Season 3 delayed

While the season 3 delay pissed off pretty much everyone, the silver lining is that it gives teams pushing gladiator the time to get REALLY insane ratings. With the 2v2 cutoff projected to be well into the 2300's by season end, getting gladiator in bg9 might actually mean something this season.

The break also gives alts/transfers a chance to really shore up the geargap for next season, and Valk's shaman and Eternia's warrior should both be riding the gear curve well on schedule next season. Good thing too: After watching a bit of Azael's 5v5, I'm in love with his matrix (for Theris: MATRIX MATRIX MATRIX MATRIX) of Warrior/Paladin/Shaman/Warlock/Priest. Bloodlusted mana burns/drains, PI'd shaman burst, DoT's and warriors spreading damage out, double offensive and defensive dispells, Mass Dispell, etc. The options for this 5v5 are deep, but as all arenas are, gear intensive. Playing with three alts isn't usually the recipe for success, but we're going to be using the #1 rated arena paladin, warlock, and rogue (playing the warrior) on the server, so we should be able to make this thing work.

2.3 revelations for the week. Priests are tanks now, so control on them is at a premium. Haven't gotten burned by chastise yet, but the fear ward nerf (yes, its a nerf. Fear ward limited to one teammate is a lot better than having to burn through 3 fear wards to get any CC through) has me looking forward to whatever matches we may play vs. priests this week. Did some 3v3 practice for fun with Chans tonight, and that PI makes the holy trinity (Mage/Rogue/Priest) a definite threat to our Druid/Warlock/Rogue scrub express.

I haven't noticed any warlock nerfs that may have gone through with the patch. The closest thing to a lock nerf that affects me in arena would be the MSD (focus proc meta) nerf, but with the increased proc rate giving a near-instant fear every time the hidden cooldown is up, you won't hear me complaining. The drain life nerf (MS/Wound poison affecting health recouped from Siphon and Drain Life) really doesn't affect small arena, and should only affect Warlock/Healer vs. Warrior/Healer. Since I don't run 1dps teams (z Z z 20 minute matches) I'm still waiting for the nerfbat to smack me around.

Rogues. Are. Incredible. I'll probably devote more posts to this topic, but check out Sren's blog for more first person details on the second coming of the rogue class. Hell, even my own little half-s2-half-greens rogue is tearing ass as AR/Prep. It's like warlock-level ownage, but requiring more skill.

We hit 2,252 in 2v2 arena earlier this week, but with the false start pushing the gladiator cutoff up 50 points, and another expected 50 point bump this week, nothing short of 2,300 will be 'comfortable' gladiator range for 2v2. With the new shredder-mode hemo Eternia, we're tearing ass out of everything but Paladin/Rogue. Paladin/Warlock, our previous bane, recieved a hefty nerf, coupled with a buff to 2dps (who saw that coming?), here's hoping we see some eager warlocks with false hope zoning into arena opposite us.