Advice for a terrible WoW player

The Game Room
1

I noticed that I’ve mentioned a few times in recent threads that I suck at playing Warcraft. I mean, I love the game, and I’ve played since before the first expansion. I have 40-odd characters created over the last couple of years; some on Oceania servers for when I’m in Japan, and my kids have a few too, so I’m at the 50 character maximum for my account. I have my favourite add-ons (settled on Auctioneer, SmartBuff, Cartographer and Quest Helper), and I have my favourite button layouts.

But, I can’t help feel that I’m missing something. I’m absolutely dreadful at PvP. I mean, I can’t kill anyone. Once, my level 40 hunter chased and killed a level 40 druid that was popping lower level toons when I showed up by chance. Other than that one, brief, shining victory, I’m pretty sure that I’ve lost every single PvP situation I’ve been in. There are yellow quests that I just cannot do solo, despite the lack of a [Group] indicator from the game, usually involving multiple mobs (like my level 40 warrior who just got killed twice trying to fetch Otto and Captain [mumble]'s heads…).

I’ve been a techie for 20+ years. I have taught university courses in programming, published peer-reviewed papers in linguistics and computer science, been a regular guest on Tech TV and been the inventor on two patents. And yet, I cannot follow WoW discussions. I mean, I understand the concepts of tanking, DPS, mob control, etc. (and, given D&D’s adoption of that Warcraft paradigm for 4th Edition, I would have had to for my weekly RPG group anyway). But, Ye Gods and Little Fishes, what on Earth (or Azeroth) are people babbling about in chat? I feel like I want to write an add-on that just spell-checks and translates all of the abbreviations to something that I can understand. Even in SDMB threads, my eyes glaze over as I try to follow what is being said. “LFG RFC” – okay, that’s “looking for a group for Ragefire Chasm” (right?). Anything more complex than that, or “WTB/WTS,” and I’m foundering.

I should note too that I have never maxed out a toon’s level. My highest level character is currently my Death Knight, at 62. The next highest level character I have is a level 56 hunter. I have never been on a raid, and I’ve only dabbled in battlegrounds (see my comments on my PvP skills). Man, do I suck. :dubious:

So.

What am I doing wrong? Where’s the tutorial that’s NOT written for people fluent in Warcraftese that will tell me what I’m missing? Even the websites like WoWWiki and Thotbot are written for people who know what all the terms mean (although WoWWiki does a credible job of defining some of them).

2

I was terrible at PvP for a long time too. Basically, you need to keep plugging away at it until you’ve earned enough honor to get some gear with resilience on it. Then you’ll last much longer and find it to be a lot more fun.

For what it’s worth, WTS = Want To Sell and WTB = Want To Buy.

3

Oh, you are NOT the only one. I absolutely suck at PVP. I hate to group. I haven’t been in most of the dungeons. I have only one character over lvl 60. I belong to no guilds. I’m mediocre at playing the AH, at best. I have alt-itis. I am very close to the toon cap (I’ve actually hit it something like 4 times).

But I LOVE the game! I more or less treat it like a single-player game with occasional multi-player features (the capital cities and the AH, mostly). I love the new achievements. I love trying to max out reputation. I love exploring the professions and the classes and the race/class combinations.

I’m obviously a VERY casual player, but I don’t have a problem with that.

4

Join a guild, get vent (ventrilo, voice chat), and talk to people there. /1 and /2 (general, and trade) are usually full of drunks and/or teenagers making “funny” comments.

I also strongly recommend reading elitistjerks.com forums. While they don’t go into the cultural references, they do explain the acronyms they’re using. They also are aggresively moderated, so you don’t get the bad english, lol crap, or stupidity you find on other sites.

Find someone to show you the ropes; that helps too. WoW is social game, and everyone I know in it is willing to help other people out (especially teaching people).

If you have specific questions, the WoW community on the Dope is pretty helpfull too. :slight_smile:

ETA: I don’t PvP much on my main, I loathe the arenas, but I do belong to a raiding guild, and raid 4+ nights a week.

5

I never PVP. It’s for twitchy kids. I’ll never be as quick as them so why bother?

Party strategy’s much more fun.

6

Can you provide a link to your armory page? We could be able to see what gear you have and where you’ve spent your talent points. That would lead to us being able to suggest improvements.

As for BGs, you really want to stay out of there except when you’re at the top end of the bracket…or you will get killed early and often. The brackets cap at level 19, 29, 39, 49, etc. I dunno how they are handling 70+ at the moment.

If you take that 62 DK into Alterac Valley, you’ll be fighting against geared level 70s (I think–could be level 69s at the top if they changed the bracket). Either way, the high levels will massacre you. Even when you are at the top of your bracket, people in PVP gear will beat you early and often.

You want to get in with a group of players…and just run with them in the BGs. You’ll be able to gang up on the other side, and your teamates should support you with heals or help you fight…you do the same for them.

7

Oh yes, I meant to mention dungeons. I have only been into a few of the dungeons, as well. The few times I’ve been, people seem to expect that I’ll know what the hell I’m doing, etc. I now always tell people I group with that I’m a noob, even though I’ve been playing the game for hundreds of hours, and you’d think I’d know better. With my higher level characters, I just say “sorry, I’ve got to leave in five minutes” and then hearth and log out. :o

8

Sorry for my bad wording. I meant to imply that those are actually acronyms I know… it’s anything more complicated than that that leaves me confused.

9

Depends on the class you play. Warlocks pwn at PVP even if they do nothing but target somebody and roll their foreheads across the keyboard. My mage is fully PVP geared…combination of s2-s4 gear, and I generally do pretty well. My fingers aren’t very fast either…but the mage compensates for that, because I don’t have to be very dexterous to blow people up with PoM Pyro/Arcane Blast/Fire Blast.

Rogues? Oh yeah…they are pretty twitchy…but my little 19 twink does decently even without me being fast on the keyboard.

10

Here’s a link to my Burning Dog Legion main. :slight_smile: My hunter/56 seems to be unavailable on the Armory at the moment for some reason, but here’s my death knight/62 on the same server, for what it’s worth.

11

This means armor sets 2 to 4, yes? Except WoWWiki doesn’t list an armor set 4… just 1 through 3.

12

Which, perhaps oddly, is why I don’t PvP on my main. I had more fun in BGs with my healadin then I ever did with the lock – though world pvp with the lock is highly amusing… I never release until at least one of my assailents drops from the DoTs.

ETA: S3 - S4 means season 3 or season 4 arena gear, which is PvP gear from playing the arenas (bleh). PvE armor is described by tier: I haven’t had much time to play so my lock is still in full T6, but my guild has started getting T7.

13

Your Burning Dog hunter is wearing a lot of gear you’ve outgrown. That bow is a level 24 bow, and you’re level 35. You’ll do more damage with an upgrade to something closer to your own level. The pants are level 18. The boots look like they’re the ones from WSG in the 19 bracket. You need to constantly upgrade your armor, trying to wear stuff as close to your present level as possible.

Remember, as a hunter, you do not want to melee anything. You are a ranged damage dealer. You send in your pet, and then shoot. Ideally, you want to shoot whatever mob or player your pet is attacking until it dies. Always keep opponents, whether they are mobs or players, far enough away so you can shoot. You won’t be doing enough damage with the sword to matter, anyway. As a hunter, your primary use for melee weapons is whatever stat bonus they provide. Your primary stat is agility, then probably stamina followed by strength.

Someone else will need to weigh in on the talent spec you’ve chosen. BM is supposed to be good for a hunter…my hunter is 29 with a BM spec, but I have not played him since they changed the talents around, so I’m not up to speed on hunter specs.

Another good place for tips is the WoW forums at Allakazham. Lots of good info in the class specific forums there.

14

First off, WoW PvP blows IMHO. It’s very twitchy, and if your latency is high, that can screw you over big time. Lower is always better, but you’ll notice the difference at much lower numbers in PvP than in PvE.

If your gear is under your level, as Oak suggests, that’ll screw you in PvP too. There are twinks at the top of every level bracket (twink=toon that’s subsidized by a higher level toon to get them the best gear) that are built purely for PvP. There are many players who play mainly for the PvP aspect of the game, and they will have the best gear. PvE will suffer as well, but not nearly as much since the mobs are designed to be relatively easy to kill.

Are you grouping much? A lot of players are asses, but aside from helping you get better gear through instancing, you can also sometimes get advice from other players who notice you doing something wrong. Never discount advice from someone who isn’t your class, since many players have multiple toons and the one they’re one may not be the one they play most. You’ll get crap advice too, but as you learn you’ll be able to tell if the advice is good or not.

15

Cerowyn, are you looking to get better at PvP, or PvE?

Better gear will help either situation, so I would focus on leveling till you hit the cap, then worry about obtaining quality gear. If you want the best PvE gear, you will have to join a top notch guild, but you can get very good gear simply by running battlegrounds nonstop and then arena. Make sure your talent point setup fits your style of play, and get enough money to keep yourself stocked with potions (including buffs), and get the best enchants and gems for your gear.

Other than that, the single biggest piece of advice that helped me in PvP is key binding. Keep all your most frequently used moves tied to individual keys that you can easily reach, with everything else in a quickly accessible toolbar slot. Keep all your toolbars full of useful moves/food/buffs/etc., but learn to use the keyboard to execute your best moves.

16

You definitely need a better bow. Never skimp on your character’s main weapon. Consider buying scopes & crafted shot too (or making them, if you’ve got an engineer somewhere).

After your weapon, always wear the best armor you can with helpful stats (for melee) or +spell damage if you’re a caster. That hat is doing nothing for you. It might be worth leveling up to 39, farming leather in STV and working on your leatherworking skills. The best armor doesn’t start rolling in until after 40, but you could be doing lots better for yourself here.

Beast Mastery is good versus monsters, but put your next five points in Endurance Training to improve your health & your pet’s health. All those talents which boost both of you are good investments. If you’re serious about going for a PvP build, you might consider swapping over into the Marksman tree for skills that boost your critical hit rating.

What sort of pet are you using? If you have a Ferocity Pet, you might consider switching to Tenacity. Just for longevity. I’m a boar fan, personally.

I’m not very good at PvP either but then I’m an altoholic too. The only way to get better is to practice and focus on one alt until you have it down. As a hunter, you’ll also want to learn to juggle giving orders to your pet as well as yourself.

Give yourself a goal for your character - you can earn a free epic mount by participating in thirty battles each in WSG, AB and, uh, the other one I always forget. Alterac Valley. Just grit your teeth and jump in and if nothing else - [url=http://www.wowwiki.com/PvP_mount]free swift pony[/urll]! You don’t even have to win the battles, all you need to do to earn a mark is to participate.

17

nuts, that url is correct but I guess the lack of an extension confused the code.

Anyway, good luck, Cerowyn. It may seem weird to practice a video game but if you focus on one set of skills you can get a real rhythm going.

18

You’re me only better. The highest level I’ve ever gotten was 57. I don’t even think about PvP. I don’t want people messing with me while I’m trying to do my thing.

Dungeons I do once I’m well out leveled. I do it for gold because I like to gear up. I find that fun. You know what else I find fun? Hunters. People complain that they are overpowered. I suppose if you PvP they may be. But they are great for soloing.

I also have nutunitis. I see no reason why I should keep playing a toon when I’m tired of it. WoW is fun, not work.

19

That’s cool, how do you do that? I’d like to start a “take a look at me” thread just to see how everyone is geared. Maybe do a 'how to best equip via auction house or dungeon or raiding" kinda thing.

20

It’s automatic. Search for yourself on the Armory. :slight_smile: