Eric Replied

Merry Christmas all, and a Happy New Years, all! Back when I was Alliance, I met a gnome warrior (and guild leader of Resolute) named Amelio. He was never a cocky player, and he was always in it for fun. That said, he always had crazy (… albeit inventive …) ideas of how WoW should play out. Among our recent conversations (hating on Druid CCs, discussing potential lunch options, and talking about Arena Strategies), we got on the topic of strong Arena Specs.

We put aside the basic 33/28 and 35/23/3 with all their variations. We even skipped the 41/x/x Arms Discussion. We went into the realm of the unknown to do …

36/4/21 - Mortal Strike + Concussion Blow (variation of 35/5/21)

Yes, Amelio, you are crazy! Yes, Amelio, this is very unusual. Yes, Amelio, you are mighty.

Why play a defensive oriented stance versus any of the more cookie-cutter builds? There is some logic to Amelio’s madness (I think).

+ Concussion Blow - 5 second stun - on demand!
+ Revenge Stun - Keep those rogues at bay.
+ Defiance - You could tank if you wanted, but you get this for the Expertise Rating.
+ Toughness - Your 10k armor becomes 11k. Anti-warriors and anti-rogue!
+ Last Stand - You won’t just fall over without a fight (20k HP … on demand!*).
+ Improved Bloodrage - Get even more instant rage … on demand!
+ Improved Sunder Armor - It’s just like buying a new car for 20% off.
+ Like 41/x/x, Enrage isn’t active all the time (See Endless Rage … or is it Endless Angst).

- No Enrage to help you fight mirror teams.
- No Tier 2 and up Fury Talents in general.
- Losing out on Disarm Immunity.
- Losing out on Sweeping Strikes.
- No Piercing Howl (Druids dash away… but it doesn’t matter since you’re cycloned)
- No Improved Battle Shout for more AP nor Blood Craze for HP Regen from “crits.”

* Your mileage may vary depending on your gear and trinket options.

Where does this fit into for Arena Teams?

“Great!” You might be thinking, “I’m going to spec into this and stun my way to victory.” Not so fast, buddy. This doesn’t fit every team setup and while this an effective use of talent points, it shares alot of Diminishing Returns with all the other stuns (Revenge, Intercept, Conc. Blow, … etc.).

+ The point of this setup is a lot like going SL/SL as warlock.
+ You become difficult to burst down (high flash-survival)
+ Your role shifts more towards CC/DPS instead of DPS/CC (yes, there’s a difference).
+ Your damage will be lower than your 33/28 counterpart.

2v2 News - Beating Druid+Warlock as Paladin+Warrior
P.S. We finally managed to beat a Druid+Warlock combo. What’s the strategy? Keep youselves fully cleansed. Keep on the warlock. Run them into the ground. Chain combo finish when the time is right.

P.P.S. I hate Druids.

-ERP-

Experimentation is always interesting. The outcome can be enlightening and rewarding. Even if the end result is failure, there’s always a lesson to be learned. Today’s lesson is Endless Rage. This is the wonderful Arms 41 point talent that has seemingly come under the spotlight as of Season 3. What does it do? Well, in case you’re blind and didn’t see the pretty picture above, it gives Warriors 25% more rage from every auto-swing.  I’d always wanted to try this ability, and now that Deathwish is readily available in the Arms tree, the wait is over.

Quick Thoughts on going for Endless Rage:
+ Increased Rage Generation (Incredible with Sword Spec.)
+ Gained 5% Mortal Strike Damage (It’s not just the bonus damage.)
+ Reduced Mortal Strike cooldown to 5 seconds (normally 6 - Woo, faster MS!)
- Lost Enrage (25% Damage when I get “crit.”)
- Lost Weapon Mastery (50% decreased Disarm Time, ignore 2% dodge on each enemy)
- Lost Sweeping Strikes (Bye bye multi-hits)

Reasons to Take Endless Rage:
+ Enrage is only useful when you are taking “crit” damage.  This occurs less in 5v5.
+ MS can be reapplied before it drops in case MS was dodged or parried.
+ MS can be applied to two targets.
+ It’s easier to gather rage up for burst attacks.
+ You get the option to go for Last Stand if you don’t want to go for Piercing Howl.
+ You can still get Enrage … if you lose Tactical Mastery.

Reasons why Endless Rage is not for You:
- In terms of raw DPS, you may actually be better off getting 15% flurry.
- Getting Disarmed takes double the time now.  (Intercept+Pummel is no longer sufficient.)
- Hitting collateral targets isn’t so easy anymore (argh Warlock pets)

After Thoughts
I have yet to actually test Arena with this spec.  I’ve seen Terranman do well with a variation of Endless Rage, and this has inspired me to at least try it.  In battlegrounds, I’ve done just as well (if not better) than my previous spec.  The damage output is a little more bursty as a result of higher MS damage.

Now if only we could get people together to actually Arena …

vs.

While I don’t have the personal rating yet to purchase my weapon, the question has been asked many times. Mace or Sword … I’ve had this debate with myself many times and I’ve been pretty divided on my choices.

Swords:
+ Rocks Burst Damage (Hamstring Proc. Go!)
+ Style Points for Sword (lol big sword gogogo)
+ Procs off anything.
+ “Extra Attack” generates more rage which converts into more damage sooner.
- The Proc only speeds up your next attack to be the current attack. (Resets auto-swing)
- No CC Capability
- You have to be facing your target for it to proc.
- It will not proc on collateral targets (no WW procs on side targets).

Mace:
+ Three second stun
+ Style points for Spinning Mace (ohhh, eye candy)
+ Procs off anyone. (Collateral Damage! Take that!)
+ 9% Chance for Stun
+ You get 7 rage for every proc.
+ Stun guarantees that I don’t miss attacks.
- Can cause other Warriors to gain Second Wind (nooo, don’t heal him!)
- Doesn’t actually increase my damage.
- Damage is not bursty.

Tough call … still. I’m leaning towards the Mace. The next step is redoing my talent spec.

5v5 News

Resto. Shaman - Crazzymike & Oblivions
SL/SL Warlock- Uglie | Sword Arms Warrior - Shinsoku
Holy Paladin - Cira | Shadow Priest- Maaran

Overview of the Night
We ran a variation of our typical setup this week with some incredible results. We typically play Draclau (Frost Mage) instead of Uglie, but Draclau has been difficult to get ahold of. Our first 10 matches were straight wins (10-0). We peaked out at 1830 something, and got really close to 1850. Naturally, the invisible wall pushed us back, and we took three straight losses and fell 10-3 to 1794 rating. We ran Mike for our first three, and played Oblivions for the next seven. We played Crazzy for one loss, and then Oblvions for two.

Thoughts about Oblivions
I can safely say that Oblivions is an incredible player. As long as I remember, people had always made fun of him (and his brother) for not being a very good player, but I think he’s one of the best team members I’ve run so far. He’s very battle aware and has great field vision. It always feels like he knows what to do no matter what happens (except when he dies …).

Thoughts about Uglie
Well, he’s not a Beautie, but … running Uglie for the first time in an extended format seemed to play out really well. He has incredible enthusiasm for his class (and for pvp. God, he can really get excited. You could imagine him to be the sort of person that rocks back and forth in his chair while he pvps). The Dots and Drains worked really well, and his timing for CC is near-perfect. This is another great addition to the team, and I hope to be playing him more often in the future despite his limited time schedule.

This week’s 5v5 Strategy
We came across several teams that included Druids, along with more standard setups. We quickly found that any team that included a Druid required us to quickly dispose of the druid. With two to three casters, working on the druid proved to be an easy task in most cases.

Against “mirror” teams, we just worked the warlock down. This was aided by Banishing the pet, and railing the Warlock while pressuring the healers with interrupts. Against teams with Shadow Priests, we found it imperative to knock out the S.Priest if not just CC him altogether. The huge burst damage is hard to deal with out of the chute, but if you can keep the Mind Blasts to a minimum, then the damage is much more manageable.

Another key trick is to disarm rogues and warriors right at the start to mitigate the opening rush of damage. I’ve found that a Charge+Defensive+Disarm went a long way in preventing early burst teams (premature detonation, and etc.).

3v3 News

Eh, 3s weren’t quite as exciting. We’ve come back from our 100 point deficit to be back up to 1757.

Battling PRM Teams
PRM teams have become very bearable, and in many cases quite easy to fight. I’d play defensively in the opener by using Spell Reflect, Shield Block, Demo. Shout, and Thunder Clap. After the Water Elemental would fade away or die, I’d go back to the offense on the mage, and widdle away his HP until he Ice Blocks to which case I’d intercept the priest and try to prevent any heals. If all was successful, the mage would come out and die. If not, we’d get another round of Water Ele. and Defensive stance. If no one on our side was dead at this point, we could just close out the mage.

Battling Mirror Teams
We fought a couple mirror teams, but the fights usually just came down to straight damage and seeing who lasted until the end. We typically faltered here for some reason, and we’re still trying to figure it out.

P.S. Damn you, Amelio. You guys are rough to fight. I hope I have never have to come against you guys ever again. You guys are the most elusive bunch in the whole world. (Disc. Priest/Odd-Specced Arms/Prot Warrior/Frost Mage).

… Oh and 2v2 … Played some matches. Killed some people. Went up some points. Queue times were typically five to seven minutes long.

And that’s all for tonight.

-ERP-

Just got back from St. Louis and I’m itching to get back into the PvP. I did have several opportunities to get online and play a little for some pocket-points, but I didn’t get alot of time to make a lot of distance. My 2v2 (War&Resto. Shaman) went 6-1 to go 1641. We faltered against a Rogue&Priest combo, but that was all. Despite the lag, we managed to quickly deal death to some standard team setups. The only limiting factor is queue time.

My 3v3 B-Team (SL/SL Warlock&Shadow Priest&Marksman Hunter) ran several games last night to go 11-7 (1567). We ran into two occasions where our Shadow Priest d/c’d at the start of the match, but we held in and almost closed out at least one opponent in each of the two handicapped matches. I’m placing high expectations on this team, but our Hunter is severely undergeared. I actually have double his HPs (11k vs. 5.5k). Despite the gear level, we’ve managed to put away several “well-geared” team combos.

We’re quickly finding that our high amount of CCs is allowing us to put many different teams away quickly and effortlessly. In particular, we’re finding it very easy to take out teams with Shaman as the main heal.  Our current troubles always seem to stem from teams with Mace Rogues, but as our gear level increases, I think we’ll be able to start making headway quickly.

I’ve decided to buckle to the pressures of SL/SL and see what it can do for me.  Like many newbie Warlocks, I’m quickly discovering how lazy and easy this spec. is.  After putting up a few dots, I let my team handle the rest of the actual work, while I just pick arbitrary targets and cast fear.  Since we don’t have any major CC-breaks (other than Scatter Shot), I have free reign to put dots on their whole team.

I’m finding that SL/SL is a very effective means of survival since my resilience is on the low side (150), but even more interesting is that I’m typically not the opening target as often anymore.   Destro. was a great means to pressurize the opposing team, but I quickly discovered that my role in this team setup does not give me much time to raw-cast Shadow Bolt  (lol skillcoils and fear).

Like many Warlocks before me, I’m also quickly discovering that Curse of Tongues is an incredibly awesome way to screw up not just Healers, but also other Warlocks and Mages.

 Here’s to 1750+ for this week!

 -ERP-