The Evolution of a BG Noob: Let the Battles Begin

Gitr finally got into some PvP with Paladr this week. Other than about 2 hours of total time in WSG matches for over 40 days played, this was my first entry into hard-hitting PvP. Of course, Deadr grew up to level 66 on a PvP realm and was the victim of hundreds of gankings, world PvP is nothing like fighting in a battleground setting, that is for sure.

This will be an ongoing series of my personal exploits in BGs as a complete and total noob for this kind of playstyle. See it as your one opportunity to openly laugh at me and have a good old time at my expense, because I’ve made some seriously dumb mistakes, but learned a lot already. I’ll be as transparent as possible in an attempt to comfort other noobs who are coming to learn from scratch.

Arathi Basin – Level 48 – Protection Paladin

That’s me, Paladr, and that’s where I am now. We’ll ignore my first AB match the night before… I sucked so much, a Hoover would be put to shame. Let’s start with my questions to Growl the next morning and what I did from his advice that night.

Gitr: I suck. A tankadin has no place in PvP.
Growl: Sure they do – you can give Kings – spot heal – and provide last stand guard on points about to be taken. You won’t be at the top of the killing list – but that doesn’t matter. Your value is in steady irritation to folks trying to cap points. The longer you keep that point contested – the better chance reinforcements will arrive to save the day.

He’s right: tankadins DO have a place in PvP. By the time I was done for the night… um… morning, I was topping the list on healing, being quite an irritation, and constantly being the target of hunters and their pets. There isn’t much more satisfaction available than to stand 30 yards off from combat and toss full heals on a fury warrior as he mows down 4 enemies… at one time.

Gitr: I keep running out of mana when I did try to heal. Should I notch it down a couple of ranks?
Growl: Are you using your Flash of Light heal? I save Holy Light for after fights and use the flash heal for “in-combat” healing. You can spam flash heal for quite a while… and it’s fast.

Man! Talk about an endless supply of mini-heals! I really can hit Flash Heal all day long. It doesn’t do much in certain situations, say a warrior against a caster doing full damage through his armor or on a caster up against a rogue. Then again, it’s better to get a heal off than no heal because you were still casting when they die a miserable death. What Flash Heal often does is match the incoming damage enough to give your man twice as long to make a stand and wait for backup.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears – School of Hard Knocks

Nothing hones your skills like a real battle. I got 6 full matches in and earned 22 Marks, including the 3 from the night before. My honor topped out at 1,100 and I got 286 kills so far, as I was doing about 35-45 per match. I made several mistakes right away:

• I used BoK on everyone but casters. I looked into it, and it looks like BoM should go on Melee and Hunters, and BoW should go on casters. Take the time to sort them out and help out the team. The benefits provided with the correct buff outweigh the time spent using multiple buff types. If you’re “good,” it doesn’t even make a difference in your time.
• I waited 2 matches before I enabled Klik. OMG!! This is the single most important tool I had on Deadr for instances, and I would not recommend going into a 15-man BG without some way to heal people using the raid/party UI frames. It wasn’t until I was healing with Flash Heal with the LMB (left mouse button, if you’re a REAL noob) and Holy Light with the RMB that I started to feel somewhat comfortable. I still didn’t know any tactics, but at least people stopped dying in front of me while I looked for them in the mess of bodies.
• My UI was simply not prepared to fight with so much going on. Instances and grinding mainly keep all of the action in one place. Look out when you get into the fray in a BG. I moved all kinds of things around. Here is what I ended up with, without too much trouble.



• Press Shift-M. That brings up a little map of the BG/zone and all of the nodes, who has control of them, where your teammates are, and who is in combat. When you hover over a numbered dot, it displays the name(s) of the people under the cursor. When there is combat, they start to flash red. As sides take over nodes, they turn red for Horde and blue for Alliance. Move it. Use it. Love it. Thank me later.
• Try to stick with a warrior, or at the least a rogue or ret pally. They will be able to bail you out if you take all the damage and you can really lay on the heals on them and let them concentrate on creating as much havoc and totally wrecking a node that is only guarded by 2-3 people.
• Don’t just sit on defense! Travel around with the aid of the above classes and kill on sight and take back lightly defended nodes. Be sure to stick the full minute until the possession changes to you. Consecrate the area around the flag if you are defending, as it will interrupt everyone trying to assault the flag.
• Don’t waste Consecrates if you might need to heal. Consecrate is a huge mana drain, and if you need to start healing, you’d best figure out some other way to do some damage.
• Save your Bubbles. Don’t bubble up unless you are doing critical healing, tanking, or you need to get away. You never know when you’ll need it in the next minute.
• Don’t forget to stun with Hammer of Justice when others are in the area to finish off mobs.
• Use Hammer of Wrath if you’re not on an active heal. It’s fast and will finish of a caster.

That’s all for now, kids. If you like this feature, drop us a line and we’ll keep them coming. There is always time for a little PvP, as long as the queue isn’t too long.