We have all heard of the quad-box shaman 5v5 team. We have all heard of them, but we never really saw anything like this, this, or this. Quad boxing is the “art” of controlling four computers (or four instances of WoW) to achieve the same result. In this case, the result is insane burst. Capslockcrew, known as one of the best 5s team, went up with a quad box shaman team and lost 3-2. This might seem surprising, until you think that only a few of them need to really get off some spells to kill something. In these games, even though they lasted a few minutes, you have to realize that it didn’t take that long for someone on the opposing team to die. The trick with quad boxing is, you have to not only manage your different characters abilities, but also when to trinket, etc.. when one gets CC’d. Quad boxing, even though some might deny it, does take some level of skill.

Should quad boxing be permitted in arenas? I’m not really one to say. Of course it sucks to lose to a team like that when you are someone like Capslockcrew, but then again the quad boxer has put a lot of time and effort into leveling and gearing his four different characters. Even though it sucks to go up against a quad boxer, I don’t think they should be illegal. It does show, however, that the state of fives isn’t what it used to be, and that threes have become the more competitive bracket.

Speaking of 3v3s, recently I have been noticing some really interesting comps on the ATR. I came up against several comps with a feral druid, and even had a fluke where we lost against a Warrior/Feral Druid/Resto Shaman, due to us just being terrible. They were a decent team, and with MS and pummel, they pulled it off really well, however we went on to beat them a few times before we stopped queuing for the night. The ATR really gives everyone a chance to experiment, and it is really interesting what one can pull off to a competitive level. No doubt these Feral Druid teams have been influenced by our high success of our late Feral Druid/UA Lock/Disc Priest team, which we brought to 2000+ on the ATR before we dropped it to play a more competitive comp (Lock/Druid/Rogue).

The first day of the tourney, we decided to try out Resto Shammy/Ret Pally/Warrior and we won to a degree. With none of us actually playing that comp (or the classes) competitively before, I think we did decent. We came up against, and lost to, both Neilyo and Zeckz. We weren’t exactly expecting us to get matched up against them, but being the first day of the tournament, it is bound to happen. We will be playing both a Resto Shaman/Ret Pally/Warrior and a Holy Pally/Warrior/Rogue comp in the upcoming days of the Tournament. We have played multiple comps up to a high rating, and even classes we have absolutely no experience with, and it really opens your eyes to what is possible. It takes time to learn a new class, but once you have the basics down, you can at least compete with the best. We can only wait to see what the ATR is to bring in the future, and where our teams will bring us. See you on the ATR!

Tags: Rants

New rules on season 4 gear was released today, wishuluck from our forums summed it up well. You can join the discussion here!

New Rating Rules:

1) If a character’s personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating. This means that a player cannot join a highly rated team and begin earning points based purely on the pre-established rating of the team before they joined it. They’ll need to compete, improve, and gain a personal rating worthy of the points they would receive.

2) If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating. This means that players cannot join a highly rated team and immediately face highly rated opponents, easily and quickly bringing their personal rating up. Instead they’ll need to again compete, improve, and earn their rating.
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Tags: PvP · News

Hey everyone, my name is Ryan, but you can call me Ross. I’m new around these parts, and I am still getting the hang of professional blogging, but things seem to be going well so far. Hopefully you will see quite a lot of me posting around here, I hope to stick around for a while. I am an aspiring professional gamer, mostly playing WoW for the moment but I also play other games, RTS being my other favorite genre. For now though, enough about me, lets focus on a little WoW.

With the ATR, the S2 gear, and obviously the access to PvE gear, things on the ATR can get really interesting. Fights vary from being just the same comps over and over again, and (in my experience) the different styles of players really makes you think on your feet. Recently, we have been playing many different comps. From Feral Druid/UA Lock/Disc Priest to DLR and Pally/Rogue/Warrior, we get to see a wide range of play. Experiencing the different classes for yourself and seeing what their weaknesses are, is a very interesting experience. There has been PTRs in the past where we were able to do some arenas, but it was never the competitive play that it is now. Playing a Warlock and a Pally to competitive levels really opens your eyes to different comps weaknesses and strengths.

Currently we are rolling the Pally/Rogue/Warrior with a high rate of success. We like to think that we can bring this pretty far, but their are some weaknesses with a pally healer. Sure BoP and Freedom are both really nice, but when you come up against teams with a Druid and a Lock (which are a very large part of the comps on the TR) things get very difficult. It is hard to burst down a good Druid, and with a Lock fearing you… things can get very messy, very fast. We do manage to kill the Druid most of the time, however if he manages to survive, things become a hassle.

Being alliance and having the access to all the PvE gear does help our team tremendously, and with the beginning of the tournament starting soon, we hope to see some really fun games. Hopefully we see more people innovating, and making teams like our 2000+ Feral Druid/UA Lock/Disc Priest team, people who can break out of the box and compete with something that no one thought was possible. Look forward to more posts from me in the future, and have fun on the ATR!

Tags: Site · Rants

Hazek has made a new voice commentary video for your viewing pleasure which you can find here.

It was very well done and shouldn’t be missed!

Tags: Rants

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