Thoughts on 2.3 Stuff -- Class Changes and Rated WSG

This is going to be rather long, and NO I'm not going there, but I'm due to discuss some things.

Now for some reason beyond my comprehension, there are apparently people who'd rather read my whiny mage PvP opinions than sweet posts about poker. But whatever, I'll break it down on a few recent hot topics.

The 2.3 changes currently published are going to really make WE the only viable spec to play. Picking up over a 100 damage per Frostbolt and a more potent Ice Barrier is hard to turn down. Combine the Detect Magic nerf with the fact that Baller-Spec™ is more about getting free to CC heavily than chain nuking to do big damage and it'll be hard to justify not playing WE in arena, at least 3s and 5s.

The evocation change is obviously nice; the other stuff is mostly PvE relevant and doesn't interest me terribly. The indirect nerf to elemental shaman arena burst will perhaps reduce the gib of 4DPS, but certainly not to the point where 4DPS will no longer be viable, if anything it hits 2345 harder, but the mage damage buff will likely counteract that. The rogue changes will make 4DPS with rogue terrifying and rogues generally ridiculous in 2s/3s, duels, and world PvP.

Wound and MS affecting drains will hopefully reduce warlock dominance in the smaller brackets which should indirectly benefit mages, but isn't going to change the fact that mages basically are required to run with a lock or rogue in 2s and 3s as we simply don't have the crowd control or damage to be a threat by ourselves. The fear ward nerf might honestly end up helping locks more than the drain change hurts, and while WoTF + Fear Ward could be dominating, most arena teams are alliance to take advantage of the previously superior dwarf racials.

What would I have liked to see in 2.3? Trainable Ice Block. LOL. Would 17/44/0 or 33/28/0 with IB even be as strong as WE? I'm leaning towards probably not. I love playing 38/23, but its a joke how powerful some of the frost talents and abilities relatively are. Compare talented Cone of Cold to Blastwave ("gold medal talent"). Blastwave snares for 10% less, does 40% less damage, and has potentially a 500% longer cooldown. It also is shorter range and higher mana cost. Coolio. Dragon's breath? Does no more than CoC either and you could make a similar comparison...except that you can't even use CoC at all if you're DB. Does this make ANY sense? And Slow? Cool.

I don't mean to be an emo faggot, but it strikes me as somewhat retarded that the only PvP viable mage spec is basically the play-like-a-warlock, spam instants, and let your pet win for you one. Yeah, there's some micro to using your pet well. The thing is... it doesn't fucking matter because WE is so overpowered that you can play like total shit, have your pet autoattack your sheeps, miss half your shatter combos, kite like ass, and still win because it hits so fucking hard. For all of us who resisted the urge to re-roll warlock in BC, you've failed, you now fucking play one.

As for that Arcane Shot change, I'm a huge fan. I actually enjoy rebuffing Ice Armor or Molten Armor every 2 minutes in Battlegrounds. I don't cast Arcane Intellect or Dampen on myself in BGs not because of the mana cost and the inevitability of them being promptly dispelled, but because I like to intentionally handicap myself to make the game more challenging by playing without such powerful buffs on my side. I like it almost as much as when I ride by a lock in WSG and then have to run away and eat twice to recover the DoT damage. Spending most of your time in BGs eating to recover DoT damage is awesome, my rolls are delicious, it's a wonder my mage keeps his slim figure.

At least, there's some cool engineering stuff. Now, I'm not a huge fan of how I have to spend an hour doing daily quests to get enough grenades for 2 hours of PvP, but I understand that its actually good for me and good for the game's economy. See if grenades were cheaper, people would use them in arena or in PvE. Can you imagine what would happen to the economy if grenades didn't cost 5g each? I used to spam iron grenades pretty heavily back in WoW 1.0, but I've been told that Blizzard actually twisted the head off a kitten every time I chucked a grenade -- I've seen the box of heads, it wasn't pretty.

One piece of good news is that rated WSG is on the horizon sooner than most of us expected. Lots of people are getting their teams together already, not so much me. I've been trying to convince FH to transfer to Tich to enable us to get some competition for our sick potential WSG squad, but it's gone mostly like this:

Me: I WANT UP IN THAT BG9 SHIT LIKE THAT GIRL IN HEROES
Guild: What?
Me: I WANT IN IT. IN. IT. THINK ABOUT IT.
Guild: bg9?
Me: RATED WSG NIGGAS. FACES, WE CAN SHIT ON THEM.
Guild: You want to do another transfer?
Me: OR MAYBE THAT HARRY POTTER GIRL SHES HOT
Guild: I don't know if we should transfer, it might endanger raiding progress.
Me: NOW HERES A LITTLE STORY I GOTS TO TELL
Nolan: about three bad brothers you know so well
Me: YEAHHHHHHHHHH REP THAT JEW SHIT LIKE ITS FJBJ SALE HALF OFF
Guild Suck: Why would you want rated WSG?
Me: YOUR NOT ON THE TEAM FAGGOT SHUT UP
Guild: We'll talk later, didn't you say you had to leave?
Me: FINE BUT THIS IS SO GOING IN MY BLOG FAGGOTS

So, I don't really know what's up. I know that rated WSG will be absolutely my top priority. One concern is that PvE gear is pretty important for WSG, but I honestly hope they keep it that way. I miss seeing people in different gear and of different specs. It'll be healthy for the game to have the developers try to balance PvP outside of just the arena mindset -- I honestly think it'll lead to better arena balance too. WSG has been forever been one of my favorite parts of WoW; even when my friends were extremely burnt out of WoW, we always had fun messing around in WSG. I've heard rumors that players are already coming out of retirement to lock in spots on teams -- I'm hoping to bring back a few of the old faces for our team. ^^

Back to what 2.3 "needs" -- fire needs a mid tier talent change that is powerful and relevant to PvP. Something that elevates the offensive threat of AP/fire and deep fire mages to compensate for their extreme fragility. Ignite healing debuff? Crit through resilience? Healing by doing damage? Improved burst on scorch and fireblast? Something. Spellsteal still needs significant improvement. Slow needs to be lower mana cost and not single target limited. All the chance to resist everything talents for all classes need to be reworked to being duration reductions. I could go on, but who really gives a fuck, Blue makes changes, we adapt.

Poker Noir

Imagine you're sitting 20-40 at the Taj. The spacious and normally busy poker room has become subdued as morning draws near and players fight the battle to stay alert. The too-ugly-for-Vegas waitresses are serving up coffees and espressos instead of beers and scotches. Their trays are so covered with dollar bills and chips that you feel slightly ridiculous tipping them at this point. Diet Red Bull? Sorry only regular. Useless cunt. Why does this place even try with the girls when the best they can offer is more over-the-hill Hooters than hot?

Whatever, you're just pissed. It took two hours to get a seat. They tried to sit you when you arrived at a table more busted than these girl's faces. No thanks, you don't enjoy paying the rake while trading even money with your friends. You saw the table you wanted. State school memorabilia and sports jerseys everywhere. College kids and geezers. Mostly white. Fantastic.

Four and five men to the flop every hand, mostly calling stations. The young guys are more focused on shuffling their chips than watching their opponents. Everyone checks their cards way early in the rotation -- nobody is looking to get any pre-flop information. Congratulations, they've read a book on poker. They know what top 20 hands are and have memorized how to play certain hands in certain positions. Cool. Too bad they're more focused on rolling chips around their hand and sweet talking the girls old enough to be their mothers. You love these guys.

It's supposed to be a tough game, the Taj 20-40, but you're killing it. Quadrupled your stack in a few hours. Maybe you've found the softest table, it hasn't been the cards. You haven't slept in three days solid. Your breath stinks strongly of Red Bull, you can smell it on your own breath. Whatever it takes, right? You'd kill for a Provigil right now. Literally kill. Okay, maybe just hurt, but fuck it, sleep or something like it sounds fantastic. Not talking women here either, just fucking sleep.

You're in character. Obnoxious and cocky. Maybe a little preppy. No accent bullshit though, the guys with fake accents are the most gigantic douchebags of poker. You've played this character on the tables for more than 6 years now, he might as well be you. If he wasn't when you started, he is a little bit now. Has it been worth it? It comes back to the money, the fucking money. Where is it now? Spent on things you don't talk about, can't talk about, not with your friends even. Can't exactly buy a car or condo with your poker winnings without reporting to the IRS anyways. It's gone as quickly as it came. Fuck that nonsense, get in character.

You're 5D-6D early to act and decide to straight call despite the extremely loose, aggressive player on your left just to get yourself into a goddamn hand. Thirty minutes of folding mid-weak junk because you know the cannon next to you is raising everything pre-flop. He re-raises and 4 players call 2 bets into the flop. Flop comes K-K-8 rainbow, what's the play?

Most players check here and look to fight another day where they have more to work with -- bluffing into the wild player on the left is not wise unless you have fantastic table image established and your bets represent some real strength. Besides, loose players DO have it sometimes, and bluffing into wild men who catch a good hand is how to waste a lot of money. However, my playstyle is to win hands on 3rd, I bet. Loose player re-raises, players 3 and 4 fold.

Why did I bet? Or what am I betting? I'm betting the King. I came in early pre-flop so KQ and KJ are definitely hands I could be put on. The table is communal enough to play any A-X suited bullshit, and I've been seen playing these hands which is a problem. The beauty and simplicity to playing straight bluffs instead of semi-bluffs is you get to focus exclusively on selling your hand without obsessing too much over what your opponents are holding. I quickly re-raise. There are 10 bets in the pot, I'll take 10 to 1 odds on selling the King. Worst case is our table wild man holds the King and I get the fuck out the way on fourth.

I expect him to quickly call. He pauses. He looks at me. I grin. He grins back. He thinks for a minute while chatting me up. "You should learn to slow play these hands," he informs me. He turns over two red aces and folds. I flip over the 5-6 nothing to the table, he curses, I grin. I collect the chips, tip the dealer, and get up.

It wasn't a big hand. It wasn't the money. The play was nice but it wasn't anything fancy. But it was satisfying. It was personal. WoW once felt this way before cross realm battlegrounds, before trashtalking arena teams you've never faced on separate battlegroups. I want that back.

Adventures Outside Azeroth

I have returned, and while my drunken attempts to do some spelunking with GQ models (the female variety) were unsuccessful this past weekend, apparently "you're really pretty" followed with "I'm radikal, you've probably read my PvP blog, I'm a pretty big deal" does not make women go all Emperor's New Clothes, I have had some time to think about sweet, sweet World of Warcraft. And yes, that sentence was a bit too long, but then again so is my dick. See that was subtle and clever and tasteful. Full of fucking taste bitches.

I was watching porn (straight thank you very much) on my iPhone on the subway (which I ride to keep in touch with the plebs) and while the action seemed to arouse interest from the FOB looking Chinese girl nearby, I'm well aware associating with THOSE people can lead to WoW account foreclosure, and besides, her hands were nowhere near small enough to farm gold quickly or make me feel gigantic, I couldn't help but feel terribly bored without the lavish attention I've become accustomed to with my WoW stardom. Nine million players, people. I literally hear the crowd's applause outside my windows every time I log into WoW. I can't disappoint them.

I'd like to briefly shout out to another e-hero, Azael, now Azazael formerly of GameOver. He's quickly found his way towards the top of BG9 after transferring a few days ago and joining up with BOP NOW. Now I personally don't attach much value to his success what with him being a warlock and all, but apparently there do remain some players who value their accomplishments, and unbiased and fair analysis is what I do here on this site. Many other FH PvPers have expressed interest in transferring alts to BG9 for some "casual" arena in between their serious matches on Stormstrike. I've done my best to convince them to not waste their time against teams who wouldn't be 1400 on BG5, but I do understand that when the competition on our battlegroup is so intimidating, it's perhaps wise to move to a more "casual-friendly" environment.

I haven't said anything about my love, Dahis, leaving WoW because the loss has left me eating pints of Hagaen Dazs watching When Harry Met Sally and You've Got Mail over and over again. I wrote a lengthy post detailing my thoughts on what his departure will mean to the game; Okay, that's a lie. I used a crayon and a napkin and wrote "WHY DID YOU LEAVE YOU WHORE" on it over and over again. Okay, it was blood and not crayon. But I wrote stuff. Words. From the heart. Don't think you're going to just log back online someday and it's going to be all "You had me with 'hello'" either, I'm tough, I can do just fine on my own. Rocky road is fucking delicious.

Now, you might think I'd be bitter what with my friends and teammates all leaving me to go play on BG9, but you're a faggot and I hate you for even thinking that. Sometimes, relationships don't work. I get that. People want different things. I want a girl who, when we have children, will pierce her nipples to increase the chance that our child will have metallic superpowers like Ironman or Magneto. She should like spiders too and not go totally clean-clean all the time. She should like to sw--I've derailed. Arena PvP is likely on the way to becoming a silly gearing up thing unless there are significant changes to make the system more enjoyable and competitive. That isn't doom and gloom, but most people I know lose interest pretty quickly after the first (heh) few weeks once the rewards diminish. I'm not going to moralize on the "right" way to play arena, but it's silly to get too frustrated over something so inevitable. <3