The Colosseum: Abni, mage of Mal'Ganis
by C. Christian Moore 
Mar 28th 2010 at 4:00PM
Today's interviewee is Relentless Gladiator Abni, an arcane mage from Mal'Ganis. Abni is currently on the world's #1 rogue-mage-priest composition. In addition to holding the #1 3v3 spot down on the Stormstrike battlegroup, Abni is also #1 in 2v2. In this week's column, we asked him about rogue-mage-priest, his particular character choices, and the state of arena in general. Read on to see what the Relentless Gladiator mage had to say.
WoW.com: In YOUR opinion, which classes are lagging behind right now?
Abni: I see every class having the potential to do extremely well. I can't really point any out that are not doing so great.
WoW.com: So would you say arena is fairly balanced right now?
Abni: No, there aren't any classes that are really lagging behind, but there are several which are pretty over the top doing better than they should.
WoW.com: Which few are you referencing? Can you explain why you think they're over the top?
Abni: Hunters -- every spec (but mainly marksmanship), holy paladins, and arms warriors (even after the Bladestorm change). Both warriors and hunters do way too much damage for a Mortal Strike class. The warrior/pally/x and hunter/pally/x comps are just too strong.
WoW.com: Why do you play mage? What is it about the class's toolbox that appeals to you for competitive arena?
Abni: Mainly Spell Steal, spammable CC, and spammable slows. It's also the first and only character I have made.
WoW.com: What spec do you play? What advantages does that spec provide you that others do not?
Abni: Arcane, because it has instant Invisibility (works just like a Vanish if not better), spammable instant Slow, Presence of Mind (which i often use for instant Polymorph) and the on-demand mobile burst.
WoW.com: So you use Arcane when you play rogue-mage-priest in 3v3? I see a lot of mages playing Frost, why do you feel Arcane is superior for your team?
Abni: Yes I use arcane when i play RMP. POM (Presence of Mind) sheep is amazing for the comp, and arcane brings great burst to the table.
WoW.com: Why do you gem/enchant your character the way you do? Why not gem or enchant for different stats?
Abni: Haste is one of my favorite stats, and I try to get as much of it as I can without using too much PvE gear; arcane needs all the resilience it can get. Haste helps me get faster sheeps, faster globals, etc. The spellpower is obviously a great stat, and the other stat is spell penetration which is needed so my spells don't get resisted. I just need to reach the cap, which is why I have a small amount.
WoW.com: Why did you choose to play your 3v3 team makeup over other possible compositions? It seems rogue-mage-priest is not anywhere close to as popular as it once was.
Abni: It just works for us. A composition that I would actually love to run is double healer mage, but my healers don't want to run that with me at the moment. I feel that arcane RMP has great burst potential and if played correctly can be very strong in that comp.
WoW.com: What are the strengths and weaknesses of your team?
Abni: Strengths are POM sheeps and insane burst. Weaknesses are lack of peels for heavy melee teams where several Frost Novas and Deep Freeze helps a lot.
WoW.com: What's your opening strategy?
Abni: Depends entirely on the team we are fighting against, but always involves crowd controlling (CCing) at least one opponent.
WoW.com: How do you play against double healer teams differently than you do against, say, a double melee "cleave" team?
Abni: We switch A LOT against double healer on targets that are stripped of buffs, against melee cleave we generally stick to one target.
WoW.com: How do you work out target designation and swaps?
Abni: It depends on trinket status (if the cooldown is available or not), sheep diminishing returns, and if they are cleaned of buffs.
WoW.com: How has your team changed since you've started playing together?
Abni: We have adapted to each other's play styles and know what to expect of each other. We actually know exactly what each of us are thinking during games.
WoW.com: Do you think rogue-mage-priest has gotten weaker as a result of the season eight resilience and healing changes?
Abni: I actually think it has gotten stronger with the new changes, but I do not think it is a top tier comp.
WoW.com: Can you go a little more in-depth about why you think it has been made stronger?
Abni: It gives us more time to set up kills with CC chains, because when we get a kill it is usually way overkill because of the CC. With the resilience changes, it gives us more time to get all that setup, without us dying as fast.
WoW.com: Do you think having a good reputation is important?
Abni: Not really, but it's definitely something that you don't not want -- if that makes sense.
WoW.com: What's the coolest thing you've ever done in arena? Don't be modest.
Abni: There are several cool things I've done in arena and out of it -- but I'd have to say 1v2ing priest/mage and druid/rogue.
WoW.com: Do you PvE? Why or why not?
Abni: I used to, but it got repetitive and boring. The gear didn't seem like an accomplishment anymore.
WoW.com: We all know the expression "everyone's gotta start somewhere." What was your starting point when you decided to pick up arena?
Abni: I just liked the whole idea of players vs. players in a closed environment. When I took arena seriously, I bound everything I could think of, set up my user interface, basically forced myself into doing the things required for competing. I played arcane since level 60 and when it finally got buffed, I had a blast and did extremely well.
WoW.com: What's the biggest thing that differentiates a good player from a great player?
Abni: A great player will read not only their opponents moves before they happen, but their partners -- they can see everything happen and what needs to be done for something to happen.
WoW.com: What are you trying to improve?
Abni: My awareness in 3v3 and mastering the bracket like I have done in 2v2 (like knowing EXACTLY how to beat every possible comp).
WoW.com: What's your advice to players who want to start playing arenas for the first time?
Abni: Bind your abilities, practice a lot, and go from there.
The Colosseum is WoW.com's interview series spotlighting strategies, compositions, and tactics from the Arena fighters who use them. For more PvP information, be sure to hit up Blood Sport and the Art of War(craft). If you'd like to be interviewed for The Colosseum, please feel free to contact us -- be sure to include your armory as a link! Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Interviews, The Colosseum
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Zalvi24 Mar 28th 2010 4:06PM
u got answer 1 and 2 mixed up
Chris M Mar 28th 2010 4:19PM
I think question two's answer was a a tie-in/follow-up to question one. Like 'No, while there aren't any classes lagging behind, such and such isn't ideal.'
C.Christian.Moore Mar 28th 2010 4:27PM
Chris M is correct. :)
Hakker Mar 28th 2010 4:47PM
While I like your articles and think they are more informative than 99% of the others on the site (considering crap like Around Azeroth, Two Bosses Enter, etc.) Im kind of wondering what your point in writing here is. WoW.com really doesn't seem like the type of site that harbors even a decent amount of high level players.
Most of the people who read this site will most likely never get past 1500, and judging from the responses on each of your posts i suspect a great majority dont participate in arenas at all.
Pretty much, your talking about high level arena play to a bunch of scrubs who whine on the pvp forums about battleground weapons.
andy Mar 28th 2010 4:54PM
wow douche much?
cocobang Mar 28th 2010 5:35PM
"Arenas were the single biggest mistake in WoW's history." Rob Pardo, Blizzard
;D
jselesky Mar 28th 2010 5:25PM
Notice how the guy who's ranked number one is humble, and encouraging to aspiring arena players?
It makes me think that for all your elitist posturing, Hakker, you're really just as terrible as the rest of us "scrubs".
talkingmike Mar 28th 2010 8:10PM
If we are going to bring up Pardo's comments about arenas, please do it with the correct context. This "biggest mistake" that people like to throw around is NOT arena PVP itself, but rather the way that they brought it into the game and the subsequent tuning required because of that.
Because it was tacked on after the game had been designed, it is difficult to design and balance without off-setting so many other factors of the game (yes, PVE included). Had they designed the game with both PVE and arena PVP considerations from the beginning, the difficulties of arena balancing would not be near as difficult, thus saving them from the "mistake" that some sheeple insist on quoting out of context.
cocobang Mar 28th 2010 10:17PM
and as we can't change the past those design mistakes still stand making the quote applicable just as it is ;D
sterny Mar 29th 2010 11:10AM
Just a quick FYI Hakker, I'm not a great arena player, but i'm 2k and know enough to know that i'm going to get much higher, at least 2.2k, hopefully even 2.4k, as 2k was easy and now i'm playing with even better partners. As i said before, this doesn't mean much, but still think BEFORE you type, scrub.
BubblyPixie Mar 28th 2010 5:18PM
I have never been in the arena. But I love these articles. I have only been playing wow for about a year. And before i started reading this column I had no idea how it worked. It was a giant mystery for me. Now I have learned a lot am actually curious and thinking about starting to about getting a team together with my Boyfriend for fun just to give it a try. so thank you. by writing this column you have opened up a whole new section of wow for me.
Lemons Mar 28th 2010 6:07PM
I find myself agreeing a lot with these top-tier arena players. Hunter and warrior burst is way outta line. Being a melee I find myself having the most trouble with hunters because they're ranged and thier toolkit for kiting melee is simply huge.
I think Blizz just gets frusterated trying to balance weak classes (I mean hunters, warriors have always been strong) so in the end they just pile on a bunch of damage to make them viable. I feel this is a poor design because there isn't really much skill involved when you can just do so much damage you barely have to cc, things just die.
Darkfreak Mar 28th 2010 6:50PM
I'm not trying to be nosy or whatever, but could C. Christian Moore please link his armory?
Not to criticize him, but I think aspiring PvPers (of his class, not sure which that is) would benefit from seeing how he gears, his glyphs, and his talents.
I'm sorry if there's a WoW.com rule about not giving out your armory.
Gx1080 Mar 28th 2010 7:05PM
Well, you can always search it yourself if you care. Although I think that is a slip, all The Colliseum articles have the Armory linked.
C.Christian.Moore Mar 28th 2010 7:43PM
Ahh, thank you. It was an oversight on my part, I meant to link it but had forgotten. TYVM.
Noctiluca Mar 28th 2010 9:01PM
I love how Abni state that hunters and warriors are OP while ignoring the elephant in the room. Mages, truth be told, are out of control in arena. They are far more overpowered than hunters and warriors. Ask anyone who PvPs in a respectable bracket and they will all say the most ridiculous class right now is mage. I'm tired of these FOTM comps pretending like they have any skill. I hear RMP is hard. Downrate me if you want, but it's the truth.
QQinsider Mar 29th 2010 5:38AM
Lol, so true. It's always the same in these articles, everyone is OP except the class played by the subject of the interview.
PvP'ers are the biggest whiners out there, and I wish Blizzard would just make the class mechanics for PvP and PvE seperate, so that their whining and subsequent class adjustments don't affect my PvE play.
Defoe Mar 29th 2010 7:59AM
While the representation of Mages in Arena might be substantial, the representation of Arcane Mages is definitely not.
You wont find many high rated Arena players playing Arcane consistently like the player in the interview.
Most of them play Frost or flip between the two, and when they flip from Frost to Arcane it will only be for RMP mirror matches and nothing else.
Stéwart Mar 29th 2010 2:31PM
Lol i was about to comment on this myself but you already did the job for me.
Another case of Mage's not being able to admit they are OP in PVP?! /gasp
But then he is arcane so maybe i will let him off.
gamerunknown Mar 29th 2010 4:00AM
How exactly is RMP FotM?
Its always been a well represented comp in 3v3