CHAPTER 1: UNDERSTANDING MAPS

LINE OF SIGHT INTRO

In your head right now, we want you to think about the best things you can do to climb in WoW PvP. Most of you are probably thinking do more damage or land more CC.

This is all good advice, but we're guessing most of you forgot one massively important thing. It's positioning, and more importantly how it changes based on each map.

This is something that many people overlook, because honestly it's insanely difficult to learn on your own, especially now in solo shuffle where it seems like your partners are exploring the map like they're playing f***ing Minecraft.

But here's the thing, even if you think the key to ranking up in PvP is to do more damage or land more CC, the good news is that good positioning allows you to do both of those things even better, and today we will explain why.

We will guide you through different map types, showing you how your positioning can make or break the game. So if you want to start climbing then make sure to follow along closely, because once you begin to understand how each map works, we guarantee your rating will start to climb.

PLAYING GOALIE

First though, we need to cover the most fundamental rule which will help us understand every arena map. If you play DPS, one of your top priorities is playing goalie for your healer.

But what does that exactly mean? Let's find out.

Okay, so here's your healer on any imaginary map, and around them is a radius which allows them to, well, heal based on the range of their spells. As a DPS, you want to be in your healer's radius as often as possible.

Of course, there are some things that complicate this. The first is enemy players, who in many cases will be trying to push into your healer, which can be dangerous.

If this enemy player is a ranged DPS, they will have their own radius that represents their threat zone, which they can use to harass your healer with CC or interrupts. This is why it's your job to be a gatekeeper to your healer.

Your goal is to not let enemy DPS stay in your healer's radius uncontested. You don't want your healer to get harassed for free.

NEUTRAL MAP POSITIONING

With that in mind, let's move on to neutral map positioning, which is best represented by Nagrand Arena. Now at this point some of you might be wondering, how is Nagrand neutral?

Is it because the map is a perfect circle with 4 equally spaced pillars? Well kind of, except for the fact that the pillars aren't perfectly square, but instead are slightly disjointed towards each starting room.

As a result, the distance between pillars across the map is much longer than the distance between pillars on the same side. This means the midfield is wider, which is a massive benefit to most caster DPS who want to dominate this open space.

If melee DPS want to contest the ranged in mid, it's generally pretty safe since they will have easy access to almost any pillar. And since melee want tight spaces with easy access to LOS, these small sections behind the pillars give melee DPS exactly what they want.

This balance of an open midfield combined with small skirmish sections behind each pillar are what make Nagrand neutral. But remember, as a DPS.

You are wanting to play goalie for your healer, so let's see how that would work. Let's start by splitting Nagrand down the middle.

Most of the time the map is played lengthwise, with each healer standing near pillars on opposite ends of the map. By positioning near a pillar, each healer gets access to most of the midfield, while also being able to heal targets who are using the pillar on the same side of the map.

Playing on the inside of the pillar is ideal as a healer, since it gives the widest viewing angle to center stage compared to the outside, where the pillar itself can block off most healing angles. In any case.

This is what allows healers to safely heal and avoid CC. Even if a mage has your healer in their radius they will be able to quickly LOS if needed without needing to move too far.

This is why it is dangerous to push deep into the opposite end of the map when there is a ranged DPS on the enemy team, since it means you are now out of your healers radius, and in order to stay in your range, your healer will then need to push into the midfield, which puts them in the threat zone of any caster.

Now this doesn't mean you should never push into the enemy team as a DPS, since there will be times when doing so can swing momentum or even convert. But that's not the point.

If you have defensive CDs available, or have adequate hots currently active, pushing into the back line can be safe. And to be even safer, anyone on your team could CC any midfield opponents, which can allow your healer to cross.

But if you decide to do so, be aware that your healer is potentially vulnerable to any CC if they are forced to push into the midfield. Being aggressive doesn't come for free.

As a healer, this situation obviously feels bad too. In a perfect world you would never have to chase your DPS across the map.

This is why you should try and save any CC avoidance tools. Like shadow war death, nullifying shroud, or grounding totem in order to cross the map to a new pillar so you can't be CC'd for free in the midfield.

In many cases, instead of waiting for enemy healers to peek, ranged DPS will push into your healer to initiate crowd control. Some CC chains will be nearly impossible to avoid for your healer, like dragon's breath into sheep.

This is why it's important to think of yourself like a goalie for your healer. As a DPS, you can be an obstacle for the enemy to deal with and prevent your healer from getting CC'd.

From this position, you now have multiple enemy players in your own range. You can now be able to push into the midfield and push into the midfield.

This is why you should be careful when you're trying to get CC'd. You can also be an obstacle for your enemy to get CC'd.

You can also be an obstacle for your enemy to get CC'd. You can also be an obstacle for your enemy to get CC'd.

You can also be an obstacle for your enemy to get CC'd. Of course, games aren't always picture perfect, and there will be times where your healer is out of position in the first place, making themselves vulnerable to crowd control.

In these moments, if you can't stop the initial CC on your healer, you can at least be in a position to stop any follow up CC casts, which will be vital to allow your healer to safely recover.

If you can't possibly stop any of the CC from landing, you should be ready to trade a defensive cooldown if needed, since your healer will be unable to help you. When things get really bad, you might even need to kite.

You can kite in line of sight by yourself, but whenever you do, you should still try and be in your healer's radius. To make this easier as a DPS, you can use friendly nameplates or even raid markers to periodically keep tabs on your healer, even when they are CC'd.

That way, once they leave CC, you can be in a position where they can easily help you recover.

So, just to recap, our goal as a DPS when positioning on a neutral map is not only to be in our healer's range and LOS at all times, but also to be in a place where we can keep as many enemy players in our own radius, which gives us a better chance at playing goalie for our healers. Thanks for watching!

HARASSING ENEMY HEALERS

At this point though, we've discussed how to play in a way that helps your healer, but now let's reverse the pressure. Here we will quiz you to see if you can adjust your gameplay based on what we just learned.

Let's imagine your team has both a melee and a ranged dps, and your warrior is currently being attacked in the center of the map. If the mage stays on the pillar here, then they won't be in any position to pressure the enemy healer, who's currently uncontested on the other side of the map.

But if the mage pushes across the map, there is a chance that the enemy dps will notice, and then immediately swap to deny any cc. But at the same time, your healer will now be the one forced to push in, since your team is now in the back line.

This will then open your healer up to cc, since one of the enemy dps can now gatekeep them from their teammates. So let's restart.

How can our team change their positioning in order to force the enemy healer into the open? Feel free to pause here to think about this carefully.

The answer starts with the positioning of our warrior. Instead of staying in the midfield, which allows the enemy healer to heal for free, they could start moving towards the midfield.

The mage can now move towards their side of the map, dragging the enemy dps out of the center and behind los. While this is happening, the mage can move into the midfield, now acting as a goalie for the enemy healer, preventing them from connecting to their team.

At this point we have perfect triangle positioning for our entire team. Our healer is now in line of sight of everyone, while also being safely away from the enemy dps.

Our warrior has drawn the enemy team far away from their healer, which then allows our mage to be in a position to gatekeep the enemy healer if they need to push in.

If you are the dps under pressure, not only do you have to think about your healer's positioning, but you need to also consider how you can manipulate the enemy dps to move passively away from their healer.

If you can kite in a way that drags the enemy healer into the open, it will then make them more vulnerable to any cc from your partners, which can allow you to reverse pressure.

And again, you ideally want to end up in some form of triangle positioning like this, where your healer is able to safely heal and either dps can play goalie if needed, while also gatekeeping the enemy healer from crossing through the midfield.

CASTER MAPS

With that in mind, let's move on to a caster dominated map and see how large open spaces changes how we play on Tol'Varon Arena. As we previously mentioned, caster DPS love open spaces, and as it turns out, Tol'Varon has a lot of it.

Let's break it down. We will start with the obvious.

This map is huge. In fact, the distance between each pillar is so big that it means you can easily move out of your healer's radius if they are standing on any pillar for LOS.

One thing also worth mentioning is the shape of these pillars. In case you didn't notice, they are perfectly square.

These sharp corners combined with long edges make it harder for healers to avoid CC, even if they are on the pillar. This is especially important to know as a healer when playing against mages, since it makes the shimmer polymorph combo much harder to avoid.

For caster DPS, the shape of the pillars combined with a large open space means a higher chance that the enemy healer will be exposed to CC, making it easier to play the role of gatekeeper. And for melee, this huge open space is a good example of how the caster DPS loves open spaces.

This open space makes it harder to retreat to pillars, since again, the distance is so large. The mid section of the map is just one of the many places that melee can easily get trapped, since there is no convenient way to run for cover, and most people already know this.

If you've played any melee ever, you know how miserable it is to get caught in mid. Many casters already abuse this, but don't take the additional steps to take advantage of other key areas of To'Varon.

What many casters don't realize is that the top corners of the map also provide a unique zoning advantage. Let's see how this would look in a real game.

Let's imagine we are playing a game where we are playing against a melee. Let's say we are playing a wizard cleave as a mage, with a warlock as our partner.

From here, this positioning might seem okay, since we have our standard triangle formation. Unfortunately though, this top pillar is providing the enemy healer with some line of sight.

Initially, we might retreat closer to our healer. This would then force the enemy healer to cross into mid, but now the DPS are very close to our own healer, which is not exactly ideal.

Instead, as the mage, we could begin moving into the top left corner, which pulls the enemy DPS out of their healer's radius. At the same time, our warlock could gatekeep the enemy healer at the top.

This would allow us to get a better position for our enemy healer, while also being in line of both enemy DPS, while our own healer is able to conveniently move toward the starting room, which they could then use as a form of LOS.

We've now achieved an even better form of triangle positioning, with our warlock in a position to play gatekeeper to the enemy healer, while also playing goalie for our own.

Again, whenever you are under pressure, not only do you have to think about your healer's positioning, but also how you can manipulate the enemy into a spot of the map where they become vulnerable.

The top corners of Tol'varan are one of the most under-looked ways in which casters can force melee into undesirable places. The top corners of Tol'varan are one of the most under-looked ways in which casters can force melee into undesirable places.

The top corners of Tol'varan are one of the most underodd ways in which casters can force melee into undesorable places. The top corners of Tol'varan are one of the most under-视annahed positions, which is a common tactic utilized by high-rated players, especially in tournaments.

If you are a melee, you should instantly recognize when this is happening, and if it does, you might need to consider swapping to the other dps who is trying to gatekeep your healer, since going to the corner is an instant death trap. But, what about these bottom corners here, how do they come into play?

If you remember back to our example on Negrand arena, we mentioned the space behind the pillars is beneficial to melee since it enables close quarter combat.

But, on Tol'varan the space behind the pillars is much larger, is not the perfect place to LOS as a melee, it is often better than being in the midfield against a caster cleave. Remember though that the shape of the pillars will still make it harder for your healer to avoid CC.

This can make playing goalie for your healer a challenging task.

As a melee you might need to swap to less desirable targets just to prevent your healer from getting zoned out, otherwise better casters will simply abuse the different areas of the map to lure you into vulnerable positions and punish you for overextending.

In general though this means as a melee you are never 100% safe no matter where you stand on Tol'Varon which makes it easy to understand why this map is routinely counterpicked in tournaments.

MELEE MAPS

Of course though, the pendulum swings the other direction, and there are some maps where the balance has shifted in favor of melee. One of these is Hookpoint Arena, which once again is the most common map counterpicks in AWC tournaments, but why?

Let's use everything we've learned so far to figure it out. We will start with what we already know, that casters love space and melee love close quarters.

Unfortunately for casters, there isn't that much open space on this map whatsoever, and instead there are multiple forms of easily accessible LOS scattered throughout the map.

This includes the two pillars in the center, which are small enough to allow healers to easily duck in and out of LOS when needed, as well as this long corridor in the back of the arena, which provides unique line of sight options.

What this means is that no matter where you are positioned, there is almost always the ability to move quickly behind a pillar. For melee cleaves this is a huge advantage, and gives casters a headache trying to keep up on damage and land CC.

For casters, the best course of action on this map is the least intuitive, and it involves playing hyper aggressive. You have to accept that you will have bad positioning no matter what, so it is better to play offensive.

The only advantage you really have on this map is the top left corner, but even from here it is difficult to lure enemy healers away from line of sight.

Unfortunately for melee, hook point is currently not in the weekly map rotation in solo shuffle arena, and because of this, we are offering a surprise bonus round quickly breaking down another complicated map, Black Rook Hold.

What many players overlook is just how important the center pillar is on this map, and how it fundamentally changes where players should kite. Unlike Tol'Varon, the center pillar here is a pentagon, with smoother corners and shorter edges.

What this means is that both DPS and healers can more reliably use this center pillar for LOS, because its shape makes it easier to avoid casts. This pillar is also unique because it grants unhindered line of sight to the majority of the map.

One of the exceptions being this area on the other side of this small ledge. If you are in the yellow area and your healer is at the pillar, then they won't be able to actually heal you.

This area is yellow since it still is fairly close to the center pillar. The rest of the open space in the middle of the map is relatively safe, and being in this area means you will be in line of sight of your healer while having easy access to LOS when needed.

This makes positioning on Black Rook almost foolproof, with the exception of these rooms on the perimeter of the map. While their entrances might be in line of sight on the center pillar, going deep into the room can be a death trap.

This is one of the biggest problems we see in Solo Shuffle, and we're sure you've experienced it too. If someone on your team decides to run into the center of the room, it makes almost everyone miserable since healers have very limited options to avoid CC.

As a healer, you can use the entrance to this room as micro line of sight, while you heal your team in the midfield, and in many cases, retreating to the room provides an excellent place to drink.

Warlocks and monks might also want to place their ports or gateways into the room, but in general, this is not a place anyone should be for very long. By now it should be obvious why positioning matters, and how easy it is for most players to mess it up.