Druid PvP guide

Started by Vengeance, January 27, 2008, 09:35:41 AM

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Vengeance

Id thought Id make something like this, kinda like Tris's warrior guide. As I have nothing to do atm, this is better then nothing  :)
Feral
Spec-
The common pvp spec for this will be something like http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/druid/talents.html?01000000000000000000050023213232210533125105503001000000000000
The 3 points in Thick Hide can be dropped to be put in Feral Instinct, if wished. You'll want Nature's Grasp so that if things turn out bad you can use that in whatever form your in and make a quick escape, which as a druid shouldn't be too hard anyways, but its always good to play safe. Nurturing Instinct currently sucks for anything really, 50% of STR to healing isn't worth the 2 points. Everything else is self-explanatory.
Gear-
The druid season sets are all good, the S3 one being best for a feral melee, being the worst for a feral hybrid type of player. Your main stat is going to be crit and close up AP (after resilience and stamina of course). Doing arenas, you SHOULD be healing as a feral, though dont try to act like a specced one and take chances, and most of all, avoid casting whenever possible, since your human form is the squishiest of all forms. Stack lifebloom and what not, but keep running around so you dont get beat on that easily. Conserve mana, most of all. If you have a silencer on you, feign Starfire and that should do the trick. As for the weapons, I'd suggest either getting the S1 maul for 27k honor and 40...AV marks?, or the [item]Staff of Natural Fury[/item], which is a great pvp toy, pricey but good. [item]Earthwarden[/item] is also a good alternative, as it increases survivability by a good amount.
This is a guide of how to beat other classes as a feral.
Warrior-
Warriors are one of the easier classes to beat, if your about equally geared. If you get the jump on him, start with pounce and mangle, then shred, then back away from his melee range to regen energy. As soon as you get a decent amount, rake and then rip, then instantly switch to bear form. From there, you'll want to stack lacerate on him and also keep mangle on at all times. The key to warriors is obviously keeping bleeds and whatever dot you can on them, as armor does not migitate them. AVOID FERAL CHARGE AT ALL TIMES!! This will only get them quite amount of a health and rage. Bash should also be avoided, as it does the same, but if you find yourself getting low, Bash and then Cyclone, heal, and then switch back to bear form. Fighting a warrior with equivalent gear in cat form is like surrendering the fight. If they get the jump on you, rake if your in cat form then switch to bear form and proceed to do the above.
Warlock-
Fighting a warlock as a feral is an uphill battle. You'll need your trinket here, and prey for the jump on him and some lucky crits/OOM procs. Start with pounce, mangle, then proceed to shred from there. If you get one or two OOM procs, maim after your cycle, then start with a shred if mangle is still active, otherwise mangle again. At this point he  will fear you (most likely, at least) or death coil you, and you have to immediatly trinket the first fear, since the proceeding fears will last 5 second, and the third 3 seconds (I believe...). If he death coils you, dont trinket, its a waste. Proceed to burst as much damage as possible on him. Switch to bear form when your ~40-50% health, and from there just keep bursting him. Use bash, otherwise there isnt much to do. If your lucky you MIGHT be able to use feral charge on his fear cast if you back away fast enough, but most of the time your just wasting dps time.
A common SL/SL warlock...well, its like trying to demolish a mountain with your hands.
Affliction warlocks will work the same and the strat here.
Destro locks are usually your lucky day, since they die abnormally die fast  ;).
Rogue-
If you get the jump on him, use the common mangle-shred-shred. Run back a little from him and regen energy, then apply rake to him to avoid him vanishing by using blind on you and whatnot. If he isnt hitting too hard, you should be able to easily finish him off in cat form, otherwise use bear form after your starved for energy in cat. Use lacerate to 5 stacks. MOST rogues will use evasion at this point, try your hardest to get in back of them (hard, you'll usually have crippling poison on you), but its not that important as you should be able to take their burst for as long as evasion is up. Keep faire fire and lacerate up at all times and you should be good. If they vanish with the intent of getting a quick cheap shot on you, immediately use demo shout, this will take them out of stealth. If they get the jump on you, trinket the CS and bear form it right away. If things turn bad, bash after evasion and run with travel form. A good rogue will sprint, so your looking just to get out of melee range and cyclone him, then heal. Before this, make sure you have lacerate on him, as this could cause a vanish.
Priest-
Fighting a discipline priest will be very time consuming, but you dont have a large chance of dying to one. The key to these are either MASSIVE burst, or use your common pounce mange ect, maim, then run and restealth, doing this and running him oom. If theres more then one player with a disc priest around, keep shredding them and using maim at points where they'll have to use a flash heal/greater heal. Bear form also has interrupts, better ones in fact. Again though, feral charge most likely wont be of much use as their flash heals heal for alot and are also 1.5 second casts. Any other spell you should use feral charge. Bash should be used at either when hes decently low or when hes casting something that shouldnt be cast  :P
A shadow priest, you have to use basically the same strat as the disc priest. If your getting the jump, use ravage, mangle, shred, FB, then bear form. Trinket the fears, and feral charge the mindflays if you happen to get too far from him. Bash the mind blast, then burst him as fast as possible.
A holy priest...well...these are VERY squishy  :D.
Hunter-
If you get the jump, youll want to lock him down in one place as much as possible, so pounce then maim after its done. Trinket only the freezing traps, and stay in bear form after your first cat form cycle. Use feral charge as much as possible, and bash when your trapped in place/on top of the frost trap. If their BM, they'll have that 18 second immunity to all snares. Switch out of bear form whenever he cripples you, and pop the bear rage regen. While chasing after him keep attacking his pet with auto attack, maul/lacerate if you have 80+ rage as youll want to save mangle and your rage for a burst attack on the hunter. Without the jump, youll have to chase after him in cat form preferably, burst him a little and go bear form while your still near him and bash. Let him run away a little after bash then feral charge. LOSing as much as possible helps nicely, as you can pop barkskin and cast a regrowth/HT and a few more HOTs before continuing the fight. If your feeling up to it, abuse LOS and kill his pet while he cant touch you. This should help quite a bit if their BM, and if not just simply to let you heal. When their dead, cry because you'll have to rebuff those buffs they never knew they dispelled  :'(.
Shaman-
Enhancement shamans should be a fairly easy kill for ferals, especially if you get the jump. Use pounce ect ect and keep jumping around him to avoid his attacks as much as possible. Bear form on an average enhancement shaman wont work as welll as bear form on other classes since they have spell based attacks, such as Earthshock and such, but if your low go bear form and prey for the best.
Resto shamans will almost always have high armor, so you'll want to apply rake to him and continue burst. Use maim whenever needed and go bear form when hes 40-50% health and use your interrupts. Note that with luck, resto shamans will not be able to heal through your burst if your timing your interrupts right, which should be timed on any healing spell hes using, most importantly his most high healing wave (sorry, cant recall the name...).
Elemental shamans have INSANELY HIGH BURST capabilities. Getting the jump, you'll want to use maim at the end of your combo, then switch to bear form as soon as your done. Stay in back of them at all times so as too avoid 1 or 2 castings and use all the burst you got on him before he does that to you.
Paladin-
Holy paladins will have high armor and will be easily able to heal through what lousy burst you can output on their high armor. The key here is to lock them down with EVERY interrupt you have available, such as pounce, maim, feral charge, bash, and most importantly, cyclone when you gave everything you had, as this spell will motivate you with Paladin tears (delicious!), and not going all out burst. These interrupt MUST be timed right else youll be running around doing nothing but waiting for him to get the chance to /lol at you. After using maim go bear form and run back a little, so as to use feral charge on his imminent heal, then bash his next one, then switch to cat form after bash and get a maim off asap. Getting them to bubble as early as possible is also good. When they do so, stop attack and get away from them and whatever spells they'll have available, and restealth. Rinse and repeat and you should have a dead paladin, as they are the most cast dependant healers, and your interrupts should do the job. Note that any mistakes will result in a much longer battle so...practice alot with this.
Retribution paladins are also capable of VERY high burst, but not nearing the Elemental Shaman mark. Stack bleeds on these just like a warrior and switch to bear form. Just like ench shammies this will have a lesser effect on Rets but will effectively reduce a good amount of their damage.
Mage-
Frost mages have snares that will save them during the fight...luckily you can shift out of them, but you should only be doing this every so often on their Frost(Ice?) Armor and every time they do a Frost Nova. Doing this in cat form may or may not shorten the battle, but youll have more of a chance and less risks in bear form. Start off in cat with a ravage, then a shred if they didnt frost nova/blink away. Once their frost nova is used, switch to bear form ( or switch out and then into bear form if thats the case) and run to them and burst. If they blink, your going to want to use feral charge now. Burst them while their still and bash them immediately if they frost nova, so you can burst them without switching out. When you know their blink/FN is up, go cat form and kill them, as they should be pretty low by now. If they happen to Ice Block during the fight, go mid between their blink range and themselves, in case they'll decide not to blink or if they do, you should be able to easily catch them in cat form and kill them.
Fire mages have about the same burst damage as a ret pally, in most cases a little higher. Cat form ravage them then use mangle shred ect until your seeing him using instants. At that point go bear form and burst him down. Fire mages have low survivability, so this should be a fairly easy fight just as long as it doesnt last too long.
Arcane mages should be about as easy as fire mages, except with lower burst. Interrupt their arcane missiles, but put burst before that, unless your looking to survive with low health.
POM Pyro mages are something else Im mentioning, as they CAN kill you very fast, and so theres only one option, just like rogues...survive their initial burst with barkskin up and in bear form, interrupting what you can, and their as good as dead.
Note that the frost mage FN/blink strat should be applied to all mage as they can do the same, albeit with less efficiency.
Druid-
Fighting another Feral is obviously gear dependant, you'll either stay in cat form and kill him quick, or go bear form if he outgears you and stack bleed and burst as much as possible. If their smart theyll go bear form too, and then your dead. If your completely outgeared you really cant do anything, but if only by a small margin you can rely on skill. Going against a cat, take advantage of our retarded melee range and keep on your outer ranges of melee. Demo roar, bleed in bear form, mangle and shred whenever possible in cat form. The point here is to keep running around in circles (as with every melee class usually) so you can avoid some or alot of their damage. Keep them from getting behind you though, because shred is a killer if it crits.
Resto druids...well, I never found anything hard about them, just getting the jump on them should take away the majority of their health. Sure, this might be an extended fight, but stay in cat form as the only thing you'll really do in bear form in bash, or feral charging them if they run. These run oom faster then any other healing class I believe, so it wont be as long running as other healing fights. Note that their heals can cover sustained damage, but their greatest weakness is their lack of healing through focused burst.
Boomkin druids is also a gear dependant match, but not as much as a mirror fight. You want to use the common pounce ect and add in rake and rip. After the first rip keep combo points to intterupt starfire and wrath. Bear form is also of use here, with feral charge that you can actually make use of if they decide to starfire. If they run away to heal, feral charge them and bash after the feral charge effect is done, or if they shift out of it. Burst them down and their dead.

Note that prot warriors/pallies arent mentioned. For those just run. Its just not worth the time. Cyclone should be used as an interrupt on all healers when energy/rage starved.
Ferals are ill-equipped to kill healers, lacking any real interrupts that can be used constantly, so killing a healer as feral is one of the hardest things to do.
This is all from my perspective of how to do things, and how I execute them in Battlegrounds, so your welcome to use a different strat if you have one, and maybe share how you roll  :)

un4

You'll have to keep bleeds up on the rogue at all times, otherwise they'll vanish on ya.  Even with a full lacerate, stuns/gouge + blind = stealth.  CloS removes FF.
The most effective strategy that's been used against me is to simply pop bear form and get those annoying HoTs ready.
un4

Vengeance

Restoration
Spec-
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/druid/talents.html?01430000000000000000005023010000000000000005503350031500201351
This is the common druid pvp spec, more so for 2v2/3v3 where we shine, occasionally without the TOL because most of the time its useless so it can be replaced into something else if wanted. Other talents will be explained.
Gear-
Im no expert in resto druid pvp, especially gear, but I can advise stacking stamina and reseliance first and foremost, after that +healing and whatnot. Your best bet is to just grind BGs over and over again till you have 250+ reseliance and more then 9k health self buffed, as this will increase survivability.
Strat-
This isnt about killing things, its about how your going to use your spec's play style. With this spec your a CC monster, and also your HOTs are huge (geared). What your going to do is simply cast HOTS like no other and spam rejuv/lifebloom on you and your partner, more on whoever is getting focused on.
Melee on you? Psshh, Bear form it up, and feral charge the other opponent! Or even bash the melee on you. Ranged/Caster? Abuse those wonderful pillars so they can cry us rivers. Snares on yeh? Travel form away! Annoying healer healing the guy whose futilely  trying to kill you? Cyclone and get him to go whine on the forums about it.
With this spec your utilizing all your CC-roots, cyclone, feral charge, bash, hibernate even, pounce, maim, and also playing the part of the extremely mobile healer where half the interrupts have next to no effect on you.
When stunned for a long period of time, your either going to trinket, barkskin, or both, depending on the damage income. The biggest problem with resto healing is that stun locks can kill them quickly, with their lack of armor.
The most effective 2v2 is a resto/MS warrior. Here your going to get your warrior to snare melee on you, so you can effectively run around HOTing with no interference. The key to keeping your mana up is your ability to escape. As a resto druid, your expected to walk into arenas with hillsides of water, so you can use them when your mana is low and you need to get a quick travel form away from anything that might interrupt you.
Anyways, this is about as much as i can explain through words...and let me emphasize the fact im no expert in this  :P

JohnnieRat

Against ret pally... just be bear form and take no damage since we only really have physical damage (we can judge seal of command but since ret's don't roll with any real amount of spell damage it's just there so we can mash more than 1 button). Feral druids are, for me at least, my hardest fight since you don't rely on kiting us (which we can't be) as long as they are smart about not trying to burst DPS us down in cat form.