Sunday, July 3, 2011 at 11:09 PM |  
When PvP'ing, its often difficult to tell what class you're facing, much less what souls he is using. This makes it difficult to know your enemy, so what's a rogue to do? Continue reading.

Melee Clerics

These guys come in 2 flavors: Shaman and Druid. Both rely on melee weapon attacks to deal primary damage, so avoiding melee range can significantly reduce your incoming damage. Shaman-Druid is a common PvP spec, and in this spec, kiting and/or healing debuffs are your best friends.

Shamans
Easily identifiable by the snowflake buff, or if they charge you, Shamans deal combination melee and magical damage. Of their damage, the magic damage is more "bursty" so preventing it with Cleanse Soul is extremely helpful. Avoiding melee damage can be a big help as well, especially when they use Faceroll of the North. Shamans have self-heals and shields so healing debuffs and/or Eradicate can help quite a bit.

Druids
If they have a Satyr demon pet, they're a druid. Druids also do combination melee and magical damage, and their pet is full-on melee and does solid damage. Because druids are so often paired with Shaman, and because, like Shaman, druids primarily rely on weapon strikes to deal damage, moves like Side Steps are extremely effective against druids. Druids also have self-heals and shields.

Caster Clerics

Caster Clerics come in 3 flavors: Inquisitor, Cabalist and Cherry. These Clerics deal heavy magic damage, and thus having Cleanse Soul or some other form of magic avoidance is crucial to surviving. Like all clerics, expect some self-healing even if they are full-out DPS oriented.

Inquisitor
This is an extremely popular choice because of the high damage, versatility and AOE. You can identify them through the shield buff and when you see it, expect bursty-magic damage. Most of them mindlessly try to cast AOE Soul Drain or Circle of Oblivion in groups of your teammates. If you're ranged, go ahead and kill them, otherwise don't eat the damage. These guys spam the high-damage instant Sanction Heretic, which is the biggest thing you have to worry about. Cleanse Soul is vital.

Cabalist
This rare animal is not spotted much on the PvP battlefield because it sucks, except as a support soul. If left alone they can deal heavy burst magic damage, so if you see one of these, just go fucking kill it.

Healing Clerics

Warden
Wardens are really the only healing soul that is a major threat. With their major hots and reactive healing from orbs, they are a big pain in the ass. Typical they will be difficult to kill, and so should be saved until last, as their healing output is not as high as other healer souls against focus fire.

Not Warden
Purifiers and Sentinels are much easier to kill than Wardens, and are also much better healers. As a result, Purifiers and Sentinels should be priority targets in an engagement, which an emphasis on interrupting their castable heals and Eradicating if you have it to remove shields. If warden is also sentinel, they will have less damage reduction abilities and should be treated like a non-Warden. Just kill them.

Support Souls

Justicar
This is easily identifiable and immediately tells you that the cleric is spec'd into passive-healing and damage reduction. You most often see this paired with Warden and Inquisitor but it can be done with anything. Anyone sporting the Justicar soul will be harder to kill but also deal less damage or do less healing.

Templar
Templars are hard to quickly identify because they don't have any tell-tale buffs. Typically if you see a Warden-Justicar, this will be their third soul. The giveaway is that most of the time, when they cast a heal, they will receive a golden shield buff. Treat them basically like Justicars.

Putting it Together

Obviously, you can't think of someone as "just" an Inquisitor or "just" Druid. Instead, categorize them by their playstyle. Do they intend to cast on you from range? Treat them like a caster. Do they try to hang back and heal? Healer. Do they try to melee? You get the idea. You can then isolate their abilities by their buffs, as I've outlined and get an idea of what options and they have, and thus how they will try to kill or survive you.

For example, Shaman-Inquisitor is very common. This type of cleric will attempt to melee you, but he has a lot of magic damage at his disposal. Recognize the Inquisitor soul, despite his melee attacks, and be ready to use Cleanse Soul at the right time to survive his onslaught.

The key is being versatile and observant. Knowing what your opponent can do is the first step to knowing what he will do. Don't be surprised when that Druid self-heals to full. Don't be shocked when that healer suddenly hits you with Sanction Heretic for 2k. Be ready.
Posted by Dunsparrow

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