Combat Combat has multiple meanings in " World of Warcraft " : The Combat Flag . When a character attacks or is attacked , they will be flagged by the game as being in combat . This state is denoted to the player with an icon of two crossing swords next to their character portrait . Many actions and abilities cannot be used while you are in combat , making knowing how to get into and out of combat very important , especially in PvP combat . In PvP , a player will leave combat if they have not attacked or been attacked for 5 seconds , or all the enemy characters that have attacked you are killed . Under most circumstances in PvE , once all monsters have lost interest in you , you will be removed from combat . Abilities that cannot be used while in combat . When in combat , several abilities become unavailable including drink ing , eating , mounting , and accepting a summon . In addition : Abilities that allow you to escape combat . Some classes have abilities that remove them from combat instantly . However , if they are dotted they will usually be brought back into combat the next time they take damage . Note that these abilities no longer remove you from combat during Boss Fights ( only at the end of wipes if you time it correctly ) . General combat concepts . Aggro and add s . Using your favorite high - damage spell to pull a mob is not the best idea in the world . For one , it can make it very difficult for other players , such as warriors , to pull it off you ( in the case of taunt resists , etc . ) , increasing the likelihood that you will go down . Secondly , high - threat spells have a much higher chance of pulling other creatures around the mob , which can also be dangerous . In most cases , if you are a caster and you are pulling , you would be better off to use your wand , as even a crit from a wand is relatively low threat , whereas your Frostbolt is not . If you are in combat and you have undesirable aggro ( on a low - armor character , for example ) you may want to follow one of the following courses of action . Which one you choose depends on a variety of factors , including the class that is tanking ( paladin or warrior , or whatever else ) , the talent build of that player ( specced for protection , or whatever ) , and his skill at maintaining aggro and the abilities at his disposal . If the tank ' s build ( and skill ) allows him to build aggro on multiple mobs that he is tanking , you may want to change targets to one of the other mobs he has aggro on , and then switch back perhaps after he has established good aggro on the one that began attacking you . If the tank ' s build ( and skill ) does not allow him to maintain good aggro on multiple mobs , you may want to just stop attacking for a while , or use an ability that you might have which reduces your aggro , and wait for a moment before commencing fire . What you definitely do not want to do is run away from the mob in an undisciplined manner . It would be best to run towards the tank , so that he can see that you have aggro . This of course may be unwise if the mob he is tanking deals damage in an area of effect . Mana and health . Keeping an eye on your mana and health before and during battle can mean the difference between life and death . Make sure to glance at it often . It is also a good idea to try to anticipate how much damage you will be taking during the battle so you know when it would be a good idea to use any cooldown abilities or a potion that may just save your life . While in a group while questing or ( more likely ) going through an instance , it also helps to keep an eye on health and mana of the rest of your party . Especially for those who were designated to start the fights ( i . e . Pull ) you are going to put your companions and yourself into grave danger if you start a new fight while your main healer is still sitting down to get his mana back up . Ready attack before in range . Sometimes you might want to right - click on a mob to attack it when it is out of range . Why ? Because you can run toward it and your character will melee attack as soon as you get in range . This tactic gives you a slightly quicker attack than running close enough and then attacking . This tactic also helps against caster and other ranged mobs , since you can sometimes run up and get a hit in before they finish casting their first spell . Ranged weapons . Also called pull ing , try to use a ranged weapon or spell to begin combat with most creatures in the distance . This gives you an extra hit before melee combat begins . If you have one , try to use a powerful attack to inflict the most damage before a fight . For example if you have a spell that sports a long casting time that is generally very difficult to use in combat , e . g . Starfire for a druid or Pyroblast for a fire mage , use that because of the amount of damage done . Be careful with this tactic against ranged caster mobs , since melee combat can have the advantage of interrupting or delaying spells where ranged attacks generally give the caster ample casting time to cast spells . An advanced tactic to use in combination with a range weapon or spell is to try and perpetually run away from your opponent in circles ( making sure you don ' t aggro anything else of course ) allowing yourself just enough time to get a hit off but proceed running . This is called kiting . If done properly the opponent may never lay a finger on you . Running away . Never eliminate the option of running away , if a battle starts going badly ; but only when you are not in an instance . Watch how much damage per hit an opponent does and when you get to about half health , you might want to think about running if you can ' t heal or won ' t kill the opponent before you die . Especially consider running , if you are fighting more than one opponent . Note that many humanoid mobs will flee themselves when they are at 15 % of their normal health level ( on average ; some mobs will run before they reach 15 % , and some don ' t run until they are very close to dying ) . However , after a few seconds of wandering off , they will return to fight you . Be careful , usually they take this time to bring more mobs with them if possible . Physical combat . Melee vs . ranged . The choice between melee and ranged combat depends mostly on your class . Most classes have all their best abilities in one category . Some are lucky enough to have some abilities designed to help them switch to their preferred range , such as Wing Clip . Below are tactics for keeping your foe at your preferred range ( especially when it is not theirs ) . 1 % basics . Dual wield ing . Your total damage output when fighting with two weapon s should be higher than fighting with one weapon and a shield , but roughly equal to fighting with a two - handed weapon . Off - hand weapon attacks deal 50 % of the weapon ' s designated damage . Therefore , it ' s wise to always put the best " damage dealer " weapon in the main hand . Dual wield ing also increases your base miss chance using the formula 80 % × M + 20 % where M is your miss chance when not dual - wielding . Your usual miss chance against an opponent of equal level is 5 % which means the typical miss chance while dual - wielding is 24 % . A Rogue with the dual - wield talent increases the off - hand weapon ' s damage from 50 % up to 75 % . They must also have 5 points in Precision , which increases chance to hit by 5 % . A Fury - talented Warrior with the dual - wield talent increases the off - hand weapon ' s damage from 50 % up to 62 . 5 % . Dual wield ing versus two - handed weapons . First a note : Rogues are not included in this because they are built around dual wielding . They have no ability to use 2 handed weapons . Also not included are sword and shield . That setup is for defense and will never compete for DPS . For both those situations , you would have the same weapon versus the same weapon x2 and since the miss rate and offhand damage reduction do not equal 100 % reduction ( if they did , no one would ever dual wield ) debating the dps merits would be pointless . Druids are a special situation . When shape shifted they do not derive ANY dps from their weapons and cannot choose to dual wield or not . About each class : Warrior : DW talents : Dual wield specialization : 25 % increase to offhand damage 2 Hand talents : Two Handed Weapon Specialization : 5 % increase to 2 handed weapon damage Both : Precision : + 3 % to hit ( This affects both and it is possible to get it with either talent spec , but is more likely in a DW build , so we ' ll ignore it . ) Sword / Poleaxe Specialization : + 5 % Crit / + 5 % chance extra hit ( This also affects both talent specs , but is more likely in a 2 hand , so we ' ll ignore it ) Shaman : DW talents : Dual Wield Specialization : + 6 % to hit when dual wielding No 2 handed talents . Both : Nature ' s Guidance : + 3 % to hit The talents are pretty much a dead give away as to the viability of DW or 2 handed for Shamans , but we ' ll run the math anyway . ( Also note the shaman abilities are weighted toward dual wielding . Stormstrike is unnormalized and hits with both weapons . Shamanistic Rage gives mana on hit and is not based on weapon damage . ) Some Basic DPS Math : For weapons of equal dps , x will be approximately . 76y . We know from these equations then , that : In order to determine which weapon combination is superior , then we equate the two formulas : This tells us then that a two - handed sword must at least have about 20 % more DPS than each of the two individual swords . This also means that dual wielding receives 1 . 2 times the damage bonus from attack power . This is because power affects both main - and off - hand . Thus with enough power , dual wielding will always be better than using a two - hander . Imagine having a 80 DPS two - hander and two 10 DPS swords . But you have 5600 attack power . Two - hand DPS becomes ( using above formula ) : 0 . 95 × [ 80 + ( 5600 / 14 ) ] = 0 . 95 × 480 = 456 Dual - wield DPS becomes : 1 . 14 × [ 10 + ( 5600 / 14 ) ] = 467 . 4 The level 15 white one handed swords do more DPS than the hardcore raid epic two - hander ! This is of course a rather irrational example as it is impossible to attain 5600 power , but it illustrates that attack power scales better with dual wielding . This tells us then that a two - handed sword must at least have about 30 % more DPS than the DPS of each of the two individual swords . And that the dual wielder receives 30 % more bonus from attack power . Taking a look on Thottbot to see what 1H and 2H " green " - quality swords there are around level 30 - 35 will give us the Nobles Brand set of 1H swords ( 22 . 1 DPS , level 35 ) and the Frost Tiger Blade ( 28 . 8 DPS , level 35 ) . The 2H blade ' s DPS is about 30 % more than the 1H blade . Another example would be the 1H Jade Serpentblade ( 18 . 3 DPS , level 30 ) vs 2H Stonecutter at ( 23 . 9 DPS , level 30 ) . The 2H blade ' s DPS here is again 30 % more than the 1H blade . We can then conclude that unless you are a Fury Warrior with dual wield specialization , the better weapon choice to increase DPS is to use a two - handed blade . Even with dual wield specialization , a two - hand weapon is equal to two one - handed weapons of the same quality . However , the extra rage generation given by the tier 2 warrior talent Unbridled Wrath tips the balance in favor of dual wielding for fury warriors that take both talents . Magic . Resistance . Don ' t forget that opponents of a much higher level than you have a fair chance of resisting any magical attacks , so don ' t always rely on initial crowd control , damage , or root / snare spell s to set up a fight . Don ' t be unprepared if the target resist s a spell or two . Also consider specific types of spells against targets that might have specific types of resistances . Magical cold or water mob s might have a frost resistance , for example . Cast time and interruption . The longer it takes to cast a spell , the more times you ' re going to get whacked ( further delaying the spell ) and the more likely it is that your opponent will be able to use a stun or other spell - interrupting skill on you . This is of particular importance in PvP since the other player has to react fast enough to interrupt you , and a faster spell gives them a smaller time to do that . Damage avoidance . Melee combat is resolved using a chart of possible results for each attack . The sequence of results is : auto - crit ( a target not standing up is always critically hit , and this value is either 0 % or 100 % for each attack ) , miss , dodge , parry , glancing blow ( players versus monsters only ) , block , critical hit , crushing blow ( monsters versus players only ) , and finally a normal hit . If the percentage chances add up to more than 100 % then latter results will not be performed at the expected % rate because the random roll used to get a result from the chart is from only 1 to 100 . Ways of avoiding damage are miss , dodge , evade , parry , block , absorb , resist , immune , and reflect . There ' s also an hypothetical deflect outcome about which we need more information .