How do you deal with melee classes?

[Voidgazer]

With MoP coming and that it will have more focus on PvP (the exact same thing was said about Cataclysm), I decided to return to it and did some BGs... And I remembered why I left PvP in WoW.

I play affli and I can duel with some ranged classes, but as long as a melee gets in range I am already dead. Here's some examples.

Last time I did BGs was in WotLK, back then I could try and kite a warrior staying out of his melee range and at the same time, not going far away to allow him to charge at me. But now they have heroic leap, and after that they simply snare/stun/interrupt me. And before these debuffs wear off, I am dead.

DKs don't charge yes, but they pull me closer to them instead, and this can and often is worse, because he pulls me right into a pack of enemy players. Apart from that DKs have ranged snare and AoE incapacitation. The latter has been slightly nerfed, but that didn't help much. But wait, here comes the main dish - the anti-magic shell. It wouldn't be that bad if it just soaked some magical damage, but it also prevents debuffs to be cast on DK. And all of my main damaging spells, DoTs, are considered as such. So this makes a DK virtually immune to my spells.

With a rogue I can't even see him coming before it's too late. He simply stunlocks me and there's absolutely nothing I can do.

Warlock badly needs control/damage reduction spells, so many of which frost mages have, I wonder if they would share some of those... Self healing, for which warlocks have been famous in the old days, is almost non-existent now.


So, PvP warlocks, if you still didn't go extinct, can you give some tips on how to deal with melee classes? And maybe PvP in general.

[Deleted]

.....fear.....DoT........fear.....DoT.......fear some more, then lol away on your mount. How you can claim lock have nothing in the way of control is beyond me.

[Cyner]

This can be tricky: Personally I use the portal, shadowflame glyph slow, CoE, Fear, Death Coil combo to keep them away from me. It definitely involves some creating juking though! I also armor swap when needed.
Check out the Arena junkies Warlock thread, they have some great tips for when you are starting back up again! Good luck!

[Voidgazer]

.....fear.....DoT........fear.....DoT.......fear some more

Fear is my only control, and it suffers heavily from DR, not to mention it breaks a moment after it has been cast. The only way I can fear someone is after I cast death coil. Fear can be interrupted and it is a shadow spell - the only spell school affliction uses. How fear is even considered a way of control is beyond me.
Cyner
Thanks for the tips, I'll look into that site. Using teleport may be neat if I stay in flag room and put it somewhere the enemy can't see. But in the field I don't always have time to place it, and even if I do, it would be like screaming "look here's where I am going to retreat when I have low health!".
It doesn't break me out of stuns, it has 30 sec cooldown, and I have to place it before I engage in combat. Again, this spell just feels like a mockery compared to mage's blink.

[Cyner]

Cyner
Thanks for the tips, I'll look into that site. Using teleport may be neat if I stay in flag room and put it somewhere the enemy can't see. But in the field I don't always have time to place it, and even if I do, it would be like screaming "look here's where I am going to retreat when I have low health!".
It doesn't break me out of stuns, it has 30 sec cooldown, and I have to place it before I engage in combat. Again, this spell just feels like a mockery compared to mage's blink.

You can always soul burn when you teleport as well, that way you get the run speed boost if you are against a dirty shadow stepping rogue, or anyone else that can leap, blink ect to where your port is set ( <3 rogues, don't get mad )

[leorana]

I play demo and I find mellee classes the easiest to beat .

I use felguard (I know many like to use succy but that's just me) .

I'm starting with death coil,HoG,axe toss (FG) BoA,Corr
at this point your victim should get another stun fron the HoG aura . use it to go meta and immo aura . now just nuke him and use occassional fear if needed . if he gets you too close you can use demon leap,portal or shadowflame to lose him .

all together this shouldn't take long and you shouldn't get much damage .

basic principal is you get alot of free punches on your foe before he lands the first and at this point it's too late for him to come back .

forgot to say : use felstorm after axe toss

[~Thalia~]

Everything Cyner said.
But my best advice would be to get some teammates. Pvp is not balanced around 1v1. Switching to Demon Armor with a good heal allow me to face melee more confidently. Bgs are all about teamwork.
1v1 if you have decent enough gear to live through the initial stunlock, you can get the upper hand on rogues pretty easily with glyphed shadowflame, CoEx and portal. Fake casting is a sure way of not getting locked out of your shadow school. But there's no way you'll get out of a duel with a Dk if he has all his cooldowns ready and knows what he's doing (can't kite them, and antimagic shell is just a friggin pain in the ass).
When playing with my guild I usually stay away from the fight and put as much pressure as possible on the opposite team (dispell protection with Ua, dot Everything that moves, cast fear on healers or ranged dps). I keep my instant howl and deathcoil for when our heals get focused and try to snare melees when needed.
When I end up being focused, I call it on TS and have a rogue or a warrior lend me a hand. Try not to be a hero, switch armor, use your cd to get out of stuns and snares, get closer to your teammates and healers and keep up with the pressure on the Healers. If they're targeting you, they're not on someone else's back, but that doesn't mean you have to deal with them by yourself

[Voidgazer]

my best advice would be to get some teammates

Ok, another question then. Does queuing for BG when in a pre-made group still tends to match you against another one? Or did they moved that feature to RBGs? How many people need to be in a single group/raid before queuing, for it to identify the group as premade?

[Deleted]

Ok, another question then. Does queuing for BG when in a pre-made group still tends to match you against another one? Or did they moved that feature to RBGs? How many people need to be in a single group/raid before queuing, for it to identify the group as premade?

You have to be a full raid and que via the RBG system to play RBG.

But if you are, lets say 5 friends doing some standard BG;s you will most likely be teamed up vs 5+ other friends and randoms as far as i know

[Harsesis]

.....fear.....DoT........fear.....DoT.......fear some more, then lol away on your mount. How you can claim lock have nothing in the way of control is beyond me.

Fear is the worst pvp cc right now. Shortest range, shortest duration, and lowest damage threshold before breaking. My pvp battles against melee tend to go something like: Fear... Oh wait I just got interrupted... Now my entire bar is locked out... Oh look I'm dead.

[Muschi]

I kinda get the feeling people are forgetting Howl of Terror. Yes, pop a casted fear if you can. But when you're in the shit coil/howl can work wonders. And don't forget shadowflame.

[~Thalia~]

Ok, another question then. Does queuing for BG when in a pre-made group still tends to match you against another one? Or did they moved that feature to RBGs? How many people need to be in a single group/raid before queuing, for it to identify the group as premade?

Actually you can't queue for a battleground with more than 5 people using the game features. But the game itself doesn't identify the group as premade and you'll end up fighting the same opponents that if you had been queuing up all by yourself.

We usually use an addon called AV preform enabler that lets us queue with more than 5 people (the addon tags the whole group at once, and then lets you know if all your teammates have been selected for the same Bg).
It requires some patience and coordination but it works.

Then if you want to fight organized teams, that's what rated Bgs are for.

[Itosu]

Fear is my only control, and it suffers heavily from DR, not to mention it breaks a moment after it has been cast. The only way I can fear someone is after I cast death coil. Fear can be interrupted and it is a shadow spell - the only spell school affliction uses. How fear is even considered a way of control is beyond me.
Cyner
Thanks for the tips, I'll look into that site. Using teleport may be neat if I stay in flag room and put it somewhere the enemy can't see. But in the field I don't always have time to place it, and even if I do, it would be like screaming "look here's where I am going to retreat when I have low health!".
It doesn't break me out of stuns, it has 30 sec cooldown, and I have to place it before I engage in combat. Again, this spell just feels like a mockery compared to mage's blink.

I play mostly Destruction pvp but I have some experience with aff so Ill share what I can.

First and foremost, your portal is AMAZING. it needs to be the first thing you do when you get off your mount. its great to hide it out of LoS somewhere but if you cant find somewhere crafty to drop it, just drop it anywhere. I even glyph it with the major glyph for a 21 second cd. dont forget it also dispels all slows/snares when you use it so its great for clearing rogue slows. half the time if you portal somewhere out of LOS and they cant find you in a few seconds they will just move on to someone else. one thing i like to do is Shadowflame snare them and then portal so Im gone and they are slowed. portal just takes thinking ahead. you want to get it in your head to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have one down and remember where it is so u can stay in range. once you start using it more you will find all sorts of amazing spots to put it.

Fear doesnt suffer from DR anymore than any other CC. if you are fearing someone and then immediately beating on them then yea, its gonna break right away. also, trying to fear a melee while hes right in your face is a great way to get locked out. you want to gain a little room or fakecast a few times to juke their interrupt. in 1v1 situations, after your fear lands try to apply all your insta cast dots and curses that dont do immediate dmg so the fear lasts as long as possible. like i said i play destro and shadowfury is great for setting up fears but the affliction fear also applies a short 30% slow after the fear breaks if you talent for it. you wanna know which melee can be fear immune and react to that. warriors and DKs both can pop something (zerker rage and lichborne) that makes them immune, as can rogues (clos), and you need to be good at spotting that buff so you dont waste a fear cast while they are immune. power auras works great for tracking things like that if you dont already have something.

some other affliction tips, you should never ever ever be hard casting sbolt in pvp. i dont know if you are, but if you are then stop. only sbolt during nightfall procs. also you should be running with Demon Armor if you arent already. i know it sucks to lose the spell damage but the self healing and armor boosts are crucial to living thru melee dmg. fel flame is a shadowflame ability now so you can cast it while you are locked out. use it to refresh your UA or just as something to spam if you do get locked out. shadow ward isnt as good as nether ward obviously but against DKs it helps. you also want to know when to pop your trinket. most melee have an ability that you would really rather not sit thru and thats what mr trinket is for. theres not many things to use soulburn on as aff besides getting ur pet back fast so if you want to you can make a macro that pops soulburn and then healthstone. its a little extra boost.

Warriors. im just gonna talk about arms. prot is an entirely different fight and fury is rare-ish in pvp. we have a couple pretty easy counters against warriors. trinket throwdown. when he bladestorms is a great time to use your portal, especially if he has already used intercept. i keep curse of weakness up on the warrior all the time. he has zerker rage so fear probably wont play much into the fight unless you know hes already used it. try to save your deathcoil for when hes used most of his tricks.

DKs. keep shadow ward up. be ready for him to AMS, theres not much you can do about it so you just gotta ride it out. you want to do your best to wait to portal until he has gripped you but if you cant one way to sometimes get away with it is to portal and then immediately pet silence him. you'll have 3 seconds to get a fear off or something while he is still at range. unless he catches you with hungering cold (bad warlock) he has no offensive CC so you can feel pretty safe trinketing his silence (1v1 situation obviously)

Rogues. are my least favorite melee. i dunno if its just a hole in my game or if there are just some really good rogues on my server but they are the melee class that gives me the most trouble in good hands. i usually save my trinket for the first kidney shot. you want to do your best to keep them out of stealth. immediately re-apply dots/weakness after cloak wears off. try to save portal for after they shadowstep if you can. i dont beat good rogues in duels very often as aff, i have to go destro for a chance at that.

this is all i have time to put up right now, if i remember when i get home later ill fill in anything i forgot and add rets, ferals and enhancement tips

[Deleted]

I play mostly Destruction pvp but I have some experience with aff so Ill share what I can.

First and foremost, your portal is AMAZING. it needs to be the first thing you do when you get off your mount. its great to hide it out of LoS somewhere but if you cant find somewhere crafty to drop it, just drop it anywhere. I even glyph it with the major glyph for a 21 second cd. dont forget it also dispels all slows/snares when you use it so its great for clearing rogue slows. half the time if you portal somewhere out of LOS and they cant find you in a few seconds they will just move on to someone else. one thing i like to do is Shadowflame snare them and then portal so Im gone and they are slowed. portal just takes thinking ahead. you want to get it in your head to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have one down and remember where it is so u can stay in range. once you start using it more you will find all sorts of amazing spots to put it.

Fear doesnt suffer from DR anymore than any other CC. if you are fearing someone and then immediately beating on them then yea, its gonna break right away. also, trying to fear a melee while hes right in your face is a great way to get locked out. you want to gain a little room or fakecast a few times to juke their interrupt. in 1v1 situations, after your fear lands try to apply all your insta cast dots and curses that dont do immediate dmg so the fear lasts as long as possible. like i said i play destro and shadowfury is great for setting up fears but the affliction fear also applies a short 30% slow after the fear breaks if you talent for it. you wanna know which melee can be fear immune and react to that. warriors and DKs both can pop something (zerker rage and lichborne) that makes them immune, as can rogues (clos), and you need to be good at spotting that buff so you dont waste a fear cast while they are immune. power auras works great for tracking things like that if you dont already have something.

some other affliction tips, you should never ever ever be hard casting sbolt in pvp. i dont know if you are, but if you are then stop. only sbolt during nightfall procs. also you should be running with Demon Armor if you arent already. i know it sucks to lose the spell damage but the self healing and armor boosts are crucial to living thru melee dmg. fel flame is a shadowflame ability now so you can cast it while you are locked out. use it to refresh your UA or just as something to spam if you do get locked out. shadow ward isnt as good as nether ward obviously but against DKs it helps. you also want to know when to pop your trinket. most melee have an ability that you would really rather not sit thru and thats what mr trinket is for. theres not many things to use soulburn on as aff besides getting ur pet back fast so if you want to you can make a macro that pops soulburn and then healthstone. its a little extra boost.

Warriors. im just gonna talk about arms. prot is an entirely different fight and fury is rare-ish in pvp. we have a couple pretty easy counters against warriors. trinket throwdown. when he bladestorms is a great time to use your portal, especially if he has already used intercept. i keep curse of weakness up on the warrior all the time. he has zerker rage so fear probably wont play much into the fight unless you know hes already used it. try to save your deathcoil for when hes used most of his tricks.

DKs. keep shadow ward up. be ready for him to AMS, theres not much you can do about it so you just gotta ride it out. you want to do your best to wait to portal until he has gripped you but if you cant one way to sometimes get away with it is to portal and then immediately pet silence him. you'll have 3 seconds to get a fear off or something while he is still at range. unless he catches you with hungering cold (bad warlock) he has no offensive CC so you can feel pretty safe trinketing his silence (1v1 situation obviously)

Rogues. are my least favorite melee. i dunno if its just a hole in my game or if there are just some really good rogues on my server but they are the melee class that gives me the most trouble in good hands. i usually save my trinket for the first kidney shot. you want to do your best to keep them out of stealth. immediately re-apply dots/weakness after cloak wears off. try to save portal for after they shadowstep if you can. i dont beat good rogues in duels very often as aff, i have to go destro for a chance at that.

this is all i have time to put up right now, if i remember when i get home later ill fill in anything i forgot and add rets, ferals and enhancement tips

I love you