Hi, I'm Daniel SoulWalker, a level 72 Sorcerer, and I would like to start playing PvP more so that I can not only get better at it, but to also get better at PvE, group play, understanding the game, and just plain understanding how to use Balance as effectively as I can, because it is by far my favorite school.
I started off on a bad foot with PvP at about level 20, when I kept getting paired up with level 70's. Now that I am a level 70, I thought I would have a better chance of winning. The thing is, I'm not sure I can use Balance as well as I thought I could. I've tried the strategy of controlling Spectral Blast, and while it was really cool to see a 4-pip spell do about 3000 damage, I think I could have done better by spamming it instead of trying to build up a one hit kill. Which brings me to my next point - I think I'm too defensive. I shield, heal, blade, trap, and try to one-hit kill, but by then, the opponent has a bubble up, several shields, a weakness on me, and has gotten rid of about 3/4's of my health. Would it simply be better to spam stuff, going on a more offensive route? Or can a defensive strategy still be effective? If so, how?
What attacks are good to use? As I said above, I've tried one-hit Spectral Blast, and one-hit Judgement, (And yes, I have been called a noob for doing it, something I do not appreciate) and have been considering Chimera, but I don't really know what to do, as nothing seems to be effective. 2v2 - 4v4 is pretty self-explanatory, (Sandstorm and Power Nova) but there's a lot more to think about in 1v1, like should I prepare for everything, go with one thing that might work for everything, etc. There's also the whole thing of figuring out what to put in, how much to put in, having a deck based specifically on one spell, or having several to be prepared, etc. Does anyone have some advice on setting up my deck? Because I know that a lose record can quickly turn into a win record with the perfect deck set up.
What's good for a Balance wizard to train in? I personally see this set up a lot:
Death to Feint (Which I have done) Ice to Tower (Which I have not done) Life to Satyr (Which I have not done) Sun to Colossal, and Extraordinary (I've done Sun to Gargantuan, and is Cloak really even worth the point? It really doesn't help, as it's quite obvious what you did) All Star Spells except Empowerment (I have Amplify)
And more recently, mainly in the PvP forums, Myth to Earthquake, which I have not done. Is there a better way to use your training points then this, or is this really the best way to go? And also, I would prefer if I could still use these spells in PvE, instead of being only good for PvP.
What's a good combo of pet talents? There's so many that could be useful: May Cast Spritely, May Cast Unicorn, Spell-Proof, Balance-Sniper, May Cast Pierce, and so much more. What's a good combo? Should I get one single talent that improves me like Spell-Proof, and improve it with pet-boosting abilities? Should I get only talents that improve me and nothing else? A May Cast heal talent? There's so many to choose from, I don't even know where to start.
What's the best gear to wear? So far it seems like the Waterworks hat, robe, and boots, along with the Tower of the Helephant athame (Lexicon Blade) and ring (Aureate Band) are still the best gear in the game, with wands, decks, and amulets pretty much always debatable. Has anyone actually compared all of the level 60-80 gear, not just for Balance, but for all the schools, and really made sure that these items are the best of the best to use? And what's the best wand and amulet to use? A wand with lots of critical, or critical block, or an amulet that gives you a blade or a heal, etc.? What about specific PvP gear? Is it better for PvP then regular gear?
I think that covers everything, and if you have other suggestions, or I forgot something and you want to tell me about it, they are always welcome. In fact, please do tell me everything. I want to be able to use the Balance school as effectively as possible, and I want to be helpful to both my friends and myself - and I need you guys to teach me how.
Thank you all so much for helping me in advance, -Daniel SoulWalker, Transcendent Sorcerer, Level 72
Lol boy I think you did cover everything. Um let's see I am not a balance so I can only give you some advice. One if you don't have a mastery amulet I recommend you get one, I myself do not but I am a commander so I am doing fine.( I am death btw).
You should get either myth mastery, death, or life mastery amulet. I would go with myth or death since you do have a healing spell. Death mastery isnt as great in 1v1 since its mainly for plagues and that stuff. So I think myth would be your best shot because of earthquake and shatter. Although if you really are having trouble with healing get a life mastery amulet.
Gear wise ww gear is good but you can go and get the Avalon crafted gear. I mean it's dabatable it gives good critical and some other stuff. But in the end it's up to you to decide.
Deck set up wise you probably can get away with using judgement builds. I would do blade, blade storm, feint, tc feint, pet feint( you don't need to). Then if they shielded use shatter, and if you have weakness use cleanse charm tc. Then hit them. Chimera probably isn't a good choice but I have seen balance players use hydra and spectral blast. Also mana burn is good to use. I wouldn't go crazy on defense because then you are wasting time. I would just use tower shields and those shields balance has ( gives three one fire,storm,and ice). Also get infection trained that is important you don't want the enemy to heal.
Pet wise is up to you I personally like spell proof, spell defy, spritely, may cast tower shield, or may cast unicorn. The pet is up to you if you want more damage go with pain giver. Although you will definitely want spell proof.
I think I covered everything to start you off good luck with pvp.
Thanks for responding, Snowyandspots, your insights sound pretty good, I'll make sure to try them out as soon as possible. (I haven't tried out your suggestions yet because I've been trying to do the Tower of the Helephant to get the Lexicon Blade and Aureate Band, but so far, to no avail) I have a few things to say regarding your post, though.
First off, this is probably going to be a really stupid question, but I'm assuming that I'd train Earthquake and have some Treasure Card Shatter to make use of the Myth Mastery Amulet, right? Or maybe have both of them as Treasure Cards? Which one would be better?
Second, I've looked at the Avalon crafted gear, and I've compared it to the Waterworks gear, but in my opinion, the Waterworks gear is better based on the comparison I did.
As for a Judgement set-up, I've tried doing something very similar to what you described, but it takes so long to set it up because of people doing Tower Shield and Weakness, and then they hit me pretty hard so I have to heal, and so it takes forever unless my opponent just lets me hit them. Shatter and Cleanse Charm should fix that though. Thanks a lot for that - Judge should become much easier to use with those cards. Although, if I one-hit kill them, (because all of those Feints should make it pretty powerful) why would I need Infection?
Lastly, with the pets, I guess I'll just have to take a look at what there is and try to devise an ultimate pet or something then, if it's up to me.
Again, thank you so much for your response, it should prove really helpful. If some more people could also post their ideas though, that would be great, especially if a Sorcerer that went through the same problems as me posted!
It is up to you if you wish to train to earthquake. I would if you plan on doing more than just 1v1. Treasure earths should work just fine. Again yes use treasure shatter.
The infection is for if the attack fails. One hit ko isn't easy to achieve if the person knows what they are doing. In general infection is a key spell for pvp. Me personally I like to kill my opponents on the slower end since I am death. The strategy I listed for you is just one that I know balance wizards like using. My last recent fight with a balance resulted in me losing because he used a combination of judgement and mana burn. I recommend mana burn but it is key you time it right. When your enemy is planning on a big attack use it because those pips will hurt him.
Sorry I can't give you more help I am not a balance and I havent faced a ton of balance due to them having trouble in pvp right now. Gl with pvp.
For balance I recomment feints, few tri blades, both universal blades, mana burn, judge, super nova ( the star spell breaker ), sandstorm (for minions), and maybe even carry scorpion to get rid of shields or minimum damage, elemental and/or mander minion. Of course then its up to you to what mastery amulet you prefer if you pick myth you'll need to carry plenty of availing hands.
So did you even read beyond the part where I introduce my self, garrett690? I'm not trying to be rude or anything like that, but I'm pretty sure that if you had read the whole thing, you would have figured out that I have no trouble in 2v2 - 4v4, and that I need help in 1v1, and in my opinion, as long as a Sorcerer knows how to use their cards right (pun intended), and they have a good strategy and all that good stuff, they can excel in 1v1.
And Snowyandspots, thanks again for helping me out. As before, your comments were helpful, and thanks for clarifying your points to me. I'm trying to get some crowns to re-distribute my Training Points better, but I'm not really sure I can soon because I don't get money very easily.
Ever since I got all my Waterworks gear, I've had an insanely easier time in PvP. Maybe my luck is finally kicking in, maybe I somehow got better without changing my deck formula, and although I have no idea what happened, I'm thankful for it because I've been doing much better in the arena. :D
I'm currently using a Judgement deck, and it's actually working quite well, so I think I'll be o.k. for a while, and I've been thinking, until this stops working, why don't we turn this topic into more of a, helpful tips for Sorcerers, a place for Sorcerers to ask for help, and that general kind of thing topic? We might as well make this topic useful for more then a couple days, right? So by all means, any Sorcerers with anything to say about PvP, whether it be asking for help or giving it or anything else related to PvP, by all means, please do so here. :)
Hmmm, well you will need all ww gear for sure. Balance is a good 2v2er so I reccomend getting a friend to help you. Your wand, bow, staff, etc. HAS to have good block or storm and fire will kill you with their high critical ratings. If you get a life pvp partner you may want to have them get a Cosmic Chris and Stellar Signet because those give more healing boost than any other ring and athame. Life mastery amulet! I would reccomend balance mastery but your balance, and I would only reccomend myth mastery to lifes. You dont have satyr which was a horrible mistake so what you dont have you make up for it in tc. The tc seller in zf has satyr tc. Your ring and athame would be Lexicon and Auerate or whatever (I am a horrible speller :P) Your pet will take time to be good so try to get a good pet and I reccomend a storm beetle, sea dragon, lathine hound, ghost hound, or fierce hound because those are good pets. Get them to 5 resist, 10 resist, Spritely, and I prefer anything else that is not selfish unless it is resist because it han help a little. Try to get TOWER SHIELD YOU NEED IT! Do some Zeke Quests or any zf or av quests that give training points or buy tp back.
Hi, I'm Daniel SoulWalker, a level 72 Sorcerer, and I would like to start playing PvP more so that I can not only get better at it, but to also get better at PvE, group play, understanding the game, and just plain understanding how to use Balance as effectively as I can, because it is by far my favorite school.
I started off on a bad foot with PvP at about level 20, when I kept getting paired up with level 70's. Now that I am a level 70, I thought I would have a better chance of winning. The thing is, I'm not sure I can use Balance as well as I thought I could. I've tried the strategy of controlling Spectral Blast, and while it was really cool to see a 4-pip spell do about 3000 damage, I think I could have done better by spamming it instead of trying to build up a one hit kill. Which brings me to my next point - I think I'm too defensive. I shield, heal, blade, trap, and try to one-hit kill, but by then, the opponent has a bubble up, several shields, a weakness on me, and has gotten rid of about 3/4's of my health. Would it simply be better to spam stuff, going on a more offensive route? Or can a defensive strategy still be effective? If so, how?
What attacks are good to use? As I said above, I've tried one-hit Spectral Blast, and one-hit Judgement, (And yes, I have been called a noob for doing it, something I do not appreciate) and have been considering Chimera, but I don't really know what to do, as nothing seems to be effective. 2v2 - 4v4 is pretty self-explanatory, (Sandstorm and Power Nova) but there's a lot more to think about in 1v1, like should I prepare for everything, go with one thing that might work for everything, etc. There's also the whole thing of figuring out what to put in, how much to put in, having a deck based specifically on one spell, or having several to be prepared, etc. Does anyone have some advice on setting up my deck? Because I know that a lose record can quickly turn into a win record with the perfect deck set up.
What's good for a Balance wizard to train in? I personally see this set up a lot:
Death to Feint (Which I have done) Ice to Tower (Which I have not done) Life to Satyr (Which I have not done) Sun to Colossal, and Extraordinary (I've done Sun to Gargantuan, and is Cloak really even worth the point? It really doesn't help, as it's quite obvious what you did) All Star Spells except Empowerment (I have Amplify)
And more recently, mainly in the PvP forums, Myth to Earthquake, which I have not done. Is there a better way to use your training points then this, or is this really the best way to go? And also, I would prefer if I could still use these spells in PvE, instead of being only good for PvP.
What's a good combo of pet talents? There's so many that could be useful: May Cast Spritely, May Cast Unicorn, Spell-Proof, Balance-Sniper, May Cast Pierce, and so much more. What's a good combo? Should I get one single talent that improves me like Spell-Proof, and improve it with pet-boosting abilities? Should I get only talents that improve me and nothing else? A May Cast heal talent? There's so many to choose from, I don't even know where to start.
What's the best gear to wear? So far it seems like the Waterworks hat, robe, and boots, along with the Tower of the Helephant athame (Lexicon Blade) and ring (Aureate Band) are still the best gear in the game, with wands, decks, and amulets pretty much always debatable. Has anyone actually compared all of the level 60-80 gear, not just for Balance, but for all the schools, and really made sure that these items are the best of the best to use? And what's the best wand and amulet to use? A wand with lots of critical, or critical block, or an amulet that gives you a blade or a heal, etc.? What about specific PvP gear? Is it better for PvP then regular gear?
I think that covers everything, and if you have other suggestions, or I forgot something and you want to tell me about it, they are always welcome. In fact, please do tell me everything. I want to be able to use the Balance school as effectively as possible, and I want to be helpful to both my friends and myself - and I need you guys to teach me how.
Thank you all so much for helping me in advance, -Daniel SoulWalker, Transcendent Sorcerer, Level 72
As a Level 90 Balance warlord this is what i spent my training points on: Death to doom, Infect Myth to earth Ice to tower Infallible, Conviction, 15% Resist, Punishment. +10% to blade to blade stack +10% to trap to feint stack
The strategy that has worked for me is pressure judge, it keeps them unsure and with piercing tcs, Knocks ice down to 20%. 2000 damage with 5 pips. Recently, I have been comboing judge with mana burn. Keeps the pips down (Ice and myth, keeping them from LOW or CC) and if they start low pip smamming i have judge and feint and or my new kitty spell so i don't use all my pips. i always carry balance dispels for life, and myth dispels (Myth mastery) With supernova, judge, earth, and the card that removes all shields. (3 pips) in my side deck.
Tower is important against balance or anything, great with weakness. Earth - blades and shields for turtles Feint - massive damage, balance must have I mostly use infallible and punishment now since i have 72% damage and 23 universal. (I can use a ice spell better than a ice wiz can with max blades!)
I have always used cloak to multiply shields, weakness, so when i reshuffle instead of my deck getting worse, i get what i need more. i carry Dooms and myth bubbles to keep the arena in my favor. Ideally its a aggressive defense. they lose health while i defend and i keep doom/Infects up (I mainly use death mastery for defensive play.)
