Excerpt from the YouTube video description:
TLDR: *ding* we reached 2k Rating in our first week :)
This HD video is narrated footage of my 85 Prot Pally in Cataclysm Patch v4.0.3a in Arena 3v3 with an Enhancement Shaman (Kashmír) and Restoration Druid (Skipz). This is my sixth Arena video for Cataclysm for Season 9 and second for 3v3.
In our first week of 3s, we reached a 2k Rating in 61 games, with 39 wins and 22 losses. Of the ~70 PVP videos I’ve posted on YouTube, this is one of my favorites, as this video captures some great sequences and we’re continuing to prove the doubters wrong.
Tips:
1. Remember in many situations to “peel then heal” – your stopping an opponent from DPS’ing will often provide more benefit than healing your ally
2. As noted against the triple-DPS comp, exploit the positioning of your opponents to AOE silence multiple players
3. As we climbed up the 3v3 ladder, we lost a couple matches when teams hard-switched to me. So I have switched from the Crit to Resil PVP trinket
Opposing Comps
- Mage / Rogue / Shadow Priest
- Mage / Shadow Priest / Resto Druid
- Mage / Warlock / Resto Druid
- Warrior / Warlock / Resto Shaman
If you have questions for us, please post ’em :)
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
Hey Taugrimm,
First, can I say what a fantastic site and an excellent guide to Prot PvP, you’re an inspiration for me to step into the arena for the first ever time with 2 RL friends and we’re having a blast, though learning the hard way!
We’re running Prot Paladin (me – following your guid), resto druid, hunter. Not too dissimilar perhaps to your 3s comp, though obviously we’re looking forward to the patch a BUNCH thanks to massive Hunter buffs and rebuke (!). We’ve grinded our way up to 2k+ resilience each and will try a proper session when the patch hits. Any advice for us given that we want to stick to the 3 classes we have?
Thanks again, and I hope to contribute to the discussion here if I can!
First, can I say what a fantastic site and an excellent guide to Prot PvP, you’re an inspiration for me to step into the arena for the first ever time with 2 RL friends and we’re having a blast, though learning the hard way!
Glad to hear it. The learning curve is initially steep!
though obviously we’re looking forward to the patch a BUNCH thanks to massive Hunter buffs and rebuke (!)
Hunter is the most underrated class in PVP right now.
I have fought some skilled Hunters in BGs and Arena and the really skilled ones are extremely difficult for MDPS to kill, esp with Feign Death, Ice Trap, Deterrence, the leap back thingy, etc.
I don’t think Hunters need big buffs but hey more power to them.
Any advice for us given that we want to stick to the 3 classes we have?
Not sure what challenges you’ve run into with Arena so far. Are teams focusing the Hunter or the Druid?
A Hunter can last a long time simply by Ice Trap kiting against MDPS, and if MDPS waste time trying to get to him your Healer should have an easy time keeping mana up.
Hunter can peel really well for your Resto Druid too.
As long as you are using your Prot abilities as discussed in the Guide and videos your comp should have excellent longevity (neither you nor Hunter should have mana issues), good CC, and solid damage.
The one thing you and your team mates may need to consider is looking at keybindings and such to facilitate smooth moving / strafing. If you do tweak your setup, do it very gradually, because it can be frustrating to get new keybindings committed to memory.
Great response Taugrimm, thanks very much. It is indeed a steep learning curve but we’ve won our first arena match and are hungry for more, running lots of random BGs together to try and work together, learn to communicate and understand each other’s abilities.
“Not sure what challenges you’ve run into with Arena so far. Are teams focusing the Hunter or the Druid?”
–> Teams are often focussing our Druid and he was finding it hard to survive the burst. He has loads more resilience now but any tips for surviving burst from you Taugrimm, Skipz or any of the other resto druids out there?
If they hard switch to our hunter they’ve sometimes caught him out badly too. You are absolutely right about Hunter kiting, trapping and peeling (and disengage – or the leaping back thingy as it’s properly known), our Hunter is starting to explore this now but it will take some learning. Can any hunters suggest a good guide (video?) to hunter kiting/trapping in PvP?
I think I need to learn to support heal better (and indeed ‘peel and heal’ as you excellently put it). I’m eager to try a proper session with us all in 2k+ resilience because I’m sure we will have a better time of surviving with it, but we have a long way to go still to improve. Any advice on off-healing Taugrimm? I currently focus-WOG but I avoid cast-times to avoid interrupts and lockouts.
Keybindings is a great point. I have worked hard at refining mine, my friends a little, but I would really appreciate your thoughts and/or set-up on Prot PvP Keybinding. I appreciate it’s very personal, but I’m sure there is much that I could learn, and indeed any class could learn from the principles. (as would lots of others it seems from this blog!)
Apologies for the wall of text but this is without a doubt the greatest help to our gameplay outside of the game I can imagine, thanks again.
Teams are often focussing our Druid and he was finding it hard to survive the burst. He has loads more resilience now but any tips for surviving burst from you Taugrimm, Skipz or any of the other resto druids out there?
Have him start stealthed and stay near a pillar, his first cast should be a Cyclone (either the Healer or DPS, depending on strat), and you and the Hunter should be peeling for him whenever he needs it.
Hunter has great CC IMO, highly underrated.
Any advice on off-healing Taugrimm? I currently focus-WOG but I avoid cast-times to avoid interrupts and lockouts.
No, you’re getting it.
Keybindings is a great point. I have worked hard at refining mine, my friends a little, but I would really appreciate your thoughts and/or set-up on Prot PvP Keybinding
A guide for keybindings / melee strafing is on my TODO list but it is a massive undertaking to do right, and I haven’t had the time.
Short answer, here’s my setup:
– right hand on mouse: for character turn (right button), screen turn (left button), and move forward (both buttons)
– left hand: all skills (most are 1 keypress) and W/R for left/right strafing
That’s it. I have been tweaking my keybindings for years and what I have now enables me to melee strafe and keep up with opponents fluidly for the most part.
I use a stock mouse and keyboard, nothing fancy.
Apologies for the wall of text but this is without a doubt the greatest help to our gameplay outside of the game I can imagine, thanks again.
Thanks, posts like yours make my time spent worthwhile.
“Have him start stealthed and stay near a pillar, his first cast should be a Cyclone (either the Healer or DPS, depending on strat), and you and the Hunter should be peeling for him whenever he needs it.”
–> Great advice, we’ll try this in our next 3v3.
Similarly we’ve now worked out a strat in 2v2 that we will use in 3v3 with great success where our hunter starting camoflauged and trap launching. Combined with our Druid in stealth too and cycloning and then Hunter and I bursting this could work so well! I’m excited to try it!
Thanks for your general advice on keybindings, sounds similar to me, I just have so many mitigation abilities I am desperately trying to find macros to keybind them – think I should use your mitigation chaining macro. I’d love it if more Prots can post their favourite macros here or in the PvP guide so we can all benefit? I’ve shown one of mine below…Eagerly anticipate anything more detailed you can do on keybindings when you have the time taugrimm.
And lastly, glad you get the satisfaction mate, you deserve it for a fantastic contribution to the community here. Let’s keep sharing experience and represent the Prot PvP underground! Hehe.
Firstly, congratz to your rating! :)
I also thought of trying 3v3 / 5v5 arena, but it’s seriously hard to find people willing to go with a prot pally. Even my friends say that prot pally doesn’t belong into arena (and I’m trying to prove them wrong of course ;) ). I’m not sure what comp to go for 3v3, do you have any suggestions besides your comp?
For 5v5 I thought of going Pally, DK, Warr, Shamy, Druid (or something like not .. it’s late and I could possibly mix it up :D ). What do you think of that comp?Do you have any suggestion? And do you have any plans to go 5v5?
Even my friends say that prot pally doesn’t belong into arena
The funny thing is when Kashmír was talking to Skipz, Skipz was understandably skeptical about Prot, so Kashmír asked him to watch our 2v2 videos, which convinced Skipz we weren’t morons :)
I’m not sure what comp to go for 3v3, do you have any suggestions besides your comp?
Um, I don’t recommend our comp per se. Kashmír and I run together because we have fun, not because Prot Pally is his ideal partner or because Enhancement Shaman is mine. Although we do like not being a FOTM comp.
To answer your question, anything with a DK or Mage is strong right now for 3v3, they’re the strongest DPS classes in the game. Feral is strong now but is getting nerfed in 4.0.6. Warrior would also work well, as they can pressure like no other DPS.
So if you can find a DK, Mage, or Warrior, and a Healer who is not a Pally, that would be fine.
Well.. but if I showed someone your videos, it only proves to them that you know why you play prot in arena and you’re good at it. It doesn’t prove I am – I already heard that the fact that some random guy achieving 2k in arena as prot pally doesn’t mean prot pally is viable .. or something like that. But I’m still trying to find someone. I just hate some of the “prot-pally-haters” opinions, mostly cause they never even played a paladin or well prot pally specifically and they don’t really know what it’s all about :( Some kind of enlightenment should be made :P
I just hate some of the “prot-pally-haters” opinions, mostly cause they never even played a paladin or well prot pally specifically and they don’t really know what it’s all about
Run some BG’s with them, protect them, and rack up timely Killing Blows with AS/SotR/HoW. That may help you establish some credibility.
I’ve had Healers on my server /friend me after Random BGs, because they know I’ll look after them.
Just a quick update, to let you know your site and advice is working and Prot Paladins are winning everywhere! I ran some 2v2 with the aforementioned hunter tonight and he is starting to get the hang of trapping and kiting melee, and we are coordinating stuns and cc much better. We lost a couple of matches then started winning on and off, and ended the night with 5 wins and about 7 losses, and feeling our gameplay has improved more in this night than ever before! We even got sweet revenge on a group that beat us earlier in the night, as we improved leaps and bounds.
We capped our conquest points for the week and I’m now renting a shiny Vicious shield as per Taugrimm’s advice.
Taugrimm, have you any advice on peeling? I find it hard to keep our hunter alive when they focus him (even with his 2.3k+ resilience now).
Also, my first tip. I macro’d a castsequence reset with Hand of Freedom and Every man for Himself (ie trinket) so I can use the same key binding for similar (though not identical) jobs.
Any improvements to this you can suggest?
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=25 Hand of Freedom, Every Man For Himself
Taugrimm, have you any advice on peeling? I find it hard to keep our hunter alive when they focus him (even with his 2.3k+ resilience now).
You’ll both need to get a full set of 85 PVP gear, crafted or Honor. That will get you to around 3k Resil. 2.3k is very low, once players probe and realize how squishy he is, he’ll be in trouble.
You have your stun/bubble/WoG/Sac/DG/Freedom/HR you can use to buy time for your partner.
But honestly his getting gear is #1 priority.
We capped our conquest points for the week and I’m now renting a shiny Vicious shield as per Taugrimm’s advice.
1H weapon should be your 1st upgrade. You can “rent” Vicious items until next Tuesday, then get your 1H weapon.
I macro’d a castsequence reset with Hand of Freedom and Every man for Himself (ie trinket) so I can use the same key binding for similar (though not identical) jobs.
Any improvements to this you can suggest?
Nope, it looks fine. You should have EMfH on a separate keybind though in case you need to break a CC. HoF is only good for movement-related debuffs.
As to the resilience, I don’t think 2,3k is that much, if he had 3,0k+ his survivability would be much better.
And the macro you made.. I don’t really see it useful in any way. I think it’s perfectly good to have HoF and Every Man for Himself on saparate keys ;)
Thanks for your feedback guys. You’re absolutely right, and the Druid, Hunter and I have all been frantically (but slooowly) trying to gear up in teh last few weeks (having missed the Tol Barad win trading and bridge exploit, apparently unlike everyone else) and have been chain running BGs/TB and will probably arena now whenever we’re on together. We’ve got all the crafted pieces and getting honor pieces too – I’m following your guide and Cynwise’s excellent strategy for gearing up efficiently, and we should be nearing 3k resilience by the end of the week I hope. Thanks though, 3k is a much better benchmark to shoot for, and i feel less bad that he’s so squishy!
I’m doing as you suggest, just renting the shield while I aim for the 1H mace. Any suggestion on where next to spend my hard-won Conquest points after that? I know it depends on gear but some pieces must be better bang for buck. I’m aiming for big upgrades, then +crit ones first, and saving legs/gloves till last cause they drop in BH. I presume I should keep renting the shield while I save up for other pieces?
Point taken about the keybinds, I might add a Shift:modifier to do EMFH separately, but I’m loving the macro so far and can’t wait to exploit the possibilites further. I’ll look at your bubble them/you/us macro and try and sort that for next time we play too, I’m sure that will help me mitigate better.
More questions, my standard cast to focus keybind is CTRL – yet it doesn’t seem to work with WOG, which is causing me obvious problems. Any suggestions? I’m thinking of doing a mouseover WOG macro and clicking player/raid frame? How do you keybind/cast these heals Taugrimm?
Also, how do you use Holy Radiance? Do you macro it to an ability to use every time it’s up? Or do you activate it at a key time?
I’d say you should use Holy Radiance as soon as you’re taking damage and as soon as it’s off the cooldown. It doesn’t look like an extra strong heal so I don’t see a reason to activate it at a key time. But I might be mistaken.
btw. I almost forgot to ask something.
When I was buying a weapon, I make a mistake and took the sword instead of the mace/axe. Is this a big issue and should I get the mace asap or should I get it after I have the vicious gear completed? Since I never tried to do some target practice with the mace and sword of the same level, I can’t tell how big the difference is :(
I make a mistake and took the sword instead of the mace/axe. Is this a big issue and should I get the mace asap or should I get it after I have the vicious gear completed?
Get the rest of your gear first, and don’t make the same mistake in future seasons.
Weapon is ALWAYS the first upgrade for any melee or Hunter class.
Well I bought the weapon first, it’s just that I bought the wrong one :S
Now I know I shouldn’t buy the sword, so I won’t buy it in the future.
Man us prot pallys are so under rated saying we don’t do enough burst and good job man u sure showed those haters :)
grats on the rating.i have recently started playing as peal and heal.My team wanted me to be dps in the beginning,but after the switch it has been a huge difference.we are currently running unholy dk,frost mage,and prot.One thing that has really helped me was I made macros for each of my teammates.It targets them,places hand of prot. on them and wog heals them.It really made the transition from being a wrecking ball to peal/heal alot easier.If hand is already used it will still target them and wog heal them.All from 1 button.
Can you copy the macro to here please? I like the sound of it. A macro button I have made is casting HoF and DPr on 1 button. I figure if I need HoF I’m generally taking damage and the DPr would be useful at the same time.
Only time it’s really wasted is against Druid roots but against warr’s hamstring, rogue poison and locks CoE, it helps out a bit.
Tau, is there a possibility for you to have some kind of a forum here or somewhere else? It would make the discussions a lot more organized and especially new people will have an easier time finding info they are looking for.
I am currently using WordPress.com to host this blog. This system does not support built-in forums. If I switch to using the WordPress.org software, there are forum plug-ins available.
Converting from WordPress.com to WordPress.org is something I don’t have time for right now.
If over time it becomes clear that WordPress.com is limiting my ability to deliver content and for players to interact, I may migrate over the WordPress.org. Just not yet.
hey taug.I have noticed something doing arenas,and was wondering if it is a bug or not.i haven’t been using my trinket while sheeped or polymorphed because i can still use excorcism,judgement,and AS.I got caught with trink,bubbles on cooldown,and just tried to do AS.It worked and I have been doing it since.Just seems odd,and was wondering if it was meant to be that way.Thanks
That sounds like a bug. You aren’t supposed to be able to use any trinkets or abilities while poly’d unless they are explicitly designed to be usable.
yeah its only when I am hexed.If that is what it is when you are a frog,but thankyou.