Watching Is More Stressful Than Playing

I think if there is one thing I learned from the first a few days of arena, it is that experience is what matters. The initial record really doesn't mean as much as getting everyone playing time. Hence, tonight I decided to sit and let my team play without me. We played a warrior, mage, druid, priest and paladin team and went 8-6. Don't let this record fool you. Unlike yesterday when we went 13-2 against teams lower rated than us, tonight we played against some of the best teams in the bracket. It was really, really hard for me to follow the progress from sidelines, especially when I realized they played Aedak/Jones's Paradox team for four straight games and lost four straight times. And for the first time in regular season, we faced the Lucero's team, top in our battlegroup, they ran a warrior, rogue, priest, shaman and paladin team, and it came down to their warrior/paladin vs ours, and they won.



After 14 games, our ratings barely changed from yesterday. Our warrior had to leave, and our paladin still needed 7 games to meet the 30% requirement. While I don't know when the arena points are calculated, I didn't want to take the chance. I stepped up to play in the position of the warrior. My wound poison is for the most part, just as good a healing debuff as mortal strike. I talked to my team and asked them what went wrong, and they said Aedak's team was basically the same tri-healer team we had problems with, warrior, rogue and tri-healer. They tried to kill priest first and it wasn't successful. Apparently, they missed my blog entry yesterday,



I strongly feel the critical point in a tri-healer team, is the shaman. His purge is the greatest threat to our priest's survivability. His earth shock is the biggest problem to our paladin's healing. And believe it or not, he is far, far less durable than the priest. I was playing rated 2v2 with a shaman that I have hope for last night. The one thing that I noticed most, was that despite of just under 8000 health and 7000+ armor, he goes down way, way, way faster than a similarly geared priest. If we are against a warrior / paladin team, I can go attack the paladin, and let the priest tank the warrior for a while. This is not the case with a shaman. There were times he went down before I can say what hell just happened. Granted, he doesn't have the greatest gear, but neither did the priests I tested. Shaman is the 0.5 DPS in a tri-healer team, as well as the greatest threat to both of our healers. I would rush down a shaman before any other class save for a warlock.



It was to my disappointment that Aedak's team swapped a priest for a hunter, it took away some of the satisfaction of the wins. But hey, a win is a win. We rushed down the shaman hard, and when the smoke cleared, it was Ming 2, Aedak 1. Since Aedak's team was quite a bit higher rated than we were, it was very, very favorable for us. I know I say "a ninja should never show any emotion and always focus on the mission at hand", but I would be lying to you if I say wins over Aedak mean nothing to me. Seeing Aedak as the last man standing, it is like sitting in front of a big, delicious piece of steak, you just gotta have a bite, even if it is just a scrubby looking blood elf paladin. I still don't know if Aedak is 100% comfortable as a support, heart of a warrior, is it still in you?



But more important than anything else tonight, was the second game against Lucero's team. They played the line-up that we hated most, the patented warrior, rogue, shaman, priest and paladin line-up. They were a much higher rated team than us. It was very important for Akatsuki to make a statement, that we are here to play, that we belong in the elites, and more importantly, win against a matrix that has been tormenting us. And looking on their roster, I saw Darksol and his crafted mace, one of my favorite rogues in the battlegroup.  Long story short, we cycloned the warrior, we focus fired the shaman, and when the smoke cleared, the five members of Akatsuki were still standing, and we gained a whopping 23 points. It was the highest number of points we ever gained in a game, and I think the entire team was relieved that we are finally capable of beating good teams playing the dreaded tri-healer combo, considering our own shaman won't be here any time soon. And more importantly, we are now 1-1 against that team in a young season. They are the Dallas Mavericks, we are the Houston Rockets, we are here to play, even if our overall record is not as good as theirs, yet.