Running triple melee, we were confined to too much of an offensive mindset to notice the fact that we were up against a 4-DPS team who went directly for the Warrior instagib. The only person who saw this early enough was our Warrior, who retreated back into our room to slow down the opposing team's offense. By the time we'd picked up on what was happening, our Druid was dead and our Warrior was running around the coffin with a sword and board Spell Reflecting and trying to stay alive. By then it was too late and in less than two minutes we were handed our first and only loss for the night.
Looking back at the game, we tried to pick apart everything that went wrong about that two minute game in a discussion that lasted well over an hour. I looked at my performance and kicked myself for not picking up on the adjustment fast enough to hole in with our Warrior, who knew what we were up against right away. We were sloppy from the get-go, losing our positioning and -- by the standards against which we were put, a 4-DPS team -- overextended ourselves by moving out of our starting area and LOSing each other. Sure enough, triple melee already has its own problems with 4-DPS, particularly one of that caliber, and we ran through everything that could have been and needed to be done.
From choosing the right target -- Armory revealed that the Priest had 12k health and was sitting on 473 Resilience, hardly the ideal target in that set-up -- to countercomping, we tried to pick apart everything about the game. Maybe the Mage with 10k health and 400 Resilience might have been a wiser choice, considering he'd overextended himself by Blinking into the room with our Warrior. We'd considered going back to our regular 2345 or 2346 and even considered a triple healer countercomp. We ran the scenarios through our heads over and over and over looking at how we could beat that team.
In the end, we called it for the night, content with a 4 point gain from the previous evening. The post-game analysis is one of the most important phases in playing Arenas. After every game, we dissect what we did, even when we win. We look at how we could have played better, from constructive criticism to our team leader's constant (albeit oddly helpful) nerd raging. Personally, it's one of the things I enjoy the most about the game... picking apart our matches and figuring out how we can do better, constantly looking for ways to take our game to the next level. How about you? How does your team dissect your game and play? What teams and comps give your team the most trouble?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-28-2008 @ 12:42PM
Kassius said...
question, wot does 2345 (or 2346) mean? enlighten me as to your pvp jargon plz :D nice article, post arena discussion for me usually consists of: "Sry for dropping wrong trap, anyone for a heroic?"
Arena stresses me out
Reply
4-28-2008 @ 12:53PM
Rick said...
2345 is disc priest/holy pally/frost mage/elemental shaman/MS warrior
2346 swaps the mage with a lock
It come from Pandemic's 5v5 setup. The shaman was quoted as saying he just hit's 2345 to win and the names just stuck.
4-28-2008 @ 12:43PM
Buuty said...
Arenas are ruining WoW....
Reply
4-28-2008 @ 3:05PM
Jeriel said...
Please elaborate.
And doing a debriefing after a match is essential for improvement. Same goes for PvE content, you need to discuss what went doing after a wipe etc.
I'm a big fan of PvP, my MMO before this was Guildwars, and we did pretty good (record was #26 guild in world rankings). That included knowing the game in and out, and watching what other top guilds are doing.
4-28-2008 @ 12:49PM
native said...
@ 2
/agree
Reply
4-28-2008 @ 12:54PM
Jagoex said...
When I casually dabbled in the Arena for a short time, I found it quite easy to hammer down an exact problem that eventually led to a loss. A majority of the time, it simply came down to team composition; basically an issue of rock, paper, scissors. It was frustrating to lose just because a team consisted of our team's anti-classes... not because they had more skill.
The Arena is dynamic, but until it emphasizes class balance above all else, issues like this are a mute point imho.
http://jagoex.blogspot.com
Reply
4-28-2008 @ 2:06PM
shiplore said...
*moot* point.
4-28-2008 @ 2:21PM
Jagoex said...
Bah, darn motor memory...
Yes, moot point. Sorry for the typo. =)
4-28-2008 @ 7:59PM
Den said...
PVE has a strong emphasis on class composition as well (2nd boss in heroic Mech as 3 melee or as 3 casters, you choose... Huhuran in AQ40, hunters become a sweet addition for the Nature resist - the list goes on)
How do you learn and drop a new boss in PVE? Keep playing through the wipes. Basically a large time investment.
Guess what Arena is the same - how do you get past being counter comp'ed? Keep playing. How do you minimize the effect of the RGN on your win/loss ratio? Keep playing. 96 games in a weekend and I'm now enjoying my 2k rating.
The real skill in arena is beating the teams you are supposed to lose to pulling off these wins is what will get you past the 1700s. That will only come with time played.
Blizzard just needs to work out a way to stop all the exploiting and S4 is looking like a good start on that. And yes, PVE is also full of exploiting and welfare epics too (I loved leveling in ZG and getting epic gear for it, hello welfare!). On exploiting anyone remember "Overrated"?
http://au.gamespot.com/news/6160983.html
If you aren't good at arena and you don't like it don't do it and please don't cry about it
ps:
By the way Jagoex, as a lock (which I assume from your blog) find your self a good balance druid and the only team you CAN"T beat is double UNDEAD rogue. Yes there are a lot of them, but not enough to stop you being very successful.
4-28-2008 @ 1:00PM
Badger said...
Arena requires organized, it's true, but still ... Try not to take it too seriously, Zach.
When it stops being fun, it stops being worth the effort.
Reply
4-28-2008 @ 1:00PM
Badger said...
Arena requires organization, it's true, but still ... Try not to take it too seriously, Zach.
When it stops being fun, it stops being worth the effort.
Reply
4-28-2008 @ 1:01PM
Badger said...
God I *HATE* this network connection. Stupid double posts.
4-28-2008 @ 1:21PM
Fadmin said...
Well, a couple more posts by you (5 or so), then some by mushroom and we'll be set. Snake can post later....
4-28-2008 @ 2:21PM
Badger said...
/cower
A SNAKE, A SNAKE!
SNAAAAAKE! IT'S A SNAAAAAKE!
WHOOOA, IT'S A SNAAAAAKE ...
4-28-2008 @ 2:10PM
Badge said...
issues like this are a mute point imho.
http://jagoex.blogspot.com
L2English before you blog pls
Reply
4-28-2008 @ 2:21PM
Heilig said...
again, the point is *moot*, not mute. L2english before you blog, please.
4-28-2008 @ 2:23PM
Jagoex said...
Already corrected above by shiplore. But thanks for linking my blog again. ;)
4-28-2008 @ 2:51PM
Badger said...
Hehe ... Nothing wrong with a little shameless self-promotion, right Jago? :-D
4-28-2008 @ 3:35PM
Rihahn said...
I say the following as someone who had the option of putting "Duelist" after my shaman's name in Season 1 - though I tend to stick with either "Champion of the Naaru" or "Centurion" these days.
I think the biggest thing Arena has going for it is that it appeals to shorter attention spans. It is also designed to appeal to the 'facebook' generation where personal worth is measured by a number on a web page.
For example: A full-on raid can require 24 other people, several hours of attention, planning, and coordination - and therefore several hours of time. And what do you get when you win? A sense of accomplishment for having solved the raid encounter, perhaps a piece of gear to make the next raid encounter easier, and a repair bill... If you loose you get a repair bill and the loss of several hours of time.
There is no *public* quantifying measurement of 'success' or 'fail' in raiding (outside of world and server firsts) - you either beat the encounter, or you didn't.
Meanwhile an arena match requires 1, 2, or 4 other people, queues up in about 3 minutes, and is over 5 minutes after that. The reward when you win? If you loose? Nothing, because everything is averaged over the week...
There's no real risk versus reward in Arenas - even if you loose, you only loose 10-15 minutes of play time. You don't even loose any of those precious points on that web site for that one lost game - unless you don't play another one and win that week.
And this appeals to a lot of people obviously, which is all fine and dandy.
So both aspects of WoW are legitimate and fun, but I don't think they will ever reconcile the diffrences between the types of players that each appeals to - and by breaking one to promote the other, they are opening one immense can of worms...
In my humble opinion at any rate.
Reply
4-28-2008 @ 6:00PM
RG-Rhodin said...
What I do not always like about raids is that they always seem like a Rubik's cube of sorts. Get the right makeup, get the right gear from earlier raids, get the right buffs, you stand there, he stands there, cast this sequence, run over here when the boss hits 50%, and viola! Do it enough and you have your very own oversized Loot pinata.
Also, with larger guilds, (and Kara was a good example of this) some "leet" raiders were so intent on advancement with a core that lesser mortals in the guilds were left behind, or not all could join because "we have enough DPS" or healers or whatever. Maybe they lacked patience and were facebooky?
Have you played Arena? Who plays one game and then stops? And we do get repair bills, maybe not as great as raids, but so what? And as a serious (poor, but getting better) Arena player, I assure you I am far beyond the facebook generation, Herr Smug.
What Arena offers me is a challenging fight against different teams that react like intelligent beings, not one that has an unhealthy and silly uncontrollable attraction for a shiny metal pantsuit or tattooed fur. Certain combination have advantages, but each fight is different, often ferocious and challenging, and allows me to explore parts of my toon's race and class in ways that raids never did.
And believe me, I feel no better after going 2 - 8 in arena than I do when the mobs before the last boss kick my groups butt all night. And I feel no less satisfaction then when beating a team that coughs up 21 points.
I get so tired of folks saying raiding is leet, and arena is day care. I wish they would not let judgments fly until they put equal amounts of time into both.