Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Season 5 Arena Impressions

Last reset I teamed up with a death knight buddy and played some 2v2 matches in the arena. He was specced unholy/blood (I think he was 20/0/51 or 21/0/50), and I was specced 0/20/51 ret/prot. We were both full or nearly full PvE DPS gear, and after 40-50 games we settled around the high 1600's, mostly due to me being a noob. Here are some of my post-game reflections:

  • Death knights are ridiculous. I've said it before and I'll say it again, they have a veritable metric ton of tools at their disposal to either mete out immense quantities of pain, keep themselves alive, or just be a gorram annoyance.
  • I need some resilience, bad. Even with my plate armor and nearly 20k HP, I was taken from full health to half by a rogue in the blink of an eye - literally. I was having to Divine Shield within the first 20 seconds of every match.
  • The Divine Shield change that will cut damage by 50% while under Divine Shield is going to hurt me pretty bad. I spend half or more of my life span in an arena match under the effects of the bubble.
  • Burst by all classes is ri-god-damn-diculous. It doesn't matter if you're a mage or a warlock, in bear form or tree form, or frost presence or beserker stance, anyone can kill you, and fast.
  • My macros aren't set well for PvP use. I need a self-cleanse button to mash, and a self-cast Flash of Light button to mash, and some sort of large flashing angry notification whenever I get an Art of War proc so I know to mash the FoL button. Right now I have a mouseover macro for Cleanse and a Clique setting for shift + left click to cast Flash of Light. It's making my movement herky-jerky when I try to pursue someone and cleanse/heal on the run.
  • How the hell did paladins go from dregs of the arena to present on every gorram team? Seriously, I'm tired of having to kill people twice. Stupid bubble.
  • Yes, I am aware of the irony of the previous bullet.
  • Decent holy paladins really throw a monkey wrench in the works against DK/ret. Cleanse, Sacred Shield, and Holy Shock spam while running around makes a DK go craaaaaaaazy.
  • I can't tell if I enjoy the arena. I love winning matches, but cannot stand losing them, and have no desire to improve my play to the point where I don't lose. And it's great that it's not scripted like most PvE encounters, but it's frustrating that it's not scripted like most PvE encounters. Ya know? I think you get what I'm sayin'.
  • When are dual specs coming? I blew 100g just speccing for 2v2, because I messed up the spec the first time. And will glyphs swap with dual-spec swaps? I know I heard that they'd try to change action bars over, but I can't remember if glyphs would change too.
  • Didn't I swear not to arena after constant disappointment and failure (not reaching 2k) last season? I really should stick to PvE.

2 comments:

Chrom said...

Proculus is an addon that flashes a large angry message whenever any of your specials "proc". its great for those insta-FOL reminders. just figured id give you the heads up on it. its worked pretty well so far for me.
Also, is anyone using the FOL glyph when they are soloing? as a utility glyph i was wondering if anyone found it to be worth it.
I just really like the idea of getting a double Heal over Time when you crit with a FOL, and then again from the Glyph, and with Sacred Shield, thats alot. With mana being more and more of an issue for us and INT being found on less ret gear, I like knowing that there is an over a 70% chance that my instant FOL will grant me a decent front loaded heal and a double HOT for the road. From a mana conservation perspective i like it as well.

Rich said...

Yeah I hear ya on the arenas. I went in for fun and just to get some points. We did bring in a healer just because a healer wanted to go, otherwise they were throwaways for me and the guild. And we went 8-2 with throwaways just because we DPS'd harder and faster than the other team. No strategy. I felt like I was playing that grammar school game where you just run and tackle the kid who has the ball--no rules, just smash.