Earlier this morning, I was really thinking hard about how I can become a better player. Realizing that I dig into things way to much and need to take a step back and play every 1.5 seconds better. It may sound like the brain has to do a lot there, but really it’s easier than it looks.

Since the beginning of the season, when we first started playing together, strategies were incredibly difficult with our comp. Those of you that may not know, it’s Hazek(Hunter) and Kielo/Phuuphom(warlock), and myself, the druid! Coming up with strategies for certain comps that you play is one thing, but becoming a better player on your own level is a whole different thing. I’ll try to explain this the best I can, but it’s some what hard.

I guess I will just list off some things that will hopefully take you from where you are now to the next level. First thing you want to do is understand every single class in the game. Spells, abilities, cooldowns you name it. Take advantage of everything, know what’s coming and know what you can do with it. For example, a hunter… By the time you see you are facing a hunter, you should already have your strategy in place for what you, yourself are going to do. Depending on your class obviously.

We were on the ATR 2 nights ago and we came across a mage/lock/druid team. We beat them both times with ease. Not to brag about it, but simply because each of us knew exactly how to beat them. Based on what specs they were and what spells we knew they could do. I’d love to tell you guys all of our strategies, because I know they are very good and could be helpful, but my team would kill me! But I’ll just give you this one as an example of using the smallest part of the basic game that some people forget. We played them on Lordaeron both games. Once Hazek saw the comp we were playing he laughed… He knows how to beat that team the moment he sees them. On vent, Hazek says “Draining mage”. You’d be amazed at how serious he was about his comment. He did just that, the whole game… that’s it. He knew that they could only last for so long before the mages mana was gone. Kielo, as a soul link warlock, won’t die with HoTs on him. So me and Hazek just sat in the starting zone with each other taking zero damage while Kielo spams them with dots and mana drains. Hazek comes out only to viper then comes back to me while I keep HoTs on Kielo. Simply enough, the most basic idea in the game made it an easy win.

I don’t know about the rest of the community and how they play, but sometimes you have to start with the basics to improve your play. Most teams with our setup would have tried to do the same thing, but they would fight giving a chance for a death on the hunter or the druid. Just take a step back and look what you have to play with and what you have to do. It’s easier than it looks in most cases. Not that its SIMPLE, but easier than you may make it out to be.

In the end, you should have your own idea how to beat every class 1v1. Although you may never win versus some classes, like myself vs a soul link lock, you need to find a way to make yourself as efficient as possible. Warriors going for a 2k mortal strike and taking a 1000 damage from a fireball isn’t worth it if they are going to live. It becomes a math game, and if you can shield reflect that 1000 damage it’s better. Little things like this can change the game for you. Learn how to make yourself more efficient and take advantage of the easy stuff. Don’t be in LOS if you don’t need to. Drink when your out of combat. Many other things are on the table, but learn what you can do.

Tags: General · Articles

Well, I hope that you guys use this spell with abolish because you can cure poisons extremely fast. Unfortunately, we don’t have cure poison on the ATR, that is if you are a tauren. You silly night elves get it, but horde, nope. I decided to make a petition because maybe they were unaware of this. And magically they were unaware. I got a forum post from a Community Manager and everything. I also made a ticket in game and this is the part that scares me. I really appreciate their help, but check this out…

“Greetings Sean,

Thank you for contacting the World of Warcraft Game Master Department and for bringing this matter to our attention.

Unfortunately, we were unable to provide the restoration you have requested. Please remember that restoration is not always guaranteed. There are times where restoration is not possible. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have been caused.

For further information please check our Restoration Policy located at (http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20457)

Thank you again for contacting us. We hope you continue to enjoy your experience in World of Warcraft!

Regards,

Sheritarl
Specialist
Blizzard Entertainment
www.worldofwarcraft.com”

So I guess my restoration request was denied… el oh el.

Tags: Rants

As promised, Blizzard has extended the practice time:

With the first round of qualification for the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament underway, we wanted to provide a schedule for the remainder of this qualifier and details on what each of the phases entails.

Phase 1 - The Practice Phase – Currently active and completes on April 22, 2008

* There is no penalty for changing your team and you are free to move teams around.
* At the end of this phase all arena team ratings will be reset to 1500 during maintenance.

Phase 2 - The Competition Phase – Active from April 22, 2008 to May 6, 2008

* Every team will be reset to a 1500 rating and official rankings begin.
* There will be a 150 team rating penalty for any player added to an arena team.
* At the end of this phase all arena teams will be locked down and players will not be able to switch characters from arena teams.
* Registration will also close at the end of this phase.

Phase 3 – The Final Phase – Active from May 6, 2008 to May 20, 2008

* Registration is closed for this phase of qualification.
* Players are no longer allowed to switch arena teams during this phase.
* At the end of the phase, the top 4 rated teams from the Battlegroup will be invited to the regional qualifier if they meet all eligibility requirements.
* Eligible teams must have played a minimum of 200 games during Phases 2 and 3 to be able to qualify to advance to the regional qualifier.
* Each team member must have participated in 30% of their team’s games to be eligible to qualify.

First Qualification Round Schedule for North America:

* Phase 1 ends and Phase 2 begins: April 22, 2008
* Phase 2 ends and Phase 3 begins: May 6, 2008
* Phase 3 and the first Qualifier ends: May 20, 2008

- Bornakk

Tags: PvP · News

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

As we all know, the further away we are from a server the more we lag - hence Australia players struggle with high ping when playing on our servers. I was surprised to discover unusual high ping playing on the ATR, 260-290 ping when Tichondrius gives me 80-120. At first I thought it was just the realm lagging from too many users, which was understandable. However after further investigation, I found that people playing from the east coast are getting ping as low as 40! This leads me to conclude that the servers are located on east coast, seeing how my other west coast friends are all suffering from high ping.

If you have played a melee class, you should know the difference between 50 and nearly 300 ping - it’s huge. Not only does it make it much harder to stick on Druids, it messes with your stunlock timing as well as interrupts like Kick. After Shadow Stepping only to get sent further behind a moving target for the 5th time, I’m forced to question blizzard’s decision on not setting the arena server to a more ‘fair’ location, such as central / mountain zone.

One man’s misfortune is another’s fortune, for those that are located at the east coast, this is perhaps the best time to shine. Many BG9 servers were located on west coast and those east coast players have been playing under 200+ ping the whole time. Now the tables have turned and unfortunately for the west coast, at a time that matters the most. With most decent teams hovering around 1750 - 1850, I wasn’t surprised to find the following screenshot. Aside from the long queue time, it is obvious that the rating is impressive as well. I don’t want to take any credit away from them, but last time I checked they were located on east coast…

Tags: Rants