Blood Sport: Shape up or ship out in Season 3
by V'Ming Chew 
Nov 29th 2007 at 9:00AM
Every Thursday, V'Ming - who thinks that gnome warlocks are travesties of nature and need to be KOSed - shares thoughts and ideas on becoming deadlier at the Arenas. He also dabbles in the dark arts in Blood Pact.
Season 3 kicked in last Tuesday after an extended downtime and here we are with the numbers from Season 2's final week. Despite ladder manipulation by some folks all out to 'win' the season, class representations haven't moved much from last week:
I've added population numbers to the chart, to contrast top Arena class distribution with the general distribution. Two weeks into 2.3, and hunters are still missing from all three brackets, and this certainly has nothing to do with a shortage of hunters in the game.
This isn't surprising as top teams would have stuck to their tried-and-tested teams this late in Season 2. We see warlocks and druids dominating the 2v2 bracket, while warriors, priests and pallies make a solid showing in the 5v5s.
What can the bulk of players with average ratings expect from Season 3?
Matches will last longer, and burst damage, while still important, will not swing matches so much. We can expect even casual PvPers to have some pieces of S1, S2 or even S3 gear now - an overall increase in Stamina, Resilience and gear quality across the board.
In fact, lower-ranked matches will become more competitive - like top-ranked games - as Arena gear becomes more prevalent. Previous one-button 'kill' abilities become trivial; Bestial Wrath is an example that comes to mind.
In other words, Season 3 Arena will quickly force weaker players to up their game if they want to compete. Exciting times indeed.
As mentioned previously, I'd expect hunters and feral druids to become more well-represented in the Arenas. With upcoming buffs to the Mage class, we should also expect more mages making their way into the top teams in 2v2.
Taking a closer look at the stats, we definitely see some 'standard' Arena specs for some classes. While hunters, rogues, priests, shamans and warlocks have two or more viable PvP builds to choose from, the following classes are pretty much pigeon-holed into one build*:
Warrior - Arms/Fury is the obvious choice, with a majority specced 35/23/3. Mortal Strike is the 'must-have'.
Paladin - Holy paladins dominate, the most popular build being 41/20/0.
Mage - Frost mages (17/0/44) are the runaway favorites, for survivability and control.
Druid - Resto druids (8/11/42) are the most common, and they seem to be the king of 2v2 healers.
Are these cookie-cutter builds a result of poorly designed talent trees? Or simply products of the game's PvE-centric nature?
We have seen some efforts, particularly in the last patch, to address the PvP viability of alternative builds - what more can be done for your class? Will you be respeccing to compete more effectively in Season 3?
* Note that the linked builds are just examples from a sample poll of top-ranked players, mileage always varies - depending on your play style.
Filed under: Blood Sport (Arena PvP), Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Classes, Talents, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Drak Nov 29th 2007 9:12AM
PVP priest disc builds with the new damage mitigation talent and tossable Pain Supression means the druids days are numbered. Can't remember the name of the talent off the top of my head, but it almost completely offsets MS warriors damage.
William Nov 29th 2007 9:58AM
What's up with the hunters? See the Population? And not being used anywhere? That's really crazy! Anybody know what's going on with that?
Telcontar Nov 29th 2007 10:03AM
Hey, at least they get used more than Rogues or Druids for 5v5...
Drak Nov 29th 2007 10:22AM
The problem with hunters in any situation is that most of them barely know how to capitalize on thier own strengths, don't know thier own weaknesses, or thier oppenents strengths and weaknesses. The majority usually have thier pet there to do the work for them, so they find it quite shocking when that MS warrior doesnt do what he's supposed to and doesnt stop to hit the pet while being convieniently whittled down by rifle fire. Instead, mr MS warrior sticks an axe in the Hunters face and ignores the pet. That is why hunters keep dying. PVPs D students.
Super_Duck Dec 18th 2007 10:07AM
actually in good arena teams, they often try to kill the pet first. And its easy, cuz it has no resilence
esumiwa Nov 29th 2007 10:26AM
Awww Drak, bitter because a hunter killed you too often.
Gods, you are such a sleaze bucket.
Did you ever think...oh never mind, just from your post you don't think.
Sonvar Nov 29th 2007 10:32AM
I'm not sure why you would say Bestial Wrath becomes pointless. Maybe in 5v5 but in 2v2 and 3v3 it gives me another anti CC ability in addition to the pvp trinket and allows me to continue damaging them.
Also with the Arena 1 gear out there I bet since Hunters do tend to be a major player in BGs that they are buying the arena 1 set gear before giving Arena another serious try.
Drak Nov 29th 2007 10:34AM
Nice post. How about if you don't have anything useful to say, delete your hunter and go buy a coloring book.
Melf Nov 29th 2007 11:23AM
I'd venture to say that the Line of Sight issues are still a big reason why hunters aren't showing up in arenas as much as other classes. Drak is correct in some respects in that hunters are very difficult to play in the arena. Though I'd venture to say that a lot of those hunters who do PvP are doing in BG's. That's always where I have the most fun -- arenas are great fun, but a warlock can do most of the same as I can with fewer problems.
Now if they gave us back our Aimed Shot from shadowmeld (remember the good old days??) or let us use Misdirect in PvP the way that Rogues can use Distract . . . well, that would be a different story.
GamerJunkie Nov 29th 2007 11:43AM
I'm willing to say that hunters are under-represented because their class is easy to play but difficult to master.
In every guild big and small I've been to, you find that Hunters have the most newbs.
A good bulk of hunter player base are just avg or below avg players.
When you go into Arena/PVP, your opponents are not gonna stand there like a PVE Target and let you shoot at them.
Big difference PVP vs PVE for hunters when their targets are actually smarter and won't let the hunter have an easy kill.
Physis Nov 29th 2007 1:04PM
There is a hunter in my 5v5 and 3v3, and he usually dies first when we fight superior teams, even when I focus all of my healing on him. Either good teams know a hunter's weaknesses or they recognize the danger that a good hunter's gun can cause. Whichever, it is frustrating to watch four people focus all their fire on my teammate and not be able to stop them. Often, he is down so fast I can't even get pain suppression off.
Omegabob Nov 29th 2007 11:59AM
Yes, this whole underrepresented hunter ordeal is true, but you must not forgot something. Something that spans beyond what Blizzard can manipulate.
People are not going to suddenly jump out of their seats to get a hunter on their team. When you've got a class setup that works and the players know it well, what motivation do they have to change this?
Despite this fact, I'm almost 100% positive that to see a change in something as grandiose as the arenas, we will need to wait a bit more than 2 weeks, especially since it's now Season 3 and people are scrambling to get their ten games in. Maybe later in the season, when people feel comfortable to experiment and such, will we see a spike in Hunter participation.
Drak Nov 29th 2007 12:07PM
I'd like to point out that I have a hunter on my 2v2, and my 3v3, and that guy is unstoppable kill-wise, even without season 1 gear. So its not the class, its defintely the player. And its a shame there's so few good ones out there.
Johan Nov 29th 2007 12:55PM
Hmm, I'm not so sure on the level of gear being higher overall at the lower depths of the Arena charts. While I think the level of gear will be better at the 1700-1800 range, I think that below that will be a lot of players who are just getting into PvP.
Have to remember that the population of arena players isn't fixed and that whenever a new player hits 70, they are a potential player in arena, won't have the comparable gear, and thus the pervasiveness of the gear at the lower levels will even out.
chillis Nov 29th 2007 1:02PM
and what are the chances a S.Priest and Lock combo can make it to the 1850 mark in 2v2's?
frank Nov 29th 2007 1:08PM
Heh, I don't foresee my spriest/lock combo making it that high... We generally grind it out in the 1550-1600 range. There's just to many class combos that are very tough for us, imo. I love getting destroyed by a pally/warrior combo and then seeing them in the next 3 arenas against us.
tmklein Nov 29th 2007 1:44PM
and all those druids are restro i'm sure too :( why can't feral be viable in the arenas?
Drak Nov 29th 2007 1:45PM
I dont reccomend a Spriest and a lock, with two classes that are outright unfearable, warriors and BM hunters, not to mention the trinket that gets you out of fear. You're also a bit too squishy to stand up against a disc priest, pally, warrior,etc etc. But if you go Disc holy, you might be able to keep your lock up long enough to kill your opponents, if he's destro. Otherwise, your dots will be dispelled and healed through.
Freehugz Nov 29th 2007 4:02PM
I think its way to early to say "this is how season 3 is going to go". Top teams are probably still running the same makup they had last season.
Stack Nov 29th 2007 6:54PM
Hi I am a hunter (1780 finish, 1950 peak) and received the rival title. Our 3v3 was a holy pali, combat daggers rogue, and a BM hunter. I consistently did the most damage but I was also the most frequently singled out as our rating rose higher.
However in a 5v5 we just started I am often left to my own devices, and am able to cast aimed shots, and pew pew from the back.
in response to saying BM is less useful in 5v5 i have to disagree. i realize i sacrifice alot of control (entrapment,silencing, wyvern, scattershot is a wash vs pet stun) but I get such a boost in dps its rediculus. at full tilt auto/stead KC @ -280mp5 i can get the same dps of a MM/surv spec using a priority queue with KC @ -480mp/5. this leaves me free to save my arcane shots for shields and other debuffs with no cost to my dps and only a moderate increase in -mp5.
when left alone in any situation the hunter puts out a significant amount of hurt but we are still very week to focus fire and pole dancing even with the new dead zone range.
(-mp5 as in the cost per 5 seconds to be constantly casting all your dps spells)