Arena Setback

(ring of trials)

(circle of blood)

So after getting some pretty good gear, we all did a few more skirmishes for 5v5. I must say that maebee and myself were able to stay up a whole lot better this time around. I think our survivability went up about 60%. Both buffed, we have well over 10k HP. Our biggest setback is lack of DPS. We're still trying to figure out certain strategies against different class make-ups.

I've noticed a few things during our practices. We do 90% better in Ring of Trials than in Circle of Blood arena. If you notice the pic, circle of blood is about high ground/low ground while Ring of Trials has all the kiting room you could ever dream of. We're devising a strategy to not use the bridge at all when we do Circle of Blood.

(for our make-up) Classes to NOT go after first, paladins (they can shield and heal), mages (they can ice block and get healed), warriors (they are focused healed and have too much armor). Classes that are super fleshy are hunters and warlocks. They have very little except for traps and fear to protect them from total anhiliation.

In the end, I'm almost positive lack of DPS is going to be our main issue through out the arena season. After Maebee and I become more geared, Taint will probably respec his druid to be pure DPS and very little healing. So far the three healer combo is pretty good so long as two rogues don't take out one of the priests from the get-go. Stun lock, kick, kidney shot....gabam gabam..dead. A priest can't even get off a shield at that point.

I'm a little concerned that Arena battles will really be about 70% class make-up and only 30% skill. Shaman/Pally/Warlock/Rogue/Rogue or Pally/Priest/Shaman/DPS/DPS. Or say a full party of mages or full party of druids. It will definitely be interesting to see the future battles with different class make-ups. So far, Paladin/Mage groups have been giving us major issues because of their ability to stall and heal. Sometimes, it just comes down to buying 0.5 seconds.

But our biggest problem is the timing of this arena opening. Sadin is off in NJ for work and tends to have to work super long hours and Taint is about to go snow boarding again for a week. I swear, I don't know how that boy can do so much RL stuff and still have like two lvl 70 characters already. So we've been trying to get Boozefort up to 70 so he can sub next week for Taint.

In the meantime, Felix and I have been grinding out honor points in Eye of the Storm. When the whole gang is done with out-of-town work and vacations, JAE is gonna try a pre-form group to do battle grounds. We tested it out this weekend with about 7 of us. With Boozefort and Maebee and a few others added, we can probably have around 10-12 people which will be very, very nice.

Why do PvP first instead of PVE? Well. It's a really good time. The discrepency between gear is nulled because of the expansion. Horde and Alliance groups have equal opportunity right now to battle each other out without a full Grand Marshal or Warlord geared group just coming in and pushing the I-Win button. Plus, the honor reset and new PvP honor system is completely achievable. It still may take a few months to get a full set of lvl 70 PvP gear but at least it's not like you have to dedicate your entire life to it for fear of losing honor. You can come and go as you please.

I'm excited about trying out PvP. I did AB for the first time ever this weekend. Before that, I had only done Warsong Gulch. I was too focused on PVE and the PVP honor grind didn't appeal to me at all back then...and now I'm glad I didn't.


(this is me in my first AB learning what four noding means)