Spugnort's

Posts Tagged ‘Spugnort’s PvP Guide’

I hope that everyone enjoyed the first section of the five part blog, and you now have your new interface all setup and ready to go.  Now we will need to make some tweaks to this interface so that it is more conducive to use in the Arenas and Battlegrounds.

The key to being successful in PvP is to not click ANYTHING, EVER!

In order to do this we will need to utilize two different aspects of our new User Interface. First we will need to use proper key bindings so everything is within the stretch of our fingers, and we can also use macros and the addon clique to reduce the amount of spells and abilities we need to have on our action bars.

If you love to PvP and enjoyed this content you will definitely want to check out Spugnort’s PvP Guide!

---

KEY BINDINGS

---

If you have downloaded Bartender3 or a similar action bar addon you will have a customizable setup now.  Along with this you will be able to change all the key bindings for each and every bar.  The most typical setup is to take Bars 1-3 and stack them on top of each other in the bottom middle of your screen.

Here is how I set up my action bars:

Combat Mode:

Stealth Mode:

Action Bar 1

Action Bar 1 is seen at the bottom of my screen, it has typical Key Bindings of my most used actions.  Places 1-6 are abilities I need to have very easy access to.  Now you can see at the end of the bar abilities that are usually bound to 0, -, and = are all bound to mouse actions. The normal = slot is bound to Mouse Button 4, which is the side mouse button.  The normal – slot is bound to mouse button 4 and shift at the same time, while the 0 spot is bound to Ctrl and mouse 4 at the same time.  These are all spells I use a lot while I am on the move, and my fingers need to be free for movement keys instead of spell keys.

Also you will notice that I have many macros bound to my keys.  One of the most important macros is a start attack macro for me.  I bind this to all of my start attacks, so if I am short on energy or the talent is on cooldown, then my character will still start attacking and I am not chasing someone around doing nothing waiting on energy.  This also allows me to leave a standard attack button off of my bars, and is key for all melee classes.  An example of this macro:

/startattack
/cast Shiv

This is a must have for all melee classes, and hunters!

Also you will notice that my Stealthed spells correspond directly with those on my normal action bars.  For example my shadowstep garrote macro lines up with my shadowstep shiv macro.  Obviously if I am garroting an enemy I will want a guaranteed snare on them immediately.  Think about lining up stance bars like this for easier use, and so they are able to be used with button spamming if you are lagging slightly.

Action Bar 2

This bar is bound the same as Action Bar 1 except that spells 1-6 are bound to shift and their corresponding number.  This is very easy to access even while moving your character with the movement keys.  Try it out and you will see your response time decreased significantly once you become used to this.

At first you may become frustrated with it, but over time you will become used to the setup and will begin to love it and see its advantages.

Normally I save this bar for my most used cooldown abilities such as sprint or evasion as a rogue example, or Howl of Terror or Amp Curse for a Warlock.  This gives you easy access to cooldowns without having to click them, which can keep you from moving and shorten your response time.  Which could mean  the death of a teammate, or the other person being healed to full before you can finish them off.

Action Bar 3

This bar is bound to Ctrl and the corresponding action number 1-6.  This is much like action bar two, and gives you easy access to 6 more spells while maintaining full control of your character.

What this does for you

Overall you should have easy access to at least 21 (6 on each action bar and 3 mouse binds) different spells and abilities no matter what stance you are in, which is a great increase over the normal 5 to 6 and then clicking everything else.

This means a faster reaction time to an extra 15-16 abilities, some of which you may have not even used before but needed!

---

Macros

---

Every successful PvP players uses tons of macros, from mouseover macros to buff synergy macros they all help you accomplish your job on the battlefield.

Cast Sequence Macros

This is a great type of macro that will help you save even more space on your action bars.  If you have two spells that you always cast in the same order then you can put those into a cast sequence macro and make two different buttons into one button.  For example, a Deathcoil into a fear macro, this is a must have for a Warlock.  A Warlock will almost always follow a deathcoil with a fear, binding them to the same button just makes sense.

Other examples would be Warlock DoT spells, often you will want to cast all your DoT spells in succession, so you can setup a macro that will cast Unstable Affliction -> Corruption -> Siphon Life -> Curse of Agony.  All your DoT Spells bound to a single button can you imagine how much that will open up for you on your action bars.

/castsequence reset=combat/target Unstable Affliction, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Siphon Life

These types of macros are also spammable for instant cast spells, you can simply just mash the button and when the Global Cooldown is over the next spell will cast.  The reset will allow you to stop in the middle of the cast sequence target a different player and it will start from the beginning of the cast sequence.  Or if you were to drop combat then the macro will also reset.

These are just a few examples of what you can do with cast sequence macros.

Mouseover Macros

Not having to actually switch targets but still cast a spell is an amazing feature of macros.  My favorite mouse-over macro is for Blind, but the same macro could be used for any crowd control effects like sheep or cyclone for example.

#show blind
/cast [target=focus,harm,exists,modifier:shift]blind;
/cast [target=mouseover, harm, exists]blind;
/cast blind

This will cast Blind on your mouseover target, or cast it on your current target if you have no mouseover target, or you can use shift and this to blind your focus.

This will also work with Hammer of Justice and any other effect you would like to use here, simply replace blind with the spell you would like to use.This is probably the most powerful type of macro you can use.  This allows you to keep your current target and cast something on a completely different target very quickly and efficiently.

---

Clique Addon Usage

---

This is one of the most powerful addons for use in PvP you will find.  This is mostly for use with caster classes, and mostly healers.  As a healer you can use this addon to heal your entire party without ever changing your target, in fact you can have an enemy targeted while you liberally heal and dispel your party.

You will be able to use mouse binds and key binds while over a unit frame to cast the corresponding spell on that character. This will allow you  to switch between targets much quicker than most players can by clicking on the unit frame to select the player and then click the spell you would like to cast.

To set this up go into your spell book by pressing “P”, and there you will see this addon has added an extra tab at the bottom.  Click on this tab to start binding your spells.

As an example when I play my Paladin I use:

• Mouse button 4 (on the side of the mouse) as my button to cast max rank Flash of Light.
• Shift and Mouse 4 will cast a Holy Light Rank 7, use this every10-12 seconds in place of Flash of Light in order to keep the Lights Grace buff active.
• Then max rank Holy Light is bound to Ctrl and Mouse 4.
• Blessing of Protection is the Middle Mouse Button.
• Cleanse is bound to Alt and Mouse 4.

These all increase my abiltiy to switch targets and cleanse effectively.  These are a requirement for healers in 5v5 matches where opposing teams will use a switch DPS target tactic to try and catch opposing healers off  guard.  With this addon it is much less likely that will happen to you!

---

All of these ideas above should serve to increase your reaction time, and if you start using all of them you should see an enormous effect on your PvP ability once you get used to them.  In PvP, when every millisecond counts, these will make the sole difference between a loss and a win.

And we all know everyone loves to win! Check back later for Part 3……