As some people might know, when I’m not playing World of Warcraft, I actually teach people how to fight with real swords with one of the best swordfighting schools in the world. I’ve fought with a lot of the styles of weapons you use in Warcraft, and even competed internationally with some of them. So it’s fair to say, that when it comes to real fights, I know what I’m talking about, even if my DPS in game sucks.
Which is why I want to talk to you about a concept called tempo, taken from Italian Renaiassance swordfighting. It basically means time.
If you came to me to learn how to swordfight, one of the first things I would get you to do is pair up, face each other with a fist outstretched so your knuckles met. One person would lead, and the other would need to maintain that distance, as the lead moves back, forwards and sideways.
It’s a physical way to teach /range 5 (or measure as we like to call it) and is important so you get a feel for when you are outside of measure (their sword cannot hit you) and inside measure (their sword could hit you).
But it also is a way to introduce the concept of tempo. When someone is leading, they are in control. You’ll see the other person scrambling to try and keep up with them. They’ll suddenly be too close, or too far away to maintain knuckle contact. In that instance, the lead is in control, or they have the tempo.
In a fight it is often like this dance. One person will dictate the pace of the fight and the other will react. You always want to take the tempo.
A Warcraft raid is a bit like that. When you start on a new boss, it’s a bit frantic. The boss will do an ability, your defence is on cooldown, and you will always be on the defensive, trying to survive the fight rather than control it. The boss has taken the tempo.
As you get better, have defences ready (even if the raid starts to scuff), know when to push, when to hold back some DPS, you now have the tempo.
You’ll know it, because some fights feel like you are fighting to survive, others feel really smooth.
But there’s another application of tempo in Warcraft and that’s your rotation. When you run out of mana, or are waiting for runes to refresh or are 5 seconds from that cooldown from being ready, you don’t have tempo over your rotation. But when those abilities are ready and your rotation feels almost effortless despite the chaos around you, that’s tempo as well.
It’s why I always say you need to feel a fight. Gear and secondary stats can change the tempo of your rotation – we all know what a haste buff can do in terms of ease of play.
Understanding tempo can give you a deeper understanding of a fight. Where are you losing tempo – is it because of the rotation or because the boss has taken tempo from you? It’ll lead to more fluid play, allow you to adapt more easily when things change. It doesn’t mean you can ignore your rotation and just press random buttons, but if you feel you have your rotation pretty much down at this point, start trying to understand tempo so everything feels effortless and you’re ready for those occasions when everything goes to crap.
If nothing else, start to get an understanding of tempo by identifying how things feel different between when you have something on farm, and when a new boss is kicking your ass and wiping you on 80%
