Another week and only time for the minimum 10 games once again.
As with the previous week, almost every team we saw dramatically out geared us. It gets a little tedious to consistently see people with 20-30% more health and seeing your folks start to drop before you can get one of theirs down.
We're definitely having to play better than them to win. We managed to swing a 4-6 record this week though, so we're learning. I have to say, it's quite satisfying to beat a team that clearly out gears you and/or out comps you.
Our rating crawled a bit closer to 1500. It does beg the question - have we obtained everything we can gear-wise for our current rating? That sounds like an excellent future post.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
[3.2] School of Hard Knocks - Fire BAD Week 5
Ouch, this was not a fun week. We're not sure if it was just another case of heavily-geared and experienced 3v3s marrying 2v2s that also liked long walks on the beach, but something was up.
Once again, we started later than planned and once again limited to the minimum 10 matches. Unfortunately, we ended up losing most of them. It got really old hearing "they're in full Relentless" or "those are Gladiator weapons" or "damn that's a lotta Health". I think we fought a couple with similar gear, but it seemed to be the oddity. I think we ended up only winning 2 out of 8.
Now, we did lose a couple that we probably should have won, there is not doubt. We were simply not on our game last night. That said, I think that if we played to the limit of our ability, we would have been very lucky to win 5 of the 10. In many ways, it felt too much like when we started.
But in some important ways, it did not. We are able to weather alpha strikes a bit better. However, we could still feel the gear mismatch, as the alpha strikes burned too many CDs and focused so much of our attention on healing that my CC was dramatically reduced.
Our gear and ability are getting to the point where the surprise of a team with four DPS is less of an issue. We weather the damage, get some CC going, and proceed to get to work.
Gimmicky teams, especially with the gear we faced, still gave us some issues. We faced a team with three Rogues. We managed to weather the alpha strike, but our DPS was too split up, a consequence of having 3 Stealthers appear suddenly - coordinating your damage onto one with great effect is a little more challenging. And you could see it, as Sistajuju dropped, all the Rogues had some damage and one was half dead. Not sure what would have solved that short of /assist macros; maybe we need to consider that.
On the bright (?) side, we stayed in the 1400 bracket, and I should finally have enough points to buy a Relentless armor piece (Gloves).
I wonder if Monday has become a bad day for arenas, given that we were usually outgeared, no matter how much we lost. We have little choice in the day we schedule, though, as there is generally exactly one day that we can all play. That day is changing to Saturday, so here's hoping there is a broader group of teams then.
Once again, we started later than planned and once again limited to the minimum 10 matches. Unfortunately, we ended up losing most of them. It got really old hearing "they're in full Relentless" or "those are Gladiator weapons" or "damn that's a lotta Health". I think we fought a couple with similar gear, but it seemed to be the oddity. I think we ended up only winning 2 out of 8.
Now, we did lose a couple that we probably should have won, there is not doubt. We were simply not on our game last night. That said, I think that if we played to the limit of our ability, we would have been very lucky to win 5 of the 10. In many ways, it felt too much like when we started.
But in some important ways, it did not. We are able to weather alpha strikes a bit better. However, we could still feel the gear mismatch, as the alpha strikes burned too many CDs and focused so much of our attention on healing that my CC was dramatically reduced.
Our gear and ability are getting to the point where the surprise of a team with four DPS is less of an issue. We weather the damage, get some CC going, and proceed to get to work.
Gimmicky teams, especially with the gear we faced, still gave us some issues. We faced a team with three Rogues. We managed to weather the alpha strike, but our DPS was too split up, a consequence of having 3 Stealthers appear suddenly - coordinating your damage onto one with great effect is a little more challenging. And you could see it, as Sistajuju dropped, all the Rogues had some damage and one was half dead. Not sure what would have solved that short of /assist macros; maybe we need to consider that.
On the bright (?) side, we stayed in the 1400 bracket, and I should finally have enough points to buy a Relentless armor piece (Gloves).
I wonder if Monday has become a bad day for arenas, given that we were usually outgeared, no matter how much we lost. We have little choice in the day we schedule, though, as there is generally exactly one day that we can all play. That day is changing to Saturday, so here's hoping there is a broader group of teams then.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Taunt Glyphs
So, I was on a long journey through the interwebs, trying to figure out if, as a good Bear Tank, I needed the Glyph of Grow, which gives +8% Hit to Growl (the Druid Taunt). I found out that Taunts are fully and completely spells. As such, they require 17% Spell Hit.
I finally tracked down a solid, coherent exploration of this at TankSpot by Jere. If you are a Tank, you really need to read what they have to say. He did all of the experiments I would have done to verify his observations.
The good news:
- The +3% from Misery and Improved Faerie Fire help because Taunt is a spell. So, our progression raid target should be 14%, like any regular caster.
- Hit Rating gives more % Spell Hit than % Melee Hit, so you may have more than you think
Example, Skindancer decides to cap his Melee Hit Rating with 267 Hit Rating. Because Spell Hit goes farther, he actually has a +10.18% to his Spell Hit. Add on the +3% from IFF/Misery and he has about a 4% chance to miss with a Taunt. Add a Glyph of Growl and that chance to miss goes away.
Taunt Glyphs Are Not For Dungeons and Raid Trash
Keep in mind that for a level 82 mob, you should only need 6% Spell Hit. That means most Tanks are hit-capped (or very near it) on Taunt for Heroics and Trash. A Tank would only need 158 Hit Rating to be capped on Taunts for Dungeon bosses and Raid Trash.
Closing Thoughts
I was surprised that I did not already know this. But I was less surprised when I saw how pervasive this lack of information is, as well as the misinformation about the topic. Jere did a great a great job on explaining Taunt mechanics and I highly recommend reading his post.
Moral of the story - if you are going to Progression Tank, consider getting the Glyph. You don't want to wipe on Heroic Gormokk because you missed a Taunt. If you have a fair amount of Hit on your gear, you can likely live without it, and it might cause a wipe, but it's probably not a *must have* Glyph unless you are frequently engaged in Gormok-like encounters.
My solution? Well, as of late, +Hit gear has been popping up a bit, so I am capping my Hit for melee and declaring success. More Threat and a more reliable Taunt, even if there is a 4% chance it will miss. If Taunt reliability becomes more crucial, I will be ready.
That said, I have a Glyph of Growl in my mail at all times...just in case.
I finally tracked down a solid, coherent exploration of this at TankSpot by Jere. If you are a Tank, you really need to read what they have to say. He did all of the experiments I would have done to verify his observations.
The good news:
- The +3% from Misery and Improved Faerie Fire help because Taunt is a spell. So, our progression raid target should be 14%, like any regular caster.
- Hit Rating gives more % Spell Hit than % Melee Hit, so you may have more than you think
Example, Skindancer decides to cap his Melee Hit Rating with 267 Hit Rating. Because Spell Hit goes farther, he actually has a +10.18% to his Spell Hit. Add on the +3% from IFF/Misery and he has about a 4% chance to miss with a Taunt. Add a Glyph of Growl and that chance to miss goes away.
Taunt Glyphs Are Not For Dungeons and Raid Trash
Keep in mind that for a level 82 mob, you should only need 6% Spell Hit. That means most Tanks are hit-capped (or very near it) on Taunt for Heroics and Trash. A Tank would only need 158 Hit Rating to be capped on Taunts for Dungeon bosses and Raid Trash.
Closing Thoughts
I was surprised that I did not already know this. But I was less surprised when I saw how pervasive this lack of information is, as well as the misinformation about the topic. Jere did a great a great job on explaining Taunt mechanics and I highly recommend reading his post.
Moral of the story - if you are going to Progression Tank, consider getting the Glyph. You don't want to wipe on Heroic Gormokk because you missed a Taunt. If you have a fair amount of Hit on your gear, you can likely live without it, and it might cause a wipe, but it's probably not a *must have* Glyph unless you are frequently engaged in Gormok-like encounters.
My solution? Well, as of late, +Hit gear has been popping up a bit, so I am capping my Hit for melee and declaring success. More Threat and a more reliable Taunt, even if there is a 4% chance it will miss. If Taunt reliability becomes more crucial, I will be ready.
That said, I have a Glyph of Growl in my mail at all times...just in case.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Pandaren Monk Pet - Get It, 'nuff Said
The Pandaren Monk pet has finally manifested!
I remember when I first saw a video of it. I immediately wanted one NOW.
Well, Blizz has finally released the pet, but in a novel way. You buy it. No, you don't buy a trading card, or spend your time on the sites of a soda company. You buy it directly from Blizz.
I am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing, but I don't care right now. $10 is a small price to pay for such a cool pet. And for the Pandaren Monk, half of the proceeds are going to charity through the end of 2009, so if you are going to buy it, buy it soon.
One of the nice features of it is that it responds. When you see one try /bow.
Lil' KT was also released, and I got it, but the Monk outshines him. Rest assured, if you don't buy one, you will definitely see a lot in-game that you can check out.
Such an awesome pet. I would love to see Blizzard make all of the pets responsive. /dream
I remember when I first saw a video of it. I immediately wanted one NOW.
Well, Blizz has finally released the pet, but in a novel way. You buy it. No, you don't buy a trading card, or spend your time on the sites of a soda company. You buy it directly from Blizz.
I am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing, but I don't care right now. $10 is a small price to pay for such a cool pet. And for the Pandaren Monk, half of the proceeds are going to charity through the end of 2009, so if you are going to buy it, buy it soon.
One of the nice features of it is that it responds. When you see one try /bow.
Lil' KT was also released, and I got it, but the Monk outshines him. Rest assured, if you don't buy one, you will definitely see a lot in-game that you can check out.
Such an awesome pet. I would love to see Blizzard make all of the pets responsive. /dream
Monday, November 2, 2009
The Hybrid Tax - Are Hybrids Meant to Only Heal and Tank?
Ghostcrawler speaks of the "Hybrid Tax" in this post. It's an interesting concept and not every surprising if you have spent any length of time objectively pondering game balance.
In a nutshell, if pure DPS classes don't have the capacity to do more damage than hybrid classes, then folks would be more likely to abandon pure classes to take up hybrid classes so they could have their cake and eat it too.
That all sounds very reasonable, but it is interesting to ponder the converse...hybrids abandoning DPS roles because they want to be excel at what they do and have no desire to have a hard cap on their ability to excel with respect to their DPS peers.
So, it begs the question - does Blizzard want all hybrids to be Tanks and Healers?
I have an interesting data point for that - me.
I played my Druid as pure Feral for well over 95% of the time he has been played. I dabbled in Moonkin when it was best for the raid (9 melee on Kel-Thuzad is a bit much and no Moonkin buff made the Mages cry). Then, somewhat recently, I spent a couple of months as a Tree.
I find that Moonkin DPS is not as hard as Cat, but still a little twitchy compared to other Casters, given the twisting rotation driven by random Eclipse buffs. Rapidly and correctly responding when its time to change rotations is vital to maintaining DPS and considerably more stressful than refreshing an effect with a known duration while spamming a spell. That makes the hard-wired ability to not beat other casters of equal gear and skill somewhat frustrating, especially those that have a simpler rotation.
Although I can do great Cat DPS, I find it tedious, fragile, and jealous. Numerous buffs and debuffs to maintain. It's a nightmare if the Tank is fidgety. You do crap DPS if you can't flank the target (e.g., Kologarn). Your DPS takes time to ramp up, so target swapping devastates your performance. And, in high movement/reaction fights, the clockwork precision needed for maximum DPS can start to slip. That said, when it all comes together, I can challenge a Rogue's DPS...when it all comes together. But if the Rogue is equally geared and skilled, he should beat my DPS every time with half the effort; in fact, my buffs will help him do it.
Bear is a useful and competitive Tank. However, we have a smaller toolbox than most Tanks. That said, Bears are strong Tanks and I have never felt as though I was a sub-par Tank when raiding with the other Tank classes (Well, since The Burning Crusade).
Trees are great healers and still cling to their own special utility with a wide variety of HoTs.
So, it seems that with Druids, at least, you can more easily excel as a Tank or Healer.
And I find myself spec'd for Tank and Healer with no desire to drop either spec for Melee DPS or Caster DPS. The same is true of both of our Paladin Tanks. And the vast majority of Warriors that have applied to our guild over its history have been Tanks. Hmm...
Death Knights seem to be an exception, but I think it is diluted by their accessibility. It's easier to level a DK than even a Hunter. Many say DKs are the new Hunter, although they word it differently - Death Kn00bs are the new Huntard. DKs were also skewed by doing absurd amounts of damage early in the days of Wrath of the Lich King.
Now they have been nerfed to the point that they are often only doing as much DPS as other hybrid DPS classes (for shame!), I wonder if we'll see a lot less DPS DKs and a lot more Tanks. Maybe the lure of a quick path to maximum level and incredibly easy solo play will keep DPS DKs alive and well, or maybe they'll DPS in their "youth" and then yearn to Tank when they "grow up" and hit the end-game content. Only time will tell.
Force Multiplication
Hybrid DPS tends to provide good force multiplication, i.e., they tend to have abilities that increases the effectiveness of their fellow raid members. Unfortunately, there is no tab for that in Recount or on worldoflogs.com. So, it's not quite as satisfying, since, no matter how hard you work, you *should* never be the top DPS, unless all of the pure DPSers are out sick that day.
Challenge?
One nice thing, if you like it, is the challenge of *some* hybrid DPS. For those that bemoan the trivialization of content, I highly recommend Cat DPS. It's not too bad once you get a rhythm going, but it's nowhere near as easy as other DPS classes, combining all the twitchiness of melee with a complex spell priority that rivals or exceeds that of most casters.
Hybrid Horizon
Here's hoping Blizzard can keep the Hybrid DPS alive. It would be a shame to see any class/role combo fall into disuse because it's utility is simply not worth the effort.
In a nutshell, if pure DPS classes don't have the capacity to do more damage than hybrid classes, then folks would be more likely to abandon pure classes to take up hybrid classes so they could have their cake and eat it too.
That all sounds very reasonable, but it is interesting to ponder the converse...hybrids abandoning DPS roles because they want to be excel at what they do and have no desire to have a hard cap on their ability to excel with respect to their DPS peers.
So, it begs the question - does Blizzard want all hybrids to be Tanks and Healers?
I have an interesting data point for that - me.
I played my Druid as pure Feral for well over 95% of the time he has been played. I dabbled in Moonkin when it was best for the raid (9 melee on Kel-Thuzad is a bit much and no Moonkin buff made the Mages cry). Then, somewhat recently, I spent a couple of months as a Tree.
I find that Moonkin DPS is not as hard as Cat, but still a little twitchy compared to other Casters, given the twisting rotation driven by random Eclipse buffs. Rapidly and correctly responding when its time to change rotations is vital to maintaining DPS and considerably more stressful than refreshing an effect with a known duration while spamming a spell. That makes the hard-wired ability to not beat other casters of equal gear and skill somewhat frustrating, especially those that have a simpler rotation.
Although I can do great Cat DPS, I find it tedious, fragile, and jealous. Numerous buffs and debuffs to maintain. It's a nightmare if the Tank is fidgety. You do crap DPS if you can't flank the target (e.g., Kologarn). Your DPS takes time to ramp up, so target swapping devastates your performance. And, in high movement/reaction fights, the clockwork precision needed for maximum DPS can start to slip. That said, when it all comes together, I can challenge a Rogue's DPS...when it all comes together. But if the Rogue is equally geared and skilled, he should beat my DPS every time with half the effort; in fact, my buffs will help him do it.
Bear is a useful and competitive Tank. However, we have a smaller toolbox than most Tanks. That said, Bears are strong Tanks and I have never felt as though I was a sub-par Tank when raiding with the other Tank classes (Well, since The Burning Crusade).
Trees are great healers and still cling to their own special utility with a wide variety of HoTs.
So, it seems that with Druids, at least, you can more easily excel as a Tank or Healer.
And I find myself spec'd for Tank and Healer with no desire to drop either spec for Melee DPS or Caster DPS. The same is true of both of our Paladin Tanks. And the vast majority of Warriors that have applied to our guild over its history have been Tanks. Hmm...
Death Knights seem to be an exception, but I think it is diluted by their accessibility. It's easier to level a DK than even a Hunter. Many say DKs are the new Hunter, although they word it differently - Death Kn00bs are the new Huntard. DKs were also skewed by doing absurd amounts of damage early in the days of Wrath of the Lich King.
Now they have been nerfed to the point that they are often only doing as much DPS as other hybrid DPS classes (for shame!), I wonder if we'll see a lot less DPS DKs and a lot more Tanks. Maybe the lure of a quick path to maximum level and incredibly easy solo play will keep DPS DKs alive and well, or maybe they'll DPS in their "youth" and then yearn to Tank when they "grow up" and hit the end-game content. Only time will tell.
Force Multiplication
Hybrid DPS tends to provide good force multiplication, i.e., they tend to have abilities that increases the effectiveness of their fellow raid members. Unfortunately, there is no tab for that in Recount or on worldoflogs.com. So, it's not quite as satisfying, since, no matter how hard you work, you *should* never be the top DPS, unless all of the pure DPSers are out sick that day.
Challenge?
One nice thing, if you like it, is the challenge of *some* hybrid DPS. For those that bemoan the trivialization of content, I highly recommend Cat DPS. It's not too bad once you get a rhythm going, but it's nowhere near as easy as other DPS classes, combining all the twitchiness of melee with a complex spell priority that rivals or exceeds that of most casters.
Hybrid Horizon
Here's hoping Blizzard can keep the Hybrid DPS alive. It would be a shame to see any class/role combo fall into disuse because it's utility is simply not worth the effort.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Cataclysm Developer Chat
Over on WoW Insider, I saw this nifty developer chat.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/22/twitter-wow-developer-chat-liveblog/
/soapbox on
Now, I am no big fan of Twitter. In a nutshell, I feel it degrades the signal-to-noise ratio of humanity. Sure, there are special cases in which it can be useful, but for the most part it seems to be used for people to vomit human static into an already cluttered communication environment.
And this developer chat certainly could be done with any regular old chat application. So, the only role Twitter seems to play in this is promotion of Twitter. But I digress...
/soapbox off
LFG More Convenient?!
This is a little wacky:
Side thought: Cross-realm LFG will have an interesting impact on recruiting. On the one hand, you are considerably less likely to PUG up someone from your own Realm that might be a potential recruit for your guild. On the other hand, you have an opportunity to be exposed to potential recruits from multiple realms.
Less Uncertainty About Buying Into Low-End Tier Gear
I love that players can use Emblems of Triumph to pick a set of Tier gear, even if it is the lowest rank of Tier gear. I hate that those items are throw away pieces. I simply cannot bring myself to buy IL-232 Tier Gear when my guild is raiding ToC, even if I am good at math and I realize that it will likely be over 6 months before we get everyone a full set of Tier gear, since we can get a maximum of 5 Trophy of the Crusade drops in a given ToC raid, barring bonus drops from Heroic modes. The following was very welcome news:
Behold the Power of the Market
I wondered would become of the wonderful neutral cities run by Goblin cartels. Would they join the Horde and leave the Alliance hanging? Not likely, as that would kill the neutral cities in general. And here we have confirmation that they are going nowhere:
Redundancy for Authenticators
My wife and I are co-GMs for our guild, so we both bought authenticators, even though we are very careful and have never had even a hint of having our accounts compromised for close to 3.5 years of play before the authenticators. However, I worry about having my account depend on yet another device; it's one more part that can fail. So I was glad to read the following:
There was a lot more covered in the chat. Take a look! :)
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/22/twitter-wow-developer-chat-liveblog/
/soapbox on
Now, I am no big fan of Twitter. In a nutshell, I feel it degrades the signal-to-noise ratio of humanity. Sure, there are special cases in which it can be useful, but for the most part it seems to be used for people to vomit human static into an already cluttered communication environment.
And this developer chat certainly could be done with any regular old chat application. So, the only role Twitter seems to play in this is promotion of Twitter. But I digress...
/soapbox off
LFG More Convenient?!
This is a little wacky:
5:16pm CDT: Q: For Cross-realm LFG if the group is composed by members of other realms do they have to go on foot or will they be teleported?So, if you use LFG, you can run around doing whatever and you'll get ported to the instance when you have a group. WOW. This has two obvious consequences:
A: The current plan is for players using the LFG system to be automatically teleported into the instance, similar to how battleground queuing works today. This is active on the PTR now, and we plan to host a community event around this feature soon!
- Zero travel time to the instance
- No waiting around for 10 minutes because someone in the group just needs to do "this one thing" before you start
Side thought: Cross-realm LFG will have an interesting impact on recruiting. On the one hand, you are considerably less likely to PUG up someone from your own Realm that might be a potential recruit for your guild. On the other hand, you have an opportunity to be exposed to potential recruits from multiple realms.
Less Uncertainty About Buying Into Low-End Tier Gear
I love that players can use Emblems of Triumph to pick a set of Tier gear, even if it is the lowest rank of Tier gear. I hate that those items are throw away pieces. I simply cannot bring myself to buy IL-232 Tier Gear when my guild is raiding ToC, even if I am good at math and I realize that it will likely be over 6 months before we get everyone a full set of Tier gear, since we can get a maximum of 5 Trophy of the Crusade drops in a given ToC raid, barring bonus drops from Heroic modes. The following was very welcome news:
5:24pm CDT: Q: With T10, are we going to see tokens like in Ulduar? or like CC? CC style had every class and spec rolling on same thing.This means there will be no reason to hesitate to pick up the entry-level Tier gear, and that is great news.
A: With T10 we're going to see a hybrid. The tier 10 items (the ones with item levels you'd find in the 10-player raid) will be purchased with Emblems of Frost.
The tier 10.5 items (the ones with item levels you'd find in the 25-player raid) will be obtained by getting a token (one that is specific to 3 or 4 classes, much like the ulduar [sic] tokens) and using it to upgrade the tier 10 item that was purchased with emblems of frost.
Behold the Power of the Market
I wondered would become of the wonderful neutral cities run by Goblin cartels. Would they join the Horde and leave the Alliance hanging? Not likely, as that would kill the neutral cities in general. And here we have confirmation that they are going nowhere:
5:32pm CDT: Q: What are the plans for the current Goblin-run towns after Cataclysm is out?Apparently the lure of coin outweighs any allegiances their fellow Goblins may have. Hmm...it would be even more interesting if the Neutral cities became less Goblin-focused. Maybe the neutral, peace-loving Worgen will help run them? Just kidding...
A: Most Goblin-run towns will continue to operate as normal. In general, the existing Goblin cartels tend to be self-serving, and therefore aren't taking sides.
Redundancy for Authenticators
My wife and I are co-GMs for our guild, so we both bought authenticators, even though we are very careful and have never had even a hint of having our accounts compromised for close to 3.5 years of play before the authenticators. However, I worry about having my account depend on yet another device; it's one more part that can fail. So I was glad to read the following:
5:50pm CDT: Q: Any chance of being able to link more then one authenticator on one account? (in case I lose or break one)So, now we can attach our authenticators to both of our accounts and provide a backup for each other, in case one of our authenticators die. A little piece of mind is a good thing.
A: We are talking about the authenticator and how to make it a better experience. Your suggestion is one we are talking about.
There was a lot more covered in the chat. Take a look! :)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
[3.2] School of Hard Knocks - Fire BAD Week 4
[You might be thinking, "Hey, this should be week 5!" Well, we missed the previous week due to one of our team members getting a special arena award in the form of a newborn baby. :) ]
Fire BAD assembled once again for some arena madness. Since we last fought, many of us have been able to pick up a couple of pieces of 232 PvP gear. As a result, our team's average Resilience is getting closer to 900 and our stats are not being nerfed as badly from low level PvP gear.
We managed to get past a 1350 Rating, which pushed us high enough to buy some new stuff (see my pre-1400 BIS post). Among them, the IL 245 belt which can be bought solely with Honor, so we knocked out a few extra games and then starting hitting Wintergrasp and BGs for Honor.
We managed to squeeze in 14 games and ended up with a an 11-3 record for the week, bringing us to 44-47 for the season.
Oh, and we're now the top 5v5 team on our realm (Kirin Tor)...of the 19 teams on our realm that have actually fought a match this season. Yes, it is an amusing distinction to be sure.
Any New Lessons?
Holy, not FTW: Sistajuju, the Priest in our team, tried her Holy raid healing spec out. While is has some nice tools, the reduced capability for *prolonged* survival was not quite enough.
Hope Springs Eternal (or, A Loss to Be Proud Of)
We fought a team that heavily outgeared us, but we managed to keep them at bay and it actually took a while for one of us to drop, in spite of our Priest being Holy. It gives us great hope that as we flesh out our PvP gear, we will continue to be more able to compete at a higher matchmaking level.
Fire BAD assembled once again for some arena madness. Since we last fought, many of us have been able to pick up a couple of pieces of 232 PvP gear. As a result, our team's average Resilience is getting closer to 900 and our stats are not being nerfed as badly from low level PvP gear.
We managed to get past a 1350 Rating, which pushed us high enough to buy some new stuff (see my pre-1400 BIS post). Among them, the IL 245 belt which can be bought solely with Honor, so we knocked out a few extra games and then starting hitting Wintergrasp and BGs for Honor.
We managed to squeeze in 14 games and ended up with a an 11-3 record for the week, bringing us to 44-47 for the season.
Oh, and we're now the top 5v5 team on our realm (Kirin Tor)...of the 19 teams on our realm that have actually fought a match this season. Yes, it is an amusing distinction to be sure.
Any New Lessons?
Holy, not FTW: Sistajuju, the Priest in our team, tried her Holy raid healing spec out. While is has some nice tools, the reduced capability for *prolonged* survival was not quite enough.
Hope Springs Eternal (or, A Loss to Be Proud Of)
We fought a team that heavily outgeared us, but we managed to keep them at bay and it actually took a while for one of us to drop, in spite of our Priest being Holy. It gives us great hope that as we flesh out our PvP gear, we will continue to be more able to compete at a higher matchmaking level.
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