i am a L41 nelf druid with a balance spec.

i am not proud, and will confess i am not very good at pvp, much more practice needed!

my main problem with a surprise pvp attack is what to start with, whether i should be aiming for some dps or to buy myself some time (to do...something...what?), etc?

and please any suggestions for how best to respond to fearing? i really seem to be putty in any half-decent warlock's hands, not cool.

grateful for any suggestions, tyvm!

Shapeshifting will break certain fear effects.

I'm a huge fan of Entangling Roots....if, during a surprise attack, I can manage to pull them off, I run, run, run while self-casting rejeuve, and depending on the damage I've taken I cast a regrowth if needed.

That buys me some time to entangle again, because at that point back up has usually arrived. I'm the healer, so I'm usually with somebody. So I stay and heal until the bugger is down.

Not a perfect strategy, but I flinch while on a battlefield - lol - and it seems to get me out of sticky situations.

Once in WsG it was just me and a Tauren Warrior. He obviously outpowered me, and I had no hope on actually taking him down. So, I evaded him with roots, cyclone, self-heals, and running (of course). He chased me around the field for about 4 minutes. It was the funniest thing I've ever experienced in PvP. I laughed hysterically the entire time. He was furious. He spit on me when he finally got me. :grin: I had a blast.

Shifting will break polymorph and snaring effects, but not fears unfortunately. Only warriors and undead have the ability to break fear. There's a trinket with a ( 2 min cooldown I think? ) from PvP that will break fear.

If you are going to PvP I suggest getting the talent "Nature's Grasp" and going 4/4 into Improved Nature's Grasp and always remembering to keep it buffed on yourself. This will allow you to escape out of some hairy situations with rogues and warriors ( and sometimes other druids if they don't realize they can shape shift out of the roots ). Warlocks were always the bane of my existence as a druid. As resto I had a bit more luck, sometimes able to outlast them, but as feral I could never do enough burst damage to get them down, and I never went balance at high level to know how that would fair against one :\

Nature's Grasp would be an excellent defensive starting move for if you get jumped by a melee class.


-Annikk

Seriously. If you're a moonkin, you're a caster. Root the damn melee then blow them up from a distance. Don't exactly have to be the next Clausewitz...

Ok, I've had a bit more time to think about this, and taking your level into account, the following things are useful to do when you first realise you're under attack.

1. Find out what is attacking you. Attacks from rogues require different responses than attacks from say, a warlock.


2. Heal yourself. If you're still working on figuring out what's attacking you, start healing yourself to buy time.
However, try not to be forced into a situation where you have to continue spamming heals just to stay alive. This is called "turtling" and you need some creative and fast thinking to get out of these situations, or your opponent needs to make a mistake.


3. Activate Barkskin. This increases your damage mitigation and prevents spell pushback. Now you can cast a disabling spell such as entangling roots without your cast bar constantly getting pushed back.
You can cast barkskin even when you are stunned. If you realise a rogue is stunlocking you to death, it's almost always best to use barkskin immedietely.


4. Entangling roots. This works great on melees, but remember your roots will only be effective on the first 2 casts. By the 3rd cast the diminishing returns will have reduced the duration of the roots to such a point that it's no longer useful. On the 4th cast, the player will be completely immune.


5. Run away. If you just want to survive, running away is always one of the best options for druids. You don't need to do roots first, you don't even need to figure out who or what is attacking you - shifting to cheetah form and fleeing at the first sign of trouble is a highly effective way to stay alive.
If you get slowed or immobilised, just shapeshift out of cheetah form, then back into cheetah form again. This removes all slow/snare effects. Cast rejuvenation on yourself whilst continuing to run when you think it's safe enough to do so.

You can also use Dash - a cat form ability - if you want to run away even faster. Dash has a 5 minute cooldown, and it disappears if you shift out of cat form before the full duration.


6. Bash. This is a bear form ability. To use it, you'll need some rage, so after shifting to bear form just hit your enemy once. Then you have enough rage for a 4 second stun. That's enough time to heal yourself, or entangle the enemy, or run away with a very significant head start.


There are dozens of possible ways to respond to an attack - you could also take advantage of the natural environment by jumping into water, or down into a ravine making use of cat form's Safe Fall component. It really depends on the situation, your familiarity with all druid abilities, and how quickly you are able to respond and formulate a plan for counterattack/escape.


-Annikk

awesome guys, thanks heaps. i love how this site not only gives the specific advice, but also helps noobs (like me) to develop the right style of thought process.

very grateful, thanks all!

You are most welcome :>

And that's a surprisingly penetrating observation. The thought process that we pass through when we're doing that druid thing - pulling it out the bag and saving the day - is a complex subject, and worthy of discussion and study.

The "hybrid instinct" is something a lot of raid leaders look for in their druids and shamans. By this I mean, for example, the ability to offheal without being asked, simply by noticing someone is low on health, and having the initiative to fix the problem yourself because keeping them alive is more important than spending those 3-4 sec as dps.


-Annikk