I did discover a real liking for PvP, but even that is really tough to go alone on an ongoing basis. Happily, a friend at work turned me on to MOBAs, Multi-player Online Battle Arenas, and most significantly, free to play MOBAs. I never played Defense of the Ancients, which was a clever mod in Warcraft III, but I’m given to understand that it basically spawned the genre. I started playing League Of Legends, and found I really enjoyed it. For those that haven’t partaken, the premise is simple. Two teams, usually of five players, go head to head on a standard map. Each player selects a different toon, referred to as champions or heroes,  from a predefined stable.  Each toon has a different set of abilities, etc. They start at level 1, and gain experience by killing the other teams minions. As they gain levels, they gain their abilities, and can buy various items to increase their capabilities. The object of the game is to destroy the other teams towers, and ultimately their base/Ancient/whatever term the game uses. Matches last anywhere from twenty minutes, to about an hour and a half, at most.

Unlike WoW PvP, there are no “best in slot’ items. Different heroes prefer different items, of course, but even then, the “item build” will vary greatly from match to match, depending on your teams composition, the opposing teams composition, and what the opposing team is doing. One match you may need more armor, the next, more magic-resistance.

Perhaps most importantly, to me, is that the MOBA vendors are at least trying to do what Blizzard failed to even attempt – cut down on the abuse between players. Players are penalized if they leave a match. There are real reporting systems, with teeth, that can be used if a player is just being a regal ass-hat to his teammates. Obviously, you can’t do away with player rage altogether, but the short match length, and the option to report a player, and know that it will actually be investigated, helps my state of mind, anyway.

Most recently, Valve has recreated the original DotA, using the Source engine. My understanding is that one of the original DotA developers is in charge of the project. DotA 2 is currently in late beta, and happily, I was able to get in on it, so that’s been chewing up most of my computer time lately. There seem to be remarkably few balance issues. I spend a lot of time playing against bots, as DotA 2 is a definite step up from League of Legends, difficulty-wise, but when my co-worker is on, he and I usually play, and I’ve held my own pretty well.

The weekend was pretty frustrating at times. More and more, I found myself wanting to do what I despise, and go off on teammates because of just plain lack of common sense. If there’s one thing worse than someone who hasn’t a clue what to do in a battleground, and refuses to spend a half hour reading any one of the hundreds of posts on the subject, it’s someone who obviously has read those posts, and then turns off their brain.

The general mantra you see about battlegrounds like Arathi Basis and Eye of the Storm is “fight at the base don’t road fight, defend your bases.” Good advice, as a general principle. But when my team bursts out into Arathi, and immediately seizes Stables, Lumber Mill, and Gold Mine, then some self appointed leader says “Ok, defend those bases!”, if any0ne listens to them, I can almost guarantee we’re going to lose.

Keep in mind that in World of Warcraft, their is no “digging in and defending”. There are no foxholes, or trenches. There are a few defensive abilities you can use, mostly to avoid being ganked by a stealther. Death and Decay, Consecration, hunter traps, etc.  But by and large, unless your team has some very good PvPers, numbers win.

In a fifteen man Arathi Basin, if you take three bases, and defend, that’s five to a base. If you’re not attacking, the opponent doesn’t have to defend. Which means that fairly soon, one of your bases is going to see a zerg of about ten opponents romping in to play. Five will not beat ten. No way, no how. Maybe, if every one was on Vent, and had the communications (and time) to assign targets, they could win. But in the normal battleground, with the normal group, not going to happen.

Now, on the other hand, if, as soon as that zerg rush was sighted, someone called it out, and three each of the defenders at Lumber Mill and Gold Mine move fast, they could hit Blacksmith, or the Farm, and trade base for base. But again, most people aren’t going to be on that same page, if they’re already in the mindset of “defend”.

The best Arathi Basin fight I’ve seen so far worked out like this: We got out quick, and grabbed Stables, Lumber Mill, and Gold Mine. We settled in with two or three people at each base. For most of the fight, we had a rogue stealthed at the Farm. The rest of the group perched themselves at the junction by the bridge. And that was the configuration for most of the battleground. The “roving” group would poke at the Farm, or BS, enough to make sure the opposing team had to keep defenders there. The Horde team zerged GM, and the rovers took Blacksmith. Now with the Horde team split across the map, we left one defender at LM, and attacked the Farm from BS and LM. They rushed stables from Gold Mine, and we finished taking the Farm, and then started taking back Gold Mine. They pushed us back from the Farm, but now they were split clear across the map, with their graveyard at the opposite end from Stables. We kept pushing at Stables, while we wrapped up Gold Mine, and eventually had them boxed in at the Farm.  Most of the time, we had no more than two people defending any of our bases. If they got hit, they called out the incoming, and the rovers would push to take one of their bases.

One person defending a base is vulnerable to a lone stealthed attacker. Two people prevents that. In the event they get zerged, two defenders can call out the incoming, and make them work for it. By having the roving group, with like seven or eight players, threatening BS and Farm, it basically forced them to keep three or four at each, and effectively limited how many then could send off to attack our bases. As time went on, and they fell farther and farther behind, they got more desperate, and we eventually four-capped and then five-capped.

The entire time, there was very little chatter, mostly calling out incomings. If people took off on their own, it was to join another group. Everyone seemed to have a firm grasp on how “things work”.

Some simple guidelines:

1) Stay with a group. If you’re not with a group, you should be riding to join one. Don’t just ride down the road, or you’re liable to get sapped by a rogue hanging out.

2) Any more than three people at a base is a waste. If you have only two bases, or one base, you need people on attack. The longer you take, the farther behind you get. If you have three bases, your team should be putting enough pressure on the opponents bases that they can’t free up enough people to overrun your base quick enough that you can’t take a base of theirs.

3) Be aggressive (but not suicidal!)  By maintaining the initiative, you dictate what the opponent can do. Also, by constantly pressuring them, you can see how many defenders they have at each base.

4) Do the math! If you have  three bases, and six enemy players roll in, you know that they have nine left.  Attack one of their bases, and find out how many they’ve left on defense. If you’re pressuring the Farm, and you see five defenders there, you know BS can only have four.  Conversely, if you only have two bases, you know they’re even more spread out. Pick the base that you can support best, and rush it.

5) Be aware of what’s happening. Make sure that each base that’s “on the front” has at least two defenders. If you die, and your rezzing at LM, it’s essentially freeing up one of the defenders to run down and help out on an assault on the Farm, BS, or to help out Stables. For a few seconds, yes, that means LM has one defender, but the chances of the opponent taking advantage of it are slim, especially if you rez, buff on the run, and join the lone defender there. If you want to be proactive, call it out. “Hey, I’m rezzing at LM. One of you there can go help out at the Farm!”

Personally, I don’t like giving orders. No one died and left me in charge. I’ll call things out, but it’s up to people to think. If they won’t, or don’t want to be told what to do, I can type until my fingers fall off, and it won’t do any good. But if  you call out good sense, people will pick up on it. The other morning, in Warsong Gulch, after seeing the Horde cap, and seven out of ten of my team camped in the flag room, I said simply “The name of the game is ‘Capture the Flag’, not ‘Defend the Flag’, people.”

A couple other players jumped on with that, and we went on the offensive. We didn’t win, but we finished 3-2.

Warsong Gulch in a nutshell:

1) Stay with a group.

2) As flagroom defender, you’re there to make sure they have to make an effort to get the flag, i.e., make a big rush, not one person sneaking in and take it. Aside from that, slow them down, let your teammates know if they’re going down the tunnel, or going out the ramp, and get back into action as fast as you can.

3) Most of the other players should be going for the enemy flag room.

4) One or two people fighting at midfield is not a bad thing, but you’re not there to just 1 on 1 duel, or get steamrolled by the opposing zerg. You’re there to slow them down, and distract them from rushing your flag room. “Mid field control”, it’s called. You’re also there to spot the opposing flag carrier when he comes out.

If things work right, it goes something like this:

Your flag rush grabs the flag, and starts back. Meanwhile, one or two players in the mid-field have distracted the enemy rush, and your flagroom defense has slown them down. Your flag carrier is rushing up the field, surrounded by his escort. Your mid-field control now resists the other way, trying to corner their flag carrier, slow them down, and peel them. Depending on how many are with their flag carrier, your teams escort group, and maybe even your flag carrier, intercept them, and try to return the flag, so you can cap. Ideally, your tight, big group is opposing their team spread out between your flag room, and their graveyard.

Of course, it doesn’t always work that way, even with a really good team. Almost invariably, you’ll wind up with the opposing flag carriers on their own roofs. At that point, no more than two defenders should stay with the flag carrier, and everyone else absolutely needs to group up, and get the flag back. Going in one or two at a time isn’t going to work, (even though you have to try, if noone else is doing it).

I’m not saying I’m some tactical genius. Really, it’s pretty simple. It’s all about numbers. More beats less. No matter which battleground you’re in, what you’re really trying to do is apply greater numbers against lesser numbers. Strength against weakness. And yes, occasionally you’re going to run into that one player who seems to single-handedly sway the outcome of a battleground. Hell, I went 11-1 in Eye of the Storm last night, and did almost all of it from Fel Reaver Ruins. We grabbed it early, never lost it, and most of the game, it was me and one or two others there defending. I led my team in damage, and was tied for second in killing blows. We actually came from behind to win that one. And yeah, I was damned proud. MT,  BE, and DR changed hands back and forth several times, but we kept FR solid the whole time, and almost always took a tower when we lost one. When we fell behind, we capped three towers, and the opposing team had to lay off the flag a bit, and respond, and then we went after the flag.

Yeah, I played well, and I definitely felt like I did my part. But if my teammates hadn’t been running around, staying aggressive, constantly pushing the Horde team, it wouldn’t have happened. Once we took FR, no more than four players ever tried to take it as a group. A lot of the time, I was there solo, but with the graveyard right there, I always had backup, and it was no problem holding out against one or two, until help arrived.  The one time I died, I believe it was a rogue, and right after I went down, one of my teammates one-shotted him.

But anyway, now Lirys is level 70, and I’m having a blast. What’s PvE again?

I played Lajos (now Layjos) for a couple years straight, almost exclusively. Some drama hit, and about August or so of last year, I found my enthusiasm for WoW completely gone. I decided to take a break, and wait for Cataclysm to come out. So Cataclysm hit, I ended up doing a server transfer, and I’m still finding my enthusiasm for the mage to be lagging. I’ve got 50+ mounts, 75+ pets, and a ton of titles. Lots and lots of work into that toon, and I’ve decided I’m pretty much done for now. If our guild starts raiding, I’ll be available, and Caraway and I have discussed arena, but my “minute to minute” motivation isn’t centered around the mage.

Enter my gnomie-lock. I’ve been having a ball, as I’ve expressed in my last couple posts. So obviously, my WoW-mojo isn’t gone. So I have to come to the conclusion that I’m just burnt out on the mage. Which leads me back to Repgrind’s remark. She has choices, options, and apparently, that helps buffer the burn-out. Pretty obvious, actually.

So, I indicated before that I thought affliction was over my head at the moment, and besides, I was enjoying the boom factor of destruction.  But, in doing research, I came across some things that really resonated with me, and last night, I decided to flip back over to affliction. I saw one statement in particular, that really resonated to me: You should be pulling targets to you, not running to them. And yes, I’ve remarked on it before, my biggest problem in battlegrounds is I get so gung-ho team-wise that I charge in, find my teammates dead, and find myself facing multiple opponents, and that doesn’t usually go well. That simple statement – and yes, a lot of hours in the battlegrounds – brought it into focus for me.

Probably my biggest “BOO-YA!” moment last night was in EotS. We grabbed Mage Tower, and Draenei Ruins off the bat, and set about going after the flag. I used my handy dandy telescope to zoom in on Fel Reiver, and saw all the Hordies there bail, and head towards the flag. So, I mounted up, and headed out, and did a solo capture. Yeah, I knew there had to be a rogue around somewhere, and sure enough, he opened on me. I trinketed, jumped, Death Coiled him to get some space, tossed Curse of Exhaustion on him, and dotted him up, and finished him off. He came back less than a minute later, and died again. Then he brought a friend. By that time, I’d used my Healthstone, and my cooldowns weren’t cleared yet. I died, but by that time, some teammates were arriving on the scene, and cleaned up my mess.

Moments like these are a joy. It isn’t about an arena rating, or how good I am, or how good the opponent was or wasn’t, it’s about the realization setting in “I can do this!” At this point in time, every time I beat an opponent, I tend to shrug it off as “he must not have been very good”. It’s going to take awhile for me to be comfortable saying “Yeah, I pwned him that time.” But it’s coming.

Last spring, she asked me to play a warlock in the Arena Tournament, to fill out a 3s team with her and Fiak. At that point, I had played a little lock (no pun intended), but I was primarily focused on mage. I decided, what the hey, why not? We got in our 50 matches, got our pets, it wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

While I was boning up on lock, I started playing Liris, on Winterhoof. One of the things I discovered, in passing, was how much fun battlegrounds are with a warlock. So, after working my disc priest up into the 50s, and finding myself lost trying to heal in battlegrounds, I decided I wanted to play my little gnomie-lock again. “Liris” was taken, so she became Lirys Only now, the battleground brackets are 5 levels wide, and start at level 10. I didn’t start at 10, as I was on a questing roll, but soon thereafter, and from that point, probably 80% of her experience has come from battlegrounds. She rolled into this weekend at 51 or 52, and last night, I finished up at 62, pretty much all of it in battlegrounds. Over this last week, I did some of the holiday quests, turned in a few charm bracelets, and had Nick run me through Stratholme, in search of a couple nice gear items (what is with the plate and mail drops???), but other than that, it’s pretty much been all battlegrounds, all the time. By the time I hit 60, I had over 5000 honorable kills, and enough honor to buy the Field Marshal’s Threads, my second set of Dryad’s Wrist Bindings, after having bought most of the useful PvP gear up to that point, and still have a couple thousand honor left over. I snagged a Felheart Belt off the Auction House, and the Grand Marshal’s Mageblade and the Grand Marshal’s Tome of Power as well, and jumped into the new bracket, with almost double the health.

After a few battlegrounds, I’m contemplating dropping back to my Grand Staff of Jordan for the extra resilience. There was a hunter on my team talking about his 8K crits, and I was getting outright owned by rogues, so I need to look at more damage mitigation.

Somewhere along the way, I got the idea of leveling completely through the battlegrounds. Blizzard has made this a viable option, for the most part. With my two BoA pieces, plus the 5% bonus from our guild, a winning Alterac Valley would yield over 50k experience around level 50. Even dropping those two pieces, a losing AB or EotS is giving me 9k experience. The best part? Instead of spending my time doing quest chains – some of which, I hasten to add, are simply awesome – I can spend my time at the auction house, leveling professions, or reading, all while queued for a random battleground. So while not necessarily being the fastest or most efficient way to level, it may be more efficient overall.

The biggest problem, of course, is gear disparity. There are relatively few PvP pieces available on the way up, and they fall in level increments of 10. Of course, at lower levels, resilience isn’t as critical as it is at higher levels. I just stacked lots of stamina, and had Layjos make a trip out to Old Hillsbrad once in awhile to fill up a couple bags with Rumsey Rum Black Label every so often, and all in all, I generally do pretty good. Once DKs entered the picture at the 55-59 bracket, things got tricker, as a leveling lock has very few escape mechanisms. Essentially, I’ve got a 5 minute trinket, and a 3 minute escape with Death Coil. Fear? Too long a cast time when a rogue is carving you up, or a DK/pally/warrior is chopping you into kindling. Howl of Terror, likewise, unless you spec it to insta-cast via Affliction.

I struggled with Affliction, though. For Affliction to really rock, you have to DoT everything in sight. I’ve always had a problem with tab-targeting in general, and the Soul-Swap Inhale/Exhale mechanic isn’t going to really shine if you’re not using it. Additionally, on the way up, not all the spells were there yet. I decided at 30 to try Destro, and liked it. My off-spec is still Affliction, though, so I’ll be playing it occasionally.

Back to gear. At level 85, you can buy a full set of PvP gear with honor, before going for the Arena sets. On the way up, however, you have very few choices, as far as outright PvP gear goes. Almost invariably, you’re going to have to run instances or do quests for gear.  Which takes time away from the battlegrounds and other stuff. Here’s the rub… Lirys is 62 right now. Just doing BGs in the evening, I’m pretty confident I can get her to 65 in a night or two. On the other hand, if I spend that time doing LFG, I may get a couple nice pieces of gear (or I may get drops that aren’t any good to me), I may get a couple of levels, I may… you get the picture. Oh, and I may catch a ration of shit from the other people in the random who see PvP gear, and automatically assume you’re going to .  Yes, what she’s wearing are PvP  pieces. However, if I go out on Wowhead, and do a find upgrade for any of those set pieces, most of what I’m seeing is “drops in Ruins of Ahn Qiraj” or “Drops in Blood Furnace”. Here and there, I see “quests – Zangarmarsh”, but those are a minority. And don’t forget, that’s with the PvE stat weighting. Just out of curiosity, I’ve done a few comparisons with other warlocks of similar level off of WoWHead, making sure on the Wowarmory that they’re still active. Lirys Health, Mana, and Spellpower, in general, compare favorably to locks at least a couple levels greater.

In the short term, I have an easy choice. I can go out to Hellfire in the mornings, and do the world PvP quest to get Honor Hold Marks of Honor, and get the Circlet of the Victor and the Band of the Victor. I could go for the Seal of the Exorcist, however, it costs 50 Spirit Shards. Which can only be gained from running Auchindoin instances, and then only when the 5 towers are in Alliance Hands. Um, no thanks. Not good bang for the buck. By the time I get 50 Spirit Shards, I’ll be knocking on level 70.  So, it looks like I’m going to be spending time in Hellfire. Assuming, of course, there’s anyone on the Horde side capturing the towers back.

Long term, it gets harder, and I can only think that this is going to be the norm from here on out.  Get to the “zero” level (i.e. 60,70,80) and get the new set, then augment with off-set pieces from the auction house, or specific quests that I can knock out quickly.

I’ve been giving thought to professions, as well. Initially, I took engineering, for the “gadget” factor. However, when it gets right down to it, I’ve been a bit disappointed with it for PvP. I have yet to notice a real effect from bombs in a battleground. The engineering headpieces are great, if you’re twinking, but for a profession that is damnably expensive to level, it hasn’t been really helpful. Nitro-boosts/rocket boots are awesome for getting away – if you have  a chance to pop them in time, and you can’t carry a flag with them, and you can’t use them in an Arena. To be honest, it may be me. In the heat of combat, bombs, etc. are just one more thing that my mental “what do I do next” sub-routine has to do. I’m going to make a point to think ahead, and fling more bombs over the next few evenings, and see if maybe I’ve just been doing it wrong.

Alchemy, on the other hand, has served me well.  Something as cheap and simple as a Swiftness Potion, for example. I can’t wait until I can make and use elixirs that last through death. Bang for the buck. And best of all, with the exception of something like Swiftness, you have time to consciously think about what you’re doing.

Given the way I’m playing this toon, I’m thinking  taking up herbalism would make more sense. It’s relatively quick and cheap to level, and I can do it while I’m waiting for the queue to pop. I can make money off of it, and support my alchemy. Not to mention Lifeblood has become very interesting, with a combination Heal/Haste buff.

Gear concerns aside, though, I’m simply having a blast.

I dabbled a bit in Frost, but with all I’m trying to take in with the game in general, there’s a lot going on with Frost, so I’ve so far pretty much stuck with Arcane. This week has been a challenge, since my main computer decided on Monday to fry after a power outage. For the balance of the week, I’ve been on a laptop, and dealing with framerates sometimes in single digits. Not good for PvP, but finally by lowering all the settings, I’ve gotten it at least playable.

Lately I’ve been splitting time between my leveling warlock, Lirys,  and Layjos. Layjos got his PvP robe last night, and pushed his resilience up significantly, so he’s a bit less fragile. Despite fighting framerates, and trying to stay alive, I’ve actually noticed a couple clear times when the shatter aspect of my arcane spec has proven itself out. Last night in Tol Barad, I froze an opponent (and it happened so fast that I didn’t even notice the class. I believe it was a blood elf) and hit a PoM+Arcane Blast that one shotted them. To put that in context, I don’t know how much health they had, what class they were, etcetera, so that’s not particularly impressive. It was just more a proof of concept.

The biggest problem of my new Arcane Shatter spec is that it lacks the mobility of the earlier spec, and I’m not sure where I got the “triple damage crit” idea in my head. In the old days, so to speak, you could use Rank 1 Frost Bolt, which is no longer an option. The slowing effect of Nether Vortex is nice, but you still have to get Arcane Blast off, which with a 2+ second cast time, can be problematic.

Part of the issue, of course, is that I need to get better at fake casting. Last night, in particular, I was being interrupted constantly, often by a mage I barely saw in the melee. Annoying, but a necessary lesson. Frost Bolt is still an option, but unless I seriously stack haste, foregoing mastery, I don’t think it’s a significant difference.

PoM + Arcane Blast is still an option, but the cooldown on PoM prohibits relying on it. Frankly, I think I’m better served using it with Polymorph to set up opponents.

My ‘lock, on the other hand, has been a blast. Last weekend, during the Warsong Gulch Call to Arms, I went from level 23, to level 34, with 90% of it being in the battlegrounds. She’s taken a beating at the lower levels of the brackets, of course, but there was till the consolation, after being war-stomped and then two-shotted by some Tauren, of seing “Killing Blow ” and some opponents name float up my screen. Once the honor started flowing in, and I was able to start stacking some stamina, things improved. And let’s face it, I’ve just gotten better, getting back into the swing of things after a long layoff. There are still some similar challenges – Fear’s long cast time, for one, and relative squishiness, for another – but I’ve also not been utilizing a lot of mechanics as much as I should. Soulburn, for instance.

Time to revisit my macros, revisit my mechanics, and revisit my tactics. But that’s part of the fun.

We had an interesting discussion in guild chat last night. Caraway, our GM, is a pally tank, and was raging about pugs wanting to rush through the content, and wanting the tank to know every fight going in. One of the other members chimed in, and noted that this is pretty much how WoW is played. Before you tackle content, you read up on it, make sure you’re geared, gemmed, enchanted appropriately, etc.

Caraway made a couple very good points last night. One sounded very familiar. Blizzard worked on Cataclysm for over two years. Why does everyone try to finish it as fast as possible? Hmmm…. I’m fairly certain I heard similar rumblings from a mage that shall remain nameless, during Wrath.

The other, and more telling, point Caraway made, was that somewhere, sometime, someone went through this content without the benefit of guides, advice, perfectly tuned gear and specs, etc. Does that somehow mean that they’re better, smarter, or more capable than we? I really doubt most of us would say “well, yeah! They’re WoW gods!” The fact of the matter is, they were lucky enough to get into beta, and have a crack at it. Or, on the Live realms, chances are their guild had a commitment to be the first, and they tackled it blind.

One of our other members chimed in with some valid points. It’s very hard to find people who are willing to tackle content that way. Most people are caught up in the “NEED MOAR GEER!” mindset. And further, they look upon anyone who doesn’t know the fights as a noob.

Um, no. All it means is they don’t know the fight. They may know how to play their class perfectly well. Which Caraway proved in a pug last night by turning off chat bubbles, switching to the combat log, and tanking Blackrock Caverns, successfully, without any prior prep.

Caraway and I work together, and we started talking about last night’s chat, and he came up with an idea that I quickly band-wagoned on. Moonlight Requiem is the most casual of guilds. Basically, you have people to talk to on guild-chat, and we try help each other as we can, but no one really makes a point of helping someone level, or whatever. When one of our members was getting ganked in Hyjal, I dropped what I was doing and went to help. those of us that know each other outside the game will run together somewhat. Things are pretty loose, though. Which, given my own distaste for pugs, has been a bit of a drag.

However, that may be about to change. Caraway announced to me this morning that we’re forming our own Explorer’s League, within the guild. He’s completely committed to people doing their own thing, and keeping things casual, but last night reinforced the problem with the prevailing view in WoW, and this is how we hope to resolve it in our little corner of Azeroth.

The Explorer’s League is going to be for those players who don’t want to rush through content as fast as possible, as painlessly as possible. We’re not excluding anyone; they’re welcome to run with us. Just don’t tell us how to play. Our devil’s advocate made a good point last night: “So, what if I know the fight? What, am I supposed to pretend I don’t?” Nope. Play your toon. Just don’t spoil it for the rest of us.

See, what get’s lost in the heat of discussion is a simple fact of human evolution. If someone constantly solves your problems for you, you never learn to solve problems yourself. As a parent, I’ve spent my last fifteen-plus years letting my kids go through unpleasant experiences that I might have spared them. It’s hard, especially as a parent. But that’s the only way they really learn. You can tell someone not to stand in the fire. But until they stand in it for themselves, and die, sometimes it just doesn’t sink in.

It’s an experiment. I’m optimistic that it will be a productive one.

So, been fighting off the last dregs of a cold, and ended up waking at about 6:30 Friday morning, and after getting a pot of coffee going, jumped on WoW, and resumed my grind to finish off Hyjal, and then was off to Deepholm, where I eventually found myself in the good graces of the mother of the hottest babe ever to hit Wow. I think it says a lot for my determination, charm, suaveness, and the lack of sweating petty details by the WoW design team, that Therazane conveniently ignored the fact that Layjos has killed her lovely daughter at least twice. Oh, wait, that was when he was Lajos. Of course! It was the name change! Doh!!!

On a serious note, I repeat again, Blizzard does it right! I’ve taken a break from leveling alts now that Layjos is on the scene, but what I’ve seen of the revamping of the Old World quests has been very pleasing. The quest-lines make sense, they move along, with very few of the “kill endlessly until you get X number of items” type of quests. Even those tend to be fairly quick. The copious side quests don’t detract from the momentum of the main questline, and some of the questlines are downright entertaining. The John J. Keeshan lines in Redridge and Burning Steppes inspired me to grab First Blood for my son Nick to see, and he has declared it his current favorite movie.

When I finally decided to scratch the mage itch, and move Lajos/Layjos, I breezed through Hyjal, and Deepholm, with no real feeling of “grind”. About the only time I did a conscious “grind” was when I saw my experience bar close to the next level. I always make it a habit, if possible, to grind out those last few points on mobs, so the quest turn-ins launch me well into the next level. So, having gotten the Coming Down the Mountain and Deep into Deepholm achievements, I returned to Vash’jir to pick up there. Unfortunately, I’m not getting the big quest experience points, since I’m a bit above level, but the quests are still entertaining. Yesterday, after family left, I jumped back on, and decided to see how I fared in the battlegrounds.

Oh, incidentally, I gave Fire a try during all that. Not bad. The ability to cast Scorch while moving is interesting. Unfortunately, leveling the way I am, I haven’t been able to muster enough crit rating to really make it effective. I’ve been gradually replacing my Wrath epics, but even with abilities, I wasn’t finding Hot Streak proccing enough for my comfort in PvP, so I decided to return to Arcane.

Overall, battlegrounds went well. I killed more than I died, and even with very little resilience on my gear, didn’t find myself getting killed to fast when I got focused. I identified a few areas I need to macro, and shift my keybinds, but all in all, it went quite well. I didn’t dominate, but I didn’t suck, either. When I had a group that worked as a team, things went well. When I had a group that thought Eye of The Storm is all about capturing the flag, things didn’t go well.  One Warsong went really well, with me leading in HKs, and in the top four in killing blows. We had a good team, and I spent my time picking engaged targets, and hitting them with Arcane Blast, and destroying their health bar, while staying out of close up mismatches. Looking back at it today, that was probably my best battleground, and it highlights what I need to do – get myself in a good position, avoid short range mass crowds of melee, and focus on staying alive. In later battlegrounds, I forgot those principles, and while I didn’t do terribly, I was letting myself get focused, and not escaping effectively enough. It’s something I noted before. I tend to go for the goals, and dive into things, counting on my teammates to be there to back me. When they are, I rock. When they aren’t, I die. It all goes by fast, but I can clearly remember several fights yesterday where I had a healer backing me, or a couple melee-types keeping me from getting smothered. I felt comfortable, in control, and Horde were dying. I can also remember several times that I rushed in too fast, and then, when I went to escape, was still trying to do damage, instead of getting away, and I invariably died.

Arcane has some great control and escape features. Insta-Invis, PoM + Polymorph, and a 3 second speed burst after blinking. I used all of them Sunday, but not as effectively as I should have. Using PoM effectively is going to be a key skill in this spec. The two biggest uses are going to be Insta-Sheep, and Insta-Nuke. In the past, playing the old Arcane Shatter spec, I used Frostfire Bolt as my Insta-Nuke, since it was buffed by the Frost tree, and had the benefit of slowing the target down. Now, with Nether Vortex, Arcane Blast slows the target, and applies the buff, so it’s going to become my nuke of choice, with Presence of Mind making it instant when I need it. More on that later.

I ended up getting about a third of a level in the battlegrounds (gotta love that!) and made level 84 shortly after logging on this morning.  I’m going to finish up Vash’jir, then head out to Uldum. I’m guessing level 85 by no later than Wednesday.

And I’ll be respeccing this evening as well. I’ve already foregone Arcane Tactics, since I don’t plan to be doing much raiding early on. I’m going to drop Focus Magic, and putting that point in Shatter. My level 85 point will go in Shatter as well. “Lol-wut?!?” you say.

Arcane Tactics is a 3% damage buff on the raid. In a raid, over the course of a boss encounter, 3% is significant. In PvP, particularly when you’re not packing a buttload of spellpower, it’s not crucial. Likewise, with Focus Magic, a once-in-awhile 3% crit buff is significant, on a raid where you can make sure it stays on your partner. In PvP, it’s nice, but again, not particularly crucial.

However, being able to selectively apply a triple-damage crit in PvP is very significant, and very useful, especially when that allows you to tie it in with Arcane Potency and Arcane Power. PoM triggers the former, and Arcane Power just adds more goodness. If they’ve been pounding on my Mana Shield or Mage Ward, so much the better, as Incantor’s Absorption is  going to be buffing my damage. Get an interrupt on a caster? Woo-hoo, he’s silenced for 4 seconds, AND Invocation kicks in. Quick freeze, AP, POM, and nuke well.

Then of course, there’s Frost Ring, which has a significant range, which opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities, especially when you note that all the arcane tree goodies are worded “all damage”, “your damage”, “spell damage”, etc. Are Frostbolt and Frostfire Bolt going to hit as hard as Arcane Blast? Of course not. But  they’re not going to start the mana ramp-up either, and against a frozen target, Frostbolt is going to get a 20% buff in addition to all the other spell buffs Arcane gets, including the mastery buffs. Not to mention, it has a shorter cast time, and also very importantly, if I get interrupted, I’ve only got Frost spells locked out, and I have most of my main guns still available.

Is it gonna pwn like the old Arcane Shatter spec? Probably not, and I suspect it will play significantly different, but we shall see.

Caraway and I were talking at work, and he was marveling at the survivability of paladin’s in general, particularly prot. I was regaling him with tales of Hartbane‘s battle-healer spec in the good ol’ days, and as I told him, you don’t so much kill paladin’s so much as you dismantle them. Sort of like peeling an onion, and far more painful and full of tears. But hey, a Blood Elf pally died last night, so at least one new angel has a set of wings, and the day was a success.

My first experiments with Arcane PvP were interesting, though. I complete forgot to use things like Arcane Power (need to get that macro-ed in, dammit), but that really wasn’t a factor. As I said, Improved Blink rocks. I haven’t had time to evaluate the Glyph of Arcane Power (I’ve heard some discussion on how it’s supposed to work, but doesn’t). The biggest thing that jumped out at me was the lack of a really spam-able Arcane spell. Arcane Blast just isn’t suitable for quick use in combat. My initial cast with haste adjustmetns, is still like 1.9 seconds. In a battleground, with distractions, that’s probably doable, however, 1 on 1, or in Arena, that’s an eternity. Of course, there’s always Scorch or Ice Lance, but those really aren’t optimal for Arcane.  I sort of have visions of running along a freeway, throwing pebbles at trucks. Then again, Shatter is available on the first tier of Frost, for double/triple crit chance… and Arcane Blast has a 40 yard range, AND slows the target with Nether Vortex.

I’m having this vision of stacking AB a couple times at long range, then jumping in with a Frost Nova, and cutting loose with a PoM + AB that crits for what Christian Belt describes as “ also doing damage to his posterity down through seven generations, causing his children’s children’s great-great-grandchildren to speak in hushed tones about the time many generations past when a mage blew up his forefather”. Granted, Layjos is only level 80, and doesn’t have that kind of spellpower yet, but the principle is there, and yeah, I find it exciting. More research required.

All that said, I’m going to experiment with Fire and Frost as well, I think.

So, now I have to learn how to play a mage all over again. Whee, good times. Actually, I think it’s going to be pretty interesting, since there isn’t a whole lot out there for Arcane Mage PvP in Cataclysm. Yup, you read that right. Arcane.

Sure, I know, Frost is a no brainer for PvP. So, I’m guessing that there are going to be a LOT of Frost mages in the battlegrounds. Fire has been improved, and likewise, I expect to see a lot of Fire mages there as well. So, since I’m having to relearn anyway, I figured I’d stick with what’s realtively familiar. Everything I’m reading seems to indicate that Arcane rules when it comes to burst damage, and PvP is very much oriented around burst damage. We shall see. Should be exciting.

Oh, and incidentally, I had to rename him, so now he’s named Layjos. Meh.