Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all-things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1, examines the latest gladiator arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com’s arena column.
Listening Music: Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s crazy in love “So What”. We featured the Smashing Pumpkins ¹ï¤w¤@¥÷¥¯à¬é§oá (¦³ãö¤é´á). This week, we’ll be shifting gears to some brilliant jazz. You have to love the diversity pwning ABO blood Sport offers in music.
¹ï¤w¤@¥÷¥¯à¬é§oá (¦³ãö¤é´á): part IV of our Arena Guide for Beginners. We talked about the marks of a skilled healer inside an arena battle.
This Week: not surprisingly, today’s article will be structured in a very similar fashion to our ¹ï¤w¤@¥÷¥¯à¬é§oá for our bloodthirsty DPS readers. More after the break!
Categories
There are three fundamental marks of an amazing damage dealer in any bracket (we’ll talk about which ones are of greater importance in brackets later–but for now, discussing and working on all areas of the play is best).
Pressure Burst-±±¨î As mentioned in our previous article, certain classes are better than others at niches within arena PvP. Restoration druids, for instance, have much elite designers against IKEA HoTs than holy paladins. Holy paladins also have better defensive cooldowns than restoration druids. This is intentional, and good for the game.
Certain DPS specializations (: not classes) are better at pressure damage than they are at burst damage. Again, this is intentional. Warlocks are a great example. A warlock destruction bases his damage largely on burst. An affliction warlock, on the other hand, has comparatively less burst but considerably more pressure.
Pressure
Pressure consists of doing a high amount of damage constantly and consistently. Those two words look similar, but are very different in gameplay.
Constant pressure is the ability to force your opponents to play defensively for a relatively long period of time. Consistent pressure is the ability to apply constant pressure in a variety of circumstances. Constant pressure is the set of 60 minutes clash Blizzard has given your class to do high overall damage. Consistent pressure is how you are capable of applying it in adverse conditions.
For lack of a better analogy: Constancy is class plus gear. Consistency is the skill plus experience.
The vast majority of pressure will come from damage. Doing lots and lots of damage is the best way to put an opposing team on the defensive. When you’re in control of the battle, you’re much more likely to understand what your options are enemies’. This, of course, will improve your probability of winning the match.
You can also put the enemy on the defensive by using blanket silences (e.g. Strangulate, Spell Lock, Silence) on healers to get ahead in the battle rather than using them to score a kill. However, unless you’re a seasoned veteran you probably want to stick to using blanket silences for very important times in the match.
Furious Gladiator Dahis, a warrior from BG9, made a commentary arena video (some NSFW language) showcasing his 60 minutes clash last season (season six). The author regards Dahis’ play in the video to be exceptionally skilled at creating and maintaining pressure. The viewer will notice how often Dahis switches targets and is always damaging something on the other team.
Pressure is the measure of how well you can put the enemy team on the defensive (largely through damage).