My druid has been specced Deep Resto (14/0/47) for quite some time and the spec has been quite good to me through Battlegrounds and in the Arena... when both aren't lagging all to hell... which, by the by, Kel'Thuzad has been plagued with since the latest patch. Blizzard, get your collective heads out of your asses and lets get this stuff working!
On the flip side, I've been getting much more sleep than usual.
Back to the build. The above build is complemented by the Rejuvenation and Healing Touch glyphs and the strength of the build has been primarily through stacking hots to serve as a buffer for consistent or impending burst damage, and spamming Regrowth and Healing Touch (1.5 second cast) when trying to heal through the burst when it comes. One of the more favorable aspects of this build is the synergy between Imp. Regrowth, Living Seed and Nature's Grace. My Regrowth has around a 60% chance to crit, which means many 1 second Healing Touches, 1 second Cyclones, or 1.3 second Regrowths.
The important concept to note here is that Lifebloom spam is no longer the 'go to' ability that it once was. Pre-3.0, my Lifeblooms would tick for 230+ healing per application, where post 3.0, we're looking at ~185 healing per application. This healing gap and the mana cost gap has made prioritizing stacking Lifebloom from scratch only necessary in the situations where there's no other choice. Often, with the burst found in BGs/Arenas, applying a Lifebloom/Rejuv to buy you time to further bomb Healing Touches/Regrowths is the correct call. In the arenas, casting these heals (OMG they have cast times) can be quite difficult as Resto Druids are a key target due to their vulnerabilities, but the other key talent for this build makes melee match ups much more favorable.
Improved Tree of Life.
This 3 point talent is amazing in that with it, you can tank a Ret Paladin indefinitely and Rogues become much more manageable. One of the amazing aspects of ToL is that a) you can heal while in this form, b) you have a very high armor value and c) shifting out of ToL doesn't eat your GCD. All of these make surviving that much easier so that healing teammates is a possibility, instead of a dream.
If you're looking for survivability with some effective healing through the gamut of PvP environments, I believe Deep Resto is hard to beat... as long as you have a pillar to hide behind.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Moving! Shadow Priest: 3 hours /played at 70
We've moved! Well.. my characters have, at least. As of this morning, both of my active 70s are now on Kel'Thuzad. Archimonde wasn't a bad server at all, but the PvP population was pretty tiny and I missed the sheer amount of activity that one gets with a larger server, a la my first PvP server: Mannoroth. I haven't decided on the new names, as I always create a lvl 1 char with the to-be-transferred character's name on the new server to give myself the opportunity to rename if needed, but I'll update the links to the right once I do make that decision. I'll probably stick to Moochu (Druid) and Ruckuz (Priest). Point of note: Ruckuz was my Mage's name, hence the blog title.
I (and my friends who also transferred over) are now actively looking for a guild that is planning on completing 10 man content, some 25 man content, and doesn't mind PvPers clogging up their ranks. If anyone has any recommendations, please feel free to comment!
Anyways...
About a week ago, I hit 70 on my Priest, marking it as my 5th 70. For those keeping track, that's (in order): Rogue, Warrior(first to 60), Druid, Mage, Priest. If I could multibox, I'd have a pretty solid 5v5 team. Of course that'd be on paper; multi tasking on one character is bad enough.
With the arrival of the big seven-oh, there was much splurging on following purchases (all craftable items crafted):
So, with some ridiculously bad gear,~9k health buffed, ~130 Resilience and 675 Spellpower, we headed to the Arenas.
I (and my friends who also transferred over) are now actively looking for a guild that is planning on completing 10 man content, some 25 man content, and doesn't mind PvPers clogging up their ranks. If anyone has any recommendations, please feel free to comment!
Anyways...
About a week ago, I hit 70 on my Priest, marking it as my 5th 70. For those keeping track, that's (in order): Rogue, Warrior(first to 60), Druid, Mage, Priest. If I could multibox, I'd have a pretty solid 5v5 team. Of course that'd be on paper; multi tasking on one character is bad enough.
With the arrival of the big seven-oh, there was much splurging on following purchases (all craftable items crafted):
- Epic Flying Mount + Skill
- Bringer of Death (LOL): +40 spellpower enchant
- Rep Satin Helm: Powerful Earthstorm Diamond, Runed Living Ruby
- Rep Satin Chest: +15 Resilience Chest, 3x Runed Living Ruby
- Frozen Shadowweave Shoulders: Honored Scryer Enchant, 2x Runed Living Ruby
- Frozen Shadowweave Boots: Boar's Speed, Runed Living Ruby, Steady Talasite
- Battlecast Pants: Runic Spellthread
- Unyielding Girdle: Steady Talasite, Solid Star
- Bracers of Nimble Thought: +15 Spellpower
- Level 69 Cloak of the Sorcerer: +20 Spell Penetration
- Scryer Rep Items for Scryer's Bloodgem
- Medallion of the Horde with +20 Resilience
So, with some ridiculously bad gear,~9k health buffed, ~130 Resilience and 675 Spellpower, we headed to the Arenas.
Oh, and lest I forget to mention, in the mad rush to buy buy buy, I neglected to train my level 70 spells. So, that means no Mass Dispel, no Prayer of Mending, no blah blah blah... Pro, right?
I can't say that going 8-3 in the 1500 2v2 bracket justifies me as amazing, because lets face it, I'm not. BUT, it's the 1500s, and the fact that we were beating full S2/S3 players and winning games we shouldn't have won (hai Lock/Dru, wtf were you doing?) says something: my near full brutal rogue buddy shouldn't be in the 1500s. There's something hilarious about Shadow Word: Death'ing someone for pitiful amounts of damage only to realize that you just broke a sheep doing so, or realizing that you have Shadowfiend while you're drinking behind a pillar. Again, very very Pro.
The theory behind acquiring this gear as opposed to running instances to obtain rep to buy the entire rep satin set and getting the Unyielding set to max out resilience/stam, is that while the rep satin set does have survivability, it has next to no spellpower. While I could have possibly tanked that full S3 rogue for a few seconds longer with some more resilience, sub 500 spellpower is largely a joke. At least with a couple hundred spellpower more, my attacks would actually be reasonably threatening.
Did it work?
Well, our sample size of games (11) is relatively meager, but my damage definitely helped my teammate nuke down one target, even if I was slated to die shortly before/after. Since he outgears pretty much anyone we're fighting, a 1v1 situation usually turned out in our favor, especially if I was able to get a dot on the second target after blind was used. As such, I definitely think it was the right thing to do. BG's is a similar story. With the crazy damage being spread about now, any clothie's life expectancy is zilch and putting out some dots to help swing a battle is about the only good I can do. My next goal, as I slowly acquire Honor and Arena points (to help with leveling), is to give Disc healing a shot and to do a write up on deep Resto impressions in BG's in the arena. More to come!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
3.Whoa! Burst and Druids
We've been spending the last couple of days catching up on the overflowing RSS feeder (caused in part by a very relaxing long weekend) trying to glean some insight as to the current viability in 3.0.
Or, as i like to call it: 3.Whoa!
Since talk about 'teh PvPz' here, and hopefully people reading this are keeping up with PvP news, I'm sure that everyone has heard that burst damage is out of control. And it is. It is honest to God, flat out, way the hell out of control.
With the advent of the OMGadins and the Cya-Muti-laters, self preservation tactics have never been more important. The reason for this is requirement is that any two melee, especially if it includes any of the two aforementioned, can nuke me in the span of a full Kidney Shot or a Hammer of Justice. In fact, a high end PvE geared Mutilate Rogue 100-0'd me while my trinket and Barkskin were down. Thankfully I caught the EOTS rez timer as it was ticking out and came back for round 2. Sadly, the second verse was same as the first. Amusingly, the only clean escape that I managed to eek out last night was in an AB, getting gang banged by a Warrior and a Ret Paladin, when my Warrior buddy managed to successfully peel both melee off of me and even so, I was at 30% with the MS debuff, Barkskin up and at least Lifebloom and an NS'd Regrowth ticking.
Wait, Natures Swiftness'd Regrowth? Why not Healing Touch?
Glyph of Healing Touch: Decreases the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.5 sec., the mana cost by 25%, and the amount healed by 50%.
With the appropriate Resto Talent (Naturalist) and the Glyph, Healing Touch can be brought down to a 1 second cast time for around a 2k heal with around 1k spellpower for around 460 or so mana. Ok, big deal, right? Well, actually it's a pretty big deal, especially for a level 70 Restokin; lack of Swiftmend. See, one of the biggest problems with RestoDruid PvP is that if you are ever put in to a bad position where hots won't be enough to save someone, especially with the much more expensive Lifebloom, the only other option is to expose your nature tree. This is usually to the tune of a) 1.5 seconds for a Cyclone, which means you have to get close, hope it isnt resisted and hope their trinket is down or b) 1.8 seconds for a Regrowth. Notably, both options open up the Nature school to lockout. Of course, not getting into this kind of situation would be best, but, in such cases, it's infinitely easier to pump out a quick 1 second Healing Touch while avoiding interrupts. Even with Pummel/Kick off GCD, its very difficult to stop such a fast cast when latency is taken into consideration. You may not even have to juke the cast! If you have Nature's Grace proc'd, that's a half second cast time.
I can't say whether or not it's going to be viable or even mana efficient in the long run for the arena, but, it's incredibly fun in BG's to have a cast time that short. The one thing it does do poorly is it removed the viability of NS Healing Touch. Gone are the days of a clutch crit NS Healing Touch for 9k. However, little forward thinking will be able to mitigate a significant portion of the incoming burst.
All said and done, last night's BG experience was quite fun as both Boomkin (58/0/3) and as Restokin (31/0/30). I have yet to try a full resto tree build synergizing Living Seed and Imp Regrowth, but I'll be honest, it doesn't really have the allure (or disruption/escape) exhibited by the old 8/11/42 build. Without the WotLK spirit itemization or Dreamstate, I just don't know how long a deep resto Druid with PvP gear will be able to go without going oom fighting the burst.
Or, as i like to call it: 3.Whoa!
Since talk about 'teh PvPz' here, and hopefully people reading this are keeping up with PvP news, I'm sure that everyone has heard that burst damage is out of control. And it is. It is honest to God, flat out, way the hell out of control.
With the advent of the OMGadins and the Cya-Muti-laters, self preservation tactics have never been more important. The reason for this is requirement is that any two melee, especially if it includes any of the two aforementioned, can nuke me in the span of a full Kidney Shot or a Hammer of Justice. In fact, a high end PvE geared Mutilate Rogue 100-0'd me while my trinket and Barkskin were down. Thankfully I caught the EOTS rez timer as it was ticking out and came back for round 2. Sadly, the second verse was same as the first. Amusingly, the only clean escape that I managed to eek out last night was in an AB, getting gang banged by a Warrior and a Ret Paladin, when my Warrior buddy managed to successfully peel both melee off of me and even so, I was at 30% with the MS debuff, Barkskin up and at least Lifebloom and an NS'd Regrowth ticking.
Wait, Natures Swiftness'd Regrowth? Why not Healing Touch?
Glyph of Healing Touch: Decreases the cast time of Healing Touch by 1.5 sec., the mana cost by 25%, and the amount healed by 50%.
With the appropriate Resto Talent (Naturalist) and the Glyph, Healing Touch can be brought down to a 1 second cast time for around a 2k heal with around 1k spellpower for around 460 or so mana. Ok, big deal, right? Well, actually it's a pretty big deal, especially for a level 70 Restokin; lack of Swiftmend. See, one of the biggest problems with RestoDruid PvP is that if you are ever put in to a bad position where hots won't be enough to save someone, especially with the much more expensive Lifebloom, the only other option is to expose your nature tree. This is usually to the tune of a) 1.5 seconds for a Cyclone, which means you have to get close, hope it isnt resisted and hope their trinket is down or b) 1.8 seconds for a Regrowth. Notably, both options open up the Nature school to lockout. Of course, not getting into this kind of situation would be best, but, in such cases, it's infinitely easier to pump out a quick 1 second Healing Touch while avoiding interrupts. Even with Pummel/Kick off GCD, its very difficult to stop such a fast cast when latency is taken into consideration. You may not even have to juke the cast! If you have Nature's Grace proc'd, that's a half second cast time.
I can't say whether or not it's going to be viable or even mana efficient in the long run for the arena, but, it's incredibly fun in BG's to have a cast time that short. The one thing it does do poorly is it removed the viability of NS Healing Touch. Gone are the days of a clutch crit NS Healing Touch for 9k. However, little forward thinking will be able to mitigate a significant portion of the incoming burst.
All said and done, last night's BG experience was quite fun as both Boomkin (58/0/3) and as Restokin (31/0/30). I have yet to try a full resto tree build synergizing Living Seed and Imp Regrowth, but I'll be honest, it doesn't really have the allure (or disruption/escape) exhibited by the old 8/11/42 build. Without the WotLK spirit itemization or Dreamstate, I just don't know how long a deep resto Druid with PvP gear will be able to go without going oom fighting the burst.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
So close! Job selection...
We had a nice little grind session yesterday and the alt is a mere 10 bars from 70. I expect to have some PvP war stories when I get back from this upcoming long weekend/vacation. My goal is to get to ~1700 with nothing but Rep, AH and craftable gear, buying no PvP honor/arena gear except the 20 resilience PvP trinket (ok, maybe some arena gear if I can get it fast enough). If anything, Shadowform will help me hide my lack of gear and resilience. We'll see if it's possible.
The other goal is to define the two most beneficial professions for Arena/BG PvP with WotLK.
Here's the way I see it (Referencing Banana Shoulders' info post):
Gathering professions (Herbalism, Mining, Skinning) Not an Option
Both my characters can heal and if a 2k hot is going to make or break my game, I'm doing something wrong. Although, the ground blooming with flowers upon activation is definitely a nice touch. Mining's 500 HP and Skinning's half of a percent of crit rating are equally negligible.
Armor professions (Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring): Largely Uninteresting
-Leatherworking seems to be the least impressive, as the BoP/BoE gear seems to be pretty much replaceable. The bracer enchants are purely stat boosts, as are the leg enchants.
-Blacksmithing doesn't seem to be much of an option either as its primary product isn't usable by either of my classes, so the added sockets would only provide a stat boost. If (and only if) blacksmiths are granted the ability of adding another meta gem, would I consider going that route on either character.
-Tailoring seems as interesting as the other armor professions with the stat boosts from BoP spellthreads, but the two caster cloak enchants do add a bit of RNG to the mix. Darkglow is a mana return proc, a la Insightful Earthstorm Diamond and we've seen the popularity of that meta gem. Lightweave is a damage proc (1-1.2k holy damage) that could either add burst or keep people in combat. It's definitely something to look into.
Gear/ability improvement professions (Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, Inscription, Engineering): Moderately Interesting to Very Interesting
-Enchanting's new claim to fame, aside from the BoP ring enchants, are their upgradeable wands. I can't imagine a wand getting upgraded to the point that it has as much impact as Stormherald has had, and as such, will assume it will maintain its role as a stat stick.
-Jewelcrafting has some new trinkets that look vaguely familiar to the initial set of JC trinkets (i.e. Golden Hare, Jade Owl) in terms of trinket cooldown. I'm assuming later sets of trinkets will have shorter cooldowns and greater effects (ex: Talasite Owl vs Seaspray Albatross). The added gems sockets are nice, especially for meeting meta requirements or to accommodate for lost stats due to use of the JC trinket. The JC only gems are the stat boost that's pretty equivalent to other professions' stat boosts.
-Inscription seems lackluster with scribe only shoulder enchants and offhands. Pure stat boost without much else. Without the rumored extra glyph slot, this profession doesn't have any allure.
-Engineering has its usual array of gadgets and gizmos, but instead of creating specific gear to accomplish a function, its gone all 'enchanting' on us and now provides 'enchants' to gear. Two such 'enchants' stand out for me: Hyperspeed Accelerators (glove) and Nitro Boosts (boots). The Hyperspeed Accelerators provide a 10% haste buff every 2 minutes, which should stack with whatever other passive haste gear you already have. I'm not sure if it will stack with other 'on use' talents or abilities, but even if it doesn't, its a pretty nice boost for both DPS and Healing. The Nitro Boosts aren't as game breaking as the now-banned-from-arena Rocket boots (300% speed increase), but even at a 70% speed boost, matching a sprinting rogue shouldn't be too bad (just hope it doesn't backfire). Hopefully there is going to be a nice caster meta that has run speed built into it.
Other professions (Alchemy) Moderately Interesting
-Alchemy is inherently disadvantaged when talking about the arenas as its primary output is something that isn't allowed. However, the good thing is that WotLK is introducing Endless potions that can be used in the arena. The bad thing, is that they heal or provide mana in such tiny amounts that it's pretty much a joke. 1680-2160 health and/or 400-600 mana back from an Endless potion? Right. Combined with one of the new alchemist stone trinkets and its 40% potion bonus effect, and you're looking at 2352-3024 health and/or 560-840 mana back. Actually, its not bad. But woe is you (unless you're character race is Human) if you want to use any other trinket but the Alchemist stones (i.e. Burst trinkets or Battlemaster's).
So, what are my profession plans?
Well, I intend to keep my Druid as a Jewelcrafter for the money making aspect and for the new trinkets (I actually like the Seaspray Albatross line), but Enchanting doesn't seem to be that big of a draw. I will likely keep Enchanting just for the Disenchanting ability, until I can spot some trends of other top druids. Extra stats may be the key to RestoDruid longevity in WotLK, so 2 stat boosting professions may be the way to go.
My alt Priest will likely keep Tailoring, but most likely drop Jewelcrafting once WotLK hits (I love my Brilliant Glass), upon which she will take Engineering. With Imp Shadowform granting Fade the ability to remove all snares, it's likely that the Nitro Boosts will actually come in handy. If I decide to go healspec, the Hyperspeed Accelerators will help me with Manaburn. Either way, should be fun!
I'm definitely looking forward to the long weekend, and remember to be safe! Don't do anything Columbus wouldn't do. Also, get your Arena games done soon if you're going out of town!
The other goal is to define the two most beneficial professions for Arena/BG PvP with WotLK.
Here's the way I see it (Referencing Banana Shoulders' info post):
Gathering professions (Herbalism, Mining, Skinning) Not an Option
Both my characters can heal and if a 2k hot is going to make or break my game, I'm doing something wrong. Although, the ground blooming with flowers upon activation is definitely a nice touch. Mining's 500 HP and Skinning's half of a percent of crit rating are equally negligible.
Armor professions (Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring): Largely Uninteresting
-Leatherworking seems to be the least impressive, as the BoP/BoE gear seems to be pretty much replaceable. The bracer enchants are purely stat boosts, as are the leg enchants.
-Blacksmithing doesn't seem to be much of an option either as its primary product isn't usable by either of my classes, so the added sockets would only provide a stat boost. If (and only if) blacksmiths are granted the ability of adding another meta gem, would I consider going that route on either character.
-Tailoring seems as interesting as the other armor professions with the stat boosts from BoP spellthreads, but the two caster cloak enchants do add a bit of RNG to the mix. Darkglow is a mana return proc, a la Insightful Earthstorm Diamond and we've seen the popularity of that meta gem. Lightweave is a damage proc (1-1.2k holy damage) that could either add burst or keep people in combat. It's definitely something to look into.
Gear/ability improvement professions (Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, Inscription, Engineering): Moderately Interesting to Very Interesting
-Enchanting's new claim to fame, aside from the BoP ring enchants, are their upgradeable wands. I can't imagine a wand getting upgraded to the point that it has as much impact as Stormherald has had, and as such, will assume it will maintain its role as a stat stick.
-Jewelcrafting has some new trinkets that look vaguely familiar to the initial set of JC trinkets (i.e. Golden Hare, Jade Owl) in terms of trinket cooldown. I'm assuming later sets of trinkets will have shorter cooldowns and greater effects (ex: Talasite Owl vs Seaspray Albatross). The added gems sockets are nice, especially for meeting meta requirements or to accommodate for lost stats due to use of the JC trinket. The JC only gems are the stat boost that's pretty equivalent to other professions' stat boosts.
-Inscription seems lackluster with scribe only shoulder enchants and offhands. Pure stat boost without much else. Without the rumored extra glyph slot, this profession doesn't have any allure.
-Engineering has its usual array of gadgets and gizmos, but instead of creating specific gear to accomplish a function, its gone all 'enchanting' on us and now provides 'enchants' to gear. Two such 'enchants' stand out for me: Hyperspeed Accelerators (glove) and Nitro Boosts (boots). The Hyperspeed Accelerators provide a 10% haste buff every 2 minutes, which should stack with whatever other passive haste gear you already have. I'm not sure if it will stack with other 'on use' talents or abilities, but even if it doesn't, its a pretty nice boost for both DPS and Healing. The Nitro Boosts aren't as game breaking as the now-banned-from-arena Rocket boots (300% speed increase), but even at a 70% speed boost, matching a sprinting rogue shouldn't be too bad (just hope it doesn't backfire). Hopefully there is going to be a nice caster meta that has run speed built into it.
Other professions (Alchemy) Moderately Interesting
-Alchemy is inherently disadvantaged when talking about the arenas as its primary output is something that isn't allowed. However, the good thing is that WotLK is introducing Endless potions that can be used in the arena. The bad thing, is that they heal or provide mana in such tiny amounts that it's pretty much a joke. 1680-2160 health and/or 400-600 mana back from an Endless potion? Right. Combined with one of the new alchemist stone trinkets and its 40% potion bonus effect, and you're looking at 2352-3024 health and/or 560-840 mana back. Actually, its not bad. But woe is you (unless you're character race is Human) if you want to use any other trinket but the Alchemist stones (i.e. Burst trinkets or Battlemaster's).
So, what are my profession plans?
Well, I intend to keep my Druid as a Jewelcrafter for the money making aspect and for the new trinkets (I actually like the Seaspray Albatross line), but Enchanting doesn't seem to be that big of a draw. I will likely keep Enchanting just for the Disenchanting ability, until I can spot some trends of other top druids. Extra stats may be the key to RestoDruid longevity in WotLK, so 2 stat boosting professions may be the way to go.
My alt Priest will likely keep Tailoring, but most likely drop Jewelcrafting once WotLK hits (I love my Brilliant Glass), upon which she will take Engineering. With Imp Shadowform granting Fade the ability to remove all snares, it's likely that the Nitro Boosts will actually come in handy. If I decide to go healspec, the Hyperspeed Accelerators will help me with Manaburn. Either way, should be fun!
I'm definitely looking forward to the long weekend, and remember to be safe! Don't do anything Columbus wouldn't do. Also, get your Arena games done soon if you're going out of town!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
10 Games a Week
PvP has gotten quite slow around where I am, and even though the end of a season would usually see a flurry of activity, people seem overall fairly burnt out on Arena. My own teams have been relegated to 10 games a week due to work, school and other completely valid reasons. On one hand, I'm glad that I'm getting alot more sleep than in the past, but, on the other hand, I haven't had any exciting nights such as last night when our 3's team burned through some pretty strong and well coordinated teams, sometimes by the skin of our teeth.
One such match was against a strong Warrior/Ret/RestoDruid team with Season 4 weapons that had just taken 13 points from us. They swapped targets quite well and at one point I was down to <1k mana and my Warrior (I run Warrior/EnhShaman/RestoDruid) was down to <500 health. With some lucky dodges/parries and shield block, I had enough time to Innervate myself, stack lifeblooms and cyclone the warrior to allow Mortal Strike to fall off. Amazing luck, indeed! I'll take those 20 points any day!
With my time not being taken up by endless hours of grinding Honor (which I will be doing soon to cap out before WotLK) or grinding rating in the Arenas, my little facemelter alt is now at level 67. Yes, we worked hard over the weekend. I will probably try to grind BG's like crazy on little miss mindflay once I hit 70, but with no gear and no desire to spend honor for gear, she'll be an impressive liability in BG's. It may be a reasonably productive venture to get to honored with all of the BC factions so I have a starter set of craptacular gear just to survive longer than 3 seconds. I apologize in advance to whomever is unlucky enough to be teamed up with her, but I'll try my best! As for right now, she'll stay shadow until level 80 whereupon a decision will be made on her future spec and role.
Most of the spec/role decision depends on comp domination at level 80, which is where I anticipate all of the excitement, theorycrafting and fun will be centered upon. As of right now, at level 70, we know what works and what doesn't work. Why? Because we've been refining strategies and comp make ups for four seasons. However, with level 80, a pseudo gear reset, and a whole slew of new talents, abilities, and in some cases, class redefinitions (zug zug, my new Ret overlords), arenas will be full of turmoil as people adapt and learn. The other aspect of this decision are the various tiers of PvP gear: Savage, Hateful and Deadly. Savage gear will be pretty cheap to acquire and with the spellpower changes, I'll be able to test things out pretty easily.
I am definitely looking foward to the impact of the tiers of PvP gear and I believe that this implementation will give players an alternative method for gearing up. With the reasonable requirements to purchase this gear, ranging from marginal arena/honor points and no rating required to a 2200+ rating requirement, players of all calibers will have something to shoot for. I'm hoping for a renewed interest in the arena, pushing the arena population higher and higher.
On that note, I think the Season 4 rating requirements are a failing point on Blizzard's part due to the average player's inability to hit 1700. With the rating requirements this season, a good percentage of players never got their S4 helm and boots and simply gave up. Let's be realistic here, WoW is a loot centric game and the only way to build the participating population is to dangle the colloquial carrot on a stick in front of their faces. Of course, in this case, the carrot is some shiny purple epic. The failing part of this S4 scenario lies upon the prevalent apathy in the lower brackets. These players, unable to reach that next rating requirement simply gave up their will to participate in the arena. Unfortunately, the rating system, being a zero sum system (theoretically), doesn't benefit from a shrinking population.
By being a zero sum system (theoretically), this means that for every rating point that is won, someone else loses that much rating and rating doesnt just 'dissapear' or 'appear' (although this does happen with creating and deletion of teams). What this also means is that when a whole segement of players stops playing due to apathy or whatever other reason, everything else 'shifts' downward. Fewer <1600 players means that there are fewer points being fed up to the 1600-1800 players, which means that fewer points are being fed up to the 1800+ players. And so on and so forth. It's a pretty vicious cycle, especially on smaller BG's. Hence, the string of Gladiators that seem to be everpresent in the mid 1800's and above. Weren't you guys 2100+ last season? What gives?
Sure, this sounds like a pretty big sloppy QQ from an average player (ok, ok above average), and it is, but I'm glad that Blizzard has recognized this discrepency and has rectified it with Season 5. What's better than a carrot on a stick? Multiple carrots on a stick! I'm also tentatively excited about a blue mentioning a future Personal Rating system that won't go away when you swap teams. Of course, someone's going to figure out a way to beat the system, but it shows that the developers are watching, and that's always a good thing.
One such match was against a strong Warrior/Ret/RestoDruid team with Season 4 weapons that had just taken 13 points from us. They swapped targets quite well and at one point I was down to <1k mana and my Warrior (I run Warrior/EnhShaman/RestoDruid) was down to <500 health. With some lucky dodges/parries and shield block, I had enough time to Innervate myself, stack lifeblooms and cyclone the warrior to allow Mortal Strike to fall off. Amazing luck, indeed! I'll take those 20 points any day!
With my time not being taken up by endless hours of grinding Honor (which I will be doing soon to cap out before WotLK) or grinding rating in the Arenas, my little facemelter alt is now at level 67. Yes, we worked hard over the weekend. I will probably try to grind BG's like crazy on little miss mindflay once I hit 70, but with no gear and no desire to spend honor for gear, she'll be an impressive liability in BG's. It may be a reasonably productive venture to get to honored with all of the BC factions so I have a starter set of craptacular gear just to survive longer than 3 seconds. I apologize in advance to whomever is unlucky enough to be teamed up with her, but I'll try my best! As for right now, she'll stay shadow until level 80 whereupon a decision will be made on her future spec and role.
Most of the spec/role decision depends on comp domination at level 80, which is where I anticipate all of the excitement, theorycrafting and fun will be centered upon. As of right now, at level 70, we know what works and what doesn't work. Why? Because we've been refining strategies and comp make ups for four seasons. However, with level 80, a pseudo gear reset, and a whole slew of new talents, abilities, and in some cases, class redefinitions (zug zug, my new Ret overlords), arenas will be full of turmoil as people adapt and learn. The other aspect of this decision are the various tiers of PvP gear: Savage, Hateful and Deadly. Savage gear will be pretty cheap to acquire and with the spellpower changes, I'll be able to test things out pretty easily.
I am definitely looking foward to the impact of the tiers of PvP gear and I believe that this implementation will give players an alternative method for gearing up. With the reasonable requirements to purchase this gear, ranging from marginal arena/honor points and no rating required to a 2200+ rating requirement, players of all calibers will have something to shoot for. I'm hoping for a renewed interest in the arena, pushing the arena population higher and higher.
On that note, I think the Season 4 rating requirements are a failing point on Blizzard's part due to the average player's inability to hit 1700. With the rating requirements this season, a good percentage of players never got their S4 helm and boots and simply gave up. Let's be realistic here, WoW is a loot centric game and the only way to build the participating population is to dangle the colloquial carrot on a stick in front of their faces. Of course, in this case, the carrot is some shiny purple epic. The failing part of this S4 scenario lies upon the prevalent apathy in the lower brackets. These players, unable to reach that next rating requirement simply gave up their will to participate in the arena. Unfortunately, the rating system, being a zero sum system (theoretically), doesn't benefit from a shrinking population.
By being a zero sum system (theoretically), this means that for every rating point that is won, someone else loses that much rating and rating doesnt just 'dissapear' or 'appear' (although this does happen with creating and deletion of teams). What this also means is that when a whole segement of players stops playing due to apathy or whatever other reason, everything else 'shifts' downward. Fewer <1600 players means that there are fewer points being fed up to the 1600-1800 players, which means that fewer points are being fed up to the 1800+ players. And so on and so forth. It's a pretty vicious cycle, especially on smaller BG's. Hence, the string of Gladiators that seem to be everpresent in the mid 1800's and above. Weren't you guys 2100+ last season? What gives?
Sure, this sounds like a pretty big sloppy QQ from an average player (ok, ok above average), and it is, but I'm glad that Blizzard has recognized this discrepency and has rectified it with Season 5. What's better than a carrot on a stick? Multiple carrots on a stick! I'm also tentatively excited about a blue mentioning a future Personal Rating system that won't go away when you swap teams. Of course, someone's going to figure out a way to beat the system, but it shows that the developers are watching, and that's always a good thing.
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