Just a random solo pug warfront that shows alot of PVP topics I have covered.  I am still working on the narration part.

Part 1 

Part 2

Part 3 

Part 4

Hello, my name is Vvix, and I have been playing my mage/wizard alongside Dissb for over 3 years now.  He asked I write about a useful topic that could possibly help people in PVP.

With that said, I would like to briefly talk about practicing overall awareness.  This topic is extremely broad and I intend to elaborate more about it in the near future.  Practicing awareness in PVP is extremely important and comes in various forms.  In my eyes, having good awareness encompasses being able to maintain attention to multiple aspects of any given situation, whether it be in Warfronts or ORVR.

At first, start thinking about things like:

• Which guys in PVP counter you the best?
• Which debuffs give your class the most trouble?

Then, familiarize yourself with who you are fighting:

• Who are their key DPS and Healers?
• Are people playing specific specs that are designed to counter your group setups?
• Where is your key support class friend?  Is he getting pummeled by that high damage warrior?
• Are we getting overwhelmed by the enemies to the point where it’s time to start extending back?
• Do I or my teammates have key debuffs that need to be dispelled ASAP.

It is important that you create a mental checklist, or write them down if that helps you, and go over them during or after your games.  Being able to address all of those questions on the fly can be the difference between a win, or a loss.

Another key point that can make a difference between surviving many PVP situations is, knowing where specific people are and what they are doing at that exact time.  It is also one of the hardest skills to master, simply because there are so many things that can distract you and mess up your awareness.  More often than not, being unable to get that kill on a key person, or not being able to get healed or heal someone in time, will result in a partial or total loss.

Once you feel like you have a good grasp on practicing awareness, try playing a hybrid class such a chloromancer/dominator, where you have so many abilities at your disposal such as, healing, CC, debuff’ing and reactive DPS.  These builds are extremely difficult to play effectively when compared to a regular DPS or healing class.  This will ultimately be a true test of your skill and practicing overall awareness.

And last but not least, DON’T FORGET TO PAN YOUR CAMERA.

One of the things I currently like about Rift, is the use of NO addons, because this puts everyone on the same playing field.  Playing my wizard in Warhammer was much easier than playing my mage in Rift, primarily because of an addon called Buffhead, which displayed buffs and debuffs on your target.

As I began playing Rift, one of the first things I did was move my player and enemy portrait down toward the middle of my screen.  I did this because I wanted to see my health and mana relatively quick.  Analyzing data instantly without having to shift your eyes to a different portion of the screen is extremely important.  Speed is everything, and being able to cut ¼ of a second is a lot.  The second thing I did, was my move the buff bar for myself and the targetted enemy just underneath the portrait.  I also moved my target’s target, just to the right of the enemy portrait.  This is very important when assisting, which I will talk about in a later post.

Now many of you may ask why are you telling me all this?  It all stemmed from my latest unnarrated videos uploaded on YouTube.  A guild mate who plays a mage as an ALT, made several comments on my gameplay.  I thought to myself, I wonder if we look at the same thing, so I asked him, “What do you primarily look at when you are DPS’ing a target?”  He gave a few answers, but none of them were what I look at.  I told him, “I look at the enemy’s buff bar, to see what DOTS he has on him.”

When you  are attacking an enemy, it is difficult to differentiate between resists.  Are they resisting a particular DOT tick, or are they resisting your most recent DOT you casted?  This problem can easily be alleviated by focusing on his buff bar.  Another good reason to look at their buff bar is to see if one of your DOTS were dispelled.

Get to know the icons of your DOTS, and make sure to reapply them to your target if they vanish.  This will help in efficiently burning down your targets and maximizing your overall DPS.

I am testing the quality of my FRAPS videos of a Codex Warfront, broken up in 4 parts.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4