Each Arena bracket is played fairly differently and each require a different mindset when going into them. 2s is much relaxed and focused on setting up kills, 5s is just an aneurysm waiting to happen, but 3s is what we'll deal with.
3v3 is a lot of preemptive action and simply understanding how a team will play just based on what comp they play is key. By preemptive I mean, for example, knowing an enemy rogue is going to Smoke Bomb and doing something before he does like getting BoP'd or Stunning the Rogue. Not preemptively guarding against stuff causes defensive cool downs to be forced on your team and each time something unexpected happens you get that much closer to losing.
Another use of preemptive thinking for healers is positioning, if you know you want to get aggressive against the other team and push into their side of the map, you need to position yourself in a way that allows you to continue healing, offer Crowd Control assistance BUT also gives you a route of escape if things go south.
Communication is everything.
Another thing that must be learnt and loved is communication. Overlapping Crowd Control or using too many defensive cool downs together can pretty much mean you're throwing the match. Everyone is different, but if you are really interested in getting into arenas then you've gotta consider using a mic and loving it. Skype is the best option for this in my opinion since push-to-talk is suuuuuuuuck.
Last word about communication, you need to talk, especially in 3s, talk to your damage partner and talk to your healer. Everything that is important to know or what you want to do, whether it is cool downs you've used, cool downs the enemy team has used or which target you want to beat the ever loving crap out of next is something that you've gotta let your partners know. Which is a nice seaway into the next topic, Switching!
It doesn't matter what arena comp you are running or facing or however good it seems to work just focusing one target down if you only train, UR DOING IT RONG. Switching targets whenever their is a prime chance can end up causing more pressure then continuing to train. Whenever you put healers in the predicament of having to choose which person to heal, you are creating pressure and continued pressuring normally causes a win or at least an OOM healer.
General prime times to switch targets could be when cool downs like pain supress, BoP, Spirit Link and so on are used. Another could be simply if you and your partner have cool downs up and want to switch onto something with them activated. Finding good switches is very important to succeeding, and while most any switch will cause pressure, some can just out right win the match if the right switch is done at the right time.
3v3 is a lot of preemptive action and simply understanding how a team will play just based on what comp they play is key. By preemptive I mean, for example, knowing an enemy rogue is going to Smoke Bomb and doing something before he does like getting BoP'd or Stunning the Rogue. Not preemptively guarding against stuff causes defensive cool downs to be forced on your team and each time something unexpected happens you get that much closer to losing.
Another use of preemptive thinking for healers is positioning, if you know you want to get aggressive against the other team and push into their side of the map, you need to position yourself in a way that allows you to continue healing, offer Crowd Control assistance BUT also gives you a route of escape if things go south.
Communication is everything.
Another thing that must be learnt and loved is communication. Overlapping Crowd Control or using too many defensive cool downs together can pretty much mean you're throwing the match. Everyone is different, but if you are really interested in getting into arenas then you've gotta consider using a mic and loving it. Skype is the best option for this in my opinion since push-to-talk is suuuuuuuuck.
Last word about communication, you need to talk, especially in 3s, talk to your damage partner and talk to your healer. Everything that is important to know or what you want to do, whether it is cool downs you've used, cool downs the enemy team has used or which target you want to beat the ever loving crap out of next is something that you've gotta let your partners know. Which is a nice seaway into the next topic, Switching!
It doesn't matter what arena comp you are running or facing or however good it seems to work just focusing one target down if you only train, UR DOING IT RONG. Switching targets whenever their is a prime chance can end up causing more pressure then continuing to train. Whenever you put healers in the predicament of having to choose which person to heal, you are creating pressure and continued pressuring normally causes a win or at least an OOM healer.
General prime times to switch targets could be when cool downs like pain supress, BoP, Spirit Link and so on are used. Another could be simply if you and your partner have cool downs up and want to switch onto something with them activated. Finding good switches is very important to succeeding, and while most any switch will cause pressure, some can just out right win the match if the right switch is done at the right time.
Edited by Wubkin on 6/26/2012 8:27 AM PDT
