CHAPTER 4: USING YOUR PVP TRINKET

USING YOUR PVP TRINKET INTRO

Welcome to our course that's all about the iconic PvP medallion. After over 20 years of PvP, this single ability, or rather, single item, is still one of the most important tools to master in Arena.

Like any tool, there are definitely some big mistakes you could be making, which could be costing you games. Not to worry though, because we're going to be breaking down every common mistake, one by one, while giving you some practical tips on using this vital tool in PvP.

We hope you enjoy!

PVP TRINKET MISTAKES TO AVOID

What if we told you there was just one thing you could change in your gameplay right now that would instantly improve your rating on every class? Chances are you already know a few things about using your PvP trinket, but have you truly mastered it?

The reality is there are many mistakes that players make when it comes to using their PvP trinket, and these mistakes can lose you games and tank your rating. Fortunately, there are clear solutions to these problems.

In today's guide, we're going to cover some of the biggest mistakes players make when using their PvP trinket and show you exactly how to fix them by playing like the pros. There are lots of mistakes you might be making when using your trinket.

Let's see what they are and what you can do to correct them. One of the most common mistakes players make is instantly trinketing the first CC that hits them.

This can be incredibly risky and cause countless losses. It often wastes the cooldown and gives you less options later in the game.

You want to save your trinket for crucial moments of the game, like when the enemy team is popped. You want to stop their offensives, and you need to quickly peel or use defensive CDs.

Here, we have a super common situation in 3s. Getting spam CC'd in the opener by an RMP.

RMP relies heavily on forcing mistakes from the enemy team with strong openers. One huge mistake against RMP is wasting your trinket.

Mess is put into a long CC chain by the Rogue Mage, but despite combustion being popped, he holds his trinket. He does this because his teammates communicated in advance that they will pop CDs in the opener.

Holding his trinket in the opener will prove to be important later in the game. When his teammates have less CDs to deflect the combustion, Mess gets put into a full fear and the RMP commits a massive swap on Seedoo.

Seedoo only has BOP and Bubble available, which would be countered by a mass dispel. Despite the fear almost ending, Mess will use his trinket to deny the setup.

Mess trinkets out of the fear and lands an anti-magic zone right before the mind games lands on Seedoo. This trinket from Mess is able to entirely deflect the wind condition from the RMP.

Against teams like Rogue Mage, the most important setups to look out for are ones with combustion. If combustion wasn't used, there would be no need to trinket.

Because combustion was used, Mess was forced to trinket. By trinketing out of the fear to AMZ, Mess is able to shut down an important setup from the RMP.

Saving his trinket up to this point was a game-winning play. Another common mistake made by DPS players specifically is trinketing dispelable CC.

Overall, this is just a massively low value trade of cooldowns. Every healer has an 8-second magic dispel.

In terms of value, the 8-second CD dispel will always outvalue the 120-second CD. In terms of value, the 8-second CD dispel will always outvalue the 120-second CD dispel.

In terms of value, the 8-second CD dispel will always outvalue the 120-second CD dispel. This assumes the healer can dispel.

Of course, there are some situations that require you to trinket dispelable CC, like if your healer is stuck in CC and you need to quickly shut down an enemy's wind condition. Here's a situation in which a dispelable CC needs to be trinketed in order to deny the opener of an RMP.

Waz is stuck in a full polymorph while Chaz is sitting a full sap. With combustion popped, Waz trinkets the polymorph to charge in and AOE fear.

This heads-up play from Waz disrupts the opener, forces a trinket on him, and then trinkets the trinket on him. This is a very common mistake that happens when you have a long CC chain.

This is a common mistake that happens when you have a long CC chain. Trinketing dispelable CC is sometimes necessary when it cannot be dispelled by your healer and you need to quickly deflect an enemy attack.

Lots of classes have multiple CCs and will try and chain them in long CC chains. A huge mistake players make is trinketing the wrong part of a CC chain.

For instance, many rogue mage teams will pair abilities like Kidney Shot into Blind or Dragon's Breath into Polymorph to start a long CC chain. Kidney Shot and Dragon's Breath both have shorter durations than Blind and Poly, so trinketing the shorter CC is significantly lower in value.

You should always track the instant CC available to the enemy team, especially if you are a healer. You don't want to trinket a shorter CC just to be instantly put in a longer CC.

Some important CDs to track include Blind from Rogues, Blinding Light from Paladins, and Intimidating Shout from Warriors. These abilities are usually paired with other shorter CC effects, so it's often worth it to save your trinket for the longer CC.

As a healer, you can use careful positioning to avoid long CC chains in the first place. Here, you can see the enemy Paladin charging into Luxia with Blessing of Freedom.

Hammer of Justice and Blinding Light are both off CD. This is a clearly telegraphed CC attempt.

Instead of taking the Hammer of Justice and being followed up by one of the many CC options from the enemy team, Luxia simply repositions, putting the Paladin in a vulnerable position to tank a Polymorph while also making sure to line of sight the enemy mage to prevent sheeps on himself.

This positioning swap from Luxia avoided an unnecessary trinket when many CC follow-ups were available. If he would have taken the Hammer of Justice and Blinding Light, he could have been CC'd immediately on his trinket with Blind or Polymorph, effectively countering his PvP trinket cooldown.

Instead, he avoided the CC chain entirely with some careful positioning. As a healer, you need to be constantly aware of what follow-up CC options can affect you by monitoring enemy cooldowns and enemy castbars.

You should treat your trinket like a team defensive cooldown. If you watched our video on cooldown trading, you already know how important it is to effectively trade cooldowns against the enemy team.

One of the biggest reasons why you should always be aware of this is because it's a very important skill. It's a skill that can be used to counter the enemy team's cooldowns.

One of the biggest mistakes teams make is overlapping trinkets with other major defensive cooldowns, or even trinketing at the same time as their partners. In almost every matchup, it's good to space out your defensive cooldowns, prioritizing your biggest cooldowns to deny enemy win conditions.

Some defensives can even be used while stunned! Overlapping trinket with things like Bark Skin, Pain Suppression, Unending Resolve, and Divine Protection can be a waste because you can use those abilities while controlled anyway. try and keep defensive options available for future setups.

Overlapping CDs removes two offensive options at the same time and leaves you vulnerable to future kill setups. Here, we have a familiar situation where Seedoo must have to deny the massive opener from an RMP.

RMP is one comp in particular where overlapping defensive CDs is entirely appropriate. Combustion damage is enough to require multiple defensive CDs.

Because the damage is so high and the CC chain could potentially extend much longer, Seedoo trinkets the polymorph the moment Combustion is used in order to get a quick sacrifice on Trill. This effectively counters the go from the RMP and allows Seedoo's team to regain control over the match.

Comps with massive goals like RMP can often require overlapping trinket with other CDs, but in general, you should coordinate trinket usage in advance to be prepared for future setups. One of the biggest mistakes DPS players make into Rogue Mage is using trinket before Smokebomb.

This should be avoided at all costs since Smokebomb is one of the biggest win conditions for Rogue Mage. If you trinket before Smokebomb is used, you give the Rogue Mage a really powerful win condition.

In some cases, you don't even need to trinket the Smokebomb if Combustion is not used. Unless you're a Paladin with Bubble available, it is almost always a mistake to trinket before Smokebomb as a DPS, specifically into Rogue Mage.

There are some exceptions to this rule, one of them being the type of healer you are playing with. Resto Shamans in this priest have powerful defensives for Smokebomb, so it can be okay to trinket in those situations.

Here, Mess decides to trinket a cheap shot, despite Smokebomb being available. Because he is playing with a Shaman with trinket and Spirit Link available, this winds up being a productive trade.

In case the Rogue were to smokebomb later, Seedoo could easily save Mess with a trinket Spirit Link. To make this trinket more effective, Mess uses it to grip the priest away from Seedoo and prevent a longer CC chain.

Mess was able to get the value out of this trinket by shutting down the follow-up CC from the Rogue Mage. This trinket also winds up forcing an Ice Block on the Shaman.

The Shaman is now able to get the value out of this trinket by shutting down the follow-up block on the Mage, due to the damage output that the trinket opened up. Sometimes it can be worth it to trinket early against Rogues, but you need to make sure it is a productive decision.

If you can use your trinket to both deny an enemy attack and open up a win condition offensively for your team, it is usually worth it.

PVP TRINKET GENERAL TIPS

Many of these mistakes fall into the same general problem. Empty trinketing.

Your trinket should always be used to do something meaningful. You should never use your trinket just because you're frustrated or to just do your normal DPS or healing rotation.

Instead, you should prioritize your trinket for two key moments of the game. To shut down enemy win conditions and to open up win conditions for your team.

On the defensive end, you need to treat your trinket like you would any other defensive CD. In most situations, your trinket should be used to deny kill setups from the enemy team.

One of the things that stands out when it comes to pro players is how infrequently they use their trinket. In most top-level games, trinkets are saved as long as possible.

Most high-rated games involve spreading out defensives and saving trinkets in order to shut down an enemy kill attempt. Some of the most common ways to shut down an enemy kill attempt with trinket are to combine it with CC, interrupts, or other defensive cooldowns in order to deny an enemy setup.

There are very specific occasions in which you can use your trinket offensively, but they can be a bit risky. Trinkets are almost always used defensively in top-level games, but on some occasions, it is worth it to trinket aggressively.

One situation is when you can almost guarantee that an enemy target will die if you trinket. This is especially true when you are controlled by an undispellable CC like a stun, and the enemy kill target is super low.

You might also use your trinket if you get CC during your major offensive cooldowns. Assuming you will be able to force enemy defensive CDs if you do so.

You should look to get value out of your trinket when you use it offensively, You should look to get value out of your trinket when you use it offensively, forcing the enemy team to trade one of their major defensives in return. Here's an example of an offensive trinket that wound up winning the game for MESS.

We are only a minute into the game, but the enemy team is massively behind when MESS gets put into a full fear. If he sits this fear, there's a chance that the Paladin would be able to recover his team.

If he trinkets, MESS might be able to force a kill or at least force any remaining defensive CDs. Because his team had already forced major CDs from the enemy team, MESS decides to offensively trinket.

Because his team was so far ahead, this trinket wound up developing a win condition to take down the enemy team. If you find yourself in a position where you can trinket offensively, you should only take it if you know that you can either score a kill or force major defensive CDs.

Otherwise, offensive trinketing can be incredibly risky and leave you vulnerable to future attacks.

PRO PLAYER PVP TRINKET CLIP ANALYSIS

Now that you know the biggest mistakes to avoid when using your PvP trinket, let's break down some clips of the best players in action. These first two clips will highlight the different decisions that are required when playing different healers against the same comp.

Here, Seedoo is playing Holy Paladin into Red Warrior. As mentioned before, sometimes you can simply hold your trinket against stuns so long as you have a cooldown that can be used while stunned.

Because Seedoo is playing Paladin, he can simply use Divine Protection on this go in order to preserve his trinket. Preserving your trinket is important, no matter what class you're playing, because it gives you more defensive options for future kill attempts.

His team also manages to deflect damage with CC and an anti-magic zone. This coordination of defensives was able to preserve Seedoo's trinket.

Coordinating your trinket with your team's defensives is a crucial part of improving your rating. The anti-magic zone combined with the Divine Protection were enough to deflect the enemy attack, and more importantly, they give more options for deflecting future attacks because trinket was saved.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have the same luxuries playing Arresto Shaman into the same cleave. His primary defensive cooldown, Astral Shift, cannot be used while stunned.

Because of this, once Seedoo sees offensive cooldowns from the enemy team, he is forced to trinket in order to use Astral Shift. Sometimes, you are forced to trinket in order to use additional defensive cooldowns, but this is simply a reality of game balance that all players must deal with.

Shamans are much more vulnerable to melee and cannot use their damage reduction while stunned. The decision making had to change in this situation.

You will find that you will have to adapt your trinket decisions to the specific defenses available to your spec. One of the most important takeaways from this video is that you should always try and get value out of your trinket.

In this clip, Waz's trinket will prove to have tremendous value against Windwalker DK. It's really common for Windwalker DK to set up kills with triple stuns on the entire team.

These setups can be an absolute bloodbath and usually require multiple defensive CDs. In order to preserve CDs for his team and to deflect the kill, Waz trinkets to AoE fear.

Because the setup from Windwalker DK is on a relatively short cooldown, it is important to preserve team cooldowns for future kill attempts. Waz trinketing the first go has the goal of preserving major defensive CDs from his team.

This play winds up disrupting the kill, forcing trinket from DK, and Blessing of Protection on Monk. This value trade allowed his teammates to save their CDs while also forcing out some major CDs from the enemy team.

A huge play for Waz. If your class has AoE CC, you can often use your trinket with your AoE CC to disrupt a setup by yourself and preserve your teammates' cooldowns.

Speaking of value trades, pro players sometimes use their trinkets offensively in order to trade major defensive cooldowns from the enemy team. Here, Vanguard's is stunned on his wings with the enemy Paladin at low HP with Divine Protection ending soon.

Because of the pressure he has built up to this point, he trinkets the Stormbolt to maintain pressure. A trinket like this has the goal of getting the most value out of your offensive cooldown.

If he were to tank the Stormbolt, he might put himself in a position to get followed up with Cyclone. By trinketing with wings up, he is able to get value out of his offensive cooldown and potentially force defensives from the enemy team.

This offensive trinket winds up trading Blessing of Protection out of the Holy Paladin. The Paladin is now on Forbearance without Divine Protection available, making him an incredibly vulnerable kill target.

Here, you can see that an offensive trinket wound up value trading against the enemy team. It allowed Vanguard's to get the most value out of wings by forcing major defensive cooldowns.

And there you have it. One of the most important takeaways you should have from this video is how your PvP Trinket should always be traded for value, either offensively or defensively.

On the defensive end, your Trinket should be used to deny the win conditions from the enemy team. On the offensive end, your Trinket can be used in order to trade defensives from the other team.

In any case, you should always squeeze value from all of your cooldowns, and Trinket is certainly not an exception.