Arenas are my favorite part of wow (gee did you figure that out yet lol?) and recently my team took a nasty hit from 2555 down to 2402 after a foolish 49 games this week because we felt invincible. We tried to force wins when we shouldn't of and as a result we lost 143 points with a 60% winning record for the week. At first we were pissed as hell, blaming our losses on the lack of balance regarding frost dk's and the ease that shamans have defeating our setup. Then I started thinking, does this really matter? We maintained an 80% win rate against the best teams in the battlegroup to reach 2555 and we did it as possibly the most under represented team makeup in the world. I had a talk with Thunderion (my partner) and we realized that neither of us were really upset that we lost, after all we only had two bad days during a season of mostly excellent play.
Our story is truly incredible when you think about it:
A paladin alt that never played competetive arena and that only had a few hours at level 80 joins up with a prot warrior who was sick of getting destroyed as arms in patch 3.0. The duo then discovers that through careful execution and creative gearing/specing that they can be an impressive comp even against the best on the battlegroup.
Our playstyle is unique even to the few people running the same comp (they do prot/holy paladin whereas thunderion is ret/holy) as the fights become a crazy dance around ret's need to judge and our cooldowns required to kill someone in a cc chain.
I've learned a lot about myself this season as I've been required to run incredible amounts of pve in order to build my "Furious Block Set" and be competetive in arenas. If all we had to do was play 10-20 games per week and if arenas were my sole source of gear then I would be happy playing this game competetively. However, running 14-16 hours a week doing raids has put an unnecessary stress on my life. I haven't decided my next step, but I am certain that if next season I can't build my set out of pvp gear then we will both be quiting arenas. Thunderion will most likely quit the game and I'll be left to play the auction house in order to keep this blog alive. Even if we get gladiator this season I would not want to put the hundreds of hours into pve just to... how did South Park put it... "finally play the game."
Currently I think the state of pvp in this game is pathetic. Our comp is the only one I've seen that truly bounces back and forth between being on offense and being on defense half the game (this is due to cooldowns being up every other minute), whereas other comps tend to pressure the other team for 99% of the match. Healing and Damage is such that simply pressuring your opponent for thirty seconds without being peeled means that they are going to die. Plate means nothing except to other warriors with all the magic and armor ignoring talents on other classes.
Sorry for the QQ, but these are my current thoughts on the game and since many of you read this blog to see what I'm thinking, I figured I should let you know. I also didn't want anyone to think that if my pvp career ended that I would stop blogging about the economics of wow as I've informed many players that this arena season will likely be our last.
So what's the life lesson? If you are spending hours just trying to make this game fun then it's time to move on or try a different aspect of it. Do any of you perform some task in the game in order to fuel another? Such as farming to get an epic mount or doing pve to pvp?
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26 comments: on "Tough Times in Arena - A Life Lesson"
Xanariae - Earthen Ring H said... June 17, 2009 at 8:07 AM
Dude, who cares about arena? I'm really surprised you didn't post to buy up all the titanium ore you can today before people catch wind and it's all gone.
Titanium ore will be prospectable to epic gems in patch 3.2, for those of you who don't know. I bought out the entire AH last night and will continue to do so while it's 'cheap'.
werfert said... June 17, 2009 at 8:37 AM
The thing is Xanariae, some people like PvP, and as Markco clearly said in the post, he has seen many times how most bloggers like to know what he is thinking, as he is slightly "depressed" at losing so many games through pride alone, he has decided to post about his fun instead of money making. THe titanium trick is useful and will probably be a gold mine, but you still have to think about the poster as well. He doesn't only live in goldmaking, that would make the game boring, he does other things, and he talks about them.
As for me, Marko, I feel bad for you and wish you luck this week, it shows how everyone can be beaten, wether we want it or not.
P.S. Many of the life lessons he talks about in this can be converted into god-making, you just got to look for them...
Markco said... June 17, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Posts are not written on a daily basis, they are instead posted automatically and often written days or even weeks prior. Current events do get posted when I get to them and I will have a post about the epic gems very soon.
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 10:52 AM
Well you seem massively successful. If you're on a huge winning streak, then suddenly it turns around without any game changes having happened, I'd always assume (without knowing better) that the players got casual, not the the classes are imbalanced. Just as I'd assume your wining streak was a result of your skill, not an OP class combo or whatever. I see the same thing in pve, as our runs fluctuate between success and failure. Wounded pride always stings and its pretty standard to blame someone else. That's wounded pride "it wasnt my fault, it was his fault. I'm so awesome, how could anything *ever* be my fault" Nice post & good luck!
BigDaddy said... June 17, 2009 at 11:03 AM
As long as you stay true to the content, Marko, we will be here to read you.
Please learn from Gevlon. I don't go to his site anymore because after he hit the gold cap, his blog turned into a pulpit for his socio-political outlook instead of the economics of WoW.
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 11:09 AM
If you are looking for a Furious Block set, you might as well quit now.
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 11:15 AM
This is wiser, more insightful advice than 95% of you gold making tips. I don't make light of your gold making tips, but rather point out the difference between utility and significance. Thanks!
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 11:21 AM
I found farming/playing the AH to be somewhat boring to make money for an epic flyer. So i combined my love for questing and strange love of achievements to make the cash for my epic flyer,and as i was questing i would work on getting the Northrend loremaster achievemeny. Now i have some extra gold, my epic flyer,and a well earned (IMO) achievement :D. Talk about killing 2 birds with 1 stone :P
P.S. Ive only recently started reading your guide, and i am loving it! Keep up the good work and keep those posts coming :D
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Have you actually tried using PvP gear and gemming it out in strength? I know that block sets may be king, but is the PvP gear that bad?
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 1:16 PM
You do need to find the point where you enjoy this game, and get satisfaction from it.
My GM is push for harder and harder core raiding, and at some point I'm going to need to apply the brakes. The effort isn't worth the reward (or the RL cost).
Same goes for arena, it might not be worth the effort to you anymore.
Regarding the epic-gems/titanium, this is going to be one of the biggest gold-rushes ever in wow.
There are SO many JCs already, but, the demand for gems will be huge.
The ore was already gone from the AH last night, and a checked this morning, and what was there was already double priced.
I did buy out all the titansteel, and will continue to do so until the prices rise. Once the prices are way up, I'll slowly sell it off.
And I'll be saving any ore I mine for prospecting when the patch hits.
The other thing is to start selling off blue gems now. The price crash is a-coming...
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 1:53 PM
Titanium ore vanished from the AH before I could get to it >.<. Good news is I should be at the gold cap before this comes.
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 2:23 PM
Titanium ore is siting at 20 gold per ore right now on my server, this is ridiculous.
Markco said... June 17, 2009 at 2:29 PM
Expect titanium ore to hit 40-60 gold per ore soon.
Anonymous said... June 17, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Just wondering as there is no Titanium ore left on my server that isn't at 500g already i thought id take this oportunity to resupply the market, what route do you find best to get as much titanium as possible?
Markco said... June 17, 2009 at 4:01 PM
Post will be up tomorrow that will hopefully answer all your questions, guess this arena post was poorly timed lol.
Ravensarrow said... June 17, 2009 at 6:20 PM
I dont have a Jewelcrafter so im stocking up on honor and Emblems of hHeroism if no one else noticed oyu can buy the epic gems with the imo people are streeing to much aobut titanium and not looking at the other ways to get the gems.
--Raven
chronic said... June 17, 2009 at 8:22 PM
You're right dude, your prot warrior/holy paladin 2s team is the only team in any bracket that requires finesse and every other composition is a mindless zergfest. What?
I usually like your posts, and I'm very interested in your arena experiences, but this was a total whinefest and would have been better off on the cutting room floor.
Markco said... June 17, 2009 at 9:47 PM
Chronic get to 2555 and then see what you think of WOTLK pvp; As you have read I think it is horribly wack-a-mole with very little skill or setup. Name one team that doesn't play offense 99% of the time. Most teams have a defensive strategy of pop your cds and keep hitting them!
chronic said... June 17, 2009 at 9:54 PM
While I certainly haven't achieved your level of success, I do play rogue/shaman around 2450 on Reckoning and there are a lot of compositions that have no trouble switching gears and changing strategies mid-fight. One stand-out example is disc/feral, a feral druid has a lot of options for peeling and playing defensively and the amount of skill involved in setting up burst windows has always impressed me there.
There are countless other examples of teams that swap targets, burn cooldowns, set up long CC chains, switch to peel when they get behind on healing, and create opportunities for drinking. Maybe you just fought a lot of DK/Healer this week?
Markco said... June 17, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Chronic none of them have to juggle judges or risk going oom. No other healer in the game currently can truly go oom without ms like Thunderion can. He dies to any dps in less than 30 seconds, as do I :). Sorry but there's so much more finesse and timing to what we do, most of which would make your head spin.
chronic said... June 17, 2009 at 10:28 PM
It's true that resto shaman don't have to juggle judges or go OOM - they just go OOM no matter what. Prot warriors do not die in 30 seconds to, for example, a single rogue. Those are just two counter-examples to your grossly exaggerated and biased argument.
Prot warriors have a lot of interesting options for control, and don't get me wrong, I *definitely* think you guys are skilled and there's a lot of work involved in setting up CC chains and getting kills.
But it's very naive to think that what you're doing somehow requires more finesse than a high-level rogue/priest or shaman/warlock.
Possibly part of the problem is that the nature of your comp forces people into a zerg strategy. For me, as a rogue, there's no way I could ever afford to sit on a prot warrior for any length of time under any circumstances. So if I played against you, I would be more or less forced to chase your paladin round the entire match and perhaps that would make me look skill-less in your eyes.
Anyway, it's your blog, and you can vent if you want. Personally I'd prefer if you talked about some of the finesse you guys actually employ; not a full guide to the comp necessarily, but some strategies or advice. But what you have here is not productive and it's not compelling and you haven't even backed up your finesse claim with anything resembling evidence.
Markco said... June 18, 2009 at 1:33 AM
I die in about 15 seconds to a rogue without any heals :(
I will avoid making these posts in the future, and tomorrow's will be interesting I hope :D
Gevlon said... June 18, 2009 at 4:47 AM
@Markco: don't bother about whiners who tell you what to post. It's your blog. You reached pretty high with a unique comp.
However unique comps depend on secrecy through obscurity. A good team have various tricks, but none of them against your comp. They have to improvise and fail. But after enough defeats they will check sources about the possible abilities of your comp and next time come prepared. It seems "next time" has came.
Still you got higher than 99%. That's great.
@Bigdaddy you are a liar: you just came to my blog yesterday to whine for posts. When I deleted your trolling, you came back once more to whine.
Anonymous said... June 18, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Imma laugh when everyone thinks there getting in on this "Gold rush" and because so many people have titanium now when the patch hits the market will be flooded. Good luck with all that.
Ravensarrow said... June 18, 2009 at 3:08 PM
Im with Hevlon ignore the whinners and only respond to the people who are here to help others/share their thoughts/opinions
Anonymous said... June 18, 2009 at 3:50 PM
From 3.2 patch notes - Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled.
I can't imagine there will be prot warrior optimized pvp gear any time soon, but it looks like the silly shield slam damage is going to get even sillier.
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