Just the Three of Us

With the Holiday coming up we lacked the people needed to raid on Thursday. There was a time when that would have really bothered me. But Thursday I only felt a little bit of disappointment before trying to figure out what I was going to do with my evening.

I was about to get into an alt run when I got a message from my Arena partners. My Arena team is one of the few that survived the guild split. My partners (a Resto Druid and Arms Warrior) stayed in Heroes. Because our raid schedules don't mesh, it's often a challenge to get our games in.

With my night open, we managed to get about 40 games in. We are still working out the communication and strategy we are using and learning each other. I'm replacing a Warlock they had on their team previously and helping them learn the tricks that a Paladin can bring to the table in Arena.

Arena can be a great deal of fun one moment and completely controller-throwing frustration the next.

We've been alternating between CC'ing the other teams healer, and trying to blow up a DPS, or CC'ing a DPS and trying to blow up the healer.

Thursday, it seemed like we'd get the same team about 5 times in a row, and then we'd get a new team to fight. After 5 matches, we were pretty tired of seeing the same names.

We went 20-20 on the night and I got my achievement for hitting 1550. I purchased the Deadly Chest. The only PVE pieces I have are my Neck and Legs, and I can replace both with just a little more Honor.

The comp that seems to be giving us the most trouble is a DK/Ret/Shaman. Between Totems and Pets there's a ton of 'ground clutter'. It looks like you are fighting 20 enemies. The DK and Ret can really reak havoc on our healer with stuns and silences, and the Shaman, though Resto, can put out some decent DPS to help burst someone down.

It is simply amazing how much damage a Death Knight can do, even with just a Titansteel Destroyer, and how many stuns, slows, and silences they seem to have.

The best match of the night may have been the last one. We were up against a Hunter/Shaman/Death Knight team on the 'bridge' map (I think it's Blade's Edge). They're healer jumped off as my Warrior and I jumped him. We followed down, but that let the Hunter wail away at us from up top. I switched and run back up to the stairs to put pressure on the Hunter. I managed to kill the Hunter but the Shaman finished me off with an Earthshock.

I was really glad that my Resto Druid and Warrior were 2s partners because the match had just become a 2s game. It was an amazing and long battle. My Warrior couldn't seem to kill the Shaman but the DK couldn't kill our Resto Druid. When the two DPS went at it, both healers were able to keep them up. The DK was in Unholy Presence but must have had some kind of tank spec because it didn't seem like our Warrior was able to put much of a hurt on him even with things like Bladestorm.

They came close to getting our Warrior a couple of times but our Resto Druid managed to keep him up.

It went back and forth. With DPS fueled by Rage and Runic Power it would come down to a mana war between our Druid and their Shaman. Our Druid was winning the war. When the Shaman went to drink, our Warrior put everything he could into the DK. The Shaman came back after getting Moonfired, but he was behind. The DK slipped into Execute range or maybe our Warrior got a lucky Sudden Proc, but he dropped the DK. It had been at least 5 or 6 minutes, probably longer, since myself and Hunter had died.

We finished with a 1608 team rating, and I was sitting at 1599 personal. I didn't have enough Arena points for the gloves, but hopefully I will soon.

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