Rogue/Rogue/Druid: The Serennia Difference, Shiv Nerfed on PTR

Today was a very sad day for me.  My role model passed away, I am trying to gather enough strength to write this blog but I can't seem to fight back the tears.  He was someone I truly looked up to and the reason I started a certain hobby in the first place,  R.I.P. 

Over the past week or so I have been trying to put together a rogue/rogue/druid team on my home server.  Merciless gladiator Wojo is here but like "Kristen" from The Emperor's Club, his appointment list is loaded with clients, and he also raids quite a few nights a week as well since that is obviously the main attraction of BDF for him.  Over the last a few nights I tried to play with a few other druids with mixed results.  We are over 2100 after just two nights of playing but the comp can't be played the same way without Serennia. 

Like most other comps Serennia invented, he wasn't the first to play them.  Tosan maintained a gladiator team with it in season 2 and I have no doubt my current team is capable of that as well (double human is easy mode).  However, until Serennia blessed the comp with his magical touches, it was still a "fun" team, far from a true top tier comp.  Rogue/rogue/X performs extremely well against RMPs and warlock teams in general.  Both Acronos and Happyminty at one point maintained high ratings with it, but as the popularity of RMP and warlock teams declined in 3v3, so did their ratings.  Most people felt rogue/rogue/X was really a very situational team that you would use in tourneys against specific match-ups, as opposed to a true top team.  So what exactly did Serennia-sama do to  beat every top team in BG9 with it other than finding a rogue with double warglaives?

The first and foremost difference is obviously the spec choice.  When I first started arena I always forced people to play certain specs and it just didn't work out.  Everyone has certain comfort zones, you can suggest but if a player doesn't want to play a spec you won't get results even if he plays it under pressure.  I have yet to find a druid on BDF playing 34/0/27 and in my honest opinion, the full resto version is simply better with warrior/rogue/druid than rogue/rogue/druid.  A huge advantage of having rogue/rogue/restokin druid is the fact that you can play 3DPS rushdown style off the bat with rogue's control options.  Sap one, stunlock the other with druid spamming damage into him, instant 5 point improved EA and full zerg mode.  Simple and effective, very hard to counter for a lot of the priest/lock comps out there. 

But what Serennia did better than everyone else, was to merge the rushdown of double rogue with the outlasting power of double melee druid seamlessly.  Against Merciless Gladiator Lipstick's RMP, me on the rogue, Qazdia senpai on the mage and I felt like we had full control.  For some reason when I played RRD vs RMP myself, the path of least resistance is simply zerging the priest (or lock) on the other team.  We tried splitting DPS but something just didn't feel right and I couldn't really point my finger on it.  Leadership, that is what Serennia brings to the table.  I didn't like the fact that I had no control whatsoever on who to blind and when to blind when I played with Serennia, but after playing my own RRD, druid calling for blind is not optional, it is a necessity when you have to blind after his cyclone DRs are gone.  Also, I don't remember the last time we lost a game as RRD because Serennia went OOM, but for my team druid mana was definitely an issue against any team we couldn't zerg.  Some of it is gear and spec (Serennia is the ultimate min/maxer in that regard), some of it is the increase in S3 DPS making zerging one target a very strong option.  But like I said before, you can find druids as skilled as him physically, Serennia is the total package that gets you results against highest rated teams.

Shiv Nerfed On PTR:

It can now be dodged, parried and of course, in addition to be resisted.  This is technically a bug fix but it is also something that has been working since TBC first came out.  This is a very nasty nerf as I can tell you chasing enhancement shamans on PTR feels like chasing a druid sometimes.  6 second crippling poison while you are snared by earth binding / frost shock the entire time makes for one slippery shaman, and with shiv being far less reliable than before, this is a serious hit in our arena strength.  It really adds even more random factors (a dodged shiv vs hunter is GG in many situations) into the game and I really hope they can look into it.

Neilyo-kun Sightings:



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