CHAPTER 1: PROGRESSION PATH

PROGRESSION PATH INTRO

Welcome to our progression path course for WoW PvP. How in the world do you go from being a new player to climbing all the way up to 2400 and above?

Well, of course, you're going to need to develop some skills, but which ones do you develop? Should you be focusing more on damage, or maybe control, or maybe even defensive play?

The answer to this question is really going to depend on where you're starting from and what your goals are. And in this specific course, we're going to be giving you a solid progression path from 0 all the way up to the highest ratings.

KEY SKILLS IN WOW

Pretend for a moment that you knew absolutely nothing about skateboarding, but for whatever reason you wanted to try a 900 like Tony Hawk. It probably wouldn't end like this.

Just like any skill in life, you have to master the fundamentals before moving on to advanced techniques. The same thing is true in WOW.

The things you need to work on and improve will depend a lot on your current rating. So we're here today to give you the full breakdown on what you should be focusing on right now for every rating bracket.

No matter if you're just starting out or trying to push gladiator and above, be sure to stick around because this one is for you. Starting off, you might be wondering, what are the skills required to play WOW Arena?

We consulted with some veteran players and broke it down into three categories. The fundamentals, advanced techniques, and expert fine tuning.

The fundamentals include character control, doing your rotation, using crowd control, and having an understanding of your offensive and defensive cooldowns. Advanced skills include things like target control, efficient cooldown trading, cross CC, and positioning.

And finally, becoming an expert means being consistent, having a really good understanding of win conditions, and being able to have really accurate predictions of what your opponents are trying to do at any given time.

With that in mind, let's break down what you should be focusing on depending on your current rating in Arena.

THE NOOB BEGINNER

Getting into it, if you're watching this video, then you're probably not in this category, but what if you're a complete noob? We're not talking about low ratings, we mean you just picked up the game and have never played PvP at all.

If that's the case, then you just don't play Arena at all. It won't be worth it.

You won't know what's going on and you won't learn anything useful playing against people who have spent multiple years in Arena. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But seriously, don't play Arena. Focus on controlling your character, get comfortable with your keybinds, and practice your damage or healing in something like dungeons or even battlegrounds to get a feel of how your character interacts with other classes.

COMBATANT & CHALLENGER

But chances are you already know these things and if you are combatant and challenger There are some key things you really need to focus on Going back to our list of WoW skills the fundamentals is where you should be spending most of your time at Ratings up to challenger you are probably aware of these skills But they are likely underdeveloped your damage and healing might only be 60 to 80 percent of what it should be You might be using your CC improperly and you probably aren't using cooldowns at the right time Many players don't realize how far these skills actually go in arena having a solid understanding of your damage rotation and being able to deal Consistently high DPS all game is one of the first things you should aim to improve Using add-ons like details can help you compare your damage breakdowns to others playing your class and can help you diagnose flaws in your global Usage we offer damage and healing courses on our website which can show you how to perform your rotation in arena We also have two general guides breaking down this concept in detail So be sure to check Out low rated low damage and all you need is damage to see more in any case There are multiple ways to learn how to min max your DPS and you can even practice this skill in PvE Of course damage is just one part of PvP and your control is probably the second most important fundamental CC can't really be practiced anywhere else but arena But your goal should be learning how your class can set up CC chains on the enemy healer Many classes have bread-and-butter CC combos that make it easier to land your spells in critical moments Mages have DB sheep hunters have stun trap and warlocks have pain and suffering Jokes aside learning how your control spells work is one thing but you can take it a step further by playing around diminishing returns Use add-ons like gladius to track important CC DRs on enemy players Then try and land your spells when enemy targets are off diminishing returns This can be even more effective when you combine your CC with burst damage usually with your offensive cooldowns instead of randomly popping your Offenses and hoping to score a gimmicky Kill prioritize using your CDs while you have control over the enemy team Randomly pressing your offensives and trying to one-shot might be good enough to land kills at lower ratings But the closer you get to duelist the better players will become at using their own defensive cooldowns Which is the final part of improvement knowing when to use defensive cooldowns one problem We see at lower ratings is that players don't really know how to use defensives properly They might know that they should press a defensive when they're dying But they don't really plan their CD usage around enemy Offenses your current health value is often less important than the offensive cooldowns being used by the enemy team You can be at 100% HP But die a few seconds later if you don't use defensives the moment the enemy team uses their CDs and on the flip side Just because you are low on HP doesn't mean you need to burn a defensive if the enemy team doesn't have their cooldowns up There is obviously a bit of nuance to every situation But this is why these concepts are part of the fundamentals They will be used in every single arena game you play and should be the primary thing you focus on As a combatant or challenger And if you focus on maximizing your rotation knowing how and when to crowd control And having an understanding of cooldowns you can honestly get up to duelist ratings without needing to master any of our advanced techniques So what are the next steps you need to take?

Let's find out

THE ROAD TO GLADIATOR

Now it's time to get our hands dirty and look at some advanced skills needed to rank up in WoW. Starting with re-rolling immediately to Wind Walker Monk.

We're joking, of course. But back on topic, once you have a decent understanding of the basics, you are fully capable of getting rival ratings.

You are able to win most of your games, but get easily crushed by some comps. Chances are you probably have an idea of some of the advanced skills needed in Arena, and without wasting any more time, here they are.

Target selection, efficient cooldown trading, team-wide cross-cc, and positioning are all parts of the advanced skills needed to win Arenas at higher ratings.

Target selection is impossible to cover in one short section, since there are so many combinations of matchups and situations that affect who you should be attacking in Arena, and it can vary patch by patch. In any case, we cover some of its key concepts in our video about WoW's basic strategy.

Knowing who to target is more or less a matter of trial and error. If you can manage to play the same comp or comp, you will eventually get a better understanding of who you should be attacking during the game.

But of course, your opponents will be attacking you too, which is where our second advanced skill kicks in, cooldown rotation. You see, it's not just about surviving one wave of offensive pushes from the enemy team, but instead budgeting the correct amount of defensives as a team so you can survive subsequent attacks.

One of the biggest problems we see in lower rated gameplay is that players use too many or too few defensives to block enemy attacks. Using too few usually results in a lot of damage, but if you're not able to do that, then you're not going to be able to survive.

This usually results in an instant loss. While using too many means they might not have enough to survive the next wave of cooldowns.

Coordinating defensive cooldowns as a team is an advanced skill required for duelist or gladiator ratings. During your games, you need to be discussing who will be using CDs on future kill setups to make sure that cooldowns aren't overlapped.

One of the best ways to coordinate this is with the add-on called Omni CD, which will display your team's cooldowns next to their party frames. And speaking of playing with your team, the next advanced skill on your path to duelist is Cross CC.

This is a combo that you can use to kill your team. This is a concept you probably already know by now, but is one that even the best players mess up from time to time.

Cross CC means using your team's crowd control spells on multiple targets at the same time, giving you a 3v1 advantage and putting enormous pressure on the enemy team.

Just like defensive cooldown trading, this is best accomplished with clear communication and takes as little as saying 3, 2, 1 in Discord to coordinate instant CC.

Some comps like RMP require really precise control in order to be played at their full potential, but even outside of RMP, Cross CC is a really good way to coordinate instant CC. Cross CC can have huge gains for the majority of Shadowlands comps.

Players like Hansel and Woz have mastered this skill and is one of the biggest reasons why they have had so much success on their respective classes. Representing the final advanced skill is positioning, which is something we covered extensively in recent guides for every role in Arena.

Positioning is admittedly the most abstract concept to master since it depends on so many different variables throughout the Arena game, and if we are being perfectly honest, there are very few players who have truly mastered it at the highest level.

That doesn't mean you can't master it, but instead you should constantly remind yourself of positioning basics throughout the game. If you are a DPS, you should prioritize positioning based on dealing maximum damage and landing control while also being in line of sight of your healer.

And as a healer, your positioning should generally prioritize avoiding CC and interrupts while also being able to kite away from enemy swaps. So let's just recap everything we've covered so far.

If you are a combatant or challenger and looking to push into rival, your main focus should be on the basic skills you will use at every rating bracket. If you are a rival and looking to push duelist and beyond, you should still work on your fundamentals but also incorporate some of these advanced skills.

As a duelist, you probably have already mastered your fundamentals, so grinding advanced skills should be your primary focus on your road to gladiator. But what lies beyond that?

Let's see.

BECOMING AN EXPERT

If you've ever wondered what is truly required for high gladiator and rank 1 ratings, this is it. If you are a gladiator level player, you definitely have your fundamentals in order, and chances are you've mastered most of your advanced skills.

What lies beyond are two things, consistency and the ability to predict the future. Consistency is fairly easy to understand, but people really don't value how important it actually is.

You see, the skill difference between a duelist and gladiator is actually pretty small, and the difference between glad and your average rank 1 is even smaller.

Even the best players in the world can be beat at low MMR, and we sometimes see this in twitch clips where your favorite streamer gets beat up by someone hundreds of rating below them. But why is the duelist player not able to get rank 1?

A lot of it has to deal with consistency. Duelist and gladiator level players tend to have huge fluctuations on how well they perform game to game.

One game they might be performing at 95% allowing them to outplay R1 players, but other games they might only perform at 70% of their potential. Rank 1 and tournament players on the other hand.

Rank 1 and tournament players on the other hand have a higher and more consistent baseline and are able to play at 90% of their potential for the majority of games. But it isn't just this consistency that separates them from the competition.

They are also able to predict the future. Whoa man slow down skill capped are they wizards or something?

No not really, they're just nerds in computer chairs. But seriously, rank 1 players have such a deep understanding of the game that they know exactly what the enemy team wants to do at any given time.

Although this comparison is overused even by us. WoW is a lot like chess at the highest level.

You aren't just playing the current board state, but you also need to be thinking about future board states as well. One key example of this in high level WoW is pre-kiting enemy attacks, which we covered extensively in a recent video.

For a TLDR version, pro players don't just react to enemy attacks while they happen, but instead they react to them before they happen by using cooldowns and positioning to delay enemy setups. This also happens on the offensive side, though in a slightly different way.

Instead of just pressing go after go on the same time. This is a very common thing in the game.

It's a very common thing in the game. It's a very common thing in the game.

It's a very common thing in the game. It's a very common thing in the game.

It's a very common thing in the game. Rank 1 teams are able to identify multiple win conditions even before they are actually apparent.

We highly suggest watching WoW's stream RMP because his team is able to demonstrate this in their ability to exploit key defensive gaps in the enemy team. This is most apparent when they play against cleaves as their kill target is different from game to game.

IMPROVEMENT RECAP

As a final recap, here are all the skills you should be focusing on depending on your current rating. There is one thing we need to stress however.

If you are a combatant, you really shouldn't focus on advanced or expert skills because they really won't help you at all. Instead, develop the skills within your own tier.

If you manage to do this, we guarantee you will see meaningful improvement. Anyway, that wraps up today's guide.

We hope you learned something and we wish you the best of luck in your Q session.