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

PvP Movies, resto whining, LFG Korrak

So, Inspired by Zhero im making my own list of pvp movies that i found enjoyable.(omg copycat) These movies are really just some that i enjoyed watching, now when i watch pvp movies i take one thing above all else, entertainment, so yea, might not be the best player, best editing or best opponents, my focus is that it was FUN to watch(with exceptions)


Albis 4 - TBC Worldpvp(TBC)
Albis is one of my favourite mage players, because i find him skilled, i find he plays with "flair" and i find his editing is fits his choices in music well. Now for most of his movies, he always said he know the editing and top notch and the know the skill aint top notch, but he hopes its a blend of the 2. I cant find a better description about the movies ive seen by him, hes made Albis 1-3, Honest Expressions, Fire in the Sky, Rage of Angels, and his only TBC movie Albis 4. Now Rage of Angels and Albis 4, he did more than just good editing, he changed his UI to something flashy, and changed his character model to UD. I found the latter to be the best since i thought it had, the best music, best editing, and the most "flair" to watch, the content in Rage of Angels is slightly better, but the other stuff doesnt bring it as high as Albis 4. So here is the link to what i personally see as the overall best mage pvp video :)
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=39947


Grim - Total Annihilation(Pre TBC)
Now, i highly doubt no one knows about this one, seeing as it is extremely popular, and with good reason. The editing, music, content, everything just fits, his first movie was Path of Blood, i never got around to watch this one, im just too slack :) Anyway dont have alot to say about this one, that if you really havnt seen it yet, GET TO IT! Entertainment promised or your money back. Again a guy with "flair".
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=27354


R12NEdruid - Tfo - E1Sleep(Pre TBC)
This is without a doubt the most skilled druid i've ever seen on a movie(with "flair"! :P), some of what he did was something no one had ever shown on a movie before, atleast i hadn't seen it, the quality is shit, but the skill and the music is just <3. www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=25439

Drakedog 7
Yea, yea i know some people will laugh at me for this, but honestly, look apart from his absolute abusage of soul shards, look apart from his crit streaks, this movie was made for one thing: Entertainment, and i really cannot see how this movie didn't deliver on that part, the music fitted perfectly, and whatever the fuck you say, Drakedog is a great player, also this guy has "flair", his movement while playing just makes it cool and smooth to watch, and the editing fits that, its just great :) Also the guy is a legend! His first movies were made around the time that a warlock actually KILLING people was completely unheard of, like seeing the hand of god.
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=42581


Sham's Movie
An extremely OLD elemental shaman pvp movie, a great one none the less, yea the pvp tactics are outdated, gear are outdated, crap quality and so on, but this one just has to be noticed because i find that what he showed back then, how he played was really unreal compared to what you saw before this one, for this, i think it deserves a notice.
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=4079


Unknown 3
Godly editing, thats all i got so say, he released 3 movies and a trailer for the 4th, he never released the 4th one however, there is some outtakes scattered on googlevideo if you feel like checking that out. He also has all kinds of hidden messages in the movies, i've never been able to actually read it, apart from some, but all of the stuff hes got edited into these movies are just mind blowing. I thought the 3rd movie by far was the best, there aint much to say about this one apart from turn up the music, close your lights and prepare to be sucked into a crazy world, dont look for skill, dont look for great opponents just enjoy :)
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=11379


World of Roguecraft
Close to being what i think is the worlds most popular movie series, this warlock called Mute, was so pissed at how easy it was to play a rogue, so he leveled one himself, all the way to 60 for the SINGLE reason to prove they were extremely overpowered, and he sure did. This was WAAAAY back when rogues really were a true 2 button class, and warlocks truly were mushrooms. My favourite episode is the first(he actually made episode 3 first, then 2 then 1) it has the best editing, best voiceovers and best fights, and best music.
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=26540


Never
Best, druid, movie, ever! Editing, the fights, the music, EVERYTHING is just insanely wicked in this one, Feragho, in my opinion the most legendary druid to have ever played the game teams up with a guy called Boro. Boro lives in the EU Feragho in the US. Feragho started making movies back even before Drakedog, back when a druid even THINKING about killing another guy was like getting to talk to god, he abuses potions, spams moonfire, but he did it, he showed the world that druids CAN kill stuff, and this is the last movie were you see how truly epic his skill is. Boro, hmm i never saw his other movie called Outnumbered, he made it with a druid buddy of his were they killed people 2v4 and above, maybe i should go watch it :P Anyway, this is hands down one of the best overall wow movies if you ask me, yea its that great!
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=9569


Shadow Word: Dance 3
A level 67 shadowpriest running around beating 70s, but this video aint about that, its about music, and how he mixes it with editing and comedy! I dont watch alot of shadowpriest videos, but this one is without a doubt the best one i've seen. Also the movie is absolute top quality, you can watch this one in full screen, and i honestly suggest that. His opponents as he says himself are kinda..... crap.... but that really is the only negative thing you could possibly say about this movie, so enjoy :)
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=42164


Harmonia the emo tree.
So yea, my good friend Harmonia is a druid, and feral down to the very last bone, however playing 3v3 me and Nimra got frustrated as we felt him as resto would do us far better, on top of that we both specced into something we disliked to do better in arena, this made him agree to try out resto, for the remainder of our 3v3 matches that evening he blamed every loss for him not being feral, the entire evening he was emo, crying about how much he hated it, and said it was a crap spec and so on, so because of this, Nimra my buddy made this picture:

LFG Korrak
After much work finding teammates, i finally started my dream 5v5 team,
LFG Korrak! 4dps team consisting of
Rogue(Senbonzakura)/mage(Me)/lock(Nimra)/spriest(Dayender)/druid(Harmonia), initially we had a paladin as a healer, however we believe his account got hacked since searching on the armory brings no result. Until we lost him, the team just kept on rising and rising, however the evening we went to Harmonia was his first ever as resto in a 5v5 team, and he was NOT used to spamming cyclone, abusing LoS and spamming hots, this turned into a 5-9 score as i called it a night seeing as most of us probably were pretty demotivated to keep on going. However this evening we went 7-4(i think) until Dayender and Harmonia had to leave. Harmonia had learned some more cyclone spam, and generally the team just evolved, we had some silly losses due to annoying mistakes and generally still not being at the top of our game, but fuck that! Im happy we did better and we will continue to do better!

Pictures!
Yes for once i have pictures of guild chat! only a few though :)

First one is Eleutherios(Veritha) telling us about his sexual experience:



Second is senbon telling us the secret of staring at boobs:

Thats it for this time! next up Enhancement shamans, by request :P

EDIT: Added a video i had forgotten that simply had to be there, also edited some errors around the place.

The Mashup Revolution, The Voice 07 and a 3dps team with a rogue?

So yea, here's some non-WoW related stuff for once, heh.

First of all Mashup: "Mashup" is basically some guy or band editing alot of music together from different artists i found these 2 websites through another blog: http://www.djlobsterdust.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/tlod

Some of the tracks are absolutely awesome, and i've only heard a few, so far my absolute favourite is this one: http://www.djlobsterdust.com/?p=71

If i ever create a pvp video(which seems to be very possible sometime soon, atleast the recording :P) ill be sure to snatch some of this stuff, it really is awesome.

The Voice 07:
So yea, The Voice 07, is a concert held by a danish radio/TV channel in the place called Tivoli in Copenhagen. Lumidee, Infernal, and generally some danish artists will be there, i realise this isn't anything special for a non dane, but i am extremely excited about it. It's gonna be the biggest live concert i ever attended so yea, who wouldn't be excited :)
Also Lumidee is pretty great if you ask me! Heard Crazy and She's like the wind a bit while in school,(hey gotta do something while im there right? :P) and i enjoyed both songs.
4 hours of constant music, damn i can't wait :)

Victorinox
Onto something actually wow, a 3dps team is holding a 103-3 record with a ROGUE in their setup, rogue/mage/lock/priest/pala: http://eu.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Al%27Akir&ts=5&amp;amp;amp;t=Victorinox&select=Victorinox
Now this is by no means an insult to rogues, thing is just it's been debated and "proven" many times rogues don't have a spot outside 4dps setups.
This team is quiet possibly something that proves the entire world wrong, seems they have lasting power on top of good burst dps.
They are currently doing this on the Blackout battlegroup here in EU, which is a very respectable battlegroup, so its quiet surprising they're doing this well.
Apparently half of the team migrated from Bloodscalp and was fortunate enough to recruit 2 players from Feel the pain, Inflame and Rapidload, the team who won the Online EU regional finals held by blizzard, but who couldn't do much in the finals due to their 2nd warlock quitting wow.

I'll certainly be following them to see how their progress goes, after all the most dominating team in the entire world is interesting, but the fact that they've got a rogue with them is even more impressive.

-Artanias

PS: On a side note, me and Nimra hit 2036 with the 2v2 team :)

One last edit, i just found some more info on the expansion: http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/Zug-Gaming/New-Expansion-Details/
Pretty interesting stuff :)