LFG

This section of the guide will show you how to connect with players for faster queues and gain the experience needed to get gladiator season after season. These strategies are what get you quality queues from 1800 all the way to Rank 1. This section of the guide alone can save you hundreds if not thousands of hours.

Players around 1800 to 2300 CR eventually come to the realization that waiting in LFG for a good healer and DPS for your first duelist or gladiator can take hundreds of hours. You play a queue session, then they leave party and you have to go back in LFG multiple times. This is where whisper macros come in handy.

Whisper macros are a tactic that have been used for over a decade by almost every rank 1 player I know. These macros are how players break in to groups of good players, make friends, and get their first gladiator and rank 1. Originally the strategy was to look up a pvp ladder, sort by the specialization you wanted to play with, then create a macro that when pressed whispered them to play. Creating 20 whisper macros for healers, and 10 for DPS was the best approach. Every time someone was whispered, you would manually switch their name out for a new player.

Since many players face this same issue I build the addon WhisperMacros to address this: WhisperMacros
This addon allows you to build whisper macros by the hundreds in seconds.

Select the Whisper Macros LFG group.

Select Find Players.

Copy and paste this leaderboard into a browser.

Filter for specializations you want to play with. Ensure your realm and faction are correct.

Copy rows of players.

Paste, then parse players.

Set whisper message. Afterwards return to LFG and hit the play button on the Whisper Macros group.

Queues will ramp from 2000 to the maximum rating starting from 3PM PST all the way until 1AM PST. The higher the rating gets in a bracket, the later and shorter the queues will be alive. Players are not willing to sit 10 minute queues at 2500cr into teams at 2000 cr in the middle of the day. So they wait.

To gain rating and find queues, determine what prime time is for your rating bracket. Only at that time of day will it be worth using LFG, hitting whisper macros and queueing arenas. The higher rating you get, the later you will have to play.

Your reputation is vital when playing in LFG. Make sure you never play a game without the maximum gear for the current state of the season. Ensure you treat people with respect, especially your healers.

Before every queue session ensure there is something that you are doing better, whether thats using the right talents, practicing your damage rotation on a training dummy, removing an old addon, etc... Many people in LFG get the reputation of "non-improving" or "hard stuck". Your win rate can get you invited to a lot of groups or declined from a lot too. Try to keep it above 53%. Note that this is an unfortunate contradiction because sometimes it really does just take hundreds reps to get over rating hurdles. If you go through this guide and actively watch your gameplay recordings back, this can be a non issue.

On the flip side people will only invite or sign up to your group if they feel there is self gain. If you get labeled as "someone on the come up" (high win rate), you will be invited to many groups because people will want to catch your drift.

With the addon FriendGroups, you can create 4 primary groups. One group for the core 3-5 members your play with. The second for up to 20 players you frequently enjoy playing with. The third for all healers on your btag. Then finally the 4th group is for the rest of players you have added using LFG or whisper macros.

If you consistently preform the steps above, you will find queues within 5-10 minutes or less during prime time.

This game is 60% skill and 40% networking, the pace you network can seriously accelerate the pace in which you get to play with good players and gain rating. One of the best ways to become a better player really fast is to play with players who are better than you. LFG is full of cheats, people playing fotm, and honestly many players who will be hard stuck for their entire WoW career. Friends and players you reach out to who are slightly better than you are the only people who will enable you to understand the real objective of arena and the crux of matchup's. Not whispering or messaging players to play will halt you in your tracks. Do not passively succumb to the void of LFG.