Guide to Making an Impact as an Undergeared Player in PvP

[DarkDaemon]

1. Use Consumables

Consumables play a bigger role in PvP than even PvE. At the bare minimum, you should have your planar weapon buffs, Weapon Aegis and the free bloodthirsty buff obtained from PA (if you're in a damaging role). Those cost nothing and boost your output. If you don't have them, work towards them with your PA points.

Other consumables, in order of importance, include:

Long Duration Consumables

Spoiler!

• Mercenary's Recon Vials

These are found in the Rift Store in the Boosts tab at the bottom for 6000 favor and last for a very long time. They're relatively cheap (costing less than what you could get from a single warfront) and make it much easier for you to spot enemy players.

• Oilstones/Whetstones/Powerstones

These are fairly cheap for their very long duration (4 hours). They boost your SP/AP by 350, or 70 more than PA weapon buffs. They're crafted by Weaponsmiths and Artificers, and can cost as little as 2 plat, which is again, less than what you get from winning a single Warfront.

• Insoles

Again, these are cheap for their long duration. They boost your runspeed by 13%, and mobility is very important in PvP. They are crafted by Outfitters.

• Food Buffs/Feasts

Food buffs can also increase your output in PvP. A feast of the ghar costs very little to make, and affects your whole team. Some food buffs, like Zirthan Fillet, cost under 20 gold to make.

I recommend Zirthan Fillet/Zirthan Curry if you need more HP, or Dry Rubbed Shank/Remora Poppers if you want offensive stats. If you're on a budget, Zirthan Fillet, Merpho Jerky and Remora Strips cost almost nothing (under 15 gold).

Overall, food buffs are some of the most cost efficient consumables. If you had to choose between weapon stones and food buffs, food will be a lot cheaper. You can also use food to heal yourself between engagements if there are no healers near by.

Short Duration/Instant Consumables

Spoiler!

• Panacea

This is an extremely powerful, yet often under used consumable made by Apothocaries. It cleanses you of all poison, disease and curse effects (effectively anything that can be cleansed), acting as a self-sterilize. With a 2 minute cooldown and costing under a platinum to make, this is one of the most important consumables any player can have.

Use this when you have an important debuff that has to be cleansed, such as Transference or Arresting Presence, (especially if you have a bunch of DoTs on you) or if you've been loaded up with DoTs (such as if a reaver had just cast shadow of dread on you). Shares a cooldown with Elixir of Freedom.

• Major Energy/Charge Potion

This is a very seldom used consumable that instantly restores 60 charge/energy/power. It is obtainable from IAs and a daily quest in Scarwood Reach. This can be extremely useful if you had just been battle res'd, drained, or is otherwise out of energy. This has a cooldown of 2 minutes.

These potions are very cheap and generally cost under 5 gold on the Auction House.

Mighty Quickening Brew

This is another Apothecary made consumable. It boosts your run speed by 50% for 5 seconds. Although this effect can be extremely useful, this consumable is relatively expensive for the effect (costing around a plat to make). It shares a 2 minute cooldown with Major Energy/Charge potions.

• Healing Philters/Tonics/Potions

These are yet more Apothecary made consumables. They have a tremendous amount of utility in PvP, as their healing is not reduced by PvP reductions. Potions instantly restore your health, Tonics restore your health over 12 seconds, and Philters have an AOE effect (Healing Philters need to be thrown, healing 10 people, while Philters of Restoration heal the whole raid for a slightly larger amount over 30 seconds).

Although these are relatively expensive (costing as much as 7 plat for an illustrious philer) and share 2 minute cooldowns, they can make an extremely large impact on a match. They can crit.

Use a macro like:

tar @self
use@gtae Illustrious Healing Philter
targetlasttarget

• Explosive/Venom Philters

Explosive/Venom Philers are the last and least used consumable that will be covered in this guide. These are very expensive (costing as much as healing philters), Apothecary crafted items that are oGCD and must be aimed like a ground target AOE to deal damage. They share a 2 minute cooldown with other philters. Venom Philters deal more damage but Explosive Philters are instant.

The main benefit of these is that they deal full, AOE damage in PvP and are oGCD (and they can crit!). An oGCd, 10k hit can make all the difference when you're trying to burst down a healer. However, they are incredibly expensive for their effect.

Use a macro like:

use@gtae Explosive Philter

2. Use PA PvP Abilities

PA abilities are often extremely underused in PvP. If you're a warrior (especially if you're healing), use Defend on teammates that are getting focused! Rogues have Cleanse Soul (complete self cleanse on a 2 minute cooldown) and Anathema (reduces healing received by 10%), both of which can make a significant difference. Clerics can use Overload and Retribution. Finally, Mages have the infamous Rift Tomb and Rune Shield (which is great with a charge pot).

These PA abilities don't scale with stats and are useful no matter how low your damage is.

3. Play Support/Ranged

One of the silliest things I see undergeared players do is play melee DPS, especially on maps like Whitefall Steppes. If you're undergeared, you can make a much bigger impact playing support and ranged roles than DPS. Buffs, debuffs and utility do not scale with your AP/SP! Even if you can't get killing blows, covering the enemy team with debuffs and DoTs, and providing AOE pressure can be just as important as snipping down players.

Spoiler!

Mage:

Warlock and Elementalist can be effective at lower gear levels. Warlocks can cover the enemy team with DoTs, while Elementalists have excellent self-sustain.

Don't play Chloromancer or Harbinger at very low gear levels. Chloromancers are front line healers, and it's unlikely you'll do much damage before being killed as a very low HP Harbinger.

Warrior:

Play Reaver (with Plague Bringer). Focus on debuffing the enemy team, particularly healers. This is especially true as of 3.7, as Reaver is the only warrior spec with the Twisted Souls debuffs.

Don't play Paragon (or use 6 Warchanter) except on maps like Blighted Antechamber. Don't play 61 Tempest, period.

Rogue:

Bard (or some variant of battle bard) is your friend. Not only will you be able to provide your raid with buffs and a small amount of healing, you'll also have a little more HP than if you're DPS. Debuff priority enemy targets! Coda of Jeopardy does its full 1900 damage, per player, in PvP.

In Domination maps, Assassin is extremely powerful at all gear levels. Slip away from engagements and focus on capping.

Other decent rogue specs at lower geared levels include Nightblade, which possesses healing debuffs, and Ranger, which has an extremely powerful defensive cooldown.

Cleric:

Cabalists have one of the most powerful purges in the game - Sigil of Woe. Together with Dominion, a Cabalist can purge the entire enemy team of all its buffs in 4 GCDs, and many of those enemies will not re-buff themselves. Playing Cabalist will also allow you to provide CC, which does not scale with SP and AOE pressure.

Inquisitor also provides a large amount of utility for a DPS soul. Use your ST and AOE fears, and purge often. A single, well timed AOE fear can get your team the flag in black garden.

Don't play Shaman at low gear levels except in melee oriented maps. It has even less mitigation than Harbinger or Paragon, and you'll be wrecked.

I also do not recommend healing if you're very undergeared. Seeing the healer tag can cause players to feel that your team has enough healing. Also, if the enemy team is the slightest bit component, they'll hunt you down, and with low HP, a single DPS will probably be able to quickly kill you.

4. Learn to LoS/Run Away

One of the most important skills in PvP is knowing when you're being targeted. Learning how not to be targeted is a crucial part of survival. Even if you're not doing much damage just the sight of a living ally can boost the morale of your team.

Learn what you're being hit by. Turn on ability icons (Settings - Interface - Screen Messages). If you can see that you're taking damage from firestorm, natural splendor and living storm, as opposed to deadeye shot, reaping harvest or ethereal blast, you'll have a much easier time knowing if you're targeted. Run away if you see those single target abilities on you!

Find pillars and bits of terrain that you can LOS behind! Examples are the trees in the corner of the middle area in Black Garden, and the central portal in Karthan Ridge.

Get a range meter addon (I recommend Gadgets). Ranged specs have a range of 35 meters.

5. Play Specs that have Twisted Souls

Twisted Soul are two recently added debuffs that reduce a target's healing received. The Major version reduces healing received by 35%, while the Minor version reduces healing received by 15%. They both last 6 seconds and stack with each other, but only one can be on a target at any time. However, Twisted Souls (Minor) is typically attached to a passive buff or ability without a CD (and thus will generally always be up), while Twisted Souls (Major) tends to be attached to a 30 second CD ability.

The following abilities now apply Twisted Soul (Major)

• Reaver - Infestation
• Harbinger - Phase Step
• Shaman - Numbing Cold (Cooldown increased to 30s for parity. No longer affected by GCD)
• Nightblade - Dusk to Dawn
• Dervish - Earthfall

The following abilities now apply Twisted Soul (Minor)

• Nightblade - Fell Blades
• Reaver - Necrotic Wounds
• Marksman - Vampiric Munitions
• Ranger - Wolf Pet Maul
• Shaman - Crushing Blow
• Harbinger - Reaper's Blade
• Dervish - Lashing Wind

Playing as these specs, and placing Twisted Soul on priority targets (like strong healers or high burst DPS) will make a significant different to your team's performance. As a lower geared player, you can greatly aid your team by playing one of these specs (especially if it's ranged) and targeting through an allied player with high burst. Put the debuff on the target when they're being bursted, or when they're pressured

[DarkDaemon]

Updated with Twisted Soul

[Byaku]

Are you telling me to play REAVER?!

[GingerOne]

any information is welcome bringing my pvp exp from games like WoW and GW2 and Aion and adapting to work here.

[Lulutala]

Don't know if this is intended but plague bringer doesn't actually spread the heal debuff, it only applies it to your current target.

[DarkDaemon]

Don't know if this is intended but plague bringer doesn't actually spread the heal debuff, it only applies it to your current target.

Thanks. That's really sad to know, since Reaver's minor Twisted Soul is the worst version.

[VirusDancer]

Don't know if this is intended but plague bringer doesn't actually spread the heal debuff, it only applies it to your current target.

Wouldn't happen to know if the same happens with Vampiric while using an AoE, eh? And in the possible case of a ground targeted attack with no target present - that nobody gets debuffed?

[CaptGregg]

I compliment you DarkDaemon. Once again you are reaching out and attempting to improve the quality of PvP for everyone. Please keep up the good work.

[Kertji]

How favor is split in WF's now? It seems like more damage is more favor. Is level important or gear or patron? Why should anyone play healer then? Thanks for answering.

[KlaisV]

EDITED: Have my answer. Thanks for this guide.