Farewell fellow paladins, the battle is too much of an uphill climb.

Well, I would have hoped that this didn't have to happen. I was hoping that Blizzard would have solved most of the balance issues, but after 2 consecutive seasons with very little unchanged, and most combos being worthless with the exception of any combo with a druid and PRM, there seems to be little purpose to continue.

Zilea, admit it, you're quitting because you are doing poorly on the tourney realm

It isn't so much about my performance on the tourney realm as it is the state of the game in general, with the tourney being the icing on the cake.
While I've only played about 35 games on the tourney realm so far (we're currently 1800, with our highest rating so far being about 1844), it has more to do in general with the massive problems within the tournament.

The game is severely flawed, and it is so evident on the tournament realm itself.

Just look at the compositions on the tournament realm. While it is arguable whether the game simply reverted to a season 2 state in terms of what combos are popular or not (a massive amount of old combos like shadow priest + lock + druid are appearing on the tourney realm) , the tournament is just a bunch of spamming massive amounts of games until you encounter teams you can beat because of counter-comps.

Ok, so, what has your experience been like so far on the tournament realm to make you indignant at WoW in general?

The arena tournament is an utter joke. EVerybody is running druid+x+y or PRM.
How many teams on the tournament realm are running a priest as a healer that doesn't include the combo of PRM? Probably less than 3% at the high-rated level.

Everything else is druid reliant.

Both situations are completely retarded. Even shamans are pairing up with druids because shamans and paladins cannot solo heal any combo and can't succeed in the tournament without a second healer.

The tournament is a bunch of massive exploitation of unbalanced game compositions that no one can honestly expect to receive credit for succeeding.
People like Serennia, who have been hugging druids since the start of season 2, will never succeed in a game like WoW if they were forced to use another healer, unless other healers got buffed to the point that made druids trivial in an arena match.

I'm sorry, but if you're running a druid or PRM, your team is severely flawed right out of the gate, this isn't more evident with bologna combos like Druid/Lock/Lock.

How can a team claim they are actually good when they are running a combo like druid/lock/lock?
More importantly, the game's counter-comping becomes even more obvious when you factor in what can and can't beat certain combos.

For example, TSG is running Druid/Lock/Lock, and is getting some ridiculous (and overblown) rave over their success with that combo. That's great, but what would happen if they were matched up against a priest/rogue/rogue team? I'd probably go to the extent to bet all 29,000 of my in-game gold that the outcome would be something like a 9-1 ratio in favor of the priest/rogue/rogue team.

Let's take Shamans for example. You'll never, ever see a shaman in the game's current form act as a solo healer in any combo and reach the top spots on the tourney realm or the live realms.

Again, I know it is completely not the shamans' fault that their class is so utterly bad. But come on, don't go around thinking that your success is anything other than massive exploitation of the game in its current state.

You'll never see a shaman succeed in 3v3 without running paladin/warrior/shaman or druid/shaman/X.

Conversely, you'll never see a paladin succeed in 3v3 as holy without running paladin/warrior/shaman, druid/warrior/paladin or priest/paladin/warrior.

My limited experience on the tourney realm has been pretty awful in terms of success vs particular combos.
Against druid/warrior/rogue, druid/lock/war, druid/rogue/lock and PRM, we've been fairly successful, partially because of our capability to quickly zerg someone down and end the fight. Which, in my opinion, is the only way to really play with a paladin healer as the solo healer. The fight has to be fast and someone has to get zerged into the ground quickly before the divine shield is gone.
Against random combos, which my team has rarely ever seen on live, like druid/hunter/lock, druid/priest/rogue, priest/hunter/lock and a few others that I won't mention, the outcomes are just outright awful. Our lack of being able to zerg anyone down consistently typically leads to either random wins because of insane RNG on our part, or embarassing losses because of the paladin class' ridiculous lack of coping with interrupts.

In summary, all of this contributed to my serious dissatisfaction with WoW. In addition, because my team of pally/war/rogue has been so disadvantaged in arena because of the crappyness of paladins, my teammates have been more and more hesitant to want to do arena with me and with paladins in general.

Wow (no pun intended) you really have some serious problems with the state of the game, and are probably just bitter.

I might be, but let me just ask you this. What kind of individual would make a post like this unless they were getting the short end of the stick?
I mean, with the extensive experience I have with arena, I am going to make a very unmodest comment by saying that I feel that I have finally gotten to the point with the paladin class where I have reached the ceiling and the cap for skill needed to utilize the paladin to the fullest.
I fake counterspells almost every time, I fake shocks about 50%+ of the time, I fake kicks and pummels about 85%+ of the time and I manage my mana fairly well almost every game, constantly drinking when I have free teime.
I would go so far to say that, currently, there probably aren't any paladins that could do what I do as well as I do it.

I apologize for the conceited comments, but I feel it is very relevant as to why I'm quitting this game. I mean, if I feel I can't improve my gameplay anymore, isn't it important to add to this article? People need to know how I feel about my performance in arena. It is very easy to say "well I'm still not very good with the paladin class", which would almost make everything I've said in this blog null and void, because, well, if I'm not as good as I can be at a paladin, that means I haven't utilized the class to its highest potential.

What else bothers you about the arena tournament and its participants?

What really bothers me about the tournament in general are the type of players that it harbors. The tournament realm is a safe haven for players that are completely and utterly obsessed with their performance in the tournament and, moreover, have vested literally their entire lives on the future of their tournament prospects. Even though 5v5 is unbalanced, it is more balanced than 3v3.

There are people on the tournament realm (many will be nameless because I have an accord with myself that I will no longer drag myself into the mud with sensationalist blogs) that have played over 300 games, and it is apparent, at least to me, that most of these people don't have anything else going on in their lives.

Woah, Zilea, you used to play WoW all day too, is this hypocrisy or maybe a clever example of a paradox?

It is definitely a paradox. While I was completely obsessed with WoW (more on this in a minute), I slowly came to realize that WoW was not only time consuming, addicting and an utter waste of time, but was actually harmful to my health.

I've been fortunate, however, in the sense that I've been hooked on WoW for over 2.5 years, and I'm still not an obscenely fat, unhealthy slob that sweats through my shirts and leaves stains.

The fact of the matter is, I know first hand people that play WoW that are so hooked that they don't have a job, don't go to school, sponge off of friends to make payments, and, sadly, many of them don't even have driver's licenses.
There is definitely something embarassing about all of this.

What else about the nature of the game bothers you?

The addiction. I was completely hooked, and I know first hand the negative impacts this game has on a person's life and health.
Nothing is more clear of addiction than raiding. I raided for over 2 years, and I'd say about after 1 year I had gotten to the point where raiding was a complete waste of time. It had gotten to the point of feeling like a chore, too. 25 hours a week to sit in a raid and kill pve mobs? Admit it, if you are one of these people, you are a loser. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving a problem.

25 hours a week. Think about this for a second. First off, are these people going to school/work? If so, what are they doing on their spare time if they're raiding 3, 4, even 5 days a week with the release of Sunwell Plateau.
What can you do in a week with 25 hours? I know that as a student in college, I can get a part-time job and go to school, and maybe have a little bit of extra time for recreational activities.

I will admit it, I was completely hooked, and was a loser for spending this exorbitant amount of time raiding.

But I broke the raiding tradition about 5 months ago, and have been playing WoW less and less ever since.

There are more problems with raiding than just time spent. Anyone can dump 25 hours a week playing WoW that doesn't raid. But there is another variable to this that most people don't realize: the fixed raiding schedules required to raid regularly.
Being able to regularly attend a raid says a lot about yourself, because most people don't have the time to do nothing but play WoW from 7 pm until midnight, especially if they have a job or go to school during the day. When do you do homework if you go to school? Oh, you do it when you get home? How much free time do you have when you're not raiding? Ask yourself that question.

So, are you going to quit? Will you come back? What are you going to do with your free time?

I've already unsubscribed my account and may 10 will be the last day I will ever be on WoW.
Will I come back? It is very likely that if there are serious revamps in WoW's balance before the expac, I will come back. (Assuming paladins become more viable in small-arena play)

What about next xpac? Again, it all depends on what changes are planned. If paladins get buffed to the point of being equal with other healers, I will come back.

What if Starcraft 2 comes out before the next xpac? I probably won't come back to WoW.

What am I doing with my free time now? I'm working towards getting a job with grassrootscampaigns.com to be a field campaigner to help get the Democrats back in office. Though right now my career prospects are a little dubious because I have many other jobs I'm looking into possibly getting.