Back in Black (my return to the 5v5 arena bracket)

Huzzah! I have finally found a team that is nice enough to take a halfway decent Rogue along for the ride. =)

Our team, modeled after a successful 5v5 team (ranked 3rd) in their battlegroup, is housed around a 3 melee DPS / split DPS setup with, unfortunately, minimal CC. But that’s neither here nor there… the setup works, also against some difficult setups, but not all obviously. But I have to say, this is the most fun I’ve had in a 5v5 team since my original stint in Season 1 in Unstoppable’s team.

This past week was our initial trial with this setup as [Paladin / Rogue / Priest / Warrior / Shaman]. We adjusted our specs (they aren’t the exact same as the team we modeled after) after getting more comfortable with the general game plan, adjusted our gear accordingly, and continued to learn from our mistakes and how to play effectively and successfully against a variety of teams. Overall, we had a winning record and gained about 50-ish points after 30-ish games… which isn’t bad seeing as though we were trying new strategies and getting better at working together as a whole. The main game plan was to nearly split our 3 melee DPS to put the other team on the defensive and force their healers to heal instead of CC or Dispell/Purge/Cleanse. It worked surprisingly well against our first opponents for the 6 games we played (4-2), which ironically we knew in the game and some were the alliance alts of our guildmates. =p

Things started to break down when we would fight good teams with high levels of DPS, specifically the one 4 DPS team we faced. Our tactic of splitting our DPS into their group didn’t quite work as they would simply focus on one of us (Shaman or Priest usually) and we would suddenly find ourselves down a man. We tried to counter them with their own tactic, but we basically traded our Shaman for theirs and we found ourselves in the same boat as before. Luckily, we stopped playing them after 2-3 losses in a row… makes people yell. =/

We also had a string of fights with a fellow Sargeras Horde team. After dropping the first 2 games, we pulled our heads out of our asses, went back to our main game plan, and rattled off 2-3 wins against them. Then we faced a drain team. God… damnit. ><

This drain team was perfect in how it controlled the fight, and kept our melee away from their respective targets. I was on the Druid, as usual, as I consider myself very successful in shutting down Resto Druids better than most Rogues due to a scary amount of patience. Anywho, this Druid knew exactly how to keep me away thanks to the Hunter’s slowing traps. And on top of that, the Hunter was Entrapment spec… lovely. Within a minute, our healers were out of mana, our Shaman was near death, and our Warrior and myself were stuck on the trap’s area of effect. Needless to say, we didn’t lose too many points from the loss. But we did get our revenge later that night against another drain team. This other team was way easier and the Hunter, thankfully, was a different spec than the norm. To sum it up, the Druid ran AWAY from the rest of the group and AWAY from the Hunter traps. Not smart at all. And while I was being as annoying as possible to this Druid, the remainder of our team dropped 2 of their guys on the other side of the arena. When the Druid shifted into travel form to help, my 5 point kidney shot opportunity I was waiting for presented itself, and with the help of our Warrior and Shaman, he was the 3rd casualty.

All in all, yesterday was the most fun I have had in the 5v5 bracket in a long while. And, we’re starting to mesh quite nicely against some odd and difficult teams. To make a long story short, after dipping below 1700 for the first time, we recorded 5-6 straight wins against varying team builds to bring us close to topping 1800 for the first time.

I WILL have my weapons DAMNIT! ><

GrizzlyAdams does NOT have a beard!!!

Over the course of the last few days, I thrust myself back into the world of alts and created a new character… a class I have never played and one that irritated me since the beginning of the game… a Hunter. Even the character creation screen was irritating, rejecting my first few names. By the way, who else in their right mind (other than me) would have come up with a character name of Dirk McGirk?!

Bastage.

So my new alt, aptly named ShootrMcGavn (had to shorten it because it wouldn’t all fit) to pay homage to Happy Gilmore, began his quest in Durotar. Now coming from an Undead Rogue with an ungodly number of “days played” (I have never leveled an alt past 28… and my current highest is around 26), my knowledge of the Durotar quests is a bit limited, especially starting in the Orc village. But, I got through the quests, got used to playing a ranged DPS class, and even got myself a nifty pet… a ravager from the Draenai starting zone. Boy, was that fun trying to get to that area as Horde. =p

I was thinking about naming him RobertPaulson… his name is Robert Paulson… his name is Robert Paulson… but I felt that I should keep with the Happy Gilmore theme and name him GrizzlyAdams. I was upset because he does not have a beard, and he should, because he’s Grizzly Adams, and he had a beard according to Lee Travino. So Grizzly and I ventured out into Durotar, killed some bad dudes, got ganked by some jerkoff 19 Dwarf Hunter (who got promptly snuffed by the 58 Orc Hunter that was following me), leveled my pet a bit more, geared out myself in the finest AH greens, and routinely poked fun at guildmates that did not immediately grasp what was so funny about my character/pet name combination.

Other than that, I haven’t really got into the meat and potatoes of the alt game. I haven’t tried out my PvP skills as a hunter… if any… and I still need to get some better gear and get used to playing in a group. I’m sure it will come to me eventually. If anything, this will train me on leveling an alt efficiently once the Death Knight class is released… if they start at level 1 of course.

Oh and Virginia, my jacket size is 44 long and… my right arm is just, a little bit longer than my left… =)

Shrimp Day! (The Unification of PvP and PvE)

Actually, that’s what it says under the cap on my Sobe:Power… so… I digress.

But honestly, with the most recent change on the PTR, making epic Hyjal/BT gems available for 15 badges each, is there any question NOW that Blizzard is trying to break the barrier between PvP and PvE… while inadvertently merging the two? Is this a bad thing? Absolutely. In my opinion, the gear obtained through each of the section’s means should be separate. Because, let’s face it… WoW has broken down into two factions: The Arena Specialists, and the Raiding Masters.

Players have been complaining about this for a while now, even before all these changes were being made on the PTR. I would imagine it started around the same time when arena gear became available using BG points, dubbing them “welfare epics”. But honestly, this argument can only be 1-way, as the PvP’ers were seeing more and more geared out PvE’ers muscle into their territory. It can’t work both ways. If a PvE’er complains about someone raiding in PvP gear but with the same effectiveness, someone needs to be kicked in the face… hard. It’s a one way street. You can succeed to a point in flat out PvE gear and spec in the arenas and BGs***, but the reverse can never happen due to resilience being a useless stat in instances, and a complete waste of iLvl.

*** Case in point – my Season 2 3v3 team housed a Disc/Holy Priest, Combat/Assassination Rogue (me), and a Feral Druid. The Priest was 50/50 PvE/PvP gear, but myself and the Druid were full PvE spec and gear. Our first target rarely survived our initial burst and we climbed up to 2100 by season’s end, only playing around 10-15 games per week. ***

From all the screenshots on the WoW news sites, it looks like more and more things are being put in place to give PvE’ers the opportunity to purchase PvP gear through PvE means. Now granted, that stuff isn’t the greatest PvP gear you can get, but some of the pieces… it actually is. Take into account the PvP cloak you could buy with badges at the beginning of Season 3. That’s arguably the best PvP cloak you can obtain. Hell, with some classes, some of the earlier arena gear is somewhat better than the later stuff. But again, I digress. And now with the badge-to-gem option upcoming in 2.4, PvP’ers can boost their gear’s strength with items from a raiding instance they have never stepped foot in. Now, I know it’s not a huge upgrade, but it’s the beginning of what could be the worst mistake Blizzard could make if they eventually combine the two aspects of the game.

Ultimately, skill will always beat gear, but gear will also increase the margin of error allowed and still be successful in any fight. I just hope Blizzard knows where they are going with this in the long run. I would hate for it to turn into a system where PvP’ers could purchase PvE gear using arena points, or worse… BG points. That would bring the merger to a definite close, and in turn, make both sides equally unhappy… and make crappy players look like they know what they are doing.

My head hurts now. =/