Yet Another Warlock Nerf

Is it my imagination or is Blizzard just trying to come up with more reasons to grind honor?
This baby will cost us 40,000 honor points for a whooping amount of 25 resilience. Another must-have for serious PvPers, but again, that's going to be a boring grind again just like Battlemaster.
I'm guessing the trinket will be changed soon and require a personal rating of 2000.

> New Medallion

The new Season 4 items will have the below personal and team arena rating requirements:

Shoulders: 2200
Weapon: 2050
Head: 1700
Chest: 1600
Legs: 1550
Gloves: none
Off-hand: none

In addition, some of the Season 4 quality items that will be purchasable with honor will also carry a personal and team arena rating requirement:

Boots: 1700
Ring: 1650
Bracers: 1575
Belt: none
Necklace: none
Trinket: none

No more 10 games per week and getting all the gear. No more playing specs for fun (destruction warlocks, balance druids for example). No more boosting friends or selling points.

Getting to 2200 rating for the shoulders is a hard task, I'm not even sure I can get that high. I can't help to wonder, what will happen to all those stuck at 1500 rating or less. Sure, they suck at PvP, but even if they're getting 300ish points per week, they'll be able to get some decent gear with the current system. This change might completely kick the fun part of arena combat and make it elitist only. Even those at 1500 rating invested their time and good will.

Some players are very happy about this change, mostly the ones at 2000+ rating. Sure, you know how to play and you deserved your items, but you didn't get that far just because you had the gear.
You can give full S3 gear to some random scrub and he'll be stuck at 1500 rating, regardless of class (ok rogues might get 1600).

I've played a good part of this season with some close friends, most of them poorly equipped and skilled. But I helped them get some points and learn a few things, and it was fun. We usually got together after arenas and discuss about it (read: me laughing at them). But the point is, it's more fun to play with people you know then some random guys who you've never met.
One of them is a shadowpriest, and it's common knowledge they perform poorly in arenas. He'd probably do much better specced discipline, but he has no healing gear and doesn't want to healbot people.

Let's take a look at some random player who likes doing arenas from time to time. We'll call him Mr. B. Mr. B is a hunter usually found in SSC or TK. He likes killing big monsters with 24 other people, trying out new things like PvP specs, and playing battlegrounds every now and then. Mr. B doesn't have the best gear, nor a whole lotta resilience. But he's got decent ratings and always learns something new.
With his ratings, he won't be able to buy any weapons, head, shoulders, boots, and maybe even rings next season. I really hope he gets better, but if he doesn't play more, he'll be stuck at that rating forever, and won't get many season 4 items. Mr. B is very good at killing those monsters in raids, yet he understands PvP is another game and requires a different mindset. If someone magically gave him all the PvP items, I doubt he would reach 2200 rating anytime soon.

Why would you deny items to a fine lookin' hunter like Mr. B? He's doing ten times better in arenas then most other hunter (or any other class for that matter) bloggers out there and I'd say he's a very happy dwarf. Let Mr. B buy whatever item he wants.

S4 Rating Requirements

Proximo is an arena unit frame which will display your enemies health and mana bars, allow you to target them, and a number of additional goodies. If you missed my review of Proximo, I suggest you do it now.

It's recently been updated to include some new features: race icons, buff & debuff tracking (I still recommend Afflicted for that task), and additional mouse button bindings.

The addon is pretty customizable, so you can choose whether you want to display class/race icons, mana bars, debuffs.

Like its predecessor, you can configure it outside arenas by typing /proximo test. The window can then be moved with ALT-click, and additional options are available by clicking your right mouse button.

Note that the talent inspect feature has been removed, but that's only because Blizzard disabled that particular feature with patch 2.4. Other than that, all old features are present (macros, announcements, focus, all that kind of thing).

Although a number of other similar addons exist (Arena Unit Frames etc.), Proximo is still the king and it's popularity is growing.


Get Proximo 2: Curse.com, WoWInterface.com, WoWAce

Previous addons: Reslack, Afflicted, Proximo, Advanced Tradeskill Window, Posessions, Doublewide & Lightheaded, Auctioneer

> Addons: Proximo 2

Afflicted is a PvP timer mod, which shows you enemy silences, interrupts and buffs in a convenient way. Although the name of this mod might suggest it's for warlocks, rest assured it's not.

You can download Afflicted on wowinterface.com!

Other addons: Reslack, Afflicted, Proximo, Advanced Tradeskill Window, Posessions, Doublewide & Lightheaded, Auctioneer

> Addons: Afflicted

Or so they say.


The ez-mode SL/SL spec is, despite all nerfs, still the most popular build for PvP warlocks.
There's not much room for having fun in arenas - you either play seriously or stick to PvE, so it's a real gem to find warlocks who manage to achieve high ratings with non-demonology spec.
While affliction still has its bright moments, destruction is now usually considered obsolete, mostly since resilience is introduced which severely gimped the previous popularity of this build.

Heidiheinken achieved what most players dream of - almost 2400 rating, which is really amazing for a destro lock.
First few minutes in this vid will show you how to beat warrior and druid combo, which is currently the most popular in 2v2, as a SL/SL lock teamed with a druid. It has come excellent tips & tricks which you should always keep in mind. I'd love to see more of it, but can't blame the author since the movie is about destruction.

If you're interested, be sure to check out the video to see how this forgotten build is still alive and kicking.

> Destruction is dead

I read the post over at PvP Source yesterday, about Vindicator's Dragonhide Bracers being better than Vindicator Leather Bracers, and it just so happens I bought my Vengeful Gladiator's Felweave Cowl yesterday also and noticed a similar thing.

So here's the problem.

Normally, destro items (Felweave, with crit chance) have less spell damage than Dreadweave, but that's not the case with this piece, so you might want to think twice before you buy your Season 3 head. 5 more spell damage and 1% crit over some pointless stats? Yes please.

By the way, who the heck designed this?


> Felweave or Dreadweave

PvP Source released a cool new toy today, called Arena Matrix.

It's pretty low on info right now but it should soon be full of great tips and guides on how to beat your opponents easier.
Arena Matrix has (or will have) info about 1v1 duels, but also arena setups: 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5.

It will be interesting to see how this tool develops further.
If you're a warlock you don't need anything other than the good old faceroll, but you still might want to check it out, or even submit your own strategy.

> PvP Matrix

Updated to Proximo 2!

Proximo is an enemy unit frame specifically designed for arenas. It will show your enemies when you or your other team members mouseover them, so you can see who you're fighting with as soon as the match starts.

The frame will show only when you enter an arena so you don't have to worry about it in instances or whatever.
The size and position is customizable (/proximo for commands; or hold alt and click on the window to move it) so it will fit in any UI.

Proximo can also announce low health, new enemy, player death etc. via party chat or raid warnings. It supports some macros but you won't have to worry about it at first.

Not only is this addon useful, it's also mandatory. Whether you're serious about playing arenas or you just want your 10 games per week, you will get used to Proximo pretty fast.

You can see the full list of features and download it at: curse.com, wowinterface.com, or wowui.incgamers.com. Or get the latest version from Wowace.

Other addons:
Proximo 2, Reslack, Afflicted, Proximo, Advanced Tradeskill Window, Posessions, Doublewide & Lightheaded, Auctioneer