The Daily Quest : arena

AV Weekend Wrap-Up and "Dr. Phil"

trptscott — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:39:44 GMT

So AV weekend has come and gone. It was a good weekend... despite the "boycott" that apparently has been taking place on the part of the Alliance. 35-minute queues, 20-minute game, 600 honor. And in between, I'm constantly getting rocked by premade EotS and AB teams. Racked up about 30k honor from my weekend of playing.

Those of you on Horde side, did you notice any of the following?

1) On Thursday/Friday, the whole Alliance team would zerg to the FW RH cap it, cap towers, and burn Drek. Since Horde doesn't usually play much D, this worked for a while. Horde spent most of their time name-calling and bitching instead of adjusting.

2) By Saturday morning the Horde are playing some D and the games slow down a bit. Some Alliance still try to zerg RH, but there aren't enough to make it a quick kill.

3) By Sunday evening, the initial Alliance O push is thwarted, the game collapses, and its almost like the old days with Alliance rolling backwards as Horde push right on into Drek.

So rack up the AV bonus honor I did. Unfortunately, my 3v3 was not so successful. We were up and down throughout the weekend. Almost 100 games played and only a 1568 rating. I'd say that's a fair indicator the team chemistry isn't there. Especially since we all sit above 300+ resilience. There's no doubt in my mind that some team combos just don't work. Not to mention the 400g I spent on respecs throughout the weekend to try and "spark" some competitive play. I think I'lll give the PMR setup a try. Rumor has it those teams are pretty successful. Now to find a good mage.

And the final item on today's rant, WoW and your significant other... hence the "Dr. Phil" tag in my subject line. My significant other is just not accepting of my WoW addiction. And let's face it, I don't do WoW in moderation. Those of us who raid know that *** never gets done on time... ever. In the past, I just chugged along and kept working with the team until the job was done. Nowadays, the GF is asking "when will you be done?" I say 30 minutes, some tard Warlock wipes us, and it's another hour gone by.

So my question to DQ readers... what types of arrangements do you have with your significant other when it comes to WoW? And no, she isn't going to play the game... ever. :-(

Arena Season 3 - What is and What is not

Indelible — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:46:18 GMT

A lot of hear say and conjecture is going around about Arena Season 3 and what is going to happen about the item sets and weapons and it seems that WoW Insider have said what is, what is not and what could be in this area. Whether I believe them or not is another thing entirely. They have a habit of being, well, wrong.

Areans Season 3 Sets? Possibly

Whether Season 3 will introduce new sets or not is still a big debate and after making a lengthy post about not wanting to make a judgement on this issue, I have some more conjecture to throw into the mix. WoW Insider have said that at BlizzCon it was confirmed that Season 3 will come with brand new sets but I don't recall them saying this is a definite. Under the test realm files there is a set of armour that is apparently season 3 gear and once again we are getting tiered look-a-likes. While I am disappointed at Blizzards laziness in giving PvPer distinct sets to say, "hey! I PvP," I am not to concerned about the look - just the stats. MMOChampion have a thread with what appears to be the Season 3 sets but there has been no confirmation as to whether they are in fact the Season 3 sets and could be implemented in Season 4.

To Fear or Not To Fear

Blizzard have also finally commented on where Fear should be and where it is now, effectively saying they are content with where it is currently. They did go as far as saying that it could be unbalanced in 3v3 and 2v2 but it definitely isn't in 5v5 so I'm not expecting any more changes to the dynamics until the expansion or the patch that implements the 51-point trees. That said however, the player base likes to complain about fear a lot. It seems nobody knows how to use trinkets and abilities to counter its effects. Fear Ward is being given to all priests but what we have to remember is that we don't know what else Blizzard are planning for spells and abilities in WotLK so we can't say that this is an unjustified change.

Be Imba or You Can't Wield Me.

Another controversial change that is set to both please and annoy is the claim that weapons will now require a certain rating before you can purchase them. Whether this is a good change is the controversial bit. Since Season 1, the weapons have been the main reason for most to go into Arena, which is what makes the competition so diverse. That said however, you have to make progress in PvE to get the best items so it is only fair that some such stipulation is placed on Arena and while I think placing a requirement on set pieces would be a step too far, it is fair that you should have to be doing well to get the weapons. While I have heard no confirmation from Blizzard on what the actual rating requirement is, many are spreading around the figure 1900. In 2v2 and 3v3 this is a medium to high rating but in 5v5, you have to be doing stupidly well to even touch on 1900 rating. At least, that is the case on my server. We shall have to wait and see what Blizzard say about this.

You are Not Good Enough to be Arena Gear

Last but not least is the confirmed change that will take Season 1 Arena gear from the Arena vendors to the honour vendors in the capital city of each faction. This will mean that the current blue set available from these vendors will be replaced with the Tier 4 equivalent Gladiators set. This is a good step by Blizzard and I fail to see why they didn't do this in Season 2. This will allow palyers who want average to good PVP gear to stay away from Arena if they really want to and also mean there will be a set there for people who just have some spare honor around. Whether the Season 1 weapons will replace the current weapons doesn't seem to be being taken into account and this would be an interesting move if not a wise one seeing as I'm going to have to have an imba team to get Season 3 weapons.

So these are the confirmed or not-so-confirmed changes coming with Season 3 and whilst I am not looking forward to the rating requirement for the weapons, the rest seem to be good and well though out changes.

One change that is on the table with the player base but has received no confirmation from Blizzard is the inclusion of Arena gems, trinkets and none-set epics. While this would give yet more gear for the teams who want it, it would also negate the need to even consider battlegrounds and so, whilst it would be interesting, I feel it would be bad move in general.

Season 3 is anywhere from 6-10 weeks away, possibly even 12, and with no solid confirmation of the time until it starts, only one question remains - to save my points or not to save my points?

The Arena System - In General

Indelible — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:54:44 GMT

Needless to say, I want to complain about the queue system again so this time I am going to discuss interrupt effects first and then move on to the whine about arena queues and match ups.

Interrupt Effects.

In a team with warriors, rogues and shamans the only thing you can do as a caster is stand still and hope and pray that you don't die before they've finished with their interrupts. As a Shadowpriest (and thus only knowing what it is like from my perspective) this is not only the single most annoying moment in PvP but also the single most unbalanced against me.

Think about it this way: All other DPS casters have a multitude of trees they can cast from. Mages = Frost, Fire and Arcane. Warlocks = Affliction and Destruction. Even shamans and paladins can rely on their melee DPS when not being able to cast and they can also heal themselves as well. Shadowpriests, on the other hand, have one tree which is the Shadow tree. We can not heal ourselves and we have no other tree containing DPS options unless we drop shadow form. If we drop shadow form, we lose 15% of our durability and instantly die against melee. So what do we do? We just stand there and take it.

Originally, our 41-point talent was going to be a shadow heal ability. This would have balanced the above issue but instead, I got a mana return curse, that adds to my problems where interrupts are concerned and has to be renewed every 15 seconds. Add this to the fact that my two main abilities take time to cast and one of them roots me in position and I should basically have an interrupt effect above my head saying, "interrupts here," so that people can take me out of the fight without me even having to die.

I'm not complaining of course. After all, shadow priests shouldn't be balanced in group PvP because they are unbalanced in 1v1... even though by Blizzards admittance, 1v1 is not considered when balancing PvP. I'm perfectly willing to admit that I could be wrong but at the end of the day this is a problem that many priest has mentioned and it still gets ignored. One more thing to add to the long, long list.

Arena Match Ups

Earlier tonight I did 3v3 arena. This was fun because my arena team is a very dominant combination in this ladder as well as being 3 fairly good PvPers. What I did notice however, is that teams who had no hope of beating us were being presented to us time and time and time again and I failed to see how this was fair. Is it fair that a team who can't beat another team should be forced to play that team over and over again.

From what I can see, this is beginning to have a bad effect on players on my server. Teams who were constantly playing in season 1 have been driven out of the arena tournament and left hanging because they weren't quite skilled enough to play the teams that were constantly beating them. Don't get me wrong. I understand that you need to have some challenge when it comes to this type of thing but you wouldn't expect the top football (soccer) team in the world to lose to a few casual players, would you? Why should casual PvPers who want to do arena be forced to constantly lose to teams they have no hope of beating?

In other words, why hasn't Blizzard created brackets based on the average performance of teams in the season and why isn't the queue system stricter? All it takes is 10 matches and not the 1000 some teams seem to be putting in to raise your rating enough to smile about.

Maybe one day I will see something that will fix the shadowpriest interrupt issue. Maybe one day Blizzard will make an effort to provide an balanced PvP experience. Until that day comes, I shall sit here and grit my teeth for those of you who don't want to PvP in a hardcore way and I shall hope and pray that you get your worth... one day.

Arena Season 3 to Introduce New Sets?

Indelible — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:51:06 GMT

While many people have been sitting around wondering about the new season and what items it will introduce, I simply sat on the, "no new set," band wagon and left it at that. Perhaps it was because of my hope to have a full arena set at some point, or perhaps it was because season 2 items were released along side tier 6 items.

Firstly, I'd just like to point out to those who say, "season 2 gear is equal to tier 5 because they look the same," that this isn't really the case. Just because two item sets look the same does not mean they are the same level. What you need to look at is the item level itself and not the looks. Aesthetics are there to please you and are generally not there to dictate what level an item is.

Now I've recently jumped off the, "no season 3 set," band wagon to take a look at what is actually likely to happen. To do this, I'm going to take a look at and compare the arena sets with the varying tiered sets. This should give us a good idea of what the base level difference between items is.

Firstly, the Absolution Regalia. The Absolution Regalia is Priest tier 6 DPS gear and the most appropriate comparison to Priest season 2 DPS gear for this investigation. Now Thottbot* lists the DPS gear as having an item level of 146 overall. The Merciless set however has an item level of 136 which puts the tier 6 set at 10 levels ahead of the season 2 set.

Secondly, lets compare tier 5 priest DPS gear to the original season 1 Priest DPS gear. This time, tier 5 has an overall item level of 133, 3 levels below season 2 gear. Season 1 Gladiator gear has an overall item level of 123, putting it yet again 10 levels behind the tiered comparison in this study.

Next, I compared season 1 gear to tier 4 and found that the level difference was yet again 3 levels, with tier 4 having an overall level of 120. Season 2 compared to tier 5 has already proven to be 3 levels ahead of the tier 5 set.

So this means that Blizzard want the tiered sets to consistently be 10 levels higher than the arena gear (excluding tier 4) or that they want them to be 3 levels lower than the equivalent arena sets.

Having already sat on the, "no new set," band wagon, I am going to get off and sit in the middle because there is just to much to consider and item levels don't seem to be helping much here. Right back to the old days when HWL epics were the highest level PvP gear you could get you had tier 3 laughing at them from up on high and I'm more inclined to place my vote on the .5 tier difference. That said however, itemisation has changed in TBC and the level difference on the items may have no bearing on its effectiveness in a particular role.

So we have one of two ways to go:

1) Arena Gear is 10 levels lower than its equivalent tiered gear or... 2) Arena Gear is (almost) .5 tiers ahead of its equivalent tiered gear.

Now as I've said I am not going to sit in any camp this time because there is just to much to take into account but I am going to say that I now wouldn't be surprised if there is a season 3 set introduction. If there isn't then a season 4 set is more or less certain.

I'll leave you guys to make up your own minds.