Hey fellow PvPers! As a new player stepping into Dragonflight arenas, I’m looking to get a quick rundown on key abilities for each viable spec to watch out for and tips on countering them. What’s the one ability from each class/spec that I should prepare against, and how can I effectively counter it? Preferably from Ret POV but can be any, objective. Appreciate all the wisdom you can share!
DH > everything
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in all seriousness though, you should learn to rotate defensives,
dont use your bubble to early if the healer has cooldowns
and as a ret you should make macro’s to give blessings to your party members like Blessing of freedom.
offhealing now and then
and cross CC a stun after a fear etc
you’ll like struggle vs Warrior and Priest. due to them being able to dispell bubble
That’s not what he asked lol
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um no.learn the game and use some addons.thats my advice
You asked for a lot so you’ll get a long reply.
Bonus to the below: Get BigDebuffs / OmniCD addons, and possibly WeakAura with the specific ones being DF CDs and Healer CC
Druids:
- Moonkin - kick cyclones / press defensives when he uses Incarn / freedom your healer when he gets root beamed / Play Blessing of Spellwarding (PvP) talent as it is basically a 2nd bubble and immunes all the damage from this spec
- Feral - kick cyclones properly and focus as kill target every game
- Restoration - swap the targets you’re attacking to drain the druid’s mana, as attacking 1 target that Resto druid is healing all game is ineffective / HoJ druid on CD and hit him as well whenever possible
Shamans:
Elemental: kill totems, watch out for Primordial wave (the aoe lava burst on all targets with Flame shock). Usually focus as kill target unless there is higher damage 2nd dps in enemy side (e.g Destro Lock, Mage, Devoker, etc). Play Blessing of Spellwarding (PvP) talent as it is basically a 2nd bubble and immunes all the damage from this spec
Enhancement: kill totems, watch out for bloodlust / ascendance / primordial wave pops
Restoration: kill totems, especially healing tide, HoJ on cooldown, watch out for grounding totem when u try to stun him as it can eat it instead, so kill totem before stunning if he uses the totem
Warriors:
Fury and Prot don’t really exist so just gonna mention Arms.
Arms: Watch out for Bladestorm Avatar pop, usually they play big slow talent with it, you can freedom divine steed away if needed and hit him from range / use Blessing of Sanctuary to remove Fear or stuns from your healer
Death Knight:
Unholy: Watch out for big Army of the dead / abomination limb pop. If u see the army and a lot of minions, Wake of Ashes can stun all of them in aoe as it stuns all demons / undead npcs. Blessing of Sanctuary on your healer when they get Strangulate silenced or Asphyxiate stunned. Blessing of Spellwarding is decent into it, as it negates more damage than the physical Blessing of Protection does
Frost: Watch out for the 1 minute big kill goes, make sure to use CD’s properly into it, remove CC from your healer with Sanctuary, focus as kill target unless Caster or Feral is in the game / after his big damage focus him hard as they have downtime and cannot do much for about a minute until the next big burst
Rogue:
Assassination: Use BoP if you see Deathmark debuff on anybody as it removes it. Sanctuary for your healer if they get stunned with kidney shot / possibly for Garrote if someone is about to die. Watch your own and team’s Stun DR - recommend Diminish addon to track it to know when the next stuns are coming
Sublety: Need fast reactions to Sanctuary your healer and track your stun DR as damage only comes when you can get stunned. Try to pre-press defensive CD-s before the go is coming, you can see when it’s coming when you are no longer on stun DR. Save some CD for Shadowy duel. Watch out for Shadow blades self buff on the rogue as it’s when he will do his biggest damage go
Outlaw: Same as sub, but more PvE and consistent damage on you. Basically watch out for the damage during stuns and pay attention to stun DR and CC on your healer
Paladin:
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Holy: Keeps teammates alive very easily, but is squishy. Easy to run down as Ret as a kill target. Watch out for the Holy pal using Sacrifice on teammates, as it reduces the damage by a lot, so it’s a good moment to switch target to somebody else, such as the Paladin
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Ret: Watch out for damage during Wings, try to avoid it with CC if you’re playing some other class. Good to focus as kill target if played with another melee.
Priest:
Discipline: Hard to kill, but easy to control with CC. Watch out when they press Ultimate Penitence, as it does a lot of damage. Swap kill targets when the priest gives pain supression on somebody. Stun / CC on cooldown, watch out for 1 second Fade immunity before you CC
Holy priest: Similar to Disc, but has more healing than defensive CD’s for team. If Holy pops Spirit of Redemption (immune angel thing where he heals for free), it’s pointless to burst as he will outheal it. Hold burst for after if possible. CC as much as possible.
Shadow priest: Watch out for Mind Spike: Insanity as it can do a lot of damage, it’s a good kick. Cannot press defensives if kicked on Shadow school (like kicks on Vampiric touch). Tanky overall, but has to be focused in most games due to the issues it creates when free (exceptions can be when its with a Destro lock or Mage or Feral)
Monk:
Windwalker: Watch out for Leg sweep into Serenity burst, trinketing and running away is good, or using some CC on him. If you’re playing Ret, you can BoP teammates to negate all his damage, or BoP to remove Karma (his big shield defensive) depending on who he used it on - this is good when dampening is higher and the monk has no more cds and can die because of it
Mistweaver (caster): CC / kick as much as possible. Swap target if he gives Cocoon to somebody, as the shield is too big. Can port in stuns, so not a good kill target
Mistweaver (fistweaver): CC as much as possible, this spec doesn’t cast and instead does melee dmg to heal. Avoid getting hit by the melee attacks by the monk because then he won’t be able to heal. Can die sometimes when focused, but usually has too many CD-s to die unless really good burst happens. Best to CC and kite his attacks to prevent healing and hit someone else
Mage:
Frost: Has lots of roots, hard to kill, but has to be focused most of the time due to issues that it creats when free. Lower damage, more CC, but high burst damage on spells like Ray of Frost (priority to press defensive or stop the cast as it can do most of your health bar). Stop Polymorphs whenever possible. Has 2 Ice blocks, so you have a small window to kill after the first Ice block as it has a small CD with Cold Snap. Kicking on Frost negates further damage and he can’t ice block for a few seconds.
Fire: Brutal damage, slightly squishier than the other Mage specs. Stop sheeps, be careful when he uses Combusts, don’t overstack with teammates especially those who have pets due to brutal aoe damage.
Arcane: Slippery due to movement speed buff, but has one school for most spells. If you kick on Arcane missles, the mage cannot sheep or blink away and is most vulnerable. Watch out for Arcane surge, and in general as always, watch out if your healer is in Polymorph (applies to all mage specs)
Demon Hunter:
Ppl only really play Havoc so: Watch out for Essence Break Blade dance go’s (every 45s) otherwise it’s mostly PvE dmg. Try to Sanctuary your healer if stunned. Tanky to PvE dmg, but if your team has burst and a good stun setup ready, the DH can die, but usually focus another target. You can Divine Steed Freedom away from his Essence break go and trinket out of the stun, to avoid it as it’s melee.
Evoker:
Preservation: Watch out for the Evoker using Nullifying shroud, as it means you cannot CC him for 3 CC spells in a row for 30 seconds, unless it gets purged or used up by CC spam. Usually fairly tanky to kill, but has to be near in melee range so you can swap him ocassionally, especially with stuns when Shroud is down. Prio kick fire breaths / sleep walks
Devastation: Kick disintigrate, big go includes his flying to stun everybody, try to avoid it as it’s very telegraphed and slow to land, fire breath / sleep walk kicks are also good. Also has nullfying shroud, so watch out to not randomly CC into it. Focus as kill target most games.
Warlock:
Affliction: kick literally anything, don’t take Unstable afflictions if possible, Drain life kick is slightly more important than the others but UA is high prio too. Focus as kill target most games as it does a lot of damage if free
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Destruction: kick immolates in start of the game to delay his game (he cant start playing without immolates up), then prio kick chaos bolts and fears. watch out for double coil, check team debuffs if u see them having Havoc debuff - it means double coil is coming and you can pre-press something before it. If your healer is in CC, try to line of sight Chaos bolts if nobody can stop them.
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Demonology: Watch out for Demonic tyrant goes, you can aoe stun pets with wake of ashes as ret or blind them, prio kick Hand of Gul dan and fear, it’s less overall damage so in games with other casters you can focus the other caster instead of the demo, he will annoy your whole team with spam CC though
Hunter:
Beast Mastery: if possible, try to use AoE cc for the pets when he summons a lot of them and uses bestial wrath (they all glow in red and get bigger). Otherwise nothing huge to watch out for outside of your healer being in CC from pet stun and freezing trap
Survival: watch out for Fury of the Eagle and his other burst cds. Mostly also watch out for CC on your healer
Marksmanship: try to line of sight (with pillars)Sniper shots / Aimed shots if healer in CC in a trap. Stop Aimed shots, sit on the guy, priority kill target almost every game.
Hope this helps, good luck in your arenas
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“Learn the game”
Why do you think he’s asking here doofus
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Wow, thank you for such a detailed and insightful response! Your breakdown of key abilities and counter strategies is exactly what I was looking for. I’m eager to apply these in my next matches. Thanks again for taking the time to share your knowledge - it’s truly appreciated!
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Basically what irony said
For fury warrior kite the warrior when he use his defensive cooldown Enraged regeneration ( everytime he hit you he heal big)
and for augmentation evoker interrupt Eruption spell so his buff on other player run off quickly
No worries bro wish u the best of luck in your pushing adventures
It’s always nice to see people who want to improve
This too, I just didn’t mention Augmentation because it’s very, very rare to face right now. But generally yeah Eruption and Time Skip are good kicks, burst comes after the flying stun
I didn’t want to open a new thread and somehow i thought it would fit in here.
My team and itn are in a brake due to rl. I’m thinking of switching to feral. But the other dps is a shadow priest. So i think warlock is the better choice, the heal is a holy priest which let me think feral could be an option, too.
What do you guys think should be better for me? Warlock(mostly demo or affli) or feral.
Best comps for Feral:
S: Feral / Devastation / Fistweaver
S: Feral / Mage / healer can vary usually a priest / paladin
A: Feral / Marksman hunter / either priest spec
Best comps for Shadow priest (a little tricky):
A: Shadow priest / Assa rog or Outlaw rog / Rshaman or Rdruid
A: Shadow priest / Demo warlock or Destro warlock / Resto druid
Other things can work for Shadow priest too, like Hunter or Warrior, but they’re slightly less good than those mentioned above
So your choice here is probably being Demo warlock with your SP friend. But you need to switch your Holy priest mate for a Resto druid, or Resto shaman immediately. Holy priest is not good at healing Shadow priest.
Of course you can probably get some rating with Shadow Priest + Feral, however you will have a harder time and will definitely need to switch out your Holy priest healer. The only double class stacking (healer spec + dps spec of the same class) that currently works in 3v3 is double evoker (pres and deva + melee)
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Ok than you for the advice, changing healer is the hardest part. Our healer doesn’t like to play other healer.
Well the only other option in this scenario is for your SP friend to play Mage or Hunter instead while you play feral + hpriest.
I mean you can technically push rating with any class combo, but double priest is one of the worse combinations out there
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Ok thanks for the information, i need to talk to them. Maybe we can play for the first time with a “standard” class combinato. Normally the SP plays BM Hunter, but the class got to boring for him.
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