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World of Warcraft:Life as a WoW Insider writer

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2010/09/16
World of Warcraft:Life as a WoW Insider writer
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW,earn Cataclysm wow gold? We’re giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame.
What’s it like when World of Warcraft becomes your job? This week, 15 Minutes of Fame zooms in for the second half of a behind-the-scenes interview with a handful of WoW Insider staffers. We’ll muse over what it’s like to write about WoW for work, what it’s like to play WoW for work, the rewards and frustrations of writing for a living — and the No. 1 question we get asked by readers: How can someone get started writing professionally about gaming?
* Zach Yonzon pens The Art of War(craft) every week and creates many of the graphic images you see on our home page, guides and posts.
* Matthew Rossi, one of the most seasoned hands on the WoW Insider crew, is our resident warrior expert who also writes about game lore and general news.
* Michael Sacco, a senior editor, started writing at WoW Insider after working at Blizzard itself.
* Alex Ziebart started out as a weekend blogger and is now a senior editor.
* Fox Van Allen joined WoW Insider early this year and writes the shadow priest portion of our priest column.
* Lisa Poisso (that’s me) started out writing the professions column three years ago and now works behind the scenes as an editor and turning out several weekly columns.
Be sure to catch part 1 of our interview from last week.
15 Minutes of Fame: Do you still play WoW for fun, or has it become merely something you do for work, or is it a combination?
Zach: Right now, it’s mostly work. A lot of the fun died for me when a lot of my friends left, and especially when my wife decided she couldn’t devote time to the game and justify paying the monthly subscription fee. On the other hand, I find the beta extremely fun and I’m looking forward to Cataclysm. I’m excited at the prospect of it rekindling our love for the game — it’s just such a new and different experience that I can’t wait for my wife to go through it. We’ll probably rush our mains to 85 and then roll our goblins. Until then, though, I log on and sometimes PvP in an embarrassingly mechanical fashion. I haven’t even bothered to upgrade my gear on my main, spending most of my time on alts.
Matt: It’s a combination. There have been times where I have wanted to take a break from the game but haven’t because it’s something I get paid to do. But sometimes I think that’s more an excuse I trot out for others rather than the truth. When I level yet another warrior “to test out this spec idea” am I really doing it for work or just because I’m demented and love warriors?
I think in the end, I play WoW for fun — and I just grump because, well, that’s who I am.
Mike: I was a progression raider for quite a while in Wrath. I still play for fun, but I’ve long since burned out on raiding in this expansion. I’ve been playing copious amounts of the Cataclysm beta to keep myself psyched for the expansion’s release.
Alex: I play WoW for fun significantly less than I used to, but that’s not entirely the fault of WoW Insider. Part of it is because you don’t want work and play to overlap too much and I can’t dedicate every waking hour to WoW, but it’s not exclusively because of that reason. I also play less because it’s the end-of-an-expansion cycle, and the last thing I want to do after writing about Cataclysm is log in and go do Argent Tournament dailies. Once Cataclysm actually launches, I will probably be playing the game more again. But it will never reach the same level that it was before I started working for WoW Insider. Playing that many hours of WoW a week while also writing about WoW for a living? Good lord, no.
I think how I play the game has changed significantly. I don’t log on and just immerse myself in the glory of the game like I did previously. The fun comes from picking apart the games I play and looking at them critically. What about this do I like? What do I dislike? Why did the developers choose to do what they did here?
Fox: I do still play WoW for fun. In fact, I promised myself that if it ever stopped being fun, I’d give it up, because it’d show through in my writing. We all have our own little complaints about the game, but at the end of the day, we’re all hooked on it. And based on what I’ve seen in Cataclysm, we’re only going to get hooked even worse.
Lisa: Right now, it’s all about work projects. I’m hoping for an infusion of energy with Cataclysm, and I’m trying my best not to let work news spoiler my enthusiasm.
I had absolutely no idea when I started this work that I would end up …
Zach: … playing this game in an embarrassingly mechanical fashion. It’s not that I don’t enjoy or love the game — I do, I still think it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played — but things change when you’re not playing with friends. I know I moved one character to a realm with friends, but I wish I could move all my characters. I’m still waiting for Blizzard to give us a wholesale deal, since $25 per character is stupidly expensive for someone who lives in the third world.
Matt: Dangling by my fingertips over a volcano while Ziebart cackled maniacally above me, the detonator in his hand.
Mike: Being in a senior position on the site. I originally intended for this job to be a temporary stop-gap measure to provide me with food money until I got another post-Blizzard job, but I’m happy to have been proven wrong.
Alex: … so invested in the job. This isn’t a job that is only around during the hours I’m on the clock. I’m always on the clock, and I’m always concerned about whether or not things are operating smoothly, both for the site and the staff. The achievements are real, and so are the disappointments. There are times when we’re happy and there are times when we’re angry. Sometimes there’s even a little fear. When I first started here, I figured I would just be turning in my assignments and moving on with life each week. I never expected I would sink so much emotion into a job. I wouldn’t trade it for anything … so here’s hoping for many more years of WoW, and many more years of WoW Insider.
Fox: Being a low-grade internet celebrity? Going to BlizzCon? Actually having people read what I write? Talking to Lisa Poisso about myself for a 15 Minutes column?
Lisa: … having this become anything more than a pleasurable distraction from my “real” writing.
Gallery: 15 Minutes of Fame: Lisa Poisso
Early MC clearBah, Bog LordsBeneath RagnarosDate nightThe gang’s all hereWhat’s a little fish among enemies?
In terms of what you do at WoW Insider, what do you find most enjoyable on a day-to-day basis?
Zach: Ironically? That it still leads me to log on to World of Warcraft. That sounds worse than it actually is because the game is still amazing for me, it’s only gotten terribly lonely and disconnecting. I’d imagine the aimless wandering I’m doing at this point is what ronin did after losing their lords. I find it truly enjoyable because it forces a new perspective upon me, and I enjoy the game for what it is, rather than merely for its social aspect. The Art of War(craft) also forces me to revisit my views on a lot of things, not least of which is my approach to PvP. It’s gotten a lot more introspective. Or maybe I’m just at that junction in life, who knows?
Matt: I really enjoy writing TCAFOW. I named it; I’ve been the sole writer on the column for its entire existence; I’ve (to my knowledge) never missed a week on it. I’ve tanked, PvPed and fury DPSed on various warriors while writing it, and it feels like something I could probably keep doing until WoW itself finally ended.
Mike: I work with a lot of great people, and I’m grateful that our staff is so agreeable and easy to work with. I’m gifted with wonderful managers and a talented editorial team. And I’m happy that we’re the only site that does what we do — we’re not just about raiding or datamining or blue-tracking theorycrafting. We offer something for WoW players of all stripes, and I think we’re pretty good at it.
Alex: Managing the team. Working with a team of skilled people is something I absolutely love. It’s why I didn’t hate working at Hollywood Video or other retail outlets. You have a team, you have a goal and you need to figure out how to reach those goals and keep your team organized and motivated. Every single member of your team has strong points and weak points and you need to figure out how to best utilize those skills. It’s a challenge and is consistently rewarding when your team achieves something great.
Fox: The people are what really make the job. I went to the Scott Pilgrim premiere with Mike Sacco. I went drinking in New York with Mat McCurley and Rich Maloy. I have rivalous e-shouting matches with Dawn Moore. I cannot wait for BlizzCon, when I can finally meet all the rest of this ragtag, misfit bunch in person.
Lisa: Writing for me is about hitchhiking on other people’s passions. I feed off interviewing other people. There’s nothing more fascinating than having someone fling open the proverbial doors to his life, to dig up and spill out the kernel of what drives his passion for what he does. Editing offers much the same type of reward. Sure, slogging through sloppy typos and mistakes isn’t fun — but making sure one of Matt Rossi’s legendary essays really grabs readers by the short hairs? It’s like riding the tiger.
Is there anything in your job that you’ve found to be especially frustrating?
Zach: Probably only that it’s as close as I can get to working for Blizzard. Being a fan of the company for a long time — such that the only video games I really play with any intensity or devotion are Blizzard games — writing about one of its games is practically a dream come true. “Frustrating” probably isn’t the right word, considering I’ve got about the most awesome job as it is, but one can’t help but imagine being on the other side. WoW Insider has one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with, though. If anything, the most frustrating thing for me is the fact that I haven’t been able to give WoW Insider as much effort as it deserves.
Matt: My own strange grammatical and stylistic hobby horses. Just ask someone about my love of parentheses some time, or why I can’t spell “Cataclysm.”
Alex: The first is that I need to constantly remind myself that not everybody at WoW Insider is here full time. In fact, most people aren’t. I often find myself frustrated that I don’t have X number of people around on major patch days to lend a hand, but the reason they aren’t there is because they have other jobs and other responsibilities, not because they’re neglecting WoW Insider.
The other frustrating thing is the timing of those patches. A lot of our workload is dependent on Blizzard’s timing. When Blizzard decides to put the PTR up at 10 p.m. on a Friday night, we have to react accordingly. There’s very little we can do proactively when it comes to patches; it’s almost all reactive. If Blizzard decides to put a major content patch on the PTR at 10 p.m. on a Friday while the editors are out at the movies or a bar or whatever else, then we need to drop everything and run home. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could plan for that, but Blizzard will do what Blizzard will do.
There’s also the little issue with being unable to talk to my family about what I do. They don’t understand what I get paid to do, and they never will. “So … You write about some game? How do you write so much about one game? Why do people read this stuff? What maniacs would pay you to do that?”
Fox: The most frustrating thing is always the same thing: deciding what to write about. Some weeks, there are about a hundred different things on my plate, and I can’t decide which to tackle first; some weeks, I’m spending a sleepless night trying to come up with a topic that’ll inspire me. The hardest part is really taking what I want to write about and reconciling that with what I think the readers are going to want to read. (Sometimes, I have to toss in a few The Fresh Prince of Bel Air references to make the medicine go down more smoothly.)
Lisa: Ugly, clueless or antagonistic comments are always frustrating.
Memorable WoW Insider-related moment — go:
Zach: Nothing can be more memorable for me than meeting the wonderful people I work with in person. Given the nature of our work, that’s actually a pretty rare thing … and I’m halfway across the world, to boot! So seeing Adam [Holisky], Alex, Liz [Harper, former editor-in-chief], Dan [O'Halloran], Robin [Torres], Michael Gray, Chase [Christian], Matt Low and even Mike Schramm (while he was still with WoW Insider) in the flesh stands out as the highlight of my time here at WoW Insider. Oh, and the same night we all had dinner, I actually got to within an inch of Felicia Day. It’s pretty hard to top that.
Matt: I haven’t gotten to go to any of the BlizzCons or anything, so I guess the most memorable moment for me is a toss up between the various “wow, you have a lot of chest hair” comments from when I posted a picture my wife took of me as my About the Bloggers pic, or the time someone actually impersonated me to try and hit people up on various servers.
Mike: The “Ask a Faction Leader” column was created when I was dosed up on painkillers from a toothache. I came into our team chat and started rattling off insane column ideas to [then Editor-in-Chief] Liz Harper, but one of them (AAFL) ended up sticking. I haven’t tried repeating the process. Lightning striking twice and all that.
Alex: BlizzCon is consistently great. I like working in a virtual space, but BlizzCon brings our virtual team into the real world and reinforces the work we do. We’re real people doing real work as part of a real team. It’s a bonding experience. We work our asses off at BlizzCon, and it feels great. The WoW Insider party makes it feel even better. Last year, we expected 200-300 people to attend our party. Over the course of the night, well over 1,000 people passed through, including the cast of The Guild and a few other notables who shall go unnamed for their own sake. There is no greater inspiration to keep doing what we do than that.
Fox: The best day I ever had working at WoW Insider was probably April 1st — April’s Fools Day. For a brief, two-hour period, WoW Insider became Twilight Insider, and I got to kick things off with an incredible, sexually charged picture of Taylor Lautner and John McCain in my kitchen. It was the epic beginning of a rather public love affair between myself and Taylor Lautner, especially if you believe the blind items on all those celebrity gossip websites. And you should always believe the blind items you read on celebrity gossip websites.
Lisa: When I made the change from columnist to way-overloaded columnist and finally to editor, I discovered the gold mine of nonsense I’d been missing by not being in our chat room as much as I am now. Gaming writers blowing off steam in chat — yeah, it’s every bit as entertaining as it sounds. I couldn’t possibly pin down a single moment in that ongoing stream of hilarity.
What would you say to someone who wanted to get into writing about games?
Zach: What’s stopping you?
Perhaps not everyone will manage to get a gig writing for WoW Insider or Massively, but if you want to write, the best way to start is by actually writing. It’s easy enough to get a free blog and kick it off from there. It’s quite disingenuous of me to give that advice, considering the only reason I’m writing about gaming is because I lucked out on my WoW Insider application, but knowing what I do now after years of working with WoW Insider, I see the value of personal blogs about World of Warcraft or other games. There’s so much to write about, and not even WoW Insider can cover it all (although we try our darned best to). There’s always a niche that needs to be filled somewhere about some game.
Many of our current crop of writers made a name for themselves writing their own blogs, such as Matticus or Frostheim and even past writers such as BRK. You could say that these writers made an impact on the playing community with or without WoW Insider, and that’s the way it should be. Everyone has something to contribute, and that’s the beauty of a democratized medium — everyone has a fair chance of being read. You don’t need to work for a well-known gaming blog. That’s a blessing and a bonus if it happens. What’s important is that you share your thoughts and your knowledge. Do it often enough and well enough, then maybe it can lead to something bigger. If it doesn’t, your work is still out there … and if it helps just one player become better or grants some insight to someone somewhere, then it’s worth it.
Matt: The same thing I’d say to anyone trying to get into any kind of writing job: deadlines. Meet them. Everything else you hear people say is important … Learn to take criticism, always try and improve, take everything as a chance to grow … But man, meet those deadlines.
Mike: I’m probably a bad person to ask this question, given that my original Blizzard position (entry-level GM work) fell into my lap and that securing my original position for the site was in no small part due to my Blizzard position. But: write a lot! Start a personal blog. You don’t even need to talk about games all the time. Showing that you’re able to provide quality content at a consistent pace puts you above 90 percent of other applicants for these kinds of jobs.
Alex: Just write and be passionate about it. Start a blog of your own and write about things that strike your fancy. Even if you don’t get a substantial following on your blog, you’ll be training yourself for the real deal. If someone wants writing samples from you, you already have practice doing it. Do you really think you’re going to do a good job submitting writing samples when you’ve barely written anything ever? You’re not. Get writing, post it somewhere and get into the habit of doing so. Being damn good at what you do and being passionate about it are the two most important things for getting your foot in the door when it comes to writing about games. There are very few other requirements.
Fox: So, you want to be a famous, world-renown author? With Fox-level talent and Fox-level groupies? Awesome, let’s get to work!
* Step 1: Get some writing talent.
* Step 2: Go write about games.
That’s all it takes. Seriously. What’s stopping you? Writing about games was probably a heck of a lot harder 10 or 20 years ago back when the same 100 people were fighting for the same 50 jobs at GamePro and Nintendo Power. Nowadays, you can just publish yourself. The audience is bigger and always hungry for new content. Go get a blog. The bells and whistles aren’t important – it’s the content, stupid.
If you’re good at what you do, an audience will find you. It may be a thankless job at first, but if you’re entertaining enough, and have something worth reading, there will be people out there who will find what you have to say. (You may have to do a little bit of shameless self-promotion first.) Heck, if you’re really good, one of your favorite class writers at WoW Insider will find your blog and link to it. And don’t forget The Daily Quest.
Lisa: Keep the stardust out of your eyes. If you can’t manage to post on your own blog regularly (even when you don’t feel like writing, even when you can’t think of anything to say), what makes you think you’ll enjoy meeting deadlines every single day? If you fall apart or blow up when someone suggests a change to something you’ve written, how do you think you’ll feel with a team of editors swarming over your articles? If you don’t especially want to write about a topic or take a particular angle but your editor tells you that that’s the assignment, can you turn out a good piece despite your personal feelings? Can you write when you’re sick as a dog, when everyone else is on vacation, when your internet connection is down and you have to head to Starbucks just to make deadline? Romanticizing the process is only setting you up for a huge let-down. Writing a lot now is not only a way to get your feet wet (and a foot in the door) but also to make sure you won’t feel like pulling out your own toenails after you’ve done it for a year or more. If you still love it after all that, then you may just be in for one helluva great ride.

Life as a WoW Insider writerFrom Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We’re giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame.
What’s it like when World of Warcraft becomes your job? This week, 15 Minutes of Fame zooms in for the second half of a behind-the-scenes interview with a handful of WoW Insider staffers. We’ll muse over what it’s like to write about WoW for work, what it’s like to play WoW for work, the rewards and frustrations of writing for a living — and the No. 1 question we get asked by readers: How can someone get started writing professionally about gaming?
* Zach Yonzon pens The Art of War(craft) every week and creates many of the graphic images you see on our home page, guides and posts.    * Matthew Rossi, one of the most seasoned hands on the WoW Insider crew, is our resident warrior expert who also writes about game lore and general news.    * Michael Sacco, a senior editor, started writing at WoW Insider after working at Blizzard itself.    * Alex Ziebart started out as a weekend blogger and is now a senior editor.    * Fox Van Allen joined WoW Insider early this year and writes the shadow priest portion of our priest column.    * Lisa Poisso (that’s me) started out writing the professions column three years ago and now works behind the scenes as an editor and turning out several weekly columns.

Be sure to catch part 1 of our interview from last week.
15 Minutes of Fame: Do you still play WoW for fun, or has it become merely something you do for work, or is it a combination?
Zach: Right now, it’s mostly work. A lot of the fun died for me when a lot of my friends left, and especially when my wife decided she couldn’t devote time to the game and justify paying the monthly subscription fee. On the other hand, I find the beta extremely fun and I’m looking forward to Cataclysm. I’m excited at the prospect of it rekindling our love for the game — it’s just such a new and different experience that I can’t wait for my wife to go through it. We’ll probably rush our mains to 85 and then roll our goblins. Until then, though, I log on and sometimes PvP in an embarrassingly mechanical fashion. I haven’t even bothered to upgrade my gear on my main, spending most of my time on alts.
Matt: It’s a combination. There have been times where I have wanted to take a break from the game but haven’t because it’s something I get paid to do. But sometimes I think that’s more an excuse I trot out for others rather than the truth. When I level yet another warrior “to test out this spec idea” am I really doing it for work or just because I’m demented and love warriors?
I think in the end, I play WoW for fun — and I just grump because, well, that’s who I am.
Mike: I was a progression raider for quite a while in Wrath. I still play for fun, but I’ve long since burned out on raiding in this expansion. I’ve been playing copious amounts of the Cataclysm beta to keep myself psyched for the expansion’s release.
Alex: I play WoW for fun significantly less than I used to, but that’s not entirely the fault of WoW Insider. Part of it is because you don’t want work and play to overlap too much and I can’t dedicate every waking hour to WoW, but it’s not exclusively because of that reason. I also play less because it’s the end-of-an-expansion cycle, and the last thing I want to do after writing about Cataclysm is log in and go do Argent Tournament dailies. Once Cataclysm actually launches, I will probably be playing the game more again. But it will never reach the same level that it was before I started working for WoW Insider. Playing that many hours of WoW a week while also writing about WoW for a living? Good lord, no.
I think how I play the game has changed significantly. I don’t log on and just immerse myself in the glory of the game like I did previously. The fun comes from picking apart the games I play and looking at them critically. What about this do I like? What do I dislike? Why did the developers choose to do what they did here?
Fox: I do still play WoW for fun. In fact, I promised myself that if it ever stopped being fun, I’d give it up, because it’d show through in my writing. We all have our own little complaints about the game, but at the end of the day, we’re all hooked on it. And based on what I’ve seen in Cataclysm, we’re only going to get hooked even worse.
Lisa: Right now, it’s all about work projects. I’m hoping for an infusion of energy with Cataclysm, and I’m trying my best not to let work news spoiler my enthusiasm.
I had absolutely no idea when I started this work that I would end up …
Zach: … playing this game in an embarrassingly mechanical fashion. It’s not that I don’t enjoy or love the game — I do, I still think it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played — but things change when you’re not playing with friends. I know I moved one character to a realm with friends, but I wish I could move all my characters. I’m still waiting for Blizzard to give us a wholesale deal, since $25 per character is stupidly expensive for someone who lives in the third world.
Matt: Dangling by my fingertips over a volcano while Ziebart cackled maniacally above me, the detonator in his hand.
Mike: Being in a senior position on the site. I originally intended for this job to be a temporary stop-gap measure to provide me with food money until I got another post-Blizzard job, but I’m happy to have been proven wrong.
Alex: … so invested in the job. This isn’t a job that is only around during the hours I’m on the clock. I’m always on the clock, and I’m always concerned about whether or not things are operating smoothly, both for the site and the staff. The achievements are real, and so are the disappointments. There are times when we’re happy and there are times when we’re angry. Sometimes there’s even a little fear. When I first started here, I figured I would just be turning in my assignments and moving on with life each week. I never expected I would sink so much emotion into a job. I wouldn’t trade it for anything … so here’s hoping for many more years of WoW, and many more years of WoW Insider.
Fox: Being a low-grade internet celebrity? Going to BlizzCon? Actually having people read what I write? Talking to Lisa Poisso about myself for a 15 Minutes column?
Lisa: … having this become anything more than a pleasurable distraction from my “real” writing.
Gallery: 15 Minutes of Fame: Lisa PoissoEarly MC clearBah, Bog LordsBeneath RagnarosDate nightThe gang’s all hereWhat’s a little fish among enemies?

In terms of what you do at WoW Insider, what do you find most enjoyable on a day-to-day basis?
Zach: Ironically? That it still leads me to log on to World of Warcraft. That sounds worse than it actually is because the game is still amazing for me, it’s only gotten terribly lonely and disconnecting. I’d imagine the aimless wandering I’m doing at this point is what ronin did after losing their lords. I find it truly enjoyable because it forces a new perspective upon me, and I enjoy the game for what it is, rather than merely for its social aspect. The Art of War(craft) also forces me to revisit my views on a lot of things, not least of which is my approach to PvP. It’s gotten a lot more introspective. Or maybe I’m just at that junction in life, who knows?
Matt: I really enjoy writing TCAFOW. I named it; I’ve been the sole writer on the column for its entire existence; I’ve (to my knowledge) never missed a week on it. I’ve tanked, PvPed and fury DPSed on various warriors while writing it, and it feels like something I could probably keep doing until WoW itself finally ended.
Mike: I work with a lot of great people, and I’m grateful that our staff is so agreeable and easy to work with. I’m gifted with wonderful managers and a talented editorial team. And I’m happy that we’re the only site that does what we do — we’re not just about raiding or datamining or blue-tracking theorycrafting. We offer something for WoW players of all stripes, and I think we’re pretty good at it.
Alex: Managing the team. Working with a team of skilled people is something I absolutely love. It’s why I didn’t hate working at Hollywood Video or other retail outlets. You have a team, you have a goal and you need to figure out how to reach those goals and keep your team organized and motivated. Every single member of your team has strong points and weak points and you need to figure out how to best utilize those skills. It’s a challenge and is consistently rewarding when your team achieves something great.
Fox: The people are what really make the job. I went to the Scott Pilgrim premiere with Mike Sacco. I went drinking in New York with Mat McCurley and Rich Maloy. I have rivalous e-shouting matches with Dawn Moore. I cannot wait for BlizzCon, when I can finally meet all the rest of this ragtag, misfit bunch in person.
Lisa: Writing for me is about hitchhiking on other people’s passions. I feed off interviewing other people. There’s nothing more fascinating than having someone fling open the proverbial doors to his life, to dig up and spill out the kernel of what drives his passion for what he does. Editing offers much the same type of reward. Sure, slogging through sloppy typos and mistakes isn’t fun — but making sure one of Matt Rossi’s legendary essays really grabs readers by the short hairs? It’s like riding the tiger.
Is there anything in your job that you’ve found to be especially frustrating?
Zach: Probably only that it’s as close as I can get to working for Blizzard. Being a fan of the company for a long time — such that the only video games I really play with any intensity or devotion are Blizzard games — writing about one of its games is practically a dream come true. “Frustrating” probably isn’t the right word, considering I’ve got about the most awesome job as it is, but one can’t help but imagine being on the other side. WoW Insider has one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with, though. If anything, the most frustrating thing for me is the fact that I haven’t been able to give WoW Insider as much effort as it deserves.
Matt: My own strange grammatical and stylistic hobby horses. Just ask someone about my love of parentheses some time, or why I can’t spell “Cataclysm.”
Alex: The first is that I need to constantly remind myself that not everybody at WoW Insider is here full time. In fact, most people aren’t. I often find myself frustrated that I don’t have X number of people around on major patch days to lend a hand, but the reason they aren’t there is because they have other jobs and other responsibilities, not because they’re neglecting WoW Insider.
The other frustrating thing is the timing of those patches. A lot of our workload is dependent on Blizzard’s timing. When Blizzard decides to put the PTR up at 10 p.m. on a Friday night, we have to react accordingly. There’s very little we can do proactively when it comes to patches; it’s almost all reactive. If Blizzard decides to put a major content patch on the PTR at 10 p.m. on a Friday while the editors are out at the movies or a bar or whatever else, then we need to drop everything and run home. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could plan for that, but Blizzard will do what Blizzard will do.
There’s also the little issue with being unable to talk to my family about what I do. They don’t understand what I get paid to do, and they never will. “So … You write about some game? How do you write so much about one game? Why do people read this stuff? What maniacs would pay you to do that?”
Fox: The most frustrating thing is always the same thing: deciding what to write about. Some weeks, there are about a hundred different things on my plate, and I can’t decide which to tackle first; some weeks, I’m spending a sleepless night trying to come up with a topic that’ll inspire me. The hardest part is really taking what I want to write about and reconciling that with what I think the readers are going to want to read. (Sometimes, I have to toss in a few The Fresh Prince of Bel Air references to make the medicine go down more smoothly.)
Lisa: Ugly, clueless or antagonistic comments are always frustrating.
Memorable WoW Insider-related moment — go:
Zach: Nothing can be more memorable for me than meeting the wonderful people I work with in person. Given the nature of our work, that’s actually a pretty rare thing … and I’m halfway across the world, to boot! So seeing Adam [Holisky], Alex, Liz [Harper, former editor-in-chief], Dan [O'Halloran], Robin [Torres], Michael Gray, Chase [Christian], Matt Low and even Mike Schramm (while he was still with WoW Insider) in the flesh stands out as the highlight of my time here at WoW Insider. Oh, and the same night we all had dinner, I actually got to within an inch of Felicia Day. It’s pretty hard to top that.
Matt: I haven’t gotten to go to any of the BlizzCons or anything, so I guess the most memorable moment for me is a toss up between the various “wow, you have a lot of chest hair” comments from when I posted a picture my wife took of me as my About the Bloggers pic, or the time someone actually impersonated me to try and hit people up on various servers.
Mike: The “Ask a Faction Leader” column was created when I was dosed up on painkillers from a toothache. I came into our team chat and started rattling off insane column ideas to [then Editor-in-Chief] Liz Harper, but one of them (AAFL) ended up sticking. I haven’t tried repeating the process. Lightning striking twice and all that.
Alex: BlizzCon is consistently great. I like working in a virtual space, but BlizzCon brings our virtual team into the real world and reinforces the work we do. We’re real people doing real work as part of a real team. It’s a bonding experience. We work our asses off at BlizzCon, and it feels great. The WoW Insider party makes it feel even better. Last year, we expected 200-300 people to attend our party. Over the course of the night, well over 1,000 people passed through, including the cast of The Guild and a few other notables who shall go unnamed for their own sake. There is no greater inspiration to keep doing what we do than that.
Fox: The best day I ever had working at WoW Insider was probably April 1st — April’s Fools Day. For a brief, two-hour period, WoW Insider became Twilight Insider, and I got to kick things off with an incredible, sexually charged picture of Taylor Lautner and John McCain in my kitchen. It was the epic beginning of a rather public love affair between myself and Taylor Lautner, especially if you believe the blind items on all those celebrity gossip websites. And you should always believe the blind items you read on celebrity gossip websites.
Lisa: When I made the change from columnist to way-overloaded columnist and finally to editor, I discovered the gold mine of nonsense I’d been missing by not being in our chat room as much as I am now. Gaming writers blowing off steam in chat — yeah, it’s every bit as entertaining as it sounds. I couldn’t possibly pin down a single moment in that ongoing stream of hilarity.What would you say to someone who wanted to get into writing about games?
Zach: What’s stopping you?
Perhaps not everyone will manage to get a gig writing for WoW Insider or Massively, but if you want to write, the best way to start is by actually writing. It’s easy enough to get a free blog and kick it off from there. It’s quite disingenuous of me to give that advice, considering the only reason I’m writing about gaming is because I lucked out on my WoW Insider application, but knowing what I do now after years of working with WoW Insider, I see the value of personal blogs about World of Warcraft or other games. There’s so much to write about, and not even WoW Insider can cover it all (although we try our darned best to). There’s always a niche that needs to be filled somewhere about some game.
Many of our current crop of writers made a name for themselves writing their own blogs, such as Matticus or Frostheim and even past writers such as BRK. You could say that these writers made an impact on the playing community with or without WoW Insider, and that’s the way it should be. Everyone has something to contribute, and that’s the beauty of a democratized medium — everyone has a fair chance of being read. You don’t need to work for a well-known gaming blog. That’s a blessing and a bonus if it happens. What’s important is that you share your thoughts and your knowledge. Do it often enough and well enough, then maybe it can lead to something bigger. If it doesn’t, your work is still out there … and if it helps just one player become better or grants some insight to someone somewhere, then it’s worth it.
Matt: The same thing I’d say to anyone trying to get into any kind of writing job: deadlines. Meet them. Everything else you hear people say is important … Learn to take criticism, always try and improve, take everything as a chance to grow … But man, meet those deadlines.
Mike: I’m probably a bad person to ask this question, given that my original Blizzard position (entry-level GM work) fell into my lap and that securing my original position for the site was in no small part due to my Blizzard position. But: write a lot! Start a personal blog. You don’t even need to talk about games all the time. Showing that you’re able to provide quality content at a consistent pace puts you above 90 percent of other applicants for these kinds of jobs.
Alex: Just write and be passionate about it. Start a blog of your own and write about things that strike your fancy. Even if you don’t get a substantial following on your blog, you’ll be training yourself for the real deal. If someone wants writing samples from you, you already have practice doing it. Do you really think you’re going to do a good job submitting writing samples when you’ve barely written anything ever? You’re not. Get writing, post it somewhere and get into the habit of doing so. Being damn good at what you do and being passionate about it are the two most important things for getting your foot in the door when it comes to writing about games. There are very few other requirements.
Fox: So, you want to be a famous, world-renown author? With Fox-level talent and Fox-level groupies? Awesome, let’s get to work!
* Step 1: Get some writing talent.    * Step 2: Go write about games.

That’s all it takes. Seriously. What’s stopping you? Writing about games was probably a heck of a lot harder 10 or 20 years ago back when the same 100 people were fighting for the same 50 jobs at GamePro and Nintendo Power. Nowadays, you can just publish yourself. The audience is bigger and always hungry for new content. Go get a blog. The bells and whistles aren’t important – it’s the content, stupid.
If you’re good at what you do, an audience will find you. It may be a thankless job at first, but if you’re entertaining enough, and have something worth reading, there will be people out there who will find what you have to say. (You may have to do a little bit of shameless self-promotion first.) Heck, if you’re really good, one of your favorite class writers at WoW Insider will find your blog and link to it. And don’t forget The Daily Quest.
Lisa: Keep the stardust out of your eyes. If you can’t manage to post on your own blog regularly (even when you don’t feel like writing, even when you can’t think of anything to say), what makes you think you’ll enjoy meeting deadlines every single day? If you fall apart or blow up when someone suggests a change to something you’ve written, how do you think you’ll feel with a team of editors swarming over your articles? If you don’t especially want to write about a topic or take a particular angle but your editor tells you that that’s the assignment, can you turn out a good piece despite your personal feelings? Can you write when you’re sick as a dog, when everyone else is on vacation, when your internet connection is down and you have to head to Starbucks just to make deadline? Romanticizing the process is only setting you up for a huge let-down. Writing a lot now is not only a way to get your feet wet (and a foot in the door) but also to make sure you won’t feel like pulling out your own toenails after you’ve done it for a year or more. If you still love it after all that, then you may just be in for one helluva great ride.

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Tyrannus joins ToC faction champs in season finale In World of Warcraft

Filed Under: fast wow gold, PVP Basics, runescape gold, World of Warcraft by admin — Leave a comment
2010/05/19

It was a close match, but Scourgelord Tyrannus foiled Argent Confessor Paletress’ attempt to snatch away a Thunderdome victory and get into the season’s finals. It will be the Scourgelord who steps foot into the cage this week to face off against the Trial of the Champion PvP faction champs in the season finals of Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves.

Now, it’s time to clear the field and let the finalists square off: Scourgelord Tyrannus and his mount, Rimefang, versus all five of the Trial of the Champions PvP faction champions. For the final time in this season of Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls … Dyin’ time’s here.

In Corner One: Scourgelord Tyrannus

Alas, brave, brave adventurers, your meddling has reached its end. Do you hear the clatter of bone and steel coming up the tunnel behind you? That is the sound of your impending demise.

He is encountered in the Pit of Saron, the second wing of the Frozen Halls. His abilities include Forceful Smash, Overlord’s Brand and Unholy Power. His mount, Rimefang, can Mark of Rimefang, Hoarfrost, Icy Blast and Icy Blast.

Learn more about Tyrannus and Rimefang’s tactics.

In Corner Two: ToC PvP Faction Champions

As in previous Thunderdome matches, we’re going to pull out all five of the Trial of the Champions grand champions at once. (Players face only three of the champs during a given encounter.) There are no Argent Warhorse or lances here; the champions will be on foot for the duration of the match.

* Lana Stouthammer/Deathstalker Visceri Eviscerate, Fan of Knives, Poison Bottle
* Colosos/Runok Wildmane Chain Lightning, Earth Shield, Healing Wave, Hex of Mending
* Marshal Jacob Alerius/Mokra the Skullcrusher Bladestorm, Intercept, Mortal Strike, Rolling Throw, Whirlwind
* Jaelyne Evensong/Zul’tore Disengage, Lightning Arrows, Multi-Shot, Shoot
* Ambrose Boltspark/Eressea Dawnsinger Blast Wave, Fireball, Haste, Polymorph

Read more about the Grand Champions encounter.

The judges make their calls

Judge Michael Gray
Victory: Scourgelord Tyrannus

Tyrannus. I mean, the ToC faction guys were fun. And their PvP nature totally warms the cockles of my honor-kill-loving heart. But they’re just not fun. Maybe that’s because they’re hard to write about; you have to remember each member’s name and try and find some personality among each person. But really, that’s not going to happen. They’re a nameless, faceless horde. And not even all of the players have seen all the faction champs — the champs are different for the Horde and Alliance.

Tyrannus is a unifying presence in this series. Let us celebrate our new Scourgelord master and his stalwart mount, Rimefang.

Reader-Judge John Zakour
Victory: ToC PvP Faction Champions

Okay, here it is: the finals. The big showdown. I hate to be boring, but I have to go with the ToC Champs. They are a group of well geared champions, like any number of parties that have downed Tyrannus — except with lots more hit points. They got heals, they got good DPS and a warrior who can double as a tank in a pinch. This is a tank and spank. The warrior takes the beating and gets in his licks (when the mark isn’t on him) while the others down Tyrannus. It’s the ToC Champs in a pretty easy fight. We don’t call them the champs for nothing.

Reader-Judge Sky Paladin
Victory: ToC Faction Champions

I give this one to the Faction Champions. There are just too many of them. Tyrannus hits like a truck but won’t be able to get enough heals back from Runok’s weak healing to mitigate the amount of incoming nastiness. I think he’d be able to drag down one or two of them with him, though — but in the immortal words of Ace Ventura http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109040/, “Fourrrrr darrrrts is toooooo muuuuuuuuch.”

Judge Matthew Rossi
Victory: Scourgelord Tyrannus

Basically, my fevered forebrain believes that the ToC faction champs are essentially a group of adventurers. As a result of this belief, I usually give almost any of these matchups to them because I know a group of adventurers is suited to accomplishing the fights. But frankly, the ToC faction champs are a bad group of adventurers. The tanking is sub par, the healing abysmal — in short, Tyrannus will crush them just like he does every PUG where the tank won’t use cooldowns or the rogue keeps stabbing despite the damage sharing. Tyrannus. In a walk.

The laws of the Thunderdome

* The Two Bosses Thunderdome is considered neutral territory, where both combatants are able to access their usual encounter mechanics and abilities. If you can’t visualize it inside the Thunderdome, visualize it someplace else — but you must take into consideration all of each bosses’ abilities and mechanics.
* Assume that each opponent is intelligent and capable of strategic thinking.
* All of the competitors’ abilities work on their opponents, including crowd control and other effects to which bosses are usually immune (with apologies to considerations of lore on this point).
* Assume that the opponents share similar levels, health pools and comparative overall damage output.
* Don’t get caught up in gameplay mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter.
* Don’t neglect style, story and scale. Everything is a factor; seeking balance is your goal as a spectator and judge.
The 5-man Bosses of Icecrown Citadel and Trial of the Champion

Round One
Match 1: Bronjahm vs. The Black Knight
Match 2: Devourer of Souls vs. Forgemaster Garfrost
Match 3: Krick and Ick vs. Scourgelord Tyrannus
Match 4: Falric vs. Argent Confessor Paletress
Match 5: Marwyn vs. ToC PvP champions
Match 6: Eadric the Pure vs. The Lich King

Quarterfinals
Match 1: Scourgelord Tyrannus vs. Lich King (5-man, HoR version)
Match 2: ToC PvP champions vs. Devourer of Souls
Match 3: The Black Knight vs. Argent Confessor Paletress
Match 4: Vote back your favorite defeated gladiator

Semifinals
Match 1: ToC PvP Champions vs. Lich King (Halls of Reflection version)
Match 2: Scourgelord Tyrannus vs. Argent Confessor Paletress

In Cataclysm,this also could happen.

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Paradigm shift In The Art of War(craft)

Filed Under: fast wow gold, PVP Basics, World of Warcraft by admin — Leave a comment
2010/05/14

The wind of change is blowing through the World of Warcraft. Whether we like it or not, PvP’s focus in the expansion will shift from arenas to the battlegrounds. Blizzard has announced that they’ll be shipping Cataclysm with at least one new battleground, the Battle for Gilneas City, and the promise of much more throughout the course of the expansion. MMO-Champion’s datamined screenshots from the alpha — before Blizzard ordered everything taken offline — revealed a zone speculated to be a battleground, situated in the Twilight Highlands where the Dragonmaw clan of orcs and the Wildhammer clan of dwarves are locked in deadly combat. From all indications, this battleground will be ready by the time Cataclysm ships. That’s exciting and is indicative of Blizzard’s commitment to the new directive. Maybe we’ll even see more than two battlegrounds on ship.

On top of that, wouldn’t it be fantastic if the old-school battlegrounds such as Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley got some cosmetic changes to reflect the geographical upheaval that Deathwing wreaks upon Azeroth? It only makes sense, after all. Blizzard wouldn’t need to adjust gameplay mechanics, just reshape the landscape a little bit. It would go a long way towards making the old battlegrounds feel new again and could even provide an opportunity for Blizzard to make Alterac Valley slightly more symmetrical. Charred earth, dilapidated structures — these should serve to remind players that it’s a broken world out there instead of feeling a blast from the past every time they zone in. Blizzard has gone all-out for Cataclysm and has confirmed that old instances will be getting some tweaks, so while I’m not holding my breath, it just might happen.

As much as the change seems to favor the casual player, the truth is that the battlegrounds can potentially become a very hostile environment for them. While Blizzard has mentioned that the best PvP gear can be obtained without ever stepping into the arenas, it should be pointed out that players need to perform well in rated battlegrounds in order to do so. Rated battlegrounds, or RBGs as people are calling them, will be an extremely different environment from the casual PUG battlegrounds most players are accustomed to. They will be harsh. In fact, for most players who’d never set foot in the competitive environment of arenas, they’ll make their world spin.

Some players have already gotten a taste of this in the form of premade groups going against PUGs — often with the aid of the Preform AV Enabler addon. In the battlegrounds, an opposing team comprised mostly if not completely of players from one realm almost always indicates a premade and almost always results in an ugly loss for the rag-tag team. The best premades demolish PUGs who operate with no clear direction or leadership, and although matches are over pretty quickly, it can be very demoralizing for opponents who typically don’t expect such competition.

When Cataclysm hits, premades will be commonplace, even in unrated Battlegrounds. Teams will use the unrated battlegrounds to practice or grind honor points in a fast and efficient fashion. To the casual player, this can be a ruinous experience, especially to those trying out the battlegrounds for the first time. Although matchmaking systems are in place to ensure that premades encounter other premades, it’s easy enough to game the system by coordinating queues over Vent or even automate the process through an addon. Blizzard doesn’t normally allow that sort of thing, but there have been ways to circumvent that.

Players need to be prepared for this. The battlegrounds are going to change in a big way, and competition will elevate considerably compared to relatively relaxed pace of today. This can potentially make the environment inhospitable to casual players who take to the battlegrounds to unwind and might not be conducive to those who queue solo. Even those who have experience in premades will have to ramp up their games, since most premades today actually avoid any real competition by going up against PUGs. Premade vs. premade battles last considerably longer and are counterproductive to the honor grind. Rated battlegrounds will be a completely different experience altogether.

While battlegrounds will allow for greater flexibility in group composition than arenas, some classes and specs will be desired for abilities that work in the battleground environment. Blizzard is giving everyone new and exciting abilities in Cataclysm, some of which seem designed specifically with battlegrounds play in mind. As I’d mentioned in a previous column, some classes will seem like perfect fits in certain situations — for example, druids will be even more desirable in Warsong Gulch because of Stampeding Roar, an ability that gives the druid and his allies a 40% increase in movement speed for eight seconds.

Blizzard described the mage’s Wall of Fog ability in such a way that hinted at their vision for Cataclysm, mentioning how the ability could be used to protect flags in a battleground. The rogue ability Smoke Bomb also has obvious PvP applications. Clearly, the developers are designing with competitive battleground play in mind — they have a chance to redesign the PvP game from the ground up now instead of retrofitting it the way arenas were shoehorned into the game during Burning Crusade. This time around, Blizzard is designing class abilities while considering the PvP environment instead of merely having several PvE abilities that also happen to have PvP applications.

It will be exciting to see the entire list of abilities and talents that classes will be getting in the expansion and the strategies that arise from them. This is another reason why the battlegrounds will become extremely different come Cataclysm — for the first time in the history of the game, I think, the developers are designing class abilities for the battlegrounds in much the same way they design raid encounters with specific class synergies in mind. Players will be utilizing abilities that affect large-scale PvP in ways like never before. The closest thing we have to those new abilities are AoE damage spells or Bloodlust/Heroism. While arena teams timed their use of Bloodlust/Heroism, these new abilities also require positional consideration. It’s huge. It’s exciting.

When Cataclysm rolls around, we’ll need to rethink our way of approaching battlegrounds PvP. Because the changes are so overwhelming, this is true for the rest of the game as well, but the difference here is that for once, PvP and the battlegrounds aren’t an afterthought. They’re baked into the whole thing from the very beginning. Blizzard wants us to use Wall of Fog in Arathi Basin. They want us to huddle and rush with the flag in Warsong Gulch under the effects of a Stampeding Roar. They want us to field our rogues and obscure key objectives with Smoke Bombs. They want us to have fun with all these new toys they’ve designed for use in large-scale PvP, and man, we’ve only glimpsed a few of them.

Not only that, Blizzard appears committed to designing a lot of new battlegrounds, as well. They’ve taken some great ideas from other battleground-centric MMOs and applied them to the game over the course of Wrath, such as the ability to queue from anywhere and leveling in the battlegrounds. Maybe there’s a chance we’ll see additional maps using the same mechanics as other battlegrounds just to spice things up. It doesn’t have to be a completely new battleground with new rule sets every time.

Pretty much everything about Cataclysm is reason to be excited … Blizzard is remaking the world, and everything will feel new again. They had an opportunity to essentially reboot the game, and this time around, battlegrounds are part of the plan — not just adjunct to the game but as a core part of the experience. You can still opt to avoid PvP entirely, of course, but given the richness of the battleground content in the expansion, you’d be missing out on a whole lot. I always say that anytime is a good time to start hitting the battlegrounds, but I think I’m revising that statement. Cataclysm will be the best damn time to enjoy battleground PvP.

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World of Warcraft Blood Sport: Underdogs

Filed Under: fast wow gold, runescape gold, World of Warcraft by admin — Leave a comment
2010/04/26

Do you want crush your enemies?Do you want to see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women?If you want,there will give you a informations to guide.Here is the article introduce the duerdogs,investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiatores and challengers alike. c. Christian Moore,multiple rank 1 gladiator,examines the latest arena strategy,trends,compositions and more in our website arena column.

Listening Music: Star Wars stuff, by the Symphony Orchestra of Radio Television of Serbia. I’m not too fond of the whistles and chanting/cheering, but whatever. This is easily the best live Star Wars video I could find on YouTube.

Last Week: We talked about the great Mortal Strike nerf of 2010 and why it’s great for arena. Actually, scratch that. It’s great for any kind of PvP.

This Week: Underdogs. Everyone loves the underdog. You know you were rooting for the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series last year, even if you weren’t a baseball fan. Why? Because the team that was supposed to win it all (and subsequently did) was the New York Yankees (also known as baseball’s Evil Empire). While Joe Girardi might not be Darth Vader, and George Steinbrenner only slightly resembles the Sith Lord, people just know — almost instinctively — who the “bad guys” are, and we root for the underdogs.

By the way, if you’re a Yankees fan, your comments are futile. You’re corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force. Also, Star Wars nerds, I know that “the Sith Lord” isn’t the most accurate title for Darth Sidious, but it’s what most people know him as. If you’re angry about this, I apologize and recommend playing baseball once in a while to get your mind on something else (err, oops).

We like to view ourselves as underdogs in the epic world of Azeroth. We are simple (yet powerful) individuals versus the incredible might of the Lich King. Hey, that’s fine and dandy. I have no problem with relating to Luke Skywalker, either. We want to see Luke overcome not only his father, but the temptation of the Dark Side.

In the same way, we want to see ourselves conquer something epic in game. I hope I’m not starting to psycho-babble. I’d prefer just babble. Or just psycho. I am the arena guy, after all.

Arena is an incredible way to experience those come-from-behind victories. Yes, epic victories. We’re the underdog in arena sometimes.

More importantly, PvP is the underdog of WoW. It’s mounting a comeback from The Burning Crusade days. It looks like Cataclysm is poised for a serious revamping of PvP in general, and perhaps arena with it.

Arena was played much more in BC than it is in Wrath, for a few reasons.

Burst happens.

If I recall correctly, games in The Burning Crusade lasted much, much longer than they do these days. Some players were upset about mana draining/burning being a viable strategy that often trumped everything else. The burst damage that accompanied the launch of Wrath of the Lich King certainly diminished mana-draining potential.

But arena representation dropped significantly when Wrath came out. Why? People just weren’t having much fun. Well, unless you were a death knight or paladin, of course. Arena battles weren’t interesting. They were too quick.

We’ve come full circle. When resilience was first announced as a new statistic for The Burning Crusade, developers stated their reasoning for resilience as a PvP stat.

Blizzard Staff

…we found as people increase their gear they die quicker because PvE gear is specialized gear. For DPS classes as an example it is designed to do the most damage as possible in the shortest time as possible and it does not have a lot of survivability. If that’s the best gear players have available, then what happens is they take that into PvP is that they die very quickly and there’s not much time for their strategies to evolve. What we’ve found is that in PvP we had to create gear with balanced offensive capability and survivability and because of that we had to create this separate set of gear with the new stat called resilience to make sure fights lasted long enough so that they are interesting and have depth.

source

That quote is from mid-August 2008. The most important section of that quote is “… to make sure fights lasted long enough so that they are interesting and have depth.”

Being killed in five seconds while your healer is silenced is not interesting. It has no depth. It takes little to no skill. It is, simply put, exceptionally boring. Wrath of the Lich King was one step forward, two steps back when it came to burst damage. Yes, it’s important that some classes should be able to put out enough damage to simply kill a player without being able to crowd control. However, when that damage window is a small fraction of half a minute, that’s a problem.

Developers have acknowledged the problem and are looking to keep health pools high while decreasing damage and healing. Sounds like a plan — the same plan that they had for The Burning Crusade. It worked out pretty well in the first few seasons (before healing became ridiculously good). It might be able to work again.

The arena system was much, much different.

There were no personal ratings, no matchmaking ratings, nothing but team rating. Arena used an ELO matchmaking system (the same one that chess uses). It was a simpler time. For many people, it was a better time.

Teams started out at 1500. If you tanked your rating down to 1200, you just remade a team and tried again. You only needed to play 20 or 30 games with new teammates to achieve a respectable rating, anyway.

Team-hopping existed. Oh, wonderful team-hopping. I pine for you.

Sure, some very bad things happened with the old arena system. Point-selling, win-trading, team resetting, etc. However, I had much more fun in the old system than now, and statistics indicate that most players might feel the same way. Oh well, another article, another time on this issue.

PvP gear was awesome and easier to obtain.

I started playing WoW a few weeks before The Burning Crusade launched. I sucked at the game, just like everyone else did when they first started playing. I got to 70 as soon as I could and was in awe at people walking around in full Season 1 gear. Some even had the arena staff that looked so incredibly badass.

That pretty pink freeze pop was the reason I wanted to PvP. So I started to play arena and read up on strategy. I got some gear and found it easier to achieve gear in arena than through raiding. Sure, I did Karazhan with friends, but I really wanted to deck myself out in Season 1 gear.

Luckily, by the time Season 2 had rolled around, I had gotten three out of five pieces of PvP gear. That was enough to maintain a “high” rating and stock up on full Merciless mid-way through Season 2.

Nowadays, if I’m starting an alt on a new server and don’t want to let anyone know who I am, I have to play hundreds of games with friendly people from trade chat just to maintain a ~1800 or better arena rating.

Who remembers people from trade chat saying “300 resilience mage LF partner for 2v2,” with 300 resilience being a big deal? I do. I remember when resilience rating was the PvP GearScore before GearScore existed, and it was largely accurate. Crazy, right? Good times.

Nostalgia?

Maybe it’s just nostalgia speaking. Maybe I long for the day when arena was new and exciting. I have a feeling an emphasis on PvP in rated battlegrounds is going to make arena the same way in Cataclysm, especially if Blizzard is going to give us ample survivability … to make sure fights lasted long enough so that they are interesting and have depth.

I’m excited to see the underdog make an epic comeback.

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World of Warcraft The Colosseum: Salinelol, shadow priest of Illidan

Filed Under: fast wow gold, warhammer for sale, World of Warcraft by admin — Leave a comment
2010/04/26


Are you like fighting?Are you want to known the top arena fighters strategy?Are you want get the top arena fighters true experience?Here are the world of the gladiatoer to interview some of the top arena fighters on the battlegroups.Read the article as fellow,this will take you into the fighters world.

The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the gladiator to interview some of the top arena fighters on the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune and Frostwyrms.  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!

This week, The Colosseum had the pleasure of interviewing Salinelol, shadow priest of Illidan. Salinelol is a member of the rank 1 3v3 team on his battlegroup (US Rampage) and one of the world’s highest-rated shadow priests. Read on to find out what he has to say about priests, arena strategy and Cataclysm.

The Colosseum: Why do you play a shadow priest? What is it about the class’s toolbox that appeals to you for competitive arena?

Salinelol: I mostly like it because I’m so good at it, I don’t really like doing things that I don’t excel at. It was between priest and one of the faceroll classes, so I chose this. I pretty much like shadow’s ability to off-heal. The ability to off-heal and not run OOM (out of mana) if you’re good with your mana is a huge tool.

Very interesting. You mentioned that priest isn’t a faceroll class. What makes it more difficult to play than other classes?

Well, I think that it’s harder than some classes because of the priest’s need to decide between what to do in any given situation. The priest can do damage, focus on CC or damage reduction, or just out-heal the damage. Each of these come in handy for certain, specific situations.

Can you go into detail about your PvP spec?

Well, my spec is unique as far as I know, and I chose it for a mix of burst damage, burst opportunities and mana regeneration. With Mental Agility, most priests drop down to one point in Improved Mind Blast, but I chose to go 3/5 Shadow Power and 3/5 Improved Mind Blast so that although my burst wouldn’t crit quite as hard, you’d have it up more often. There are many burst opportunities in my 3v3 comp, shatterplay (shadow priest, frost mage, restoration shaman).

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done in arena? Don’t be modest.

I got a Resurrection off in the middle of the arena while all five of my opponents were alive, and none of them noticed.

Wow! That must have been exciting. Did you win the game because of your clutch Resurrection?

I have a feeling we would’ve won anyway, but it definitely improved our odds.

Very impressive. Speaking of your teams, what team compositions do you play? Who are your teammates?

I run shatterplay in 3v3 with Dan and Chillbro (Fearmeh/Reflexz). In 5v5 I run shadow priest, holy paladin, rogue and elemental shaman, with the fifth member being a frost mage or boomkin. My 5v5 teammates are Dan, Chillbro (Fearmeh/Reflexz), Sarquissed, Calgran and Kameltotemz. Both Dan and Chillbro are probably the best players I’ve played with, and each have rank one titles to show for it.

You’re rank 1 in 3v3 right now, are you planning on getting the title this season, or is it not a big deal?

We’ll grab it if we can, but we’re probably not going to stay up all night on the last day of the season making sure no one passes us.

Understandable. Why did you choose to play your 3v3 team makeup over other possible compositions?

Mostly because when I played [this composition] with my brother, I had a lot of fun with it. When he transferred his mage off of the server, Dan and I wanted to do something that we were familiar with and knew worked.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your team?

One of our strengths is the ability to kill almost anyone in a global, because two casters in arena with Bloodlust are pretty fair [sarcasm]. The downside is teams with protection classes completely [dominate us] because of AoE Spell Reflects and control.

How do you work out target designation and swaps? Is one of you more vocal than the others?

We normally have a strategy in place, like when X does Y we do Z, but if we see a good opportunity to switch, all three of us will call it out. That said, I believe Chillbro to be the most vocal.

What are your favorite classes to kill on opposing teams? Why?

Hunters, warriors and paladins. They’re all so squishy when you control them. It’s just fun to watch them die so fast.

How has your team changed since you’ve started playing together?

We’ve gotten much more comfortable together — other than that, we haven’t changed much.

What’s your favorite bracket? Why?

3v3. With shadow in its current state, there’s just no going wrong with what you can run and how you can run it.

What do you think about Shadow Priests in arena right now? Are they overpowered, underpowered or balanced? Why?

Umm, overpowered, but compared to other classes right now — most likely balanced. Right now damage is really just out of control, and shadow priests just aren’t an exception to the rule.

That’s actually very interesting, imo. Even with all the resilience changes and fixes, damage still seems to be high. Do you think burst will be more controlled in Cataclysm? Do you have high hopes?

Honestly, I have no hopes for Cataclysm. The fact that they’re balancing around 10v10 means that nothing will ever die in arena, if they even balance [arena] at all.

A lot of gladiators “PvE to PvP” — they raid in order to get best-in-slot gear for arena. What do you think about this? Do you think some the best PvP gear should come from raiding?

I’m one of them [a gladiator who does PvE to PvP], if anyone looked at my armory they’d say “holy crap, that guy abuses PvE gear like no other.” I don’t think that [the best PvP gear] should come from PvE. PvErs aren’t forced to PvP for best-in-slot gear. Why should we be?

What do you think about priests in Cataclysm? Do the class changes fix some imbalances or make things worse? Why?

They make things worse. Life Grip is going to make them nerf everything but it, because they have no way of nerfing Life Grip except adding a longer cooldown to it. So all of the sudden you’re going to see priests with terrible spells with an “oh crap” button every 45 seconds. Blizzard doesn’t see it coming.

We all know the expression “everyone’s gotta start somewhere.” What was your starting point when you decided to pick up arena?

Season 2 was when I first got serious. I transferred to Doomhammer and got my first gladiator title with some of the best players I’ve ever played with. We ran shadow euro (shadow priest, frost mage, affliction warlock, shadowstep rogue and restoration druid). We played to rank 2, if I recall correctly.

If you had to narrow it down to only one thing, what would be the most important responsibility of a shadow priest in an arena match? Why?

Support, in any composition you play. It’s your job to let everyone else do their damage while your DoTs are ticking and you’re throwing in a little of your own.

What motivates you to keep playing?

Hatred for most of the players on the BG. I have the need to see them on the floor, and spam /sit on their faces at the end of an arena match. No but seriously, it’s most likely because I have nothing better to do.

What are you trying to improve?

Right now I’m trying to improve my targeting. I do it mostly through assists, but recently I’ve been keybinding them to scroll wheels and trying that out.

What’s the biggest thing that differentiates a good player from a great player?

I honestly couldn’t say. Dan does something or another and just doesn’t die, and I don’t know what makes me better than other shadow priests. If I had to say something, I’d say knowing exactly what you have to do and saving just the right amount of cooldowns for it, and then doing that consistently.

What’s your advice to players who want to start playing arenas for the first time?

Read up on ArenaJunkies.com and watch videos on Skill-Capped.com. It’ll help a lot to know what you have to do versus certain teams, and always keybind [abilities] + mouse turn.

Thank you so much for the great interview, Salinelol. Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Not really good sir, just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity.

And the end,what do you think of the game world of warcraft?

This is the interviewing of the wow players who have playing the game world of warcraf many years.Thire can offer many experience to the new player who just play the game wow a little time of want to play the game now.

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