This Just In...

So, on the Hellscream server, I have a 70 mage that I specced what I think is a viable Fire spec for Arena. With the advent of Ice Block for all mages, it seemed worth a try.

I have terrible gear - half of Season 1 and some blues and greens. My staff is the Bringer of Death. Nothing fantastic.

I logged in last night and the people I know on that server (all 4 of them!) were logged as well and they went nuts. "5v5!!!" they cried. I told them my wife was sleeping and I was only up because of a lame ass cup of coffee I had during my PL/SQL Programming class, and even if I did log into Vent, I couldn't talk.

They said they still wanted to try.

We tried.

Good lord, now I know why there are so many bad teams. One of the guys couldn't figure out who we were focusing down. I mean, he's an MS warrior and he's doing 1000 damage at most before he's CC'd and dead.

Meanwhile, they leave me alone due to IB, and I'm unloading on teams. Almost every single match I was top in damage and had most of the kills. The scrub in blues and Season 1 items. Imagine if I was properly geared!

Today, to take a break from cleaning the office, I logged into Egeslic and realized how powerful he really is. For those of you priests out there that feel we are squishy in PVP, realize you have to spec accordingly. We are actually rather powerful and hard to take down.

To quote Blizzard, we're one tough cookie.

Long Time No Blog

Well, after that last post, things were just kind of blah.

We were missing our furry friend, it was the Holidays and getting time to do any Arena with my wife on vacation and Dato's schedule being busy, we just couldn't get any games in. So we decided to force some games one day - let's just say it was bad.

I believe it was nearly a 120 point tumble. Worst we'd gone through. I honestly believe Dato was ready to come through the computer and kick my ass I was sucking so badly.

Along the way, Dato and I were waiting on 2v2 queues when he ran over and inspected another PVP Priest we know named Jalzun. His spec was VERY odd...39/0/21. Enough to get to Vamperic Embrace and Silence.

I pondered and wondered whether or not it was really viable. So I once again respecced (at this time, I admit to being a respecaholic) and tried it out. This prompted two more respecs, the final choice being 37/0/24 for improved Vamperic Embrace. Now, remember, I do this with entirely healing gear. The only +damage piece I have left is from when I was getting the 35 resilience bonus from Season 2 gear.

The reason being is I am still primarily a healer, but pre-2.3 and not having any +damage whatsoever, I couldn't ever hold my own against anything. In one 2v2 I ended up against a mage and it took us 10 minutes to finish. I think my shadow fiend had more damage than I did... So, with +healing gear, I can still do my job, but now I can finesse it. I can attack with Dato and heal through the basic attacks, weather the alpha stike a tad better with yet another HoT going - it is really, really nice.

After the respec, and after getting my Arena head back together, we climbed back to 1800. We are hovering there, but Dato has enough for the Vengeful Spellbade, so we must get to 1850 next week.

3v3 has been insanely fun. Playing hybrid damage/offhealing is very, very fun. Being the initial attack point is NOT fun.

Rashak is finally getting geared out, which is helping. Silencing the Mage or Warlock that is CCing him helps him out immensely (no more cursing and yelling on Vent - so peaceful!) and we climbed up some, too. We need to work on that.

To leave off, we tried 5v5 last night - I was drunk and we had two warriors...it was hysterical.

Nothing To Do With Warcraft

Friday night, the 7th of December, my wife and I were home to cradle our 4 year old Bengal Cat, Samurai, as he died. He had a massive heart attack due to heart disease.

I know, if anyone ever reads this, some idiot from the web will make fun of laying your feelings on the line.

Fuck them.

Samurai was so freaking awesome. He played fetch, he was huge and beautiful, had teeth like a tiger, and absolutely had the coolest personality.

We miss him so much.

This is just one way of grieving, and I wanted to let him know I miss him.

Long Live Samurai.

Season 3 Is Here

So the real test came and went. Week One of Season 3 is drawing to a close, and let me tell you, we all found out what the Gladiators could do. The extremely well geared and highly trinketed/enchanted Gladiators from previous seasons, along with their uber scripts are, wihtout a doubt, insane.

There was one group, a hunter and a discipline priest, that we could not, no matter what we did, beat. In retrospect, however, the hunter was using a bug to beat us. He would be mana burned and mana drained until he had nothing, and we would be doing great, when he would use Feign Death and immediately pop into a sitting position and start drinking. By the time we retargeted him, he had gotten at least two or three ticks off and had 800-1200 mana again. From a friend who plays a hunter, we discovered this was a bug that had been fixed in PVE, but not PVP.

Shit like that is ridiculous. I cannot, however, fault him from cheating. It's what people do. And, yes, it is cheating.

On the whole though, after we saw how the dust settled, Dato and I discovered that what we thought was a shitty week of playing was actually good. We stopped at 1700 (1733 was our high) and saw over the ensuing days that the average score on our server was far below that. Indeed, people with scores similar to ours beforehand landed at least 50 to a 100 points below us.

Now, as for the new spec, it works, and it works well. We still have trouble with druids. They just suck. Rogues annihilate Dato, and sometimes I just can't save him. His spec is interesting - he can do so many things, but rogues just eat him alive, much as warlocks eat me alive. And shaman...they suck, too.

I think with a little more practice, and once the uber teams leave our range, we might be able to make our way back up to 2000 again.

We haven't done 3v3 yet, as Fishhead got married this weekend. Good for him...but there goes the gaming.

Is It Real? Are PVP Priests Fixed?

It was only one trial, but WOW! Being full Discipline with a touch of Holy (enough for Improved Renew and Healing Focus) and Shadow up to Mind Flay and Improved Psychic Scream was one of those WTF Will It Work Specs. Let me tell you, it works.

Reflective Shield...Awesome.

Pain Suppression...Hysterical.

Power Infusion...GODLY.

The only two classes I fear right now are Warlocks that are SL/SL builds and a Shaman who knows when to Purge.

It's been unreal. We went 9-1 versus mostly melee today, which was always our bane. We could have gone 10-0 but our first game, I was so unready for what to do, I didn't pop Pain Suppression in time.

We owned after that. One game was so lopsided and insane we all agreed the team HAD to have been an Ebay team.

Here is a link to my Armory page, http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Shadow+Council&n=Egeslic - check out the Talents and laugh. You will think it sucks, but it's seriously insane.

In all regards, patch 2.3 was a resounding success for Priests who PVP. We are unkillable solo to most classes. I can actually destroy a rogue so badly that the next time they see me...they run.

How odd.

RL Gets In The Way - 2.3 Hits the Fan

So real life issues deterred me from posting. My father is ill (bladder cancer) and our 4 year old Bengal cat, Samurai, was diagnosed with cardiomyopothy. His fate, horribly, is determined by how long his heart can hold out after two strokes.

I give him two shots a day of a blood thinner, Lovenox, and 5 pills. He hates all of it, but he's doing so much better these days.

My father starts chemo today, but luckily (is there a luckily here?) it's directly to the bladder, so no nausea, no hair loss, just pain when he pisses it out.

During all this, Dato and I kept plugging away, realizing more and more that the priest class was just broken. We did, however, manage to climb to 2029 in our 2v2 bracket. We were so happy and clearly in the reach of Rival that we stopped 2v2ing and focused on 3v3 with Fishhead.

That had its ups and downs. Fishhead clearly gets diverted into attacking the wrong guy sometimes. Dato would say over Ventrilo, "OK, Fish, sheep the Pally then work on the Warrior with me..." which translated in Fish's head to "Sheep the Pally then try to blow him up!"

Needless to say, if a rogue was in the group, or a warrior...we lost. Warlocks always seem to go after Fish as well, and that REALLY messes it all up. We are hovering near 1800, and I KNOW we can do better.

During all this time, 2.3 came along. It went live yesterday. I had been on the PTR trying out builds when Dato fought a Disc/Shadow priest who was heavy Discipline, a little Shadow for Mind Flay. I thought it would be the stupidest thing I'd ever seen. It, quite literally, rocks. Focused Will, in conjunction with lots of +healing gear, Pain Suppression and Power Infusion are nigh unstoppable. I don't even fear rogues anymore!!! It really has renewed the game for me.

Beware...a new priest has come over the horizon and he can heal, takes tons of damage...he's...he's...dare I say it? "One tough cookie!"

I'll let you all know later if it really works in 2v2 and 3v3.

Gear Swapping BS In Arenas

The other day, Dato and I decided we could push our score back up after a 26 point setback. We were still over 1900 and felt decent about our staying over that mark.

Then we played out first game of the week. We couldn't understand what the hell the mage was doing as he ran out. He would see us, stand still, and suddenly lose a bit of health (or so it seemed) and then bandage.

Turns out he was switching gear to a set with massive Shadow resist on it.

We COULDN'T beat them with it on. At the best, one fear would work, along with about half our damage.

Overall, we dropped 60 points that day. I was pissed, as I was on schedule to finally get my Merciless Gladiator's Salvation. Now, I get to wait another week. We ended up making up some points the next morning, but the damage was done. During only one game against them (we faced them 4 times) we caught them off guard and attacked the mage before he could switch sets. We took him out so fast it was hysterical.

As for any other PVP, I've been too busy to play more, and way too tired.

Hopefully in the next few weeks it will get better. Especially if 2.2 comes along anytime soon.