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by Roma Victor, Level 49
Last updated at July 4, 2009, 8:23 am

It appears that GCHitler may have gotten a strongly worded letter from the freshman intern that is running Blizzard's Sales, Marketing and Finance departments.  GCHitler, while not rescinding the elimination of the 2v2 arena bracket, has decided to throw the casuals he despises so much a bone: they can still earn current season gear, just not weapons and shoulders.  Oh, and they can't get titles.  GCHitler sent his lackey, Joseph "Bornakk" Goebbels to make the recent announcement:

After further consideration, and after hearing from many players, we are going to change how we approach the 2 vs. 2 arena bracket in Arena Season 7. We still think the 3 vs. 3 and 5 vs. 5 brackets will ultimately offer the best play experience, especially for very competitive gamers for whom game class balance issues are most noticeable. However, we recognize that many players just prefer to play in the 2 vs. 2 bracket and will miss the chance to earn the current season's gear. Therefore, we are going to still allow the 2 vs. 2 bracket to grant access to the current season of gear with three important exceptions: the current season's weapons will not be available for purchase, the current season’s shoulder armor will not be available for purchase, and players will not qualify for the Gladiator title/rewards unless you earn the appropriate rating in the 3 vs. 3 or 5 vs. 5 bracket. We look forward to the changes in the next major content patch and hope to have a great next Arena Season.

Emphasis mine. GCHilter was forthright in his own public statement which was refreshing:

I truly detest you filthy, worthless Jud--, er, casuals.  If it were up to me, you'd be wearing yellow armbands like the pariahs that you are.  Nevertheless, Brad our Santa Cruz State intern pointed out that 2v2 participation in season 5 was 3:1 over 3v3 and 14:1 over 5v5. In my generous mercy I have relented and allowed you pitiful kaffir plebes to still get your four pieces of PVP set gear and the offset PVP pieces from the current season.

Let no one mistake my intent here.  This decision reflects marketing reality, not my deepest desires, which are to ship you casuals off in cattle cars to the nearest death camp. But no, sorry, I'm forgetting myself.  We at Blizzard truly respect our playerbase, even the stupid, foolish majority that pay our salaries, and will refrain from completely eliminating the 2v2 arena bracket. Instead we have chosen a middle ground, namely to neuter it to the point of futility. I think we can all agree that a terrible bracket, like 5v5, is better than no bracket at all.

In conclusion, I want to reassure our RMP and cleave teams that 3v3 will remain the focus of arena PVP for the foreseeable future.  If you take away nothing else from this missive, please understand that we want to focus on skill. And that means the 3v3 bracket. Seig Heil!


Why 2's Is So Unpopular
Despite GCHitler's unrelenting hatred for the casual playerbase, it's worth reminding him how bad of a decision this is. He really should listen to Brad the SCSU intern when it comes to marketing decisions:

US-Nightfall 
Bracket~Active Teams
2v214031
3v35278
5v5986

The numbers above are for Nightfail participation at the end of Season 5.  It's difficult to imagine a stupider marketing decision, but then again this is Blizzard we're talking about.  Fortunately we can all relax and concentrate on 3v3, that most balanced of brackets:


I wonder if 3's is dominated by FOTM comps? Nah!


Nothing To See Here - Suck It, Hunters!

Finally, Some Balanced PVP
The bottom line is that PVP in WoW was not, is not and will never be balanced due to the complexities of so many variables between classes.  But that shouldn't be a license for laziness and not even trying.  Ultimately a smart businessman seeks to serve as many customers as possible, not drive them away or attempt casualcide in GCHitler's many murderous fantasies.

So where do you stand? Are you excited that finally you'll be forced to run RMP/Cleave in 3's or some random 4 (5?) dps zerg team in 5's to compete?  Do you believe GCHitler that they can't balance 2's?

Questions Demand Answers.

P.S. Happy Independence Day!

     
50 comments
Crocpot
Crocpot Jul 4, 2009 at 4:57 pm
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Must be exciting posting the same thing in every blog and comment for 2 years
Kios
Kios Jul 4, 2009 at 6:43 pm
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Nightfail Players:

2v2 - 28062
3v3 - 15834
5v5 - 5930

so really 2v2 participation is slightly less than twice the participation in 3s. That's still huge, but it's not 3:1. I don't really care about the gear changes; 4pc + S6 weapons is more than enough to get you going on a 3s team for weapons. I just wish you could still earn a title. Trying to get my 2s partner and myself on at the same time the last 4 seasons has been a problem, for 3s it's a nightmare.
Roma Victor
Roma Victor Jul 5, 2009 at 9:29 pm
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Nightfail Players:

2v2 - 28062
3v3 - 15834
5v5 - 5930

Could you please link a source for that?  Mine's from the end of S5. Somehow I doubt 3's participation miraculously tripled in the last three months.
Kios
Kios Jul 5, 2009 at 10:40 pm
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That's players, not teams. I took your team numbers and multiplied by the team members per bracket (2v2 numbers *2, etc). I was just pointing out that due to higher team sizes you'll have a lower number of possible teams in a given bracket.
Bosco
Bosco Jul 4, 2009 at 7:12 pm
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I like that 2's is getting nerfed. With the resilience change, 2's is going to be horrible but 3's will be more enjoyable. Should still get titles in 2's though.

I think s7 will be better than now from what I played on the PTR.

3v3 has more potential to be a better bracket than 2v2 and people qq about balance basing their crying on 2v2 where it shouldn't be based.
Awooga
Awooga Jul 4, 2009 at 11:42 pm
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Next article where you rally agains the axis of evil developers, make some kind of connection to Japan.  They ****** up the Dutch pretty bad in WWII as well.
Roma Victor
Roma Victor Jul 5, 2009 at 9:30 pm
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Awooga said
Next article where you rally agains the axis of evil developers, make some kind of connection to Japan.  They ****** up the Dutch pretty bad in WWII as well.
Tojo and Hirohito frankly aren't as hilarious as Hitler.

Plus I'm going to Japan this week and that would be very bad form.
Awooga
Awooga Jul 5, 2009 at 10:42 pm
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Roma Victor
Roma Victor Jul 6, 2009 at 11:14 am
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Awooga said
Mussolini then? 
That's not a bad possibility, much humor to be had from Il GC, er, Il Duce.
Aes
Aes Jul 5, 2009 at 12:54 pm
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what is up with the percentages on your class list? it totals 318 percent.
Roma Victor
Roma Victor Jul 5, 2009 at 9:16 pm
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Aes said
what is up with the percentages on your class list? it totals 318 percent.
That's how SK has them listed. I think % based on that class on teams in the top 100, not the percentage of that classes in the 300 possible players in the top 100.  It may count up to the 6 ppl on the teams too.
bolden
bolden Jul 5, 2009 at 9:41 pm
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All I see is paladins have way higher representation than mages, without beeing pigeonholed into one comp (besides semi-gimmicky comps)

Nerf RMP, yeah - but compensate mages elsewhere then.
Roma Victor
Roma Victor Jul 6, 2009 at 11:13 am
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bolden said
All I see is paladins have way higher representation than mages, without beeing pigeonholed into one comp (besides semi-gimmicky comps)

Nerf RMP, yeah - but compensate mages elsewhere then.
Neither paladins nor shaman are viable 3's healers under the current ruleset against equally skilled/geared RMP's.  There's a reason in 6 seasons no shaman or paladin has ever won a 3v3 tourney.  Look at Zilea - arguably the best holy paladin player in the world and he got zerged down helplessly by some RMP randoms, exactly like any shaman would have.

I'd fully support mage buffs the instant CS is back on global and blanket silence no longer exists.  Oh, and when rogues are nerfed down to hunter status (or below).
Yiska
Yiska Jul 6, 2009 at 11:23 am
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If you but CS on global CD every counter has to be.
Roma Victor
Roma Victor Jul 6, 2009 at 5:51 pm
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Yiska said
If you but CS on global CD every counter has to be.
I couldn't agree more.  I'd argue that ANY offglobal abilities are bad design since the game's pace -- by design -- is at a 1.5sec GCD pace.

Yes, this means garbage like Bandit's, Darkmoon : Skill, etc... need to be nerfed or made on use.  And the worst ability in the history of WoW for offglobal abuse: Deadly Brew nerfed into absolute, utter uselessness.  Make those no talent assclowns use Shiv and weapon swap again.
bolden
bolden Jul 6, 2009 at 1:08 pm
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Yeah I can see CS on global OR blanket removed, but I think putting both ingame would require some serious buffing elsewhere. And at the very least that would mean all interrupts should be on gcd again - which in turn would require some healing nerfs I believe, especially with the new resilience.

Hunters needs buffing atm I agree, but I dont agree that rogues need to be at (current?) hunter level BEFORE mage buffs.

I believe cleaves needs to be better at high skill level (tournament play) and way worse at lower. Not that I really have any idea how to achieve this - maybe the new resilience will help against early dps/CD spam zerg kills.
Roma Victor
Roma Victor Jul 6, 2009 at 5:54 pm
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maybe the new resilience will help against early dps/CD spam zerg kills.
New res change = -10%ish to damage. New S7/T9 gear = +15% or greater DPS boost.  Somehow I don't think the res change will affect RMP/Cleave or lol5's in the slightest.

Has anyone played on PTR? Can a healer keep a victim up against rogue/mage, rogue/lock or rogue/ele for more than a single global? My guess is nothing will change, but would love to be proven wrong.
CntCmE
CntCmE Jul 6, 2009 at 6:15 pm
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you forget the damage gained at least from s7 gear is balanced out by the defensive stats gained by s7 gear as well (greater hp pool, 100-200 additional resilience, more armor/dodge).
dunno about t9. seems as if blizz wasnt too happy with t8 set bonuses being useless for pvp so they made t9 bonuses viable for pvp again...

yet im pretty confident, rmp will still be able to global ppl
Roma Victor
Roma Victor Jul 6, 2009 at 8:43 pm
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yet im pretty confident, rmp will still be able to global ppl

Yeah, with the DK/lolret nerfs and no nerfs to mage/rogue, I don't see anything remotely coming close to challenging RMP's status as godmode.  The damage RMP will put out next patch will pretty much relegate all other comps to spectator status.

Still more balanced than 2v2, right? Heh.
bolden
bolden Jul 6, 2009 at 8:22 pm
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Same as CntCmE said.

I am, however, worried about T9 people, I think T8.5 hurt alot as it is - and there no way in hell im gonna start raiding myself for the mage pvp useable pve iems.

At least the resilience change is a straight up buff for pvp'ers without acces to raid gear (I wear shoulders and legs from nax10, cba to pug nax25 - my server puggin is awful) in the eternal pvp vs pve item viability struggle.

I havent played that much on PTR so cant say, which is why I said "maybe" to the resilience change helping - maybe im just living in blind hope.
Dredo
Dredo Jul 7, 2009 at 12:29 am
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The problem with the arena has existed since season 2, punish people who don't have gear (namely weapons) by not allowing people to get gear. The difference only will grow over time to the point where entering the arena is simply a function of stupidity unless your fully active in the previous seasons.
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