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! ><