CHAPTER 2: HOW TO INCREASE YOUR BURST

HOW TO INCREASE BURST DAMAGE THE EASY WAY INTRO

In this video, you're going to learn five steps for making your burst damage stronger in PvP. Here I am on my Resto Druid being attacked by five players at once, and as you can see, my HP is literally barely moving.

Are some of them undergeared? Probably, but there's five of them.

But then you look at Palamore's burst video. Players like Venruki are able to deal almost a million damage in literally just a few seconds, and sometimes even less than that, which is pretty crazy.

Now, of course, Palamore's video might have included a few gimmicks, but how can one player be doing more burst than five players combined? Today, we're going to find out in five simple steps, which anyone can do, no matter what spec you play.

These five steps are going to achieve two goals. Number one, we want to front load as much damage as possible to pack the biggest punch in the shortest period of time.

And number two, we want to use our burst as often as we can, but that doesn't necessarily mean using it on cooldown. As we'll find out, if you're using your burst cooldowns every time they're up, then you could be griefing yourself by doing suboptimal or inefficient damage.

STEP 1: POOL RESOURCES

In order to do truly lethal damage, we need to pool some resources first. This involves checking two boxes.

The first is making sure we have enough of our secondary resource to dump damage. This could be Holy Power, Energy, Rage, and so on.

Then, we need to have our hardest-hitting ability ready. The problem we need to avoid is pressing our damage cooldown and then wasting time generating.

This makes our damage feel slow and allows our opponents more time to react. Instead, by pooling our secondary resource and having our hardest-hitting ability ready, we not only front-load our damage, but allow our burst window to carry momentum since we'll still have extra gas in the tank.

During this preparation stage, there's also two things you can do depending on your role. Casters might want to bait out interrupts during this time if you need to hard-cast your burst later on.

Now, while it may seem counterintuitive, getting kicked isn't always a bad thing, especially if it's on a separate spell school from your damage.

Now, of course, juking is always preferred since it's going to give you precog, but no matter what, having kicks out of the way first is going to give you the strongest burst window. The melee equivalent of this would be to wait until your opponent has burned some mobility, while also having your mobility ready.

Doing so will make it harder for anyone to escape your damage later on. Max damage is a good way to get rid of your opponent's damage.

Maximizing your uptime during your burst is key, so try not to skip this step. If you're playing with a class more reliant on dots, you need to take the additional step to make sure you have full dots active on as many targets within reason, especially if you have any empowered dots actively rolling.

Now, that doesn't mean you have to have every target dotted in the arena. More is obviously better here, but avoid delaying damage because you haven't dotted a pet or a minion.

And keep in mind that you no longer have to have a target dotted in the arena, and keep in mind that you no longer have to have a target dotted in the arena, and keep in mind that you no longer have to have a target dotted in the arena, and keep in mind that you no longer have to worry about snapshotting for 99% of spells.

This means any applied dots will automatically be buffed by any damage increases, so you don't have to reapply them once your damage buffs are active. Now at this point, you might be wondering about Trinket and Enchant Procs.

While these definitely will increase your burst, they're not something that you should actively play around. Remember, one of our goals will be to use our burst as often as we can.

So if you're sitting there waiting for the stars to drop, So if you're sitting there waiting for the stars to drop, So if you're sitting there waiting for the stars to drop, to a line, you could miss out on multiple kill windows over the course of a longer game.

So to quickly recap this whole step one, before you press any burst cooldowns, make sure to do a bit of prep work in advance to front load as much damage as you can while being able to carry momentum for as long as possible.

STEP 2: ESTABLISH CONTROL

Our next step is establishing control. And this part might seem optional, but it's highly recommended no matter what spec you play.

The reason we want to lock down targets before pressing our CDs is because we don't want the ability for our opponents to react. In a world where everyone is using the same weak auras package to blast air horns, players are quick to press a defensive the moment a cooldowns pop.

The best and most reliable way to prevent this is with control. Because in 90% of cases players aren't actually dying to damage alone, but instead dying to damage they can't react to.

Your number one priority is to stun the kill target, followed by a CC on the healer at the same time if it's possible. This is the most effective and guaranteed way to make your burst count.

If you have no way of CCing the healer, it's totally fine, but ensure your kill target is locked down. If you have no way of CCing the healer, it's totally fine, but ensure your kill target is locked down.

It's all too common for players to neglect CC, and as a result, their opponents can easily trade defensives and totally negate what would otherwise be a lethal kill window. Just look at this warrior here, who stuns after Colossus Smash, allowing the hunter time to preemptively use their shield wall.

This is why in almost every situation, it's best to lead with your stun first, to make preemptive cooldown changes. This will put your cooldown trading much less likely.

STEP 3: PRESS CDS AND STACK MODIFIERS

But now we're ready to move on to step three, which is to actually press your CD and stack modifiers. Ever since Shadowlands, the PvP metagame has been defined by stacking damage modifiers, and players like Trill have become experts in finding ways to manipulate modifiers to deal massive damage.

The way this works is very simple. Buffs that increase damage will have increased effects when stacked.

Warbreaker and Avatar both increase damage and essentially double dip into each other. By now you probably know this, but there are hidden modifiers for every spec that allow you to squeeze out extra damage.

For instance, Balanced Druids can cancel their current Eclipse with Incarn, allowing them to get the Nature's Grace buff during their cooldown window.

While this extra 10% haste might not seem like much on paper, it does have a noticeable impact, allowing them to squeeze out more Star Surfer, while also making Dots tick faster, leading to more Full Moon procs.

This is why Demon Hunters will typically I-beam before their burst sequence, because by doing so, they gain an additional modifier. And if you're playing against a Demon Hunter, this means you should be looking out for I-beam, since it typically means more burst is gonna be coming.

STEP 4: DUMP EVERYTHING QUICKLY

But now we move into step 4, where we'll dump as much damage as we can in the shortest window. We want to make sure that once the target is stunned, we can drop their HP as much as possible before it ends.

This starts by prioritizing the hardest hitting ability that we have, which is why we made sure in step 1 to make sure it was available before we entered our burst window. If you're a caster, you should also think about spell travel time, which can be abused to make multiple sources of damage line up together.

This is typically done by sequencing casted spells with instant abilities, which causes both abilities to land at the same time. Here we can see a Frost Mage press Frost Bomb before channeling Ray of Frost, and by doing so, the damage is going to overlap, all while being modified by Winter's Chill.

If you aren't taking full advantage of spell travel times, then that could be missing out on significant burst damage in your rotation. This is one of the most important things to consider when you're trying to get a frost mage.

This is one of the most important things to consider when you're trying to get a frost mage. This is one of the most important things to consider when you're trying to get a frost mage.

This is one of the most important things to consider when you're trying to get a frost mage. Why Frost Mages like Venruki are able to deal so much damage, while other mages might struggle to gain pressure even when allowed to freecast.

While melee can abuse spell travel times in the same way, there are clever tricks most melee can do to make more damage happen in a shorter window. Survival Hunters, for instance, can lead with Explosive Shot, timing the damage to explode in the middle of their burst.

Survival Hunters, for instance, can lead with Explosive Shot, timing the damage to explode in the middle of their burst.

STEP 5: EXTRA CREDIT

At this point, you might be thinking your job is done, but there's still more work to be done here. For some extra credit, there's a few more steps we can take to make our kills more guaranteed.

First, if we have any extra CC for the healer, now's going to be a good time to use it. Many players make the mistake of failing to follow up CC on the healer, prioritizing damage globals instead, thinking one extra second of DPS is going to be more valuable than a few seconds of CC.

The reason this is a mistake is because most healers have strong instant cast heals coming out of CC, which can counter multiple seconds of DPS in a single global.

So unless your kill is guaranteed without adding to the CC chain, you should aim to keep the healer locked down for as long as possible during your burst window. And if no CC is ready, even something as simple as an interrupt is going to make your burst feel twice as strong.

While this is happening, your kill target might pop a defensive, or even get an external from their healer, in which case the best course of action is going to be to immediately swap targets, unless it's guaranteed that you're going to kill through.

This is a common mistake that we see even outside of burst windows, where players attack into defensive cooldowns, which reduces potential damage output considerably and makes it easier for the enemy healer to recover.

Instead, you should get into the habit of carrying momentum with your cooldowns, swapping quickly on defensive cooldowns, and by doing so, not only do you get more value out of your CDs, but you can potentially open up multiple pressure points by forcing even more defensives in the process.

But what happens if nobody dies during your burst? Does that mean you failed?

Well, as long as you forced a major defensive cooldown, no. The more CDs you can force, the more successful your burst window was.

If you look down at your omnibar and see that you forced major defensives, then you should be happy. Now you can use this information to select who to burst in the future.

And once your burst window is over, your goal is to live until your next window. Now this requires good defensive play, which is what allows you to truly maximize your kill windows every game.