Improving Situational Awareness with PvP

[Reena]

Hey guys,

So it's old news that I have terrible situational awareness and reaction time. Honestly, I think it's more of a reaction time issue. I've always been terrible at twitch gaming. Even when I anticipate something, somehow, I'm always hit by the tail end of it. Obviously, this affects my raiding.

Last night, I was talking to Ounce about how to improve it and he brought up the idea of PvP. I started looking into this online and indeed, it's a common topic of discussion when people want to improve in those aforementioned areas. Do you any of you have ideas in specific elements of, or arenas, to focus on, in order to improve? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

[Marduk]

I haven't spent much time with the Proving Grounds (PG) in Warlords, but the Tank PG is good for this (and also good because it is a solo environment where you can make mistakes without anyone watching ). Are the DMG or Healing PGs any good for this?

[Reena]

It definitely is in a general awareness sense, but I find that it also, at points, focuses a lot on abilities that we might not use as frequently. Perhaps this is a good thing, to be more well rounded. I have done gold healer and gotten to wave 15 on endless. I haven't gone in there in a month and half or so, so good idea! Thanks!

[Lyricaa]

Proving grounds is good but it is by it's nature repetitive and you know what's coming each wave. PVP definitely requires faster reaction time. Faster than I can do well. But I think it can be a good challenge to react quickly to things. Makes using your defensives and your emergency healing spells come more easily. I'm guessing for healing it might not help with raid cool down spells or getting out of things on the ground quickly though. Although my healing in PVP is limited to a level 30 druid so take what I say with a grain of salt. Areanas are more taxing as people will come for you first. You'll have to be able to survive the initial onslaught and keep others up too if they switch focus.

[Ounce]

Yeah, I was going to write a post similar to what Lyri wrote about it, with a few alterations. You actually DO get used to figuring out how to use your big cooldowns well in pvp. And specifically battlegrounds are what I would recommend over arena -- the more variation the better. What you are aiming for is NOT being able to anticipate what is going to come. Once you get used to that, it makes being aware of what's going on much easier in a more scripted situation.

The biggest thing about playing pvp as a healer is that you are required to "play the field of vision" more than you do in pve -- the specific thing that helps with situational awareness. To be a top-end pvper, you need to be able to be seeing everything going on around you in addition to watching your team's health bars.

[Rasereda]

The thing with PvP though is while it does require a lot of reaction time and is great for that kinda practice,what makes a good PvP player is actually being able to anticipate what the opponent will do and be able to react to it, especially in BGs. So the anticipation and reaction are not exclusive but complimentary to each other. You are still going to need the flexibility and awareness even if you see the charge coming because you're still in for a fight, you just have a better idea of the numbers and what you're going up against, like studying the boss abilities before a raid fight, except right then and there. For instance, having map awareness (not just the battleground map but your field of vision across the map as well) will not only get you where you ought to be faster but knowing the next movement of the opponent will help you thwart any sort of advances they try to make, or prevent you from going to your doom. While you don't have to worry about map awareness as much in PvE apart from your immediate area, the fact you're juggling different forms of awareness will increase your general awareness and adaptability to any given situation.

If you're focused more on simply learning to heal and avoid things in a fast paced situation on a none massive scale, I think BGs like Temple of Kotmogu, Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks (maybe Silvershard mines) will make you worry more about keeping people alive than having to worry about objectives, since other people will most likely be doing the flag running while you simply keep them and yourself alive and CC your opponents. If you're looking for a more overall experience of awareness, flag turning games like Arathi Basin, Battle for Gilneas, Eye of the Storm and Deepwind Gorge will ask that you pay more attention to the movement of players on the map as well as your normal duties as a healer; and don't forget to watch that flag! (don't want them to be ninjaed after all =p). While all of these BGs require both map awareness and skill I'm trying to put into general categories to help get an idea of what is expected more in each BG. The larger 40 man BGs, while still good practice, is a lot more difficult to control and is more chaotic which is why I don't really mention them. You're likely to get into a variety of different situations through 40 man BGs, without as much sense of accomplishment since results are spread between 40 different people, unless you're just being amazing/sneaky =p.

Hope that helps ^_^.