Need help with Arena.

[wargoat]

Ok guys i am currently at 1600 rating, I am good at contolling my charactor with 24 keybinds, i dont click or keyboard turn. Thing is i dont use any macro's or addons and i dont know what "setfocus" is ?

I think if i educate myself with these 3 aspects of arena i could greatly improve and i was wondering if anyone would be willing to help me with these things.

I am an enhance shaman and this is my armory (mmo wouldnt let me post a URL but you can search me i am "wikedsik" on dreadmaul, my 2's partner is a arm warrior.

I have searched arenajunkies and googled these questions but i cant find anything that is up to date and doesnt require a PHD to understand it. Does anyone know some good sources or can help educate me on these things ?

Thanks guys.

[Tehfred]

Setting your focus target basically gives you another health bar on your screen so that you can have another primary target, but keep an eye on said health bar. You do this by /focus, or by keybinding the "Set Focus" option.

Your focus target works much like your primary target in macros. For instance, say you want to Wind Shear your current target's partner, without losing your current target. Your macro would look similar to this:

#show Wind Shear
/cast [@focus] Wind Shear

You do not lose your current target when using this macro.

A few addons that would be beneficial to you as an arena player and a shaman would be Gladius (a replacement for the Blizzard arena frames with more functionality); Shaman Friend (tracks things like shields, totems, and announces in chat when you interrupt, Ground a spell, or Purge a buff); and probably a unit frames addon, or addon like MoveAnything that will allow you to arrange your unit frames in a more accessible setup.

[wargoat]

Setting your focus target basically gives you another health bar on your screen so that you can have another primary target, but keep an eye on said health bar. You do this by /focus, or by keybinding the "Set Focus" option.

Your focus target works much like your primary target in macros. For instance, say you want to Wind Shear your current target's partner, without losing your current target. Your macro would look similar to this:

show Wind Shear
cast [focus] Wind Shear

You do not lose your current target when using this macro.

A few addons that would be beneficial to you as an arena player and a shaman would be Gladius (a replacement for the Blizzard arena frames with more functionality); Shaman Friend (tracks things like shields, totems, and announces in chat when you interrupt, Ground a spell, or Purge a buff); and probably a unit frames addon, or addon like MoveAnything that will allow you to arrange your unit frames in a more accessible setup.

Thanks alot, i really need to work that out because being able to keep training my target whilst interupting the healer is crucial! and something i do not do currently. At the moment i right click on my partners frame click on setfocus, is that the same thing ? or do i have to setfocus on the enemy ?

[walexia]

you wanna use these addons:-
gladius:it shows your arena opponents , when their on cc and how long their on cc, it's great for layer cc, for example your warrior happenss to be lucky enough to be within range of both your opponents , he could burst out a fear you will see it in gladius, follow it up as soon as the count down is down with a hex and that will usually have the healer blow a trinket or bubble.

Loose control: personal favoritee especially in these days of stuns and cc, you wanna know immediately what cc your under and how long
totem timers: shows your totems in a small visible frame and their duration , important to watch especially when you have opponents that hate totems , has saved me alot of trouble as resto since people love killing my mana stream totem and tremor totem.

as for unit frames addons you want one that is flexible enough to allow you to move and customize the size for your focus frame, i would suggest xperl, but almost every unit frame allows such flexibilty.

cast bar mod for focus target: i use quartz , though i did use ecb in the past which wasn't bad, it's very customizable so you can better adjust the size of your focus bar and even your cast bar if you want.

[iflame]

you wanna use these addons:-
gladius:it shows your arena opponents , when their on cc and how long their on cc, it's great for layer cc, for example your warrior happenss to be lucky enough to be within range of both your opponents , he could burst out a fear you will see it in gladius, follow it up as soon as the count down is down with a hex and that will usually have the healer blow a trinket or bubble.

Loose controlersonal favoritee especially in these days of stuns and cc, you wanna know immediately what cc your under and how long
totem timers: shows your totems ins a samll visible frame and their duration , important to watch especially when you have opponents that hate totems , has saved me alot of trouble as resto since people love killing my mana stream totem and tremor totem.

as for unit frames addons you want one that is flexible enough to allow you to move and customize the size for your focus frame, i would suggest xperl, but almost every unit frame allows such flexibilty.

cast bar mod for focus target: i use quartz , though i did use ecb in the past which wasn't bad, it's very customizable so you can better adjust the size of your focus bar and even your cast bar if you want.

Good post, on a personal side I only find it necessary to use gladius. Just a warning though about gladius2 is that it is still in beta so expect some bugs.

The first 2 posts in this thread pretty much cover up everything you need to know about your questions, but on a side note, if you really want to get better, spend a minute after every match talking about what you could of done different, even if you win, you didnt do everything perfectly its impossible at your rating unless your a secret pro. Make sure to always work on positioning and coordination and you will go up a lot faster

Also, try using target macros if you dont already. They will make switching so much faster.
/tar arena1
/tar arena2
/tar arena3
...
These will switch your target to enemy arena members in descending order that they appear. I personally have them bound to my scroll wheel, and have shift and ctrl click modifiers for 5s.

P.S.: Although I think 2s is good for learning your class, start playing 3s

[whinecraft2011]

well, idk how you have such a low rating, I personally click spells, use 3 key bindnigs, no vent, and click to target, and i keyboard turn. Im doing fine at 2.4k with this, keep it simple.

[velocity]

well, idk how you have such a low rating, I personally click spells, use 3 key bindnigs, no vent, and click to target, and i keyboard turn. Im doing fine at 2.4k with this, keep it simple.

So much wrong with this post. Don't listen to this guy, if you want to improve your game you need to bind all your keys and use skype/vent. As for addons, I personally don't think you should use them. Not using mods helps you in the wrong run because it forces you to watch everything around you. Staring into gladius is a horrible way to play arena and relying on mods gets you no where in competitive arena. Turn off the mods and play default. It may feel weird at first, but once you get accustomed to actually understanding what's happening in a match, you'll improve loads. Good luck and have fun.

[AdamsGaming]

well, idk how you have such a low rating, I personally click spells, use 3 key bindnigs, no vent, and click to target, and i keyboard turn. Im doing fine at 2.4k with this, keep it simple.

This guy is terribly wrong, please don't take his advice. You need to avoid clicking abilities, use good solid communication devices for your teams, and avoid keyboard turning at all costs.

[Deleted]

Setting your focus target basically gives you another health bar on your screen so that you can have another primary target, but keep an eye on said health bar. You do this by /focus, or by keybinding the "Set Focus" option.

Your focus target works much like your primary target in macros. For instance, say you want to Wind Shear your current target's partner, without losing your current target. Your macro would look similar to this:

#show Wind Shear
/cast [@focus] Wind Shear

You do not lose your current target when using this macro.

A few addons that would be beneficial to you as an arena player and a shaman would be Gladius (a replacement for the Blizzard arena frames with more functionality); Shaman Friend (tracks things like shields, totems, and announces in chat when you interrupt, Ground a spell, or Purge a buff); and probably a unit frames addon, or addon like MoveAnything that will allow you to arrange your unit frames in a more accessible setup.

This is it, but you might need an additional addon for Focus Castbars. I use Quartz for that.
But this post should answer all your questions about Focus and setting Focus.