The Colosseum: Two Fighters, One Column

Sometimes, during the summer, it can be especially difficult to find time to enjoy the game. Arena fighters are no different, which is why the following two interviews are a little shorter. We were only able to grab a little bit of their time, but we wanted to get their unique perspective on some aspects of the Arena.

Soballinlol is a Warrior on the Mug'thol server, who is 3rd rated in the Vengeance battlegroup on his 2v2 team. Even more spectacularly, Soballinlol's 5v5 team has achieved the number one place on the battlegroup. Nailpolish is also on the Mug'thol server, but is in the 7th ranked 2v2 team on her battlegroup, and the 8th ranked 3v3 team.

Both come from wildly different perspectives. Nailpolish operates in a 3v3 RMP team, who uses precise Crowd Control to dominate their opponents. By comparison, Soballinlol is a Warrior, a class that's reknowned for its juggernaut-like ability to smash through defenses, use unparalleled survivability, and still offer incredibly effective offense.

Check out what each had to say behind the cut.

WoW Insider: Why did you choose the class you're playing? What are it's advantages?

Soballinlol: I chose the warrior class because at level 60, I felt it could excel much more than other classes with the right gear setup and support.

The advantages right now to playing a Warrior are that you can really help your team out a lot if you play it right. These advantages are made a great deal more apparent because of the new Overpower buffs and -50% spell power. Warriors have a lot more mobility. It is a lot easier for a warrior to bounce around and slow down the other team while dealing a lot of damage out.

WoW Insider: In terms of things changing in the future, how are you feeling about 3.2? Warriors didn't get any changes. and 2v2 is being deprecated. What's your opinion?

Soballinlol: I think 3.2 is going to change a lot of things. Arena is going to be moving away from 2v2 to mostly 3v3 and 5v5 and I definately think that is the way to go.

Instead of Blizzard trying to balance around 2s, it's gonna be more about balancing in a group setting. As far as the Warrior changes go, I definitely think it's retarded that warriors got no changes at all except for a 200 attack power boost. At least it is better than a nerf.

Nailpolish

WoW Insider: I noticed your team seems to have a theme name across the characters. How did that come to be?

Nailpolish: Lipstick and I have been playing with each other for about 4 years now. I met him in a 20-29 Warsong Gulch match on my Alliance Hunter and he was a rogue back then. We thought each other were really good even though it was the 29 brackets.

We later joined a guild together to PvP and PvE. When BC came out, I took a break for about 6 months, and Lipstick rerolled Horde during that time with our other friend. They named themselves Lipstick and Mascara.

When I came back to the game towards the end of Season 2, I logged on our old Alliance Vent just to see who still plays. Lipstick happened to be there so I transferred my 60 Horde Rogue over there and named it Nailpolish to fit in with their names. Our priest -- Aftershave -- transferred from BG9 to Mug'thol. We thought he was really good so we picked him up for our 3s and he later renamed to Aftershave to also go along with our names.

WoW Insider: So how long have you been playing together? What's your general strategy like?

Nailpolish: I have been playing with Lipstick for 4 years and our 3v3 team has been together since Season 3 to now.

Against "Cleave" teams, we generally just keep them away from our Priest, because every Cleave team gets a boner when they see a Priest on the other team. If there is a Warrior, we shut him down and pressure him hard so he has to be defensive. The same goes with Ret Pallies.

Against RMP mirrors, it's all spur of the moment. Some games we just zerg down the Priest because we're triple Undead, but during some games we kill the Mage. Most of the games, we just do the standard Rogue vs Rogue combat.

WoW Insider: While it's probably pretty obvious to you and a lot of other RMP players, I think there's some folks out there who don't understand why Rogue/Mage/Priest is such a winning combination. Could you elaborate for our readers -- what about RMP makes it so much "the" composition?

Nailpolish: What makes RMP such a powerful comp is the fact that we have so much CC and the ability to capitalize on other people's mistakes.

We make people trinket fast with Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot on our kill target. In the mean time, we Deep Freeze to Fear to Sheep or Blind on another target. We can essentially make it a 3v1 game for the first 10 to 15 seconds of a match, which is essential.

Often times against Druid Healer teams, if the opponent Druid keeps everyone HoTted, then it will be very hard for us to land a kill or switch to a target. If he doesn't have HoTs on a target, we can usually do a fast switch to that target and kill him in 2 to 3 global cooldowns. If someone is in a bad spot without a trinket for a few seconds, he will get switched to and die.

The Colosseum is an interview series by WoW Insider, meant to reveal strategies, compositions, and tactics from the Arena fighters who use them. For more PvP information, be sure to hit up Blood Sport and the Art of War(craft).