No, that isn't a 3v3 arena team. Though it could work decently, I guess. It'd be better if we got a Rogue or a Hunter to replace the.. um.. well, the Moonkin.
I've been working on leveling two of my least favorite classes to PvP against - a Frost Mage, and a Shadow Priest. So here are my current impressions:
Frost Mage
Frost Mages are gods of control. No one gets close to them, thanks to a permanent uptime of chills and the frequent freezes. What makes them quite overpowered, however, is not just the control - it's that controlling their target goes hand in hand with bursting them down, thanks to talents like Shatter and Fingers of Frost.
Survivability is also amazing. Blink, Ice Barrier, Ice Block, and Mana Shield guarantee that it will be a while before I die, so long as I have mana. My Mage is a Gnome, so I have extra mana, and a racial to make me even harder to catch.
Shadow Priest
Shadow Priests are a bit less about control, and more about melting faces. I kill mobs my level simply by applying DoTs and wanding, and there are still a few seconds to go on both SW:P and Devouring Plague when the mob dies. 1v1 PvP is ridiculously easy - keep PW:S up, apply DoTs, cast Psychic Scream, cast Mind Blast, spam Mind Flay. You dead yet? Yeah you are.
Mana was an issue at the lower levels - I'd have to drink every 1-2 pulls, despite Spirit Tap. Attacking two mobs at the same time meant almost certain OOM-induced death. Now, however, my mana is much better thanks to the Replenishment effect. Health is never an issue - Improved Vampiric Embrace is way overpowered.
Versus Moonkin
The gameplay is quite different, that's for sure. My Moonkin's PvE control is fine, mostly thanks to Typhoon and Entangling Roots. However, my PvP control with the Mage or Priest is much, much higher. It feels so good to Counterspell / Silence some poor fellow trying to heal.
That being said, it all does feel a bit awkward - mostly because I am so used to playing as a Moonkin. When my health is plummeting, my reflex is to shapeshift the hell out of there while spamming HoTs on myself. When I am getting close to dying on either of my alts, I feel a rising sense of panic - usually, I've no idea what the hell to do.
Not being able to heal on my Mage feels dangerous, as I haven't yet been accustomed to their way of surviving: controlling their opponent to death, mainly.
I can heal on the Priest, yet the style is different and also feels bizarre. If Psychic Scream and my bubble are gone and on cooldown, I feel at a loss. There is some strange force that makes me hate dropping out of Shadowform to Renew or Flash Heal - definitely not a problem I have on my Druid. But we will see how it turns out at end game, when I have more survivability talents and Dispersion.
All in all, I still stay true to what I've said before. Mages and Priests are overpowered. They might not be downright facerolling classes, but they are very, very complete classes. They have all of the tools they need to melt faces, and more.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The Alliance in battlegrounds, pt. 2
Part 1 is here.
A few weeks ago I wrote about the terrible state of Alliance PvP. I described it purely from the point of view of Random Battlegrounds - no premades included. The conclusion was that the Alliance performed dreadfully in RBGs. I explored some reasons as to why that might be, but arrived to no certain explanation.
But, as it turns out, there's a very simple reason.
Population outside the battleground
There are more Hordes on my server than Allies. In fact, it seems this may be true of most existing servers. This causes Hordes to have longer (sometimes much longer) queue times for RBGs. Getting into a battleground on the Alliance side is a matter of clicking the queue button - the invitation is almost always instant. My guildmate, on the other hand, tells me that he must sometimes wait 30 minutes to get into a battleground on his Horde alt.
This difference causes Hordes to perform better than Allies. If an Ally loses, he knows he can just re-queue and immediately try again. A Horde, on the other hand, has to make it count. They will try harder - simply because they don't get as many attempts. They've already waited 30 minutes to get into the damn battleground, so they're not about to let Allies win so easily.
Population inside the battleground
The population outside the battleground also affects the population inside it. More Hordes outside means more Hordes inside - there's always a full queue of Hordes ready to go, but not necessarily so for Allies. Furthermore, Allies are more prone to ignoring the battleground invite, seeing as they might have started something new and figure they'll just queue again in a few minutes. Hordes won't do this as much, because they are subject to the whims of the queue.
Population inside the battleground can mean different things, the first of which is total imbalance. Too bad I deleted my screenshot of an Alterac Valley with only 6 Alliance players versus 40 Hordes, because it would have been perfect here. Though that particular example might be a little extreme, other numbers such as 20 v. 40 are actually quite common on my realm. This sort of imbalance obviously impairs the Alliance side - by the time more players stream in, Hordes are already defending all our towers and camping us at our base.
On the other hand, this phenomenon only happens in high-population battlegrounds - namely, Alterac Valley. Although 10 v. 15 Arathi Basins or Eyes of the Storm might also occur from time to time, smaller battlegrounds are usually full, which puts Allies back on a more level ground.
Population inside the battleground implies something else, as well. This time, however, I am not talking about the total amount of players that happen to be in the group, but the maximum amount. More players mean that it is easy for the small amount of good players to get lost in the cacophony of the poorer players. In small BGs, however, it takes just 1 or 2 good players to turn the tide of the entire game. I consider myself a good player, and because lately I've taken the habit of queuing with a few other players (usually 1-3), we've ended up winning about 80% of every battleground that is not Alterac Valley.
Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch
For three days, the Call to Arms battleground was WSG. During that period of time, I earned an insane amount of honor - everyone queued for WSG, including myself and friends, and we only lost maybe 1 match out of every 10 we played.
It didn't really matter whether the rest of our team was good - of course, it helped, but it wasn't as necessary as in bigger battlegrounds. I usually ran the flag - for all my talk about how Moonkin survivability is sh*t, I still like to carry the flag. I have 30.8k health unbuffed, 1300 resilience, and unless you put me against a Death Knight or a Frost Mage, I am very good at kiting/escaping (aren't all Druids?), so it works out alright - especially when I have a Disci Priest friend on my back and a MM Hunter keeping everyone off my back.
The only times we would lose was when a low-geared player would try to carry the Horde flag while the rest of our group would ignore our own flag being easily carried to the enemy base. (By the way, I have nothing against players with low-level gear, but if you're one of those players you should be playing support).
Conclusion
Anyways, all this to say that the main problem of Alliance battlegrounds is population. The players themselves aren't really that bad - not worse than Horde players, anyway. They just have the disadvantage of less people (or the advantage, whichever way you want to see it (faster queues)).
A few weeks ago I wrote about the terrible state of Alliance PvP. I described it purely from the point of view of Random Battlegrounds - no premades included. The conclusion was that the Alliance performed dreadfully in RBGs. I explored some reasons as to why that might be, but arrived to no certain explanation.
But, as it turns out, there's a very simple reason.
Population outside the battleground
There are more Hordes on my server than Allies. In fact, it seems this may be true of most existing servers. This causes Hordes to have longer (sometimes much longer) queue times for RBGs. Getting into a battleground on the Alliance side is a matter of clicking the queue button - the invitation is almost always instant. My guildmate, on the other hand, tells me that he must sometimes wait 30 minutes to get into a battleground on his Horde alt.
This difference causes Hordes to perform better than Allies. If an Ally loses, he knows he can just re-queue and immediately try again. A Horde, on the other hand, has to make it count. They will try harder - simply because they don't get as many attempts. They've already waited 30 minutes to get into the damn battleground, so they're not about to let Allies win so easily.
Population inside the battleground
The population outside the battleground also affects the population inside it. More Hordes outside means more Hordes inside - there's always a full queue of Hordes ready to go, but not necessarily so for Allies. Furthermore, Allies are more prone to ignoring the battleground invite, seeing as they might have started something new and figure they'll just queue again in a few minutes. Hordes won't do this as much, because they are subject to the whims of the queue.
Population inside the battleground can mean different things, the first of which is total imbalance. Too bad I deleted my screenshot of an Alterac Valley with only 6 Alliance players versus 40 Hordes, because it would have been perfect here. Though that particular example might be a little extreme, other numbers such as 20 v. 40 are actually quite common on my realm. This sort of imbalance obviously impairs the Alliance side - by the time more players stream in, Hordes are already defending all our towers and camping us at our base.
On the other hand, this phenomenon only happens in high-population battlegrounds - namely, Alterac Valley. Although 10 v. 15 Arathi Basins or Eyes of the Storm might also occur from time to time, smaller battlegrounds are usually full, which puts Allies back on a more level ground.
Population inside the battleground implies something else, as well. This time, however, I am not talking about the total amount of players that happen to be in the group, but the maximum amount. More players mean that it is easy for the small amount of good players to get lost in the cacophony of the poorer players. In small BGs, however, it takes just 1 or 2 good players to turn the tide of the entire game. I consider myself a good player, and because lately I've taken the habit of queuing with a few other players (usually 1-3), we've ended up winning about 80% of every battleground that is not Alterac Valley.
Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch
For three days, the Call to Arms battleground was WSG. During that period of time, I earned an insane amount of honor - everyone queued for WSG, including myself and friends, and we only lost maybe 1 match out of every 10 we played.
It didn't really matter whether the rest of our team was good - of course, it helped, but it wasn't as necessary as in bigger battlegrounds. I usually ran the flag - for all my talk about how Moonkin survivability is sh*t, I still like to carry the flag. I have 30.8k health unbuffed, 1300 resilience, and unless you put me against a Death Knight or a Frost Mage, I am very good at kiting/escaping (aren't all Druids?), so it works out alright - especially when I have a Disci Priest friend on my back and a MM Hunter keeping everyone off my back.
The only times we would lose was when a low-geared player would try to carry the Horde flag while the rest of our group would ignore our own flag being easily carried to the enemy base. (By the way, I have nothing against players with low-level gear, but if you're one of those players you should be playing support).
Conclusion
Anyways, all this to say that the main problem of Alliance battlegrounds is population. The players themselves aren't really that bad - not worse than Horde players, anyway. They just have the disadvantage of less people (or the advantage, whichever way you want to see it (faster queues)).
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Twinking at level 1
Level 1 twinks have been intriguing me ever since I saw Roskmeg's LevelOneTwink's channel on YouTube, advertising his guild for level 1 twinks only.
I made a Human Rogue (might change to Night Elf Rogue for the +5 extra agility). High agility at level 1 gives ridiculous crit chance and dodge. Here's my wishlist:
Head: Ruby Shades.
Neck: Voice Amplification Modulator.
Shoulder: Stained Shadowcraft Spaulder.
Back: Wispy Cloak. Enchant: Lesser Agility.
Chest: Stained Shadowcraft Tunic Enchant: Greater Stats.
Wrist: Cracked Leather Bracers. Enchant: Superior Stamina.
Hands: Cracked Leather Gloves Enchant: Superior Agility.
Waist: Squealer's Belt.
Legs: Haliscan Pantaloons. Enchant: Rugged Armor Kit.
Feet: Cracked Leather Boots. Enchant: Lesser Accuracy.
Trinket: 2x Arena Grand Master.
Main hand: Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge. Enchant: Lifestealing or Unholy Weapon.
Off hand: Sharpened Scarlet Kris. Enchant: Agility.
Ranged: Charmed Ancient Bone Bow. Enchant: Standard Scope.
Professions:
Herbalism 150 for Lifeblood, and Skinning 150 for Master of Anatomy. And, of course, First Aid for the Mageweave Bandages.
Consumables:
Rumsey's Rum Black Label.
Rough Sharpening Stone.
Elixir of Lion's Strength.
Weak Troll's Blood Elixir.
Scroll of Agility.
Because stats are calculated so differently at level 1, the enchants make my Rogue a very formidable opponent, considering the level. In full Agility gear, I can already reach 50% physical damage mitigation (and that's without the shoulder heirlooms), 77% dodge, and 50% critical strike chance. In full Stamina gear, I'm currently close to 500 health, without the Gurubashi trinkets (which would give +240 HP).
In my "compromise" gear, which is the one sacrificing a bit of stamina and agility for hit rating, I have +6 hit rating, which at level 1 is the equivalent of a little over 15% hit chance.
I've dueled some players and so far I have beaten several level 10-15s, as well as a level 20 Warrior. Too bad there's no battleground bracket for 1-9!
I made a Human Rogue (might change to Night Elf Rogue for the +5 extra agility). High agility at level 1 gives ridiculous crit chance and dodge. Here's my wishlist:
Head: Ruby Shades.
Neck: Voice Amplification Modulator.
Shoulder: Stained Shadowcraft Spaulder.
Back: Wispy Cloak. Enchant: Lesser Agility.
Chest: Stained Shadowcraft Tunic Enchant: Greater Stats.
Wrist: Cracked Leather Bracers. Enchant: Superior Stamina.
Hands: Cracked Leather Gloves Enchant: Superior Agility.
Waist: Squealer's Belt.
Legs: Haliscan Pantaloons. Enchant: Rugged Armor Kit.
Feet: Cracked Leather Boots. Enchant: Lesser Accuracy.
Trinket: 2x Arena Grand Master.
Main hand: Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge. Enchant: Lifestealing or Unholy Weapon.
Off hand: Sharpened Scarlet Kris. Enchant: Agility.
Ranged: Charmed Ancient Bone Bow. Enchant: Standard Scope.
Professions:
Herbalism 150 for Lifeblood, and Skinning 150 for Master of Anatomy. And, of course, First Aid for the Mageweave Bandages.
Consumables:
Rumsey's Rum Black Label.
Rough Sharpening Stone.
Elixir of Lion's Strength.
Weak Troll's Blood Elixir.
Scroll of Agility.
Because stats are calculated so differently at level 1, the enchants make my Rogue a very formidable opponent, considering the level. In full Agility gear, I can already reach 50% physical damage mitigation (and that's without the shoulder heirlooms), 77% dodge, and 50% critical strike chance. In full Stamina gear, I'm currently close to 500 health, without the Gurubashi trinkets (which would give +240 HP).
In my "compromise" gear, which is the one sacrificing a bit of stamina and agility for hit rating, I have +6 hit rating, which at level 1 is the equivalent of a little over 15% hit chance.
I've dueled some players and so far I have beaten several level 10-15s, as well as a level 20 Warrior. Too bad there's no battleground bracket for 1-9!
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