PvP combat has to be one of the most intense and exciting parts of the WoW experience. Working together with your teammates is great fun, and once you start getting good at it, well PvP gets pretty addictive. But Player versus Player can be difficult when you first start. It's confusing, and you seem to spend most of your time dead. And even if you've been competing for some time, it's not hard to lose track of the basics. I know this from personal experience. Particularly once you're having success, you can easily get caught up in the moment and forget some of the basics that got you where you are now in the first place.

With that out of the way, let's talk about three fundamental tactics you need to apply whether you're new to this whole PvP thing, or kicking butt at a high level in WotLK.

First, you need to be able to heal yourself, at least a little. You may be brutally efficient at taking out the enemy quickly, and you may have healers along to take care of messy details like keeping you breathing, but when it comes to the crunch, you had better have some potions and bandages for emergency treatment of yourself. Do you really want to die because your healer was busy elsewhere on the battlefield, used up all his mana, or got called away by his mommy when you needed him most?

Second, learn how to create macros, make them for all your key actions, and use them. When you're surrounded by crazed enemies and deep in the middle of the mayhem, speed will mean the difference between life and death. Once you create and become skilled with macros for your special abilities and important spells, you'll have a massive advantage over people who don't use them.

Third, remember that you need to defend as well as attack. This is where getting wrapped up in the slaughter really causes problems. What use is it if you capture a base or take a flag, only to lose it again because nobody helped to defend it? The urge to chase down one more foe, to record one more kill can be almost irresistible, but sometimes the right thing you can do for your self and your side is to stay on the defensive.

Master these three fundamentals, and apply them consistently, even when the blood is singing in your ears, and you'll be a better, more popular PvPer. Still, freely-available information like this, and even your own massive skill will only take you so far. To really rule in PvP, you are going to need help.

To go as far as possible in PvP, you need the experience and insights gained by the best PvP gamers after hundreds of hours of combat. You could try to find an in-game mentor who would be willing to teach you (not very likely), or you can be smart and invest in a top PvP Guide. The best PvP guides provide not only basic information like that in this article, but specific, detailed information for each and every type of character. And the source of that information is the very best PvP players. The top PvP guides gather and organize the information for you, along with providing updates whenever a new patch like WotLK comes out.