arena-strats
Latest
Blood Sport: Why do we play arenas?
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Why does anyone even play arena? Every time we enter, it's a deathmatch on one of five maps. No dragons, no intricate storyline, no phat loot. The same team compositions show up again and again. Titles only last for a season unless you have the drive and ambition to hit rank 1. It's pretty depressing when you think about it, isn't it? I'll tell you why we do it: competition. People are naturally competitive. We always want to be better than the next guy, and arena is an outlet for that.
Blood Sport: Staying offensive on the defensive
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. We'll be taking a detour from our guide on how to make a new character for PvP to discuss something a bit different today. I get questions from time to time about a variety of PvP-related issues. I mean, I'm verbose, but I didn't think I could write over 1,000 words on one question, until Veni recently asked: C. Christian, You say that you are at your best when you are being focused in arena, and you barely let your damage slip. I play a frost mage, and have only enjoyed success up to around 2k arena rating, and one of the areas I feel weak on, is sustaining damage when being focused. I consider myself to be very strong positionally, and mechanically. Does the ability to sustain damage and remain strong while being focused yourself come from a great knowledge of your oppenents abilities? when you can and cannot get away with that extra cast? or exceptional communication with teammates, knowing when they are going to peel, allowing you to squeeze in an extra nuke. Regards, a weekly reader
Blood Sport: How to make a new character for PvP, part 3
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Please check out the last two articles on how to make a new character for PvP, part 1 and part 2. Those articles discuss trying to narrow down which class is right for you before you play it at 85. We all have that friend who levels an alt up to max level expecting to play on it forever and ever, only to abandon it two weeks later. Don't be that guy! This week, we'll be discussing the most efficient and arguably logical ways of bringing you up to speed on a new character. Keybinds, leveling strategy, and gearing up are important aspects of any class and three of the major traps new altoholics can fall into, especially for PvP.
Blood Sport: How to start a new character for PvP, part 2
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. Please check out last week's article on starting a new character for PvP; we discussed different ways to analyze your own playstyle and alluded to this week's subject of strengths and shortcomings. I asked four important questions about playstyle and gave my answers to the questions; however, because some seemed to be left wanting, here is a little more information on those questions.
Blood Sport: How to start a new character for PvP, part 1
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. How do you know if your class is the right one for you in PvP? One of the best ways to find out if you really want to play the class is to analyze your playstyle. What are your tendencies as a player? Do you rush in and try to battle it up, even if you're a healer? You might want to try out a warrior or death knight. Do you stay back and try to play as defensively as possible? A mage or hunter might be more suited to your tastes. Perhaps you like to annoy opponents by jumping behind pillars when they switch targets to you -- an affliction warlock or holy paladin might be right up your alley. Arena has a flavor for almost everyone. I determined long ago that I love to rush in and play as offensively as possible. My first character I ever made in WoW was a retribution paladin! However, I shifted around a bit before discovering the power of warlocks. I stuck with warlock for the longest time because DoTs were incredibly overpowered and it felt like I couldn't die against seven monsters. Deciding to play a class because it was overpowered while leveling was probably not the best decision, and I wish I had thought about PvP more when deciding on a main character.
Blood Sport: The art of switching characters for PvP
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. I've spent my time in the skin of many different classes when striving for gladiator. Even though my Cataclysm main has been a warlock for some time now, I've enjoyed the time I've spent on my mage, warrior, druid, rogue, death knight and paladin. While I also have a level 80 hunter, I quickly decided it wasn't for me (not being able to shoot people from point blank range bugged me far too much) and moved on to greener pastures. I have yet to play a priest or shaman in high-level arena, but I definitely wouldn't be surprised if I got the urge. For better or for worse, I know a few things about switching main characters. My overarching purpose in leveling up each of those classes was to use them for PvP reasons (including my warlock). I'd be lying if I said all my decisions were correct ones; most of them worked out very poorly due to lack of foresight. However, I have learned a few things from personal experience and from watching friends play Chutes and Ladders with alternate characters.
Blood Sport: Arena should be more like rated battlegrounds
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Rated battlegrounds -- like them or love them, they're here to stay. While rated battlegrounds aren't perfect, they're definitely a lot of fun and a great way to pass the time. One of the things Blizzard placed a heavy emphasis on with rated battlegrounds, which you may or may not have noticed, is the simple and elegant rating system. The rated battleground (or RBG) system is pretty different than most other systems in the game. I've been very impressed with it -- so impressed that I believe Blizzard should just copy it for arena. The whole world (of Warcraft) would benefit from making arenas more like rated battlegrounds, at least in this regard.
Blood Sport: PvP keybindings -- ESDF and roaming index finger variants
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Our last Blood Sport article featured the first in a two-part series about the strategies of PvP keybinding. You'll probably need to check it out for this article to make sense, seeing as there's lots of confusing colors and everything. That article had lots comments praising ESDF hand positioning. Well, we're going to start things off with a crowd favorite.
Blood Sport: A guide to PvP keybinding
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Listening Music: Radiohead's The King of Limbs. How could I not post a brand new album from the greatest band on earth? Many (if not most) high-caliber PvPers will speak poorly of players who click in arena or battlegrounds. Keybinds are a tool that many newer players do not take advantage of -- much to their detriment, since keybindings allow the PvPer to keep the focus where it belongs: on the battle at hand. However, even seasoned gladiators can improve their keybinds by changing the specific keybinds of individual abilities. I have my own personal way of assigning keybinds to class abilities that I want to share with you today. Don't worry, I have lots of color-coordinated pictures via the magical wonders of Microsoft Paint. Want a taste?
2200 rating PvP weapons now available for purchase
For those of you who live and die by the PvP sword, there's good news today: 2,200 rating PvP weapons are finally available for sale and use by level 85 characters. This, according to Community Manager Nethaera on the official Blizzard forums: 2200 Rating Weapon Availability Quote: I posted this in another thread but wanted to post here as well so everyone is aware: I'll be brief and direct. The PvP item vendors were a little slow on stocking their shelves. They should have them restocked shortly (give or take a few extra if need be.) They should have these weapons available very soon. We'll keep an eye on things should there be further delays. They should be available now. We'll be watching just in case any further issues arise with these vendors. source Shortly after Cataclysm's release, players' ability to equip and use 2,200 rating PvP weapons was removed from the game. The move was intended to prevent these high-level items from interfering with PvE progression -- Blizzard developers didn't want PvP to be a prerequisite to PvE raiding. Now that more and more players are entering (and downing) heroic raiding content, it appears that Blizzard developers are finally willing to allow these powerful weapons to be used. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Blood Sport: How to cultivate successful PvP attitudes, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Last week, we discussed how to expect victory and be self-critical instead of blaming, as well as the importance of being lighthearted. This week, we'll be discussing a similar topic -- this could easily be part two in our series of successful PvP attitude. Staying optimistic is much more relevant when "big things" happen. One of your teammates just quit your team after you've been pushing for gladiator for a month? You disconnect against a rival team? Patch notes say that you're being nerfed to the ground? If you've weathered the small storms that have passed by with a good attitude, you'll be much more prepared when tornadoes and hurricanes hit. Looking at the world optimistically comes much easier for some than others. I've played with partners who can't be brought down, no matter what goes wrong. If we lose five straight, they're still eager to PvP because they believe something good will happen from it.
Blood Sport: How to cultivate successful PvP attitudes
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Today, we'll be discussing attitudes of successful PvPers. I find attitude a subject I find myself dwelling on frequently. I believe attitude is the quintessential ingredient in not only PvP success, but success in whatever we do. The important thing to remember is that we can change our attitudes, and we do it all the time. Expect victory Expecting to win puts you in the mindset to win. My football teammates always used to throw around a phrase that went something like: "Don't play to not lose; play to win." Other than the double negative, the phrase teaches us something very important about expectations and their effect on reality. The placebo effect and Pygmalion effect have been demonstrated scientifically; expectations shape reality more than most of us give them credit for. In fact, speaking of scientific studies, the entire reason double-blind studies are performed is because of the observer-expectancy effect and its ability to influence the choice of others. No doubt you've heard of self-fulfilling prophecies. Although these are usually spoken of in a negative light, we can use self-fulfilling prophecies for our benefit and success. If we make ourselves believe we can accomplish a goal, that goal becomes much more obtainable.
Blood Sport: An early analysis of Cataclysm PvP
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. If I had to summarize Cataclysm PvP in one word, it would be fun. Between the novelty of rated battlegrounds, a very strong emphasis (and success) on balancing classes in PvP, and the presence of a diverse metagame at the top of the arena ladders, this is shaping up to be a great expansion. We're almost two months into Cataclysm now, and it's been quite an expansion for PvPers. Are there problems? Sure. Is the patch going to throw us for a loop and possibly switch things up considerably? Perhaps. But is the whole of Season 9 miles better than Season 5? You better believe it.
Blood Sport: The PvP perspective on 4.0.6, part 3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Welcome to Friday's special edition of Blood Sport! Today we'll be discussing all the classes we didn't get around to last time. Enjoy! Hunters Hunters can now use Auto Shot while moving. I have been petitioning for this change for longer than I can remember. This absolutely 100% the most needed change on this entire list of patch notes and the greatest quality of life increase to hunters since the ammunition change. If the minimum range requirement is removed, I think I will be able to enjoy playing the class again in PvP. I'm pretty sure if someone was standing on me in real life, I could shoot them in the face with a bow and arrow. Deterrence now provides 100% chance for melee attacks to miss instead of 100% parry chance. This means that attacks that cannot be parried, notably some rogue abilities, can now be prevented by Deterrence, and the hunter will gain the benefit of Deterrence even if disarmed. Needed. If you think getting disarmed was frustrating as a warrior ... Master's Call now has a 35-second cooldown, down from 1 minute, and its range has been increased to 40 yards, up from 25. In addition, the visual effect is more obvious. Needed. Master's Call is an incredibly important ability for hunters and this will improve their arena representation by a good deal, especially when combined with the other hunter changes (which are almost entirely beneficial in PvP).
Eye of the Storm rated battlegrounds video with commentary
Work warning: NSFW language in video commentary. I originally wrote an article to go with this video. If you have some time, check out my Eye of the Storm rated battleground strategy article. After our last video, I got a special request for Eye of the Storm, as it seems there are many different kinds of strategies going around with this particular battleground. So for our second episode of rated battleground videos, I'm bringing you an Eye of the Storm, complete with Ventrilo audio (NSFW language). The audio is quite humorous at times (16:10, I'm looking at you) -- just make sure you're not around small children or your boss. This is one of the first rated battlegrounds I've done as a human;- I recently realm transferred to Kel'Thuzad and faction-changed to Alliance. In this video, I only have 1,200 resilience and 240 battleground rating. I apologize for my somewhat robotic-sounding voice; I'm going to look at investing in a higher quality microphone some time in the near future. Hopefully you'll enjoy the video; we were all very surprised with how it ended (as you can tell from the audio).
Blood Sport: The PvP perspective on 4.0.6
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Okay, so there are lots of PvP changes in this patch. Lots of PvP changes. If I had a nickel for every PvP change that this patch has to offer, I would have lots of nickels. I could do so many chemistry tests involving the 28th element. Actually, that's not even true. Did you know that a nickel is made up of 25% nickel and 75% copper? Well, if you didn't 5 seconds ago, you do now. A nickel is three-fourths penny. That's pretty amazing, because a nickel isn't even close to the value of a penny -- in fact, a nickel is worth more than a nickel. That's right, a nickel is worth almost 7 cents right now. Science. What a weird opening paragraph. I expect some of you to be returning from Wikipedia with a look of amazement on your faces. Yep, sometimes Blood Sport is awesome like that. If I had a penny every time Blood Sport amazed someone ... I'd have three pennies.
Blood Sport: Drain Mana's removal and its impact on arena
I was originally going to write this week's Blood Sport on the myriad of PvP changes on the PTR. However, I found myself writing a large amount about one subject, so much that it deserves its own post. Warlocks are losing Drain Mana in Patch 4.0.6. I'll get to the other changes some time soon (Blizzard is still not finished releasing changes at the moment). To summarize what is about to be a very long post, I don't agree with this philosophy. No sir, not one bit. Ghostcrawler We are probably going to remove Drain Mana from warlocks. It is incredibly situational in PvE but causes problems in PvP. This might mean we need to evaluate Mana Burn as well. source I'd like to know what kind of problems Ghostcrawler is referring to. I don't know anyone who thinks Drain Mana is an incredibly powerful ability right now. Does it shorten games? Sure. That's the intended effect -- or so I thought, anyway.
Blood Sport: Gearing up for arena, Cataclysm edition
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. It's the beginning of a new arena season. Recently hitting 85 myself, I noticed a lack of information about the best ways to acquire PvP gear for my upcoming adventures in Azeroth. Well, I've put together a little guide for you that I hope will aid you in whatever your PvP goals are this season. Conquest points are the most important type of PvP currency in Cataclysm -- and they're awesome. They're incredibly easy to get, as you only have to win four or five arena games a week to get to the starting cap of 1,343. The average piece of conquest gear is bought for 1,579.4 conquest points, so even if you never break 1,500 rating, you'll be getting a new piece of epic PvP gear almost every week. Try to save up early for your weapon, offhand, and relic/wand. These three slots are the only pieces of gear that can only be bought with conquest points -- don't make the mistake of buying other stuff with conquest points! You can just get a slightly inferior version of the other pieces via honor, but you might have to wave around that green or blue weapon for a while if you aren't wise about what you buy!
Blood Sport: The 2010 arena recap
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. I've been with WoW Insider for a year and a few months. I consider myself exceptionally blessed to write about something I love. This past year's Blood Sport has been a wonderful undertaking for me, and hopefully for you as well. Beginner's guide to arena Blood Sport featured a Beginner's Guide to Arena that quickly became a seven-part series. Part 1: How to gear up for arena Part 2: FAQ and best arena specs Part 3: Basic class strategy Part 4: Survivability, conservation, utility, and the differences between each Part 5: Pressure, burst, crowd control, and the differences between each Part 6: A glossary of arena terms Part 7: How to find and keep a solid arena team Although technically only parts 4, 5, 6, and 7 were written in 2010, it's worth mentioning the other three for the sake of clarity and unity.
Battle for Gilneas video with strategy commentary
I mentioned in this week's Blood Sport that I'd soon have a video up for you guys. Well, it came sooner than I expected, as everything worked out splendidly. All together, it only took me a few hours to record video, record audio, patch both together, convert files, and upload to YouTube. For our first PvP video together, we'll be discussing adventures in the Battle for Gilneas with my favorite affliction warlock. This is actually my third rated battleground ever -- in the first two, I was demonology in back-to-back Twin Peaks. The games weren't particularly exciting (we 3-0 capped both games), and there were some recording errors in each. I don't have any listening music for this one; you can pick your own! If Windows Movie Maker allowed me to throw down an audio track, you'd probably be hearing Deadmau5. However, as a consolation, there is commentary from yours truly for 14 minutes and some change! In this episode, I talk about: disparity 10v10 team compositions Battle for Gilneas strategy a helpful tactic not many teams are using right now myself (unfortunately for you, bwahaha) If you have any constructive criticism, questions, or just things you'd like me to discuss next time, please leave a comment below! Note: I talk a lot about 15v15 early on in the video to quickly explain even distribution. I understand Battle for Gilneas is a 10v10 and am just making points about distribution and disparity. Find out how the Cataclysm talent tree redesign affects PvP, how sub-speccing will work at higher levels in the expansion, and how the new Azeroth will affect world PvP. Visit Blood Sport for the inside line on arena PvP.
