MASTER IN MINUTES: CASTER TIPS

MASTER IN MINUTES: CASTER TIPS INTRO

Welcome to our Master of Minutes course for Ranged DPS. Being a wizard means you're going to be at the center of the attention, which, unfortunately, isn't always a good thing.

Life as a caster can be pretty dang hard, whether it's dealing with interrupts, landing CC, or never feeling like you can actually get away. So we say, let's fix these problems.

We worked with some of the best players in the game for this, like Chanimal here, in order to produce this course, which will teach you bite-sized tips to help you through every arena game. And as always, there is something to learn, no matter what your experience level.

DONT FORGET TO DO DAMAGE!!

You could be the greatest player defensively of all time, rotating every single defensive you have perfectly. Positioned like an absolute king, making it effortless for your healer to heal you, and impossible for your opponents to get damage out on you.

But when being targeted, one of the most common problems and mistakes that we see is that players tend to just forget to do the simplest yet most important task in the game. Doing damage.

The term, the best defense is a good offense, could not be more true for WoW Arena.

Dealing damage accomplishes more than you may first attribute, as not only is it the main way you're going to create pressure and win the game, but also without dealing damage, you're never going to be in a position to force your opponents off of you.

Like here for instance, where despite being focused by a jungle cleave, Raikou on Shadow Priest doesn't shut down and still focuses on keeping up damage above all else. Which in turn, forces the enemy team to have to retreat.

In the roughest of matchups and situations where you feel like you're stuck playing defensive, you really do still have plenty of time to get out damage.

DO THIS WHEN TRAINED

The game starts and you see a melee cleave beelining straight toward you. As a caster, we've all experienced this moment and we all hate it.

But despite making the game a lot less enjoyable and seemingly a lot harder to play, being trained actually has its benefits, if you know what to do. The reason for this is that being trained as a caster puts you in the driving seat, meaning you dictate where the enemy has to stand if they want to hit you.

It's understanding this one concept that makes positioning when you're being trained easy to digest. Now, the two main goals you can achieve in regards to your positioning, that also happen to coexist with each other, are to use positioning to either relieve or create pressure.

And all you need in order to do this is pay attention to one thing. The enemy healer.

Your job is to make it as hard for them as possible to heal the DPS that are focusing you.

This, on some of the larger maps, can be as simple as just moving further and further away from them, which in turn drags them away from the pillar into a more vulnerable position, where either yourself or your team can then more easily secure damage or even crowd control.

On the smaller maps, you're going to have to be slightly more advanced, and instead of using range, look to start playing with line of sight. Take this situation here for example.

What Ryku is doing on his Shadow Priest is dragging the Rogue around the pillar away from the enemy healer. In doing this, it's then making the Rogue have to make a decision.

Does he chase and line his healer, or does he swap targets? In turn, this is both enabling you to create pressure by denying healing, and relieve pressure if you're able to force the target to have to swap off.

DO THIS WHEN FREE

Being left free as a caster means it's your time to shine and get some things done. And the best way to do that is surprisingly via your positioning.

Time and time again we see low rated casters just using this free time to sit there, throw out some crowd controlled appeal, do a bit of damage here and there, and wonder why nothing's really happening. Well the reason for this is that in these situations it's up to you to get stuff done.

And to do this you need to position in a way that best enables you to accomplish two main goals. Those being threaten crowd control on the healer and be able to do damage simultaneously.

And to do this you need to go against your caster instincts of just sitting back in a safe position. For example, pay attention to this clip.

Almost immediately after recognizing he's not the target we see the balanced druid look to push in and make sure he's between the enemy healer and DPS. Doing this enables you to still be able to get as much damage out as you would be doing from sitting back.

And to do this you need to position yourself in a safe position. And to do this you need to position yourself in a safe position.

But also at the same time allows you to consistently threaten crowd control.

INTERRUPT LIKE A KING

There are literally hundreds of spells in WoW, and knowing exactly when and what to interrupt can be really confusing. But today, we're making it simple.

And to start, it's crucial to understand that interrupting is not so much about what you kick, but more so about when you kick. Take kicking a healer on a heal.

We all know it's good to do, but if you have no pressure, then what does that interrupt actually accomplish? The same goes for interrupting something like Polymorph.

We all know it's a spell that should be kicked, but to kick a Polymorph on yourself that could have just been dispelled by your healer is again, not going to accomplish much at all. Now, the key word here being accomplish.

Whenever you interrupt something, you need to first think what it actually accomplishes and does for you and your team.

So say if you have pressure, cooldowns active, or are close to a kill, then just having your interrupt ready to even threaten an interrupt on a heal, is going to be a lot easier than just kicking a healer on a healer.

So, if you have a lot of pressure, cooldowns active, or are close to a kill, then just having your interrupt ready to is going to be a lot more effective. The same goes with stopping crowd control.

Instead of kicking any old Polymorph or fear, save that interrupt for situations where you're going to accomplish something by either stopping unavoidable crowd control onto your healer, or even crowd control or peels during points of pressure for your team, where interrupting an incoming crowd control will greatly aid or assist you in scoring a kill.

The same can be said for damaging abilities. Sure, there are some exceptions, which are always high priority spells to interrupt, like chaos bolts and glacial spikes, for instance.

But just as a general rule, try to only interrupt damaging abilities that you know will have an impact on the game.

ALWAYS PRESS SOMETHING!

In our extensive reviews of low-rated casters, one standout mistake that we see time and time again is that they just don't press enough buttons. The best way to demonstrate what we mean is to watch any caster with True Fight GCD enabled so you can see each global they press with ease.

Take this high-rated Boomy for example. I want you to pay attention to his global tracker that you see right here throughout the clip.

As we can see, he's getting focused by both a warrior and a mage, but throughout this entire time he's not wasted more than one, maybe two at max global cooldowns and has made use of a ton of different abilities including both utility and defensives. Then for comparison, this is a low-rated player.

Again I want you to pay attention to the global tracker down here. One thing you'll immediately notice is that there are huge gaps in between some of his globals.

Especially here after using a power ward. It takes almost 4 seconds until his next global is used.

Now if you're sitting there thinking to yourself, what about interrupts? Or what about when you reposition?

Surely you can't press something every global. Well unless you're crowd controlled or inside of something like dispersion.

Yes, yes you can. There's not a single caster in this game that only has one school of magic and there's not a single caster that doesn't have an instant cast ability.

Going back to the shadow priest we saw a second ago, they know when shears ready, are under pressure and they're healers in crowd control, so is running around not using globals until they're at stable health.

But look, they still have an instant mind blast ready, an instant mind spike ready, enough insanity for devouring plague, all crowd control ready, desperate prayer ready, they could look to cast mass dispel, they could spam dispel magic, the list goes on. So no matter your skill level.

No matter your class. No matter your class.

How do you expect to win a game when your opponent could be pressing twice as many buttons as you in an arena game?

HOW TO PLAY WITH A MELEE

Solo Shuffle opens up a wide array of different compositions, many of which you're gonna have to adapt your playstyle to best perform in. And if you're somebody who in the past has gravitated more towards caster cleaves, then it's very likely you're making these three mistakes when playing with a melee.

Number one, focus on their target. This one's quite obvious, but you'll be surprised how many people make this mistake.

As a ranged, in a lot of situations we're able to easily pick and choose which target we want to focus. Melee, on the other hand, are slightly more limited in their target selection and uptime, meaning you always want to make it a habit to pay attention to their target and aim to focus your damage on that player.

Number two, play more aggressive. Understandably for us casters, we're used to positioning in a way where we can best get out damage and limit players' line of sighting us.

This usually involves playing quite passively and sitting back. Two things melee class can do well in this situation are the ability to move away from a pillar and move into it.

And number three, understand your role. Melee, generally speaking, bring a large amount of consistent high pressure, and as a result of this, your role can change slightly, as primarily you'll be responsible for making that pressure stick.

What this means is that the value of your crowd control goes up and you'll take on more of a support-based role in a sense.

Now, we're obviously not saying you neglect your damage output entirely, more so rather letting your melee be the main source of damage, while you instead focus on supporting and playing around them with crowd control.

DOUBLE CASTER MADE EASY

Playing a caster cleave is a lot like joining a college fraternity, as there's going to be a certain set of rules and expectations that you'll have to live up to. But don't worry, we're here to make your initiation as smooth as possible.

Rule number one, respect the triangle. You've probably heard the term triangle formation or triangle positioning thrown around before.

It just so happens that this is the foundation caster cleaves are built upon. Whoever's the caster not being focused should be at the point of the triangle.

The caster being focused should be at the base and your healer opposite him. This is done so whoever is at the point of the triangle can pressure the enemy healer, while all members can still maintain distance to best avoid swaps and interrupts.

Rule number two, whoever is free dictates the game. Caster cleaves work for one reason in specific.

You're a double threat. If you're the caster who's free, it's going to be up to you to get stuff done.

So that means pushing your damage, rotating crowd control, setting up kill windows, and even peeling. In order to best do this, aim to be constantly threatening crowd control or even damage onto the enemy healer and spending the time to properly align your burst and crowd control.

Then our third and final rule is enable your teammate. Remember and factor in that you're playing with another caster.

Generally speaking, this obviously means they have to cast to do damage. So you obviously want to aim to enable them, rather than just play with them.

Rather than hinder them. Primarily, all this involves is just being mindful of your positioning more than anything.

Above all else, making sure you don't commit the cardinal sin of standing in a position where the caster who's free will struggle to hit the DPS that's focusing you.

CROWD CONTROL IS FOR LIFE

Ever heard the phrase, a dog is for life, not just for Christmas? Well, how about this one?

Crowd control is for life, not just for healers. To be fair, while it may not come close to having the same sentimental meaning or ring to it, the moral remains the same.

Throughout our extensive low-rated gameplay reviews, one mistake that always pops up is that players just don't utilize their crowd control enough. The main reason is that a lot of people seem to think crowd control is for some reason only there to put on healers, completely neglecting the defensive usage.

Failing to understand, even in cases where it can be dispelled, putting crowd control onto off-targets in order to peel is a great way to relieve some pressure or even save the game.

Recognizing the benefits of using spammable crowd control like fear, cyclone, or polymorph onto off-targets is one thing, but a true skill is identifying when it's worth it to defensively use crowd control that comes with a cooldown. I'm talking about the crowd control that comes with a cooldown.

I'm talking about abilities like psychic screamer, horror, silence, freezing trap, dragon's breath, bash, or even solar beam. Of course, they're almost always best used on a healer, but don't refuse to entertain other options.

For example, if you can't psychic scream a healer, just using it on a DPS covered with silence can be fantastic when done to relieve pressure and simultaneously allow you to get some damage out. The same goes for using something like freezing trap.

Now, sure, it could potentially set you behind, but if you or your team are under pressure, trapping a DPS behind a pillar could be just what's required in order to save the game.

THE WINDOW TO VICTORY

As casters, we've had those arena games where you just feel like it's only a matter of time until you lose. Just take this game playing in the background here, where we've been watching a low-rated Frost Mage coming up against BM Hunter Retribution Paladin.

He's on low health, constantly under pressure, and just can't find space to do anything, inevitably being forced to block. These types of games are not uncommon and happen for casters no matter what rating you're playing at, or even your skill level.

But even in the roughest of matchups, there will always be windows where you can get something done. What separates the good casters from the bad casters is your ability to identify and utilize these windows.

It could be as simple as you've built some space, interrupts are down, enemies are crowd controlled, you name it. Let's test to see if you can identify these windows yourself.

Going back to the clip we played in the intro, we saw our low-rated Mage be fighting against a high-rated Frost Mage, and then we saw our low-rated Mage be fighting against a high-rated Frost Mage.

While they're in this ice block, take a second and see if you can spot the window of opportunity, and then we'll see what our Mage does. Okay, so playing the clip, we see the Mage come out of his ice block once he's at stable amount of health.

He polymorphs the Hunter, and then proceeds to use the space he's now built to get some casted damage out onto the Retribution Paladin. Now, was that the right decision?

Let's rewind and take a closer look. First thing you should be able to identify is that there's no counter shot ready for 13 seconds, which is the only ranged interrupt on the enemy team.

Then the Retribution Paladin is no longer close, meaning he won't be able to interrupt either. On top of that, we can even see that the enemy Priest has just used his Shadow Word Death to try and kill, as well as being positioned in the middle of the map casting Smythe.

This creates a huge opening for our Mage. All he needs to do is come out of this block, and then he can use his Shadow Word Death to try and kill.

He lands a guaranteed polymorph onto the Priest, and with no Trinket, Pain Suppression, or Barrier ready, he's going to instantly force a bubble from the Retribution Paladin and bring them one step closer to winning the game. It's just all about looking for windows.

ABUSE THIS TO GAIN RATING

There is one type of ability that almost every ranged DPS has access to. It doesn't deal damage, it doesn't look flashy, and you probably don't even consider it strong.

But time and time again, top players abuse it to gain rating. We're talking about Purge, or, well, offensive dispels.

Purge, Greater Purge, Tranquilizing Shot, Spellsteal, Dispel Magic, and even Devour. Throughout all of our low-rated reviews we do here at Skill-capped, one thing we notice is that inexperienced casters massively undervalue offensive dispels.

Which is crazy, as increasing the amount of offensive dispels you do every game is one of the best adjustments you can make in your gameplay. This means dispelling an Enveloping Mist could potentially be seen as effectively doing 80,000 damage in just a single button press.

And it's not only Enveloping Mist, but Lifeblooms, and... Rapture Shields, Riptides, Dream Breath, Dream Projection, and so many more are all buffs that if removed are generally going to be more effective than most damage globals.

But why Purge is so neglected by newer players is that it just doesn't feel as rewarding to use. You're not seeing big numbers pop, you're not seeing yourself high on the damage meter.

That being said, for Hunters and Shamans with Greater Purge, you should consistently be weaving these into your rotation. Assuming there's any chance of a DPS increase.

You're not seeing any buff worth purging. Whereas for Shadow Priests, Mages, and Shamans without Greater Purge, your dispel acts as the perfect filler for times where you're on the move, or maybe even interrupted or struggling to get damage out.