The more things change...

... the more they stay the same. Another week of semi-pro arena combat, and somehow, we've found the answer for Priest/rogue. Don't ask me how, but apparently we ball-stomp this combo now. Call it Warrior/Paladin syndrome, where you face a certain matrix for a week straight, getting your ass handed to you, then never lose against them again. Maybe it was just priests stacking Shadow Resist gear all along...

The 2.3 SL/SL nerf is /yawn-worthy. The part that freaks me right the hell out is the insane resto/holy spell damage buff. If these healbots are getting 600 free spell damage, paladins are going to be a nightmare, bringing back the days of 2-shotting the felhunter, making 2v2 much more difficult against paladin matrices. And don't even get me started on resto shamans and their new Water Shield of Imba.

Of course, all these changes will really only affect high-level arena (2,200+) so we should be safe in our little 2,000-2,200 bubble where 2dps teams tend to top out anyway. Still, if Eternia or I want to push into the 2,300 2v2 range and this buff goes live, we're going to have to split up, him partnering up with Chans (our priest), myself pushing with Vlak (druid).

For all the thunder and lightning about arena rebalancing and class imbalance, I find that each team has a natural cap imposed on them by their players' levels of skill. As much as it's heralded that 2dps is nigh impossible to climb with in the deep BG9 high-brackets, Nielyo and Gumbot's terrific teams are always in the back of my mind.

Even if they nerf our classes into oblivion, we're not capping out because our classes are limited. Everyone on Silver Hand (including everyone in the APV) has their ratings capped because of their skill level. The only class balancing that grabs my attention is when I see 2,300-rated teams raise questions about incoming changes. Clearly, those players are being capped more by their class abilities than their skill, as can be noted by the stilted class representation in those brackets.

So, TL:DR version says "It's fine. Learn to play," but there is a certain comfort knowing that we in the lower brackets (1,800-2,200) of arena play have a kind of immunity to class re-balancing. The urge to climb above 2,300 may stike us eventually, but until then, it's great to know that our scrappy little double dps team is just as fun as ever, and, possibly as important for my business, just as easy to climb.