So Fresh and so Clean Clean.

Work's been ridiculously busy these past few days, but I've had the pleasure of having a little bit of extra time to level my alt Priest. We're now close to 62 and riding the rest xp bandwagon as much as we can, with plans of hitting Zangarmarsh mid 62. There's really no rush with the recent announcement that Honor and Arena points and all Marks of Honor will be wiped clean with the expansion.

From a pragmatist's point of view, I can't say I disagree with Blizzard's decision with the currency reset, because an even starting point is a great way to have a serious resetart, and what better time to restart or revamp a new arena season than with the expansion? However, from the point of view of a person who doesn't really enjoy Battlegrounds when their Battlegroup has an overwhelming number of stupids, grinding out the immense amount of honor needed to stay competitive is already overwhelming.

That being said, some friends decided that Stormstrike was devoid of all pseudocapable Horde and have sampled the waters of Nightfall. As such, we may be transferring there (probably to Kel'thuzad), especially now that my 75k honor and 100 WSG/AB/AV/EOTS marks are utter trash. Sure, I could spend them on some new gear that they're releasing for people spend their hard earned honor/marks on, but honestly? If it's going to be replaced by 80, what's the point? If anything, I'll use those resources buying some feral gear and testing out the new lolferal changes with 3.0.2... Or flesh out my Boomkin set and run around nuking people while dancing like Chris Farley.

Anyways, we're looking forward to Shadow Word: Death at level 62. The mana efficiency will be nice, as VT>SW:P>MB>MF>MF is a ridiculous mana sink. We actually ran around killing level 60-61 Alliance a few days ago, which resulted in someone calling in a lvl 65 Warrior. He killed me quick while the 61 Paladin that I ganked 3 times /lol'd at me. The funny thing about it all is that when people can't fight on even ground and feel the need to 'one up' me, it only prompts escalation... which, of course, led to a lvl 70 Druid killing every damn Alliance lowbie in HFP. Moonfire FTW! The poorly geared 70 Rogue that the 65 Warrior swapped to tried to protect the lowbies in the zone, but lets be realistic here: if you're going to world PvP in Outlands, your crappy slow flying mount isn't going to let you respond with any sort of expediency...

We are definitely going to love the world PvP in Northrend.

Bleargh!

I played like crap last night and nerd raged until 3AM when sleep consumed me. Operating on 4 hours of sleep feels like I'm doing penance for my late night bitch fest.

I think fully half the teams we fought last night were Gladiator teams. Maybe they're grinding rating before 3.0.2 hits and their specs become poop? One rogue (both Glaives) was named Serennia. Not sure if it really was him, but he hit like a beast.

I don't really know, but it's time to regrind that lost rating before my spec/comp becomes poop.

Poop!

Defensive Play (aka GTFO!)

Playing defensive in the arena often gets you nowhere, as without pressure being applied on them, the opposing team is essentially free to do whatever they want, especially gaining better positioning or a stronger mana pool. This was the case yesterday in a long and incredibly stupid match against a War/Sham team that practically copulated with the pillars in Nagrand. With no pressure against me, and with both opponents doing the Maypole dance, I was able to keep my mana pool high and essentially heal them to death.

Now, the case for defensive play can often be the right call, but it shouldn't ever be the focus as a means to win a fight (nor should draining mana). It should be used to stabilize a bad situation or put your team into a better position to go on the offensive.

I've downloaded quite a number of WoW PvP arena videos, and one of the best displays of defensive play is from a recording from the recent North American Regional Finals. This match was Warrior/Warlock/Druid (Rhaegyn/Glickz/Hafu) vs Resto Shaman/Shadow Priest/UA Warlock (Kollektiv, Offcell, Mazud), aka Shadowplay comp. On paper, the combined might of offensive/defensive dispels, Bloodlust, and two sets of dots in addition to the dreaded silence/spell lock combo heavily favors Shadowplay.

So how did WLD win an unfavorable match up?

At the start of the second match, on the Nagrand map, Glickz (Warlock) was the only player from WLD to step forward into the open area. None of the Shadowplay team members ventured far from the safety of their pillar and for a good minute or so, it was a bunch of dot trading on both sides. Throughout all of this, Rhaegyn (Warrior) stayed mounted behind a pillar as the Shadowplay team moved as a team to dot him up.

author's note: The Warrior is the prime target for caster teams as he has no way of self healing, takes extra damage when in Berserker Stance and must get into melee to apply pressure. The Warlock is a bad second target as Fel Armor, Soul Link, Siphon Life, high resilience and a high HP pool make the Warlock a very difficult kill target.

This sort of defensive play by Rhaegyn forced the Shadowplay team to overextend their positioning, allowing the felhunter pet to be killed (by Rhaegyn from behind a pillar, no less) and putting the Offcell (Shadow Priest) in a bad position, which lead to a kill during in a nice cc chain from Glickz and Hafu.

To get to that point, the dots from Glickz forced the Shadowplay team to move closer to their opponents' side of the map. As the match went on, Offcell was forced to spend mana, effectively limiting the match duration due to mana issues. Furthermore, Rhaegyn's play of not exposing himself to the Shadow Priest and Warlock dots until his need for healing wasn't a liability meant that Hafu only had to concern herself with healing two people instead of three while avoiding fears. This was quite reasonable, especially with Glickz LOSing the opposing DPS to get a new set of hots before heading back out. With the effective use of defensive play, Hafu and team effectively neutralized Shadowplay's advantages and clinched a decisive win.

So, if your team is just not in control of the situation, consider playing a little D until you get an opening to turn the tides.

Benched!

With the realization that I wasn't spending any time developing skills/strategies and great sadness (actually not too much, really), I finally waved goodbye to my Mage. He's not gone for good, but in terms of priorities, he's definitely fallen off of the totem pole. Any character that I can just let go without gaining even a smidgen of Arena points on Monday night probably, just probably, isn't on my 'important' list. As such, he's been backburner'd.. Amani War Bear and all... and I spent 10,000 gold on that furry beast of burden!

Apologies for all you Mage readers out there (all 1? 2? LOL), but my days as a Mage have faded into the setting sun (which, incidentally takes 5 seconds to fully fade away)

I have started devoting some time to a Priest alt, with the intention of speccing as another PvP healer. I'm level 58 already, specced shadow and have every intention of leveling to 70 prior to the release of WotLK. Priest and Druid PvP capabilities are surprisingly similar, as they both function primarily through instant spells, however where a Druid directs the flow of the battle through crowd control and distance, a Priest excels through dispels, Mana Burn, and capitalizing on poor positioning (Psychic Scream).

We'll explore (as I level up on 'off' days) Priest-ly issues and tactics in PvP, hopefully to a high level.

Who knows, I may not have enough time/energy to really learn 2 classes to the level I want to play a. Buuuut, just to be on the safe side, in the event that Druids get nerfed to hell , I'll have a back up healer to melt the mana pools of bad casters everywhere.

Shoulders... sort of... plus, a rant!

Last night's foray into the arenas started something like this:

(All paraphrased, as I'm not pro enough to Vent record)

Me: Hey, you want to do some 2's?
Warrior: Yeah sure, I've been thinking about it all day, after last night. .. (note: all we ran into last night was Shadow Priest/Rogue)
Me: Ok, let's queue up. What do you think our chances are of getting Shadow Priest/Rogue?
Warrior: I bet that's what we run into first.
Me: I'll take that bet. I'm thinking Warlock/Druid.
(Gates Open)
Me: Priest... Rogue... waaaaiiit... Shadow Priest! F&*%!! Way to jinx us!

(As an aside, every time we've gotten close to a 'milestone' rating, one of us has mentioned it, thus jinxing us, thus leading to a loss. Every damn time)

Well, after 12 games, we finally hit 1950 and stopped for the night. Warrior got his Vengeful shoulders, so now, aside from his totally ghetto Stormherald, he looks like a proper Warrior. No more fly away Merciless Shoulders! We'll probably continue the march towards weapons tonight, and hopefully we'll run into alot of bad Rogue/Priest and bad Warlock/Druid teams.

My 3's Shaman picked up his S3 Offhand yesterday as well and we're looking to push our rating even further now that he's got some serious weaponry. I can't wait to see how much damage he can crank out with WotLK and the new and improved Shaman Enhancement Talent Tree.

I also got a new piece of gear in a Heroic MgT run after our 2's run. Vial of the Sunwell finally dropped and I've been itching to get my hands on it to see what all the hubbub is about. The reason for nabbing it is that I am trying to find a reasonable second trinket solution to surviving double dps without completely gimping myself, by equipping Battlemaster's Perserverence, only to run into a drain team. Vial seems like a pretty awesome trinket, with that on demand 2k heal (or less with Wound Poison). However, it also has a pretty beefy 15 Mp5 for those long matches. I'll give it a whirl, because it HAS to be better than my current standard trinket: Seaspray Albatross. Which, incidentally, is essentially a dead albatross hanging from my neck against double dps teams.

Sadly, my Mage has gone to the wayside, as I am finding, with my nightly arena on my Druid, that I don't have time to play him. I wish I had alot more time and some consistent arena partners to play with on my Mage, as all of the WotLK Mage changes are looking incredible! Sadly, with no steady arena partners, I'm essentially relegating him to an AH mule. He does help me move an incredible amount of gems, however, so all is not lost. I am kinda pissed off that I didn't get any arena points on him last week, but, on the flip side, unless I get a real serious team, he'll never get any of the S3/S4 weapons/shoulders. I'm okay with this, as there's only one more piece of Brutal gear for me to get (legs), but with the expansion coming, I'm rather disillusioned with the returns on effort, especially if I don't play him regularly.

/rant
Honestly, it sucks. I put in a TON of effort into this character, starting him right before S4 started (70 in 6 days /played without the Recruit a Friend PL). From then till now, I have toiled over:
20Resil Medallion and 45Resil Medallion
All Guardians (Boot, Belt, Bracer, Ring, Neck), Vind Ring, Boot
S2 Staff, Helm, Shoulders, Legs, Chest, Sergeant's Heavy Cape
Brutal Helm, Chest, Glove
Leveled JC to 375
Revered with SSO for Helm Enchant and Crimson Serpent Trinket
60 Badge Cloak, Icon, Witch Dr. Wand
Revered with Sha'tar for Helm Enchant
Exalted with Scryer for Shoulder Enchant
All Epic gems

It just seems so sad to grind a character out, but have no one to play with...

Of course, my Priest and Rogue buddies left the game/server, so that could explain part of it... punks....