A combination of work (why do we always work longer and harder after holidays? Is it punishment? Is it to make up for all of those lost days of productivity? I have come to believe that holidays are an illusion) and, the gods forbid, writing some blog posts, have meant that my play time has been a bit limited.
I don’t quite seem to have the time to complete an instance (I might if I hadn’t waited 40 minutes in the queue), finish some dailies, win a BG, etc…
Pirates can't have taken my bandwidth, must be the NINJAS!
I won’t even mention the 8pm ninja lag… It’s lag that isn’t visible via ping tests etc, often WoW tells me I have a comfortable 300ms ping, yet it will take some 15 seconds to do anything… Anything!
This has lead to some unsatisfactory, well unfulfilled, time in game.
The Tol’Barad farce still sits heavily on my heart, no outlet for my honor (yes I fight for the honor of fighting, but with many conflicting game time options with avenues to progression, it can be hard to justify a night of BGs when I need to be preparing for raiding), plus the Ninja lag which prevents me joining my friends on QQ.
I started getting whispers from my old Arena partners Deadypriest and Eastbound (different toon from last year, same player). They went something like this…
Arena?
Arena?
I wasn’t ready (or able) to join them at 1st, but last night I got a whisper from Deadypriest.
Arena?
Yeah, they don’t need to say much do they…
and I thought, why the hell not!
I don’t know what happened in the first fight, I might as well have been wearing mittens for all the skill I demonstrated.
To be honest the majority of my fights for the night ran the same way, but at least I started to get it together.
Just as I started to get it together, the Ninja Lag rose up, my ping rose to over 3,000ms everything was in freeze frames… luckily only for me.
Guided by Deadypriest over vent, I danced around the arena, casting, counterspelling, ducking and weaving with no feedback but for Deadypriest.
Unbelievably, we won that battle. Kind of makes me wonder what the other guy was doing…
Later I became Eastbound’s meatshield. Compared to his skill I was little more than a target dummy, still once I had gained their aggro, they seemed ignorant of the fact that he was bursting them down while I stared out pitifully from my stunlock or Iceblock.
Anyway this post isn’t really to introduce you to my lack of Arena prowess, there is a greater reason and I hope as you read on you promptly forget what an Arena noob I am, and only think of me as a gladiator of the highest order.
The reason I am writing this post is because Arenas have changed. Not the physical arenas, but the way in which you earn “points” or currency from them.
Now when you win an Arena you earn 268 Conquest points, up to a weekly limit (1348 for me this week).
The other ways to earn conquest points are:
- Daily random Battleground at 25 points per day, or
- Rated Battlegrounds
The daily ransoms are a relatively slow way of earning these points at a maximum of 175 per week.
Rated battlegrounds are probably out of the question unless of course you already own the gear purchasable with conquest points.
So a few wins in the Arenas each week and you are well on your way to building a better PvP set than available to you from honor alone, and possibly in a lot less time.
Yeah this is the guy with the tough shadow.. you have been warned!
Get some of the gear from conquest points and you will find yourself with an advantage in the BGs and Tol’Barad and even the dangerous dark alley ways of Stormwind.
So go for it!
Throw yourself to the Lions!
Ohh and don’t try to gank Eastbound in a dark Stormwind Alley. Most likely he will play with you as a cat does with a mouse and leave you swimming in a pool of (albeit frozen) your own blood.
Gnomer and Out!
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I’m not fond of PvP personally but I have always had a minor interest towards Arenas. I found your post fun to read and actually made me want to try it out someday.
What class would be best to play for Arena beginners?
~Arphalas
The best class is the one you know well, and not in the PvE skill set, but the PvP skill set.. this is usually a bit different, so it’s worth practicing.
Once you know which one you understand, it’s a case of finding friends that compliment you, maybe healer, maybe DPS… it doesn’t matter so much, as long as you work well together & communicate.
i’ve never had the nerve to try PvP — maybe some day. i am completely rusty, and need to get back into PvP in general. you are inspiring me to get off my butt and get back into it!
Arena I think you mean.. I know you love getting bloody in the BGs and Wintergrasp was one of your favorites.
Arena’s is intimidating and it can be damn scary when you are in them… but remember, the system will match you against people with similar skill level (based on your rating).
There is an initial period to begin with where WoW doesn’t know if you are the best, or the worst, so it will throw you in the middle. You may loose a lot of fights initially… this is OK, your rating is just being reset to the point where you can fight, win and have fun.
It is different
Different can be scary
Different can be fun.
It also adds one more thing to your list of things you can do.. no raids, long Instance queues, BGs not going your way, can’t be stuffed questing or gathering… go do some arenas!
oh yes, i did mean “arena” — i believe i was typing when too many other things were going on for me at the same time.
: /
distracted mage is distrac-
Yes, PVPs are quite fun. I remember when I was first trying it out scared as hell and always getting my ass handed to me.
[...] invested in your ability to kill 100 things. Gnomeaggedon always keeps us up to date on his latest achievements and progress, but he includes us in his reindeer games [...]
[...] invested in your ability to kill 100 things. Gnomeaggedon always keeps us up to date on his latest achievements and progress, but he includes us in his reindeer games [...]