Blog Posts from "Izo's Arena Blog" - Gameriot.com

Armor - what's the damn point?

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:01:56 -0400

So I was wondering what exactly the point of armor is in this game ever since the expansion. Is it just there so characters look different with different kinds of armor? Because it hasn't done what it's supposed to do since TBC.

The Problem: Armor is utterly useless. 2/5 melee classes/specs, DKs and Ret Paladins do at least 75% magical damage, rogues do about 30% (Poisons/bleeds) damage through armor, enhancement shamans are in about the same boat and it seems only warriors and ferals are the only ones left who are actually somewhat countered by armor.

JK ARMOR PEN. As usual Blizzard pulled the joke on everyone by buffing armor pen to such ridiculous levels that every ******* warrior and feral stacks it like there's no tommorow in both pve and pvp. What makes things even better is the afformentioned classes also often using the Grim Toll trinket, which makes a shaman something like a fully sundered priest for the duration of the proc.

Honestly, what's even the point of having different armor values if it's practically useless versus all the melee when more than a half don't even do that much physical damage, and the remainder stacks armor pen to counter it?

*This is how useful armor is in the game right now, class doesn't even matter*

The only solution I see my self is to make melee actually PHYSICAL again so classes like my shaman can survive for more than 20 seconds versus a warrior of same gear level instead of being a ****ty priest who falls over with something like 10% physical mitigation from armor (Hint, shamans have 50-51% physical mitigation with Furious level gear). Simply make player armor affect magical damage from melee classes only the same way it does to physical. This change wouldn't even hurt PvE as it would only be felt by players. Yes, I realize that Blizzard doesn't like different rules for the same game, but this getting out of control like Ret Paladins and Exorcism. In fact, you could leave Holy damage out of this equation to help Ret Paladins seeing how badly they are nerfed in 3.2 damage wise.

At the same time, nerf armor pen back into the ground, this kind of backwater stat should never be so powerful, especially when it helps destroy the already pointless use of armor in this game.

Making armor useful again would slow down the melee zerg train currently dominating every bracket, perhaps with the exception of RMP in 3s (although I bet combining all the different kinds of cleaves comes close to the same representation). If something isn't done soon, season 7 will be a repetition of season 6 with one step forward with the resil change and two steps back with the new season weapons (258 ilevel ohlol).

Thanks for reading, Izo out.

Resto Druid Changes Go Live...

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:54:39 -0400

Resto Druid Changes Go Live

Without a word of hesitation from Blizzard. I would suggest not even running 2v2 or 3v3 this week (unless you're playing with one) and just waiting out the inevitable nerf, hoping it won't take the rest of the season.

If you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, Resto Druids are now officially unkillable, along with anyone they fully hot, unoomable, and thanks to the new 160 % additional armor in caster and travel form buffs can now also throw CC and damage around without any worry of being gibbed by melee. Don't believe me? Let's throw in some videos.

2400 + Resto Druid
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=111705

New Innervate + Barkskin vs. Mana Burn spam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6T3fTiKGJ4

Edit: Another retarded video, this one starts out with a druid tanking a feral without falling below 70% and killing him with thorns, followed by some arena footage
http://www.noobflicks.com/watch/6431/fredlol_3v3_5v5(r1_bg

For the love of god blizzard, nerf trees before its too late. Nobody is THAT stupid.

Retarded/Broken Arena Specs and How to Fix Them

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:09:10 -0400

Retarded/Broken Arena Specs and How to Fix Them

How many times have you nerd raged harder than Swarm after getting Wotlk’d in 2v3/3v3 by some retards spamming unhealable damage with no strat? Or that resto druid sitting in tree form in plain sight of your dps and not going down in health at all with an infinite mana bar? How many times have you kicked your cat when that feral druid killed you through spammed heals? I’m no Zilea but sometimes I just wonder why I still pay for this piece of **** Arena when the Developers and GC are leading the way down the autism casuals road.

So how the **** do we fix broken specs like feral, ret and resto druid?

Resto Druids

Blizzard’s approach:

Developers: GC, we have a problem. Resto Druids sucked in s5 and aren’t the kings of healing anymore, what do we do?

GC: Maek dem sit in tree form and roll hots on everyone with plate armor.

Developers: GC, that doesn’t make any sense. Plate armor on trees?

GC: STFU you scrub I’m the lead designer.

GC: oh btw if they ever oom just make innervate give like a billion mana back and be undispellable with barkskin, DRUIDS NEED HELP WITH MANA. Also, I love Sean Connery’s accent.

Developers:……

My approach: Replace Tree Form with Shaman Form: transforms the druid into a shaman, decreasing all healing by 50%, removing all spirit and mp5, reducing armor by 100% and giving all HoT spells a 3 second cast time. Also grants the ability to use Mana Tide, which kills itself instantly after being used. How do you like that now you facerolling dip****?

Feral Druids

Blizzard’s approach: ugh, ok, let’s see here. ADD MORE DAMAGE, brb need to swim in my dollar bill filled swimming pool.

My approach: Remove cat form. Have fun dpsing in bear you mother******.

Ret Paladins

Blizzard’s approach: DAMAGE, Exorcism usable on peopl- **** my hot pocket is burning. Also, let’s make freedom remove stuns because ret paladins are really hard to play and need some more utility, the BURST ISN’T ENOUGH.

My approach: Remove Crusader Strike, Divine Storm and Hammer. Have fun waiting for seals to proc just like Retail you piece of **** LOLRET.

Frost DKs

Blizzard’s approach: k um Unholy is no longer stupidly OP, so let’s buff Frost just for the hell of it. Also let’s add this really good Sigil for PvE without thinking about PvP consequences.

My approach: Replace the Frost Strike sigil with Sigil of Chains of Ice: gives Chains of Ice a 10 second cooldown. That’s right, wearing this Sigil actually apparently actually is a bad idea.

Destro Locks

Blizzard’s approach:

Developers: GC, Affliction is no longer OP and fear sucks, how do we make Warlocks not quit the game?

GC: Give destro moar damage on everything. You can do SOMETHING without me having to guide you all the way can’t you? My ******* Hummer is getting towed I gtg.

My approach: New Destro 51 talent point - Cleaveland Steamer: anytime you have 2 melee classes attacking you, you automatically gain the Steam buff which increases movement speed by 500%. New Unstable Affliction dispel effect - when a player dispels Unstable Affliction they take 50,000 damage and get silenced for 10 seconds. New Metamorphosis change - Metamorphosis is now permanent, and also allows the Warlock to equip dual Warglaives.

Resto Shamans

Blizzard’s approach:

GC: Ok resto shamans are good at utility and have a lot of glaring weaknesses but it’s ok cause of the utility.

Developers: but GC, Ret paladins also have close to best utility in the game and ALSO do good burst. Ins’t that a contradiction?

GC: A contrawhat? You goddamn idiot.

My approach: Grounding totem and Earth Shield have switched Icons. Have fun telling when either is up you inbred frog******.

Arms Warriors

Blizzard’s approach: ok Arms really sucks right now, so let’s give warriors moar damage and allow them to charge anytime they want to cause good mobility and good damage isn't too strong or anything.

My approach: Remove Charge, Intercept and Intervene. Increase all warrior damage by 100%. Maybe then Warriors won't cheer with glee next time they see the Warlock Icon show up on Gladius.

I’ll probably add more specs later, not sure if I got everything. Thanks for reading once again.

Edit: Made some changes.

3.1.3 Changes Discussion

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:33:10 -0400

3.1.3 Changes Discussion

Let's take a look at the most recent patch changes Blizzard has put forward in terms of Arena balance.

Death Knights - Frost Presence: Armor bonus is now 60% down from 80%.

Definitely a step in the right direction, albeit a small one. Death Knight Presences in their current state are still too good, however, especially when in comparison to Warrior Stances.

• Death Knight PvP Gauntlets: The chance to refresh a Frost Rune when casting Chains of Ice has been removed. When equipped, these gloves now generate 5 additional runic power whenever Chains of Ice is used.

God, finally. CoI spam will not be as bad without refreshable Frost Runes for sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that chains are still by far the best slow effect in the game. If chains are to really be balanced they need to give movement speed back faster.

Druids - Improved Barkskin: This talent now also grants 80/160% additional armor while in Travel Form or not shapeshifted.

• Improved Tree of Life: The armor bonus to Tree of Life Form from this talent has been reduced to 67/133/200% bonus armor.

40% less bonus armor in Tree of Life…a very small nerf not even really worth mentioning. 160% additional armor however in Travel/caster is quite insane if it is passive, and would probably too strong if it is that way. Tree of Life bonus armor should really be in the 100% vicinity if it is really to be balanced imho, as the form gives much better healing capability and as such should have a downside. Overall druids got buffed, no nerf to retarded Innervate/barkskin+ innervate dispel, so Blizzard once again proves they are still clueless for the most part.

Hunters - Hunter's Mark: The ranged attack power bonus from this ability has been increased from 300 to 500.
• Master Marksman: This talent now also decreases the cost of Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot by 5/10/15/20/25%.

Hunter love is always good, even in such small portions. Hunters probably need some serious redesigning if they are to truly be viable outside of BM/DK zerg comps, however.

Paladins - Eye For An Eye: This talent now deals 5/10% of the critical strike damage taken by the paladin back at the attacker.
• Hand of Freedom: The base duration of this buff has been reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.

By far the most retarded change of the patch. Why the hell nerf Holy/ Prot Paladins along with Ret when Ret burst is the real problem?

Rogues - Overkill: Talent redesigned. Now increases energy regeneration by 30% while stealthed, and for 20 seconds after breaking stealth.

FINALLY. How long have players been asking and suggesting to nerf Overkill because it played such a huge role in Rogues 100 > 0 ing people? I guess this is better than never, maybe Warlocks/Shamans/Other Rogues won’t be dying in openers anymore.

Warlocks - Chaos Bolt: This spell no longer ignores damage reduction effects of the target.

Not really what was needed, although still a nerf to Destro. Much like Ret paladins, destro warlocks simply require a damage nerf to actually be balanced, and buffs to survivability.

Warriors - Blood Frenzy: This talent now provides 5/10% haste instead of 3/6%.
• Bloodthirst: Cooldown reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds, and rage cost reduced from 30 rage to 20 rage.
• Juggernaut: This talent now also increases the cooldown on Charge by 5 seconds.

Kind of funny I proposed this kind of change in one of my earlier blogs (increasing Charge cooldown when taking the Jug talent). Definitely a needed change in my opinion as Warrior mobility is simply too good right now.

Overall some good changes, but Blizzard still shows they are clueless about the majority of things wrong in arena, especially as some of the changes have been long proposed and suggested by players in the past.

What’s really scary though is that they seem to be trying to balance burst in arena without nerfing damage, likely because they don’t want to hurt PvE. This applies largely to Ret Paladins, who got a BOF nerf (which also hurt the other Paladin specs) instead of a damage one and Destro Locks getting a stupid nerf to Chaos Bolt instead of a flat damage nerf.

Nonetheless, I guess this patch is for the better in general. Thanks for reading.

Why the Ret Paladin Skill Cap is So Low

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:24:08 -0400

Why the Ret Paladin Skill Cap is So Low

Situation: I’m slowed

Solution: Freedom lol

Situation: I’m stunned

Solution: Freedom rofl

Situation: I’m getting killed

Solution: Bubble/Bop if melee

Situation: This healer isn’t dying

Solution: Spam Damage buttons, something will crit and he will die

Situation: My immunities are down and this guy is killing me

Solution: HOJ and holy light for 10k

Situation: I’m getting low but I can’t heal because I have a melee on me

Solution: Art of War instant flash of lights

Situation: This healer STILL isn’t dying

Solution: Pop chicken wingz and take a huge dump on him

Situation: I can’t catch up to this guy even with Divine Purpose

Solution: Judgement of Justice

If you take almost any other class/spec and put them in each one of these situations you will get very different results instead of mashing 1 button to solve it. A Resto Shaman, for instance, would have to Earth Bind totem and try to cleanse off poisons to get away from a rogue instead of just hitting freedom, and fake cast a Hex on a melee DPS instead of HOJ to stay alive. A Shadow Priest would have to switch out of shadow and flash heal himself if he’s getting low instead of getting 2k+ flash of lights instantly every 5 seconds. A rogue would have to kick and gouge heals to kill a paladin. The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is that Ret Paladins have the same 1 button solution to almost everything and never have to set up any strategy, fake cast, position themselves properly, or use a mix of abilities to solve whatever PvP situation they are in. The solution?

Add drawbacks to most abilities just like the majority of classes already do, perhaps buffing another portion of an ability to make up for it. Make Avenging Wrath increase damage taken by 20%, but also increase movement speed by 20% along with its current effects. Nerf Divine Storm damage, but increase it depending on the number of targets it hits. Change Art of War to reduce pushback from melee damage while healing instead of giving instant flash of lights so the Ret Paladin can’t just spam it every time it’s up but actually has to decide and fake if he wants to heal himself or keep up a teammate. Make Bubble reduce the amount of healing you receive by a certain %, but increase the duration slightly.

There are many ways to go with this, but Blizzard really needs to go away from this simplified play style where everything is solved by 1 push of a button instead of actually having to use a number of abilities with proper positioning, timing, and fake casting.

Thanks for reading.

Why Resto Druids are Overpowered and How to Fix Them

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:06:39 -0400

Why Resto Druids are Overpowered and How to Fix Them

The Problem:

- Resto Druids in Tree Form are practically unkillable by melee in 2v2, and hard to kill in 3v3

- Resto Druids can keep up themselves and all their partners through almost any kind of damage by simply rolling hots on all party members without taking a big hit to their mana due to good efficiency and regen along with Innervate

- Innervate is practically impossible to dispel with Barkskin, often having the effect of spam mana-burning yourself on the shaman/priest attempting to dispel it. This problem is made even worse with the new change to innervate which makes it regen 15732 mana over 20 seconds (which is larger than a full mana bar for the average druid).

- Druid healing output is simply both too efficient and too large

- Thorns does too much damage versus melee

To further worsen the issue, Druids are currently encouraged to stay in Tree Form an entire game and do nothing but spam hots, making the class almost more one-dimensional and simple to play than Holy Paladins.

The Fix

- Make Tree Form Armor increase with number of people in party (Thanks to Zesti from AJ), as in

0-1 People in party(2v2): +100%
2 People----------(3v3)-: +200%
3 or more people--(5v5)-: +250%

- Move Brambles (the talent which improves Thorns damage) further down the Balance Tree so it is only available to Moonkins

- Make Barkskin not affect Innervate, a Druid should have to position himself properly and have some strategy involved if he wants to have the Innervate for full duration as is the case for any other healer using a mana-return ability

- Reduce the “Bloom” heal from Lifebloom

- Nerf druid mana efficiency or regeneration

- Make Bear Form cost less mana to be a viable form to shift to in order to survive melee burst

These changes would not only makes Druids balanced but also force a player to actually include “skill” in order to do well in arena by utilizing all aspects of a druid, from travel/bear forms to roots/cyclone.

A Compilation of Retarded Things in Arena and How to Fix Them

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:15:10 -0400

This is a list of the major game mechanics that are some of the biggest contributors to the current imbalances in arena.

Juggernaut

The problem: Too good. Warrior mobility has always been one of the class’ downsides which allowed its damage to be balanced accordingly. What you have right now with 12 second charge and an intercept is a class that outputs largely unhealable damage on some classes (like shamans and warlocks), can’t be kited or peeled off and has a lot of health.

The fix: Make juggernaut also increase the cooldown of charge to something like 25 seconds. You don’t have to nerf warrior damage or anything else, because with lower mobility warriors will automatically be more peelable, and as such won’t be able to stay on targets as easily.

Vindication

The problem: This talent has always been completely retarded. Taking away 20% of a player’s stats is not only ridiculously good for a low tier 2 point talent, but also game-breaking when you combine it with the insane burst that ret paladins have. Missing 4-5k hp when fighting a ret paladin can not only mean a difference between dying in an HOJ with full life, but also having your pet survive the burst with 12k hp instead of 16.

The fix: Take stamina off the stats the talent reduces.

Engineering+ Instant Damage proc trinkets

The problem: In combination, these two things on a rogue mean the difference between dying in a stunlock and surviving one. In fact, right now, without any Ulduar pve gear, a rogue with pyro rockets and a Darkmoon Card: Death/ Bandit’s Insignia is able to kill a Resto Shaman with earth shield with 850~ resil in a full stunlock. Warlocks are left an even more gruesome fate as they are currently dropping in the cheapshot. Overall, this is a 4-6k damage increase in the opener.

The fix: disallow engineering in Arena, change the instant damage proc to a different effect like increased AP on hit/crit.

Improved Barkskin+Subtlety Druid Talents

The problem: Druids are currently able to protect their Innervate close to its final ticks by simply putting up barkskin right after they put up Innervate. This adds up to a whopping 90% dispel resistance on your buffs, making it literally impossible to dispel the Innervate, which gives the druid back practically a full mana bar.

The fix: Keep the dispel resistance on Barkskin, but exclude Innervate from it. No class should be able to return nearly all of its mana back without being countered in any way. Mana Tide can be meleed, Fiend can be CC’d or killed, Hymn can be interrupted and Divine Plea can be dispelled.

Dispel Resistance + Trash Buffs

The problem: Classes like Priests and Paladins, especially when together, are able to stack so many buffs that it becomes nearly impossible to dispel something important like Bop and Priest shields/renews.

The fix: Remove dispel resistance from Trash buffs, and only keep it for important spells for every class. For example, paladin blessings should have no resistance, while BOP/BOF should.

Mage Armor Magic Resistance

The problem: Because of the increased resistance with Mage Armor up, there is a huge RNG revolving around getting casts off on a mage. CC, Shocks, spell locks, and etc all have nearly a 50% chance to fail which is usually game-deciding.

The fix: Take the improved resistance off Mage Armor, and remove the improvement from the Arcane Shielding talent. The duration of all harmful magical effects by 50% + 50% mana regen while casting is already good enough.

Penance

The problem: Penance is too efficient, heals for too much and too fast and also has too small a cooldown. This is basically the paladin’s holy shock, but on steroids. Single-handedly, this spell not only makes the gap between a good priest and a bad priest a lot smaller, but also easily decides games. One of the biggest problems created by Penance is that Priests can play very offensively for much of a game because they can top somebody off, throw on a shield and do whatever the hell they want. Furthermore, interrupting Penance usually allowed the first 2 ticks to go through anyway due to its fast nature, and the mana required to cast it is simply too small.

The fix: Increase the cooldown to something like 20 seconds and increases the mana cost. This can also be done in other ways like increasing the cast time.

- Changed the Penance fix.

Feel free to add your own, I'm sure I've missed a lot.

Resto Druid a broken spec/ Ret Paladins and Rogues + PvE Gear Dilemma

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:06:08 -0400

Hey everyone. This is yet another report from the first few weeks of high-end season 6 arena, so let’s get right to it.

Resto Druid a broken spec

While almost any serious arena player will agree that Druids were ridiculously overpowered and were the undisputed kings of arena in seasons 3 and 4, there was a large difference between what was required to do in order to be successful between TBC and Wrath.

In TBC, a resto druid was pretty much required to cyclone and roots in order to win an arena match at the highest level, as well as help with burst damage, be mindful of his positioning, use travel form to escape and etc. With the new Resto changes added in 3.1 however, Blizzard completely destroyed any skill or coordination required to play a Resto Druid, and turned them into PvP healbotting trees.

It is possible, at the moment, as most players know, to pre-hot everyone on a druid team and make it almost impossible to score a kill. What is even more stupid is that Druids are now ENCOURAGED to stay in Tree Form and spam heals without doing anything else, with 3.1 talent changes like “Tree of Life: Now receives 240% increased armor. You can now use Nature's Grasp and Thorns while within this form. In addition, the discount on heal-over-time spells from this talent is now active at all times, whether or not the druid is in Tree of Life form. Mana cost reduced to match the cost of Travel Form”.

The result is not only a one-dimensional role in PvP (like elemental shamans in TBC in regards to burst damage) which makes it extremely difficult to kill anybody on a Druid team, but also the complete removal of any skill required to play a Resto Druid. So can Resto Druids be called Overpowered again? I wouldn’t go that far, but if their healing was toned down (especially those 14k lifeblooms) and maybe cyclone/roots range was increased or buffed some other way, Druids would actually have to do something besides spamming heals to do well.

Ret Paladins&Rogues + PvE Gear Dilemma

I’m pretty sure by now almost everyone has experienced how absolutely ridiculous Ret damage is, as well as Rogue openers with full energy. Ret paladins are hitting people for literally 40% their health within 1 GCD, 1-2 shotting Warlock pets, and taking an even bigger dump on people with chicken Wingz up. In fact, my mage partner was consistently getting hit down to 40% through Frost Barrier by a Ret paladin within 1-2 seconds.

On the other hand, you have rogues who are soloing warlocks in 8 seconds with a full energy opener, double rogue teams that are killing players in the cheapshot, and eviscerates going for 8k on resil. Rogues and Ret paladins did not see many particular changes from season 5 to 6, so what’s the problem?

New PvE gear. While most players are JUST getting their first piece of Furious armor from arena, or still saving for the weapon with an almost complete offpieces set (belt,boots, etc), a lot of Ret Paladins and Rogues are already running around in 4 piece 25 man Ulduar sets with 232 DPS 2 handers and 180+ DPS daggers, amazing trinkets and other new PvE gadgets. Furthermore, most Rogues are using either Darkmoon Card: Death (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42990) or Bandit’s Insignia (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40371 ), which both have extremely high proc rates and almost always proc on the opener, in combination with Pyro Rockets (off the GCD) which gives you another 4k+ damage in the opener. While this trend has almost always been present with Rogues and Ret Paladins in arena, it has only shown a serious impact in Wrath, because of the overall increase in damage present in Arena from TBC to Wrath. The problem isn’t necessarily that Rogues and Ret Paladins are too strong, but that A) They are able to be successful with a lot of PvE gear and B) Most are able to amass a full set of the best PvE gear while other players are just starting to get their Furious pieces from arena points.

While removing PvE gear from arena completely would be a major step in balancing this huge issue among many others and make it more about skill than gear, we all know that Blizzard doesn’t want to separate PvE and PvP. As such, the only thing that can really be done is nerfing the damage proc trinkets, perhaps changing the instant damage effect to something else completely, as well as perhaps forcing both classes to use Resilience in order to take advantage of some of their better talents and abilities (IE cloak, evasion, Bubble, Repentance), as Blizzard has done with Cheat Death in TBC. Furthermore, Engineering needs to be removed from Arena, as it currently gives too much of an advantage to players who posses it versus those who don’t. Other than that, all that we can do is wait until people get full Furious sets to compensate for the PvE gear worn by Paladins and Rogues. Hang in there guys.

Season 6 so far – The Good and the Bad / There is hope for Blizzard yet?

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:19:35 -0400

The first few days of arena have passed and I have another report for you. Here are some of the good and bad things in season 6 so far.

The Good

The return of cleave in 3v3

Yeah, you heard that right. I called that a good thing. While cleave comps (double melee 3v3 teams which usually center around a rogue or a warrior for ms) were undoubtedly one of the most retarded tunnel-vision-friendly teams of TBC, their return heralds a fair representation for warriors and rogues, and a huge step towards bridging the gap in representation of all classes in high-end arena.

The return of double-healer in 3v3

Once again, most players who did not run double-healer comps themselves often resented this team make-up (made popular with setups like shaman/paladin/warrior, priest/druid/warrior, rogue/priest/druid) in TBC. However, the true return of this make-up, outside of the faceroller holyplay, with teams like the above which I have so far witnessed is a good sign - it means the numerous nerfs to both burst and sustained damage for the majority of classes have finally payed off and we can at least start to get closer to the balance of damage and healing of TBC, where executing an intricate interrupt and CC chain trumped mashing all your damage buttons to score a kill.

The return of drain in 3v3?

I myself decided to run Shadowplay (Resto shaman/spriest/aff lock) this season, but we were constantly getting destroyed by the majority of the good RMPs on BG9. While we shrugged this off as inexperience with playing a completely new comp, the situation took a turn for the hilarious as our priest, who has bought dual specs, forgot to respec to shadow and entered arena as discipline. To our deepest surprise we proceeded to beat the ele shaman/resto druid/warrior team that we faced, and so we decided to try out this weird double healer setup for a few more games. This eventually led to a 10ish game winning-streak, only to be stopped in a close match by one of the better RMPs on the battlegroup, and so we decided to stick with the comp, which we would like to call Shadowdrain (In b4 the Phuox steals this). We stopped at around 1800 rating (rank 10ish) because we had to do 5v5, but I foresee the team hitting 2k+ by the end of the week as we faced little resistance from most teams. So what exactly is the significance of all this? Well, the simple fact that we did so successfully with a drain comp once again signifies the better state of damage/healing that season 6 has brought about. I wouldn't be surprised to see more and more drain teams, centering around the current power of priests, popping out throughout the season.

The Bad

Priests taking their seat of power

Many of you are probably already familiar with the fact that Priests were quite severely overbuffed in 3.1, but I've finally got proof to support this claim. For one thing, have a quick look at this SK gaming link http://www.sk-gaming.com/arena/team/2/all/all/all/all/ , where Priest/Rogue is the most popular setup with a whopping 35% representation, along with a number of other Priest healer teams being quite popular.Furthermore, playing 2v2 the last few days, We've noticed that about every 2/3 teams contained a disc priest, and much like Paladins, the previous kings of healing, Priests seem to be compatible with almost anything - so far we've faced a multitide of Disc/Ret, Disc/Warrior, Disc/Rogue and even Disc/DK teams in 2v2. Let's hope it will not take Blizzard another season to balance things out again.

Warriors & Rogues vs Warlocks

Call it QQ, call it a bias, call it whatever you want, but it will not change the current situation - Warriors and Rogues are completely ****ting on Warlocks in both 2v2 and 3v3 at the moment. While both classes have always been a soft counter to Warlock teams in TBC, this has never reached a level as bad as this - both classes are currently able to tunnel vision Warlocks and force the healer OOM in a few minutes. While the situation will undoubtedly be better with a druid healer for peels, Warlocks will require serious help in the melee mitigation department, ideally through buffing of pets to be able to actually have a chance versus warrior and rogue teams.

Do Pets appear as a critter on a Ret paladin's screen? (thanks to Valium of Bladefist for this funny title)

Ret paladins are currently able to 1-2 gcd a pet with a warlock health-funneling it and a healer healing it at the same time. This is largely due to the Felhunter's HP dropping down to a ridiculously low 12k from 16k, due to the paladin's Vindication reducing all stats on its target by 20%, coupled with Ret's ridiculous burst. I'd imagine the situation for Hunter teams is currently about the same. This is further worsened by the recent nerf to Voidwalker HP, which has reduced it to a measly 19k from about 27k. It's really time for a buff to pet survavability, and for the Vindication ability to get toned down, what do you guys think?

Ratings skyrocketing+ Rogue/Rogue officially Overpowered

Despite everyone starting at 0 rating this season, BG9 already has a 2674 2v2 team http://www.wowarmory.com/team-info.xml?r=Ner%27zhul&ts=2&t=Iron+Chefs&select=Iron+Chefs&fl=1, the retarded Rogue/Rogue comp I talked about in my first blog. What's even more hilarious is that they have a 200 lead on the next team. Let me also remind you that this rating was about rank 6 at the end of season 5 in 2v2, so I woudn't be surprised to see a 3k team by the end of this season. Back on the subject of this particular comp though, I really don't see anymore proof that I need to provide to officially label this comp both retarded and Overpowered versus any team with no immunity, and probably a decent chuck of teams with one. As I have stated in my first blog, this team kills any class with no immunity in the cheapshot, with double pyro rockets, darmoon:death cards and double tricks-of-the-trade. I will however still enjoy the Rogues commenting about how I am horrible for being unable to beat this comp, and how it is super countered by any team with a paladin.

There is hope for Blizzard yet?

As some of you may already know, Blizzard has recently taken some serious steps to balance out arena sooner than they did in season 5. Just today, the hotfix to Replenishment was made which made it only affect the person with the talent itself. Furthermore, Ghostcrawler has recently asked the paladin community to come up with ideas on how to enhance the Retribution spec and go away from the 'push when lit' playstyle. Does this mean that they may finally fix things before its too late? Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading once again, Tautology out.

The New Overpowered Classes/ s6 FOTM comps / Rogue/Rogue retard comp

no.spam@gameriot.com (tautology) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:30:00 -0400

Hello everyone. This is my first time writing a blog, as I really felt vocal after playing the first day of arena yesterday. I’d really like to talk about this “savior” season that practically all high-level players expected to be decent because of the balance fixes introduced in the newest patch.

The New Overpowered Classes

SIKE. You thought we balanced arena pretty well in 3.1, but JK we’re blizzard. Just when everyone thought DKs, hunters, and paladins took big nerfs in 3.1, stepping off the Overpowered wagon, blizzard manages to once again prove how horrible they are at over buffing/nerfing classes/specs, as they came out with the new retarded unbalanced buffs/changes to priests and ret paladins.

Ret Paladins – Where to begin. Retribution (quite arguably the spec with the lowest skillcap) is now even more ridiculous than ever. While the buffs they received are few, (like 15% to crus strike), the spec quickly skyrocketed in strength simply due to the nerfs received by the majority of the stronger classes. Ret paladins now kill warlock pets even faster (about 2 seconds), never go oom with the new Judgement of the Wise talent change, and WILL kill players in a single HOJ. While you may say that this occurred pre 3.1 as well, let me remind you that the strength of DK/Holy Pally/Hunter/Lock largely kept the numbers of retadins down in all brackets, simply due to being more overpowered. Now that this is not the case, be prepared to face a growing number of Disc Priest/ Ret, Holyplay and Shaman/Ret teams. This brings me to my next point of discussion.

Priest – some already call priests the new holy paladins. The class received HUGE buffs, largely through the changes to the two Hymn spells, which now restore ridiculous amounts of health (my shadowpriest 3v3 partner was healing me for roughly 8k per tick with Divine Hymn) and mana, respectively. Furthermore, positive talent changes in the discipline tree greatly improved the healing and damage reduction capabilities of priests, who can now pick talents such as Renewed Hope - Rank 2/2 - Increases the critical effect of your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Penance (heal) by 4% on targets afflicted by the weakened soul affect, and you have a 100% chance to reduce all damage taken by 3% for 20 seconds to all friendly party and raid targets when you cast Power Word: Shield. These were not the biggest changes, however. Penance, the best heal in the game both mana-efficiency and healing output per cast time wise can now be used on yourself. This improves the already amazing mana regen and efficiency situation priests are in with 3.1, and improves priest survivability even more for an already resilient healer.
Furthermore, combine all these changes with Replenishment, and you now have arguably the strongest 2v2/3v3 makeups of 3.1 – Disc priest/ Ret paladin and PMR. The shadow tree also received new and amazing changes, like the Stun/Horror effect disarm and the buff to shadowform reducing ALL damage received by 15%.

S6 FOTM Comps

The time is finally around the corner when we can stop speculating on what will be popular, and provide some real projections. Let me introduce you to my FOTM list for 3.1.

Disc Priest/ Ret paladin – bar none the best 2v2 comp of 3.1. Expect every ret paladin 4 button face roller to be running this. This comp was already strong pre 3.1, run by players even as horrible as Euneek and Manalol (the facerolling holyplay that got DGlad on BG9), but it has now officially received the stamp of the new holy pala/DK. This comp is quite literally impossible to run out of mana with the new changes to both classes, has 2 dispels, tons of shields and immunities and completely ridiculous healing and survivability. It doesn’t matter if you outskill the players running this comp – all they need to do is spam damage until your healer runs out of mana (even if your healer drinks the ENTIRE match and the priest doesn’t do anything besides getting feared and fully dotted). What’s even more hilarious is that they will spam dispel UA off every single time with little to no consequence.

PMR- It’s back, and it’s stronger than ever! Remember how ridiculous PMR was in TBC? Well guess what, with the addition of Replenishment to Frost mages, buffs to priests, and nerfs to the PHDL class group, PMR is not only back as the reigning 3v3 comp, but it has also lost its biggest weakness- running out of mana after burning all their cooldowns to score an early kill.

WLD – This comp has stood back in the shadows in s5, much like RMP due to the weakness of warriors and the general unbalance in terms of the overpowered four. With the changes to Arms warriors and druids however, this comp has everything it needs to bring it’s “grind you down and outlast you” play style. This comp may once again be one of the only hopes of stopping RMP from complete domination.

Priest/Rogue – really a no-brainer with the buffs to priests and the nerfs to mostly everything but rogues. This comp has always been quite strong in TBC as well.

Shadowpriest/ Rogue – An extremely popular comp in TBC, the shadowpriest became almost extinct in WOTLK, even as Spriest heroes like Brutal Gladiator Ikness http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kil%27jaeden&n=Ikness seemed to fail. However, with the new priest and shadowpriest buffs, like the Disarm/stun Horror effect talent, shadowpriests are destined to make a great comeback.

Resto Druid/ Warrior – yep, you heard that right. Arms warrior buffs have brought arms damage almost up to par to pre 3.1 fury, and the mobility is quite amazing as well. Coupled with the buffs to resto druids, this comp has everything it needs to be successful. Get ready for long matches and cyclones through the wall.

Paladin/DK – nothing really surprising about this. While both classes took quite a hit, the majority of the arena playerbase severely underestimated the nerfs to DKs – all they had to do was switch to a new spec (Frost). The ridiculous damage, while not as overwhelming as in s5 is still there along with everything else.

Rogue/Rogue retard comp

Remember that super fun feral rogue comp of s5, which would kill anything without an immunity in the cheapshot(literally)? Well guess what, while this comp was killed off with the feral nerfs, it is now back in full force as the oldschool Rogue/Rogue. Except now, it’s more ridiculous than ever. Expect to die even earlier in the cheapshot. Playing this comp was quite definitely the most frustrating experience of WoW arena I’ve ever had, as my shaman died in a 2 second cheapshot from 21k life to zero to 2 tricks-of-traded rogues with double pyro rockets. Pure skill bro.

In conclusion, I'd like to add that so far I've been quite disappointed with the ray of hope that season 6 was expected to be with all the class balance improvements. All that happened was new classes took up the OP pedestal from the old ones, and new retarded mechanics/comps have been introduced into the game.

Thanks for reading, Tautology out.