1850 is like the Berlin Wall
When Blizzard set requirements on the weapons, off-hands, shields(1850 Rating) and shoulders (2000 Rating), the arena system changed in a subtle way. Gone are the days where teams would be formed just to scrounge up a weekly 400~500 arena points to get a complete set of gear. The competition has gotten a little harder and a little leaner. I’m not seeing team jumping quite as often any more.
People who played second string in their wonderful level-up-70 blues aren’t getting S3 weapons right out of the gate. Teams don’t seem hashed together anymore. Many players have heard of and studied the “ideal” setup and have formed appropriate teams.
“The Wall”
There are “walls” in place at 1850 and 2000. As teams get increasingly close to 1850, the number of competition gets higher and higher, and then after 1850, the number of teams seem to drop off. Over the last few weeks, we’d play teams that would either be well below us (gaining 11 points a win) or well above us (losing 11 points for a loss).
Why might this happen? I think teams that reach 1850 break to get their weapon and just call it quits because there’s some psychological “gain” for being an 1850+ team. Teams below 1850 all continue until they get sick of playing or until they get to the magical 1850.
This week’s Setup:
41+ Arms Warrior | Holy/Ret Paladin | Resto. Shaman(s)
Shadow Priest | Felguard Warlock
So Where Does that Put Slash Hungry?
We hopped over the wall. Last week we struggled to get to 1850, but this week, it was a clean(er) run to 1900. With Crazzymike starting, we opened with an optimistic 3-0 start, only to fall 3 straight to 3-3. We switched over to Oblivions and took a loss right out of the gate, but we turned around our luck to go 7-1 with Oblivions. As the above image implies, we closed out the night with 10-4 and 1900 rating taking us to a season standing of 50-20. The record in itself gives me hope that we still have a lot of growth to go.
What did we fight last night?
There didn’t seem to be a particular pattern of the teams. There were no-Paladin teams (hah, Pain Supression is no BoP by any means). There were teams that sported high amounts of mana-drain (Hunter, Warlock, Priest). There were teams that sported no warrior, and some that sported both a warrior and a rogue. Lastly, there were many teams that started bringing Druids into the fray.
Teams with Druids
I must point out that the teams with Druids in them were strong contenders. Druids, in some ways, can play a great part in a 5v5 team. They work well as distractions and chain-CC’rs (Especially if they’re rotating on everyone in the opposing team). The current problem that many druids have is that they are done for if they are ever caught in Human (Tauren? Night Elf?)-mode. Having a team with stuns, fears, and casted damage doesn’t always bode so well for the Druid.
Teams with Heavy Drain
With Uglie running Felguard, we found a sweet spot in piercing the drain teams. We didn’t rely on Silences and Dispels. We put all our eggs into the DPS basket (something, I think we do rather well). With a Felguard out, clothies (particularly Priests and Warlocks) struggle to focus on Draining. Between Earth Shocks, Pummels, intercepts, and rapid-melee attacks, we dominated teams that required long-drawn out fights by sheer force.
To be a little more clear: It’s hard to play drain when there’s no time to drain.
Closing Thoughts
We’re moving into uncharted territory for the upcoming week. Last season, it took us about four months to reach 1900, while this season took us one month and a week. We’ve picked up great talent this season; combined that with what we already have, and we’re looking to push to 2000 in the upcoming week.
-ERP-
January 6th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Did you notice a large difference between a team with S2 weaps and a team with S3?
January 6th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
My latency is like the Berlin Wall, too. Or maybe its like 1850.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Oops, I hit add too fast.
Anyway, congratulations on 1900 and good luck hitting 2k.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Teams with S3 weapons didn’t seem to play any better or any worse than teams with S2 weapons and part of that illusion is that I can’t quantify how much easier or worse those teams were. We’d beat some teams with S3 weapons, and lose to others with S2 weapons.
Synii - We missed you at Kara. So much loot dropped that you coulda used …
January 6th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Grats on 1900, our 5v5 team is just starting and we got 1520 this week, but it was our first 10 games together, so we now know how to communicate and we can only go up! :)
I like reading your article because you point out a lot of things I (disc PS priest) can do to help, against say your felguard+dps onslaught. That way I won’t focus on drains, etc.
:)
January 6th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
heh, it’s almost like I’m giving away how to beat our team!
My first thought if I were to analyze our team is that it’s very untradtional. I think if people wanted to go up against our team, the immediate reaction is to go for the Shadow Priest or Shaman. In all actuality, I think our weakest point is the Paladin. If pressure falls on our Paladin, we only really have one other healer, but the heals aren’t instants (unlike Priests).
The only downside for going for the Paladin is risking not doing enough damage out of the gate. If the Paladin isn’t pressured enough in the initial push, then it’s probably a loss.
Alternatively, we’ve found varying levels of success aiming for Warriors (like me) out of the gate. Unfortunately (or fortunate for me), if you get a smart Warrior, they’ll just give you the run around and waste your time while the Felguard, DoTs, and SPriest work away your team.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:05 am
I love your analysis’ if not for ways to beat teams, but just better understanding of the game and what classes can do together in general. At first, I thought this game was just really straight forward pewpew, but I was never 70 until I was 70, right? lol. I guess my experience has been solely battlegrounds until now, where basically BGs are for getting honor for the offset epics or whatever, and then just arenaing until you have more and more fun getting better and better. It’s a different game than pre-BC I’d say, though. BG and World PvP have kinda gone downhill, giving examples of PvP in Pat’s full video, (that tauren warrior on youtube). Not talking about the “crit” part, I mean the one where its about 15 on 15 in Silithus or wherever — Thats world pvp. I love watching stuff like that.
I rambled off topic a lot. lol. its 1 in the morning and I’m wide awake…supposed to start school again tomorrow..lol
January 7th, 2008 at 1:06 am
But actually, now that I think about it, a friend and I are finishing gearing up for Wotlk and are thinking of rerolling on a new server to help crush the wait time this summer — Would you support us coming to Eredar? I’d love to PvP with you guys, and I’ll roll whatever class you guys may need. Except paladin. Boo paladin.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Hey Rob - heh, I’m glad that you’re looking into Eredar as a time-killer. We do have a few rerollers also from other servers (Boulderfist and Shadowmoon), and it’d be great to have even more. I can’t quite say that Eredar is a really strong server or battlegroup for PvP or PvE, but it’s not always about the server as it is about the group that you’re with.
We never force a class on anyone and we like to keep things loose. More specifically, we like to fit people into the class they want to play. That said, we’ve statistically been short on healers (but who isn’t?).
January 7th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
So I s’pose 1850 and the sound barrier have something in common.
Chuck Yeager.
January 7th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I may just roll a priest then, I know I’m good at it and this time I won’t make the mistakes I did levelling my first one XD (not doing tailoring til 70, specs and stuff)
January 7th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
So im at work bored and i think if read this article 4 times.
/tap
Waiting for the next one :D Ill keep you a busy boy eric
January 7th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I actually was asking if your s3 weapons made a big difference, but your info was equally as interesting.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Zado - I try to space my stuff out to maybe one article every 2-3 days. I’m hoping to fill the void and down times with UI bits from Synii.
Eli - It makes a big difference. It’s 40 more weapon damage out of the box. I did lose some AP (70 to be exact), but I gained the Executioner proc which is (excuse the pun) worth its weight in gold. Ignoring 840 Armor + the 200ish that I already ignore + two sunders = some 2000 armor ignored. On many clothies, this is the same as hitting a 0 armor target.
That “10-20% armor reduction” becomes somewhat nil when I get Executioner up, and I get on a roll. It’s even better that it lasts for 15 seconds. Timing CDs to go with it makes the damage that much more sweeter.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Off topic but shin, do you have aim or MSN? if you have aim message me at jwh9983 :)
January 8th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Here’s to becoming another brick in the wall. All in all I’m just glad we seem to be right on track for 2k.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I think you need to post more, Eric. lol. I come to this page every day now.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
This is for the lock junkies, just a quick analysis between the roles you play as SL/SL and full demo (felguard).
Eric asked me to respec to felgaurd to try it out a bit to see how effective it would be, so 2 hours before arenas, I went and spec’d out full demo, and let me just say I miss the burst dmg that locks can give. SL/SL I think is more of a 2v2/3v3 spec, you wear them down, they go OOM, you control their pally healers/mages with CoT and fears and counterspells.
But with full demo, you definitely get less utility, like no CS, less range on dots/fears, no CoEx to kite, but as eric said, you make that up in pressuring the other team. You make their healers make mistakes, do they risk dispelling the feared pally, or should they pain suppression the hunter? Do they sit and drink for 2 ticks or do they keep healing? Risk to mana burn or get a PoM up?
I’d say in about 80% of our games, they go after our SP, which leaves me free to CoT all healers, fear, then wind up some 2.2k bolts and shadowburns. Wish MS up, dots, felguard hitting for 6-700 non crit, 2.2k bolt that can crit for 3k+, followed by a shadowburn that can crit for 2k, you’re looking at huge burst potential.
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