Hey everyone, it’s been a few days since my last article here, but hopefully I have something really interesting for you today. I ran into Aesa, a Druid who is currently running Shaman/Druid/Warrior on the ATR. He is a great WoW player and a great guy, and hopefully you will be as excited to hear from him as I was!

Warlfg: Lets start by having you tell everyone a little bit about yourself, and about your time playing WoW.

Aesa: I’m a sophomore at college, I leveled to 60 in vanilla WoW but never really started playing a lot till TBC. I played on Dentarg horde druid Aesa, play Bheegrom on Malganis now.

Warlfg: For those that don’t know, what comps do you usually run in arenas?

Aesa: I play 2v2 in scrubstrike with Rycho, and I’m running shaman/warrior/druid with Limewire and either Errelno/Arcan on the TR. We’re 1880 rated on TR right now which is fairly high though not as well as I was expecting we would be doing.

Warlfg: You said that you expected a higher rating on the TR, is this because it turned out to be more competitive than you thought? What teams do you seem to have difficulty with?

Aesa: Its actually LESS competitive overall than I thought, like most of the BG9 “big names” are extremely over hyped and don’t even come close to beating us, but there are a few teams that are just really keeping us down that we haven’t been able to manage barely any wins at all against. Anyways its still early. So I would say that overall there are a few teams that are extremely good (Hafu’s and Greenranger’s). A bunch of teams that are famous for being extremely good that are actually not that good.

Warlfg: Haha, I have been running into some “famous” WoW players as well. Going up from 1500 my team beat a few well known people very easily just because they weren’t trying. You mentioned Hafu’s team, and I understand how this might be a harder comp, how do you usually approach them?

Aesa: Try not to get mace stunned IMO. I dunno basically our best chance is cleaving the lock gibbing the pet, then dispelling fel dom. Basically being really skillful and training the Warlock the entire game.

Warlfg: Good advice. That can be difficult to achieve sometimes, especially with their team being East Coast. If I might ask, where are you and your teammates located?

Aesa: I actually don’t know where my teammates are. I’ve only played a total of 0 games with Arcan and 7 games with Errelno (or vice versa can’t remember) before we started playing on the TR. Which I think is one of our biggest weaknesses, since other teams have been playing together forever and have their strategy pat down. Anyways I’m in St. Louis.

Warlfg: Being East Coast myself, I notice that I can pull off 20-30 ping on a good day. You aren’t exactly West Coast, but do you notice any latency problems? And what do you think of having the servers at the Boston Data Center?

Aesa: I don’t notice it, but Limewire always blames his ping when he misses a earth shock (its really because he sucks). But seriously though lime is like the best player I know.

Warlfg: It’s almost impossible to get everything perfect on a Shaman, and a missed Earth Shock every once and a while isn’t something to hate yourself about. Anyway, what do you think about recent Druid nerfs? Something needed, or unnecessary?

Aesa: Well, I have two possible answers if Blizzard employees read this, they’re overdone. If not, in all honesty, Druids are still fucking ridiculous best class in the game comparable to Rogues and Warriors right now. So I mean… I’m not surprised at all they got nerfed.

Warlfg: Haha, I have to agree to an extent. I don’t agree that everything they did was the correct action, but I think something needed to be done. Everyone knows that a Druid is a very strong (to say the least) class. This might be a tough question, but what do you, obviously playing a Druid, think needs to be done?

Aesa: Honestly, I’ve been playing this game ever since season 1, and the trinket changes + arena water was huge, but everything else is just minor, top players will still be top players. Even when shadow damage got nerfed by like 20% due to resilience, Warlocks and Shadow Priests still played. I don’t think any Warlock I knew dropped significant rating due to that, and I’m sure everyone can agree that it was a far bigger change than what they did to Druids.

I really don’t care what minor tweaks Blizz does, I’ll still play my Druid, I mean no one ever asks to nerf their own class. Druids ARE really good right now, one thing I think should be nerfed though is that a Druid can roll triple lifebloom on himself when he’s completely OOM with in combat mp5. Overall the recent druid nerfs are minor as hell, not a big deal, top Druids will still be top Druids. I guess if I had to choose Blizz should stop changing things, because all it does it make people mad. It makes 1/9 classes happy and 8/9 classes mad when they buff, when they nerf, it makes 1/9 classes mad and 0/9 classes happy.

Also with the scare beast change, everyone is saying there’s no way its going to go through, its overpowered, but I actually sort of like it. Druids have trouncedHunter teams for 3 seasons running, and seriously, god forbid Hunter teams get the upper hand just once.

Warlfg: Good answer. What comps do you have a lot of trouble with on the TR? And Limewire plays on the ATR as Enhancement? I’m asking because an Enhancement Shaman is something somewhat rare in arena, at least one that is successful.

Aesa: He plays as Resto, last night he tried Enhancement for the first time ever and it was actually surprisingly successful. Hard comps for us are basically anything with a warlock and no Rogue. Yea… Warlock and no Rogue. Warlock/sPriest, Warlock/Warrior, Warlock/Warlock basically. Limewire has always played as Resto although we’re gonna experiment with Enhance while its still week one.

Warlfg: Speaking of Resto Shamans (because I play one) what buffs would you like to see to make them more competent healers in arena? Also, how long would you say that it takes to pick up playing a Resto Druid? Any tips for a noob rolling one, hoping to do decent in arena?

Aesa: I know this is a subject of huge controversy, but I think Limewire seems pretty happy with his class, while I saw Shaman hero Gc say they still need buffs. Personally my opinion from SK Gaming’s 2000+ teams on the TR at the end of practice is that Shaman were the most popular healers (not druids, surprise eh?). That might not be entirely true, but they are definitely holding their own. I think Shaman are fine, like I said I believe most changes Blizz does are pretty minor, the only one I consider really huge was putting arena water in the game which made druids own instead of Paladins who could spam flash forever and not go oom. Iinstead druids could just hot up and drink forever and not go oom.

As for picking up a Resto Druid I dont think its particularly easier or harder than any other class. Basically if you play any other class at 2.2k+ you’ll be able to play your Druid there, if you can’t, you won’t. It really depends on the person a lot too like personally I can switch classes pretty well, I got 2200 with Warrior/Shaman in like 1 week of playing warrior, went 26-0 on TR practice playing Priest in RMP with ZERO 3v3 Priest experience but I also know players that can’t play anything except their main. I would
suggest watching a pvp video to see how top druids play, Sonny or Hafu’s, its not really something I can sum up in even a few pages.

I would say the most important thing is realize that when you have triple lifebloom on yourself no dps is gonna kill you by themselves. I see low rated Druids come out of a kidney shot at like 50% then just go bear and survive awhile until they die instead of just HoTing themselves up.

Warlfg: Speaking of Hafu, what do you think of her as a player? She gets a lot of attention being a successful girl gamer, but I personally think she is one of the best Druids. Reason being, is she was the one that actually suggested you to interview.

Aesa: Obviously she is really good, I feel sorry for her that her comments are always met with “hafu, i’d hit that” and stuff like that from the majority of the WoW community, which no one can deny contains a good amount of people with no social skills.

Warlfg: Hafu seems to be an extremely skilled gamer, I don’t know her too well personally, but she seems to be a nice girl as well. Do you think WoW has a future as a eSport?

Aesa: I think WoW can be as much as an eSport as any other game, but eSports in general are kinda silly. A very small percentage of the world enjoys watching video games as compared to watching soccer, football in the US, etc. A lot of ppl say WoW has a low skill cap, but I consider myself one of the better players, maybe not the best, and I know that I play NOWHERE NEAR perfectly.

Warlfg: Maybe I am just crazy, but I love when there is a SC tourney going on. Alright, thanks for the interview. I don’t want to bore you to death, so before we end this, is there anything else you want to share?

Aesa: Tunnel Defenders owns (my guild).

Warlfg: Haha. Alright, thanks for taking your time and letting me do this interview. Good luck on the ATR!

So that’s it! Aesa was kind enough to spend some of his time to answer my questions. I hope it was an informative interview about the life of a pro gamer. Getting some insight from one of the best was a refreshing experience, and fun to do. Again, have fun on the ATR!

Tags: Interviews

22 Responses to “Interview With Aesa”

1. Phate Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 4:22 pm

   great interview, very well put together

2. Folly Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

   Aesa : )

3. Kaz Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 8:17 pm

   He’s so beast he plays 2 druids. Liar plays warrior/druid to :(.

4. dagnabber Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 8:51 pm

   pretty good

   i do have to say, i notice when a toon is played by a kid or grownup (or an antisocial type)

   not saying ty or just logging without saying why

   Wow can teach some good habits but internet in general can teach mostly bad habits

   i noticed it here so i make the kid go out and play when he’s grounded

   its not how i grew up of course, but i had to adapt

5. Fibby Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

   Aesa is awesome.
   He’s nice and incredibly good looking and he taught me to suck less at my class.

6. Aesa Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

   Yeaaa I type in a stream-of-thought style sooooo I apologize for making this so unreadable for anyone who was expecting proper english =)

7. Healmonkey Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

   Im going to be pro and roll a druid like aesa.

8. Snitchers Says:
   April 29th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

   Really nice article

9. Elimp Says:
   April 30th, 2008 at 12:02 am

   Good read. But this seems abit incoherent thow.

   “Warlfg: Hafu seems to be an extremely skilled gamer, I don’t know her too well personally, but she seems to be a nice girl as well. Do you think WoW has a future as a eSport?”

10. flymachine Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 12:09 am

    worth the wait! want to see your video even more now

11. Uz Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 8:50 am

    It’s always good to see a good player with a proper perspective on class nerfs/buffs. In general, most of the bitching about classes I’ve ever read has been from scrubs looking for excuses… And that being said, OMGPLZ NERF DURIDS.

12. Kirby Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am

    aesa has nothing on kysho lol

    Beast Coil might make me play 2v2 again

13. Nightmonkey Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

    Dentarg represent.

14. Name (required) Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

    Posting because I don’t want to be hated.

15. Anonymous Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 2:25 pm

    IN THE BUTT

16. Not Rice Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 2:37 pm

    E-sport lol!

    More like Druid/Warrior/Warlock/Rogue-sport imo.

17. Toolwars Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    Fookin Aesa

18. Scritty Says:
    April 30th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    Pfft, druids can’t be pro. They’re druids.

19. ish Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 12:54 am

    a fairly nice perspective (if as you quasi-admitted somewhat biased towards your own class :P) on class changes and an interesting read. Plus you said buff hunters (sort of!)

20. Creation Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pm

    Aesa

21. test Says:
    December 10th, 2008 at 11:24 pm

    test

22. Eleonor Bartlone Says:
    June 7th, 2010 at 3:14 am

    Hello there,I like your site and it looks very interesting and easy to read,really!. I am from England. I love the Soccer and cannot wait till 11th June, can you?.But there is a problem camming from FIFA. It is that doesn´t choose the best teams in this planet for the World Cup which it should otherwise don´t call the World Cup a final, if you want to play soccer for the spirit of competition then go to the olympics games. this is basically what the World Cup is turning to, and it su…, ire needed to beat argentina to be in and is not, jap beat lowly teams as bahrain, qatar, kuwait, to be in, is this justice I dont think so, just because you are in the World Cup it doesn´t mean that you have the quality to be in like jap can attes. Any way, I hope to see a interesting final on 11th July and my favorite winner team is Australia,and my favorite player is Cristiano Ronaldo.Good blog and keep going.Cu!

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