Recently we have been playing the super scrub double healer team. I don’t like playing a Paladin so, I have been playing my Shaman and, I have to say, we have been owning it up. With Xut on his Priest, with mana burn, we don’t have many hard counters. The only comp that really annoys me is other double healer teams (and god damn DLL, which I am seeing more and more of, or some other drain team). Then it becomes some sort of pillar humpfest that lasts forever. Despite having only one DPS, with a Warrior we can still pull off decent burst, especially with me on a Shaman.

I know an hour arena game isn’t long compared to others, but with me on a Resto Shaman vs. a Disc Priest, you can understand why it went on so long. If he didn’t leave I could have seen it going on for much longer. The entire game was full of pillar hugging and the Priest fearing/mana burning me. With that being even possible, makes me think the state of WoW is something that currently, without some big changes, can’t really be an esport. WoW would be really interesting as a major sport, but with the problems that it has right now are preventing it from being taken seriously. I don’t believe WoW can ever achieve the status of a game like StarCraft, for example. While WoW can have its moments, having a tourney decided just upon the others comp, kind of ruins the fun. Blizzard only seems to be getting further and further away from making wow an esport, and that in a way really saddens me.

Rolling Double Healer Warrior lets me take advantage of all the PvE gear on the ATR. This is one scenario when I will actually take advantage of the PvE gear available. I believe that PvE gear might not be applicable for every comp, but depending what you are rolling on the ATR, it can be a huge benefit. I like having that extra +heal, and those set bonuses, if I feel like using them. I feel that it was a great idea for Blizzard to implement PvE gear on the ATR, and hope they follow suit for future tournaments.

I feel that Blizzard sometimes makes terrible decisions about what exactly is balance. Blizzard nerfing things for no reason doesn’t help the game go in the direction they seem to want it to. Renataki’s as an example, was never a huge deal. I can see that they don’t want you to need to get pre-bc gear to be competitive, but by no means was that the case here. Of course it was a decent trinket, however, the need to nerf it again to 20 energy is just stupid. Sometimes it seems that Blizzard has no idea where they want this game to go, and other times, it seems that they have these goals of getting WoW to be a major esport, but fail to do anything to help it out. I honestly don’t know whether it is that Blizzard is completely incompetent, or that their Devs like to favor some classes.

Balance isn’t something that Blizzard seems to look at carefully. Randomly nerfing gear and abilities isn’t how you fix the game. Not every scrub on the forums QQing about a perfectly fine ability is right. I wonder if Blizzard really plays their own game sometimes, with all the random nerfs, and the unneeded changes to classes and gear.

We will continue to try out different comps, and cry over balance on the ATR. We are playing a few comps seriously, but we are also still trying out some new things. Look forward to new articles about me getting owned by imba Locks, and about me attempting to play a Resto Shaman.

Tags: Rants

13 Responses to “Double Healer GO!!”

1. Swift Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

   What the hell was this article about? Or was it just some sort of rambling Arena brainstorm?

2. warlfg Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 1:14 pm

   Swift: I was just posting about my experience playing different comps and what I think of WoW Arena. Expect a video and maybe some interviews soon.

3. Xxlr Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

   To be honest man its really simple why Blizzard dosnt want to refine it to the point of an esport. If it revolved around lvl 70 arena then sales on there expansions would dramatically drop for those who only play for the arena. And you may say well thats wrong people will just keep there 70’s and reroll or lvl other alts to 80.. but once they get to 80 on that character are they really gonna be playin 70 arenas and not 80’s ? Then every rule every league and every tournament will have to totally revamp its self and virtually support a new game. Which sponsors would lose out and it would basically be competition of blizzard vs blizzard and it would nt be good for there business. Its just something that isnt solid enough to be a sponsored esport.

4. warlfg Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

   Xxlr: Well, that happens in every other competitive game too. There are always new games coming out that take the place of previous competitive games. Just look at Brawl and SC2, both SC and Melee were (and still are) very popular esports. They were both replaced/are being replaced. This is just something that happens in gaming, and it isn’t bad for the company, just makes things a little difficult sometimes.

   I don’t think it is Blizzard not wanting this game to be an esport, just look at the ATR. There wouldn’t be much reason for that if they were trying to limit the competitive play. WoW has the grounds for an esport, but needs major changes before competitive play can really exist in the World of Warcraft.

5. Spenser Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

   Some interviews would be awesome

   I’d like to think that many of the pre-expansion balance changes are to compensate for the changes coming when Wrath hits shelves. We have to remember that without Blizzard, esports wouldn’t be where they are today (SC, WC3, etc) although I agree that WoW is inherently not geared for the competitive market based on the key game mechanics that are apparent in a MMORPG.

   I have faith in Blizzards balance team although they’re facing a different animal economically with WoW as opposed to it’s RTS counterparts. For example, if they buff UD or Zerg and someone quits from it, they’ve already got their money. With WoW, however, someone may leave from a balance change which is a steady income Blizzard is no longer receiving. I wonder if they worry about that on occasion.

   Interested discussion though

6. Xxlr Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

   Yah but.. there seperate games not the same is what im getting at. Same thing happened with Counterstrike 1.6 and source. There seperate games. You see what i mean? What would happen right now is sponsors would pay or offer what ever they offer for people competing in lvl 70 arena. So people then depending on the lvl of league would be obligated to play lvl 70 arenas and not lvl 80 arenas. So blizzard would then be losing out on there lvl 80 content and it would catch on extremely slowly.

   And i agree 100% arena could be an esport. Its an amazing source of teamwork strategy and execution. Not any one can just step into a 2000+ role and be successful, now some classes and combos make it easier but regardless it takes skill that not everyone has.

7. warlfg Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

   Spenser: It makes me think that Blizzard might be “afraid” to take some risks that can potentially make WoW a much better game. They might be too set in their comfort zone to do anything out of the box. I don’t know how wise it is to make changes for the expansion before it hits the shelves, at least not until right before (patch 2.0, etc..). Making something for level 80s months before you will actually play them, isn’t the smartest thing to do, IMO.

   Xxlr: I don’t believe WoW will become two separate games, just because it isn’t practical on several levels. You are right that it does take a level of skill, but for the most part skill comes with time. Without being able to practice consistently (something that really won’t be possible) I don’t think a level 70 arena can survive. Of course it would screw things up for a while when WoTLK comes out, but I believe that Blizzard should be able to deal with those problems when they arise.

8. Anonymous Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

   What is this blasphemy?
   Where are my mudkipz and CP?

9. Durden Says:
   April 25th, 2008 at 6:02 am

   Rather seem some tips and/or something constructive articles. If I wanted to read someone’s rant/whine about blizzard and balance I could go read the 55 posts up on the wow forums.

10. Glave Says:
    April 25th, 2008 at 9:34 am

    @Warlfg
    You were all over the place with this article. It’s annoying to read something that bounces from one topic to the next and then back again. Shoot for more organization next time please.

11. Xxlr Says:
    April 25th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    LoL @Glave and other.. it wasnt all over the place ? Its all about inbalance and how blizzard is shooting themselves in the foot for it.

12. warlfg Says:
    April 25th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    Sorry this was more general than you like. I will have some more interesting articles coming up in the future. Thanks for the read and comments though.

13. Anonymous Says:
    April 25th, 2008 at 6:39 pm

    @ Durden & Glave

    QQ more.

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