Honor's Code

So yesterday I blogged about the current state of Arenas , and why I thought Arenas were seeing a decline in popularity. Blizzard recently announced some changes to Season 6. It's obvious to me that the Developers made these changes due to my excellent blog post. (We'll choose to ignore the fact that the blue post was likely written before my blog was posted.) With Arena Season 6, arena teams will start at 0 rating instead of 1500, which will allow teams to have more continuous progression throughout the arena season. In addition, we reevaluated item purchases and felt many of them were too difficult to obtain so we will be altering the rating requirements needed to purchase the latest arena items. For example, items with a rating requirement will now be obtainable starting at 1250 rating. As with the current system, the matchmaking system will attempt to match teams against opponents who are closest to their average matchmaking rating. Starting with Arena Season 6, a team’s av...

This article "65% fewer Arena teams in Season 5" has lit up discussion across the blogsphere and message boards. The original article itself has over 150 comments. I believe the phenomenon is most easily explained, and predicted, by an article by Rohan of Blessing of Kings call Being On The Path . This was written back in May of 2008. Allow me to quote a few paragraphs from that excellent piece: The key is the concept of "Being On The Path" for endgame content. In nutshell, the number of people who reach the highest point of endgame is less important than the number of people who are working towards--and feel that they one day could achieve--that point. As long as a player is "on the path", everything is fine. The real crisis point are when people are unable to get on the path, or their progress on the path becomes completely blocked. I think it is more important to help the guilds who are trying to become raiding guilds. To help the people who cannot get...

After what seemed like an eternity, Honorshammer finally got Exalted with Sons Of Hodir. I upgraded my shoulder enchants, and bought the Smooth Autumn's Glow pattern. Doing SoH Dailies on Altar of Storms is a bit of challenge. For the most part, the Horde and Alliance leave each other alone. Everyone just wants to get their dailies done and get back to whatever it is they really want to be doing. Every now and again, you'll get an ambitious Rogue or Death Knight who will decided they want to engage in some PVP. Given the population imbalance on Altar of Storms, this is almost always a Horde Rogue or Death Knight. Usually a couple of Alliance will team up (or gang up depending on which side of the Faction fence you sit) to take on the Horde. Invariably, he will this is 'unfair' and call for help for the 'ganking Alliance'. My personal favorite PVP encounter was deep in the cave where you get the oil for Polishing the Helm. I was fighting a blob and two worms when...

I opted to stay Holy over the weekend. I ran around to many of the fires around Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, and payed a visit to Lorderon to steal their flame. For the most part the Horde left me alone and I was able to make a little cash. I also spent some time doing a little PVP. I've decided to start working a bit on my Retribution gear. I'd like to have the option to level to 80 as either Ret or Prot depending on how the zones are and how AoE friendly they might be. I leveled from 60 to 70 as Prot, and I've been Prot for my entire Burning Crusade career. The thought of a change is appealing to me. I don't know what it is, but I seem to be drawn to 'unpopular' specs. I don't really need to convince the entire WoW community that Prot or Ret Paladins can work. I just have to find 9 or 24 other people and convince them. In addition, there isn't much I can do to improve my Tank gear outside of raiding. However there are goals I can work towards with my...

The Tank Shortage Let's take 3 Guilds and see how the players in that guild would perceive the reality of the tank shortage. Guild A is in Tier 4 content. Their Main Tank just took a month long vacation from the game. They are a small guild and really didn't have anyone ready to fill in the gaps. Perhaps they had capable players, but the toons were a bit undergeared or lacked experience. This Guild sees and believes in a severe tank shortage and hopes Blizzard does something quickly to get more people to roll tanks. Guild B is in Tier 5 content. They have several players with experienced and geared tanks. One of their tanks just got ninja'ed by a Tier 6 guild. They may be a week or two bump where they get a tank up to speed on fights he hasn't tanked, but for the most part, they keep right on chugging. This Guild doesn't see a severe tank shortage, but a more mild one. While action on Blizzard's part to get more people to roll tanks would be welcome, they probab...

Over the weekend, I got a chance to run the "new" AV. At first this new AV was looking a lot like the old AV. I went with a large group of Alliance and stopped at Galv. We killed Galv with little problem. We mounted up and rode on up to the relief hut with only small horde interference. We get in, wait for Tower Point to cap and then I pull Drek, plus the dogs and I think a Warmaster or two. Everything is going fine when all of a sudden the room if filled with 10+ horde. They wipe us. For the next 20 minutes, we fought a battle against the horde. It really felt like a real battle with each and every inch of Alterac snow fought over and being turned red with blood. The Horde were behind on reinforcements, and we finally retook the Relief Hut and pulled Drek again. This time there would be no stopping us. We managed to break the Horde turtle and kill Drek. The Horde had less than 10 reinforcements when Drek fell. It seems the new AV is longer than the old one, and t...

As you may or may not know (as if you didn’t, you will now), I play on PVP server called Altar of Storms. My experience with PVE servers has been somewhat limited. I originally rolled my Paladin on Rexxar, a PVE server, and if it had been my choice I probably would have stayed PVE. But Aoesrus, the real life friend who got me involved in the game, wanted to be on a PVP server called Dark Iron, so we rerolled there. My Paladin on Rexxar was all of 16 or 17, and questing in Redridge. I really should go back and play him sometime. I would eventually transfer off of Dark Iron and come to Altar of Storms. There are times when I really like the fact that I play on a PVP server and times when I don’t. The biggest pain of a PVP server is that pretty much from around level 20 on you are permaflaged for PVP. This means that in addition to fighting and questing your way through the levels you always have to be on the constant lookout for Horde. There are different types of Horde you encounter as...

PVP. I have something of a Love/Hate relationship with it. I never really understood it until last night. Here's the story: Our Kara group was a bust. Whatever server hosts the Karazhan instance was being very fluky. High latency and random disconnects were more common than Bosses dying. So we called off the Raid. My good friend, and sometimes Ret Paladin, Sevenn invited me to a Premade Arathi Basin. It was a mix of people from various guilds on our server. I even saw some old friends like Jagdelf and DarkDescent. Normally, I avoid PVP like the plague. While I have some PVP gear, my spec has 0 points in Holy. It's very hard to be a PVP Healer without the Talent Spiritual Focus. What motavated me was Battlemaster's Audicity . It costs 30,000 honor, and the only place to get that Honor is PVP. I realize I could purchase it for 75 Badges, but I still need the Belt, Bracers, and Gloves from Badges. That will cost over 150 Badges, so I'm going the PVP route for the Trinket. ...

Tankadins are drawn to PVP, and to the Arena specifically for the Merciless Gladiator's Gavel. What I'll share here are some of the lessons I learned about Prot PVP during my grind. Like anything else, PVP takes time and practice to learn to be effective. Learn what classes you do well against (Enhance Shaman, Rogues, Fury Warriors, Cat Druids), and what classes give you trouble (Casters). Learn the "tells" that give away a spec. A Warrior dual wielding is Prot or Fury. A mage with an Ice Shield is Frost, and won't be able to POM/Pyro you. A Paladin with a 2her is Ret, a Warrior with a 2her is Arms. Hunter's and Pets that go all big and red are Beast Mastery. Dual Wielding or 2her wearing Shaman is Enhancement. I went the route of being a PVP Healer. It was easier to gear up for two roles (PVE Tank / PVP Healer) as I already was building a Healer set for those times when I wouldn't be tanking. I played a 5v5 team and a 3v3 team. The 5v5 team was a 3 dps/2 ...

Last night was a PVP night for Honors. It started with a game of WSG with Heroes. WSG can be a tough battleground for even the best group. The biggest problem I have with it, is that its more like Baseball than the other battleground. In Football or Basketball, you've got a clock. Barring an overtime situation, the game is going to end within some fairly regular time frame . Baseball does not have a clock. It has innings which are only progressed by getting outs. In the same way, WSG is only progressed by capturing flags. The other battlegrounds have points you hold or that your opponent holds. These essentially become a clock. Every second of the game, one team or the other is gaining points towards the total they need. The game is going to end within some fairly regular time frame . WSG can go super quick or take forever. I'm a healer in Battlegrounds, but I also make a very good flag holder. I have more hit points in my tank gear than just about anyone save a Prot War...

Sunday night I was all excited, not about WoW but about the start of the NFL Preseason. I went to turn on the game promptly at 8pm. Only one, small, detail I had overlooked. The game was on NFL Network. Because my cable company and the NFL are in something of a battle over how much of my money they need to exchange, I don't have NFL Network. No game for me. So back through the Dark Portal. There were a couple of people from the guild who neeed to do the 5 man quests to get "attuned" to Ogril'la so they can start doing daily quests. I grouped up with them. It was Me (Prot Paladin), Darolynn (Shadow Priest, but healing), Regolos (Afflication Lock), Schmedlap (MM Hunter), and a new mage who had just transfered over from Regolos' old guild. One thing I leared was that if you yell in Barrier Hills it can be seen in Shattrath. See, right before I engage the boss, I yell "Hey Bossname, IT'S HAMMER TIME!!" People seem to find it somewhat amusing. We blasted ...

Busy weekend all around. Let's start with Friday night. This was our guild's Eye of the Storm night. Now at first, I wasn't going to go to Eye of the Storm. Our guild leader has been asking only people who can go the full time to come to PVP nights. I knew I couldn't stay the entire 3 hours, so I had resigned myself to an evening of grindin', minin' and questin'. After the first game, I see we have less than half a full group on, so I ask for invite. So what is it like as a Protection spec Paladin in Battlegrounds? How much can I contribute? Quite a bit actually. I am very good at escorting flag carriers. Blessing of Freedom and healing really help get the flag home. In addition, I'm a very good choice to defend a point. As a Paladin, I'm very hard to take down quickly, especially if I have Divine Shield available and they don't bring any Priests. Finally, I contribute simply by the fact I have a heal button. Healing in PVP is rough. There are al...

So last night, Heroes Inc had our guild PVP night in Arathi Basin. This Battleground holds the most interest for me, not so much because I like it better than the others, but that the developers decided the PVP healer rewards take a ton of Arathi Basin Marks. Under my current Master Plan To Take Over The PVP Universe (tm) , I need 100 AB Marks. This was the first night since we all hit 70, that we've been able to field a full AB team of 15 Heroes. We had a blast. AB is so different with a guild group than with a PUG. We felt like we were dictating to the Horde and not the other way around. It was especially nice as a Healer. In a PUG, if I throw a heal, it's like the Horde go "Wow, they actually have someone who is healing, KILL HIM!!" And my PuG mates just keep on killing, yelling for heals, while ignoring the Horde who is killing me. Now in a Guild group, I get heals from the other healers and the DPS is always helping me out. Of course it doesn't always work th...

Last night Heroes tried something a little bit different. World PVP. We gathered up and attacked the Orc capital of Orgrimmar. It was really exciting being in a group over 20+ Heroes, riding through the Barrens, and charging into the very gates of the main Horde city. Initially we met with little resistance, catching people unfortunate enough to still be flagged. We came in the western entrance and made our way down to where the mage and portal trainers were. We were apparently close to where the Horde ques for Battlegrounds because they started coming out to fight us. There was so much going on, I could barely see it all. Eventually we were out numbered and wiped out. Several people spirit rezed but good ole Honorshammer pulled out the Bubble Hearth card. After that, we paid a visit to Tarren Mill and killed some Horde there, and progressed up to Undercity. We went through the sewers and came up in the outer ring. We killed more Horde here and moved into the inner ring. I had alot of ...

I ran a couple of WSG rounds with my guild last night. It took a couple of games to get a full group together but it was fun. We won some and we lost some. The great thing about Guild PVP night is that you look up at the end of the night and you've got all this honor and marks and you don't even feel like you hard to work at it, because you had so much fun. I can see why people don't like doing solo BGs. My only regret was that I couldn't go longer. I made a couple of decisions. First off, I went ahead and bought a PVP Mechostrider. He's cool and as a bonus it's effected by Crusader Aura just like my Charger. Opponents don't know what I am quite as quickly. I mean nothing says Paladin quite like riding in on the Charger. The other thing I've decided is that I'm going to stick with my hunter. Out of all the alts I considered my reason for dismissing him was the weakest. I can always get groups with the guild and he's not an "endgame" cha...

"So what now, Jack Sparrow? Are we to be two immortals locked in an epic battle until Judgment Day and trumpets sound?" - Captain Barbosa The plan couldn't have been simpler. Step 1: Take the boat to Theramore Step 2: Fly to Rachet Step 3: Ride through the Barrens to Mulgore Step 4: Talk to the guy at the Faire, get my Darkmoon Card: Vengence, hearth out. Simple. Only one small problem, I play on a PVP server. Everything is going dandy until I get to the Faire. There is only one level 70 Horde there, a Tauren Shaman riding a Raptor. He was standing close to the NPC I had to talk to to turn in my quest. I calmly walked by him, and started to talk to the NPC. I hear a dismount. Great. FROSTSHOCK! Okay, it's basically just me and him around, so I figured...... . . IT'S HAMMER TIME! After a few moments, I see Earth Shield go up and watch an instant heal to full life. Great, he's resto. What insued was one of the longest PVP battles you may have ever seen. Resto Sh...