Generally, I am not between my keyboard and my screen.

@the_writer_w:

You would be if you were really awesome and played with your hands behind your back, like Daniel here apparently does.

(Psssst, Daniel, it's usually "between keyboard and CHAIR.")

Obviously, he is referring to the internal wiring of input devices and USB interfaces — it all affects arena play due to lag times and such.

Jeez, none of you calibrate your ports for maximum speed?

=)

Hi Daniel. I don't think losing to the waterfall is luck, if you can repeat the place in the article where I say losing is bad luck, I'll give you a cookie. :)

I actually wrote in my article about Scrubby McDouche that the bad player blames his mistakes on rng. I personally believe every loss that occurs in arena can be prevented and that it's possible to win every single game.

I think you were overeager to blame the player (which shows from your between the keyboard and screen statement) instead of understanding what I meant.

Arena should be about fighting other players, not the environment. It isn't called PvE afterall. The waterfall _has_ caused game losses due to players not being prepared for it in the past -- I don't believe environmental factors should be at work in arenas.

Chris mentioned in a post below "The varying terrain is what makes arenas fun." If that were true (and not fighting players), we might as well throw dragons or other mobs into arenas as well (so you have to deal with them). We might even be able to put Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle clones inside Dalaran to make it more interesting.

TL;DR: PvP should be about fighting players, not the environment.

I believe, regardless of any mis-typings, that what Daniel said was essentially this: losing to the waterfall is bad preparation, not bad luck. I think the real problem hear is the fact that a player often has trouble surviving more than 3-4 seconds when cut off from heals, particularly when the match is already underway and the player has been loaded up with dots. PvP survivability should be fixed before arenas are critiqued. Even Blizz has admitted that PvP is not functioning as they would like.

"Player vs. player should not be just that -- not player vs. environment. I hope that clarifies this last sentence." Is a bold, not entirely incorrect statement, but regardless of what you do, PvP always takes place in an environment and always has. That environment should have some effect on the play, otherwise why have it at all? I think the waterfall should stay as there is plenty of warning before the effects occur, and preparation for effects like this should be part of the Arena play.

That said there are some things that legitimately break gameplay, like the Org Arena fire. The damage was just too potent. Similarly, I think the proverbial nail was struck squarely on the head by stating that stairs need to be added to the box-corners of the Sewer arena. Most of the problems in the arena stem from the z-axis punishment. Fixing the stairs not only fixes the z-axis, but also fixes the boxes and softens the punishment of knockback abilities.

If arena was just about other players, there wouldn't be a variety of arenas with their own variations. Pillar humping is a part of arenas, and the fact that Dala has a moveable pillar doesn't make it that much different from the ring of valour. Sometimes the waterfall can work in your favour too, cutting off LoS from the other team and giving you time to get a heal or two in, so I think there are arguments for and against it being there.

I haven't been there that often, but after the first time, the waterfall wasn't really a surprise. You know its there, you know what its effect is, you learn to work with it.