Oh, the World of Warcraft. PvE is long gone in my book. I'm done with the tedious healing of instances. I'm tired of wasting my night battling NPC's. I've had it with guild drama llamas who are so far up their sphincter it would make Lemmywinks jealous.

Thank Blizz for PvP.

This will be centered mainly around my Druid, Chimeree. I reside on the realm Akama - Alliance. (I'd trade shadowmeld for warstomp in a heartbeat but what can you do?)

At the moment, she is in a PvP guild called TwinBlades. They arrange premade battlegrounds frequently making honor points easy and fun to get. I'm a PvP healer, and though my spec changes a lot it's normally somewhere between 1/11/49. Though it's expensive, I respec feral on weekends to do Arenas. All my hard efforts to cultivate honor will be going toward a Feral pvp set, and until I'm leaking crit out of my rear this pingponging between specs will continue. (I figure it's the same thing as paying repair bills.) Right now I'm only holding onto a Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic, which is pretty sexy, but not sexy enough.

Getting a full set of Gladiator gear won't be hard. It's hardly anything compared to Merciless Gladiator gear etc etc. With my guild, I can farm 5k honor a day. I can easily get a lot more, but I'm a casual pvp'er border lining hardcore. (If you want to solo farm for honor Alterac Valley is where you should go. Good god that place throws honor out by the armfuls.)

This diary is my quest to become as OP as everyone says I'm supposed to be.

My skill in arena, or lack thereof needs improvement. I can't improve if I fall flat on my face because everyone outgears me.

And so, begins the journey of a PvP grind blessed by (the) God(s).

Tags : activision blizzard : Alterac Valley : Arathi Basin : Arena : Blizzard Entertainment : Druid : Eye of the Storm : Feral : Honor : PvP : Resto : Warsong Gulch : World of Warcraft : WoW

Comments

By: Dragonfly

Video Game Chat Member Avatar

On: 05:27 Dec 15th, 2007
Online

Marty Chimpants;38867

My skill in arena, or lack thereof needs improvement. I can't improve if I fall flat on my face because everyone outgears me.

Whatever happens to that whole "gear-matching" system Blizzard put in place? O.o

Regardless, this guide might come in handy for myself once Corrine and I hit level 70. I look forward to reading it.

By: Marty Chimpants

On: 12:31 Dec 15th, 2007
Offline

Words of Ivory;38931

Whatever happens to that whole "gear-matching" system Blizzard put in place? O.o

Regardless, this guide might come in handy for myself once Corrine and I hit level 70. I look forward to reading it.

I'm not sure, but my friend and I went up against one rogue who wtfpwned us. He had on the Season 3 arena Helm, I can't tell you what it's called off the top of my head, but I know what it looks like.

Actually I think Blizz puts people together by their arena rating rather than gear. If someone were to just start all over again they'd be put up against beginners despite the holyhell gear they have. :\

By: Marty Chimpants

On: 02:49 Jan 2nd, 2008
Offline

I've faltered a little in my relationship to the internet over the holidays, but have no fear I'm back! Happy 08' and all that stuff.

My countless hours of farming honor in Alterac Valley has caught up with me and I can't think of it without wanting to take a metal pole to someone's face. So begins another slow grind to have at least 4 pieces of the season 1 gladiator pvp gear.

So far I'm wearing [wiki]Gladiator's Kodohide Legguards[/wiki], [wiki]Gladiator's Kodohide Tunic[/wiki], and I managed to scrounge up enough arena points for the http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31987"]Merciless Gladiator's Gloves[/URL].

Gladiator Kodohide is Season 1, and can be aquired with Honor points and battleground marks of honor.
Merciless Gladiator Kodohide (Season 2) as well as Vengeful Gladiator Kodohide (Season 3, therefore a bit harder to get) can only be purchased with arena points.

Kodohide this, kodohide that. FYI, Kodohide is the pvp healing set for druids. We also have Wyrmhide for Balance and Dragonhide for feral. (I do have the season one feral chest and gloves but I'll stick with my guns and work on toward a full resto set.)

At the moment, Chimeree is guildless because I /gquit the pvp guild. I have my reasons, but imo friendship > honor points. There's a whole story here, but as it's said: Drama is for raiding guilds, not PvP guilds. I've had enough of elitists who are so cynical and put people down just because they think it might go for a laugh. But I'll end there before this diary turns emo.
(Dear Diary,
mood: apathetic)

I've gotten offers to heal for arena teams. Call me a coward but I only want to arena with my friends because they won't yell at me if I mess up, and I'm in sync with them. One of the key elements for arena is coordination, and I've been playing with these guys for. . .about a year. Yeah that long. You can't make up for that kind of teamwork with the empty promise of better gear from strangers.

Lastly, I'm flirting with a new spec.

At the moment, I'm 2/11/48. That is hardcore resto right there, but that's all I am. Too often I find myself alone and unable to defend a base. All I can do is call for backup and try to outrun the enemy. Some may argue that, that's a druid's role. But I say NAY!

There's an amazing healing druid on my server who has an 1800 or a 1900 rating in arena. His spec is hybrid balance/resto rather than just majoring in resto, like me.
He has damage talents from balance and most of the key healing talents in resto. I say most because he's missing swiftmend, which is my second "Ohsht button" It's basically an instant heal, and when I use it I can easily crit 4k, and that's on a fifteen second cooldown. Granted, I can "l2healbetter" like my friend told me to do when I bitched about that.

I really do think I can work this spec out though. After pvping with a full boomkin, I picked up some balance tips. Learning how to work with the diminishing returns for cyclone, learning who to crowdcontrol and when. We can dps together fairly well while I keep him healed. But if I tried that new spec out then I really do believe we can tear face against concrete.

This spec is supposed to be used with the Kodohide gear, so I dont' have to worry about farming yet another set of pvp gear. As for this very moment though, I'm sticking with what I have and using what I know until I can get decently geared to try whatever.

Chim out.

By: Marty Chimpants

On: 03:11 Jan 8th, 2008
Offline

Here we go.
Two new additions to my pvp gear.

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31376"]Gladiator's Kodohide Helm[/URL]
That's the helm to the Gladiator Kodohide set. (Redundant :|)
I'm nearly complete in the healing pieces for the Gladiator set, I only need the shoulders. I'm currently using the PvE healing piece http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28647"]Forest Wind Shoulderpads[/URL]. While they are probably one of the best leather healing shoulders until T4 (which I never got!! Eff you raiding! Eff youuu), they aren't perfect for PvP. Little Chimeree needs resilience. (Higher resilience for a decreased chance that I'll be critically hit with an attack.)

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/2530/resshotiz4.jpg" class="picture">

Anyway, after a halfhearted PvP grind, I was a few hundred honor short of obtaining the last piece of the Gladiator set. So I bitched a little bit and just ended up buying http://www.wowhead.com/?item=32452"]Gladiator's Reprieve[/URL].

Picture time!

Battlegrounds broke. It literally kicked everyone who queued for a bg in Stormwind out of the battleground, as well as everywhere else. Being the mound off asshats that we are, we always try to destroy people's framerates by doing as many AOE spell casting as we can. I don't deny being a part of this highly inconsiderate (fun) practice. That's my stormcloud in the middle. :lol:

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/8958/bgsbrokebo6.jpg" class="picture">

Here's what I look like right now.
(This is equivalent to a Myspace pose.)

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7981/newgearzg2.jpg" class="picture">

A look at my UI and what I'm working with. I do love it so. :)

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6128/uiramdc8.jpg" class="picture">

And a closer look at my Black War Ram. Rams are the coolest land mounts in the game, next to the warlocks Epic Dreadstead. Imo.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5669/ramfl5.jpg" class="picture">

By: Marty Chimpants

On: 11:01 Feb 12th, 2008
Offline

http://www.wowhead.com/?item=33692"]Vengeful Kodohide Legguards[/URL] Happen to be MINE.

I've worked hard for it, and this is the first piece to the season 3.

Yay!

By: Dragonfly

Video Game Chat Member Avatar

On: 10:58 Feb 14th, 2008
Online

How long did it take you to progress through the different tiers, Chim?

Corrine and I have just begun pursuing our BG / Arena sets; our "welfare epics" as they like to call them. *laughs* It looks like it's gonna be a slow process.

By: Marty Chimpants

On: 01:07 Feb 14th, 2008
Offline

Michael;42838

How long did it take you to progress through the different tiers, Chim?

Corrine and I have just begun pursuing our BG / Arena sets; our "welfare epics" as they like to call them. *laughs* It looks like it's gonna be a slow process.

Honestly, quite a while. To have a decent fighting chance at getting arena gear, having Season 1 gear is important. Don't get me wrong, you can get arena points with regular blues, greens and even pve epics but you'll die fast. I was in mostly leather epic healing gear and I got rocked so many times and so quickly too. I still don't have full welfare gear :lol: I'm missing the Vindicator pieces.

So traversing through battlegrounds to get enough honor points for the welfares is tedious stuff sometimes, especially if your faction is having a losing streak.

If you've got motivation, do alterac valley.

Could take a while. :disgust: Especially if you don't play often. Farming honor for a few hours can get you maybe 7000 honor points. :I

As for Season 2 and Season 3, best thing to do is save up for Season 3 since
arena points are harder to come by seeing as they're upgraded weekly and dependent on what rating you've had for the week. I made the stupid mistake of not waiting another week to get my season 3 gloves. I have season 2, and I regret it up and down.

Also prepare for players who are in full Season 3 and Vindicator in the beginning ranks for arena. That's frustrating, lol.

But yeah, I'm glad to see you're getting into PvP. It is by far the best part of WoW in my humble opinion.

By: Dragonfly

Video Game Chat Member Avatar

On: 11:16 Feb 15th, 2008
Online

Thanks Chim. <3

I hope I don't take this off topic too much, but what are your views on this whole "welfare" epic idea? Do you agree with the term?

By: Marty Chimpants

On: 07:47 Feb 16th, 2008
Offline

Michael;42899

Thanks Chim. <3

I hope I don't take this off topic too much, but what are your views on this whole "welfare" epic idea? Do you agree with the term?

Whole heartedly :lol:

It's a nice way to get started though, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just a lot more harder getting the season 2's and 3's.

If you have a bad week with your arena team, no matter how good you used to do, your rating goes down and you don't get as much points. Whereas, in battlegrounds, you can run around poking at people and still get full honor for it.

By: Corrine

On: 10:06 Feb 17th, 2008
Offline

I'm really, really trying to get that battleground Wrymhide stuff, it tickles me oh so much. We're in a guild now that are willing to gear us for Kara, but still.... I have a good chunk of what I need for the leggings, but I still need like, 11,000 honor. I'm impressed you have all this stuff. To me, it's hard.

By: Marty Chimpants

On: 11:40 Feb 17th, 2008
Offline

Corrine;43023

I'm really, really trying to get that battleground Wrymhide stuff, it tickles me oh so much. We're in a guild now that are willing to gear us for Kara, but still.... I have a good chunk of what I need for the leggings, but I still need like, 11,000 honor. I'm impressed you have all this stuff. To me, it's hard.

<3
Just time and dedication. I've gotten frustrated a whole lot...even right now. I should be getting honor for the Vindicator gear, (which is like 17,000ish) but I'm just not motivated to do it.

And very nice choice for the Wyrmhide. My Arena partner has full Wyrmhide gear, from Gladiator, to Vindicator to some pieces of Vengeful. (Two druids for an arena team :lol: it's madness). So I know exactly how powerful you can be. You already have Moonkin form *cough*armored mage*cough*

If you're interested, I can go to BG's with him and take a screenshot of his damage. He's almost always top on damage for both sides with the least amount of deaths. ;)