Well... A lot has happened since my last post. I guess I'll catch everyone up. First of all, I hit 85 in 2 days after getting the expansion and proceeded to get one of the most badass tanking sets on the server before the first week Cataclysm was up. We ran Baradin Hold, and WOULD have downed the boss had our DPS been high enough (average raid dps of like 7k was not good...). We still managed to bring him down to 200k HP before wiping, and then we ran out of time that week... I wish other people put as much time into their gear as I did... Anyways, what is really important is that I started doing arenas the next week because my partner finally decided to start playing again. We had a few epic games where all of the time I spent watching/listening to Warrior PVP videos for 2 weeks straight started to really show results. I was intervening counterspells/kidney shots and 1v2'd a few fights and won. I don't mean to brag, but I felt WAY more badass playing my warrior than my ret paladin. Seriously, Warriors are freaking the most badass of any class, period. It doesn't matter if we have a disadvantage in a class match up in duels, in arenas, warriors shine if you know what you're doing.
So, after my badass arena experiences for 2 weeks as arms, it was Christmas time, and I went out of town to visit friends and let's just say I found a reason to not want to play WoW. I might update this blog later, because I don't plan on quitting WoW cold turkey exactly, but I just have no desire to play anymore due to other more awesome activities that have arisen in my life. I know no one reads this anyways, so it's not like I'm letting anyone down, but if you want to see badass warriorness, look at Hoodrych, because he is what inspired the acts of complete ownage and badassery in my arenas. Not everyone can be a badass warrior, but if you eat/sleep/breathe his pvp videos for 2 weeks like I did, and practice good communication skills, maybe you can get a fraction of what he has, similar to the way I was able to obtain it in my early Cata weeks.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Getting better... I think
Well, PvPing on my Warrior has been fun and frustrating. Now that I have some gear, allbeit not great, but better than the average dueler it seems, I seem to find myself feeling let down by my lack of skill. I win against people, but sometimes it's either purely a gear issue, and the other times it's because the opponent clearly lacked any semblance of skill whatsoever.
On a related note, I have been improving, despite how little it may be. I think my main problem is thinking with every warrior ability I have in mind. I had a friend, back in TBC who would sunder opponents in arenas. In duels, especially in 4.0 it doesn't seem like a great idea right now, as damage output seems so high that by the time i got a decent stack of sunders on an opponent, I'd have lost the duel 3 minutes ago. One of the surefire reasons why I've been improving is definitely talking to my gladiator friend about completely unrelated, inappropriate topics. It definitely helps me get back into the whole "pvp mode." Seriously though, my two Gladiator friends have helped me a lot with advice. Although I'm still a newb, I'm doing better, as the people I duel have noticed a difference in the outcome of the duels.
People have been telling me to switch to fury since arms got nerfed hard with the 4.0 patch, but I am stubborn and will not give in. I once told my friends that if I wanted to dual wield, I would roll a rogue, and I meant it. I play a Warrior to beat people silly with one ridiuclously large weapon. Dual-wielding two of the previously mentioned ridiculously large weapons is a betrayal to my personal image of the Warrior class, and therefore I cannot condone such behavior on my own Warrior. I don't meant to say that those who spec fury are wrong, or of lesser intelligence, or even lesser moral values. I am just saying that the Warriors I play, will be arms, as it reflects my beliefs on what is considered a Warrior, and what is considered a decked out rogue who got a big head and thinks he can wear platemail and can dual wield two-handed weapons without incurring the appropriate penalties to attack bonus and arcane spell failure.
On a related note, I have been improving, despite how little it may be. I think my main problem is thinking with every warrior ability I have in mind. I had a friend, back in TBC who would sunder opponents in arenas. In duels, especially in 4.0 it doesn't seem like a great idea right now, as damage output seems so high that by the time i got a decent stack of sunders on an opponent, I'd have lost the duel 3 minutes ago. One of the surefire reasons why I've been improving is definitely talking to my gladiator friend about completely unrelated, inappropriate topics. It definitely helps me get back into the whole "pvp mode." Seriously though, my two Gladiator friends have helped me a lot with advice. Although I'm still a newb, I'm doing better, as the people I duel have noticed a difference in the outcome of the duels.
People have been telling me to switch to fury since arms got nerfed hard with the 4.0 patch, but I am stubborn and will not give in. I once told my friends that if I wanted to dual wield, I would roll a rogue, and I meant it. I play a Warrior to beat people silly with one ridiuclously large weapon. Dual-wielding two of the previously mentioned ridiculously large weapons is a betrayal to my personal image of the Warrior class, and therefore I cannot condone such behavior on my own Warrior. I don't meant to say that those who spec fury are wrong, or of lesser intelligence, or even lesser moral values. I am just saying that the Warriors I play, will be arms, as it reflects my beliefs on what is considered a Warrior, and what is considered a decked out rogue who got a big head and thinks he can wear platemail and can dual wield two-handed weapons without incurring the appropriate penalties to attack bonus and arcane spell failure.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Eltwopee, Warrior Extraordinaire
Eltwopee, the Tauren Warrior of awesomeness and beer has reached level 80 and finally made his debut at the end of the Lich King's reign. I am still a newb at PvP on my warrior, however I plan to fix that soon. I've been watching Hoodrych's videos which are ridiculously well made videos, mainly because they preserve everything about the fights that are captured. All of the team's conversations are in tact so you can hear how they call target switches, and it helps encourage communication between players in new teams.
With respect to the previous paragraph, I must say this: I've heard plenty of people say that once you get to a higher level of doing arenas you don't need to talk because you know what your team is going to do already. I can honestly say that this is a failure of logic, as I've done arenas at a 2k rating in TBC on my ret paladin in Season 3 and 4 (did ret paladin/frost mage) and I can honestly say that we were constantly talking during the fights, and if we stopped communicating we lost. It's very important to keep your teammates filled in on what is happening in the areas of the arena they can't see. Anyways, I guess what I am trying to say is that just because you have a good team, or a good partner, doesn't mean that you shouldn't stop talking and coordinating your attacks. Sure you might be good if you stay quiet during an entire match, but unless you are using telepathy, proper verbal communication will always make your team more effective.
Anyways, back to the Warrior of awesomeness and beer. I'm currently building my PvP set with the welfare gear available to me, and I duel people when I get the chance, to supplement the lack of experience at 1v1 matches on my Warrior. Honestly, it's disheartening to see myself get rocked so easily sometimes, and I'm not really sure if it's a lack of resilience, skill, or just the fact that the new talents/abilities from the pre-cata patch have just completely made the game imba in favor of classes other than Warriors. Also, the main classes I end up dueling are Mages... and Rogues.... Both of which seem to be able to keep me locked down so long that I can't really do anything at all. For Mages, I know for certain I can play better, as I am only now starting to remember I have this great ability called Shield Reflect. As for Rogues... Well I don't really know what to do besides hope that with their 45% dodge (without cooldowns), they don't dodge my disarm and every other freaking attack I throw at them besides Overpowers when I'm not completely locked down due to stuns and blind.
On the bright side, I have a friend who seems to be a good luck charm in Battlegrounds. About 99% of the Battlegrounds we do together we win, so it helps with overall morale and quick acquisition of Honor Points to snag another piece of the unfortunately oh so easy to get Wrathful Gladiator's set pieces (minus shoulders and uber weapons of course).
My last complaint for the night is that even though there are no seasons of arenas going on right now, they should keep the skirmishes open... Honestly, I think that it would be quite a bit of fun to mess around in arenas on my newb Warrior, even if they're skirmishes against complete newblets, I could still practice to develop muscle memory and situational awareness, and try Intervening Kidney Shots and other sorts of things. Oh well, I guess I just need to wait for Cataclysm to come out.
Oh last words, I must also thank my cousin for being my pocket healer in Battlegrounds, as I completely own faces in them when I am given a healer. I can go against 3-4 players at a time of equivalent gear and decimate them most of the time. With that healer, I'm usually able to get away if things take a turn for the worst. So thank you my wonderful wonderful cousin, for keeping me alive when no one else cares. :D
With respect to the previous paragraph, I must say this: I've heard plenty of people say that once you get to a higher level of doing arenas you don't need to talk because you know what your team is going to do already. I can honestly say that this is a failure of logic, as I've done arenas at a 2k rating in TBC on my ret paladin in Season 3 and 4 (did ret paladin/frost mage) and I can honestly say that we were constantly talking during the fights, and if we stopped communicating we lost. It's very important to keep your teammates filled in on what is happening in the areas of the arena they can't see. Anyways, I guess what I am trying to say is that just because you have a good team, or a good partner, doesn't mean that you shouldn't stop talking and coordinating your attacks. Sure you might be good if you stay quiet during an entire match, but unless you are using telepathy, proper verbal communication will always make your team more effective.
Anyways, back to the Warrior of awesomeness and beer. I'm currently building my PvP set with the welfare gear available to me, and I duel people when I get the chance, to supplement the lack of experience at 1v1 matches on my Warrior. Honestly, it's disheartening to see myself get rocked so easily sometimes, and I'm not really sure if it's a lack of resilience, skill, or just the fact that the new talents/abilities from the pre-cata patch have just completely made the game imba in favor of classes other than Warriors. Also, the main classes I end up dueling are Mages... and Rogues.... Both of which seem to be able to keep me locked down so long that I can't really do anything at all. For Mages, I know for certain I can play better, as I am only now starting to remember I have this great ability called Shield Reflect. As for Rogues... Well I don't really know what to do besides hope that with their 45% dodge (without cooldowns), they don't dodge my disarm and every other freaking attack I throw at them besides Overpowers when I'm not completely locked down due to stuns and blind.
On the bright side, I have a friend who seems to be a good luck charm in Battlegrounds. About 99% of the Battlegrounds we do together we win, so it helps with overall morale and quick acquisition of Honor Points to snag another piece of the unfortunately oh so easy to get Wrathful Gladiator's set pieces (minus shoulders and uber weapons of course).
My last complaint for the night is that even though there are no seasons of arenas going on right now, they should keep the skirmishes open... Honestly, I think that it would be quite a bit of fun to mess around in arenas on my newb Warrior, even if they're skirmishes against complete newblets, I could still practice to develop muscle memory and situational awareness, and try Intervening Kidney Shots and other sorts of things. Oh well, I guess I just need to wait for Cataclysm to come out.
Oh last words, I must also thank my cousin for being my pocket healer in Battlegrounds, as I completely own faces in them when I am given a healer. I can go against 3-4 players at a time of equivalent gear and decimate them most of the time. With that healer, I'm usually able to get away if things take a turn for the worst. So thank you my wonderful wonderful cousin, for keeping me alive when no one else cares. :D
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Deran, He Who Is Awesome (well, that's what my friends say)
So... I play World of Warcraft. I started in Vanilla, during patch 1.8, and have played on and off until the present. This might not sound that odd to some of you, which is fine, because it's not really that odd to play WoW anymore. Normally I only play on PvP servers, as I enjoy world PvP much more than not. My first level 60 was a Human Paladin. I played him for a few months, and then decided to reroll with some friends on a fresh new server. I, *again*, rolled a Paladin (this time out of necessity, as we were going to raid as soon as possible and since I was extremely familiar with the class and was also very fast at leveling we thought I would be able to power level my friends), who was soon level 60. We started raiding and after a few months, the server died, as most of the alliance population transferred off to other servers. This second Paladin was known as Siegfried. He was soon transferred to an RP realm with the remnants of his guild, where he experienced all sorts of end game PvE content, however his desire for PvP was too great and eventually he couldn't take it on the RP realm any longer.
This is when Burning Crusade launched. I hadn't played for 2-3 months and I thought I had finally had enough of WoW. One day, my friend tells me he is rolling horde on a server with his brother and some of their friends. I think about it for a day or two and I give in. I bought Burning Crusade, logged in and went to character creation. Before the launch of Burning Crusade, I had been anticipating the release of Blood Elves, and was hoping to make a Warrior (this was before it was announced that Blood Elves would not be able to be Warriors). As I was creating my Blood Elf, fully sold on playing a Warrior, I noticed that Warrior was not a selectable class. I had a bit of a conniption over this for a few minutes, and then I looked at what classes they COULD play as because the best class was not available (ie. Warrior). I wanted to play a class that used a large weapon and brought the pain. Looking through all of the classes available, there was nothing.... But the next closest thing was... that's right a Paladin. So, as I double check to make sure warrior is not actually hiding from me in some way, I finalize my character creation. That's right, my third Paladin. This was the one to be known as Deran (and quite possibly the most important reason as to why people think I'm special, having 3 Paladins that were all max level during the time they were active).
Now, I don't know where my friends started getting the idea that I was a badass, or that I could do anything, or that if I got into a staring contest with a rock, it would run away while peeing it's pants... All I know is that being my third Paladin, I had played on the PTR constantly (literally whenever it was available), researching in-depth about class mechanics and PvP strategy. I wasn't a "god" at PvP, I was just better than average. I practiced many long hours against the people I knew were good, preferably the best, but the best weren't always available. I lived through the age of the Reckoning Bomb, and dropped a few on my enemies. I saw the emergence of Crusader Strike and saw everyone QQ about how powerful Retribution Paladins were. I saw Blizzard swing the nerf bat with mighty vengeance at an ability that had been proven to be balanced at level 70, just because the player base complained that it wasn't balanced at level 60 (that's right it was a Burning Crusade talent that was created to be balanced at level 70, not 60). Of course the other classes that had abilities that seemed over powered weren't touched, but Crusader Strike got what I liked to call 'pwnt.' Now, imagine an ability that would be considered balanced. Now double it's cooldown. That is essentially what happened to Crusader Strike. It took until Arena Season 3 for Blizzard to get off their high horse and admit they made an atrocious mistake, finally rebalancing Crusader Strike to the way it had been during the Burning Crusade prelaunch, beta, and PTR. Blizzard finally started showing the Retribution Paladin a little favor. I can't tell you how many times the Retribution Paladin has seen the short end of the stick, but I can honestly say it has been far too many.
Now, don't get me wrong, Retribution Paladins weren't useless lumps of coal sitting on the side of the road taking up space. They were worse than that. Honestly, until late in Burning Crusade, most people would scoff at the mere mention of the Retribution talent tree, not to mention someone who actually decided to spec deep in to the tree (horde was actually more accepting of Retribution Paladins, as Paladins were new to the horde and much was unknown by the player base and seemed to play things more by ear with the new expansion rather than letting old stigmas get in the way). I have played holy, prot and ret since vanilla, and I can honestly say that until the prelaunch of Burning Crusade (patch 2.0), Retribution Paladins were a sad lot (although prot might have been much sadder, with no way to regain their mana besides drinking and potions). Now, I didn't mean to get sidetracked from my tale, but this just is here to give you a feel that I did indeed experience what I described above. Anyways, I ended up joining a PvP guild on my server, with the recommendation of my friend. That guild was Martha Stewart. During the application process they liked what they saw in battlegrounds and I was officially the first Retribution Paladin in Martha Stewart (main spec at 70 anyways). I ended up with a great 2v2s partner by the name of Savarok, who pushed me to learn more and more, and build better reactions and muscle memory. I will never forget the arenas with Savarok, the glory of winning against an impossible match up, and the horrible sinking feeling in your stomach when you lost against that impossible matchup and there was nothing you could since it was the same as rock paper scissors. I'm not sure where I started becoming a legend in the eyes of those around me, but stories started spreading, posts started appearing, and local defense started buzzing. My adventures in Stranglethorn Vale during the fishing tournament brought me some attention on the forums, and a friend of mine who was dual-boxing was monitoring Local Defense and General chat, and apparently I was all everyone was talking about on the Alliance that day. The badass Paladin with the s3 greatsword wrecking everyone he came across.
I will stop that tangent right now, as I didn't save the posts from the old forums, and I didn't save the screenshots my friend took of the Alliance chats, but honestly it doesn't matter if you believe me or not. My friends remember those times, and to me that is enough. The point of this isn't to tell you how cool I am or anything of the sort, it is just there to give you a little idea of my background in this game. And at this point I would like to clarify something. I am not here trying to say I know more about this game than others, or debate the merits of one spec over another. What I am trying to do is tell you how awesome Warriors are.
Now, I know you might have started to see this coming from the beginning, but then forgot due to the large rant, but now I'm back on track. Deran, the freaking awesome Paladin that did a little pwning of faces has considered putting down the mantle of "Paladin only" and picking up the mantle of "Unstoppable killing machine." By unstoppable killing machine, I was referring to how most people who started to read this are probably dead from boredom at my unstoppable ranting and run-on sentences. Anyways, I just wanted to say that although Paladins are awesome, you've got another thing coming if you think Warriors are washed up (it's what my friends keep on saying for some reason). Geared up and ready for Cataclysm, my Warrior will be ready to start rocking faces in arena, regardless of how over/underpowered they might be. I'm bringing back what Siegfried (my second paladin) stood for, which is that just because someone says nobody has every done something before, doesn't mean you can't do it, it literally just means no one has ever done it before and you'll just be the first! (this is referring to my tanking adventures in Vanilla WoW when I was told Paladins can't tank raids, which they most certainly could if geared and played properly).
Anyways, I guess I'll just end my rant here and say this: "Get ready to Eltwopee"
Afterthoughts: After looking over this post, I think I've started to understand why my friends think I'm so "epic" and it might have more to do with how long winded I am instead of how good I was/am at playing a Paladin...
More Afterthoughts: My cousin felt left out because I didn't specifically mention her, so I'll add right now that I coordinated rolling on the horde server with her, after my hiatus from Vanilla WoW.
This is when Burning Crusade launched. I hadn't played for 2-3 months and I thought I had finally had enough of WoW. One day, my friend tells me he is rolling horde on a server with his brother and some of their friends. I think about it for a day or two and I give in. I bought Burning Crusade, logged in and went to character creation. Before the launch of Burning Crusade, I had been anticipating the release of Blood Elves, and was hoping to make a Warrior (this was before it was announced that Blood Elves would not be able to be Warriors). As I was creating my Blood Elf, fully sold on playing a Warrior, I noticed that Warrior was not a selectable class. I had a bit of a conniption over this for a few minutes, and then I looked at what classes they COULD play as because the best class was not available (ie. Warrior). I wanted to play a class that used a large weapon and brought the pain. Looking through all of the classes available, there was nothing.... But the next closest thing was... that's right a Paladin. So, as I double check to make sure warrior is not actually hiding from me in some way, I finalize my character creation. That's right, my third Paladin. This was the one to be known as Deran (and quite possibly the most important reason as to why people think I'm special, having 3 Paladins that were all max level during the time they were active).
Now, I don't know where my friends started getting the idea that I was a badass, or that I could do anything, or that if I got into a staring contest with a rock, it would run away while peeing it's pants... All I know is that being my third Paladin, I had played on the PTR constantly (literally whenever it was available), researching in-depth about class mechanics and PvP strategy. I wasn't a "god" at PvP, I was just better than average. I practiced many long hours against the people I knew were good, preferably the best, but the best weren't always available. I lived through the age of the Reckoning Bomb, and dropped a few on my enemies. I saw the emergence of Crusader Strike and saw everyone QQ about how powerful Retribution Paladins were. I saw Blizzard swing the nerf bat with mighty vengeance at an ability that had been proven to be balanced at level 70, just because the player base complained that it wasn't balanced at level 60 (that's right it was a Burning Crusade talent that was created to be balanced at level 70, not 60). Of course the other classes that had abilities that seemed over powered weren't touched, but Crusader Strike got what I liked to call 'pwnt.' Now, imagine an ability that would be considered balanced. Now double it's cooldown. That is essentially what happened to Crusader Strike. It took until Arena Season 3 for Blizzard to get off their high horse and admit they made an atrocious mistake, finally rebalancing Crusader Strike to the way it had been during the Burning Crusade prelaunch, beta, and PTR. Blizzard finally started showing the Retribution Paladin a little favor. I can't tell you how many times the Retribution Paladin has seen the short end of the stick, but I can honestly say it has been far too many.
Now, don't get me wrong, Retribution Paladins weren't useless lumps of coal sitting on the side of the road taking up space. They were worse than that. Honestly, until late in Burning Crusade, most people would scoff at the mere mention of the Retribution talent tree, not to mention someone who actually decided to spec deep in to the tree (horde was actually more accepting of Retribution Paladins, as Paladins were new to the horde and much was unknown by the player base and seemed to play things more by ear with the new expansion rather than letting old stigmas get in the way). I have played holy, prot and ret since vanilla, and I can honestly say that until the prelaunch of Burning Crusade (patch 2.0), Retribution Paladins were a sad lot (although prot might have been much sadder, with no way to regain their mana besides drinking and potions). Now, I didn't mean to get sidetracked from my tale, but this just is here to give you a feel that I did indeed experience what I described above. Anyways, I ended up joining a PvP guild on my server, with the recommendation of my friend. That guild was Martha Stewart. During the application process they liked what they saw in battlegrounds and I was officially the first Retribution Paladin in Martha Stewart (main spec at 70 anyways). I ended up with a great 2v2s partner by the name of Savarok, who pushed me to learn more and more, and build better reactions and muscle memory. I will never forget the arenas with Savarok, the glory of winning against an impossible match up, and the horrible sinking feeling in your stomach when you lost against that impossible matchup and there was nothing you could since it was the same as rock paper scissors. I'm not sure where I started becoming a legend in the eyes of those around me, but stories started spreading, posts started appearing, and local defense started buzzing. My adventures in Stranglethorn Vale during the fishing tournament brought me some attention on the forums, and a friend of mine who was dual-boxing was monitoring Local Defense and General chat, and apparently I was all everyone was talking about on the Alliance that day. The badass Paladin with the s3 greatsword wrecking everyone he came across.
I will stop that tangent right now, as I didn't save the posts from the old forums, and I didn't save the screenshots my friend took of the Alliance chats, but honestly it doesn't matter if you believe me or not. My friends remember those times, and to me that is enough. The point of this isn't to tell you how cool I am or anything of the sort, it is just there to give you a little idea of my background in this game. And at this point I would like to clarify something. I am not here trying to say I know more about this game than others, or debate the merits of one spec over another. What I am trying to do is tell you how awesome Warriors are.
Now, I know you might have started to see this coming from the beginning, but then forgot due to the large rant, but now I'm back on track. Deran, the freaking awesome Paladin that did a little pwning of faces has considered putting down the mantle of "Paladin only" and picking up the mantle of "Unstoppable killing machine." By unstoppable killing machine, I was referring to how most people who started to read this are probably dead from boredom at my unstoppable ranting and run-on sentences. Anyways, I just wanted to say that although Paladins are awesome, you've got another thing coming if you think Warriors are washed up (it's what my friends keep on saying for some reason). Geared up and ready for Cataclysm, my Warrior will be ready to start rocking faces in arena, regardless of how over/underpowered they might be. I'm bringing back what Siegfried (my second paladin) stood for, which is that just because someone says nobody has every done something before, doesn't mean you can't do it, it literally just means no one has ever done it before and you'll just be the first! (this is referring to my tanking adventures in Vanilla WoW when I was told Paladins can't tank raids, which they most certainly could if geared and played properly).
Anyways, I guess I'll just end my rant here and say this: "Get ready to Eltwopee"
Afterthoughts: After looking over this post, I think I've started to understand why my friends think I'm so "epic" and it might have more to do with how long winded I am instead of how good I was/am at playing a Paladin...
More Afterthoughts: My cousin felt left out because I didn't specifically mention her, so I'll add right now that I coordinated rolling on the horde server with her, after my hiatus from Vanilla WoW.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)