3.3.2 Impressions: Where Did My Damage Go? MLG PVP/PVE Show: TSG vs Straight To The Top

3.3.2 is here and the new honor pieces were huge disappointments for me, 4-stats ring/neck/cape yet again when PVE equivalents now feature 5 stats plus a socket at item level 264.  Thankfully the huge buff to resilience now makes it the best PVP stat at equal item budget after attack power, so all other slots are about as good as you can get outside of ICC hard mode.  Shadowpanther did a fabulous job as usual, updating their PVP charts first day of the patch.  While we can quibble over the details, their AEP ranking is solid enough if you are trying to decide which slot to upgrade first.

A non-raider rogue can get pretty competitive stats with badge cloak, badge throwing weapon, Ashen rep ring and 10K gold (any good farming tips?) for wodin's necklace.  You would only really lose to hard mode PVEers and even then the gap is not THAT big.  I really, really didn't want to blow 68K honor for Medallion of the Horde, but I just can't justify using the item level 213 Wintergrasp trinket when item level 264 resilience trinket is available.  It is possible to gain the damage you lost by speccing a little more offensively (find weakness or focused attacks over deadened nerves), but I still would like to see an upgraded Wintergrasp trinket with passive attack power!

I will take my time with honor farming this season and just focus on the daily 25 arena point quest and weekly Wintergrasp quests, maybe a little BG weekend to spice it up a little here and there.  Horde BG queues are absolutely brutal although thankfully, we do win most games.  60 days worth of dailies and weekly's should be more than enough to get you a full set considering you don't need cloak/neck.

3.2.2 Impressions: Where Did My Damage Go?

Blackrock arena queue is . . . pretty much unusable first two days.  You get into arena and by the time you are loaded, preparation timer is up and both teams take a loss.  The games themselves are a mixed bag, some can be quite playable, others are slide shows.  Still, with the very limited games I did get into, the resilience change is pretty noticeable.  It is not just the 10% or so damage reduction you get from resilience, it is the fact that players are more likely to wear PVP gear in arena that slows down the damage.  Players going from attack power/spell damage PVP trinket to resilience alone is +2% damage to -3% damage, a -5% swing. 

Tried rogue/shadow priest/shaman with all-WOM team of Ming/Trance/Bodi.  The games were extremely laggy but I still can't see how this comp would be better than RLS.  Warlock just seems to be more versatile than a shadow priest with a spammable CC, DOT protection and teleport.  A reliable defensive dispel and shield is nice, sure, but against any team with a priest that trains your shadow priest while dispelling his DOTs, I just don't know where we are going to get damage pressure from.  Even Realz, the man who took this comp to the top spot of BG9 back in season 2 doesn't see the value of this comp over RMP/RLS.  I am sure it will be "viable" in the hands of top players, but I can't see it being much more than a niche comp when shadow priests can team up with frost mages and affliction warlocks for wizard cleaves.

The gibbed in 2-3 global thing don't seem to happen nearly as much, and the game is still played at a very nice pace when you have a rogue/caster/healer mirror.  Although like many mentioned, the sustained damage of a TSG (wait until legendary weapons are in the game!) and hunter teams (beast cleave and prot/hunter) are still too much.  Of the three MS classes, the damage-to-survivability ratio between warrior/hunter vs rogue is just all messed up.  Warrior/hunter teams can dish out so much consistent damage that just wear down your defensive CDs and then all it takes is one or two interrupts and you are done.  If you somehow survive you will lose the mana game.  Why does hunter need MS again?

Out of all the classes, I have to say I feel rogue was hurt more than any other in this patch.  Pre-patch I could force defensive CDs on healers solo.  Now?  They tank me very comfortably with instants.  This makes double healer teams EXTREMELY difficult to beat.  The healing nerf doesn't hurt them at all with the over-healing involved.  When I get on a paladin or druid it almost feels like pre-deadly/envenom all over again when I can't do anything to them without my caster.  The patch really favors high survivability classes like warrior/warlock that never runs out of gas.

Tried RMP with an amazing mage/priest duo, who managed to defeat a 2300 MMR lock/mage/druid team 2v3 after I went down in a 37 minute thriller.  The other team was not spectacular but it kind of shows how high the survivability is, they could not score a kill on my mage/priest for 10 minutes 3v2.  We went 14-10 for the night, and there were at least 5 games where we brought someone to <5% and he healed himself right back up and we lost in the end.  Against double healer teams that abuse double defensive dispels and set warrior on our mage the entire game, it just feels impossible when I can't force either priest or paladin to blow their big defensive CDs without my mage.  I almost wanted to spec hunger for blood or even full combat given how difficult it is for me to kill anything.  The only class I feel I can solo from 80% in a couple of globals is, you guessed it, another rogue.  When I have 5 poison stacks and do mutilate/mutilate/CB envenom, I really feel I should be doing more damage than I am doing today. 

The only damage reduction I noticed was my own. - Relentless Gladiator Zyzski

MLG PVP/PVE Show: TSG vs Straight To The Top

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSjyOTG9e6E&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=BF87D09DB62C80FC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TtF70Bgq2k&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=BF87D09DB62C80FC



As a nod to ESL's game shows, MLG is putting together its own weekly shows and we got one hell of a match-up between global champion TSG vs Straight To The Top, Relentless Gladiator 3v3 team of BG9.  Of course the games are played out in S5 gear and 3.2.2 patch, and I think it is safe to say no rogue team will be competitive in this format (rogue/lock will be decent but no match for warrior/lock/x's).  Between TSG and prot/hunter, two of the highest damage pressure teams on live, the matches took forever.  A rogue would be out of cooldowns a long time ago and becomes a mana drain for his team from there.

Straight To The Top didn't miss a beat with protection warrior nerfs, as Alloran continued to dish out heavy damage even in S5 gear.  While Veex is the highest pressure warrior I have ever faced and he did outdamage Alloran by a comfortable margin as arms, he simply didn't have the tools Alloran had to control the game.  It is amazing how much lasting power the prot/hunter team had compared to TSG even with S5 gear and huge nerfs. 

It will probably take a while before TSG is back in shape, as their swaps here were not as clean/crisp as when they won Blizzcon.  Straight To The Top dominated BG9 by a huge margin and they will probably be one of the hardest teams to beat on live again.  I sincerely hope Blizzard updates the tournament realm, the pace of the game as it is seen in this series, rogue heroes probably should give up their plane ticket to upcoming tournaments and save their sponsor some money.