PvP as a training for PvE

From a guildmate:

There’s a lot of spells in our spellbooks that we rarely use yet have a place when it comes to raiding and certain encounters – like last week while fighting the Faction Champions and I was told to stay in caster form and use Cyclone when needed. Uh, Cyclone, whassat *hunts through spellbooks* I’d never even used it before.. so it wasn’t even on my bars despite having the spell forever!

That is why I am always saying that PvP forces to play the class better.

Although, tbh, not so much with Deliorion – kitties have so few spells in their disposal that don’t require changing form. But even then, I still learned quite a bit about saving combo points and using them for the best result. And of course, one of the best things I’ve learned in PvP (although useless in PvE) is fighting hunters – Hibernate the pet, Cyclone the hunter, cast HoT’s on yourself, go kitty and kill the hunter. Devastatingly effective.

But with Lupia, PvP really forced me to learn to play the mage – when is something effective, how to distribute cooldowns – all those things that make the mage fun to play. And I must say that as a result, PvE became much more fun – there is no way I would have soloed Outland group quests without those skills.

And I can see how on Delanix my skills are improving thanks to very limited PvP I’ve done – judging the distances for Frost Shock root, escaping attackers when carrying a flag, alternating between humanoid and Ghost Wolf form to follow an escaping enemy, popping totems to benefit myself or the group in certain situations, etc etc. Although, I must admit I still have no cure for hunters…

I am not saying that everybody should do PvP, not at all. At first – on Delianna – I hated PvP. It truly sucked… well, I sucked. But I started doing battlegrounds with Lupia, to gear myself better – and at some point, realized I liked testing myself like that. Of course, having Knersus was a huge bonus – I truly miss that guy.

With every character I’ve thought the class is impossible to play effectively in PvP while the truth has been that it has been me – not knowing how to play. But I did not give up, I continued to learn from every battleground and every fight. I will never be a PvP king – but that is also not my goal. Now I am doing battlegrounds mostly for fun – and I am thinking about having Delanix’ planned second spec (healer) to be primarily for PvP – although I am sure it will be rather challenging.