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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.
Blood Sport: Seeing the big picture in PvP, 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. It's natural to observe what we're doing with our target (and maybe our focus). We all started playing WoW by having our character jog up to some oblivious animal and obliterate it with spells or steel. We watched intently as that boar flopped over after we clicked our mouse a few times (or pushed 1,1,2). We then decided we would run straight towards its corpse (shortest distance from A to B is a straight line, after all) and happily right-click to loot some sweet gray sword. Over time, boars became bandits, bandits became basilisks, basilisks became banshees and the banshees became bosses. Eventually, we're slaying dragons and throwing around high fives like they were baseballs. However, notice throughout this scenario of improving our characters that we're not looking around suspiciously at other players, trying to learn where other enemies would flee to or attack us (or, more importantly, why and how they attack us). Of course, this is to our detriment, once we step inside an arena or battleground. Side note: That sentence of alliteration took me like ten minutes to write. Do you know how hard it is to think of mythical creatures starting with B? (I came up with beholder and brownie too, but WoW doesn't have many of those).
Blood Sport: Seeing the big picture in 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. Listening Music: James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." 40 years later and just as awesome. Whether you're doing BGs or arena, the big picture is the most important part of PvP. Arena and battlegrounds are almost entirely about figuring out what's going on at that time with your team against what is going on with your opponent's team. The players who see where the battle is headed before their opponents will always win that game. Some members of my team are usually pretty curious about my apparent foreknowledge when it comes to battlegrounds. I call everything out before it happens -- that is, I'll call, "Farm, 4-5 incoming" before the enemy team even spawns. To me, it's obvious that the enemy team is going to head to our farm. To others, this prediction seems like witchcraft or a lucky guess. The only thing I'm utilizing in this example is an understanding of spawn points.
Blood Sport: Season 9 arena team composition predictions
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 The Temper Trap's Sweet Disposition. Doesn't it remind you of U2? This will be our first post-Cataclysm article together. I'm so excited. By the time this comes up, I still might be sleeping off a late trip to the nearby Harrisburg Gamestop for Cataclysm's midnight release, so please don't think I'm ignoring your comments. Last week, we talked about some gameplay predictions for Season 9. You know, damage, healing, and crowd control -- that kind of stuff. This week, we'll be talking about something completely different -- teams!
Blood Sport: Season 9 arena gameplay predictions
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: Bush with Glycerine. I had a hard time picking a Bush song, so I went with a tried and true. I just got done searching for a past article I apparently never wrote. I could have sworn I predicted something about how Season 8 would pan out, but apparently, I just talked about it with my teammates instead of putting my thoughts into internet words. Oh well. I guess I get to make some fun predictions about Season 9 and then recap them later when Season 10 rolls around. That's the plan, anyway.
Blood Sport: Awesome arena addons and also ample alliteration
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: Dead or Alive with "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)." Long live the '80s. Today's column is about nifty arena addons. Changing up your PvP UI for the better is an awesome way to improve your awareness of what's going on. Having easy access to valuable information can often be the difference between a win and a loss. We'll be discussing the best addons to use for a variety of different aspects within the arena.
Blood Sport: Cataclysm PvP is theoretically awesome
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: José González's "Hand on Your Heart." One of my favorites. Vanilla WoW PvP was very fun, even if the top raiders on the server had enough gear to kill you in a global or two. The speed of combat got progressively faster before The Burning Crusade came on scene; a full tier 3 player could change the tide of a battleground by himself easily. Resilience was added to the game to slow down the game -- and it worked! Arena games in The Burning Crusade took a long time to complete, but they were interesting and definitely had depth, even if they made you miss dinner once or twice. Wrath of the Lich King revamped arena completely by emphasizing burst kills and huge crits. In Season 5, death knights and holy paladins were the best classes in the game because they could sustain damage for periods of time longer than 20 seconds. It was shellshock for arena players everywhere. The 30-minute games we had come to know and love were a thing of the past. Damage was king, and the law was a quick death. Cataclysm appears to be returning to a Burning Crusade era of controlled arena matches. Giant crits and powerful damage combos are unlikely to be making an exit from arena, but their grip on PvP will be loosened when Deathwing's presence is felt.
Blood Sport: Red flags for realm transfers
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: David Bazan's "In Stitches." If you like slow, trippy indie and haven't heard of David Bazan (or Pedro the Lion), you should YouTube him. These KEXP recordings have come through surprisingly clear. In my four years playing WoW, I've transferred servers for PvP around 15 times. For some, that might seem like a small amount but for the majority of you, it's probably a really often (and costly)! Now, please take into account that I play multiple characters and I've happily stayed on some servers for many seasons. Other times, I've only been on a server for a few days -- finding out that your new PvP teammates aren't everything you expected them to be is pretty rough. Fifty bucks down the drain is worse. So I've decided to write this article on giant red flags that might appear in the transfer process. The warning signs are obvious -- but sometimes only after you've already made your decision and thrown down your hard-earned cash. No one is immune to some crafty deception; even the best of us can bite that golden hook of a tempting offer or a myriad of other reasons for transferring.
Blood Sport: How to transfer realms for 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. Listening Music: Kay Pettigrew's beautiful cover of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It's two years old, but still awesome nonetheless. Recently, players have started asking me, "Where should I transfer before Cataclysm hits?" There are so many variables involved in that question, it's hard to know where to start. After all, it's difficult to say a single realm name when I know very little about the inquiring individual. Most people like different things in different realms. I assume the people asking me where to transfer to are probably inquiring about PvP. After I give a few tried-and-true strategies, I usually get asked about arena teams and battleground imbalances. To tell you the truth, I'm not exceptionally knowledgeable about whether Horde wins more Alterac Valleys on Emberstorm/Whirlwind than Alliance. Unless you play on that battlegroup, you probably don't know much about that, either. Whenever I choose a new realm for one of my PvP alts, I systematically go through a series of checklists. This article is that checklist. If you're wondering about where to transfer for Cataclysm because you have battlegrounds or arena in mind, this article is for you.
Blood Sport: Not every good PvPer is a gladiator
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: The Legend of Zelda, via symphony. You're welcome! Occasionally, I'll meet a rank-1-quality opponent who is playing with people far below his or her level. Sometimes people are just naturally amazing at WoW. I'm not one of them. I have to use trial and error a lot before I pick something up. Oh well, at least I'm honest about it, right? I've battled opponents in the 1,900 bracket who are 2,700+ rated players; if only they would shed their partners and pick up a few gladiator buddies! There are three primary reasons for people playing with teammates who are far below their level of PvP prowess: gear, friends and realms.
Blood Sport: Rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets (illegal and immoral 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. Listening Music: A classic -- The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage." Kind of on-theme for what we'll be discussing today, too. The interview at the beginning is 30 seconds long if you want to skip it (but you shouldn't; it's awesome). For the last two weeks, I've talked your ears off on some strategies and tricks that players use to attain rank 1, largely legally. The season is now over, and a lot of changes to arena are coming via Cataclysm. I debated with myself whether or not to write about the darker side of arena. I decided that you, the reader, deserve to know about what happens in back rooms when no one is watching. The season is over, and I feel confident no one is going to use this article to ascend ladders unlawfully. Unfortunately, there are reports of people using these very tactics (sometimes in large numbers per battlegroup) to get a soiled Wrathful Gladiator title next to their name. Luckily, some of these teams have been caught and reset without reward. A curse be placed upon them, their children, and their childrens' childrens' family dog. Sorry Fido, Grandpa cheated. Deal with it.
Blood Sport: Rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets, part 2
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft), covering 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: "70 million" by Hold Your Horses. The music isn't completely up my alley, but the video is incredible. Why didn't someone think of this before? Best idea for a music video ever. Absolutely brilliant. I could write an entire page describing the genius of this video, but that would be boring. Last week, we talked about PvP secrets the top gladiators use to achieve the highest arena rankings. We're doing more of the same today, as I've judged by your comments that it was pretty interesting to you guys. I talked about spying and sniping last week. I wasn't sure I would talk about queue dodging today, as it's a far more questionable practice. I decided to talk about it because many high-rated teams definitely queue dodge, and I think it's my responsibility to talk about everything high-rated players do, even if I personally don't participate in it. Queue dodging is very similar to sniping. Instead of attempting to get an arena match against another team, queue dodgers attempt to avoid a team they consider to be difficult to defeat. Queue dodgers employ a spy who allows the queue-dodging team to see when the feared enemy team is in an arena.
Blood Sport: Rank 1 gladiator PvP secrets
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column. Listening Music: Two awesome kids covering Foo Fighters' Everlong. Before I got into the arena scene, I thought attaining a gladiator title (let alone a rank 1 title) was reserved for the very best PvPers. I wasn't at my computer for five hours a day grinding away at BGs and arena matches. I didn't have any special accomplishments or skills to bring to the table. I thought that I would never attain one of those awesome 310 percent speed flying mounts I wanted so badly. Then I hit rank 1. I was initially surprised with how easy it was, but looking back on it, it seemed everything fell in place just right. Since then, I've been there and back a few times but each time much differently. I've seen lots of people achieve rank 1 in different ways, so we're going to have an awesomely long list of helpful tips and secrets used by those few individuals with Adjective Gladiator titles.
Blood Sport: Bad momentum, part 2
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column. Listening Music: Katy Perry's banned Sesame Street appearance. I appreciate Perry's timbre and unique enunciation. It's off-putting to see her music becoming increasingly overproduced, but I guess that's the business of pop music. I wrote last week on momentum and had to truncate a lot of talking points. I wasn't satisfied with only talking about two aspects of the bad momentum that forces you to adapt your gameplay, so we'll be discussing more aspects this week. Action You get Counterspelled out of your healing school. Bad reaction You spam heals mindlessly. Good reactions You communicate, use other schools and improve your positioning. Every healer, even professional WoW players, get locked out of his healing schools. Sometimes, Counterspells hit your heals at the very worst times. Your teammate will be straddling the line of life and death when you go for a quick Flash of Light and boom, you're suddenly locked out of your holy school. Your teammate dies. Relax. There's not a lot you could have done in that situation; the opposing team simply outplayed you into that position. Talk with your teammates to figure out a way to not get yourselves in life-or-death situations in the future -- the problem wasn't with your getting spell-locked.
Blood Sport: Bad momentum
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column. Listening Music: Bill Withers is amazing. I dare any of you to challenge him to a duel. He'd win, then write a song about it while your entire family recites it word for word because it's so catchy. It's our anniversary! I bet you forgot. Shame on you. You sleep on the couch tonight. About a year ago, I started writing our favorite column. We've been through two arena seasons together, and I've never loved you more. I just wanted to say a special thank-you to all my readers who have made it an incredible joy to be a part of WoW.com... err, WoW.joystiq.com... err, WoW Insider. I suppose it doesn't matter. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Thank you for all the comments you've left and the emails you've sent. Here's looking to many more to come! Enough with this mushy stuff; let's get down to business. It's business time. Momentum is extremely important. Two weeks ago, we talked about good momentum and the effect it has on our opponents. Today, we'll be looking at the other side of the coin.
Blood Sport: Random thoughts about Cataclysm beta and PvP
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in our arena column. Listening Music: Tool's Schism. I remember when this first came out -- so many unique meter changes. Overpowered classes are overpowered. First of all, it's beta. Things are subject to change. Some classes appear to be incredibly strong at the moment. Here's a video of a warlock dueling seven different classes. (NSFW, some written profanity.) Hopefully, Blizzard developers will remember the ridiculousness that was season five. Ret paladins and death knights were far more overpowered in Wrath beta than anything I've seen in Cataclysm beta so far, but there is still tons of opportunity for improvement. Let's also hope they continue on with the philosophy of making swift changes so things don't get too out of hand early on in the new expansion. Spoiler alert: I was originally going to write an article on bad momentum and how to shift from losing to winning mid-arena match. I suppose that article will have to wait, because I'm excited to write about Cataclysm. With 4.0.1 hitting the PTR, I imagine now is good a time as ever. So if you're not into spoilers, stop reading!
