Anticipation

It's been 2 weeks since GameOver has last played 5s, and much longer since we've really played much. Now with everyone done with vacations, hopefully Stormstrike will be seeing a lot more of us in the coming weeks. ^^

I've been dueling a lot more than arena-ing the past week and BDF is honestly AMAZING for dueling at this point. There are no shortage of strong players of any spec for any class either in full s2 gladiator or in full t6 or glad/t6 combinations. Here are just some unrelated thoughts on a few various duels I've slightly changed my perspective on:

Enhancement shaman in retarded BT gear - This is obviously pretty easy with pet or if you sheep/rushdown to keep them healing, but it used to be pretty trivial even just r1 kiting out of shock range and fireblasting and CSing heals just enough to keep wearing them down. I like to be able to have a "run them oom" strat against every mana user just because I think that going for the blue bar is a lot more viable than people give credit, and enhance shamans used to be the easiest as even if you made a mistake, you took a few thousand damage and could simply get away and play more aggressive. Now when a mistake can cost you 6-8k damage instantly (as can nova or coc or bolt resists sometimes), it's a lot more fun and I think its weirdly good kiting practice despite enhancement shamans total inability to reliably close the distance.

Resto Shaman in Elemental Gear - This is pretty interesting, but I haven't dueled anyone on the level of GC with this setup. Basically they play it the same as normal resto, and here are a few quick things on that:

• Start with Earthshield, after its spellstolen, obviously purge and use WaterShield the rest of the duel. Mage cannot afford to steal it and it prohibits r1 kite to run oom reasonably well. (If you aren't vigilant about WaterShield, gg)
• Frost mages are honestly pretty lame with WE out in how much damage they can do. Don't lose the duel to stupid spike damage by getting too baller on CS fakes. Try to save NS for the second pet nova which hopefully you can waste by saving an earthshock for the frostbolt cast, but that's not always reliable. If you grounding as you come out of poly, grounding when it's up, your third grounding is up by the time of the pet nova, but using groundings this predictably might not be worth it.
• Max rank ES and rank 1 Frost Shock. Never frost shock when grounding is on CD and you aren't EXTREMELY close.
  
• If getting kited at 30+ yds, don't chase, move away for efficient heals or bandages to force the mage back to you. Keep WaterShield up.
  
• The point of late duel r1 kiting is two things: frostbite procs for lances which is very mana efficient damage and stalling for polymorph DR. Letting me r1 kite you for 15 seconds, full DR poly->full bandage, over and over basically means all that mana you spent on max rank shocks has been wasted. You need to be making up for it with WaterShield regen.
• Searing totem is retarded damage and forces mana to be spent lancing them down.
  

Resto Shaman in T6 Resto Gear - I find this fight pretty easy at this point and weirdly it is harder to run resto shamans in dmg gear oom than resto shamans in resto gear. If you are vigilant about taking out searings and maintaining range, you just don't take enough damage. I generally will do lots of silly stuff like r1 Mana Shield and r1 Frost Ward in these fights, but you might find smart players will watch your mana bar and realize you're being sneaky with low rank. Some people will spam re-apply EarthShield, you can afford to spam steal it, but as I've said in some previous article, be really careful of Earthshield->grounding to bait you into Spellstealing the grounding totem. (This will get you pissed off quickly)

Mage vs Mage No Pet Duels - These are fun. ^^

Hardcore Defensive Prep Rogues - I'm not saying this is the way to go, but wearing +stealth gear so I can't trinket->fireblast off the sap, and generally playing keep away to go eat over and over is interesting. Vanish and wait out every pet. Never reopen till Cloak is back up. Eat to full on each open. This isn't new or anything, people have tried this as a strat for a long time, and I've always thought it sucked as it seemed to me the rogue was wasting CD while I was just getting full health and mana every time he ran off. It's also risky as it is relies on avoiding petnova to deny vanish and perception. It is fun though and I've had some weird 3 and 4 pet rogue duels with 5 cloaks and a LOT of eating to full. I'm not really sold on this being viable still...

Slightly More Arena Stats

I was asked to post slightly more "inclusive" arena stats for those too lazy to waste time on Armory. ^^

So now, it is top 100 US teams in each bracket.

Class Breakdown 5v5:

Warrior: 108
Mage: 90
Paladin: 119
Hunter: 26
Rogue: 22
Priest: 106
Shaman: 90
Warlock: 77
Druid: 17

Class Breakdown 3v3:

Warrior: 43
Mage: 40
Paladin: 33
Hunter: 2
Rogue: 43
Priest: 51
Shaman: 23
Warlock: 58
Druid: 26

That is not a typo on the hunters LOL.

Class Breakdown 2v2:

Warrior: 35
Mage: 4
Paladin: 19
Hunter: 2
Rogue: 18
Priest: 20
Shaman: 10
Warlock: 44
Druid: 37

Go hunters! (way to be Hamchook lol)

My Metric:

Warlock: 283.86
Warrior: 267.31
Priest: 241.17
Paladin: 221.61
Mage: 166.8
Shaman: 153.41
Druid: 152.92
Rogue: 138.81
Hunter: 34.34

Metric w/ Blizzard Bracket Weights:

Warrior: 163.4
Priest: 158.8
Paladin: 156.8
Warlock: 149.8
Mage: 124.4
Shaman: 114.4
Rogue: 67.2
Druid: 60
Hunter: 28.8

Sick, bored, and something to do in between SC games. ^^

Some Arena Statistics: Part Deux

Class breakdowns are of the top 20 US teams.

Class Breakdown 5v5:

Warrior: 19
Mage: 18
Paladin: 18
Hunter: 4
Rogue: 4
Priest: 20
Shaman: 16
Warlock: 10
Druid: 4

Class Breakdown 3v3:

Warrior: 7
Mage: 7
Paladin: 5
Hunter: 0
Rogue: 8
Priest: 8
Shaman: 5
Warlock: 10
Druid: 7

Go hunters!

Class Breakdown 2v2:

Warrior: 6
Mage: 0
Paladin: 3
Hunter: 1
Rogue: 3
Priest: 4
Shaman: 3
Warlock: 7
Druid: 9

Go mages!

Combined Metric: (Normalized to 5s with 5s + (5/3) 3s + (5/2) 2s)

Warrior: 45.67
Priest: 43.33
Warlock: 39.17
Druid: 38.17
Paladin: 34.83
Shaman: 31.83
Mage: 29.67
Rogue: 24.83
Hunter: 6.5

Again this is just a simple metric, don't read much into it, but its quick. ^^


Spec Diversity (% of top 50 overall each class off spec)

Warrior: 16% (84% 35/23 variant, some are probably just prot or fury for PvE)
Warlock: 56% (44% UA variant)
Paladin: 2% (98% Holy)
Priest: 32% (68% 28/33)
Druid: 32% (68% Resto)
Shaman: 34% (66% Resto)
Mage: 6% (94 % Water Elemental, 17/0/44 itself being 58%)
Rogue: 42% (58% Combat)
Hunter: 46% (54% Marksmanship)

Note that these are fraught with bias, but it is interesting how there are more top 50 resto shamans than elemental now, hunters are increasingly more weighted to BM, while the other class ratios are reasonably the same as before.

Test Server Duels

Thanks to everyone who came out last night. ^^

Overall, it is a pretty frustrating test server on which to duel compared to some of the previous test iterations. One significant problem is that the PvP trinkets are bugged for some classes and only remove their old effects; this led to an extremely pissed off Valanmor. I spent the majority of the night dueling the other FH out on the lake (there must have been 15 of us), which was fun although more variety would have been nice. (I can duel FH players anytime!) Love to Chaq and gh0st for the few duels despite the griefing alliance.

I've been dueling resto druids and resto shamans significantly differently than I have in the past, and I havent' really seen other mages play it the same way so I'll explain.

Against resto shamans, I like to:

1. Lance the pre-duel grounding as I eat the first purge and dance out of range
   
2. As we collide back into range if I lanced before the purge hit, start a poly. If he was sluggish on that first purge and goes to purge cockily, you just landed a free poly. (always rank 1 btw)
3. The above won't probably happen, he'll grounding, and probably get 2 purges while you stopcasting lance the shaman to hit the totem instead.
   
4. Now he'll play keep away at range to avoid you trying to poly outside of shock range and won't close the distance probably until he has a new grounding. Don't waste mana nuking at 36, simply r1 fbolt, steal ES, and when you can and try to move in for a poly.
   
5. Eventually you'll probably fail at landing the poly, he'll move in with a grounding as protection for a frost shock, you'll nova to try to 30yd poly outrange his shock, he'll trinket it WITHOUT first wasting a grounding on it. (It's not a big deal, but everyone I duel drops a grounding on the nova first, which I don't see the point of really)
6. People watching the duel think you're getting ripped as you've taken decent damage and have been purged naked and have failed to do anything. (But you've burnt PvP trinket!)
7. R1 bolt as soon as he trinkets and quickly lance down any searing totems he's dropped as he closed in. (the ones at 40 yds from the start of the duel probably don't matter) He's going to try to get in close and flametongue/earthbind gay you, you have to kite him like melee to avoid this. With 3/3 perma, you're snare is just as good, and every time he frost shocks, consider a poly or fake poly to eat that grounding. Some players reapply ES, steal it but don't fall for ES->grounding to waste your 750 mana. (FILTHY)
   
8. Either you'll get a frostbite proc early, which depending on how he used groundings is a guaranteed sheep, or you're second nova comes off CD and you should be able to land a poly, often I've taken 4-5k damage and dealt none at this point. I've spent 1k mana, he's spent probably 2k. Bandage immediately as you avoid or take down searings. Resheep, summon pet, damage trinket and land a WELL-TIMED shatter combo. (this isn't really that pivotal tbh, I mistime it and get screwed by a fast grounding often)
9. As soon as lance leaves your hand, you should be running away, the goal is to get out to 30-36, he might try to chase or he might just grounding->heal.
   
10. Don't even worry about CSing too much, if he is spam healing himself and you're spam bolting at 35 yds with no grounding to deal with, this is great, you might even get a frostbite to generate additional burst and you're wearing down his mana hardcore. At some point, if you can, CS a heal that you think isn't bait, and try to force the NS; the goal of this nuke and this WE is to burn a few thousand mana and NS. As soon as you accomplish that, it is back to r1 kiting. R1 kite to space max rank fbolts, take out searing totems and groundings as necessary. Shatter combo second time.
11. Basically just r1 kite and abuse frostbite for damage, he'll start going hardcore mana conserv, watershield+r1 shocks. You can kite all day though with rank 1 bolt, and the lances you generate with bites are still more efficient damage than what he can regenerate with watershield. Often you'll slip up and he'll close the gap on you, this is no worry. Treat the duel as fresh and work on establishing a poly->bandage. If you kite the whole 2+ minutes until your first pet is off CD, you win as he can't outheal consecutive pets with how little mana he'll have. Just don't let him outrange/kite the pets.
    
12. It sounds pretty gay and it is, but it is quite effective even against players in BT/S2 resto gear. ^^ It's also sorta cooler than sheep -> shatter -> imp CS -> hope to crit that I see most people using.
    

Against resto druids:

1. Not start with pet. This is really debatable; the earlier your first WE is out, the sooner he is back off CD, with no Imp CS (I'm dueling as 0/18/43 with MoE as my generic dueling spec right now), you are not going to get an early kill on a skilled player who's remotely ready for it. Therefore, I like to play the fight REALLLLLLY slow and escalate the damage output increasingly as the duel progresses. Never blink out of pounce. (duh?)
   
2. Some druids like to just moonfire lightly and melee you in caster, don't use Barrier too much here. If they like to harass in travel or cat, IB to reduce damage and get more consistent frostbolts out. For the first 15-20 seconds of the duel I simply frostbolt and let MA do it's job, if you get a full DR impact proc (FULL 2 SECONDS YEAH), you can quickly nova->lance, this is nice as you almost always get the bonus damage while forcing the mana spent on shifting.
3. After you've both spent about 1k mana, hit a citrine, and start novaing when its up to force shifts. CS any early cyclones, and even use fireblast for additional damage after landing a CS. Obviously fake cast feral charges, don't blink or IB bashes, just let him heal.
   
4. When you start taking enough damage (after 3-4k for me usually), it usually means you're doing well on the mana/attrition war, and it's time to WE and push for momentum. Try to manual nova, he'll shift, and start bolt cast, shatter combo with good timing. If he cyclones early into your pet, IB it and keep the pressure up. If he does hardcore cylone you (immune), cyclone pet, and cyclone (you) again, don't trinket this unless you can CS a hard cast. Otherwise look for an opportunity to trinket->CS.
5. Your second nova is really where you're looking to kill if its going to be a fast duel, the first is just to keep him in the 2/3 health range to make such a thing even possible. If he starts playing keep away and just tries to kite the pet, make sure to r1 bolt to help keep him soaking up pet damage. If he keeps trying to shift/run away, keep r1 bolting, this is a BAD situation for him. It's too much mana on shifting.
6. If he get's too cocky and goes to bear with around half health and backs out to feral charge a bolt, this is a good time to use pet nova, use it early in the bolt cast, if he panics at being unable to FC that bolt, its probably GG; he has to shift and SM, if SM is still on CD, he probably has to NS.
   
7. After pet dies if you fail to kill, r1 bolt kite if he plays the slow game, and just wait for second pet. When you get it, use pets in succession for the win. If he starts to get aggressive, you might be forced to snap for second pet earlier, but don't do this till he wastes a lot of mana on moonfires or aggressive shifting.
8. This wasn't in much detail but I'm very sleepy. ^^ Oh, obviously IB before you Evo. If you start getting lamed by guy who never leaves caster, consider r1 poly spam on him.
   

I know most good mages play these fights pretty differently than me; I'm not saying these are the "GOOD" ways to handle the two gay resto matchups, but I find they work well, and they are fun strats to play/watch. It's pretty frequent to see 3-4 minute duels where you win almost no heatlh or mana but have set up that inevitable good shatter combo or simply won the mana war of attrition. These are some of my favorite fights to play; minute execution isn't pivotal -- you can miss a CS or mistime IBing a cyclone and still easily pull out the victory. The challenge is consistently being mindful of their short CDs (shocks, grounding, SM, cyclone DR) and adapting a lot during the duel to the current health/mana/cooldown landscape.

Anyways, gd to everyone who came out. I thought it would be frustrating to duel in my 5s gear, but the lack of stam/resil will probably only be a huge problem against locks and rogues.

I just discovered that GameRiot is pretty cool; I found a bunch of good blogs finally -- it is a bit intimidating to use as there are 6.022x10^23 emo blogs about nothing...oh wait. I didn't realize that quite a few of the players I highly respect run pretty active blogs on GR.