Level restrictions hotfixed into Wintergrasp

In an interesting note over the weekend, Bornakk updated the list of recent in-game fixes.

The Wintergrasp PvP zone now has two level restrictions in place:

You must be level 70 or higher to count towards the tenacity tally, obtain the tenacity buff, and get credit for a victory or defeat.
You must be level 50 or higher to be able to use the portal of Wintergrasp.

The immediate implications of this is that players cannot leave a low level alt sitting about collecting honor and Wintergrasp marks before level 70. While I don't know anyone personally who has done this, I have heard it talked about around the intertubes a bit.

For the majority of us however, this change won't have any real effect. Interesting nonetheless. Don't forget that there are several upcoming changes to Wintergrasp in Patch 3.1; including a world wide timer and a new raid boss.

Meetsi of Auchindoun

Holy Paladins are a bit of a hot topic right now. While moment-captured statistics will certainly indicate they have a measure of power in Season 5, this isn't the first time that's happened. Back in Season 1, Holy Paladins were the class-to-have. But as soon as Resilience and mobility became popular in Arena compositions, Holy Paladins became a thing of the past. Even the so-called "lolret" seemed to fare better in the Arena that the plate-wearing healers.

With all the uproar about Holy Paladins right now, it's fair to take a second look at the class and tactics in the weekend Arena column. Meetsi of Auchindoun was kind enough to share his thought on the Arena with us, especially from the perspective of an Arena healer. You might also recognize him as partner to Infractus, from last week.

WoW Insider: What are the strongest points of operating as a Paladin in the Arena?

Meetsi: Paladins have a few advantages in Arena which make them desirable healers, as 49/0/22 they become virtually Stun-immune with Blessing of Freedom greatly increasing survivability against Double-DPS.

Also, Blessing of Sacrifice and BoP lend great survivability to your partners enabling you to save your own bubble. Sacred cleansing ( along with the regular cleanse ) is great for keeping team mates out of CC and reducing damage. It's great for keeping wound off as well.

WoW Insider: What's your opening strategy? What do you like to do as soon as the gate opens?

Meetsi: Our opening strategy generally consists of Infractus rushing in to catch someone out of stealth or get a quick upper hand on someone. Meanwhile, I buff Sacred Shield and judge his target 40 yards away.

WoW Insider: One of the claims about Arena balance is that it will get better as Resilience improves. Have you seen any of that happening? Or do you think that your survivability is reliant on your class choice?

Meetsi: Surviving is about using cooldowns correctly, and going offensive when your CC is up. It's less based on class than it was before in my opinion.

WoW Insider: How do you work out target designation? (Does someone call it out, or is everyone on their own to figure it out?)

Meetsi: I Call strats from the gates, everyone starts on what I call. Then, we argue what's best afterward. There are a few pre-determined things to do based on composition, of course.

WoW Insider: What do you think about the new hidden, personal rating? Does it seem to make the game better or worse to you? Do you consider the hidden rating an unfair penalty to experienced players?

Meetsi: There are advantages and disadvantages to this hidden rating for experienced players. One advantage is that levelling a new team is quick and easy ... like 50 or so games.

But what if I want to play Retributio instead of Holy? First, my gear is nowhere near on par with my Holy gear. And I'm simply not practised. Why should I have to fight 2300 players?

WoW Insider: Did you play in previous seasons? What do you see the differences in the new season being?

Meetsi: I played a Druid in all the other seasons. The main difference I noticed is games are decided a lot quicker and more often by cooldowns.

WoW Insider: What's the key for your composition's strategy? Are there multiple tactics you can use?

Meetsi: We use multiple strats to keep the enemy unaware of what is happening next. If something doesn't work, we try something else in quick succession. We try to limit their time to react. Like, HoJ-ing a DPS and swapping to them quick with a Blood Elf Silence, and then dropping a Hungering Cold on their healer.

WoW Insider: What are you trying to improve?

Meetsi: Personally, I'm trying to improve my timing with Blessing of sacrifice, now that it is like a shield wall for the target, CC break for me, and now on a Two Minute cooldown.

WoW Insider: A lot has been made of healers not having a strong role in Season 5. What do you think about that commentary?

Meetsi: I think its overexaggerated. A lot of healers are still trying to play the complete defensive role they were playing in S2 and S3 and that's the reason they are unsuccessful. You won't last like that. Kill or Be Killed.

WoW Insider: What are you hoping to see improved in 3.1? We've seen some changes, obviously, but there's more to come.

Meetsi: In 3.1, I would like to see the survivability of Rogues go up, Survival Hunter damage go down, and a few tweaks for Warriors.

WoW Insider: What do you think is the significant difference between an "amateur" and a "pro" Arena fighter?

Meetsi: The biggest difference between a mediocre player and a good player is someone who can anticipate exactly the next move of the other arena team. Generally, I can tell you what they are going to do before they do it, meaning I can be ready to react. Instead of waiting for it to happen.

Nostalgia vs. reality

There's an interesting post on the forums that's become a catalogue of what old-time players miss most about classic WoW. While it's become a pretty thorough compilation of iconic moments, there are admissions that, well, maybe some of the stuff that's fun to look back on wasn't actually that much fun at the time. The examples include trying to get past a 40-man raid of the opposite faction into Molten Core, the boredom of raiding as little more than a glorified Decurse-bot, the countless guilds who broke up on Vael, and the fun of Tarren Mill/Southshore PvP that had the ancillary effect of making leveling in Hillsbrad such a nightmarish experience.

I'm seeing the first glimmers of such nostalgia for BC content start to emerge, and hearing a Sunwell PuG advertised as a "fun run" the other day left me speechless for a moment. It's equal parts compelling and unnerving; part of me misses the struggle to down bosses in Tiers 4, 5, and 6, but I also remember ugly M'uru wipefests. Everyone likes looking back on the first boss kill, nobody likes remembering the 45-minute trash respawn timer in SSC, and I like to think that as the game has "grown up," it has also gone resolutely forward.

But then, I'm not an old-school WoW player on the level of these forum posters, and I'm also not sure that the nostalgia for BC content will ever approach that for classic content. Is, say, Black Temple going to be looked upon as fondly as its classic counterparts like AQ40 someday, or is the classic "classic" and irretrievable for a reason?

This is your brain on PvP

Ars Technica has news of a new study that isn't directly World of Warcraft-related, but that does have some pretty obvious applications in Azeroth. By studying the way we play when we believe we're competing against a human and a computer opponent (PvP vs. PvE, in WoW terms), scientists have determined that different parts of the brain are more active when we think we're playing against a human opponent. They call this extra activity "mind-reading," but it's not that supernatural: when we think we're playing a human, we try to put ourselves in their place, and think what they're thinking.

It gets deeper: they even throw gender into the mix, and discovered that male brains seem to be working harder to do this kind of "mind-reading" of the other side. Their conclusion says that that's because women are naturally more empathetic, and thus don't have to work as hard to figure out what another person is thinking. That seems a little general -- it could also mean that the males care more about competition, and thus are working harder to "mind-read," or it could even just be a wrinkle of the way this data was gathered. More research is probably needed on that one -- if women are so great at figuring out their opponents, why aren't we seeing all-female teams winning Arena tournaments?

It would be interesting to know, too, whether there's increased activity in other areas, say pattern recognition or cause-effect centers of the brain, when we're playing against opponents that we know are computers. But this does tell us that there are definitely different skillsets at work when playing PvP or PvE, and why some people might very clearly enjoy one over the other.

New Arena matchmaking system FAQ

This will be like beating on a dead horse or something since Blizzard keeps making posts about it, but Aratil put up a comprehensive FAQ about the new and mysterious Arena matchmaking system. This is probably the most enlightening post of all, and should clear up many questions players have about their ratings versus their performance. It explains why some teams are experiencing drops in personal and team ratings even when they sport winning records.

In a nutshell, the system is continuously trying to place players and teams in the bracket. This means a 50% win ratio, where teams are fighting other teams of equal skill (and thus have an even chance to win or lose). If players get winning records but still drop in ratings, it means that they are beating far inferior teams and the system will adjust their Matchmaking Ratings or MMR to the appropriate level. It is by far the best post about the subject, answering important concerns clearly and without any smoke and mirrors. The way Aratil explains it shows how the new system is superior to the old one. If you're going to read just one post about the new system (and there's a lot), this should be it.

Arena Season 6: Rise of the Furious Gladiator

Kalgan hopped on over to the forums to make a significant post that previews what can happen in Arena Season 6, the tiers of gear available, and what will happen to the Vault of Archavon. One of my fears going into the next Arena Season was that Archavon the Stone Watcher would lose his relevance, as he drops significantly lower tier gear a full season behind the current one. This would have greatly devalued control of Wintergrasp.

However, Kalgan reveals that a new boss in another wing of the Vault of Archavon will drop the Furious Gladiator pieces. He makes no mention of past season's gear, and says that the new boss' loot table will be structured slightly differently drom Archavon's. This could mean that the 10-man version can drop the Honor-bought non-set pieces rather than a lower tier of Arena gear and notes that the boss will not drop the chest piece. In the same post, he pegs the chest piece at a 1750 rating requirement, which should probably indicate that the boss will not drop items with a higher requirement (head, shoulder, weapon, etc.). This is an important announcement that ensures the relevance of Wintergrasp. The boss is also expected to drop Tier 8 pieces, making it equally appealing to PvE players.

One important change to the beginning of Season 6 will be that new teams and personal ratings are likely to start below the previous median of 1500, which will result in players climbing the ladder rather than dropping through it. This is a significant change to the system and should provide a more fulfilling experience for all manner of Arena play. He also details proposed costs for all the current Arena items as well as proposed ratings for the new Furious Gladiator gear.

HONOR ITEMS / NO ARENA RATINGS REQUIREMENT
Hateful Gloves
Hateful Legs
Hateful Chest
Hateful Helm
Hateful Shoulders
Hateful Ring
Hateful Trinket (there isn't technically a Hateful Gladiator trinket, but Kalgan is referring to the Medallions of the Alliance and the Horde)

Deadly Bracer
Deadly Belt
Deadly Boots
Deadly Neck
Deadly Ring
Deadly Cape
Deadly Trinket (the Battlemaster trinkets)

Honor costs for the Hateful Gladiator set items are expected to match the current season's Savage Gladiator gear, while the non-set Deadly Gladiator pieces are expected to match Hateful Gladiator non-set items. Those aforementioned items will either be retired at the beginning of Season 6 or lowered in cost. I'm inclined to think they will be retired.

HONOR ITEMS / ARENA RATINGS REQUIREMENT
1400+: Furious Bracer
1450+: Furious Belt
1500+: Furious Boots
1550+: Furious Neck
1650+: Furious Ring
1800+: Furious Trinket (higher version of Medallions, likely higher Resilience)
1900+: Furious Cape

The Honor costs for the Furious Gladiator non-set pieces are expected to match the current Deadly Gladiator non-set pieces. Kalgan also indicates that these will drop off the new boss in the Vault of Archavon.

UNSPECIFIED METHOD OF ACQUISITION / RATINGS REQUIREMENT
1300+: Deadly Relics/Idols/Librams/Totems
1350+: Deadly Gloves
1400+: Deadly Legs
1450+: Deadly Chest
1500+: Deadly Helm
1550+: Deadly Shoulders

Kalgan says that the Deadly Gladiator set pieces will not be as easily accessible as the current Hateful Gladiator items are with Emblems of Conquest, the new tier of raid emblems which will drop from Ulduar. Currently, all pieces of the Hateful Gladiator items are available through Emblems of Valor. It's quite possible that ratings requirements will still be required to purchase the items, only using a different currency.

SEASON 6 ARENA GEAR / RATINGS REQUIREMENT
1600+: Furious Gloves
1700+: Furious Legs
1750+: Furious Chest
1850+: Furious Helm
1950+: Furious Wands/Relics/etc
2000+: Furious Weapon
2100+: Furious Shoulders
2300+: Furious Tabard

Note that the lowest minimum requirement of any type is at 1300, which indicates that teams and players are likely to start Season 6 at a lower rating than past seasons, perhaps 1200 or lower. The spread between the Furious Gladiator set pieces is also very large compared to Season 5's Deadly Gladiator items. There is a massive spread in ratings between the lowest required ratings and highest required ratings, which is indicative of how the new Arena system and Blizzard's philosophy of putting players in their proper brackets. Kalgan importantly puts a disclaimer to everything, however, and mentions that all this information is subject to change. Still, it's a great insight into the process.

Curiously, the highest rating requirement belongs to the Furious Gladiator tabard. It is purely cosmetic but, as Kalgan says, "awesome-looking". At 2300, it is at a higher rating than any Arena item before it, even more difficult to obtain than the 2200 shoulders from Season 4. The changes are likely to come with Patch 3.1 or shortly thereafter, as these items are the PvP equivalent of Ulduar gear. When asked about when Blizzard will stop at the increasingly angry naming convention of Arena gear, Kalgan replies that they plan to stop right before "Foo Jackin' Gladiator". Amen to that. our Guide to Patch 3.1.

2000 means nothing in Season 4

For once, that statement doesn't hold quite as much weight anymore. In Season 4, where new personal ratings requirements are in place, a 2000 rating doesn't amount to anything but bragging rights. Sometimes not even that. After two weeks of the new season, more than a few players are running around with their helm graphic on, proudly displaying the fact that they've hit the first benchmark of 1700 personal and team rating. An even more select few are standing around the major cities brandishing Brutal Gladiator armaments. This is where the new distinction lies.

With 2000 personal rating qualifying a player for nothing in Season 4, the more accurate statement for any sort of Arena self-validation is now " with S4 weapon looking for Arena team." Because the requirements are so strict -- necessitating both team and player ratings to be at the minimum upon purchase -- Arena gear has never been more indicative of skill. I know many of you will protest at this generalization, and you'd have a point. But now more than ever, the system has proven effective at weeding out the chaff from the grain.

What is nice about the new system is that it provides another tier of validation -- 1700. Players who achieve 1700 can actually take a small measure of pride and add it to the list of qualifications when, for example, they apply to an Arena team similar to how some players would apply to a guild. A 1700 personal rating is nothing to scoff at, specially not during the first week or two of the new Season. It's a pleasant change because players who manage to attain high enough ratings can actually display it. It's no longer just the shoulders, however "visually impacting" they may be. Of course, there's also the new goal of 1950 for Season 3 shoulders, which is still a respectable achievement.

With Season 4 shoulder pieces out of reach for most of the general WoW population, the most significant visual barometer for this season are the weapons. It is an even more important indicator because of the higher Arena point cost. If a player achieves 2050 and finds herself without the Arena points to purchase the weapon, she will need to maintain that rating for a few more weeks in order to accumulate enough currency (or stop playing that team for a while). Obtaining the Season 4 weapon takes a bit of planning so that players will have the points for it when they finally hit the 2050 benchmark.

Many players who saved up the maximum 5000 points over the course of the past weeks and months of Season 3 went hog wild at the vendors and purchased whatever they qualified for during the first week. It's like going shopping after payday. Don't blow all your cash (or Arena points, as it were) all at once, though. If you manage to climb high enough on your first few weeks, you might find yourself at the store with no money in your wallet. Planning out Brutal Gladiator purchases through the season requires a bit of confidence in yourself and your team's ability to climb the ladder.

While it's easy enough to climb to 1700 on the first week -- we already see quite a few players running around with Brutal Gladiator helms -- it will take some time for most players to reach the new benchmark of 2050. It will take an even longer time for the few players who will reach 2200 to get there, as games that actually grant points will be few and far between. Because teams will need to fight other teams within their ratings range in order to actually get significant gains, there is an artificial bottleneck for Arena PvP progression. In a way it's good because it allows an ordered distribution of gear, but at the same time it's bad because truly successful teams can't make any headway because they have to wait for other teams in their Battlegroup to catch up.

At the same time, the first few weeks of the season mean that many seasoned (and consequently, geared) players will be starting on the ground floor just like everyone else. This can be an unpleasant experience for teams just starting out or testing the Arena waters. It all evens out in the end, of course, but these first weeks of Season 4 has shown how the new system affects PvP progression. In the first week alone, a large number of players played just enough games to hit personal ratings in order to spend their Arena and Honor points. As the season moves forward, teams will eventually settle into their ratings ranges. And this time around, hitting the once 2000 isn't quite as significant as it used to be.

3-vs.-3 Arena Competition at MLG Orlando

Major League Gaming’s 2008 PC Circuit Orlando passes are now on sale. The event features a 3-vs.-3 World of Warcraft Arena competition with over $31,500 in cash and prizes, and will be held July 11 – 13 at the Orlando Marriott World Center Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Thirty-two team slots are available – check out the registration information to compete. The event will be broadcast live on GotFrag.com, which also has coverage of the recent San Diego event available for download.

Best arena hunter in the world now banned?

I'm still not sure what to make of this, but according to a number of very upset hunters on the official forums, Blizzard has handed a permanent ban to a player known as Megatf, said to be the best arena hunter in the world. His Armory does in fact show him as being #2 in his battlegroup (Reckoning) for 2's, #1 for 3's, and #1 for 5's, so even if he wasn't the best in the world, the guy knew a thing or two about PvP. The ban is popularly attributed to Megatf's having posted criticism of how Blizzard has handled the Hunter crisis in arena. It's certainly tough to argue that hunters are doing well; they are the only class that is underperforming in all three brackets, even by Blizzard's standards and months after the introduction of an MS-debuff to Aimed Shot.

A player called Macrospamftw (yeah, I laughed) insists it's because Megatf was posting content and links that contained keyloggers, which sounds a lot more plausible than mere criticism (let's face it, if CM's banned people for that, the official forums would be a ghost town). But the player Guinevere counters by saying there were no links in the banned posts. Poking around a little more resulted in additional details: Megatf often posted while tipsy and was prone to foul language. That's certainly more than enough for a forum ban, but a permanent one?

Megatf does seem to have vanished from the forums completely. Not only are the threads in question gone, but according to the hunters, Megatf's popular post on Hunter PvP has also disappeared. Do any of our readers know what's going on?

Conquering fear of PvP (before conquering the Alliance)

It's an interesting moment, the one that mikkeneko talks about over on WoW LJ. It's the one where you first enter a battleground, or an Arena, or just head out into the world, attack someone of the opposite faction and win, and first realize that yes, you can PvP.

I come, like many more experienced gamers, from a Counterstrike background (and a Doom and Quake background before that), so I've almost always known the thrill of taking on other humans at their own computers. But this moment happened for me before I ever played WoW -- back in the days of Dark Age of Camelot, I entered a battleground, saw nameless player opponents in front of me flagged red, actually killed one, and realized that yes, I could actually do this. Our own Dan O'Halloran just recently had this experience in WoW, I believe -- he told us on the podcast a little while back that he'd never played PvP, and a week or so later, he told me he'd tried out a battleground and learned it was actually a lot of fun.

PvP isn't hard -- you mostly play the character as you play it in PvE, and as fast as high-end Arena matches can get, battlegrounds especially are simple enough for even casual players to enter and at least partly influence the battle. I don't remember what's so scary about PvP but I do remember it being scary way back when. If you haven't played PvP yet, though, you're missing out -- jump into a battleground, throw some spells or swords around, and you'll find that you too can PvP.

PvP for the beginning HK: 11 rules for the starter weasel

It is not unusual for younger or less experienced players to approach me with questions on my PvP experience.

"Allie," they ask. "How can we avoid sucking like you?"

"Well, first it helps to have a functional mouse," I always say, favoring them with a benevolent smile whilst swirling a fine glass of port. "Click-to-move is usually impossible when neither your right mouse button nor scroll wheel actually work. You'd be amazed at the number of problems you can pin on your refusal to replace a relatively cheap piece of equipment. Never, ever, get rid of Mr. Gimpy if you want a ready excuse for being a keyboard turner."

They scribble this and then look at me reverently, hopeful for any additional pearls of wisdom I might drop. However, after receiving so many queries and accidentally mistelling most of them with, "I can tank, but gimme a sec to get rid of this punk who's bugging me," I have decided, in the spirit of all gifted Machiavellians, to preserve my bad advice in a medium more lasting than /w.

For beyond faulty mice, children, we get into more advanced and underhanded PvP tactics...

Now, I do not wish to boast, but my PvP experience has been called by many "an example to others," although they always say this with a funny look on their faces. I managed to avoid PvP almost entirely before hitting 70, but after that realized that arena gear was absurdly good and an easy way to stay defense-capped as a bear tank. Many months and much grumbling later, I have emerged a better, wiser player, though not because I have exhibited anything within shouting distance of talent at actual PvP. Oh, no. What you need, dear player, is the ability to put your strengths to work on the battlefield, and sometimes your strength lies in what the Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams would refer to as being a total weasel:

1. Fool someone who's actually good into signing up for your El Stinko arena team or pre-made.

It helps to be a raider. Running around Shatt in your offspec phat lewtz will occasionally give people the impression that you actually know what you're doing, even when your primary contribution to raids is a "Who, me?" at being told to get out of the fire/avoid the volcanoes/don't move during Flame Wreath/run away from Leo/I told you to get out of the fire/don't Moonfire the sheep.

Failing this, you may need to put in the time and effort to afk in a sufficient number of battlegrounds to get Season 1 gear. See #4.

2. Commiserate over the fact that Armory is still bugged.

"God*****t, I wish Blizzard would just fix their s**t. I had a 2300 rating last week and it's still not showing up! And I'm still "guildless?" Christ."

3. Try to be any of the following: MS Warrior, (Flavor of the Month), (Flavor of the Month), or MS Warrior.

Confucius say, wise man levels class being played by lead game designer.

4. Actual PvP gear helps to perpetuate the illusion that you are competent.

Horde used to have this covered by afking in the "Peace Cave" of AV. Now that the Participation Gestapo is busily sniffing around all corners of the battleground looking for lazy jerks people with a strong-minded opposition to violence and a preference for peace and quiet, it may actually be necessary to afk at a node under the guise of defending it. This exposes you to almost certain periodic death and no small amount of hassle and honor loss while you wait to rez. No one ever said that earning decent gear would be easy! For the Horde! Or whatever else the other half of the game plays, I dunno.

5. Exhibit more frustration with failure than is probably merited.

"D****T! I HAD THAT GUY! HE WAS HANGING BY A THREAD! STUPID KEYBOARD! %#&@(#(%!"

"You having some computer problems today?"

"Yeah, my right mouse button doesn't work."

6. Find someone who actually does know what they're doing, or is just insanely overgeared, and /follow.

Did you just zone into a WSG match next to a warrior or a shaman in full Season 3? This person is now your god. Hug them. Love them. Stay close to them. You will draw enemies to your weak butt like a moth to the flame, and the self-interest of the Arena God will see to it that they become HK. Your relationship is a special one; symbiotic, almost. Beautiful.

7. Blame your healer.

There is a long and storied MMORPG tradition of blaming the healer whenever something goes horribly, horribly wrong. You're a Mage in Spellstrike who gets one-shot in the first five seconds of the match? LOS'd your pally while a hunter's turning you into a pincushion? Rogue chewing your druid to pieces and you can't be arsed to quit beating his partner?

Just repeat to yourself, in very soothing tone akin to that of Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting, that it's not your fault. It wasn't your fault. It's never going to be your fault. And it's especially not your fault the devs didn't give you a heal button. There, there.

8. If you are the healer, blame the dps.

And if they don't like it, they can go roll their own friggin' healer and experience the pleasure of being the immediate target of every yoohoo with a two-hander. Why is all the good healing gear so shiny? Why does the +81 healing enchant leave a glowing, trailing vapor so blinding that an enemy with advanced glaucoma can see you from a mile away? Blizzard should just cut the crap and skin every piece of +heal gear in the game with a giant bullseye instead of taunting us with items like Priest On A Stick.

9. Blame the tank.

Force of habit.

10. Undermine the resident battleground strategist.

Now, you know and I know that the surest means of winning any BG node is a good, old-fashioned zerg. What better way to accomplish your aims in a BG than to descend upon every tower, flag, and individual enemy as a maddened pack of lemmings? Safety in numbers! Your enemy will never have a chance to prove he's better than you are if his life gets snuffed out in less than a second. Nevertheless, there's always that one person in a BG who surveys the map like a latter-day Napoleon and calls out tips that, if obeyed, might actually work.

Two can play at this game. Well-timed /bg posts like "No one's defending mines," "Only one defender at DR," and "All in!" should draw help to your cause regardless of whether your cause is actually worth fighting for at that point (or if you choose to include details on additional stealthed defenders). This is a war, man, and there are casualties! You may be among them but at least you won't die alone.

11. Never forget the importance of being an otherwise useless distraction.

This is the sole weasel tactic of actual strategic value. Anyone who's trying to kill you is someone who's not trying to kill the healer or the player capping the node/flag, and it may be time for you to accept that your most singular contribution to group PvP may be as a kamikaze. Run like a spanked cat as soon as your health hits 30%, and with any luck you'll trail a number of opportunistic sharks oblivious to the fact that someone's in their base killin their doodz.

This article has not been endorsed by anyone on the WoW Insider staff including its writer, and may or may not have been written following a five-cap defeat in Arathi Basin and a 67-minute (albeit successful) WSG match.

Blood Sport: Warrior-Druid overpowered?

Every Thursday, V'Ming - who thinks that gnome warlocks are travesties of nature and need to be KOSed - shares thoughts and ideas on becoming deadlier at the Arenas. He also dabbles in the dark arts in Blood Pact.

A quick look at the chart above and one thing clearly leaps out. Clue: it has to do with mortal strikes, HoTs and cyclones.

Well, every third team you meet nowadays in 2v2 will probably be a Warrior-Druid team. This comp (short for composition) seems to be running away with the 2v2 bracket currently: 20 of the top 50 US teams are Warrior-Druid comps - that's 40%. For teams with ratings greater than 2200, close to 30% are Warrior-Druid. They also make up almost a quarter of all 2v2 teams, regardless of rating. That's a lot of Warrior-Druid teams.

What makes the comp tick?
In this comp, the Warrior is obviously the main, durable source of almost inexhaustible DPS. The Druid, usually specced resto (8/11/42), adds to the Warrior's survivability and brings versatility to the team. The win condition of this comp is simple: outlast their opponents.

The Warrior-Druid team will generally open with the Druid stealthed in cat form. This effectively hides the higher priority (healer) target from the other team, until heals are called for. The Warrior can usually hold the fort for a few seconds, while dismantling softer targets of the other team: clothies or other healers. They generally want to establish control while surviving as long as possible before their teammates step in with some healing love.

Resto druids are extremely mobile healers, with fire-and-forget HoTs cast on the go, travel form to zip around maps and immunity to polymorph. Their mobility is augmented by various abilities to immobilize threats: roots, cyclone, maim, and even bash and charge in bear form. Their job in the Arena is largely defensive and evasive - staying out of trouble by using LOS and CC abilities. That said, a well-timed CC on the other team's healer can be a devastating offensive move by this versatile class.

A match against a Warrior-Druid team often feels like the Warrior is unkillable, with the wily healer just prancing out of reach and LOS. This often forces their opponents to blow their cooldowns in an effort to burst down either, which is probably what the Warrior-Druid team wants. The premise of the team, after all, is to survive everything their opponents throw at them while maintaining a healthy mana for the Druid, so that the Warrior can continue to DPS the way to victory.

In a gaming environment, when one archetype is prevalent, we can expect a second archetype to emerge as an answer or counter to the dominant archetype. Looking at the three most popular team comps at the top of the 2v2 bracket, we have:

Warrior-Druid 29.5% (-4.5% from last week)
Rogue-Priest 15.2% (-0.8%)
Warlock-Druid 10.6% (not in top three last week)

Of the top 50 Rogue-Priest teams, about half field a shadow Priest (20/0/41). This is significant as only about 6% of priests in top Arena teams are specced shadow, with the vast majority being holy discipline (thanks Tyler) priests. In other words, most of the shadow priests in 2v2 are represented in Rogue-Priest teams. It comes as no surprise that this comp, while good against other archetypes, is probably also one of the tougher comps a Warrior-Druid team can find itself up against.

A Priest can dispel HoTs and silence the Druid - definitely cramping the latter's healing potential. Abolish Poison can also be dispelled, allowing time for the Rogue's wound poison to stack and further reducing the effectiveness of druidic healing. Most shadow priest and rogue teams will focus their fire on the Warrior to quickly force the Druid out of hiding. Thereafter, the Rogue will go after the healer while the shadow priest continues to wear the Warrior down. In this scenario of split DPS, Warrior-Druid teams will play very defensively to buy time for HoTs, exhaust the Rogue's tricks, and hopefully deplete the Priest's mana.

Interestingly, the Rogue and holy Priest comp is considered less dangerous by Warrior-Druid teams. While the Priest may try to dispel, silence or mana burn the Druid, the Warrior's damage output on the Rogue will force the healer to focus on healing to keep his teammate alive. In this matchup, both the Warrior's durability and the Druid's mobility against Rogue DPS are definitely assets.

A Warlock-Druid matchup is almost an endurance match, with both teams very capable of keep their main DPSer alive. The Warlock will try to take down the opposing Druid; mobility is important here for the Druid, to duck out of LOS of the Warlock's nukes and fear.

While the Warrior generally has nothing to fear (heh) from the Warlock, interference from the opposing Druid will make the durable Warlock hard to dispatch. The Warrior may also go after the Warlock's pet (twice if necessary, for Demonology warlocks) in an effort to disable Soul Link or other disruptive pet abilities. In this matchup, the toons will seem to be running in circles: Warrior hunts Warlock, Warlock hunts Druid A, Druid A trys to CC Druid B, Druid B tries to heal Warlock and CC Warrior. Thankfully, Druid B's mana is not inexhaustible and again, the Warrior-Druid team may triumph by simply outlasting their opponents.

A strategy that has emerged to counter the MS Warrior's ubiquity in all brackets is the 'Warrior gib'. The premise of this strategy is to burst gib the Warrior with multiple sources of burst DPS before his or her healers have any chance of healing. In the 2v2 bracket, this means two sources of burst DPS - which I suspect aren't fast enough to take down a well-geared Warrior who has stacked up on resilience. A dual-DPS team like the Rogue-Mage also means no healers. Against a field of other DPS-heal archetypes, dual-DPS teams probably do not do well enough to pose a viable threat. Rogue-Mage teams form only about 4% of the field in the US 2v2 bracket.

Are you in a Warrior-Druid team, and if you are, what are your experiences? Do you think that this comp is the "best" in 2v2? What other counter-strategies can you suggest against this team?

In other brackets, the most popular comps for top-level teams on the US servers are:

5v5
Warrior-Paladin-Priest-Shaman-Warlock 16.9% (-0.2% from last week)
Warrior-Paladin-Priest-Shaman-Mage 12.4% (+1%)
Warrior-Paladin-Priest-Hunter-Warlock 5.6% (-0.1%)

3v3
Rogue-Priest-Mage 18.9% (+1.3%)
Rogue-Druid-Warlock 8.7% (-1.1%)
Warrior-Priest-Druid 7.9% (-0.9%)

In the chart above, warlocks seemed to have relinquished their dueling superiority to the Warrior-Druid combo, although they are still the third most represented class in 2v2. Hunters have all but shrugged off their 'red-headed stepchild of Arenas' status by maintaining their fourth most represented class standing in 2v2. Pallies and shammies fill the 5v5 bracket, leaving their hybrid brethren - druids - to dominate the smaller brackets. Rogues are peculiarly prevalent in the middle-of-the-road 3v3 bracket.

The 2-vs-2 arena queue and you

We usually don't realize it, but there is actually an upper limit to the number of instances that can be created in WoW at any given moment. If all the players on your server somehow decided to run Karazhan at about the same time, you'd find that after a certain number of raids had gotten started, some players would be stuck at the loading screen, waiting for the others to finish. Normally, of course, it's not a problem, because people don't all go to Karazhan at the same time. But at prime time, the 2-vs-2 arena instances are as popular as can be, so the 2-vs-2 arena instance slots get full, and frustrated players sometimes find themselves waiting a good long time for one of their turn to fight.

Last month, Drysc said that the Blizzard team still didn't know what to do about it. But now, he says that they do have a special change planned to help solve this problem. It's going to require a patch, though, and not the upcoming patch 2.3.2, either, but it is scheduled for some point in the future, "as soon as possible." Patch 2.4 perhaps? "The change," Drysc says, "will make it so that more instances can kick up in a shorter amount of time. Which doesn't necessarily mean there can't ever be a wait again, but it should drastically decrease them." However much "drastically" is, shorter is always better than longer, when it comes to queues!

New online tool shows popular arena setups

You may already be aware that SK Gaming has a listing of the top arena teams in the US, Europe, and Korea, all ranked against one another. Now SK Gaming has added another feature to this listing, which shows both the most "popular setups for high ranked teams" and the "average rating for popular setups." You can see very clearly the top five class combinations in each category of the arenas, from 5-vs-5 to 2-vs-2, all right above their regular listing of the top teams in each category.

I originally found this new interface via World of Raids, and they have their own summary of the most popular class setups. However, clicking through some of the options on SK Gaming's site, you can clearly see it's not just a simple matter of having the right classes in order to win. In 5-vs-5 it seems that, for the most part, the warrior and the paladin provide the backbone of a good group, while after that, you need a balance of some hybrid healing and dps classes.

In 3-vs-3 and 2-vs-2, however, you can find many groups doing very well without any warriors or paladins at all. The traditional roles of "tank, healing, damage" we see in PvE obviously don't always apply in the arena, where the balance of your team's abilities working together is what matters most. Druids, rogues, and warlocks in particular seem to shine much more here than in 5-vs-5.

So if you're a serious arena junkie, and you like analyzing these things, head on over and see what you make of these various class combinations. As always, our regular Blood Sport column can help you, as V'Ming has lots of information about how the classes are balanced together as well.

Blood Sport: Arena nostalgia

Every Thursday, V'Ming - who thinks that gnome warlocks are travesties of nature and need to be KOSed - shares thoughts and ideas on becoming deadlier at the Arenas. He also dabbles in the dark arts in Blood Pact.

Keeping in the theme of my Warlock column, let's take a look back at one of the most important additions introduced in 2007 with The Burning Crusade - Arena PvP.

You can say that Arena PvP is a mini-game of sorts, tied to the main game via gear, and vanity tokens (titles, mount). WoW gear is, in itself, a progression system - particularly for endgame players who don't have new levels or abilities to look forward to. Arena gear is desirable, in both performance and appearance, being recolored versions of top tier gear from PvE. So good that even the most dedicated PvE raiders are dipping into Arenas to gain access to "easy" upgrades.

If "welfare epics" is the theme of 2007, then Arena PvP is one of main ways that they are dispensed. Never have there been more toons running around with purples than 2007, and this is a casual-friendly trend that WoW and other MMOs have been moving with.

In the beginning ...

The arenas were made available on Dec 8, 2006 after the stormy "Before the Storm" patch, but the competitive ladder system didn't kick in until Feb 15. This time gave eager gladiators the chance to engage in unrated skirmishes, to gain familiarity with the two maps: Ring of Trials and Circle of Blood. The third map - Ruins of Lordaeron - was added later in May.

Blizzard also announced a global 5v5 Arena tournament on Feb 13, where teams would vie for the title of "bestest 5v5 team in the whole wide world". This truly added more excitement and buzz to Season 1. In March, two teams - ZERG IT DOWN and Power Trip almost simultaneously went professional. The prospect of Arena PvP evolving into an established e-sport became very real.

The tournament saga

The World Series of Video Games (WSVG) included 3v3 Arena PvP in its line of competitive games in April. Team Pandemic, the same people from Power Trip, took home the top prize of $12,000 at WSVG China in early May. The team was playing a Warrior, Mage and Paladin combo then.

The initial tournament buzz gradually became replaced by concerns about Arena PvP's viability as an e-sport. While it could be entertaining to watch matches, the tournaments didn't really make the game accessible to spectators. Most matches were too fast and chaotic to be meaningful to anyone but the most knowledgeable players. This problem was exacerbated by poor commentators who didn't seem to know the game.

The May regionals in San Diego were also marred by a rash of disqualifications by Blizzard when they found that participants weren't playing with their own accounts. Many top teams were crushed or disabled by these disqualifications, and spectator interest waned as they knew that it wasn't truly a contest of the best.

In the meantime, the WSVG 3v3 tournaments were proceeding well, showcasing the best teams in Louisville, Dallas and Toronto. WSVG seemed a paragon of success, with appearances on CBS and its president expressing optimism. Until it decided to shut its doors and cancel all future events on Sep 12, about a month before the Los Angeles event. The shutdown might have been financially driven but WoW's progress into the e-sport arena certainly suffered a setback.

Blizzard's own 5v5 tournament concluded at the Blizzcon in August, and there's been no news of follow-up events since Oct 2007.

While Arena game play is suited for tournament-level competition, Blizzard needs to work on the spectator aspect for it to be more widely accepted as an e-sport. People must be given the opportunity to understand the drama and tension in matches to want to watch them. The action should also be made more available, with perhaps an easily accessible tournament server, and multiple ways to watch the action: first-person, over-shoulder, aerials, replays.

Seasons and shenanigans

The Arena ladder system became the first quantifiable way in WoW to identify the best PvPers. Unfortunately it was also abused with players buying spots on highly ranked teams to gain quick(er) access to Arena gear rewards.

Near the end of Season 1, more abuses surfaced. This included top teams selling spots so that lower ranked players can get the Armored Netherdrake mount and an easy "Gladiator" title. Season 2 kicked off on Jun 19, with a new and better set of rewards.

Season 2 came to a close on Nov 26, and Season 3 kicked in with another set of gear. To prevent players just putting in time (and no skill) to gain rewards, Blizzard put in a rating requirement of 1850 and 2000 for weapons and shoulders respectively. Shenanigans at the end of Season 1 happened again with Season 2, this time with teams manipulating the ladder to secure top spots. Blizzard responded recently by slapping a team rating requirement, in addition to personal rating.

Arena concerns

Concerns were expressed by the community: Arena PvP was "giving away" gear comparable to that from top-end raids. WoW has swung from "raid or die in PvP" pre-BC to PvP gear holding its own in PvE. Players who were not necessarily good at PvP were rewarded by the Arena system simply for participating.

To these concerns, Drysc replied, "You're not actually concerned that someone else is getting something easier than you, because you would go do it and wouldn't look back. You're either unable or unwilling to switch to what you perceive is the easier route, and want what you're invested in or willing to do made easier based on what you perceive matches the effort invested in the other."

The Arena system also revealed class imbalances. Certain classes do extremely well, while others struggle to compete, looking at class representation in the various brackets. Blizzard is widely criticized for not responding to these imbalances quickly enough, although many changes in recent patches - particularly for hunters - are obviously Arena-driven.

2007 is certainly an eventful year for Arena PvP - from the rocky tournament road to the perennial PvE-PvP antagonism. What do you think was the most important development for Arena PvP? What are its chances of truly becoming an e-sport in 2008? Which class needs the most help in Arenas?

These are the latest numbers from games in the last week of 2007:

It's gratifying to see hunters maintaining their greater than 5% representation in 5v5 for the third week. Warlocks are curiously absent from the top 100 teams, both in terms of proportion and absolute numbers relative to previous weeks.

According to this page, these are the most popular team combos for high-ranked teams:

5v5
Warrior-Paladin-Priest-Shaman-Mage 15%
Warrior-Paladin-Priest-Shaman-Warlock 13.9%
Warrior-Paladin-Priest-Hunter-Warlock 7.7%

3v3
Rogue-Priest-Mage 19.4%
Warrior-Druid-Warlock 6.1%
Rogue-Druid-Warlock 5.6%

2v2
Warrior-Druid 25.3%
Rogue-Priest 13.7%
Warlock-Druid 9.1%