So, now that you have your friends/enemies together for your ultimate Arena team that you intend to get that Gladiator title on, what’s next? You have to get the rating up through beating all the people that may or may not have class advantage or gear advantage on you. It isn’t easy and not everyone can achieve Gladiator range, but with some small adjustments and a little extra work, anything is possible! Below, I will summarize what I believe to be the 3 most overlooked factors that drag people’s rating down and what you can improve on.

Play When You’re Refreshed

This is probably the most overlooked factor when playing games. Athletes execute better when they’re well rested and properly dieting. Dancers’ performances will improve with adequate rest. Even Chess and Poker players put a large focus on their body’s well being. These seem like very common knowledge to most people, but, for some reason, most of World of Warcraft players often over look this vital factor.

You can have them play for hours and practice certain lineups or technique for days, but when it comes to getting enough rest and ensuring a good night’s sleep, just about every WoW player fails to do so. Personally, I can perform at the top 5 level when I have enough rest, eat well and I’m mentally prepared. However, if I had a bad night of rest, or I’m extremely exhausted from work, I tend to perform at top 25 level, or worse.

So don’t overlook a good night’s rest and eat your veggies!

Communicate

Even today, I’m still amazed at stories about people being “Vent shy” and talking too little during matches. I can’t stress enough about the importance of communication during an Arena game. Instead of relying on pure reaction and reflexes, communicating the situation gives you and your partner a better head’s up of what’s to come. For example, even a top Priest will have lag and human reaction time when it comes to dispelling an important spell such as Blessing of Protection, or a CC spell like Polymorph. If they’re good, it’ll take about 1 second between lag and reaction speed; but, if they’re just mediocre, it could take up to 3 seconds! That’s usually enough time to make or break a match depending on the situation and can greatly hinder your team’s performance.

With communication, this problem can be easily overcome even by the mediocre players. Simply letting your Priest know as you see yourself getting Feared or Polymorphed, can easily give the Priest a head start on reaction speed. The Priest can then start spamming Dispel even prior to the Fear or Polymorph, and you will have a devastating CC dispelled in less than 0.5 seconds. Similarly, this also applies to offensive dispelling. Simply calling out Blessing of Protection prior to bursting or Blessing of Freedom, when you know it will be coming, can ensure you finish that last 10% life before the next heal, or land the all important Hamstring or Crippling Shiv and continue the lockdown.

Another advantage of effective communication is that it will save you many unwarranted deaths. This was covered in-depth in an article previously posted regarding LoS (Line of Sight). By letting your healer know – or, as the healer — letting the focused target know which direction to maneuver, will not only save you from LoSing your own healer, but also effectively setup a position that will lead to perfect counter attacks.

Don’t be shy; talk on Ventrillo (or any other voice communication program) and make the most use out of this wonderful feature!

Strategize In-depth and Discuss Your Loses

WoW PvP is centered on strategizing and making the most of what you’re given. A good game plan can often overcome other things like reaction speed, class disadvantage and even gear. When people converse about the ultimate discussion on gear > skill or skill > gear, skill is mostly recognized as how well you have strategize and plan ahead. Arena play takes this to another level. All the tricks and traps each Arena stage offers, and the synergy possibilities between each class, it is wise to plan ahead of each battle before blindly charging in to the fury.

Figuring out how each of you will deal with each class and combo ahead of time will allow you to quickly execute your strategies the moment you realize which classes you’re up against. By being first to attack, you gain the initiative, and, in most cases, control the tempo of the match. Whether you be a rush down team or an outlast team, it’s very important to set the pace of the fight from the moment you engage the opposing team. Be very careful to use a valid strategy while planning. Something like, “I will @#$% on that Warrior because I’m just a damn good Rogue!” is not considered a valid strategy.

Unfortunately, not every fight will end the way it was planned. Sometimes it could be a simple mistake or a brain fart, while other times it may be 8k chain crits or 5 Nightfall procs. Either way, there will always be times we lose a game, even when we had things all planned out ahead of time. For moments like these, everyone should resist the urge to play the blame game as well as the rationalization game. All too often, I would hear people blame a lost on other players, luck or other excuses (I.E. I had a bad day, so I’m playing bad – shouldn’t be playing in first place). Try to focus on the real reason why you lost, and what you or your partner can do to overcome it (Cycloned through burst, try to save trinket for the 6 second Cyclone, or interrupt it during burst). There is no reason to blindly queue back up until you figure out the reason of your lose. There will be no guarantee of a win on the following match after talking over things. But, it will be the best way to improve your chances, and eventually conquer your hard matches.

Plan ahead, and even when your plan fails, take a step back and look deep in to the case before charging off again.

Don’t forget, if you have any questions on lineup strategies, our “Ask Ziss!” forum is always there to help! Also on a side note, we got a new commentary video from an incredible Druid player Hafu, be sure to check it out.

Tags: General · Articles

11 Responses to “Three Simple Ways to Improve Your Arena Rating”

1. Phate Says:
   October 29th, 2007 at 2:26 am

   “Sometimes it could be a simple mistake or a brain fart”…..
   ……
   ……
   ……
   brain fart?!?!?!

2. nevermore Says:
   October 29th, 2007 at 4:23 am

   This kind of content is really a breath of fresh air. I am SO tired of hearing how PvP is all about gear, rather than skill and strategy.

   The strategic depth in 5v5 especially is very impressive.

3. Skel Says:
   October 29th, 2007 at 5:11 am

   #1 way to improve. Get gear.

4. Corvus Says:
   October 29th, 2007 at 7:23 am

   quite surprising that the maybe best arena druid player (or at least one of the best) is a girl.

   hope she continues making warrior/druid commentaries.

   sexy voice you have, hafu.

5. Dajay Says:
   October 29th, 2007 at 8:16 am

   Very interesting as always.

   Once everybody pays the entry fee to top PvP (the gear), it’s all about players and their mindset, their “skill”.

6. ripley Says:
   October 29th, 2007 at 3:28 pm

   i play a hunter MM with an spriest + frost mage can u plz give us any suggestions on strategies.

   currently we sheep a target chain silence a 2nd and dps focus the 3rd. doesnt always work though haha

   Ziss: Please post under forums for questions and answers.

7. Nevaevastop Says:
   October 31st, 2007 at 10:19 am

   For one thing, warrior druid is an easily beaten combination. Rogue druid is by far better line up.
   Also, rogue/lock teams don’t exist in high ratings so this druid hafu is not one of the best druids, because they clearly cannot be in the high ratings playing 2vs2 against a lock/rogue combo. nuff said.

8. Nevaevastop Says:
   October 31st, 2007 at 3:21 pm

   Take back what I said about hafu’s high rating, but I stand with the combinations.

9. Doc Says:
   November 5th, 2007 at 3:14 am

   Was just read through and saw #8. Neilyo was #1 in Bg9 2v2s with a Mut rogue and an SL lock. So I fail to see your logic on how Lock/Rogue is not a good 2v2 combo and how it doesn’t exist in high end ratings. Of course Healer/Lock and Priest or Druid/Rogue would be just as good but if you can’t find a “qualified” healer that combo would definitely work out.

   P.S. The video was great, keep up the good work.

10. Jory Says:
    November 8th, 2007 at 2:56 am

    I agree with the first one especially. It also matters when you’ve played a good chunk of games back to back. I think for the sake of your sanity(and rating) you gotta know when to stop queuing and just take a break, especially when you face the same counter lineup and lose half a dozen in a row.

    I know I start to get frustrated and it just compounds the issue.

11. flameon Says:
    January 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 am

    I agree with the knowing when to stop. My 5v5 team went on a spree of 8-2 from the start of a 1500 rating. Lots of communication good cc and well timed interupts can lead to that 5v4 advantage you try to burn through at the beginning. We kept playing and started to get a little cocky. Lost a game and as we lost we talked less and less on vent and didn’t time ccs with sheep over taking a fear and so on. When your on a streak of the losing the best thing to do is get up, throw some water on your face and talk to your team about how they feel.

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