Breakfast Topic: Are you ready for Season 5?
by Zach Yonzon 
Dec 16th 2008 at 8:00AM
Now that I've given mulled it over a bit, I realize that the gear gap -- or lack of one -- is going to become immediately palpable simply because so much gear is readily available in Northrend. Any player who has just hit 80 will have immediate options for gear, and it won't be so hard to catch up or gear up for Arenas. Even without Resilience, so much gear has massive amounts of Stamina. I mean over 100 Stamina for a trinket? That's kind of insane. Players have so many options for gear now that some people won't even be doing Arenas to get Arena gear.
It's going to be a completely different ballgame. The presence of Death Knights will completely change Arena PvP, as it already has in PvE. Knockback effects such as Thunderstorm or Typhoon will be exciting tools in the movement-heavy environment. How will players react to a sudden Death Grip into the opposing team's kill zone? Will HoT-impairing effects like Shadow Embrace or Plague Strike be enough to curb Druid dominance? We'll see. It's exciting. Are you prepared for Season 5? Not just in terms of gear, but psyched and ready for the unpredictability of the metagame, at least for the first few weeks?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Breakfast topics, Wrath of the Lich King, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jinee Dec 16th 2008 8:13AM
I never did arena in BC because shammies were worthless. I'm looking forward to seeing how we will do in wrath now that enh can actually kill things.
Zarfay Dec 16th 2008 8:34AM
I completley agree
I even had a group with a warrior and a paladin as resto which is supposedley the best group for a resto shaman. We won 1/10 games.
However I feel Death Knights are over powered in bgs and this will be worse in arenas, especially with abilities like death grip and raise ally.
Elmo Dec 16th 2008 8:51AM
not to whine 'n all but no-one wanted to team with my shaman either. I did play a bit on my rogue but in the end most of Arena passed me.
so I'm not ready, I have little faith in Shamans pvp capabilities at 80 and did not find any arena partner yet.
Preston Dec 16th 2008 12:22PM
As an enhancement shaman, you're going to get destroyed like everyone else. There's a video at the ArenaJunkies forum showing a rogue doing 20,000 damage in seconds. Gouge crits for almost 2,000.
What's worse, if you're a healing class, Ghostcrawler actually said in the Healing forum that you won't reach your full potential until you get full resilience. Until then, Blizzard is waiting to see what to do about how much damage people are putting out. So you're going to be a useless target for a month or more while other people get their Arena shoulders from farming you.
I can't imagine why anyone would be excited about the Arena mini-game. For a few glorious weeks, we were back to world PvP, even if it was a gibfest. Soon we'll be back to the "min-maxing" hellhole of Arena and its flavor-of-the-month class compositions and specs that make the game stale and repetitive.
Axolotl Dec 16th 2008 8:13AM
No I'm not, but I don't care either
Gordal Dec 16th 2008 8:14AM
Hell, I'm not even ready for season 1.
When's that starting?
Cosmo Dec 16th 2008 10:15AM
Ditto
Ron Dec 16th 2008 8:20AM
Blizzard's insistence to require Arena ratings for all PVP gear means that I will not participate in any BGs. This decision was a game breaker for me. Arenas are the worst concept Blizzard has ever designed and I refuse to participate. This comes from someone that really enjoys BGs. Blizzard please wake up!!!!!! There should be a set of PVP gear that you do not have to do arenas for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ron Dec 16th 2008 8:39AM
I apologize for mistake. I meant to say Arena points are required for all PVP gear Sorry. Only higher 2 tiers require ratings.
Midmainah Dec 16th 2008 9:46AM
Amen! It's crap. Arenas suck, you can have em.
Relk Dec 16th 2008 10:43AM
seconded.
I didn't really like arenas for the last few seasons (played a pally, shaman and hunter, go figure). I had already decided not to do them this time when they made the announcement to make Arenas required to get pvp gear.
I can't complain too much though, I am going to be pve'ing my new DK tank for a while. Although, without pvp as a distraction, I may actually get to cancel my subscription and get some fresh air this spring.
Merge Dec 16th 2008 12:11PM
@Ron - Hey Ron...there is a pvp set that requires nothing but some cash and or mats. And someone who can make gear for your class. Look up the Swiftarrow set for Hunters and enhance shammies. Everyone can have a pvp. Although it will be Decidedly weaker than the normal tiers, if you wanted to have Some Survivability, There ya go, Problem solved.
Sarem Dec 16th 2008 8:16AM
Im ready to get my face rolled bc resto shams are still pathetic in arenas, but ill be farming my 10 5 man loses everyweek like a good lil soldier
BooDizz Dec 16th 2008 6:26PM
PVP > PVE.
Simple.
sephirah Dec 16th 2008 8:25AM
Oh noes, it's back...
Darkwhisp Dec 16th 2008 8:29AM
wow lots of people arent happy about arena ...so why read the post.... and then comment on it! lol
Me, I'm as ready as i can havin a deadly drop and some raid gear drop both on 25 man has made me more confident that the gear will come easier then I had orginally thought.
Lemons hope your rdy for some arena!
evolvedlupus Dec 16th 2008 8:31AM
I have to agree with Ron, I like to PvP but the arenas really aren't my thing. I shouldn't be reduced to a crappy blue set and be rolled left and right by people who like the arenas and/or have the time to invest in hundreds of matches a week. Simply put it sucks. Give us a set that doesn't need arena rating and is at least worthy of epic status. Don't need to even make it as good as the Season 5 set, scrap ratings make it S4 or 4.5 equivalent. I'd be cool with that.
Sakarabu Dec 16th 2008 8:54AM
"I shouldn't be reduced to a crappy blue set and be rolled left and right by people who like the arenas and/or have the time to invest in hundreds of matches a week. Simply put it sucks."
you just showed your complete ignorance. You only need to play 10 games a week at ANY rating. So simply put, you suck. because you belittle part of the game which you suck at because its one part which blizzard havnt made so every person can faceroll and win at it.
Theres a big difference between casual players and players who simply suck and can hardly click a mouse, alot of people are confusing the two these days.
On topic :
I was really looking forward to arena at 80, considering i created my priest at the start of season 4 and had an amazing time in arena healing, which is something I had never done before. But I really had no chance to get up into the 2000's with my merciless gear.
So season 5 was going to be a fresh start for me, however after pvping on my priest at 80 im really not looking forward to it. Priests are extremely crappy with low resilience and I can't see this improving untill the end of season 2, where i'll be on or close to the resilience cap.
GC himself posted a topic on this today in which he said:
"Dynamics shift dramatically as players acquire more resilience gear. Specs and comps that aren't viable in straight PvE gear become much more viable when burst damage decreases. We have seen this happen for four seasons now.
We haven't made an effort to keep the dynamic from shifting, nor do we think it's a problem that the dynamic shifts. On the contrary, if you didn't notice any effect from all that gladiator gear you were acquiring, it would be much less motivational as a reward.
Likewise, if you could heal through tons of damage even without a lot of PvP gear, then what would happen with lots of PvP gear? It's likely the game would devolve into silencing or CC'ing the healer and specs that rely on doing a lot of damage would be shut out as gear improved."
This didn't help me in the slightest, as he is basically telling the priest community (and other classes which rely heavily on resilience to be successful because of their low mobility) that we are going to be useless untill we get more resilience??? how is that fair in the slightest? while other classes (mostly melee) get a huge headstart on arena ratings and gear, we are left sitting at a 1500 rating in season 5 because we can't move without getting one shot by a rogue?
I would post my thoughts on the forums, however the current state of the EU forums is pathetic, and we are blocked from the US forums where people actually respond to your posts. all in all my game was made unplayable at level 80 untill season 6, and by unplayable i mean really... I get destroyed in the space of 5 seconds by most classes.
also to the guy saying resto shammies are gonna be unplayable. They are the top pvp healers at level 80 so have some fun, I know I won't be.
armi0022 Dec 16th 2008 8:33AM
I am not hardcore, but I enjoy my 10-30 games or so a week.
sean Dec 16th 2008 8:34AM
As a 80 arcane mage, I love Bgs but I really hate arenas, there is nothing to me there to enjoy, so Im really disapointed to WOW when they make me go to Arenas to get a decent gear to do Bgs, I hope that all pvp players as me that dont like the way it is now make WOW change his mind.