I really don’t want to QQ, but getting into arena-based pvp this late in the TBC cycle is frustrating. Simply put, gear just makes too much of a difference (skill can only compensate so much) and if you’re just starting out, you’re pretty much fodder for those that are rolling s3+ gear.
Okay, so I’m not completely uber-undergeared (Nevik’s Armory), but lacking 400+ resilience makes cheat death worthless. I swapped the 3 points I had in CD into Master of Subtlety and so far I’ve been happy with the results. Sure, once my arena teams get above 1600 and we’re consistantly facing well-geared opponents I’ll need to respec to get CD back for survibility when focused, but for the time being, the extra burst damage is coming in handy.
Ran 20 matches (10 in 2v2 and 10 in 3v3) and ended up once again 50/50 on our wins and losses. We got absolutely trounced, twice, by a war/shaman/lock team in 3v3 where the majority of them were rocking t6/s3 gear. Considering that our hunter lacks the most amount of pvp gear, when he got focused, he died faster than any of us could react.
Then in 2v2 with the priest we got to QQ over the a-typical druid/war combo that is very very difficult to play against as a lol-step rogue and hybrid disc/holy priest. Afterwards we strategized on how to approach the match and came up with the conclusion that without a substantial burst of damage, we’ll have to CC the warrior and burn the druid down.
To accomplish this, we’re hoping that I’ll be able to open with a sap on the warrior while the priest begins a mind control while I hopefully find the druid. Should the warrior trinket the MC my priest will then scream the warrior off and when he breaks the fear by stance-dancing I’ll toss a blind on him. At this point hopefully the druid hasn’t run too far away and/or I can catch the druid in travel/caster form with a 5pt kidney shot (after opening on him with a 5pt imp.exposed armor) and burn him down before he can react while my priest mana burns and pw:deaths him to help with the burst.
Seems fairly simple, but execution is something that we’ll need to master. There is no room for error against a war/druid comp because a single hamstring/mortal strike on me = QQ. We’ll get more wiggle room as we continue to gear up (s3 pants will have to wait until next tuesday ;_;) and as we improve our coordination overall. (Broken record, I know ….)
On a positive note, I’m getting far more confident that our 2v2 rating will continue to improve as the weeks go by (we improved our rating in 2v2 by 20′sh points) and hopefully we’ll stop the hemorraging of our 3v3 rating (lost 3 pts) providing that our hunter team-mate grinds some BGs to improve his DPS.
And then there’s the approaching gear reset for 80′s arena. Still no details on how it’s going to work other than arena 71-79 will be skirmishes only while 80 is the return of rated matches (lv70 matches will also remain rated). Yet there are more lingering questions such as: will pvp-oriented gear be obtainable through leveling (either through instances or questing)? will s3/4 arena gear hold up and be a good starting ground for season 5? when will season 5 start up?
I just hope that once Blizz announces an actual date, they stick to it (yah right ….) so I can take a week of vacation to focus on burning through to level 80 and get as much of a headstart on lv80 pvp as possible. Yup, looks like pvp is going to remain my focus.
