Big Hit Box

Season 7 is turning out to be The Season That Wasn’t. I’ve had extremely limited involvement in arenas and almost no BG time. I blogged about my disappointing end to Season 6, which in retrospect, can largely be attributed to specing into 5/5 [Procrastination]. That spec decision happened somewhere around age 7 and I’ve yet to find the trainer for a quick RL respec.  

Going into Season 7 our 5s team took two fatal blows. First Audax, Paladin extraordinaire, experienced a computer meltdown. By the time he got his computer back he decided to take a bit of a break. I don’t know if PvP was a playing priority for him on his Pally because about that time we took a second hit. Schlimmy, the Druid of destiny, deemed that life derailed him from his determination to defeat PvE & PvP defenders. (OK no more alliteration today, as it’s annoying). In other words, he had real life scheduling conflicts and had to transfer realms to find people he could play with regularly.

Schlimmy was the heart of the team. He is both master and student of PvP. He studies setups, reviews comps & counters, and analyzes videos of the top players. While I’m a leader IRL and in raids, when it comes to arenas and PvP I defer to Schlimmy. He knows his stuff and I follow his orders. Without him I would have been lost in 5s this season and I knew it. (Where else in the world will a 33 year old accomplished professional unquestioningly follow the direction of a 17 year old? That, I think, is a topic for another post or perhaps another blogger, all I know is that when it comes to PvP I do what Schlimmy says.)

I digress. Sure I tried to get some teams going here and there. But with everything going on in life, blog, and guild I had little time to commit to arenas.

As we roll in the end of the season Audax is raiding and playing again full-time. And guess who’s back. Schlimmy’s back. So we’re getting the band back together for 5s. As for 3s, when Schlim left I ended up with his team. At the urging of Alidin (DPS Warr) I joined he an Audax in some 3s this season.

I spent Emblems of Triumph on Furious gear, which was a great investment to upgrade from some old Deadly pieces. I made a few adjustments to my setup, the biggest two being using my PvE weapons and making Earth Shock my primary shock once again. Previously I was using Frost Shock as my main shock, but replacing it with ES provided a big DPS boost.

 We shook the dust off the other night and I used WeGame’s app (a free FRAPS alternative) to record some matches. Here’s an excellent example of why I’m such a terrible PvPer:

• You can see Alidin and I are on different targets through a lot of the fight
• Audax saves my ace early on after I’ve blown all my saving throws
• We get lucky with the Shaman healer out of LoS while we take down the Rogue—only after he’s blown all his saving CDs
• After the Rogue is dead Al and I are on different targets again which is kind of pointless and totally from me not paying attention
• My UI for PvP needs to be seriously readjusted—now that my PvE interface is done I can tweak a PvP setup

The only highlight here is that the filthy Rogue opens on me and what? Nothing. That's right. Uber Audax keeps it cool. Go stunlock someone else, Rogue.

I think the biggest improvement we can make to our 3s gameplay is better DPS coordination. And the way we can do that is more chatter over Vent (this is where me not using push-to-talk has a major advantage). I’m happy to follow Al’s DPS targets as long as I know when he makes switches. Again, I defer to the real PvPers, in this case Alidin.

Also, I’m so accustomed to doing 5s that I was astounded by how far less complicated 3s are comparatively. The amount of chaos and confusion in 5s gives that awesome PvP adrenaline rush, but it also requires perfect group coordination. With 3s there are fewer variables and it’s easier to execute coordinated strategies—and easier to counter such strategies if you know what’s coming.

Once again I’m coming into the end of a PvP season with a half-baked rating and considering making a mad dash to some halfway decent bracket levels. With Audax and Schlim back (and some other great PvPers around to carry my sorry ace) I’m ready to dive in once again.

How's your season been? Are you close to your arena goals? Or are you more excited for rated BGs and can't wait for this arena nonsense to be done?

May all your hits (on filthy rogues) be crits!