A few months ago, I discovered that I enjoy PvP. I found healing in Alterac Valley analagous to healing in a raid where 10+ people refuse to use Threat Meter. With the introduction of Arenas, I’ve shifted more and more Talent points into PvP-oriented abilities and have worked hard to build a set of Healing gear with an emphasis on Stamina, Resilience, and Armor (for when I switch to bear). I recently respecced from a Restoration/Balance healing spec to a 3-Tree PvP spec which includes Balance talents for insta-cast root and interruption prevention and Feral Talents for increased armor and ROCKET BEAR:

I have no idea how I have played this game for two years without this ability. It is an endless source of amusement to send my large, furry bear behind rocketing toward an unsuspecting … whatever. Or rocketing away from a Warrior or Rogue intent upon my ursine demise.

I’m currently actively playing on two Arena teams, a 2v2 with my husband called The Honeymooners and a 5v5 that we only just joined last night (whose name I’ll refrain from mentioning in case they decide we don’t work out). I’m using our 2v2 team to learn new tactics against different classes and also to learn how to take losses in stride. Because while I exhilirate in the thrill of victory, I have a tendency to throw pens when in the agony of defeat. To counteract this, I’m experimenting with a new form of positive reinforcement. Here are the rules:

1. Never look at your rating change. It hurts more to feel yourself sliding into decline. It’s okay to look at your rating at the start and the finish of your Arena play.
2. After each match, regardless of the outcome, take 2-3 minutes to discuss with your partner what went right and what went wrong. Consider alternate strategies that might work better.
3. Don’t try to “go out on a winning streak.” Winning one final game won’t counteract the 5 losses you suffered trying to win one to make yourself feel better.
4. After every loss, you must slam half a shot of tequila (with salt and lime). This gives you something to be excited about and helps take the sting away from the loss.

Rule #4 above made Arena play so much more enjoyable yesterday. Obviously, this rule doesn’t go for our 5v5 play as it can sometimes result in the following:

Yesterday we finished up at 1623 on our 2v2 team, which is about 20 points higher than where we started. We had a string of three losses at the end but I was able to convince my husband that Rule #3 was a good one to follow, especially when used in conjunction with Rule #4. Oh, and Rule #4 made it easy to fall asleep last night.

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• Forum Watch: Garrthos’ and Chariet’s Resto Arena Guides
• A Tree in Owl’s Feathers
• Why Horde Always Wins at PvP

Mookysolo of Ner’zhul is still working hard to provide an in-depth guide to Arena PvP as a Restoration-specced druid. Recent additions and revisions to this version of his guide include:

• Revised ratings for “good”, “better”, and “best” items by slot
• A complete rewrite of the suggested talent builds section
• A new “suggested setup” section that details which of the farmable/questable/craftable/droppable items are worth the most effort to obtain, in order to “[minimize] time spent of PvE and [maximize] time spent on PvP.”

Related Posts

• Forum Watch: Mookysolo’s Resto PvP Guide
• Forum Watch: Garrthos’ and Chariet’s Resto Arena Guides
• Community Watch or “Yet More Blogroll Additions”

Garrthos of Gul’dan recently posted a guide to Arena competition as a Restoration-specced Druid. Unlike more comprehensive guides which touch on a little of everything, Garrthos’ giude details strategies for dealing with individual classes and specs, including the dreaded Warrior/Paladin 2v2 combo, resulting in a guide full of recommendations that should be easy to apply.

Here’s a snippet of his summary on fighting Rogues:

Rogue is all about timing against a druid. The only thing a rogue is thinking when he fights a resto druid is “shift out of bear, shift out of bear”. So remember that. the only time you should be out of bear form is if you’re ready to get a massive amount of dps laid into you, or you have the rogue effectively CC’d. When I’m in the arena with my warrior partner, I start out stealthed, so, I’ll usually see the rogue before he does me (because he has to stunlock my warrior off his healer).

Chariet of Sisters of Elune has created a guide to Restoration Arena play with more general suggestions (i.e., not tailored for specific classes) to help best leverage forms, even when specced for healing. Here’s a sample of what she’s written:

They will not know what to expect from you until you shift into your Tauren/Night Elf form, and they can glance at your armor. (Sometimes armor gives away the spec. Feral gear looks scary, resto gear looks pretty, etc). If you have a scary-looking feral mask, wear it! Make them think you’re feral so they will underestimate your lovely heals. (Example: I have a mask from a recent raid that is a dark hood and it makes my eyes glow red. Looks very feral!)

An additional reference for PvPing as a Druid against specific classesis available through WoWWiki.com: How to kill a… (Druid).

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• Peesontrees’ Resto Arena Guide
• Armor Values on PvP Gear
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Good news from the European Forums today; according to Community Manager Vaneras, the development staff is aware of the poor performance of Druids in Arena and are “looking into” possible improvements:

The Druid class is somewhat under-represented in the Arenas, which there of course are various reasons for. The developers are looking into the Druids overall performance in the Arenas, so I would say that it is too soon to give up on your Druid just yet.

I personally enjoy PvPing on my Druid, but I play mostly in the battlegrounds.

Vaneras made a similar post in the European Rogue forums today, responding in much greater detail to a post which laid out several of the perceived issues with Rogue Arena viability.

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• Vaneras: Gettin’ Sticky with It
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One of the techniques demonstrated by Gronzy in his Restoration Druid Arena Video was the use of Cyclone spam. Assuming your chosen target won’t or can’t use his trinket to dispel the effect, you can effectively lock a caster out of play for 10.5 seconds (6 + 3 + 1.5). This sort of efficiency takes some time to intuit since you have to begin your recast before the target has broken free, and can easily lock you out of play for the duration. However, you can set up a macro that will allow you to divert your attention to other tasks (such as healing your teammates) rather than solely keeping an opponent incapacitated:

/clearfocus [button:2]

/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]

/clearfocus [target=focus,noexists]

/focus [target=focus,noexists]

/cast [target=focus] Cyclone

The first time you target someone and press this button, it will set them as a focus. What this means is that you can perform actions upon them without having to switch back to them as your target, allowing you to target someone else for another purpose. Pressing this button again will recyclone your original target (the one you set focus to) without changing your current target. To change the person with whom your button is associated, target someone else and right click the button (this refers to the “/clearfocus [button:2]” line). Your focus will automatically clear should your focus die or leave your arena instance.

This macro (adapted from one of those listed at WoWWiki.com) can greatly enhance a Restoration druid’s efforts to assist her team with crowd control while not hindering her ability to heal teammates (or herself).

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