First of all, if anyone ever reads this i want to give you a message, POOR FUCKS, get something better to do than read the random babbling of a 19 year old guy whos very, very bored in class.
So, i am now a fully s3 geared mage, i have basically reached the absolute peak when it comes to pvp gear, this gives alot of e-respect from all the blue geared mages and rogues i once in a while duel in front of orgrimmar(which i love). I don't really feel like talking about everything i have been doing while the last update, a short version is here:
3v3 to 2k rating -> emo priest -> long time doing nothing, trying strange setups i didn't like after all -> 2.4, Dailies and EPIC FLYING!, and now.
One thing i have learned however, is that i will never ever do any kind of 2v2 or 3v3 seriously without Xinco/Nakedsnake being with me, the teamplay and coordination i have with this guy is something i can't get with anyone else anytime soon, not to mention he is my BFF. I firmly believe that if we stop slacking(or well i stop slacking) me and him can reach gladiator in 2v2, we've been at 2175 before, and back then we werent even half as good as we are now, back then we actually just barely started, and now we've been doing arenas together for ALMOST 6 months.
However, what i really want to talk about is the constant whining many people do *cough* Herethorn *cough*. I am so fucking tired of people writing on the pvp forums or mage forums "Mages are useless" "Mages are customers too!", "Mages are the weakest link!", i mean look at a topic like this one: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=3779201528&sid=1, im not even going to bother breaking down all of his arguments and start ripping them apart, i tried talking to people, making them understand that it really ain't that bad, but no one want's to listen, so by now i simply reply to topics like that with a simple "lol terribads", "Your all shite", "lrn2ply", seeing as apparently that gets me just as many intelligent responses(in other words none) People are just stuck in their ways, and refuse to listen to reason, because what THEY are saying is the truth and no one is going to prove otherwise, in a way im wondering why they even make topics, they arent interested in other peoples opinion or personal experience, they just feel like shouting "LOL mAgES SUCK BUFF PLX".
The reality is every class can beat every class, maybe not in a usual way, but hey war is all about using whatever you can right? I know if i fought a warrior using engineering like some maniac, and netherweave nets, beating me up in the end, id start crying like mad "omg engi abuse!", but who the fuck am i to complain? He did what he could to win, obviously he deserves to win while i was just playing cocky not doing my best and ending up with my face down on the floor. Play to win or you might as well just give up.
Something i noticed after having been fire for a long time now, is that Icy Veins might be way better than i originally thought, i went frost for some 2v2 and 3v3 with Xinco and Zeteba, trying out the cookie cutter stuff, and boy have i been missing out on something, it really is a huge help for those clutch shatter combos finishing off a fight that could have ended bad. Now what im trying to say with this, following my whine agains't whining(double standards are awesome) is that warlocks has gotten a bit easier(OMG), simply faking the spell lock, popping Icy Veins(with a few buffs left so the faghunter doesn't remove it) then spamming frostbolts and even getting in a shatter combo if possible. I once finished off a lock with 70% left, yes he had only like 4/5 s3 and wasn't as good as me, but thats besides the point, an SL/SL warlock beaten with 70% left? I used to be a whiner myself, but experience and time has taught me that whining about things like this instead of trying to find a solution is completely useless, nothing can really piss me off in wow anymore unless we are talking people ganking me on the fucking Emanations quest in blades edge, because thats just uncool. Also enhancement shamans who once were shit at beating frost mages now feel really hard, 50% shorter snares and instant ghost wolf fucking sucks. The amount of spell interruptions combined with their new amazing way to close distance really makes them a tough opponent, okay this just popped into my head, i still hate winfury, fucking diceroll skill, still though ill find a way to beat them, like always.
Also people has got to stop whining about Blizzard being a "shit" company and not caring about their customers, compared to other mmo's and other companies Blizzard is absolutely amazing. I HATE people who get mad because a GM can't help them with an issue, maybe a GM isn't allowed or maybe there is technical limitations that won't allow it? Why do people always go so mad when things arent going their way. Sit down, breathe for a second or two and think things through for a second, because maybe, JUST maybe you aren't the friggin center of the universe, and people have other things to do than please your little mind. A GM helped me when i restored my druid, he was extremely friendly and did whatever was in his power to assist me, i feel so bad sometimes for people being GMs, seeing as they have to put up with so much shit every single day.
Anyway, enough ranting for now, and for those who reads this, Thanks! Cool someone is still checking my outdated blog ^^
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Teh ninja has arrived!
Nothing more to say really :)
Oh yea! warriors with a healbot in BGs are FUUUUUN!
Cba writing a hole lot just now, i'd like to do a 2v2 strategy guide, but not having been at super high rating yet feels kinda stupid acting like i know everything :)
-Artanias
Friday, 30 November 2007
S3 started, No gladiator
As the title says, we never reached gladiator. We kept on running into teams we had very little practise agains't. We topped off at 2134 but then got beaten back down to 20xx, it was getting really really late so we both agreed on stopping.
Next day i logged on to a Challenger rank atleast, ah well next season i thought to myself. I had 5k arena points and about 36k honor banked. I rushed and bought the silk belt and the s3 gloves, feeling a bit sad though since i didn't have the materials for the gloves, also i was lacking some WSG marks to buy the bracers...
I used a huge amount of the day farming Primals and gold to get myself all the enchanting materials waiting, all the time waiting for Nakedsnake to get online so we could start pushing for 1850, seeing as both of us are very anxious to get the hand on the new weapons, unlike everyone else who seems to be buying the new set pieces first. Nakedsnake never got online, and i did verbally abuse him when we talked thursday evening, he blamed work and terrible traffic, slack i say. So we started thursday very shortly after i got online to work on the 350 rating needed for our weapons. Queues were far from terrible actually, upto 10 mins max, and mostly around 7 mins. The first game started with the gate opening, and the scoreboard instantly showing a "Draw" with no enemies inside.... right. So we started off with a 9-0 win streak until we had a silly loss agains't druid/warlock, we met alot of disc priest/rogue teams, a setup which we almost got on farm now id say, also met a pretty crappy mage/rogue team a few times.
Oh yea, id like to give you an example of how much Nakedsnake really sucks cock.
The situation: hunter/shaman in arena which me and naked have farmed for 2-3 games already by always going for the hunter while CCing the shaman. Naked then for some fishy reason thought it would be nice to "keep them guessing" by going for the shaman, result: 17 rating lost, after questioning nakeds manhood through more verbal abuse we queued again and and took our 17 rating back from those guys.
When we hit our top, 1774, we suddenly started meeting a druid/lock team from skullcrusher again and again, we beat them one single time, and prayed to allah to never see their faces once more..... yea right, they beat us all the way back down to 1729, this is when we decided to call it a night, 5 straight games agains't the same team that we just couldn't seem to beat was a bit too much, and we didn't wanna risk going too low. Though once we stopped i was really happy, the score ended 26-10 and we had gotten alot of practise. So today i hope naked will be online again so we can push for the last rating upto our s3 weapons!
-Artanias
Next day i logged on to a Challenger rank atleast, ah well next season i thought to myself. I had 5k arena points and about 36k honor banked. I rushed and bought the silk belt and the s3 gloves, feeling a bit sad though since i didn't have the materials for the gloves, also i was lacking some WSG marks to buy the bracers...
I used a huge amount of the day farming Primals and gold to get myself all the enchanting materials waiting, all the time waiting for Nakedsnake to get online so we could start pushing for 1850, seeing as both of us are very anxious to get the hand on the new weapons, unlike everyone else who seems to be buying the new set pieces first. Nakedsnake never got online, and i did verbally abuse him when we talked thursday evening, he blamed work and terrible traffic, slack i say. So we started thursday very shortly after i got online to work on the 350 rating needed for our weapons. Queues were far from terrible actually, upto 10 mins max, and mostly around 7 mins. The first game started with the gate opening, and the scoreboard instantly showing a "Draw" with no enemies inside.... right. So we started off with a 9-0 win streak until we had a silly loss agains't druid/warlock, we met alot of disc priest/rogue teams, a setup which we almost got on farm now id say, also met a pretty crappy mage/rogue team a few times.
Oh yea, id like to give you an example of how much Nakedsnake really sucks cock.
The situation: hunter/shaman in arena which me and naked have farmed for 2-3 games already by always going for the hunter while CCing the shaman. Naked then for some fishy reason thought it would be nice to "keep them guessing" by going for the shaman, result: 17 rating lost, after questioning nakeds manhood through more verbal abuse we queued again and and took our 17 rating back from those guys.
When we hit our top, 1774, we suddenly started meeting a druid/lock team from skullcrusher again and again, we beat them one single time, and prayed to allah to never see their faces once more..... yea right, they beat us all the way back down to 1729, this is when we decided to call it a night, 5 straight games agains't the same team that we just couldn't seem to beat was a bit too much, and we didn't wanna risk going too low. Though once we stopped i was really happy, the score ended 26-10 and we had gotten alot of practise. So today i hope naked will be online again so we can push for the last rating upto our s3 weapons!
-Artanias
Thursday, 15 November 2007
The Green beast from Holland
So yea, last night after me and naked was fighting WAY too many lock teams, i was starting to get really really cranky. Now we have been talking alot about how much we want a 3v3 team, however we would really like to go with a priest if we could, problem is finding a skilled and free disc priest these days are next to impossible.
So today Maix(zheros new pvp resto druid) whispered me joking if we couldn't boost him a bit in arena, i knew he was joking, but i talked to naked about starting a 3v3 team with him, naked agree we could do it, so i asked Maix if he was up, obvious answer really. As you might have guessed, "The green beast" comes from Maix incredible gear, going into arena with a fresh lvl 70 druid who has 7k hp and 20 resilience was quite a gamble wouldn't you say?
While i used the prep time for the first couple of matches gloating at Maix gear we actually did pretty ok. Maix(zhero) being a Veteran in general pvp obviously knew what to do most of the time, i once asked for a cyclone on a shaman only to notice cyclone was on 0.5 sec before i asked, so mate big thumbs up, thats impressive work from a fresh lvl 70.
So 2.3 has hit, am i happy? FUCK YEA! Ritual of refreshment is so damn nice, cant explain how much i love the spell, not to mention the table is just pwnage in itself, the better ice barrier is kinda noticable. I can also see a slight improvement in my frostbolt dmg, so ye, 2.3 is awesome, daily BG quests and daily heroic quests are just awesome, now im not as broke as i used to be.
On another note, i lost a shitload of honor yesterday, i wanted to buy one single Runed ornate Ruby, the epic dmg gem through honor, problem was i clicked the item once and got the error "That item is busy" so i clicked it multiple times afterwards only to have 5 gems in my bags suddenly, leaving me with 799 honor points :(
Immediately made a ticked so i really hope a GM can revert it.
Now the topic of the month, hunters in 2.3, compared to everyone else i only got one thing to say, STOP WHINING TARDS, your all a bunch of motherfucking crybabies, yea hunters got buffed, and are now pretty troublesome, but i used to beat decent MM hunters without the use of my pet or iceblock, something had to be done really.
The rogue buffs: I LOVE EM, seeing as i run mage/rogue in 2v2 with Nakedsnake i couldn't be anymore happy really. At the moment we got 2137 rating, running a bit up a down all the time, mostly encountering a mirror team who are both humans just detecting naked and kicking his ass..... i hate humans so much >.<
We still make mistakes and lose some stupid matches, but up until now we havn't faced anything that was completely impossible to defeat. Because of this i told him i wanna push for gladiator rank.
Now according to http://www.arenajunkies.com/calculator/ we need about 2208 rating and im absolutely sure we can manage that, just with a hole lot of practise, and less stupid mistakes(for example some rogue letting me try to solo a SL/SL lock while he was busy searching for a stealthed druid)
Anyway, ill update in approx 1 week, having reached gladiator or not.
-Artanias
So today Maix(zheros new pvp resto druid) whispered me joking if we couldn't boost him a bit in arena, i knew he was joking, but i talked to naked about starting a 3v3 team with him, naked agree we could do it, so i asked Maix if he was up, obvious answer really. As you might have guessed, "The green beast" comes from Maix incredible gear, going into arena with a fresh lvl 70 druid who has 7k hp and 20 resilience was quite a gamble wouldn't you say?
While i used the prep time for the first couple of matches gloating at Maix gear we actually did pretty ok. Maix(zhero) being a Veteran in general pvp obviously knew what to do most of the time, i once asked for a cyclone on a shaman only to notice cyclone was on 0.5 sec before i asked, so mate big thumbs up, thats impressive work from a fresh lvl 70.
So 2.3 has hit, am i happy? FUCK YEA! Ritual of refreshment is so damn nice, cant explain how much i love the spell, not to mention the table is just pwnage in itself, the better ice barrier is kinda noticable. I can also see a slight improvement in my frostbolt dmg, so ye, 2.3 is awesome, daily BG quests and daily heroic quests are just awesome, now im not as broke as i used to be.
On another note, i lost a shitload of honor yesterday, i wanted to buy one single Runed ornate Ruby, the epic dmg gem through honor, problem was i clicked the item once and got the error "That item is busy" so i clicked it multiple times afterwards only to have 5 gems in my bags suddenly, leaving me with 799 honor points :(
Immediately made a ticked so i really hope a GM can revert it.
Now the topic of the month, hunters in 2.3, compared to everyone else i only got one thing to say, STOP WHINING TARDS, your all a bunch of motherfucking crybabies, yea hunters got buffed, and are now pretty troublesome, but i used to beat decent MM hunters without the use of my pet or iceblock, something had to be done really.
The rogue buffs: I LOVE EM, seeing as i run mage/rogue in 2v2 with Nakedsnake i couldn't be anymore happy really. At the moment we got 2137 rating, running a bit up a down all the time, mostly encountering a mirror team who are both humans just detecting naked and kicking his ass..... i hate humans so much >.<
We still make mistakes and lose some stupid matches, but up until now we havn't faced anything that was completely impossible to defeat. Because of this i told him i wanna push for gladiator rank.
Now according to http://www.arenajunkies.com/calculator/ we need about 2208 rating and im absolutely sure we can manage that, just with a hole lot of practise, and less stupid mistakes(for example some rogue letting me try to solo a SL/SL lock while he was busy searching for a stealthed druid)
Anyway, ill update in approx 1 week, having reached gladiator or not.
-Artanias
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Iceblock Trainable in 2.4
Source
Now, when i first read this i almost jumped off my chair(which woulda sucked since i was doing a test in school), finally! dragons breath in arena, my dream came true. It would be imba and frost spec will be no more, but then it hit me. Fire still wont be viable, why you ask ? Ill explain it.
First of all the damage:
Yea in pve, fire kicks the living shit out of frost, so why not in pvp? simple answer: resilience.
Frost has shatter, and a water elemental. Shatter gives you super high crit even on high resilience targets. Fire however, has combustion, but while this might be nice in a 1on1 fight, its not worth a whole lot when you need on-demand burst in a 5v5 match. Because combustion, sadly lives on RNG, even though it WILL guarentee 3 crits, its impossible to say when those will happen, a ranged frost nova is just so much more superior in that regard.
Next, the water elemental doesnt give a damn about resilience, mine hits for approx 730-750 on average with its waterbolts, that is just about 300 dps, meanwhile i can cast my frostbolts, sheep, nova, CS. Fire just doesn't have that huge luxury. Also, next to rogues, fire mage were the class that critted the most pre TBC, rogues now however have AR/prep as a spec that doesnt rely alot on critical damage, fire still does.
Mana/survivability:
Even with iceblock fire will still have lesser survivability than frost(as it should be) ice barrier, superior snares, will still keep frost up higher.
Now mana, fire is extremely mana ineffecient for arena compared to frost, a single dragons breath costs 700 mana, that is HUGE(compared to WE that costs about 340 does way more damage, has a ranged nova and lasts quite a bit longer), blast wave is almost the same, and as a "golden talent" isnt really powerfull compared to an improved CoC. First of all the mana cost is almost the same, damage is close to the same, but CoC snares for longer, and isn't affected 2 times by resilience.
Blast wave both get the direct reducement in crit damage AND the reduced dmg from dots(ignite) not to mention blizzard did the "awesome" thing to change the animation to a minsized frost nova. Taking this into consideration, and the already obvious mana issues mages have in arenas, fire is really gonna be lacking.
Now, how to fix it ?
Damage:
Without buffing pve fire to the point that its imba, i think the only option is to remove the dmg reduction on ignite through resilience(with it being a dot) and some sort of "crit through resilience" talent, a stackable debuff through improved scorch? And no, i really dont want a Phoenix or a Fire elemental pet, so dont even think about it! Of course, this would need HUGE tweaking, to be succesfull or even balanced.
Mana/survivability:
Honestly, i dont feel fire needs more survivability than what is given through a trainable icblock, its supposed to be high damage and less survivability, so its better to leave it at that.
Mana however, a reducement on the mana costs of blast wave and dragons breath would help alot, especially because Dragons breath is such a great spell, and its gonna be used as much as possible to help interrupt healers. Blizzard also says that they will buff our mana issues in longer fights, the new evocation will obviously also help on this problem, and a buffed mana gem is gonna go some way.
Now even though i just proven that fire still will be inferior, im still gonna try it out, just as i think 80% of arena mages will, ill try it out, and see how far it will go.
Oh yea no funny pictures for the moment, im still in school waiting to start a math lesson, ill post some if i got new ones at home :)
-Artanias
Update: Pictures! they are, however all from the same player, Eleuteurios :P
This guy is as fucked up as a french whorehouse, but as funny as an entire season of friends.
Now, when i first read this i almost jumped off my chair(which woulda sucked since i was doing a test in school), finally! dragons breath in arena, my dream came true. It would be imba and frost spec will be no more, but then it hit me. Fire still wont be viable, why you ask ? Ill explain it.
First of all the damage:
Yea in pve, fire kicks the living shit out of frost, so why not in pvp? simple answer: resilience.
Frost has shatter, and a water elemental. Shatter gives you super high crit even on high resilience targets. Fire however, has combustion, but while this might be nice in a 1on1 fight, its not worth a whole lot when you need on-demand burst in a 5v5 match. Because combustion, sadly lives on RNG, even though it WILL guarentee 3 crits, its impossible to say when those will happen, a ranged frost nova is just so much more superior in that regard.
Next, the water elemental doesnt give a damn about resilience, mine hits for approx 730-750 on average with its waterbolts, that is just about 300 dps, meanwhile i can cast my frostbolts, sheep, nova, CS. Fire just doesn't have that huge luxury. Also, next to rogues, fire mage were the class that critted the most pre TBC, rogues now however have AR/prep as a spec that doesnt rely alot on critical damage, fire still does.
Mana/survivability:
Even with iceblock fire will still have lesser survivability than frost(as it should be) ice barrier, superior snares, will still keep frost up higher.
Now mana, fire is extremely mana ineffecient for arena compared to frost, a single dragons breath costs 700 mana, that is HUGE(compared to WE that costs about 340 does way more damage, has a ranged nova and lasts quite a bit longer), blast wave is almost the same, and as a "golden talent" isnt really powerfull compared to an improved CoC. First of all the mana cost is almost the same, damage is close to the same, but CoC snares for longer, and isn't affected 2 times by resilience.
Blast wave both get the direct reducement in crit damage AND the reduced dmg from dots(ignite) not to mention blizzard did the "awesome" thing to change the animation to a minsized frost nova. Taking this into consideration, and the already obvious mana issues mages have in arenas, fire is really gonna be lacking.
Now, how to fix it ?
Damage:
Without buffing pve fire to the point that its imba, i think the only option is to remove the dmg reduction on ignite through resilience(with it being a dot) and some sort of "crit through resilience" talent, a stackable debuff through improved scorch? And no, i really dont want a Phoenix or a Fire elemental pet, so dont even think about it! Of course, this would need HUGE tweaking, to be succesfull or even balanced.
Mana/survivability:
Honestly, i dont feel fire needs more survivability than what is given through a trainable icblock, its supposed to be high damage and less survivability, so its better to leave it at that.
Mana however, a reducement on the mana costs of blast wave and dragons breath would help alot, especially because Dragons breath is such a great spell, and its gonna be used as much as possible to help interrupt healers. Blizzard also says that they will buff our mana issues in longer fights, the new evocation will obviously also help on this problem, and a buffed mana gem is gonna go some way.
Now even though i just proven that fire still will be inferior, im still gonna try it out, just as i think 80% of arena mages will, ill try it out, and see how far it will go.
Oh yea no funny pictures for the moment, im still in school waiting to start a math lesson, ill post some if i got new ones at home :)
-Artanias
Update: Pictures! they are, however all from the same player, Eleuteurios :P
This guy is as fucked up as a french whorehouse, but as funny as an entire season of friends.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Neilyo 9, does god play wow? 2k Rating bitches!
Finallyyy! my 5v5 team hit 2k rating, 2k EXACTLY, not a point more or less.
After a rough wednesday just after the reset, were we only met teams that gave us 1-3 points and only met teams that lost us 1-3 points, we started again sunday with Arctore filling the rogue spot. We met 80% 2345 setups, to be honest, im getting annoyed by meeting that kind of team so many times just gets boring calling the same target every fight, however we ended up facing 2345 but a hunter instead of a shaman a couple of times, and let me tell you, Ice trap on the tomb in lordaeron when my entire team is stuck up there getting entrapment procs all over can really fuck up things big time. Only player who is capable of escaping it is Arctore popping CloS, makes for some very nasty moments were we arent able to dps properly so for the future, hunter traps = bad. We still gotta work on our teamwork, timing nukes and stuff, and i gotta switch targets more. Think ill also switch the job of our rogues, seeing as before i wanted them to control the warrior, i so often saw that even if we get a perfect start, sooner or later the war is still gonna run freely around beating on our spriest, probably gonna stick our rogue on the priest or shaman from now on, stopping mana burns, dispells and heals will be a wonderfull thing. And the dps a rogue can perform on a warrior is really minor, compared to our magical dps, ive got quiet alot of ideas on my mind lately that i would love to try out, one thing i really wish was possible is more days where we could play, so far its mostly wednesday, sunday and monday, and the times we actually get to play more than 1 day a week is too rare in my opinion.
Bad news, Dayender our spriest said he wanted to start playing his rogue alot more in s3, and our 2nd rogue Arctore said he wants to play a resto druid. However as long as Dayender just doesnt stop his priest, i gotta admit, getting a resto druid instead of a paladin would make me very happy, actually since day 1 i've been interested in a druid healer, but getting a well geared, and well played resto druid who doesnt whine(harmonia :P) is impossible, there is some around, but all of them have a team they dont want to leave.
Now arctore, whos nothing less but an excellent rogue player wants to roll a resto druid, is just perfect! Harmonia is even about to quit playing wow, on top of this, Arctore and him are RL mates! If we are lucky this could turn into something awesome! :P
On another note my 2v2 hit 2126 rating, Nimra sorta stopped playing completely, havn't even been able to catch him on msn. So i invited Nakedsnake, always wanted to play mage+rogue again so it was a perfect opportunity. One thing though, this war+pala team fucked us over each and every single time both were humans, so just when the pala got sapped, the warrior popped perception and started beating naked down, i just couldnt stop it, tried everything, sheep, nova, snares nothing seemed to help at all. So from now on were gonna change the tactics a bit, atleast agains't humans. We were very very lucky to not meet a single druid+lock or war+lock team, so this helped our rating a bit :)
Neilyo 9
If god played wow, his name would be Neilyo, why you ask? Well that's simple, Neilyo is quite possibly one of the most skilled players I've ever seen on video playing a rogue, his CD usage is next to flawless, and the way he is extremely good at noticing whats happening around him. This video has a duel series with ming, Neilyo uses the engi goggles and highened senses, which means even Ming with perception doesn't have a huge chance doing an opener which leads to... well watch the movie :)
He also fights a gnome warrior who actually beats him 4-1, the fight is pretty nice to see, has a funny moment too :P
You also see some fights agains't Pandemics 3v3 team, neilyo runs rogue/lock/druid agains't their rogue/mage/priest, it really is a counter setup to Pandemic, but the fights are fun to watch none the less.
So go ahead and DL it :)
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=48387
A warning though, this is a pure dueling/arena movie, if you dont like that, or long fights, dont watch it.
Ill update with new screenshots once i get home :)
Update:
Pictures!
First one is Hives/Browlar laying down the law on our slacking guildmembers, this time Bowra getting asked to join Gruul!
Next 2 is Veritha/Eleutherios:
Last one is a memory of good old Barrens chat :)
After a rough wednesday just after the reset, were we only met teams that gave us 1-3 points and only met teams that lost us 1-3 points, we started again sunday with Arctore filling the rogue spot. We met 80% 2345 setups, to be honest, im getting annoyed by meeting that kind of team so many times just gets boring calling the same target every fight, however we ended up facing 2345 but a hunter instead of a shaman a couple of times, and let me tell you, Ice trap on the tomb in lordaeron when my entire team is stuck up there getting entrapment procs all over can really fuck up things big time. Only player who is capable of escaping it is Arctore popping CloS, makes for some very nasty moments were we arent able to dps properly so for the future, hunter traps = bad. We still gotta work on our teamwork, timing nukes and stuff, and i gotta switch targets more. Think ill also switch the job of our rogues, seeing as before i wanted them to control the warrior, i so often saw that even if we get a perfect start, sooner or later the war is still gonna run freely around beating on our spriest, probably gonna stick our rogue on the priest or shaman from now on, stopping mana burns, dispells and heals will be a wonderfull thing. And the dps a rogue can perform on a warrior is really minor, compared to our magical dps, ive got quiet alot of ideas on my mind lately that i would love to try out, one thing i really wish was possible is more days where we could play, so far its mostly wednesday, sunday and monday, and the times we actually get to play more than 1 day a week is too rare in my opinion.
Bad news, Dayender our spriest said he wanted to start playing his rogue alot more in s3, and our 2nd rogue Arctore said he wants to play a resto druid. However as long as Dayender just doesnt stop his priest, i gotta admit, getting a resto druid instead of a paladin would make me very happy, actually since day 1 i've been interested in a druid healer, but getting a well geared, and well played resto druid who doesnt whine(harmonia :P) is impossible, there is some around, but all of them have a team they dont want to leave.
Now arctore, whos nothing less but an excellent rogue player wants to roll a resto druid, is just perfect! Harmonia is even about to quit playing wow, on top of this, Arctore and him are RL mates! If we are lucky this could turn into something awesome! :P
On another note my 2v2 hit 2126 rating, Nimra sorta stopped playing completely, havn't even been able to catch him on msn. So i invited Nakedsnake, always wanted to play mage+rogue again so it was a perfect opportunity. One thing though, this war+pala team fucked us over each and every single time both were humans, so just when the pala got sapped, the warrior popped perception and started beating naked down, i just couldnt stop it, tried everything, sheep, nova, snares nothing seemed to help at all. So from now on were gonna change the tactics a bit, atleast agains't humans. We were very very lucky to not meet a single druid+lock or war+lock team, so this helped our rating a bit :)
Neilyo 9
If god played wow, his name would be Neilyo, why you ask? Well that's simple, Neilyo is quite possibly one of the most skilled players I've ever seen on video playing a rogue, his CD usage is next to flawless, and the way he is extremely good at noticing whats happening around him. This video has a duel series with ming, Neilyo uses the engi goggles and highened senses, which means even Ming with perception doesn't have a huge chance doing an opener which leads to... well watch the movie :)
He also fights a gnome warrior who actually beats him 4-1, the fight is pretty nice to see, has a funny moment too :P
You also see some fights agains't Pandemics 3v3 team, neilyo runs rogue/lock/druid agains't their rogue/mage/priest, it really is a counter setup to Pandemic, but the fights are fun to watch none the less.
So go ahead and DL it :)
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=48387
A warning though, this is a pure dueling/arena movie, if you dont like that, or long fights, dont watch it.
Ill update with new screenshots once i get home :)
Update:
Pictures!
First one is Hives/Browlar laying down the law on our slacking guildmembers, this time Bowra getting asked to join Gruul!
Next 2 is Veritha/Eleutherios:
Last one is a memory of good old Barrens chat :)
Friday, 28 September 2007
Shamans in 5v5 arena, an in depth look
So, Aloran my mate has asked me to write my opinion about Enhancement shamans in arena, now i could make this article REALLY short and just say "Spec elemental you crybaby", instead i wanna try and go into detail the pros and cons, not only about an enh shaman but also resto and ele oh ye, ill only focus on 5v5, or else this will get WAY too long. One thing before i start, as a shaman you will 99% of the time be main target to die or to be CCed, easy as that.
First something that is equal to all shamans in what they bring to an arena team:
Bloodlust, 35% extra attack and cast speed, should be pretty clear in itself how friggin awesome this is, spam mana burning, spam healing, spam dps, etc etc, simply helps you get stuff done faster, doesnt need alot of explaining.
Totems, grounding, earthbind, poison cleansing, and almost most importantly, winfury totem. Grounding can with good timing save you from a CSed paladin, that hurtfull deathcoil or sheep, yea its 5v5 and alot of spells and being thrown around, still grounding aint to be underestimated. Earthbind, quiet clear what this does, snares the entire enemy team(if well placed). Poison cleansing, dispelling Wound poison, viper sting, crippling poison and even blind, remove a crucial blind or viper sting and generally having a poison remover is obviously a huge asset.
Healing, pretty much a no brainer shamans can heal, of course how good depends on the spec, not much explanation needed here.
Shocks/purge, r1 earth shocking enemy healers and purging buffs off the main target, if the shaman aint dpsing or healing, he should be purging the enemy big time, removing a mages Molten armor or mage armor can be quiet annoying seeing as theyre more fragile towards a warrior or rogue. Purging all buffs off priests are devastating, they rely on their buffs to keep them alive under focus fire, Inner fire, renew, PoM, and shield, remove all this and theyre fodder for a warrior.
So! Enhancement:
Pros:
Fucking, sick, crazy, uncontrollable, burst dps. Yea, thats right, given the timing and luck no class in the entire game can burst dps like an Enhancement shaman with a big fat 2 hander. The last time i dueled Aloran with his Deep thunder, he procced winfury(yea i call it that) on me, and did 2 HITS for 1500 and a normal one for about 750 something, thats 3750 dmg non crit, probably the first time ever i nearly shat myself playing a videogame, this was followed up by a stormstrike and an Earth shock, suddenly i saw my 10k hp ass on 50%, needless to say i paniced and lost the duel, me being the great loser i immideately started to whine about how lame winfury is, and that he only won because of the stun procced on his Deep thunder, but anyway. Just goes to show how fucking sick their damage can be, its always been like this and most likely always will be, unmatchable, uncontrollable, sick, high burst dps.
Now why is this good? Personally i see it best in a 2345 team, seeing normally they cant just charge a random person and kill them instantly, they wear down the enemy slowly looking for an opening to burst down someone, an enh shaman adds greatly to this, seeing as he VERY easy can create openings with a few winfury procs(stick him on a clothie and sooner of later that guy will be below 50%)
Cons:
The key word, uncontrollable if youre unlucky you can be running around for 20 seconds without getting one single winfury proc, that is completely shit and makes you wanna cry and whine at your shaman "why are you so gay?". Uncontrollable = bad, enh shamans cant follow orders like other classes if the leader says "burst priest!" all he can do is walk up and poke the priest a bit hoping for the best, its almost worse dps than me wanding!
Next is the limited healing abilities a shaman geared for melee has, low +healing and a low mana pool compared to the other specs limits the off healing they can do, this also adds to their relatively weak survivability, most enh shamans have NS for an instant heal to help them out but thats about it. Also an enh shaman focused by more than one melee needs to pick out his shield or hes gonna get buttfucked big time, this removes alot of their dps potential.
And in the end, an enh shamans complete lack of abilities to close distance, no intercept, CloS, vanish or sprint makes them extremely vulnerable to CC, yea frost shock, but the chance that you arent playing with either a mage or warriors is VERY low, so the main target will be slowed anyway.
Thats about all i can think off for enh shamans.
Elemental:
Pros:
The more controlled, less sick dps spec of the shaman, ele shamans are without a doubt the most popular spec for arenas, their dps is high AND controllable, you ask for it and they bring you 3k+ burst in a few seconds, ele shamans can. An ele shaman have potential burst very close to that of an enh shaman, Overload procs can be friggin nasty to have send at you. Not much to say about ele shamans dps, its a very high sustainable dps they output and a good asset to the team, cant say much else hehe.
Target Switching, unlike an enh shaman, ele shamans dont need to close distance, they switch targets instantly and start their imba dpsing, this is huge for any kind of setup, fast on-demand burst is so damn powerfull, anyway im repeating myself.
Cons:
Runs oom very very fast, limited healing compared to resto, and like enh shamans lose alot of their dps when getting focused, and focused they most likely will be. Cant really find any huge cons looking at an ele shaman apart from that, when comparing it to the other specs.
Restoration
Pros:
Resto shamans, have absolutely no dps whatsoever, however are very very powerfull at healing, earth shield is an extremely powerfull spell. Natures guardian with mail armor, earth shield and NS makes a resto shaman a very hard class to kill fast. Chain heal is also a strong group heal for when 1 target isnt being focused big time.
Cons: No defensive magic dispell, combined with no offensive CC, this is a pretty bad thing seeing as healers espeically are required to have a defensive magic dispell, removing CC and other magic effects.
This is about all i can think of at the moment, i might add some things later if i think of more, not very likely though :P
Oh yea, if you liked reading this, i wouldn't mind writing some for other classes, just wanna be sure someone actually wants to read it :)
-Artanias
First something that is equal to all shamans in what they bring to an arena team:
Bloodlust, 35% extra attack and cast speed, should be pretty clear in itself how friggin awesome this is, spam mana burning, spam healing, spam dps, etc etc, simply helps you get stuff done faster, doesnt need alot of explaining.
Totems, grounding, earthbind, poison cleansing, and almost most importantly, winfury totem. Grounding can with good timing save you from a CSed paladin, that hurtfull deathcoil or sheep, yea its 5v5 and alot of spells and being thrown around, still grounding aint to be underestimated. Earthbind, quiet clear what this does, snares the entire enemy team(if well placed). Poison cleansing, dispelling Wound poison, viper sting, crippling poison and even blind, remove a crucial blind or viper sting and generally having a poison remover is obviously a huge asset.
Healing, pretty much a no brainer shamans can heal, of course how good depends on the spec, not much explanation needed here.
Shocks/purge, r1 earth shocking enemy healers and purging buffs off the main target, if the shaman aint dpsing or healing, he should be purging the enemy big time, removing a mages Molten armor or mage armor can be quiet annoying seeing as theyre more fragile towards a warrior or rogue. Purging all buffs off priests are devastating, they rely on their buffs to keep them alive under focus fire, Inner fire, renew, PoM, and shield, remove all this and theyre fodder for a warrior.
So! Enhancement:
Pros:
Fucking, sick, crazy, uncontrollable, burst dps. Yea, thats right, given the timing and luck no class in the entire game can burst dps like an Enhancement shaman with a big fat 2 hander. The last time i dueled Aloran with his Deep thunder, he procced winfury(yea i call it that) on me, and did 2 HITS for 1500 and a normal one for about 750 something, thats 3750 dmg non crit, probably the first time ever i nearly shat myself playing a videogame, this was followed up by a stormstrike and an Earth shock, suddenly i saw my 10k hp ass on 50%, needless to say i paniced and lost the duel, me being the great loser i immideately started to whine about how lame winfury is, and that he only won because of the stun procced on his Deep thunder, but anyway. Just goes to show how fucking sick their damage can be, its always been like this and most likely always will be, unmatchable, uncontrollable, sick, high burst dps.
Now why is this good? Personally i see it best in a 2345 team, seeing normally they cant just charge a random person and kill them instantly, they wear down the enemy slowly looking for an opening to burst down someone, an enh shaman adds greatly to this, seeing as he VERY easy can create openings with a few winfury procs(stick him on a clothie and sooner of later that guy will be below 50%)
Cons:
The key word, uncontrollable if youre unlucky you can be running around for 20 seconds without getting one single winfury proc, that is completely shit and makes you wanna cry and whine at your shaman "why are you so gay?". Uncontrollable = bad, enh shamans cant follow orders like other classes if the leader says "burst priest!" all he can do is walk up and poke the priest a bit hoping for the best, its almost worse dps than me wanding!
Next is the limited healing abilities a shaman geared for melee has, low +healing and a low mana pool compared to the other specs limits the off healing they can do, this also adds to their relatively weak survivability, most enh shamans have NS for an instant heal to help them out but thats about it. Also an enh shaman focused by more than one melee needs to pick out his shield or hes gonna get buttfucked big time, this removes alot of their dps potential.
And in the end, an enh shamans complete lack of abilities to close distance, no intercept, CloS, vanish or sprint makes them extremely vulnerable to CC, yea frost shock, but the chance that you arent playing with either a mage or warriors is VERY low, so the main target will be slowed anyway.
Thats about all i can think off for enh shamans.
Elemental:
Pros:
The more controlled, less sick dps spec of the shaman, ele shamans are without a doubt the most popular spec for arenas, their dps is high AND controllable, you ask for it and they bring you 3k+ burst in a few seconds, ele shamans can. An ele shaman have potential burst very close to that of an enh shaman, Overload procs can be friggin nasty to have send at you. Not much to say about ele shamans dps, its a very high sustainable dps they output and a good asset to the team, cant say much else hehe.
Target Switching, unlike an enh shaman, ele shamans dont need to close distance, they switch targets instantly and start their imba dpsing, this is huge for any kind of setup, fast on-demand burst is so damn powerfull, anyway im repeating myself.
Cons:
Runs oom very very fast, limited healing compared to resto, and like enh shamans lose alot of their dps when getting focused, and focused they most likely will be. Cant really find any huge cons looking at an ele shaman apart from that, when comparing it to the other specs.
Restoration
Pros:
Resto shamans, have absolutely no dps whatsoever, however are very very powerfull at healing, earth shield is an extremely powerfull spell. Natures guardian with mail armor, earth shield and NS makes a resto shaman a very hard class to kill fast. Chain heal is also a strong group heal for when 1 target isnt being focused big time.
Cons: No defensive magic dispell, combined with no offensive CC, this is a pretty bad thing seeing as healers espeically are required to have a defensive magic dispell, removing CC and other magic effects.
This is about all i can think of at the moment, i might add some things later if i think of more, not very likely though :P
Oh yea, if you liked reading this, i wouldn't mind writing some for other classes, just wanna be sure someone actually wants to read it :)
-Artanias
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