Druid PvP Strats and Gear

[Watto44]

On mage range: The only two times I want to be closer to a player than further away are versus a hunter and towards the end of the fight when I'm using CoC, nova+shatter et al to generate burst damage. (Before TBC I would offen risk getting close to demo. loc's to try and hit their pet with CoC/Blast Wave, but that has become less affective as health totals have skyrocketed.:() In essence, that's the mage PvP strat: use range to your advantage as much as you can, understand where you should be in relation to the other player(s) at any given point, and exploit your kiting skills to the best of your ability. (Obviously there are a lot of little tricks that need to be thrown in, but those're the basics as I see them.)

EDIT: Oh, and there's Frost Nova as well, but that's a way of keeping distance.

My favorite mage trick versus druids is using nova to burn their frenzied regeneration.:D(That is, of course, assuming I can live for long enough to make them pop it in the first place.:))

Oh, and one tasty druid trick I just remembered: if you see a mage pop arcane power, chain cyclone him/her for the duration. Always fun and rewarding.:D

[Brista]

Mages don't like melee. They have two instants that are used regularly which require them to be within 20 feet range, that's it. Fireblast and Cone of Cold/Dragon's Breath (same cooldown, so I count 'em as one). The rest of the time, they want to be AWAY from you.

I didn't mean melee. You can be close to someone without being in melee range.

I regularly see Fireblast, CoC/Dragons Breath, Frost Nova, Arcane Explosion, Blastwave when fighting mages all of which need to be cast close up (ie closer than 20 yards)

Is it semantics? 18 yards away is close to me and in the context of them blinking away from you out of a root then getting re-rooted the tactic shuts down those spells I've enumerated since their Blink will take them 20 yards further away

[Taelas]

I didn't mean melee. You can be close to someone without being in melee range.

I regularly see Fireblast, CoC/Dragons Breath, Frost Nova, Arcane Explosion, Blastwave when fighting mages all of which need to be cast close up (ie closer than 20 yards)

Is it semantics? 18 yards away is close to me and in the context of them blinking away from you out of a root then getting re-rooted the tactic shuts down those spells I've enumerated since their Blink will take them 20 yards further away

Generally a mage will play around the 20-yard range mark, yes.

I admit I forgot about Blast Wave as well. That's still only one more spell, though. Arcane Explosion literally requires you to be in melee; if you're using it, you're in one of two situations: a.) you're suiciding, b.) you're finishing off a foe on less than 5% health, and Fireblast and CoC/DB are on cooldown.

And no. Blink does not take you 20 yards "further away". It teleports you 20 yards straight ahead. If you're fighting a mage who's facing you, all you're doing is bringing him either behind you or right in front of you. In order for him to teleport so far away from you that he can't use his instants, he'll most likely face away from you, in which case he'll be out of range of your Roots.