OK. This is my first post on the forum so go easy. I'm currently levelling a priest at the minute and I thought I'd start this thread. I did a similar thread in the past for warriors on mmo-champion and it was quite successful.
What I want, is a guide on how to beat each class 1v1. You can go as in depth as you like with this.
Before anybody starts QQing about how WoW isn't balanced around 1v1 battles, please stop right here. If you aren't interested in reading the thread or contributing, go elsewhere. The warrior thread helped me MASSIVELY in knowing how to handle other classes in battlegrounds and arenas. It gives a good understanding of how the other classes cooldowns and spells work and tips when facing them.
The way I want this to work is as follows. I'll set out a list of the classes and specs (ones that you'll meet in PvP. I'm yet to see a fury warrior in a battleground since dual spec came out) and the lovely readers of this forum can give advice on how to effectively beat (or hold off for as long as possible) these classes. I'll edit this original post every time someone contributes and I'll put their mini guide in the post (and will name the contributor).
To those who intend to help out, Thanks very much.
Below is a dispell guide taken from the official forums. Posted by Synikul. It's a massive help when fighting certain classes.
Warrior:DISPELS
Some people don’t know what they can dispel, and that’s a huge thing to not know considering its our strength. I will outline what you should dispel on every class when you face them.
Paladins:
Blessings: Dispel these once. If they keep reapplying, don’t worry about it. If they don’t ( a lot don’t) you just took off a huge buff.
Sacred Shield: Looks like your bubble but cooler and more golden. Always, always take this off. It not only helps their healing, it absorbs a lot of damage. Take this off themselves or their partners.
Bubble(Divine Shield): Mass Dispel this. It makes them immune to all damage.
Repentance: If it is on your partner, dispel this. Its basically like a hammer that stuns you/partner for a few seconds.
Hand of Sacrifice ( will be on their partner): Dispel this as it shares damage and if you are CCing the pally, then their sharing damage can break a CD like blind or sheep.
Divine Plea: If the holy pally is not protection specced then dispel this. However DP reduced the pally's healing in half, so if you have the pally OOM and you are about to put out a lot of damage on their partner, let them have it.
Shaman:
Ghost Wolf: Dispel this, it’s a magic buff and they will use this to get away from your partner or to help peel if they are DPS.
Earth Shield(or any shield): Dispel this, it heals them every time you hit them and if you they put it on their partner they might survive your fear -> DPS chain.
Flame Shock: Dispel this quickly, its going to lead to a hard hitting, insta lava burst. Be warned when you dispel this they will get a haste increase so be warned that you need to move out of the way when you do this.
Druids:
Innervate: Single handedly the MOST important spell to dispel. Make sure you are dispelling the druid when he starts to go OOM, because he will cover his innervate with other spells that you can dispel to protect that innervate. You must take this off as soon as it is up.
HoTs: Dispel most of these, esp on your kill target.
Thorns: Dispel this, it can do a lot of damage on whoever attacks the kill target.
Mark of the Wild: Dispel this, its resistance to magic can allow them to resist fear, mind control etc.
Entangling Roots: If its on your partner dispel it. If its on you because they are running to innervate, get it off quick.
Mage:
Ice Block- MD this depending on the situation. If you are killing the mage and he uses it to survive, go for the dispel. If its just defensive to get rid of a blind or something, don’t worry about it, you could do better things with that time.
Focus Magic – Extra crit for the mage and the person it is on. Its got to go.
Sheep: Get it off your partner
Int- Extra intellect, also must go =)
Ice Barrier: Protects against a lot of damage, you need to take this off quickly
Anything that freezes you (Nova, Frostbite Procs, Ranged Nova) – This opens you up for a Deep Freeze so dispel it fast.
Chill Effects- If the mage is the kill target you need to dispel these fast or else he will kite you forever.
Priests:
Bubble- Dispel that immediately, its our most important spell for keeping ourselves up.
Renew- Falls under HoTs, which much immediately go.
Grace- Increases healing, and covers more important spells, so dispel this.
Fort- Like a said, it’s a lot of stam so dispel that.
Fear Ward- Most important thing to get off in priest v priest matches. That fear is where you get a kill on their partner. For this reason, it’s a bad idea to buff FW on yourself at the beginning of a match. Its going to disappear fast.
Shadow Protection- Resisting fear = you lose, so make sure this goes off.
Divine Spirit- Taking this off makes our dismal mana regen even worse.
Fear- Dispel this off your partner
Warlocks:
Fear- Dispel off your partner
DoTs - Dispel those you can, leaving the curse (which you cant dispel) to allow you to bounce Prayer of Mending around.
UA Locks- If the lock is UA (Unstable Affliction) you want to make sure you dont dispel his DoTs, as it will silence you. Bouncing PoM should keep you up just fine, you may want to take it off if you start getting mana drained.
Hunter:
Black Arrow- Increase damage, and deals shadow damage so you have to get it off. (Special thanks to Healzalot for correcting me)
Freezing Trap- Get it off on your partner or whoever they are trying to CC
Death Knight:
Chains of Ice: Ugh, such an OP @#_$#@, make sure you get it off your partner or yourself.
Diseases: Dispel these off quickly. Cure Disease is your friend.. spam it.
Regarding warriors in 1v1, as funny as it may sound but shadow fiend will hit them hard
Dot them up, spam heal yourself with anything you have and while they blade storm - power infusion and spam those heals. You can even use Divine Hymn in conjunction with Inner Focus. It'll increase healing done on you once blade storm is down so you'll heal a bit more. They can't interrupt while blade storming. Cast mind blasts to force pummel on shadow school. - Thanks to Syanid
1vs1 warrrior cannot be done without gear. If you have that gear, then it is rather easy actually. It requires all/most your cooldowns but you can do it. I find that the dps from the pet is required to get the kill. When bladestorm comes all your haste cooldowns + PW;S then MC him away. - Thanks to TwistedPower
Fear Ward your shadowfiend (in 1v1 the warrior is going to wait and fear it). What I do when I play against a warrior is shield, wintergrasp haste trinket, power infusion, pain suppression and spam Holy Fire and Smite (smite specced..lol) DoTs etc to force him go on defensive (yeah, its weird but he will die/lose if he doesn't).If I don't kill him by then, I lose/die. - Thanks to Elothie
Arms: Arms is the spec you will encounter and need to fear the most by far. Fighting one in many cases is a huge gear check. UInder geared players of all classes will find their crits to be very unpleasant. As to beating one 1v1 with a priest, I'm not sure tbh. It's my understanding that warriors kinda counter priests. They cant really be feared, they will slow, interrupt, close gaps and debuff your healing. Also, they will hit you very hard when your bubble isn't up. You will want to save your ass saving cds (Pain Suppression) for his bladestorm but I can honestly say I never had a priest other than shadow attempt to fight back. Healers just try to survive. The bubble is your best friend as we cannot get rage from hitting it and an under geared warrior will have trouble dpsing it down with the limited rage. Warriors can’t heal themselves much at all so all damage you can do will go towards a victory including dots and holy fire or whatever it is. If they have a healer though you might want to just /kneel and get a soda or something. – Thanks to Smoknjoe
What i usually do is go in for an all out nuke... dots+holy fire+sw:d+rocket gloves+pet... All the while keeping instants up on urself... Fearing isn't really a good option unless mortal strike has like 1 sec left... then you may get off some penance ticks before he can charge back... Other then that it consumes a GCD and gives him the opportunity to stun you. - Thanks to Balalaika
You can Mind control a warrior that is bladestorming. PW:S borrowed time haste buff, a haste trinket, PI, and Engi glove enchant all stack so using any combination of these will allow you to get an easy quick MC off on the warrior negating almost the entire bladestorm. They cannot use any skills while bladestorming, so they cannot break it themselves. Not to mention that if you happen to do it in a non 1vs1 encounter you can make them bladestorm their own team. It is also nice to know that you can PW:S your pet. Why would you want to do this? Uh 25% more haste on an MC, penance + heal, or offensive penance + Hfire if you already have weakend soul on yourself. And you can PoM durring a bladestorm and it bounces between you and your pet if it out. - Thanks to TwistedPower
Protection: As far as prot goes, there isnt much to fear other than the massive stuns, interrupts and never getting a gap due to being impossible to cc effectively. Lucky for you they don't pack to much of a punch other than the shield slam which mind you also removes a magic effect including a HoT or Inner Fire - Thanks to Smoknjoe
I think prot should be fine as long as you manage to stay pretty well topped off... They do pack a pretty insane burst when played right though, so play it carefully and make sure you juke the spell reflects. - Thanks to Balalaika
Shaman:
Resto:
Elemental: Can be pretty hard depending on skill level... If they know how to interrupt and use grounding totem it can get tough.. Other then that, just DoT up and remember to dispel flame shock. - Thanks to Balalaika
Enhancement: As a discipline priest agains a enhance shaman the tactics would be to try mana burn the shaman untill he have so little mana he can't do anything, then the shaman will probarly use shamanistic rage to gain some mana back, and when his shamanistic rage ends you just mana burn him again. You should try melee down tremor totem so your fears become usable. While his spirit wolves is active just try to survive as good as you can, pop divine hymn and keep shield up, fake cast to make him waste his interrupt, keep pressure on him with dots as much as possible. After his wolves end, you pop shadow fiend, put up dots and burst him with penance, enhance shamans are weak targets, and try to use weak spells when you see his grounding totem up. Also, melee down his cleansing totem. - Thanks to Galten1234
Druid:
Feral: Keep your face towards him, that means he cant shred if he's specced for that... Will diminish his burst substantially. Watch out for his 51 point talent (berserk) as it makes him immune to fear. - Thanks to Balalaika
The important thing about feral druids is to counter their burst with Berzerk, or w/e that tallent is. The bleeds that come out of that buff are insane and non-dispellable. If they time their berzerk right they will realy put pressure on you and they will be immune to fear. Using your cooldowns properly vs a feral is important. Most importantly though is recognizing that the druid did infact berzerk and is going to be able to hit you with twice as many moves (50% energy reduction) and way way way harder. More then likely though if the druid pops out to cyclone you and heal himself, he will run your mana dry, but I'd rather loose by not having enough mana rather then getting rolled. Any non/semi-geared feral should not hit you hard enough for it to matter much, Dot him up, fear every time it is up and use your wand as much as you can to get your mana flowing at 100% whenever possible. It is important to time your shadow fiend with your burst and not to do it before he switches to bearform for rage heal. Let him bear heal first, use hym for mana first. Then when his bear heal is on cooldown get him to half hp, pop fiend and start pumping holy fire, MB's into him. Make sure you have trinket for the cyclone or he will just instant cyclone you and heal to full hp. - Thanks to TwistedPower
These guys are your friends, from what ive experienced they are a bit of a cheap version of a rogue when it comes to duels, they dont as much damage as a rogue can and cant stun lock you like a rogue can, BUT they can reset a duel easier, in that a quick stun-Cyclone-heal and its done. I find the best way to start this off is pre-shield/PoM and wait til they get there precious opener, no need at all to use a trinket or pain suppress just wait it out. As soon as you can just use scream, thats the key. One penance to yourself and you be 100% hp again, you should have 4 seconds left on scream in which you shield again, dipel MotW, Holyfire/SW and DoT up as they come back towards you. In this comp basically you'll be standing there taking a beating until scream comes off CD and you can get some more damage done, it wont take long till the druid needs to peel and heal himself. As stated before he will probably use the stun-cyclone-HoT/Heal method, IMO its a great time to use your trinket and keep the pressure right on him, he'll be forced to play defensive in which you'll be spam dispelling HoTs as you run and making sure DP and SW:P is up. just keep PoM up whenever off CD to. He will eventually fall, not that hard of a duel IMO. the fight never last long so feel free to pop Shadow fiend offensivly for extra damage (it helps), But a smart druid will deffinatly take the time to roots him. The one thing that may catch you is if you get to cocky and let yourself cruise at 60-70% hp while you're chasing him down then he gets his abilities ready and does a decent round of stuns with a 5 combo point ferocious bite... OUCH! Don't be a nun every class can bear every class. It's the player, if you slip up then bye bye. - Thanks to Varanaar
Resto Druid: Well these guys are a little harder, and VERY frustrating at times. Laying down the law here its a mana thing. I like to take a slightly different start off here, at the beginning, I stay close but not that I will fear them, I let them HoT themselves up as I DoT them up and then Spam dispel so im getting rid of their buffs and HoTs while they have now wasted a bit of mana. Now you fear Shield yourself for borrowed time proc and then mana burn mana burn mana burn! Dont let him run near things where he can LoS you, i know its hard but you need to stay close. With what ive found doing petty Holyfire/smites doesn't have a great point to it early on, yeah throw in SW and keep DoT'd just to keep him burning his mana further by healing himself but you need to play it slow. Dispelling's the key to getting the mana down faster, at some stage when they hit 1/3 mana is when the action really starts. They'll make sure they have a full duration cyclone at ready, use it then travel form and run the %&*$ away behind a poll and use innervate. Its a must that as soon as you see them run rather then HoTing themselves like they have been doing that you trinket and get to them to dispel that Inervate. You have stayed close to them but duels arent perfect so if they did get to far away and behind a pilllar 30 yards away its to late. You cant run 30 yards to get in LoS and then dispel it because they inervate would have already taken affect, instead you use you priestly smarts You get close enough to them (about 20 yards) aim a Mass dispel behind and to the left or right of their pillar and keep spamming, Its something no other class has accsess to. you can dispel without even being able to see them. Now presuming all went well, they should only have about 1/2 mana now and no inervate. You rinse repeat exactly what you where doing but this time they'll try and do their same trick but drink, just dont let them. DoTs up always and when you have them at low enough HP cause the're conserving their last drops of mana you get a fear off and Shadow fiend, blowing power infusion and spamming all offensive attacks (Yes i even use penance here). It should be enough to get them down if not its one more round where you have more mana then them and they'll eventually fall. What makes this difficult is hybrid heals/dps druids. They can put up mean enough damage to make you waste the time you want to spend mana burning on healing yourself. Either way its a toss up, you can beat them, and if they are decent druids they can play you so well that they can beat you. Keep watch. - Thanks to Varanaar
Balance: You can mana burn balance druids. Save your fear for treants. Use a pillar to heal behind inbetween mana burns. Dispell before you start burning again. The most important thing to do is make sure you dispell the innervate or you will run out of mana before he does. - Thanks to TwistedPower
Rogue:
DoT up, at all times... pet hits them hard, but try to use it after the first vanish at least... Watch out for CloS when fearing, juke kicks.. Combat has some insane burst cds during which you should pobably burn pain suppression. If you are all alone against him you could trinket the first kidney. If he decides to reopen his stuns are now subject to diminishing returns. - Thanks to Balalaika
Mutilate:
Subtlety:
Mage:
Try to not use shield/renew/pom as the mage can spellsteal it. Stay topped of and manaburn him. Try to juke counter spell, and if u can't make sure it hits your shadow school. - Thanks to Balalaika
Arcane:
Fire:
Frost:
Warlock:
When a warlock comes, you need to be alot more offensive. If he has his felhunter out, you need to be aware of your buffs. You need to get the shadow school locked or juke it. You must ALWAYS dispel immolate. You must never dispel UA. Know when you're about to die and PS yourself before it. Immolate + shadowfury -> You're stunned with an immolate and not topped or with a shield -> PS. - Thanks to Nikkita
Affliction: Pillar and dispell magics, yes even the silence, Bubble yourself before you start to clense the silence dot while behind a pillar, After the silence, clense his other dots off. You will take less overall damage if you clear the other dots yet get hit by the silence. An aff lock can drain more hp (then convert it into mana) then you could ever dps on him, just dispell and run LoS - Thanks to TwistedPower
When i meet a UA lock, I know this will probably take long and i will probably lose. First: never dispell UA. Time the fear so that the DoTs on you - especially UA are 1-3 secs to run off. That way you can fear and when UA has dropped, dispel what's left if it has more then 3 secs to tick. The lock will have to redo all the DoTs as well as not getting healed during the fear. Keep DoTs on him and his felhunter. Make sure you don't get your holy spells locked. You can cast shadow school spells to draw a Spell Lock. If you do get locked, no need to panic, be ready on a Divine Prayer/Shield/HS/Healthpot when its over. If all your buffs are dispelled from the fel hunter; heal yourself with penance. If not, keep using shield and renew. I try to keep myself topped and keep my DoT's and occasional mindblast on the lock and his pet. There are two types of UA locks - The one that will DoT you up and mana drain you, and the one that will drain life. When the lock drains my mana, I either try to LoS / Range it, but I usually shield/renew myself and PI myself and go full out on dps. If i see I might kill him, I even pop my shadowfiend. This can kill the UA mana draining lock or it will cause him to start drain lifing since he's running low on HP. If you didn't kill him, with shielding/renewing yourself, he is still mana burning you and you're OOM, you lost. Expect a slow death. The UA locks that drain life aren't easier. I usually DoT the lock and his pet up, keep shield and renew on myself and penance if the pet stole all my buffs. Mindblast when I can. When the first pack of dots are running low, I fear him, dispel whats left, shield and DPS him. When the fear breaks due to my damage, I pop shadowfiend. I will not pop shadowfiend if the lock is high on HP. I can repeat the fear every 30 secs, usually the 3rd/4th time i fear, the lock gets low on HP. - Thanks to Nikkita
Destro: Destro locks can be mana burned in a BG if they are not paying attention to you, then they life tap and you just mana burn it away. Dispelling immolate off yourself for a destro lock is top priority. Then you can time you bubble for the choas bolt, use the haste for inc hasted pennace + flash heal to full hp before he can do any more damage after the bolt. Other then that I would just pillar untill sombody comes along and kills them becuase you are not going to kill a lock unless they are realy stupid or have no gear, at which point it realy does not matter what you do. Sometimes you will out last am idiot destro lock who thinks he can win by chasing you, He will life tap down so much that he is at half HP. Pop your pet and dot him but keep pillaring. dispell his shadow ward and he should start to be in a spot where you can just holyfire + SW;D him. - Thanks to TwistedPower
When I meet a lock, there are a few things I do that lead me to kill the average warlocks:
When its a destro pve geared lock that caught me doing my dailies, first thing I'll notice is an Immolate on me. I'll dispel it IMMEDIATELY. I'll shield, PoM and renew myself knowing that damage will come. I'll DoT the lock, probably dispel myself again a few times as well, since an immolate not dispelled will probably result in me dying. I'll try to push a mind blast here and there and keep my DoTs running, dispelling, shielding, PoMing, renewing and penancing when needed. Getting in a fear. DoTs on his pet as well if he has soul link. When he casts fear on me, I'll quickly buff myself with Fear Ward. If it's on CD, I'll shield, dispel, renew, PoM myself. If I have trinket on, I will trinket the fear if I have an immolate on me and quickly try to dispel it. Eventually and not after a long while, the lock will reach 50% hp. Either from my damage or from life tapping, it doesn't matter. That's when I renew my DoTs and get in a fear, holy fire, mindblast and sw:d. The lock is probably not dead btw since he used a HS or god knows what. He usually returns to dps me, that's when I get my shadowfiend up to finish him off. I've found that using shadow fiend, DoTs and a proper timed fear will get a lock killed. However, it usually takes a while. - Thanks to Nikkita
Paladin:
Retribution:
Holy:
Hunter:
Marksmanship:
Beast Mastery:
Survival:
Priest:
Discipline: vs Disc priest if he is undead or a Blood Elf (interrupt) he has the upper hand (assuming you are not). I usually spam manaburn and when I start to burst, I fear ward my shadowfiend. Oh, and save my fear for his shadowfiend (well if he is not good, he wont dispell it or Fear Ward it). - Thanks to Elothie
Shadow: vs Shadowpriests what I do is manaburn them to 0, force a dispersion and then nuke as fast as possible before the next one is on CD. (1.15 mins tough but doable). Fear his shadowfiend if possible. - Thanks to Elothie
Death Knight:
DK's of any spec are a piece of cake... Just remember to keep dispelling diseases and you're halfway to win. Launch PoM, then shield yourself, fear and start dpsing him down. If he pops anti-magic shell just wait till it goes down, doing only 25% damage simply isn't worth the mana. Most DK's forget about their interrupts (at least in my experience), so you should be rather safe spamhealing yourself, but be ready for being locked down with spells if you do so. Shackle the ghoul/gargoyle - Thanks to Flane
Cleanse Diseases and the DK can do nothing to kill you. Without diseases, deathstrike doesnt heal the DK, and without diseases the DK cant do any noticable damage to you either. - Thanks to Playersup
Unholy:
Blood:
Frost: