CHAPTER 3: WHY DAMAGE CARRIES

WHY DAMAGE CARRIES INTRO

Welcome to our next course on maximizing damage in PvP. Now, this course will include entertainment, theory, and practical advice.

We're going to be taking a step back in time to highlight a few players in the past who gained an entire identity built around big damage. The point here is to prove that even in this day and age, when everyone says PvP is all about damage, it is still possible to stand out.

And as promised, our goal isn't simply to entertain you, but to give some practical advice as well. We're going to provide you with multiple ways to hone in on your rotation, developing what we like to call an autopilot rotation, which will have surprising effects on the rest of your gameplay.

DEALING DAMAGE

Pick one. Taking the blue pill means you'll become the best defensive player in existence, pre-kiting every setup and of course using your defensives perfectly.

Taking the red pill will make you deal unrivaled damage, giving you the ability to do a perfect DPS rotation while bursting at the best of times. Which pill do you take?

Well, if you took the red pill, you should probably go check your mailbox in-game, because congratulations, you're now a gladiator. you will not find pills like these at your local pharmacy, as they surprisingly don't exist. I don't think anybody can argue that World of Warcraft's arena is involved, to say the least.

What I mean by this is that there are tons of different skillsets being used at any one point in a game. Take this short clip we've had on in the background.

Already we've seen crowd control, kiting, defensive play, damage, awareness, utility, cooldown usage, and honestly there is even more. Out of all of these though, the one that matters the most when it comes to climbing rating is your damage.

The biggest reason for this is that without damage, the enemy team won't die. While technically that's the case, on a more serious note, there are many valid reasons damage is so important.

Which, don't worry, we'll get into very soon. But first off, let's clear up something you've probably been thinking by this point, something that we hear all the time.

Skill cap, it's Shadowlands, of course you can just do damage and win. Well, to be fair, you're partly true, yes, anybody can get high rating doing big damage.

After all, that's the whole point of this video, but this isn't some trait unique to just recent expansions. Damage has been the driving force for players achieving high ratings, or even tournament victories for that matter, since the introduction of arena.

Let's rewind all the way back to 2009. The main character of our story is a warrior by the name of Veve.

Veve prided himself so much on his damage output and pure zug-zug mentality that he went into every arena game with one singular goal. Doing the most damage possible.

Veve was able to find two partners who shared his ideals, a holy paladin by the name of Zillia and a death knight by the name of Valrath. Together, they formed the Super Gosus.

Their ability to deal high damage led them to not only have a dominant career on ladder, getting them multiple rank 1s over the period, but also lead them to winning the most famed prize in World of Warcraft arena, Blizzcon. And Veve isn't the only example of this over the years.

We've had players like Reels, bonus points if you remember this guy. For those of you who don't, Reels was a rogue, and priest player.

Back then, and even to this day still. Rogue is seen as that spec where the flashier plays you make, the better you are.

Well, Reels took that rogue stigma and turned it on its head. Instead of flashy plays and perfect CC chains, Reels focused on one thing.

You guessed it, high damage. So much so, in fact, that he became a World of Warcraft verb that players used to use back in the day.

You might have heard the phrase, Reelsing him. Well, this is his origin.

And even in current day, we're seeing newer players pop up and make a name for themselves, whether it's PvE players from top guilds venturing into PvP and doing well, or those random players you sometimes see at high ratings that seem to do ridiculous levels of damage when compared to other players the same class.

Which bodes the question, why are you able to get high rating just doing damage in a game as complex as WoW Arena? The answer?

Damage opens up every other aspect of arena and makes it all just so much easier. Most importantly, doing high damage in a game as complex as WoW Arena is a huge step forward.

Most importantly, doing high damage will cause you to have more pressure. Pressure, of course, then opens up kill opportunities.

Then, you've also got how this affects the enemy healer. The more damage you do, the more you'll make the enemy healer have to sweat and try and heal.

This then opens them up to more crowd control, which again, leads to more pressure and kill opportunities. Something we go on about a lot here at Skillcapped is the flow of arena.

You get pressure and then the enemies are forced to respond defensively, and vice versa until there is inevitably a winner. The longer you're at these high points in the arena, the more you'll have to deal with the enemy.

The longer the enemy team is going to have to be forced defensive, and the higher chance you have at winning. To reinforce this point is a situation I think we're all familiar with, and that's being on low health for extended periods of time inside of arena.

You gotta admit, it becomes a lot harder to play properly both offensively and defensively. You can get stuck only playing defensive, then when spending so much of the game on the back foot, it opens up tons of opportunities for mistakes, especially the lower rating that you go.

This can cause enemies to waste defensives, choke, overlap. Opening up the potential to make a plethora of different game losing mistakes, and all coming from your ability to just deal overwhelmingly high damage.

Then on the flip side of things, being this aggressor and doing the most damage you can possibly do can even go on to help you defensively. You probably heard the phrase, the best defense is a good offense.

Well, this is just as true for WoW Arena. If your enemies are constantly under threat, it leaves very little room for them to play offensive, meaning you can potentially just run over the enemy team.

It's for these reasons. We've seen multiple players over the years, and still do to this day, do incredibly well and even dominate arenas simply by doing high damage and bursting well, despite potentially being maybe not the best in some of the other, let's say less important aspects of WoW Arena.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR DAMAGE

Well, it makes sense right? Damage is the answer to climbing rating, but how do you go about improving your damage?

Surprisingly to really learn about doing damage We're going to have to cross the pond and visit our friends the PvE players. Take this with a grain of salt But if you want to learn how to simply deal the most damage possible You're going to learn a lot more from a PvE standpoint at least to begin with.

Don't take this the wrong way But PvE players tend to be a lot more clued up when it comes to damage and how to really maximize it.

Due to this You'll often find new nuances and theory crafts that you can potentially apply to your game in arena After which you'll then want to cross-reference this from a PvP standpoint and see what changes and how your damage differs in a PvP scenario Essentially you want to be getting the best of both worlds.

That's the first step. Next You'll want this rotation and the tricks you've picked up to almost become second nature.

If you've mastered your DPS rotation It's one less thing to be thinking about while you're in the arena. How you can do this is like most things and that's plain and simple practice And this Doesn't have to be inside a PvP.

You can hit target dummies, you can duel, you can kill mobs or even do some raids or PvE content Crazy, right? Whatever works for you.

Just play the game and get used to doing your rotation.

Now for the hardest part You're going to have to take this rotation and apply it to PvP the best you can I'm not going to go too in-depth here as we've got an entire video on why low rated players deal low damage and how to improve but wrapping your head around concepts like not wasting globals and always making sure to at least be hitting something are simple tricks that will just enable you to deal more damage, create more pressure and thus gain more rating.

To help with all this is a tool We know players definitely overlook and it's an add-on you've probably already got on your UI In fact, there are a few different variations. Details, Skada, or Re-count.

Yes. I'm talking about damage meters I mean how else do you see how much or how little damage you're doing?

These add-ons are your best tool at figuring out what you're doing good or bad when it comes to damage. Get used to analyzing this after each game. game, especially if you're facing players of the same spec.

Take a look at their damage breakdown and compare it to yours. Figure out what's the difference maker, so why are you doing more damage than them, or why are they doing more than you?

This can be a great indicator on how the game went, and you can genuinely learn so much from just analyzing your damage meter. Win or lose, everything always comes back to one point.

Damage. And it's always been hands down the most important concept of WoW arena, you just may not have known it.

Well hopefully this video has helped you understand why. Who knew all you needed all this time to get gladiator or even rank 1 was just to go for 99 parses inside of arena.

WHY DAMAGE MATTERS

A while back we made a video with a title that said all you need for gladiator is damage. We might have missed the mark a bit because we were trying to emphasize a super important point and we just packaged it in a relatively confusing way.

But today we're here to redeem ourselves. There was something crucial we were trying to teach in that video but we didn't get the point across.

You see WoW PVP is a complicated game and one of the biggest difficulties is knowing what is the most important thing to improve first. Spoiler alert, it's almost always damage and we're going to tell you why in this video.

We're going to show you how to improve your damage and explain how setting it to autopilot is the key to getting real rating gains. Let's start out with a question that has an answer you might not have been expecting.

Of course everyone knows that damage matters because bigger damage means more pressure, more pressure means forcing more CDs and that means a higher chance of winning, right? While this is superficially correct there's more beneath the surface.

While it's true that having an optimal damage is a good thing, it's also true that having an optimal damage is a bad thing. It's also true that having a good damage rotation will win you more games.

Being able to do your rotation naturally and without looking at your bars opens up an entirely new realm of possibility. Unfortunately as amazing as our brains might be, we are fairly limited in our ability to pay attention to multiple things at the same time.

As showcased in this famous example, where you might not even notice the dancing bear. The same general thing happens in WoW Arena and if you have to focus really hard on one thing, you might develop blind spots in other places.

For instance. If you spend the majority of your game looking at your action bars, you might not notice the other important things happening on your screen, like enemy positioning, cooldowns, DRs, or even your own HP.

And as we teach you in almost every video, paying attention to cooldowns is one of the most important things in WoW Arena. When we made our video on tunnel vision, we explained that your action bars are one of the places you should look the least.

That is because the most relevant information to actually winning the game is happening in the top two thirds of your screen.

If you spend less time thinking about your damage globals, you will lose a lot of your damage globals, and are able to do your rotation without needing to constantly glance at your action bar, the more brain power you can devote to the things that matter the most in PvP.

By setting your rotation to autopilot, you can start improving in other places.

DEVELOPING AN AUTOPILOT ROTATION

But that begs an obvious question. How do you develop an autopilot rotation?

One of the most popular answers you will get to this question is to simply play more. Spam more games.

You've probably heard this a lot from streamers. This makes sense, right?

It's just like bodybuilding. If you want to get stronger, you just need to put in the hours.

Nothing comes for free. But just like bodybuilding, there might be some shortcuts.

Wait, no, not like that. There isn't really a wow equivalent to steroids.

So what can you do to make your rotation more natural? One of the best solutions might seem the most ridiculous, but it is actually used by some of the best players in the world.

Like Trill, for instance. When Trill wants to learn an ult, he spends a lot of time with this guy here.

The problem with practicing your rotation in Arena at first is that it is just too overwhelming in the initial learning process. You can't possibly dedicate your focus to things like CC and positioning while also needing to focus on your damage.

There is just too much chaos. Target Dummies remove all possible Arena variables and allow you to dedicate your focus to the things like CC and positioning.

Target Dummies remove all possible Arena variables and allow you to dedicate your focus to the things like CC and positioning while also needing to focus on your damage. There is just too much chaos. your brain power to building the muscle memory needed for keeping up your DPS rotation.

This is especially important for specs that have a lot of global maintenance, especially ones with dots, because it helps build an internal clock that you can use to keep track of dot timers without really needing to stare at enemy debuffs.

Once you become comfortable hitting a single target while standing still, the next step is to incorporate movement by simply strafing left and right while doing your rotation. Once again, this is just like adding incremental weights in the gym.

It's simply a geeky version of progressive overload. Of course, you can then start monitoring add-ons to track your progress.

If you can keep up the same damage standing still as while moving, you can then incorporate things like multi-dotting or even target swapping into the equation, once again trying to progressively overload step by step.

The next step is to start playing against actual players, but jumping immediately into 3v3 might be too jarring. Instead, the 2v2 bracket is a much better place to start.

The reason 2v2 is so effective is because it has a much slower and predictable pace. While there are some comps like Rogue Mage that force you to do things like play really fast, most matchups can be played at a comfortable speed.

This is especially true if you are playing with a healer, which is also something we recommend as a DPS player, since games will typically be longer and any defensive mistakes are more forgiving.

In between games, you can spend your time attacking the same target dummy as before, once again to build that muscle memory as quickly as possible. Your rotation might not be anywhere close to perfect at this time, but in reality, almost no player is able to do 100% perfect DPS in hectic arena games.

Even the best players in the world have to occasionally glance at their bars, but only briefly during key moments of the game. But eventually, the training wheels should come completely off, and you should rarely be looking at your bars for your rotation.

And by the way, everything we've said in this video also applies to healers. The only difference is that healing spells are a bit more situational.

There isn't really a healing rotation, but instead a healing priority that healers tend to stick to. And just like DPS, 2v2 arena is the best place to practice healing, because it truly slows the game down and gives you more time to balance, mastering your HPS while being able to monitor enemy CDs.

For both DPS and healers, details damage meter can give you insight into how well you are doing your rotation. You can compare your damage and healing breakdowns to other players, and even pay attention to things like buff and debuff timers to see where you might be lacking in your maintenance globals.