First of all I would like to point out that he can’t shift to flight form while in combat(just so there is no confusion about that, a lot of people seem forget about the ‘Not usable in combat’ bit).
Secondly, you have to realize that paladins are very vulnerable to kiting, not just from balance druids but from all the ranged classes, there is no way around this really.
Now, the most important thing you need to remember when fighting a druid is to use Judgement of Justice. I’m going to say it again in big letters to make sure you don’t forget it Use Judgement of Justice!
While this won’t drop the druid below normal movement speed it will keep him from using travel form and if you have Pursuit of Justice you will always be faster than the druid as long as JoJ is up.
Also you need to remember that Entangling Roots have a 1.5 second cast time so if you keep an eye on the enemy castbar you see it coming and spam Cleanse so it gets dispelled immediately or even cast Hand of Freedom on yourself before the root lands, keep an eye out for Nature’s Grasp as well, it’s a buff he can cast on himself that will root the next enemy that hit him in melee, but it has a 1 minute cooldown.
Other than that I can’t think of much else you can do other than getting close enough for a Hammer of Justice and then unloading everything you’ve got while he is stunned, and hit him with Hand of Reckoning to keep him in combat if it looks like he is trying to get away.
What is “kiting”? I’ve seen this term thrown around a lot but never seen it actually defined.
I thought about that, but my experience with Hammer of Justice is that it seems to reset my (auto)attack timer, at least when I’ve used it on NPCs. That is, I cast it, the mob gets stunned, and then my toon proceeds to stand there doing nothing, maybe hitting the mob once before it becomes “unstunned”. 6-second stun vs. 3.50 weapon speed and all. My other attacks (Crusader Strike and Divine Storm have cooldowns of 6 and 10 seconds respectively, and my Judgements all have 8-second CDs, so depending on when I last used each one before casting HoJ, the stun does little more than make the target stop hitting me for 6 seconds. (Also, what exactly is the point of its “Interrupts spellcasting for 3 seconds” in addition to stunning for 6 seconds? Doesn’t the very act of “stunning” also effectively interrupt spellcasting? So I don’t get how it’s beneficial to “interrupt” spellcasting for a span of time only half the duration of the stun.)
Does Repentance work against player characters? (Not that it would do any good in PvP, since any damage breaks the effect.)
Oooh boy. You don’t PvP often, do you? Unfortunately, I can’t offer you really in-depth advice, as I have not played the game in a long time, and played a rogue before, anyway. However, I can answer some of the general, non-class specific questions.
Kiting is the act of keeping the opponent at a certain distance through stunning, slowing, disorienting, etc while dealing damage. This is almost always, but not necessarily, done by ranged classes. An example of a melee class doing some kiting is a rogue against a warrior (TBC and pre-TBC, at least. I’m not sure if it’s done anymore). The rogue would crippling poison the warrior and apply some bleeds while the warrior is stunned, then jump back to between 5-8 yards until crippling poison or the bleeds have almost ended, and do the same thing again.
After you Hammer of Justive someone, you can apply judgment of justice to stop him from running away effectively, and then just unload all of your cooldowns and melee attacks. If you’re prot-specced, then use SoR and HoR. You can even use this time to heal, as your opponent won’t be able to interrupt or otherwise cancel your spells. Use Hand of Freedom to negate slows and snares. I believe Paladins have very good mana efficiency, so you may be able to simply out-mana your opponent.
The silence part is for NPCs: many mobs or bosses are immune to stuns, but they can still be silenced. The silence part does NOT work on players. If it did, then it would still be useful, as you can (for example) stun a mage while he’s casting frostbolt, and even if he blinks out of it he won’t be able to cast another frost spell for 3 seconds.
Repentance can be used in PvP. Incapacitates are extremely useful in PvP: they allow you to get within range of the target, heal, or wait for your cooldowns to come back up so you can apply some burst damage as soon as they come out of Repentance.
ETA: You can also apply judgment of command when the target is stunned, as it does extra damage then.
The definition of “in combat” for purposes of PvPing druids shifting into flight form is rather different than that for PvE combat. I haven’t done it myself but I’m pretty sure they just need a little distance and to not be actively being hurt by their target in order to get to shift.
First off “kiting” is where you hit someone and then run out of range and then hit them again and then run out of range and then hit them again and so on. That’s the simple explanation someone can explain it better than I.
It is a good way for range attackers to kill melee types or elite bosses by basically staying out of melee range.
Secondly here is a screenshot of my alliance guilds new tabard, but be forewarned the guild name has “death” in it and there is a skull and crossbones on the tabard so it is very scary looking.
Thirdly I so so so want that jeweled encrusted fiashing pole.
And lastly speaking of how awesome murlocs are I was browsing at my comic book shop on the way home from work and they had this so I had to buy it. It’s like the law or something.
EDIT: and while I was typing and gathering links thankfully someone came along and explained kiting a lot better than me
That’s possibly the most distinguished-looking male gnome I’ve ever seen. Usually they look like Billy Barty and Hoggle from Labyrinth had unholy sexual congress and produced a deformed child.
Oh, and that figurine is perfect. I can almost hear them mrglglglrglglging.
Thank you jayjay. I made that gnome just after I started growing a beard four years ago and I decided the next toon I made was going to have a beard and that was the biggest one for gnomes.
The detail on the murloc figurine is really good for being plastic and it was only $18 so I just had to get it. Sadly the one I was there for, Vash the Stampede, they did not have but I say it is a worthwhile substitute.
Let me put it this way: I have now voluntarily PvPed exactly twice, outside of battlegrounds. And the first time was at lvl 60 against a lvl 45 hunter. (That was just for shits & giggles - he and his buddies flagged me down while I was riding toward the portal in the Blasted Lands and asked me to help them with some big dragon. The dragon proceeded to not spawn, and not spawn, and the hunter challenged me out of boredom while we waited.)
Oh, wait, make that three times. I and two other Alliance players chased a belf paladin into the Deeprun Tram during the Fire Festival and whacked her there. Not really a fair fight, that, though.
My only other PvP has been “involuntary”, i.e. having a brain fart and attempting resurrect an Alliance player who had just been killed by a guard outside Orgrimmar while a pair of lvl 70+ Hordies were standing nearby, and while I was wearing my holiday gear instead of my armor and weapon; getting jumped and stun-locked to death by a pair of until-that-moment stealthed 70+ Horde rogues after desecrating the fire at the Crossroads, etc.
So yeah, I’m not big on PvP. It just doesn’t interest me much, so I haven’t looked into the strategies. In fact, the only reason I even attacked this druid was to just make him go away. When it became clear that I wasn’t even going to be able to catch him to hit him I said, “Screw this” and disengaged. So when he killed me, it was while I was walking away with my back to him.
Hey, I’ll check that out
Thanks for the other tips!
On the subject of PvP, I just came across this absolutely hilarious WoW video:
Here’s my gnome. Same beard, but I took him to the stylist and got human-style bangs. He looks like a miniature lumberjack aside from the obvious mage gear.
One thing I’m kinda curious about … It seems that once my toons hit lvl 30 or so (the whole three that have gotten that far), the duel requests almost completely disappear. But when I’m on a lowbie alt I get bombarded with challenges. I wonder if it’s just because in the lowbie zones there are a lot of new players who need to get it out of their system, or if it’s just that they made the toons for BGs but just aren’t high-level enough yet to do BGs, and they can’t wait. (Though if it’s the latter, I wonder why they’re loafing about town challenging everybody instead of getting out there and questing/grinding so they can reach a level where they can enter BGs …)
In pvp you leave combat after 5 seconds of not doing anything/having anything done to you, which is why I suggested you use Hand of Reckoning to keep him in comabat.
Kiting is the fine art of keeping out of your opponents reach while doing Bad Stuff™ to him.
HoJ has a 10y range so you don’t need to be in melee range to use it and once you’ve hit him with he won’t be moving giving you a chance to get into melee range. Pvp is all about burst damage, which is something Retadins got plenty of, Judgment + Divine Storm + Crusader Strike + a melee hit should take a considerable chunk out of his hp, especially if you use Avenging Wrath first(at least it does when it happens to me!)
Yes, it does, and it’s very useful in pvp. Part as a way to interrupt you opponents spellcasting, but mainly because it has a 20y range and stops him from doing anything giving you a chance to get into melee range.
Keep in mind that it will not work on a druid in cat, bear or travel form since they are Beasts.
Yep. You drop out of PVP combat mode in 5 seconds of not attacking or being attacked, at which point you can do all the normal out of combat things like mounting, rezzing, drinking, etc.
Of course, for druids, “mounting” involves flight form, which is instant cast. If you’re doing world PVP with a druid in a place where flight is enabled, you have to stay glued on them the entire time or you simply will not kill them, ever. While in flight form they’re immune to virtually anything that could stop them and, of course, extremely fast. Just one of the many advantages that druids get when it comes to PVP.
That explains it, then. This guy would root me while he was in moonkin form, blast me a couple times while I was casting cleanse to break the roots (and/or dealing with the swarm of trees on me, though I was mostly ignoring those since they weren’t doing much damage), then shift straight to cat form to run away followed by shifting straight from that to flight form before I could get on him.
On a somewhat related note … these dailies are, as I mentioned, “PvP dailies”. That is, accepting the quests flags me for PvP and maintains that status as long as the quests remain in my log (and for 5 minutes after completing them). Same thing with the daily at the lumber mill right below Amberpine Lodge. I’ve noticed that after I kill one of the PvP-flagged NPCs, my portrait continues to show me as “in combat” for several seconds after the fight is over and I’ve looted the corpse. By contrast, in PvE I show “out of combat” almost immediately after the kill. In some cases in these PvP vs NPC fights, I’ve gone almost a full minute still showing “in combat” after a kill. This is especially annoying when I’ve gotten the last kill I needed for the quest, and I can’t mount up to fly back to the questgiver because I’m still “in combat” (but I don’t seem to actually be targeted by anything). Is this just a glitch, or is this something intentional?
I recently started a Druid. Instead of a ranged weapon slot, there’s a relic slot. I looked for relics at the Horde AH… nothing. I checked the game manual… nothing. I checked the strategy guide… nothing. So can anyone please tell me what a relic is, where can I get one, what the deal is? Please?
Relics are special items, and the specific term varies depending on the class. Druids get Idols, for instance. They’re a very late-game item; the only two available below level 60 drop off bosses in Blackrock Depths and Spire. Don’t worry about them for now, and you’ll start seeing them when you get into Outland.
Use Judgement of Justice!
