TankSpot - Blogs - PvP Your Face by Kazeyonoma

Struggle... Defeat ...... Success! 7 Virgins?

Kazeyonoma — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:28:31 GMT

Okay Okay, I couldn't wait to post this but I had to. And I apologize right away if I offend anyone who read the title and may be of a religion who relates to it. I don't mean it that way but it was done as a favor to my druid, Germla.

So lets cut to the chase. My first blog spoke of my season 3 experience so far, and had a shining light at the end of the post regarding Germla (he's the druid I speak highly of) coming back to help me make 1 last run at 2k before he goes on his business trip. Well, if you didn't bother to read the comments below that blog, it didn't happen. Our schedules conflicted and we weren't able to get anymore games in, 1854 was the best we got, and although disappointed, I was happy with our results and just figured it was bad luck. Time to move on.

Fast forward a week (this past weekend to be exact), and low and behold, Germla sign's on during the weekend. He brought his laptop with him, and was playing from a hotel room! Connection proved to be stable enough in the evening and it was time to rock and roll.

The Struggle
I'd like to now take a moment to discuss the outright annoyance (not necessarily a flaw) of the new arena rating system. Averaging my personal rating with his personal rating to determine who we played was to say the least very very very annoying. We'd play games, and some were outright simple because we outgeared and outskilled a lot of the teams due to the bracket we were being stuck with. I apologize to any teams that we beat along the way probably screaming "*$*#ing rerolls!" but I assure you that we weren't rerolling, Germla spreads out his love amongst many of his friends and we merely didn't have the personal rating for him. But here comes the annoying part. We'd average about 5-6 points a game. At first it was 1 or 2 points, then as Germla's rating caught up we started getting 3-4 and 5-6. Towards the end of it, nearing the 2k homestretch, we were getting a whopping 9-10. Big ups! What this meant was that we had to play over 50 matches this weekend (61 to be exact) to get from 1854 to 2004. And in the event that one of us lagged, dropped, or just plain made a mistake, we'd lose 20+ points which means 5-10 more matches per loss. It was a very VERY tense situation.

So friday night, we play 16 matches before his sales partner complains about the late night gaming and we do well, 14-2. We break 1900 and call it a night, nothing too eventful, but we're getting into the groove of playing with no mic for him. We were already having our odds stacked against us. Not to mention I'm using swords instead of maces, we knew our work was gonna be a long hard drive.

Saturday we continue the frenzy and we play 40+ matches continuously. We win a ton, and lose rarely until we're nearly at 2k. There were plenty of ups and downs, including 1 very VERY hard fought game between a boomkin/survival hunter who gave us a hard run for our money, and we knew that we couldn't afford to lose due to the negative impact it'd have on our ratings. Well, about 40 minutes after it began, we became triumphant and we won our 5 points from them. -_-' But through time we eventually got to where we sought out to be.

The Defeat
2001 team rating. We had finally reached it but somewhere along the way in our 40-50ish matches that weekend, my personal rating dropped 5 points below the team rating. 1996... It stared me in the face almost taunting me. Goddamnit, "Germla queue again, my rating is off, we need 1 more decent win". So we queue. And although tough fought, I die to a full s3 mace warrior/druid team and we lose 24 points. Holy son of a bitch I say to Germla on vent (who is listening just can't talk). He says meh, minor setback, lets go again. We queue again, double stealth, trouble. We stick close, hoping to pop the rogue out on me and Germla can destealth him and we unload. Instead of the rogue being popped out, the mage manages to sneak up into los with us, frost nova the two of us, rogue opens up on germla, and although I blow cooldowns, fears, disarms, it's not enough, they down germla in about 35 seconds and we lose again. 26 points lossed. We're back down to 1951 team rating and my personal rating is at 1947 (strangely losing 2 brought my personal closer to my team. heh). Man I was screaming obscenities into the night. I was furious, to be so close and have it robbed from us. It REALLY REALLY ticked me off and I was starting to show it when we requeued and I started making mistakes, but luckily not game breaking ones. I calm myself down and start apologizing to Germla for not playing better. He had sworn off playing with warriors due to the time and sweat it took to win in most matches, and me being swords meant I lacked the cc, and instead had burst... something our makeup wasn't built for. And he said probably the nicest thing to me that I'd ever heard from someone I respected as much as him. He told me I was the most underrated warrior on the server. Comparing me to what is considered the pvp warriors of upper echelon, he said I was on par with them, and that I should not apologize for what I did, I tried my best, and there wasn't much we could do against those matches. We just gotta stick it through and play it smart. It was inspiring to say the least, up until now I had played ours 2 simply believing, I was being carried (which I am still believing to be true) entirely by Germla, but his little 2 sentence tell to me just made me feel better about myself as a player. I didn't suck. Not only did I not suck, I was decent? I think this was the turning point for me. We said 2k or bust tonight and we were gonna do it.

Success
Well, it didn't come easy, we fought a lot of tough teams, and continued to work our way with 5-6 point games to get to 1991 personal rating for me (1995 team). Game number 60: queue, join. double stealth on Ruins of Lordaeron. Crap, no where to run or hide, this isn't good. Engage, differen't rogue/mage team than before but trouble nonetheless. I pop sweeping strikes, whirlwind, mortal strike, whatever it takes since I know they aren't targetting me. I get rogue to near death and mage somehow got hit by my whirlwinds enough to be around 65% health, but Germla falls. Goddamnit not again. But something clicked inside, I was poly'd to full health, and I knew I could win this. 2v1 I didn't care. I had to do it, for Germla, for us.

I intercept the rogue, mortal strike, 5% health left, execute! absorb. damn, cheat death, he vanishes, and i get frost nova'd by the mage. Not good, rogue disappears to bandage, and I turn to the mage. I know hurt is coming but he has no pet, he blew both to kill germla. I had a chance. I run around a pillar, and the mage chases foolishly, I catch him with a piercing howl, and although i'm slowed, I walk to him and catch him. I proceed the beat down. he blinks, I have intercept up, he's mine. I intercept, stun, beat down. Ice block. But he already blew his shatter, no 2nd ice block, i just had to wait it out, i bandage. He breaks out, i piercing howl again. he blinks again, i intercept again. white hit, sword proc, crit/crit dead mage. And i'm still at 90% health. Where's that damn rogue. I find him trying to bandage a second time, big mistake. He's out of stealth, I charge him, rend him (no more vanishing buddy!) and hamstring him. I proceed the beatdown, and his cheatdeath is already down. This is mine. he blinds, i trinket, i switch to zerker to intercept, beat down, 5% he gouges, i break with zerker rage. execute, Death. YES!!!!! 8 points... are you serious? 8 f'ing points? 1999 personal rating, 2003 team rating. wth. But after that win, we were unstoppable. We requeue, and by some freak malfunction of the arena system, we get queued against a super low rated team, and we beat them, rogue/druid, tough but nothing we hadn't beaten before. we win. 1 point gained. That's all I wanted. screw it. I'll take it.

2001 Personal rating, 2004 team rating.

The other stuff
We fly to Nagrand Arena to buy my shoulders, and as we're flying, i'm dancing, hyper, joyous about our final accomplishment, I tell Germla I <3 him numerous times on vent, and he replies with, look at the time, and the number of games, I think my <3 for you is apparent. heh, nuff said. And I tell him that I'd probably blog about this and he DEMANDS, that I mention this exact statement:
Germla says: I want 7 virgins.

I'm not sure why he wants them, but if I had the power, I'd give it to him. The bastard made me happier in my WoW career than anyone else. There's no doubt that he's the best pvp druid on our server. I mean he got ME my shoulders. 1 Side vent, non-maces, it was just not ideal by any means, but we pulled it off. This was a huge accomplishment for me, and I hope it's not the last. Season 4 is around the corner, and whenever Germla is at a hotel with a decent connection, you better believe that we're gonna be tearing new assholes into people.

[item]Vengeful Gladiator's Plate Shoulders[/item] are finally mine.. and amazingly huge on orcs btw. Which I love ;D

This blog goes out to Germla. You're the best man. Thanks for giving me a piece of WoW that I couldn't have gotten without you.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (Season 3)

Kazeyonoma — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:54:45 GMT

Hey all,

First time posting a blog so bear with me if it's terribad. Just something I wanted to get off my chest.

If any of you know me around here, one of my greatest passions to this game is the PvP aspect of it and more importantly Arenas. I got started late in season 2, scrapping together a Deep Thunder which carried me into s3 with 4/5 s2 gear acquired with all the hopes and aspirations of being something great come season 3. I even had a good resto druid friend who promised that we'd break 1850 together and be envied by many.

Well, season 3 is nearing its end now and I'd like to recap on the goods, the bads, and the plain ugly of this season in my experience.

I'll start with I guess the bad, since that's chronologically correct. Season 3 began, and we took off like lightning, playing as many games as possible, having 5k points saved up and buying my s3 gloves right away. Except we hit a brick wall. We were facing a lot of top ranked teams that weren't sorted out of the lower brackets yet. And we weren't as good as we had hoped we were. We were stuck in the 1650's to 1700's for weeks, even months. Our dreams were being crushed. I was constantly just playing games, staying at 4000+ points hoping that once we break 1850, i could buy my s3 weapon and pwn face. Well, it didn't happen the first month, january, february, march, they all passed and no 1850. The best we got was 1816 but then crushed by a full s3 hunter/druid team repeatedly. Our souls were crushed and we were gonna call it quits.

Then came the ugly. My druid in his lust for something great and with the obstacles and hindrances we'd been facing, ditched me for anyone he could get his hands on. Resto druids are a scarcity on my server and as such, he picked up lots of partners. Often leaving my team, joining with other warriors, warlocks, and even trying our anti-matchup, the hunter/druid. He would eventually break 2k, but foolishly spent his points on a weapon instead of his s3 shoulders. He would come back to me afterwards having me sit weeks without any games played, as i just lost 3v3 matches with random pugs to keep my points at 3250+ while i filled out my s3 gear. I was crushed, I got into verbal arguments with him on ventrilo, calling him vulgarities for having left me in the dust when in s2 no one would even take him because he was known as a scrubby rogue and what did he know about pvp healing with his alt druid. I felt stabbed in the back, to help him get to where he is, and being at the homestretch to get slapped behind for a warlock. Come April, I was thinking of just quitting Arena's entirely.

Then came some shining hope. Arguably the best resto druid pvp'er horde side who happens to be one of my good friends, decided to transfer back to this server having traded his account for an alliance char some months back (he made gladiator in s2 but gave it all up to get that alliance char). When he came back, he promised to help me get 1850 having heard my story multiple times in vent and feeling sorry for all I'd been through. Well, we did it, that weekend in the mid of April, we played our matches, and it was like I was destined to get it today. We went nearly flawless as we plowed through the ranks from 1770->1854. Our last 3 matches were incredible, 2 times in a row only 1 person joined the arena from the other team, so i got some easy 34 points (17 each!). Then we ran into a dreaded rogue/priest combo which really took some lucky shield reflects, but having played all season, my skill had sharpened, and we routed this team despite being put at 100 hp early into the match. 1854... it was finally mine, and i had the points to buy the weapon. But what to buy?

Well, here comes some ugly again... I was coaxed by the same druid who ditched me that swords were the way to go, since in his experience, I couldn't kill things fast enough. Going against my better judgement, and advice of such greats as Kazaganthi and Serennia, i grabbed the s3 sword. Boy, i was on top of the world, wielding my jin'rohk look-a-like and spamming it in guild chat. Drained all my gold to buy mats to put executioner on it right away. Gave 500g to my druid who I had promised to give him if I got 1850 from him, and he didn't take it at first, but eventually said if I wanted to give it to him as a gift then he'd accept :P. Man, things couldn't get better.

And then the downhill happened again. The druid, decided he couldn't stand trying to get 2k with a warrior without maces. He faced many crushing defeats with a former HWL warrior friend of ours who opted for the sword as well. Mace after Mace warrior came through and would beat them in the closest of fights due to mace stuns. It was frustrating, and when that warrior got 2k with his 5s team instead, the druid was done. He vowed not to do 2v2s with warriors again, and went to work with a rogue friend of ours and I eventually would get back my old druid who got his shoulders eventually. I spent the next 5 weeks just lolly'ing around doing basically nothing. Just getting points, coming nearly to begging just to get some arenas in. I tried all sorts of weird makeups, including an elemental shaman/MS war blow up team. We had our moments but it merely wasn't a 2k makeup. I had dreams of breaking 2k with an awesome resto druid/enh sham/me combo that went 14-2 in our first week, but that fell apart quickly due to schedules. It looked like S3 was gonna end and I'd not attain my goal of breaking 2k. Resto druid having sworn off warriors, and the other barely logging on due to RL issues. I was stuck.

Then I got notice from my old druid that he'd be quitting his druid soon, and possibly selling it. He got what he wanted out of it but wanted to go back to his rogue. So we got our 10 matches in last night, and basically said, he'd help me try to break 2k if we could before the account was taken away, but his motivation just seemed out of it. we went 7-4 and called it a night. 1784 again... Stuck in the middle and can't get out of it. S3 is probably ending within the next month, what can I do besides just wait for s4, and hope I find a decent team again, but without my 2 druids, it looked slim.

Then it happened
My awesome druid friend was gonna be taking a business trip this whole summer and would have to be on permanent hiatus from his druid during that time. And he wanted to do me 1 last favor before he'd go. He logged on his druid, dropped his 2k+ team, and started queuing up with me again. We do phenomenal. We go something like 8-1 and I'm back over 1850 again. It's 5am, and he says, lets end this tomorrow. 2k or bust baby. And that's where I stand now. I'm so excited about tonight, my palms are sweaty. I think I am gonna have to bust my balls and play amazing for this to happen. It's not gonna just fall into my lap because I have a good druid. Without Maces, I really have to watch my CD's and blow the fuck up on the guy when I get my sword procs going. Change Targets a lot, know when to break cc, call out heals, and just be a machine. Some games are gonna be tough and drawn out, others will be quick wins/losses. But now I have that light at the end of the tunnel. Breaking 2k for me, will be the equivalent to a progression guilds' Illidan downing, or Kil'jaedan killing. This to me... is everything...

Wish me luck guys, I'm gonna need it.

2000 Rating, and [item]Vengeful Gladiator's Plate Shoulders[/item] You will be mine.... even if it kills me to get you.