We were lucky enough to get a great interview with Corey “Emolol” Ratliff from Gravitas Gaming, better known as Duelist Going for Glad, on the passed ESL tournament which ran the 3.0 patch. It was a very good tournament to give everyone an idea of what we might see in the future from teams as discussed. Enjoy!
Thank you for taking the time to sit down and answer a couple of questions, I know with both school and active WoW tournaments recently it has been busy for you. Anyways, could you just quickly introduce yourself and your team to give the readers an idea of who you are.

My name is Corey Ratliff, and I play rogue for Gravitas Gaming on the team otherwise known as Duelists Going for Glad. My two teammates are DJ “Celex” Roggenkamp and Daniel “Ely” Vulis. I’m currently going to school part time to obtain a certificate in Commercial Arts but i’m not sure if this is what I want to study so i’m considering other majors that have more to do with business so I can pursue a career in e-sports after my time as a professional gamer has expired. I’m also looking for a part time job, but it’s hard to find anything good that offers a flexible schedule that I need for all the traveling.

Ok, so the ESL tournament was this passed weekend, in which your team Gravitas Gaming placed 2nd overall. Going into the tournament you were aware that they were going to use Patch 3.0 for it. What was your initial thought when you heard this, and did you think it would hurt or help your famous RMP makeup?

The large majority of the players at ESL got little to no practice in arenas due to server issues or lag. The main form of practice was basically laggy duels, which really doesn’t give teams much to work with as far as 3v3 strategy, the majority of ideas might of looked good on paper, but would get stomped without practicing execution. Getting used to our new specs was a little difficult, I think Ely forgot to use penance the first few games, Celex missed a bunch of his fireball procs, I wasn’t 100% used to shadowdance binds so I was a little slow with it, I could of used it a little better than I did for sure. Overall we were excited about our comp. with new mage talents and rediculous damage and so much variety in specs for rogues.

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Tags: Interviews · Articles

The Electronic Sports League (ESL) wrapped up yesterday with team SK defeating Gravitas Gaming (Duelist going for glad) in the Finals. From my understanding, both teams ran RMP and it came down to a 3-2 victory, very close final match. For full tournament updates and coverage, visit http://www.esl-world.net/masters/season3/montreal/ .

The one very unique thing about this tournament, is the fact that they used the 3.0.2 patch instead of the 2.4 patch, and you could imagine how things were changed come to certain lineups and play styles. Unfortunately, there is not to much information on the individual matches, but we will try to get an interview setup with some fellow participants and see what we can get out of it.

Tags: News

It has now been a couple days since the patch 3.0.2 release, and it has definitely made an immediate impact on the WoW community. Big topics that have become popular include: Ret Paladins being OP, Glyphs and the balance from class to class, and gaining exp in battlegrounds. I have been able to experience all of these topics, and there is good reason for them being so talked about.

The obvious and probably biggest concern the community has with this patch release is the Retribution Paladin, their ability to put out great amount of damage constantly and being able to heal effectively when needed. Queuing up for arena at the moment is completely different, in the sense that almost every game, no matter what bracket, will seem to have a Ret Paladin. This just isn’t coincidence, it is fact that Paladins are stronger than they probably should be at this time. With that said, there has already been a recent “hotfix”, with the Divine Storm ability (51 point talent) being nerfed in the way that it is now physical damage, instead of magical damage, so armor/shields will now make a difference. These hotfixes are expected to come more and more before the actual release of Wotlk, but right now, the PvP scene seems to be dominated by Ret Paladins. To be fair however, a big point is that blizzard has stated that these patch changes were meant to be balanced at level 80, which is the max level of the expansion, not level 70. However beta players, including myself at blizzcon, still suggest that Ret Paladins are OP even at level 80. I do not think there is any doubt more “hotfixes” will come prior to Wotlk release, but it is just a matter of how much.

Another big discussion is that on Glyphs, and the effect they will have on PvP and whether or not they seem to be balanced right now from class to class. The inscription profession is a great idea, but with such a big addition to the game, comes the good and the bad as well. Although personally, I have not looked in depth into the Glyphs as a whole, I know there has been discussion on whether or not they are balanced. It will be very interesting to see how this profession plays out come Wotlk and whether or not people will be able to live with them the way they are.

Although not the last discussion the community is having, it certainly is a big one. With the release of Warhammer Online, there were several features that it had that made you wonder why WoW had not implemented them into their own game yet. With that said, WoW has now added experience gain in battlegrounds, along with being able to queue up from anywhere in the near future. A big argument that players have with this however, is that it ruins the twink play in battlegrounds. Basically, twinks are characters that would be at the high end of a certain level bracket, and have the best gear attainable at that level with the best enchants as well. The twink community is a decent size, and it can be fun for any player to create one just to have fun on the side, but with gaining exp in battlegrounds, they will eventually level and ruin the point of a twink. A suggestion that has been thrown around is the ability to turn on and off exp gain in battlegrounds, so a player can choose. We will see if blizzard decides to implement this as well.

Tags: General · Articles

Wrath of the Lich King is just around the corner, and with this exciting new expansion, comes an exciting new environment for pvp as well. Today is the release of patch 3.0, and it will change the pvp scene we have all experienced over the passed two years. All of the FOTM lineups such as 2.5, RMP, Druid/Warrior, will most likely become much less effective in the weeks to come. We will most likely see new lineups emerge from no where, with new specs such as Retribution, Enhancement, Feral. We will also experience a new class addition in Deathknight come the expansion release. Change always has its good and bad sides, however, these changes are most likely for the better in the long run. It will give a chance to those who want a fresh start with the pvp scene, and as far as I am concerned, everyone is on a level playing field starting today.

With the exciting new changes here and more to come, pvpsource is also proud to present a fresh new start with Wrath of the Lich King. We will look to upkeep much more effective and bring back our old content many of you enjoyed, along with new content soon to be announced. A new look is just around the corner, so please, sit tight, and be ready for a great informative site to help all level of players in this new expansion, as we know we are ready to deliver it.

(I do apologize for the lack of well, any updates what-so-ever on the site and thank you to those continuously visiting us!)

Tags: Site

These are changes that should be in the next beta push.
Orc
- Hardiness now reduces the duration of stun effects by 15%

Troll
- Racial Passive “The Voodoo Shuffle”: Reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%. Trolls be flippin’ out mon!

- Berserking: no longer has an activation cost of energy/rage/etc

Draenei
- Gift of the Naaru: The amount healed is increased based on the caster’s Spell Power or Attack Power, whichever is higher. This ability does not lose casting time from taking damage.

- Shadow Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 2%

Dwarf
- Frost Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Frost spells by 2%

- Racial Passive “Mace Specialization”: Expertise with Maces and Two-Handed Maces increased by 5.

Undead
- Shadow Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 1% (yes, this is lower than the other resistance racials)

- Will of the Forsaken: removes any fear, sleep, or charm effect (no longer has a lasting immunity).

Night Elf
- Quickness: reduces the chance to be hit by melee or ranged attacks by 2%

- Nature Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Nature spells by 3%

Tauren
- Endurance: now scales based on base health, to be tuned to approximately a 5% heath increase if the player were wearing green quality gear

- Nature Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Nature spells by 2%

Gnome
- Escape Artist: the freeing effect can no longer be resisted

- Arcane Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by Arcane spells by 2%

Blood Elf
- Mana Tap: ability removed (partially integrated into Arcane Torrent)

- Arcane Torrent: restores 15 energy, 15 runic power, or 6% of mana to the Blood Elf (along with the current 2s silence effect)

- Magic Resistance: reduces the chance to be hit by spells by 2%

Human
- Perception: changed to a passive, now grants one character level of passive stealth detection

- Racial “The Fall of Humanity”: Feign death which may trick enemies into ignoring you. Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect. 5min cooldown

- Racial Passive “Human Supremacy”: The dominance of Humanity is evidenced by having one more racial bonus than normal. Actually, make that two counting this one. (just a tooltip, no actual functionality)

- The Human Spirit: spirit bonus lowered to 5%

Note: this is a list of changes/additions, not an exhaustive list of all abilities. Racial abilities not mentioned here haven’t changed.

Tags: PvP · News