arena-tactics
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The Colosseum: Footwerk of Korgath
The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.Footwerk the Druid is a member of highly rated 3v3 team, "Heal me Im strong" in the Vengeance battlegroup. In a time when healers are struggling to excel in the Arena, Footwerk has managed to make the traditional Druid-healer format a viable and powerful composition.And while we have the bad news that Footwerk may be leaving WoW, we were able to catch up with him to grab a few words for the Colosseum. Obviously, he wants to thank everyone in his guild, Drama, for all the fun and wishes them good luck in the upcoming Ulduar. But, good news for the Colosseum, he had a lot more to say.
The Colosseum: Retrospective and Analysis, pt. I
The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.Season 4 ended some time ago, and Wrath is only a few weeks away. While we don't have official word about when Season 5 will start, it probably won't be until Blizzard's finished balancing the classes. Right now, the Arena is a sort of blasted land, filled with teams taking advantage of the relatively unrated play to experiment with new compositions, new talents, and new strategies.We're going to take advantage of the break ourselves, by looking at the collective of interviews we've gathered in our three months of the Colosseum. There are definitely common themes across what each Arena fighter had to say, and it'd be helpful to take some time and understand what those common themes are, and what they say about the Arena.
The Colosseum: Stormie, of Shadow Council
The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.Stormie of Shadow Council has placed well over 2000 in each Arena bracket for the last two seasons. A bit of a character, and well-known on the Shadow Council forums, Stormie's always been kind enough to share wisdom (and wit) with most anyone who asks. "Ask Stormie" threads pop up from time to time, and usually get helpful useful answers from the Arena celebrity.The Colosseum was able to snag a bit of the gladiator's time for some questions, and you can check out Stormie's answers behind the cut.
Fun with the Arena server
I had the opportunity to play on the Tournament Realm with Amanda Miller and Adam Holisky on Friday night. Yes, we got schooled but we had a great time. As Amanda mentioned I rolled a Resto Druid, but I specced short of tree form. I was most interested in mobility. I usually heal arenas as a Resto Shaman. I really enjoy the mobility of the druid, and I'm afraid I would lose that in tree form. Take a look at my spec, for those of you who know Druid better than I, tell me where can I improve?I absolutely love the tournament realm. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to play Druid, and it encourages me, and I may very well level one on my live realm. I think I will try a Warlock next. I've enjoyed the tournament server so much that I haven't even logged into my home realm. I would probably get bored with just playing WoW as an E-sport full time on an arena realm, but I've found the realm to be worth the price of admission.
Queue dodging: The latest in underhanded arena tactics
The arenas have been a nearly constant source of conflict for many players. It seems that many creative schemes have been used to inflate ratings in the pursuit of gear and glory. The developers implemented personal ratings to combat ill-gotten gains from a single slot buyouts and high-rated team sales. It seems that the latest fad for ratings boost may be queue dodging. Recently, Kenjiwing of Korgath brought this phenomenon to the attention of the official forums. There is currently no penalty for a team that fails to join an arena battle once the queue pops. The team that actually does show receives no reward and the match is recoded as a draw, which does not count toward the requisite games for the week. They are left to wait for another battle in hopes that the other team will show.
