The Matrix Crutch

Never have we felt the effects of having good synergy within a matrix like we did this week. The now-nerfed Rogue/Priest/Lock variation bombed out for us this week, going .500 in the mid-1900's, a pathetic record for us. It looks like the resilience-vs-DoT's buff destroyed that combo, forcing priest/rogue to bring a mage for the burst over the lock for sustained damage. Makes sense. Having a priest as your only healer, (and consequently, opponents' main target) forces you to play an Execute strat, trading healers and utilizing Improved death to win 2dps vs. 2dps. No one will argue that a warlock will help an execute better than a mage, so we're retiring our priest/rogue/warlock combo for now in favor of our new druid matrix.

The honeymoon period with Druid/Rogue/Warlock is still proving quite exciting. So far, we've only encountered one hard counter to this matrix, and we don't expect to be facing much 3dps where we're going. Pushing through 2,100 was a fairly simple task, and once news comes down that s3 is on its way, we'll get serious and push into 3v3 gladiator range, a feat we weren't expecting to get a shot at this season.

Mid-bracket BG9 continues to surprise, as our traditional priest/rogue/lock 3v3 struggled to float 1900, but when Eternia and I played a handful of games with one of our Warlock clients, we went undefeated (ending at 1970) using an unconventional Warlock/Warlock/Rogue 3v3 in the exact same bracket range not an hour later. Maybe it was just the element of surprise, but it might be worth exploring. Traditionally, 3dps 3v3's are horrible to climb above 2,000, as wins garner 10 points, and losses 20, too many things can go wrong over the course of a match.

My infatuation with druids in 3v3 doesn't end with our Warlock/Rogue/Druid, however. I joined a prominant Warrior/Druid team late this week to pal around with some games in that matrix for fun. Warrior/Druid/Warlock didn't command the same synergy that we got with a Rogue, but it was fun nonetheless. Once Jonthan gets a bit more gear, I'm planning on teaming up with him and Keire's druid more often, not for points, but to further research the differences between Rogue/Druid/Warlock and its Warrior variation. So far, the big benefit to the Warrior team is the complete negation of enemy rogues, freeing up myself for CC options, and saving the druid a ton of mana.

Quick 5v5 update: After I crack out a gladiator 2v2 with Chans tomorrow, we're going to ask him to go shadow full time. Valk's finishing leveling up his shaman, and we're hopefully going to have a couple weeks left of s2 to bank him a couple thousand arena points. Should be a fun time to open up s3. We really want to get more serious about 5v5, and a shaman gives us no excuse not to.

In 2v2 news, we're sleepwalking through teams at this point. Even if we get tagged with a loss, it hardly phases us these days. 200+ arena games per day sort of numbs you to bad-luck losses, and when you're running an execute 2v2, the law of averages says you're bound to lose a couple matches vs. healer/dps once in a while. Apparently there was a firesale on Warlock/Paladin at Wal-Mart, because we went about 12 straight matches yesterday facing 4 different Warlock/Paladin teams. All of them failed horribly, but if played correctly, any paladin team should have a decent shot at beating us, especially with BoP + Bubble available to caster/pally teams. In a mirror match yesterday, I got to spell lock a full cast bar Soul Fire. That was better than any win we got all day. Knowing in that instant that you just blue-balled a s2 warlock... it just don't get no better than that.