Top 5 Tips to Improve at WoW Arena PvP

This video covers my top 5 tips to improve at WoW World of Warcraft Arena pvp in shadowlands! These are the things I plan to do/focus on to help take my game to the next level!

Develop Overall Game Knowledge

Developing overall game knowledge takes time, but is one of the most important things in becoming a proficient World of Warcraft PvP player. WoW Arena PvP requires a high level of “macro” knowledge, understanding things like your team comps strengths/weakness, that of your enemy’s comp, what spells to kick, when to trade your offensive and defensive cooldowns, how to respond when your opponent activates their cooldowns, etc. Getting high levels of game knowledge comes from a combination of doing research and practical experience. Addons can help you get the information you need easily, so I personally recommend installing GladiusEx and BigDebuffs. The amount of information these two addons give you about your opponents is insane, so you’ll be poised to try and make the best decisions you can in a given moment!

Communication

Communication is key to winning in WoW PvP, as arena is first and foremost a team game. Talking to your team about strategies before a game, discussing CC chains, kick order/priority, swaps, status of offensive and defensive cooldowns, as well as these things for enemies are crucial to your team’s success. In general, being more vocal about what’s going on is better than not being vocal enough.

Find Consistent Teammates

Trying to find consistent teammates is one of the harder things about WoW arena, but important to long-term success as you can learn together as a team and build synergy. Typically, I try to find people in group finder at the start of the season, and as I meet people I work well with, I add them to my Battlenet friends list. In time, you build up a pool of people you know you synergize well with and you can pull from that group of people when you’re looking to play! You can also find plenty of reddit/forums threads, and discord servers with people looking to gear up! Optimally, you’ll find 1 or 2 people who have a similar goals and a time schedule to you so you can play with them as often as possible!

Attitude

In my opinion, this is the biggest factor when it comes to improving at world of warcraft arena PvP. I go in depth with this section in the video above and give some examples about bad teammates I’ve had in the past. The following bullet points though summarize what I discussed in the video:

• Dont leave after 1 game. Give your teammate(s) time to learn your playstyle. If after a few games you’re noticing large, glaring mistakes and misplays, then just leave and try and find someone else. My personal rule of thumb for number of games is 3-5, as I feel I can get a grip on someone’s playstyle, strengths and weaknesses within that timeframe.
• Dont be a jerk. Under no circumstances do you freak out at someone and then they suddenly go from being the worst PvPer to a Blizzcon champion. If you notice something, point it out constructively, and if you decide to not play with that team anymore, just leave peacefully.
• Look internally instead of externally. Instead of blaming someone else for a loss, look at what you could have done to help prevent it and mistakes you may have made that game.
• You can only control YOUR actions! Focus on your play first. Try to almost never say “there was nothing i could do.” Inn many situations, if you go back and watch your games if you recorded them, you’ll notice many holes in your gameplay, positional errors, kick mistakes, class specific mistakes, etc. I always try and analyze my own gameplay before that of others. You can give your teammates criticisms of course, but try to always do it in a constructive manner.

Practice and Review Gameplay

The biggest thing about getting better at frankly anything is just to practice. The more time you put in playing, the better you’ll get over time. But when you play, play with the goal to learn, have fun, and be better than you were yesterday! If you practice with that mindset, the rating will come in time. Personally, I cannot recommend recording your own gameplay enough. Being able to watch yourself back is an extremely eye-opening experience, and you notice a lot more watching your own gameplay than when you’re actively playing. I’ve personally had some of my BIGGEST rating spikes the day after I reviewed arena footage. You notice errors you make, and things you consistently mess up on, so the next time you play you keep those mistakes in the back of your mind and dont repeat them. I personally use Open Broadcasting Software to record my gameplay, but you can also use NVIDIA shadowplay as well if you have an NVIDIA graphics card.