The ATR really is for everyone, as predicted in a previous rant - there are tons of very novice players and a ton of very great players. If PvP is your thing and you play actively, it really doesn’t hurt to sign up for the experience. You get to play against or with the best of the best as well as be entertained by the worst of the worst.

Speaking of the worst, a couple days ago we were picking up a 3rd for some practice games with me as the Mage and a friend of my playing Rogue. At first we tried a Shadow Priest, he didn’t use a PvP trinket but instead replaced it with the healing trinket. After multiple games of him dying without doing any notable damage (or anything), we moved on to another recruit. Now this one claims to have 2100+ experience, Rogue with some what proper gear and spec. First thing he asked was “why don’t we have a healer???”, I thought 3 DPS 3v3 would be pretty well known by now? So we go in the games and do pretty well, this guy would scream “omg we need a healer I’m taking damage” every time he was focused. Finally, he died first in a game and team quit right after (saved me the hassle).

After that interesting encounter, we decided to take his advice and find a healer. When we managed to grab a Druid that required his partners to be of 2k+ experience, we thought things would finally kick off! My hopes were shattered by the time he spoke: “OK GUYS, keep the other team off me because I move VERY slowly in tree form”… followed by a shift in to tree form and walking out of the gates with it! Needless to say, anytime the other team poked him, he dropped. Further dialog: “OK GUYS, make sure you all stay near me because this arena (blade’s edge) is very hard to heal! Do not LoS or out range me, I will be standing in the middle.” After a few games of speechlessness, we were surprised by his fast learning ability: “OK GUYS, since they’re always killing me first I think I will start in cat form stealth.” However, a quick and direct shift to tree from cat ended his dream of staying alive past 20 seconds. After deciding we couldn’t handle anymore of this high quality entertainment, we called it a night.

Now originally I had plans of playing with some very competent players and form a couple solid teams. Those plans didn’t pan out too well - conflicting schedule playing a huge role. In the end I got my most enjoyable games as a scavenger, of the top players. There will always be times where some of your teammates decided to take the night off and hit up a bar or whatever else reason they cook up (I have heard things from watching TV to broken keyboards). Even the top players are not immune to these nights, and this is when we snatched them over for games! I was able to get in some quality time playing RMP with kintt and lipstick last night. I must say now I understand how it’s possible for RMP to take home so many titles, Alliance RMP is simply 2-3 times stronger than horde RMP! The RMP play style with perception and dwarf Priest is drastically different from what I was used to from live servers but it’s definitely much stronger. Sadly, Shadowstep will be the only viable spec for this style.

Anyways, after an hour of suffering from a very strong Mage Lock Druid team which forced our Mage to stop messing around with AP PoM, we easily broke 1950 at end of the night. The experience of playing with some of the best players in game holds a high level of satisfaction and brings back good o’ BG6 memories. Eventually, a sad fact dawned upon me when dozens of close games slipped through our grasp due to my errors. For the first time, I felt that I was clearly the weakest link in our 3v3 team.

To make excuses first, I do get 280 ping playing on ATR, however I can feel being totally out of practice for the top level. Ever since I transferred over to BG9 Tichondrius, things haven’t been anywhere close to expectations. Prior to the transfer, I had high hopes of capturing different footages of top teams from the perspectives of all the different lineups I can imagine. After the transfer I was quickly shown the fact that it’s all about having your own ‘crew’ to transfer with. Without a stable array of teammates already dedicated to play with and abandoned by the one I transferred with, I struggled to break 2100 in 3v3 with whatever mediocre teams I managed to scoop up. Looking back, even through I have learned much from seeing what different ‘top’ teams of BG9 are capable of, it was at a great cost of personal growth. When I first transferred, I was able to keep up or outperform the best of my class like Neilyo. But after half year of rotting on Tichondrius, I can say for sure my game is barely of 70% what it used to be, if that - while the players I used to play with on BG6 have all improved.

All in all, the ATR experiences so far have been very refreshing as well as entertaining. I urge those that haven’t signed up to check it out even if you’re busy with other things (like PvE lol).

Tags: Rants

11 Responses to “Scavaging the ATR, BG9 has made me rusty”

1. Deadx Says:
   April 9th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

   Another good read, to bad I already read it when you sent it to me in Aim =D

2. Mascot Says:
   April 9th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

   Sorry to hear that your experience on BG9 has been so poor. I’ve heard other players who’ve transfered say similar things, but you’re the first to say that your game skill has rusted. It makes a lot of sense though.

   Just out of curiosity, could you expand on the “alliance RMP vs. horde RMP” section. How does the play style differ, and which players need to be human to get the most out of perception? Human Rogue, Human Mage, Dwarf Priest?

   Also, is it chastise or stone-form that makes the Dwarf priests so strong? I’m more curious because I’ve got a Draenai Priest rotting on some server that would be interesting to investigate.

3. Ziss Says:
   April 9th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

   The ability to rushdown opposing Rogue teams with the opener sap as well as ability to find any Druids is very huge for the alliance RMP. Adding in the insane amount of survivability Dwarf Priests have (any Rogue should know this), you’re just that much stronger vs your hard fights (Rogue double melee DPS for example).

   I would give most the credit to stone-form > desperate prayer, when combined with Focused Will, it’s 130% on all your heals for the next few seconds as well as major kiting/positioning advantage.

   And we use Gnome Mage, 2 Perceptions = overkill IMO.

4. Glave Says:
   April 9th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

   Hu Rogue, Gnome Mage, and Dwarf Priest.

5. Disco Says:
   April 9th, 2008 at 7:22 pm

   I can’t speak for some parts of what you’ve posted, however; I can agree 100% about the problems you’ve had finding decent players on the ATR.

   Now, I’m not trying to disregard anyone or talk down; but it’s pretty devastating when someone talks like they have the ability to play at a 2k+ level, and they don’t even have the ability to play in the 1600’s.

   Sadly, I’ve started playing a Mage over the last couple months and have quit PvP’ing on my Hunter and Rogue. For that reason, I wasn’t able to get any of my former teammates to play alongside, and so; I’m stuck trying to find teams in trade.

   With all that aside, I’d love to see the ATR (or something similar) up quite often. It’s a great place for the already skilled and those learning, and I think it’s a step in the right direction for Blizzard to really separate and expand on both PvP and PvE.

   Good read Ziss, and good luck on your team hunt.

6. Akkando Says:
   April 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am

   Can I still sign up for the ATR? It’s $20 right?

7. Akkando Says:
   April 13th, 2008 at 6:34 pm

   So I was still able to sign up for ATR. Seems like about half the people are playing classes they do not know how to play. I was able to win every duel but one even though I usually only play around 1800 rating (ironically the loss was to a warrior who doesn’t play a warrior vs my rogue but we will call it a flook).

   There were a ton of people who wanted to play arena though. Some of them require you to be above 2k or 2.2k. I would suggest just dueling these players if you want to play with them so they can see if you are good enough.

   I played some messed up hunter mage rogue in skermish mode for fun and then later I played with a resto shaman and we did 1500-1700 without too many problems. It was fun to just be able to group up with whoever and play some games.

8. Anoximon Says:
   April 13th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

   I’d heard that Tich was terribly elitist in more than just the BGs. I was hearing rumors that it was almost impossibly to PuG anything, and that if you didn’t have your own group to play with from the start, you’d be down the creek without a paddle.

   I can’t say that I blame them either. So many people transferring over to be on the “uber” PvP server has diluted it down to nothing. It’s a sad fact that BG9 PvP is really starting to go down the drain, especially Horde-side with droves of people re-rolling Horde characters for “ez-mode PvP” on whats supposedly the best-of-the-best battlegroups.

9. Akkando Says:
   April 14th, 2008 at 11:48 am

   After switching to a human rogue on ATR instead of playing horde I feel like Alliance is easy mode.

   Oh there is a rogue sap, hey there is the druid I have it cheap shotted in cat form, win.

   Perception honestly felt like cheating it seemed so powerful.

10. Ziss Says:
    April 14th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    It’s true, alliance RMP feels so much stronger than horde

11. Whocares Says:
    April 15th, 2008 at 11:45 am

    “OK GUYS, since they’re always killing me first I think I will start in cat form stealth.”

    It’s sad that people go through this game not knowing what it takes to be successful. As frustrating as it is, this druid just didn’t know any better and to him you and your teammate were the problem. Any success he’s seen has strictly been from lucky past partners who’ve carried more than their fair share of the weight. But what can you do? There isn’t any school for how to learn how to pvp with your class. And if there was, then where would there be any room to enjoy playing the way you like?

    So really what is happening is that you have this elite embodiment of skilled players who cash in on mopping the floor with casual arena players just looking to get their games in. In essence, the casual arena rating start at 1100 - 1499, and anyone around 1500 and over should prepare to be squashed by people who do know how to win and are looking to make a new team to sell.

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