Let me preface this by apologizing for not posting sooner. I’m also sorry if the following isn’t something you’re interested in, but it’s just my personal thoughts and feelings summing up my experiences revolving around the game. Some of this is from an article I drafted but never posted a few months ago. I haven’t been posting any of the comments that you might find in some of the articles under my name.

What am I doing now?

So as most of you have probably assumed, I’m essentially finished with the game, and have been for a while now. I never “quit”, which I always found ridiculous for people to say. Quitting makes it sound like an addiction. I played because I enjoyed playing, and I gradually lost interest. Since about last summer, I began playing more and more casually until I simply didn’t log on at all.

There’s a lot of reasons for this. Personally, I’m kind of moving on in life from wanting to sink a lot of time into gaming, my interests have just gradually changed.The game itself has also changed and become undeniably worse than it was in the past, both from a raw gameplay and game experience standpoint and from a community standpoint (I’ll detail my thoughts on this below).

The Decline of the WoW Community and its Understanding of PvP

When I refer to this, I’m not just talking about numbers, but about attitude. Maybe I personally changed, but over the course of this expansion I felt I witnessed a really decaying community that both didn’t understand what used to make this game good, and didn’t really help make the game more fun. What really made the game for me was the people I interacted with, and this had become abysmal.

One of the things that made me realize how much the pvp community specifically had changed was the reception I saw when Drakedog 9 was released.

Here’s my take on that video. The editing was incredible, first and foremost, from Vurtne. You can tell a lot of time and effort went into it and it shows. The video looks and feels beautiful, even if you forget the PvP content itself. It flows extremely well. It’s not the best editing I’ve ever seen but it’s comparable to the highest caliber of PvP video editing.

The content itself is world PvP. Having made a world PvP video in this expansion, I know how tremendously hard it is to find content, but Drakedog did, and having managed to do so is really a testament to him wanting to make the best product. Arena clips are vastly easier to procure, with some effort a solid arena video can be finished in a month; a mediocre one in a week; an unedited one in a few days. The content itself was solid, exciting 1vn that demonstrates control.

What was the reaction of most? People hating on world PvP. Really? What the fuck? You may say that this is just one video and you can’t base your views of the whole community on just one example, but what this critique leads me to is a deeper understanding that a large percentage of WoW’s current player base has no fucking idea what this game was and why it was so good. That epic PvP encounter in the roaming world, a random battle behind some mystifying scenery that will only happen once, where the only reward is pride. World PvP is WoW as a game, as a memorable experience. And THIS was one of people’s biggest complaints about the video. Players who have no idea what world PvP, is who would prefer a scripted arena match that can be decided before the gates open. I love(d) arena but it can NEVER be seen in the same light as world PvP to me. It’s just not the same experience and 99 percent of the time doesn’t even come close.

Things used to be much different. I felt like I was gearing my character and spending the time and practicing to become better so that I could kick ass when that moment came, whether in dueling or in world PvP or even in Arena.

But at this point in WoW? People blindly accept that arena is synonamous with PvP and Skill, and they are happy to sit idling in Dalaran until their partners log on, and are willing to call this a game. You can blame Blizzard all you want for ruining wow, but the community let it happen and gradually accepted it, and what hope is there for the game to improve when the community doesn’t even know what the problem is.

A lot of players who never played before WOTLK have no understanding of this game or its potential depth. They are told that 3v3 arena is all that matters in understanding skill and they follow this idea pretty blindly.

This all leads me down another path of thought. People talking about skill who have no fucking idea what skill is or what they are talking about.

This isn’t really a new trend but it’s one that has expanded greatly. You have this entire segment of the player base that only see this game through arena and arena ratings and gear scores. A lot of these players are elitists, and they don’t even know why. A big reason is that they emulate what they see from peers I suppose. These are the players that base skill entirely on meaningless arena rating. Not on reaction time, timing, control, movement, consistency, coordination, but arena rating.

So here’s a quick explanation of top level arena in WoW and how it relates to skill, because I think a lot of people don’t understand this. Skill is not the major factor in success in WoW arena. It may have been in BC, or even earlier in WOTLK, but as the expansion has progressed, what determines your success in arena is moreso the following factors:

What Comp Do you Play? What class do you play? What Spec do you Play?

Since the inception of arena, this has always been true to a certain degree, but in the past (TBC) skilled players could overcome the fact they were playing a weaker comp or spec or even class in arena. Today? Look at the trends of beast cleave or wizard cleaves. Want to succeed as a rogue? Make an RLS. I played RLS early this season for less than a week and barely knowing the comp got 2750+ mmr with cirranis who clicks out of his spellbook and shoewhistle, an alt warlock. I exaggerate because they are both competent players, but the key is certainly the comp. I’m fairly certain I could play with any competent RLS and succeed at the moment. I think any two decent healers and a warrior can achieve ratings for the same reasons that DK/Pally dominated 2s early in the expansion.

Is skill a factor? Yes, but what’s much more important than that is the people you play with and the classes you play with. Which brings me to my next point in this rant.

The Other Big Factor in Success in Arena is Who you Know in WoW and Who you Play with

You know what’s more important than skill in this game? Playing with the most well connected players and socially networking with them. When I was looking around to get sponsored in the past, I got a first hand look at what it took. Step one is be friends with other people who are sponsored. If you are not, you will almost certainly not succeed. That’s it. If you aren’t good friends with the handful of sponsored players, don’t expect to do anything unless you can qualify for that once a year tournament realm, and can find the right comp and committed players for it which can be almost impossible.

Look at the example of EG tryouts last year. Myself, perplexity, scythe, and litreacola were all passed up in recruitment in favor of a rogue named smatin. Not even speaking for myself, but smatin was a pile of shit compared to any of the other rogues I mentioned, but since he was friends with tenderloin (eg’s shaman at the time to replace kollectiv), he was selected.

That’s just a single example, but I’m sure many players trying to break into top pvp can attest that who you know is much more important than how well you play. You can argue that WoW is an MMO and social aspects are part of this, but I still think that skill should be the most important factor in your success in arena. Unforunately, it is far from it. This is one of the big reasons I no longer care about WoW, because I don’t want to spend time wandering around guilds and ventrilos trying to find a good resto shaman just to succeed.

Some Final Thoughts

Now don’t let the above rant fool you, most of that was written in frustration a few months ago. The game obviously wasn’t all bad. As lame as this may sound, I learned a lot about people and life and had countless amounts of fun playing on and off over the years. At its best WoW was an engrossing experience and I feel like it had a lot to offer.

I probably had the most fun in this game making videos, it was a unique experience and it let me be creative. I made them because I enjoyed making them, BUT I WANT TO THANK EVERYONE FOR THEIR SUPPORT! I’ve had a ton of support both with videos and this site over the years, and I hope that I’ve been of some help and offered you some entertainment along the way.

Although I’ve always tried to keep my personal life separate from gaming, I will mention that things are going really well for me. I never felt that WoW stopped me from having a social life and that this was just a myth because so many gamers are social disasters, but it was a time investment and it did affect my lifestyle. Since I moved away from playing over this past year I’ve been going to the gym 4-5 times a week, done better in academics, smoked a lot less weed (although you might argue this isn’t a good thing), and I’ve gone from meaningless one nighters to more meaningful things. On the off chance you care, life is good.

So thanks for the support along the way, and helping to make my personal experience with the game more than it would have been. I don’t know what I’ll be doing next in terms of gaming, or if I’ll ever come back, I may continue to update the site intermittently regardless.

Thank you and good luck.

Hey guys, Mathris here with part 2 of the Cataclysm changes! I know the gap between the two articles was kind of long but I just got done moving IRL thus the delay. Hopefully I’ll get back into the swing of updating here regularly. Hope you enjoy!

Death Knight (Source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24262356308&sid=1)

The biggest change to DK s is the way the rune system works. Their attacks might be slightly slower due to the way runes refill with this change but overall more consistent and with more damage from each special. The other big and obvious bombshell was Blood becoming a dedicated tank tree. From the rogue’s point of view however, one of the most potential impacting abilities is Outbreak. Instantly being able to reapply both diseases at no cost could be devastating to a rogue who has just blown CoS and it allows the DK to go back to swinging with full power since the disease damage multipliers won’t lose out for lack of diseases on the target.

Perhaps the most interesting change is the DK spell reflect, Dark Simulacrum. While it doesn’t cancel the incoming spells it still copies them and throws them back at. If it works out the way it was previewed it could an interesting new dynamic to DK PvP. Necrotic Strike provides them with a makeshift mortal strike type effect since it absorbs incoming healing but does a lower amount of damage to the target than say their main strikes such as Scourge or Frost Strike. Overall the DK changes seem quite solid and with all classes we will have to see how the rest of the information treats the class.

Hunter (Source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24261186675&sid=1)

Hunters moving over to focus from mana is the obvious sweeping change to how the class will play. What does focus mean to other classes though? Well it means hunters will no longer be able to pump out ability after ability on GCD because of mana as a resource instead they will have to wait to regen the focus before being able to use some. This may mean a lot of their abilities lose cooldowns since having to regen focus would put a sort of cooldown on most if not all shots. I personally think this is a big step in helping balance the class’ utility and damage. I’m not sure all of their defensive abilities need to consume focus though since the nearest equivalent class (rogues) don’t use energy for our defensive abilities.

On their abilities Cobra shot provides an alternative for certain trees and will give them some armor ignoring abilities VS high armor classes similar to envenom for us. The trap launcher adds a new dimension for the class in PvP since they’ve already had a taste of it in the current arena with Frozen Arrow. Lastly there’s Camouflage, the first thing I’ll say is I’m glad it isn’t what it was in Wrath beta, that is to say Hunter Vanish. Instead it gives them an advantage against ranged classes that I’m not sure they needed since they tend to lay into casters pretty well at current. It doesn’t currently prevent melee damage though so Camo won’t help them against warriors, rogues and the like which I suppose is a good thing. They already have quite an array of tools to escape melee adding another would feel like overkill. A good hunter has always been a pretty challenging fight for rogues and with these changes I don’t see that changing in Cata very much if at all.

Druid (Source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24262387043&sid=1)

The most talked about change since their preview has been the removal of Tree of Life as a permanent form. This is a pretty huge deal. What does it mean for us? It means that resto druids in particular are likely to play in a TBC style of game play. That is to say staying in caster form a lot, using bear to survive focus and a similar heal and juke style of mobile healing that druids are famous for. Unlike TBC we can actually sap cats now so them starting in stealth won’t be as advantageous as it used to be. Tree form as a cooldown does provide some interesting applications though as Blizz has stated both tree and metamorphasis will be immune to demon/elemental hating abilities such as banish. I think we’ll have to wait and see if this is a big of a nerf as it sounds like before any resto druid hating rogues start singing praises.

Thrash is yet another bleed we’ll have to worry about from druids in bear trying to defend against us but doesn’t seem to overpowering when you consider a druid already has Faerie Fire that if put on after a Cloak removes stealth and vanish as an option for up to 1 minute until CoS is back. Stampeding Roar seems like solid utility allowing a druids team mates to experience a short burst in speed and mobility to help them put on the pressure or stay out of it in arenas as well as helping people in PvE get out of the fires and void zones faster. The long cooldown feels a bit weird but I suppose any shorter with a class that’s already very mobile would feel overpowering.

Wild Mushrooms is probably the oddest product of that cataclysm previews thus far. The ability to lay down invisible land mines and detonate them at will or when someone steps on them sounds kind of wonky when you read it aloud but it also has some cool applications if you let your imagination wonder for a bit. Part of me wonders if this mushroom bomb will be counted as a ‘trap’ that perhaps we can see and/or disarm. We’ll have to wait and see. Other things to note include cats and bears getting a kick type effect and mangle doing more damage so druids aren’t punished so hard for not being behind the target (think like a sub rogue who has hemo when backstab can’t be used) which might go a long way in helping ferals see more PvP spotlight.

Mage (Source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24262357286&sid=1)

First and foremost, mage bloodlust. Yes. You read that right. Mages get a bloodlust equivalent. The implications from this spell alone for comps like Shadowshatter and RMP are huge. It’s pretty obvious this a major buff to most mage comps in PvP assuming the cooldown for Bloodlust/Heroism and Time Warp stay under the arena limit and are still allowed come Cata. This is also big for Mage/Rogue 2s teams though to a lesser extent since Bloodlust type effects really show their power the more players you have to use it on.

Wall of Fog seems like a very intriguing ability with a lot of potential uses and potential headaches for opponents of mages. Blizz has said they plan to cost it so it’s not worth using in Duels or smaller settings (likely 2v2) but rather its more useful for group play like the rated Bgs. We’ll have to see how it works out for now. It sounds like a very potent ability, a 30 yard line to line trip wire that snares and causes frost damage to enemy players means we’ll have one more thing to tread lightly around when stalking down mages in nearly all settings.

Flame Orb seems less powerful than the other two abilities comparatively but still sounds pretty cool. My biggest worry is that it may shoot stealth or invisible targets meaning we’ll have to add it to our list of things to avoid when trying to get an opener.

Paladin (Source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24261189717&sid=1)

It’s going to be a bit difficult to get speculating too much about the paladin class. Aside from their new abilities and leveling changes (all pallies have Crusader Strike whaaaat?) they didn’t reveal much since supposedly the class is still ‘deep in development’ so I’ll just be going over what’s solid and concrete. With that Blinding Shield. Wow. Did paladins really need this? I mean if you gave this to current paladins it would be downright insane especially since prot is supposed to have a talent that makes it instant cast. Luckily this is for Cata and no one really knows how the classes will play out. Healing hands feels a bit weird, making the paladin a walking totem. I’m assuming it will heal for more than the healing stream they compare it to in the post and if it continues to heal while the paladin is Ccd it could be very powerful indeed.

Guardian of Ancient Kings seems a bit overdone. I don’t think every final ability should spawn a pet or be some massive effect and this one just seems to be going in that direction. I do like that it changes dynamics based on the tree the paladin has spent the most points into. An extra burst a la gargoyle for ret, a helpful healer for holy and a weird misdirect that lets it take the damage instead for prot. Overall its at least interesting perhaps more so than some other level 85 skills that have been previewed. I for one want to see how this guy plays out more than anything else (except smoke bomb obviously)

Lastly the big change is Holy Shock becoming a baseline ability. Now at current a well geared Holy Paladin can fend off almost any DPS with nothing but Sacred Shield and Holy Shock to keep himself up in a 1v1 situation. This removes the Hpallies ‘weakness’ of being the healer that was supposed to cast a lot and if you let him cast the heals were supposed to be devastatingly huge. While this still exists to an extent this change makes me wonder if they aren’t shifting paladins the way of some other healers. It also helps ret be more defensive something Blizzard views as a bad thing and most of the players too. Between holy shock, sacred shield and instant Flashes of light they’ll have quite a lot in the way of keeping themselves alive. All in all the paladin changes seem solid and here’s hoping we don’t have another 3.0 with this class in one of their specs.

Conclusion

As with any preview or spoiler it’s hard to say too much when we don’t know everything yet. There are a lot of abilities other classes get that sound cooler or more powerful than rogues but no one can really make a definitive call until we get a chance to see them in action. Good players are always ones who find new and powerful ways to use abilities in ways Blizzard didn’t really intend or think about so I’m sure there a ton of applications with all of these skills, rogue skills included, that we’re not thinking of and won’t think about until someone figures it out first. Having said that I feel the rogue changes in comparison were kind of boring and dull with the exception of smoke bomb. Dull doesn’t always mean bad though and I’m still pretty excited to stealth my way into the new expansion and see how the game evolves.

It’s been a while since I last wrote, things have been kind of slow lately with the lead up to Cataclysm unfortunately.

3v3 Woe is me.

I’ve been playing a lot of RMP these last two weeks, it’s the comp I’ve almost exclusively played all expansion. Nearing the end of last season a lot of people heralded the death of the comp with Spellcleave being so dominant. I personally shrugged those calls off, I figure the better players should win every time in a Spellcleave vs. RMP game. After the last few weeks of queuing, it finally dawned on me. There is nothing I can do to stop myself being globalled after cloak. I shudder to think of the opposing teams’ faces when after 5 minutes of tunneling me they finally get a kill with next to no CC on my teammates, just raw, unhealable damage. It makes me a bit depressed, just a little bit. I’ve seen so many DK’s, Warriors and Rets with Shadowmourne and the damage they do by themselves is incredible, I dread the day we queue into a TSG with double Shadowmourne.

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CLICK THE IMAGE FOR THE VID

My seventh video in the Eviscerate: Arenas series. The last of the expansion. Includes Shadowpriest / Rogue 2v2 as well as duels against top players. Some duels date back to the end of the recording of Eviscerate X, but the arena content is much more recent.

As usual I play mutilate, both envenom spec and traditional mut for some duels.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Music

Deadmau5 – The 16th Hour

Oceanlab – Miracle (Above and Beyond Club Mix)

Rex Mundi Ft. Susana – Nothing At All

Vince Tempera Orchestra – Seven Notes in Black

Disarmonia Mundi – Cypher Drone