Arena partner blues

I made a crucial and terrible error at the beginning of Season 4. I stupidly decided to form arena teams with friends, both of whom play specs that are less than ideal for arena. I knew deep down that fire mage, moonkin, disc priest 3s was terrible, but I wanted to try it just in case.

The trouble is, now any decent partner is already taken, and I’m left flailing around feeling like the fat girl nobody wants, lingering in the darkest corner I can find at a junior high dance. I’m left trolling trade channel and the realm forum for the leftovers, while resenting my friends for choosing such obviously stupid specs.

I know it’s only a few weeks in, but “lf rogue to get Gladiator in 2v2″ just doesn’t generate the right sort of response. I’m pretty much at the point where I would transfer servers for a decent arena team, leaving all my friends and the guild I helped create and still help run.

WTB time machine so I can snag somebody decent a few weeks ago.

Healbot vs Diggnation, 1-0 for Healbot

I’m a huge fan of Diggnation, and I laugh my ass off when Alex talks about his girlfriend’s terrible WoW skills. He finally mentioned his Alliance rogue’s name a few months ago, although I never connected that he was in my battlegroup.

So when “Drdark gains stealth” flashed across my Witch Hunt a few days ago, in an EotS premade, I got giddy. We were facing a full Executus premade, with several members from Alex’s “Totally Rad Guild.” I spend the whole game demanding that if anyone saw Drdark, they were to notify me and let me fight him, but I wasn’t able to. We steamrolled them, but mine is a pvp guild, and his is a casual guild so it’s no criticism of their gameplay.

I almost want to make a level 1 alt on Executus to ask him when they’re queuing up next, but that would be creepy.

Merciless priest

After starting this blog, I decided I’d try blogging at Gameriot.com instead. It seemed like a good idea. The site has a very active community of people who take WoW very seriously.

Trouble is, they seem to take it too seriously. Of any online community I have ever participated in, I have never seen any as negative and full of a zero sum mentality as Gameriot. It’s a maelstrom of nerd rage and e-peen flexing beyond anything I have ever previously witnessed. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching the arguments and accusations of noobishness, I just think that’s the wrong environment for a blog like this. Vengeful Gladiators want to theorycraft and insult one another, not hear about some random girl playing silly arena make-ups and trying to get Gladiator with them.

But that is exactly what I’m doing. With the start of S4, I was able to spend all my honor to buy some welfare pvp epics. I’m currently rocking 4/5 Merciless, with the weapon/OH. Now to farm another bundle of honor to buy the off-pieces. Super fun! (And by that I mean, shoot me now please.)

70 and Season 4

My priest hit 70 in pretty decent time. Under 5 days isn’t exactly record breaking, but it’s a personal best for me.

With season 4 starting on June 24, it’s time for me to honor grind like a lunatic in preparation for my S2 welfare pvp gear. Trouble is, when I logged in today to get started, I just about deleted WoW during the first AV. I’ve done this too many times before, and it’s beyond frustrating to go from a full S3 healer to one in crappy blue rep reward pvp gear who dies in a kidney shot to poorly geared rogues.

At least there’s an end in sight. Grinding without a specific S4 date, knowing when I can cash in my honor for a gear upgrade and start to do arena without being instagibbed, makes it tolerable. Barely.

Coming of age in Satan’s Asshole

My friend and 3s partner likes to call Blade’s Edge Mountains “Satan’s Asshole.” It’s a fairly apt description, especially if you’re in the zone before level 70 and flying mounts. Trotting around those hideous and inconvenient pokey spires is a pain, but if you know your way around the quests it’s pretty easy to knock out the zone in an afternoon and get a level out of it.

This is exactly what we did tonight. Gritted our teeth, made jokes about Satan’s Asshole, and hit level 68. There are a few definitive priest abilities that I love about playing the class. Some I got very early one (Power Word: Shield, aka “sorry warrior, no rage for you”), some I won’t get until I hit 70 (Mass Dispel, or why I’m abandoning my paladin to play a priest again). But the one I love the most, for its power and the fun factor of casting it, is level 68’s Prayer of Mending. You’d better believe that the only healing once I hit 68 earlier was bubble, renew and PoM. Much hopping around and mana burning of mobs in a state of bliss.

Part of me wants to celebrate being in the home stretch, but I’ve done this before and I know 70 is just the beginning. I need a million billion honor, rep, badges, gold for gems/enchants/epic flyer. But this time the prospect of grinding it doesn’t seem daunting at all. I’m back in a class I really, really enjoy.

Enter priest

I’ve been wasting my time trying to think of catchy themes and topics to write about: the state of PvP in WoW, class balance, high end arena tactics, etc. But I’m not an expert. I’m an interested party, but not yet an authority.

So why not write what I know? I’ve only been playing WoW since the release of BC, I’m “above average, and very good for a girl” (from a 2300 rated mage - he’s right, sadly the majority of girls who play this game suck at PvP). I hover at mid-level (1850-2k) arena ratings. I can’t pretend I’m something I’m not.

But I love PvP, and I’m a competitive girl - I want to get better. I want to be a Gladiator in S4. I’m also one of the leaders of a PvP guild composed of a blend of Gladiators and people like me, still working to improve.

I’d probably be much better if I just stuck with one class. But I’ve wasted a lot of time leveling every class (except rogue and warrior) to 70, only to abandon them shortly afterwards. I’m currently leveling a disc priest (my 3rd priest, don’t ask) to be my main in S4 and beyond.

So what do I know? Leveling too many alts, grinding honor for welfare PvP gear, world PvP shenanigans, decent arena brackets, and trying to lead a guild with no previous experience. That and the experience of trying to master my priest and play at a Gladiator level is what this blog will be about.