Ret Weekend
I managed to get in some Arena this weekend with my Shadowstep Rogue partner. When he logged on, I was in this marathon game of WSG. We had a druid carrying the flag who seemed to have this strange aversion to actually capping the flag. At least twice, we got our flag back from the Horde, only to have him be killed in the middle of the field, seemingly oblivious to the fact he needed to run into the base and cap. By some miracle (and some very squishy Horde Priests and Shamans) we were actually able to claim a victory in a PuG Warsong Gulch.
So fresh off my victory, I started queuing up with my Rogue partner. We had both done some research on Arenas, and our particular matrix. I found a great post by Cathmor over at Eye For Eye.
Following his advice, I carefully wrote down each matrix we faced, and what happened. That went really well for about the first dozen matches, then I ran out of space on my paper and we started queuing much quicker.
There were a couple of matches we felt like we gave away. A trinket here or bubble there or Cloak of Shadows might have turned the match. One match we nearly had won, but I didn’t trinket out of a Frost trap fast enough to finish off the hunter before his Resto Druid teammate got the heal in.
The really nice aspect of the night was that we seemed to be fighting teams around our same gear level and skill level. Most all of the matches were competitive. Only once or twice did we get absolutely destroyed.
One memorable match was against a duo Mage team. I ran under the bridge to try to break line of sight, but I was too late and hate two instant Pyroblasts. Ouch.
3 times we faced an undergeared Resto Druid / Warlock combination. We could tell we outgeared them, but the Resto played very well, always moving and changing from Bear to Cheetah to Caster. We lost 2 out of 3 against them. The first we lost because we started in on the Warlock before we saw how undergeared the Druid was. We won the next then lost our last match against them because the Druid outplayed us.
We had two ‘mirror’ matches against another Ret Paladin/Rogue team. I was outgeared by both of the Ret Paladins I faced. They had Season 2 Shoulders and I think it was the Season 3 sword, although I’m not all familiar with the way they look, so it might have been the Season 2 Sword.
My favorite match might have been the Druid/Druid match with a 41 point Balance Druid (he used Trees) who did not go into Moonkin form and the Feral druid who never went Bear.
We crested in the high 1400s, maybe 1470, then slumped down to about 1370 and ended up at 1412, which is 1 point higher than we started the night.
I think my favorite thing about ‘Here for the Gear’ is that we play Arena to have fun. We don’t stop after we’ve gotten our ’10 games’. Arena is a fun part of the game, and we were having fun playing it. We would both love to have a nice 1600 or so rating and be ‘leet’, but that is going to take some time and some gear. We played 24 games this week and I feel like we are getting better and starting to mesh a bit.
On the subject of gear, I have the Season 4 Gloves, Season 3 Chest, Season 3 Legs, and the Season 1 Shoulders. I am still using my Engineering goggles for my headpiece. So my next Arena purchase will likely be the Season 3 Helm.
I’m really torn about what to do with my Honor points. I can get the Season 4 Belt (current: Girdle of the Lightbearer), Season 3 Neck (current: Pendant of the Perilous), Season 3 Bracers (current: Deadly Cuffs), Season 2 Shoulders (current: Season 1 Shoulder, Bloodstained Pauldrons, Pauldrons of the Wardancer), or the Season 2 Weapon. (current: Hammer of the Naaru). I’d appreciate any advice to the Inbox or in the Comments.
I have to tell one other story from my ‘Ret’ weekend.
So fresh off my victory, I started queuing up with my Rogue partner. We had both done some research on Arenas, and our particular matrix. I found a great post by Cathmor over at Eye For Eye.
Following his advice, I carefully wrote down each matrix we faced, and what happened. That went really well for about the first dozen matches, then I ran out of space on my paper and we started queuing much quicker.
There were a couple of matches we felt like we gave away. A trinket here or bubble there or Cloak of Shadows might have turned the match. One match we nearly had won, but I didn’t trinket out of a Frost trap fast enough to finish off the hunter before his Resto Druid teammate got the heal in.
The really nice aspect of the night was that we seemed to be fighting teams around our same gear level and skill level. Most all of the matches were competitive. Only once or twice did we get absolutely destroyed.
One memorable match was against a duo Mage team. I ran under the bridge to try to break line of sight, but I was too late and hate two instant Pyroblasts. Ouch.
3 times we faced an undergeared Resto Druid / Warlock combination. We could tell we outgeared them, but the Resto played very well, always moving and changing from Bear to Cheetah to Caster. We lost 2 out of 3 against them. The first we lost because we started in on the Warlock before we saw how undergeared the Druid was. We won the next then lost our last match against them because the Druid outplayed us.
We had two ‘mirror’ matches against another Ret Paladin/Rogue team. I was outgeared by both of the Ret Paladins I faced. They had Season 2 Shoulders and I think it was the Season 3 sword, although I’m not all familiar with the way they look, so it might have been the Season 2 Sword.
My favorite match might have been the Druid/Druid match with a 41 point Balance Druid (he used Trees) who did not go into Moonkin form and the Feral druid who never went Bear.
We crested in the high 1400s, maybe 1470, then slumped down to about 1370 and ended up at 1412, which is 1 point higher than we started the night.
I think my favorite thing about ‘Here for the Gear’ is that we play Arena to have fun. We don’t stop after we’ve gotten our ’10 games’. Arena is a fun part of the game, and we were having fun playing it. We would both love to have a nice 1600 or so rating and be ‘leet’, but that is going to take some time and some gear. We played 24 games this week and I feel like we are getting better and starting to mesh a bit.
On the subject of gear, I have the Season 4 Gloves, Season 3 Chest, Season 3 Legs, and the Season 1 Shoulders. I am still using my Engineering goggles for my headpiece. So my next Arena purchase will likely be the Season 3 Helm.
I’m really torn about what to do with my Honor points. I can get the Season 4 Belt (current: Girdle of the Lightbearer), Season 3 Neck (current: Pendant of the Perilous), Season 3 Bracers (current: Deadly Cuffs), Season 2 Shoulders (current: Season 1 Shoulder, Bloodstained Pauldrons, Pauldrons of the Wardancer), or the Season 2 Weapon. (current: Hammer of the Naaru). I’d appreciate any advice to the Inbox or in the Comments.
I have to tell one other story from my ‘Ret’ weekend.
I did some dailies to make my respec gold, and wow, is it a different animal doing dailies as Ret rather than Prot.
Anyway, I ran into another Paladin on the Isle of Quel’Danas (which should be renamed Isle de Horde on my server). He was Holy and we did a couple of dailies together. He lamented over how much he missed being Ret. When I challenged him, he said his guild would not let him be Ret. ‘Let him’, what a crazy thing to say. I encouraged him to find a guild that would 'let him' play the way he wanted to. The craziest thing, at least to me, was when I checked his guild tag.
He’s in a Guild called “The Casuals”. Somehow enforced specs and ‘Casual’ don’t seem to go together in my brain.
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