So i thought i would help some cardinals out there, as we are ofcourse a rare breed.
This guide is for 76+ cardinals because you pretty much are not anywhere near your potential untill you get Balence Life.
I will also be ignoring the things you need to buff (Body of avatar, divine protection ) as thats all based on situational things, this will deal with basec setups of groups and things you can do to protect yourself.
Group setup.
make sure you are the group leader.
Group A. Archer group.
Average setup is going to be
Cardinal
BladeDancer
Sword Singer
Warlock ( Or elven elder or another archer, take your pick )
lvl 78 Warcyer ( can be exchanged for a lower level buffer or even pp if you have ally COV, try to get elemntal protection from people outside your party )
Archer
Archer
Archer
Archer
Set your party up that way so that the archers are all on the bottum. they will be getting the most heat, so its nice to be able to see them all at once without having to move your eyes much.
Group B.
Pretty much the same thing as Archer group, few changes but if your 76 + you know what those are.
Things you need to have on your main bar.
My bar set up.
f1. Major Heal
f2 Major Battle Heal
f3 CP pots
f4 Major Group Heal
f5 Balence Life
f6 Rez ( single target )
f7 Trance
F8 Celestial Shield
F9 Restore Life
F10 Ally rez
f11 QHP
f12 Cant remember =d
Now this is ofc just my preference, but a few of these things you actually need. Major heal, battle heal, cp pots, balence life celestial shield and major group heal are all must haves.
Make sure you have a second bar open with CP/HP/MP elixers avaliable.
You may also want to put mana burn and mana storm on the second bar, i dont use them very often, but nice to have.
Ganna go through a few different pvp situations and the best way that a cardinal should respond IMO.
Small scale - 5v5 or less.
Trance is your friend here, as well is Balence life and major heal. With cp pot spam and etc, unless your enemies are 100% assisting and criting you shouldnthave to use major battle heal to often here. as soon as you see someones cp get hit you should get your eyes on them and keep a careful watch. If your fighting people with full buffs ( and i mean full buffs ) as soon as someones cp gets hit i start healing. They WILL die fast if the enemy has max buffs. its importent to discern what buffs they have, check there runspeed etc. THey slow? prob got cov. Start healing.Trance is your friend as i said above.Trancing a healer or an archer that is not on target yet can make the difference between life and death, choose targets carefully.
Celestial shield is the cardis trump card ofc. i will usually use it as soon as i get targeted by more then 1 person, or if i cant out pot the persons damage. I am NOT a fan of giving celestial shield to anyone other then myyself, but ofc this is situational * like if you have a titan in frenzy, celestial them and let them have fun * Small scale groups that have cardinals with them will win most of the time.
Dont be afraid though, to spam your mana during small scale. remember, you can get 1.5k mana with invocation as soon as the battle is over, or just soe ch and regen. if you need to use battle heal, use it. spam balence life.
group vs group +/- 5
This is for mostely group vs group or 2 groups vs 2 groups kinda pvp.
This is where it gets hectic. if the enemy is smart you will get completely owned in the face quickly. usually in group vs group pvp the second i get hit i use celestial shield on myself because i trust that they will be assisting on me. stay within around 600 range of your DD's if you can, and behind them ofc, so if the enemy does want to get to you they have to run forward, giving your group time to owntheir face. use major group heal sparingly and try to stick to using BL much more often. Ofc, keep your party members alive at all costs ( but your own life, you can rez them and you are more importent to be alive. Running in to rez 1 dead archer who ran to far forward is not your job. ) but play it safe, a haeler that is out of mana is just an easy +1.
Mass pvp.
Ok, you need to have a good comp to be usefull at large sieges. Makre CERTAIN that your group stays near you at all times, or people will die deaths that are not needed. Know that everyone cannot be saved. if someone is being assisted by 5 archers, they ganna die. rez them after, but dont spam MBH and waste half your mana trying to keep them alive. Everyone should have BON so just rez them after they go down.
Ally rez is clutch here. Make sure that you can see the names of the people that you are trying to rez with ally rez, once you cant see the name they are out of range * not 100% sure on this but i think so *
Once agian BL is your key skill. Not sure if your in 600 range of the guy getting shot?
Balence life in teh way to go, Not major group heal.
You should have macros on your 2nd bar for other cardinals in your ally, and have them pm you if you go down, and vis versa.
Im talking about target macros btw.
/target eloctinar
etc.
Now, one key, but cheap strat is this. Only pay attension to this part if you have a level 79 cardinal in your clan/ally.
Have that cardinal cast Salvation on you 1h before siege time. Log out ( salvation is an automatic 100% rez ) Re-use time is one hour, so when the siege starts he will be able to use it on himself as well. 2 cardi's with auto rez, is very, very nice.
Well thats all im ganan type atm, im sure ive left a few things out, and im sure some of you will give me the [censored] HOW COULD YOU NOT DO * insert something here * IN PVP LAWLZOR.
Feel free to include your own tactics.
Cardinal ftw