Arena Complaints on Wow Insider

I want to comment on this article on WowInsider about problems with the Arena system.

The Arena system should be a bell curve the way Blizzard has designed it. That means the vast majority of teams should be right around a 1500 rating. Since Blizz has put a rating requirement on gear in season 4, I would guess a large number of players have stopped doing arena since there is no incentive to play (especially if you suck).

Consequently, a lot of teams that were 1600 or 1700 are gonna see their rating drop because without the suckage below them, they will become the sucky 1400 and 1300 teams of the future.

All Blizzards moves seem to have the goal of limiting the number of people that get Epic PVP gear. Dropping players ratings, making them angry enough to quit Arena seems to further that goal. Why they are wasting so much effort on such a small specialized segment of the player population is a mystery to me.

Proof of the Blizz Warlock Conspiracy

In my third and final installment on why Undead Warlocks are Blizz developers favorite PVP class, I provide proof. The conspiracy in all its ugliness is laid bare for the world to see! :) Bwahhahahahahaha. You cannot hide the truth from me Blizz.

Here is my proof point by point

#1: Warrior Nerf
In the coming 2.3 patch, Blizzard is switching Sweeping Strings and Death Wish in the Warrior talent tree. This is a huge nerf to Mortal Strike Warriors. I play with one and he does do well against most cloth wearers. But by no means is victory assured in every match. And if our team is defeated, it is usually by a team with either a Warlock, a Pally or a Frost Mage. I would put MS Warriors 3rd or 4th on the overpowered list. But alas, some Warlocks might actually be killed so the Nerf must be made.

#2: Drain life "bug"
Warlocks can cast the Drain Life spell which damages their target and heals the Warlock. The spell has been "bugged" for quite some time and the healing effect has not been affected by mortal strike. Apparently, this is the only healing spell with this "bug". Blizz is grudgingly going to fix this in patch 2.3.

#3: Night Elf Cat Form Range Bug
Night Elf druids have a bug in catform where if your target runs, you basically can't hit it. Your supposed 5 yard range is effectively 1 yard. This bug has existed for over a year and Blizz has not fixed it. Supposedly it was fixed in 2.2, but it seems to be pretty much unfixed from what I can tell. Why no love on such a basic and important bug? Because Druids aren't Warlocks.

#4: Fear Ward Nerf
In patch 2.3, Blizzard will be "giving" the Fear Ward spell to all Priests. But the new spell will be severely nerfed. Instead of being able to put the 10 min duration spell on a toon every 30 seconds, you will only be able to put the spell on 1 toon every 3 minutes. So what class would be affected by Fear Ward? Hmmmm. The only class that Fear Ward provides any real protection from is Warlocks. That is the only class that can spam fear spells. All other classes fear spells have like a 5 minute cooldown. So why the nerf? Its obvious, too many Warlocks were being killed by Shadow Priests. Can't have that. Take away the spell. Warlocks must have easy mode.

#5: Big "DOTs" nerf
Blizz added this cool new stat called resilience to the game. Resilience reduces the chance that any attack will crit and then when the attack does crit, it reduces the damage taken from the crit. So resilience gear helps you stay alive in PVP. Except the Damage over Time spells (DoTs) were not affected by resilience. What is the only class that relies primarily on DoTs for the majority of their damage? Warlocks. Hmmmm.

So finally, after much complaining Blizz actually relented and allowed DoT's to be reduced by the crit rating from your resilience gear. So now instead of a Warlock's Dots killing me in 15 seconds. I got to die in 18 seconds. Woo hoo! Thanks Blizz.

Conclusion
The conclusion is obvious, Blizzard developers play Undead Warlocks.

Why are Warlocks Overpowered in PVP?

Simply put, they have the best player versus player (PVP) crowd control in the game combined with very effective and easy to cast damage over time spells (DOTS). Specifically, let's look at their crowd control spells.

• Death Coil (Instant Cast) - 3 second fear that returns health to the caster equal to damage inflicted. Technically this is considered horror not fear. So not included in diminishing returns for fear. 2 min cooldown.
• Howl of Terror (1.5 sec cast) - 8 second area of effect fear that affects 5 toons. 40 sec cooldown. Also considered terror or horror so not included in fear diminishing returns.
• Fear (1.5 sec cast) - 10 second fear in PVP. Can only be cast on 1 toon at a time. Diminishing returns. The first spell is 10 seconds, the second 5 seconds, the third 3 seconds. Then a toon is immune from your spell for 15 seconds. Then, everything is reset and you can be feared again.

This is a very powerful set of spells. Most classes have 2 or 3 crowd control spells. But because Warlocks spells are all fear based, this gives them an advantage.


What Makes Fear based Spells Different from Other Crowd Control?
There are a couple of things that set fear apart from other crowd control spells.

1. Complete control of your toon is lost.
   
2. Damage can be increased while the fear effect is in place.

When feared, your loss of control is total. Your current target is lost. The camera angle cannot be controlled or changed. Basically you cannot do anything for the duration of the Fear effect except sit back and watch. This differs from many crowd control effects like Roots, Frost Nova, Earthbind Totem, or Hamstring which allow you to maintain control of your toon even though your movement is impaired. The only counter for most classes is the PVP trinket you can earn in battlegrounds. The trinket will break a fear effect, but has a 2 minute cooldown this limiting its usefulness.

Many crowd control effects seem to have some limitation in regard to damage. Polymorph actually causes the affected toon to regenerate health and mana faster. Cyclone makes a toon immune to damage. A Freeze Trap breaks if the toon suffers any damage. Sap break with any damage.

Fear effects differ in that damage over time spells can be added without breaking the effect. In theory, at some magical threshold, damage from DOTS will break fear. But in practice this seems to be a very rare occurrence. Burst spell or melee damage has been changed and now breaks fear. But, only poor arena players would actually risk breaking fear in this way.

Thus, in many situaltions, a good Warlock can reduce your health by 50% without using any of their damage spells and without you having a chance to fight back. Add to this one of the warlock pets charming you, pounding on you with a large axe, or silencing your attempts to heal and the situation is grim indeed.

Nerf Warlocks?
The simplest solution would be to merely put all warlock spells on the same diminishing returns timer, just like every other class. At least with 15 seconds of immunity to fear effects, you would have more of a chance. Any solution should only affect PVP. Changing any classes overal abilities is a bad idea when only a PVP fix is needed.