A thought came to me today about just how sick and twisted a mini-game the arenas truly have become. The issue here is simply what the metagame has devolved into, something that really won't change no matter who gets buffed or nerfed, it's simply what the arena system has devolved into. Take a good hard look at season one. IMO that was the crowning achievement of WoW PvP. It was a hell of a lot of fun, more team combos were viable; but what's the prime difference between s1 and s3?

People had yet to develop the ultimately cheesy tactics that permeate the arena system today. It was an innocent time when the matches were fun. No longer is it about who has the best reflexes, who can make better judgment calls, or ultimately who is a better player in many circumstances. A few cheesy 'tricks' have become far more important than anything most would consider "player skill"


-Pillarhumping. PvP = Player Vs. Pillar. We spend more time running around and around *trying* to play the game than actually engaging other players in bonafide combat. Before the arena emerged the intelligent use of LoS would be considered a true skill. A barrier is broken, however, when using LoS to strategically break a clutch spell, etc turns into "let's not let them cast/attack *anything*" Something is wrong when player spend more time with their crotch attached to a stone pillar than fighting other players in a *gladiatorial arena*.

-Mana/Buff denial. Rather than fight one another and pit our individual class strengths and weaknesses vs one another instead we try to degrade one another to the basest levels so they simply cannot function. I don't know about you all but to me that creates a very stale environment. Yes, remove my buffs and I'll remove your buffs. Zap my mana and I'll zap your mana. Pretty soon we'd might as well be a couple of naked bums running around in the streets dueling with Styrofoam fingers we found in the dumpster over by the basketball venue.

-"Let's play who can run away and drink!" Of course lead to by the mana/buff denial. Again, more avoidance of actually engaging one another.

-And ultimately the homogenization of viable talent specs in the arena once everyone has realized and adjusted to the aforementioned cheese. Sure, everyone wants to win. Strangely enough in most cases the best arena builds tend to be the most boring. Ultimately who can stack a bunch of passive bonuses so they are incredibly difficult to kill whilst removing any semblance of enjoyment from playing your character. He who does the least wins.


Now, don't get me wrong. the last thing I want is a return to the 2-3 shot PvP that we had at Tarren Mill/Southshore. But can we please get something that isn't so far to one extreme? There's a huge range of variability between "Ambush, Backstab, dead" and "let's chase each other around pillars for 5 hours until someone gets bored and concedes the match" Can we find a happy medium? Is it possible?

Been saying it since before the Arena's were even released. Battlegrounds make far more sense as end-game PvP. Who would honestly play CoD4 online if it ONLY supported Team Deathmatch? What about Tribes, Team Fortress 2, or Unreal Tournament?

Arena's should be implemented into a basic Ladder for ePeen measurement, while Organized Team Battlegrounds should be where people are earning gear.

The Maps need to be fixed, new maps need to be added, and they need to just have 5v5 maps, 10v10 maps (CTF like WSG), and 15v15 maps (Domination like EotS and AB).

I'd like to see 5v5 as Assault style maps, with staggered objectives where you get bounced back for 10 minutes, then switch sides and whoever does "better" in their 10 minutes wins.

But fuck AV. Blizzard can't even figure out how to balance it.

How ******* dare anyone out there make fun of Arena after all they been through? They lost all their buffs, they went through a cascade failure of all their nerfs. Blizzard turned out to be a user, a cheater. All you people care about is forums... and making topics out of them!

They are HUMANS!!!

What you don’t realize is that areans is making you all this topics and all you do is write a bunch of crap about them. They havn’t released a new BG in months. They only post on the official forums for a reason. Because all you people want is more, more, more, more more!

Leave them alone! You are lucky they even made this game! Leave Blizzard alone, please!

(for the the people who have been hiding under a rock: YouTube - Britney Fan Crying )