Eric Replied

“Wah, X Class is Overpowered”
X would be any class that happens to be the flavor of the month. WoW has been great about keeping the game balanced. You’ll find that every other patch includes “balancing.” Unlike many other MMOs out there, it isn’t just about nerfing the strongest class. It’s also about bringing up the weakest classes. Just by the dynamic nature of WoW, though, there will always be classes that excel over others in many situations.

The Hot Classes
We can take this opportunity to see who placed in the top 10 in the “whole world.” Bear in mind that these stats are a little skewed as it may be easier to gain points (or harder) in certain battlegroups depending on competition levels and the numbers of games played. To some extent, I think this is a non-factor as I also consider players with lots of dedication to get kudos for putting in the effort to reach the top. All the players listed below have their rating added up together between 2s, 3s, and 5s.

Surprised?
What does this mean? The top slot is a Hunter. Where does warrior appear on this list? Right down there at #10 (and interestingly, he’s 41/20 and not some standard 35/23/3 spec). The missing classes from the list are Rogue, Paladin, and Shaman. Is that a surprise? Not quite. Rogues aren’t quite as visible in 5v5, whereas both Paladin and Shaman aren’t quite as effective as Priest and Druid in 2v2 and 3v3.

Is this a call for class balance? Not necessarily. I think the list in itself is relatively balanced. Blizzard does a decent job at cycling jobs in and out from the top spot. In seasons past, this list might have been more Paladin/Warrior heavy, or Priest/Lock heavy. I think the one thing we can expect from Blizzard (and I’m being hopeful) is that Paladins and possibly Shaman are next to get some strength buffs for 2v2 and 3v3.

Source for Data: SK-Gaming (God, I love their Arena Rating Listing)

-ERP-

Motivational Speech
Keep your hopes up. When all is lost, don’t give up! Yeah right, I know. Sometimes teams face straight losses. It’s important to recognize the streak and act before the team starts to spiral. It’s important to know why you’re losing, but sometimes it can be hard to recognize. Before you explode on your teammates, try to poke around and see what’s going on. On the flip side, don’t just lay benign and keep trying to push your team without taking the appropriate action.

The First Step - Identify the problem. Problems can range between:
+ Lack of Concentration
+ Tired Players
+ Too Jittery
+ Bad Luck (Hello Hard Counters)
+ Lack of Communication
+ Getting Outplayed

Don’t Despair Though
Losing 100 points in a night is rough and it is a morale breaker in most cases. What should you do to bounce back? The first part is just identifying the problem. The next step is trying to talk it out. If your team isn’t getting into the groove, there’s no use in continuing. It’ll probably just generate more frustration. Take a small break: from an hour to a day. This’ll help at least give you a chance to play some different teams.

Get back into it, focus, and execute. Remember: if you got there once, you can get there again. As the A-Team says, “GET IT DONE.”

-ERP-

The “Hard Counter”
You’ve probably heard the term thrown around before: the Hard Counter (HC). The concept brings fear and pain to most teams. It is the team setup that has a strong advantage in several aspects against your team: mobility, healing strength, CCs, and DPS.

Hard Counters are somewhat debatable. What one team perceives as “easy” another might label it a Hard Counter (a little misuse of the term, but I’ll allow it). I know when I go into a match, and I see “Shadow Priest, Warlock, Rogue,” I cringe a little. You might be thinking, “Great, Shin, now how do we battle back. How do we win?” (Okay, you’re probably not really thinking that.)

No Hope Doesn’t Mean Give Up
I think the best response quote would be, “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.” The fight should not revolve around “hoping you win.” Every action you make and every tactic you take (good song lyrics) generates an almost automatic response from the opposition. Everything comes down to perfect execution (or awfully close to it) and tactical game play.

Here’s some general guidelines:

Heavy DPS or Burst Teams:
Force them to spread their damage out over time instead of in bursts. DPS Heavy teams thrive on the fact that they can burst someone down before a healer can pull off a heal.
Team Examples: [Spriest/Lock/Rogue], [Rogue/Warrior/Druid]

Heavy Drain Teams:
Play hard into their healer. Most Drain teams revolve around the priest’s mana burn and some form of Drain Mana a long with Viper Sting. Stopping or even slowing down the mana burns increases your heal time. It helps to even have your healers also play burn back or to even have your healers run DPS on the healers. Aggressive play forces them to play defensively as they can’t easily go back onto the offense.
Team Examples: [Priest/Warlock/Hunter]

Dot and Run Teams:
Cleanse everything. Yes, I realize that it’s easy to heal through the damage. This isn’t the point though! Things like Siphon Life and Corruption give Warlocks practically endless mana, and instant Shadow Bolts.
Team Examples: [Warlock/Rogue/Druid]

Chain CC Teams:
Abuse the fact that they’re looking to CC you. Make them come to you. The best bet is typically to aim for their worst CC’er and try to pressure him into playing offensively.
Team Examples: [Priest/Rogue/Mage],  [Druid/Rogue/Warlock]

At the End of the Day
If it comes to fighting the dreaded team over and over and over, it might be better for the long term to retune your team composition or just stop queueing for the night. It’ll save you some sanity, some effort, and your points.

-ERP-

What’s with the lack of WoW Images?
Well, I was feeling a little more creative than usual, so I decided it’d be fun to change the imagery a little bit by introducing some non-Warcraft images. Source for the image in this post came from Apple (in case you didn’t know who they were, the guy on the left is a PC, and the guy on the right is a Mac).

“I Spec the Way I Want” - Your Style
On the surface, it seems to simple to just get into Arena and grind out a few matches to gain points. One of the major pitfalls most players in Arena is finding the “Ultimate Spec.” It’s that one talent setup that covers all situations, every ability, every team setup, and everything else.  It can also be known as the “Jack-Trade Spec.”

What’s wrong with covering all the bases:  defensive talents, offensive talents, and  utility talents? Everything.  It might be nice to be a little unique, but trouble befalls when you get pressed into a situation that requires a focus in a particular talent set.  For example, a priest with lots of points in healing, but no utility spells (Mana Burns, Dispels, and etc.) will be more effective when it comes down to healing damage, and definitely more effective than a hybrid healer/utility/dps Priest.  Likewise, a priest with points in all utility spells is more effective than the hybrid.

But what if you already have all utility points, and now you want to spec into some healing?

Deciding How to spec Properly - Their Style
This is a point that many people fail to overlook when building a spec for Arena.  It’s all about your teammate’s setup and strategy.  There is a huge difference in playing 4-DPS, 2345 (Mage/Shaman/Warrior/Paladin/Priest), double healer, triple healer, and beyond. A good example of this is having one teammate play Drain, another teammate play burst, and another team mate playing constant DPS.  This is inevitably a clash of styles.

While this works on unorganized teams, you won’t see it last long in higher ratings.  This is a lot like putting your car into fifth gear while you’re driving 13 miles per hour: it’s just inefficient. So what do you do?

Harmony - The Team Style
Get with your friends, your buddies, and your teammates and hammer out a strategy.  Once you know the playstyle, you can each build your talents accordingly. Remember that any of the “cookie cutter” specs that float around forums are exactly that: cookie cutter. They are cookie cutter because it’s the spec that is widely accepted by people who can’t decide on their own. Take those builds, massage them (lightly), and see if they fit with your strategy.

Some Personal Suggestions:
+ Warlocks
- SL/SL for Drain
-Felguard /Shadowburn for Burst

+ Warriors
- 41 Arms for strong burst
- 33/2X/Y for tank-DPS (better in 2s and 3s)
- MS/Conc. for Anti-Burst (Works well in 3s)

+ Hunters
- BM for Rush DPS
- Marksman for High CC
- Survivalist in 5s for Tank&CC

+ Priest
- Shadow for DPS
- Disc./Shadow for DPS assistance
- Disc./Holy for Heal assistance

The Best Style
WoW is a mathematical game, but there’s enough space to let you toy with the specs to give you certain edges over certain situations. Never be afraid to experiment with non-standard talent points. The worst that could happen is a few lost arena points, but you gain the knowledge of why it worked or didn’t work.  Who knows? That one spec that you discover to fit your team best may just become the next cookie-cutter (it always has to come from somewhere).

-ERP-

What Are you Babbling About?
This isn’t some sort of scientific article. This is a little concept that I’ve always had in the back of my mind as I PvP’d. Most people believe in theories much like this, but is usually expressed in “nerf this” and “nerf that.” The Theory of Tiers is the idea that the rating cap that a player reaches is directly tied to three pre-determined factors (not necessarily measurable). It explains (to some extent) why some players at the end of the season, despite having full Season Gear, can not beat a team with equivalent gear.

Tier 1: The Limit of Gear
Any team looking to get off the ground has to face the first wall: the Limit of Gear. Most people recognize this more as the popular phrase “Get 300 resilience or instantly die.” No matter how much skill a player has, nor how powerful their team composition is, a team with very poor gear will tumble.

Alternatively, a team with the appropriate gear can progress, but will hit another wall as they move up the ranks.

Tier 2: The Limit of Skill
After beating all the “scrubby” teams, every team reaches the Limit of Skill. This is the boundary at which all gear is generally equal (or pretty close), but the skill levels of the team members vary. This is where the average player lives. Most players obtain the proper gear, but to some level never truely develop “advanced” WoW skills to get farther in PvP. It makes the most sense because when you think about all the players in WoW who PvP, the average player will be … average. This is the middle ground.

Players who compete here may continue to progress as their team powers through those that don’t have any skill, but even with the best skill, limitations come back to bite the team.

Tier 3: The Limit of Composition
Two teams of equal gear and “equal” skill will face off at this level. This Tier is commonly known for the “Duelist” level (and in some cases the Gladiator level) players. Even with the right gear and the right talent, the classes in the team dictate whether it comes down to a win or loss. I’m not speaking in absolutes, but you can place bets on certain team compositions defeating others hands-down. This is an interesting point to make because the”flavor-of-the-season (FOTS)” is fluid. When a flavor appears, there’s always a combination (at least I always believe there’s a combination) that hard counters the FOTD.

A good example is today’s current popular setup: Druid and Warrior. Of course, without gear or skill, the composition isn’t quite as effective.

Where Does this All Fit In?
If your team is getting stuck, a little strategy, and a little know-how can help you and your team tweak how you approach a PvP match. If your team has the gear, but may be lacking in skill, you may consider finding new teammates or putting in more matches beyond 10 to continue practicing (never be afraid to practice!).

Every team without exception has strengths and weaknesses. Knowing how teams tick is more than half the battle. If you can find a way to increase any of the first two tiers, your chances of suceeding in tier 3 increase. Of course, when you come up against a team that is equal in gear and skill, it boils down to composition.

-ERP-