1512 : An S6 Casual Odyssey

1512.  For a few moments I just stared at the screen in disbelief, not comprehending anything.  I was mentally exhausted from the ordeal.  The glass of Ketel One sat empty in my slack hand.


Grinding back to 1500 Is Hell On Earth

Back To The Future
"We got it bro, I gotta jet."  My West Coast footballer partner's voice crackled over vent, boredom mingled with faint irritation.  Breaking 1500 rating in the balanced arena glory that is season 6 is an achievement I will never forget.  But it didn't come easy.  It took 75 games of gutwrenching, soulrending pain that seared my psyche permanently.  This wasn't a cakewalk, this was a death march.

After shelving my worthless lolret with the launch of WotLK, I switched to DK for all but the last two weeks of season 5.  As the season progressed and I lacked access to PVE gear (esp. a weapon) I realized that the future was bleak indeed for the casual hokage.  In full hateful gear I could barely do enough damage to get a healer to hard cast, and holy pallies would just laugh at me as they danced around with infinite mana.  I became intrigued - could holy pallies really be a viable class again?  And so I dusted off my pally and leveled it to 80.

The Rise And Fall Of Pally/DK Skill
Fortunately for me, my DK partner at the time had just lost his healer so I was able to step in.  With a macho 16k hps and 1150 spell power I got carried by a 2200 rated Betrayer/PVE geared DK up to 1800 in the last two weeks of the season - a rating I hadn't played as holy  since season 2.  It was glorious.  But then it all fell apart with the advent of season 6. My skill deserted me with all of the 3.1 nerfs.

LolDKs take so much damage now that it's an exercise in futility to heal them.  Mage/rogue = autoloss.  Priest + X = autoloss.  Absolutely horrible.  I had this sick feeling in my stomach over all the honor/arena points I spent on holy.  Had I made an awful, unforgivable mistake?  But then my young lad of a partner had an idea- what if we swapped out his geared DK main for his poorly geared alt rogue?

Can Skill Overcome A Weak Class?
I was skeptical to say the least.  After all, rogues are so squishy and die if they're so much as looked at.  And he had nothing but PVE raid gear, a huge hindrance for a class that absolutely requires huge defensive ability.  Could we get by with him only getting +20% passive healing and taking damage < 2/3 of the time he's in combat?  It was a tough call but I decided to give it a go reluctantly.

Well I couldn't believe the sudden increase in my skill and his.  After going a humiliating 3-8 with Pally/DK we ripped off a macho 19-1 record as Pally/Rogue.  I mean, everyone knows that I am VENGEFUL DUELIST Roma Victor, the pro (but still casual) pally PVPer, but this was too much.  I was amazed at how fast I could spam those 6200 flash heals into that poor rogue. It was great to go back to infinite mana ret/holy because my squishy rogue took roughly 90% less damage than his formerlly skillful DK.


Pure Skill Personified.

Coming Clean
Many of my avid fans (the most handsome, virile and potent fans on GR, by the by) will dutifully note my abject hatred for the skillful rogue class.  Indeed, in the past I have pointed out how it is a no skill class, promotes tunnel visioning and has way too much burst, CC and over the top debuffs.  I am man enough to admit that I was wrong.  Rogues truly are pure skill.  And I will go even further: healers that dare to play with rogues are among the most skillful in the game.  You have no idea how stressful it is to have to heal 2/3 of the match with a meager 70% healing advantage over the opponent (+20% rogue heals, -50% wound poison to opponent's heals).  This isn't something some terribad clicker can do.  I was, in fact, a MERCILESS RIVAL in Season 2 let's not forget.

The Future : Pure Skill
In conclusion I want to thank Lafonda nee Duresha, my valiant but horribly underpowered rogue partner for putting on such a clinic of pure skill for our mutual benefit.  I want to thank all of the rogues, hunters, warriors, lolDK's, lolrets, shaman, priests and locks (ROFL) that we skillfully tunnelvisioned from 100 --> points tonight.  My Furious ring looks especially shiny and I am looking forward to my well earned Deadly shoulders on Tuesday.  My only concern is whether my poor, woefully underpowered rogue (just ask the real hokage, Ming) can continue to be carried by a skillful paladin like me up to 1850 so I can get a real weapon.  It's not going to be easy.


A truly skillful healer atop his skillfully RNG obtained steed.

TLDR: Buff Rogues.

 P.S. LolArsenal.

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