trinket a stun you can always fear them. Undead assa rogues are very hard to beat due to will of the forsaken.
Really good assa rogues you simply cannot beat, they will burst you down to 30% with DoTs up on that first kidney opener, and if you trinket it they will blind you and do it again. If you ever get a free moment they will evasion your healing. I rarely see rogues this good in durotar however, but they are always fun to duel and its always a close fight even if I lose.
Rogues - Outlaw/Sub
Sub does not do enough damage for you to worry about, you can outheal all his burst without worrying.
Outlaw can be annoying with his long parry + disarm but generally they also don't do enough damage for you to be concerned. Easy win tbh.
Good luck!
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Record some duels and post a video.
Nice guide. Thanks!
pretty decent guide
some points i'd like to make
If you play against a WW, ret, feral, DH, rogue with equal skill and gear (or better) than you, you are not winning. A good rogue bursts on the opener and vanish out, no bleeds on him (cause fury) reset to full hp whenever and sit there as long as it takes until hes full and reset. As opposed to rogues who vanish out and restart their combo immediately.
If we had shatter ret would be easymode. Kiting a ret is pretty much impossible most of the time (against good ret anyway) since you kite? They just heal spam to full and we have no way to really recover since no old secondwind.
Ret has more sustain, more burst, more utility, more mobility etc. The best tip I can give is when they bubble at low hp (if they do) is to leap, LOS and instant bandage to as much as you can, thats all you can do, nothing else. (in 1v1)
About casters, you need to stick on them like glue and don't ever miss a kick. make them panic and dont let them freecast, !@#$ like iceblock is god damn infuriating now we have no shatter.
If the ret has no bubble or bop you will win however. Just don't get faked.
I agree with this guide but it takes into account that the players you duel wont be 2k+ and they wont know to peace out when you use regen or pop cds etc
If they are xp players then they won't let you get burt off, they wont let you heal with regen and bloodthirst etc which is where the problem lies. I'd say it's pretty fair since most of the dueling players wont be even close to that rating but just wanted to point it out anyway.
some points i'd like to make
If you play against a WW, ret, feral, DH, rogue with equal skill and gear (or better) than you, you are not winning. A good rogue bursts on the opener and vanish out, no bleeds on him (cause fury) reset to full hp whenever and sit there as long as it takes until hes full and reset. As opposed to rogues who vanish out and restart their combo immediately.
If we had shatter ret would be easymode. Kiting a ret is pretty much impossible most of the time (against good ret anyway) since you kite? They just heal spam to full and we have no way to really recover since no old secondwind.
Ret has more sustain, more burst, more utility, more mobility etc. The best tip I can give is when they bubble at low hp (if they do) is to leap, LOS and instant bandage to as much as you can, thats all you can do, nothing else. (in 1v1)
About casters, you need to stick on them like glue and don't ever miss a kick. make them panic and dont let them freecast, !@#$ like iceblock is god damn infuriating now we have no shatter.
If the ret has no bubble or bop you will win however. Just don't get faked.
I agree with this guide but it takes into account that the players you duel wont be 2k+ and they wont know to peace out when you use regen or pop cds etc
If they are xp players then they won't let you get burt off, they wont let you heal with regen and bloodthirst etc which is where the problem lies. I'd say it's pretty fair since most of the dueling players wont be even close to that rating but just wanted to point it out anyway.