WoW’s Arena PvP in FF Language

Season 3 of Arena

Arena Season 2 in World of Warcraft just ended a week ago. When a tournament ends in Warcraft II or Starcraft, prizes are given to the top players and the ladder resets again! Apparently, my prize was a new title O.o in World of Warcraft.

If you’re wondering why I disappeared, its because I’m PvPing for Welfare Epics ^^ I did spend time with FFXI’s expansion…. 1hr and I got bored. Walking around for Maw… =.=” yay. Temptations from WoW just dragged me out of FFXI. WoW’s Patch 2.3 > FFXI Expansion. (Yes, its only a patch lol, and already beat FFXI’s expansion to pulp imo)

Anyway, my title in WoW actually means my team was the top 35% of all arena teams within the battlegroup (among 15 other servers), for a newbie who just recently started WoW, not too bad ^^

Unlike FFXI, WoW titles are displayed beside your name. So if your title is Fafnir Slayer, your name will be Maiev, Fafnir’s Slayer. But in WoW, most title comes from PvP, so the title serves as an intimitation to your opponent. If they see “Challenger”, its safe to assume that they aren’t crap in PvP, and should be avoided unless you are a PvP player yourself. Of course when I see people with higher titles than me, I know they are challenging to kill.

Anyway, lets explain wtf is WoW Arena in FF Language.

What is Arena?

To those that don’t play World of Warcraft, Arena is a PvP where players 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 battle each other in a controlled environment. Think of it as Ballista, but in a 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 mode. When you sign up, the system will pair you up with an opponent which has approximate the same gear as you. If you are just a NQ Hauby Woodsville Warrior, you won’t be facing with Ridill Ebody Warrior. The system will attempt to match you with players which are around your attack power, HP, evasion equipment etc etc…

Of course you might ask, are there that many people playing at once? Nope, but each WoW server is connected to 15 other servers, so you on Fenrir might be matched with someone from Ragnarok. With a larger pool of players, you can match players with ease.

Arena Match Making System (MMS).

Just like in Starcraft, when you start off in Arena, you start with 1500 standard rating. 2 teams may enter at once. To win, all players from the other team must be defeated.

By default, if everything is equal (including equipment), defeating a team would grant you 15 rating increase, or decrease by 15 if you were defeated.

When the Arena MMS attempt to match you, they will match your equipment and your rating. So a new established 1500 rating team would not be playing with a team of 2250 rating. With all these factors, the system attempt to match you with an equivalent rating team, making the fight itself not about who has better gear, but who knows what the hell they are doing.

In Arena, not only the environment is controlled and balanced (eg. Just a circle room), but the use of some items are also restricted. You cannot use Elixirs, 2hr’s, Reraises or Potion. All restriction on enhancement item are also disabled. (So you can’t use Powder Boots ^^). Types of weapon however, are not restricted. If you bring a Kraken Club in, chances are the opponent will also have a Kraken Club. Legendary Item (Relices in FFXI), are also allowed, but WoW legendary is much much much more rare than Relics. If you do bring a Relic to Arena, expect an opponent with a Relic too.

No two teams are exactly matched, there will always be a difference in equipment so therefore, if a team much more powerful is matched with a team that is with average gear. If a stronger team wins, they might only earn 12 rating, (15 is standard), but if the weaker team wins against a stronger team, they earn 18 rating! Meaning a weaker team gain more if they win, but if you lose then no big deal, you loose less.

Also, Arena maps are small and balanced, as you see in those 2 map layout taken from Blizzard’s website.

What do you get out of Arena?

Each week (Conquest Calculation in FFXI), your rating is used to determine the amount of Arena Point (Assault point) you gain. Higher rating means more Arena point, 1500 rating will give roughly 276 Arena point, and a typical equipment (PvP version of E-body) cost around 1850 Arena points. Just like assault, you can buy whatever equipment you want with Arena point. Arena point is calculated on a weekly basis, so if you had a bad day no worries, you can play until next conquest calculations (In WoW, it’s the Tuesday server maintenance)

The best PvP equipment comes from Arena, so if you wanna own people up, Arena is all that you need to play in WoW. I recently got the Shoulders. I know it means nothing to FF people, but think of it as… Scout’s Beret +3 (+1 is Arena Season 1, +2 is Arena Season 2). Aiming for the Longbow, a good Bow is a Hunter’s dream. Like FF, +2 is better than +1, just like WoW, its only like a few more HP, few more damage etc.

What do I think about Arena?

A lot of fun! Unlike a typical PvP ballista, where you just go Skirmish against your opponent with no objective, Arena is competing for the throne and glory. You are putting your own rating against others, and if you loose, it only means your rating will drop… and will take longer for you to get good equipment. So everyone that enters Arena are in serious business, will hold no mercy against their opponent, and will probably be in their A game (game face on!).

Another thing that makes PvP enjoyable in WoW, no one class totally owns another class. Unlike FF, some jobs just pure ownage. That is probably why I like to PvP in WoW and never did them in FFXI, no one class purely owns. Its not about what class you play (lol Blue Mage), but how you play them.

Also, Arena is also very skill based. IMO if you aren’t good in responses, choosing the correct action and just don’t understand the game, you will never go too far with Arena.

Every time I play arena, I’m really nervous because there is a lot of pressure to win. Every time you lose, you will need to try harder to regain what you lost. I used to get that kind of excitement from Soloing stuff but… now its all from Arena. Its a very thrilling experience, and is probably what makes this WoW expansion shines.

Strategy is of course, required for Arena. My friend Cusi and I, have an arranged plan

The Difference?

I have to say after playing both MMO’s, being good in PvE (in FFXI) means nothing when it comes to PvP. Players aren’t AI, and are dynamic and will know how to counter your attacks / act accordingly. It took me a long time to get comfortable in reading player’s movements and predicting next attack. In FFXI, once you figured out the trick (such as hitting the Chairot from the side, or ways to beat the boss), then its safe to assume you are going to win the fight unless your WHM falls asleep.

Also in FFXI, e-peen can comes from simply posting a lot on BG forum, but in WoW, its all about Arena Ranking. You want to school people on forums? You better have high rating or a PvP title, else you will just get shitted on inside WoW PvP forums, or simply ignored. Shitty players can tag along in FFXI, but in WoW (both PvP and PvE), one shitty player WILL ruin everything.

E-peen in WoW mostly comes from Arena. The evidence are all over PvP forums. People with high Arena ranking are the most respected when it comes to opinions. I think it is a valid argument because to be successful in Arena, you possess

• The ability to beat your opponent given both parties do not have great amount of advantages or disadvantages
• The reflexes to react quickly
• The ability to work together as a team

Ballista have none of that. Some jobs just owns, gears is not matched so Ninjar with Kclub.. you’re dead meat. Reflexes is like totally non-existent. A spell takes like 4-5sec to cast. Tier 4’s? You can take a piss and come back and you’d be totally fine. I mean if Blade Bash recast was 12sec, sure at least I can focus and try to Stun you. But no, its absolutely useless. Not only its every 10 minute (after 3 merit upgrades), but the Stun only works 50% of the time… its such a piece of crap.

So if you hear people falling in love with WoW’s PvP or simply hear a lot of people saying WoW’s PvP system is good, that’s the reason why ^^; Ballista is for kiddies. The real PvP is in WoW Arena.

For a full reading of WoW arena, you can visit the official Arena website.

Some of the people you might know that plays WoW Arena (from Fenrir, now plays on same server as me in WoW) includes: Ackal and Josiha. I have many others but no point posting since they aren’t from Fenrir ^^;

FFXI Termology in WoW

Yea, my Arena team is call “Star Onion Brigade” haha, actually there’s a lot of FFXI-based name in WoW (eg. I’ve seen people’s name like Eurytos, Serket, hell even Ridills and Nidhogg lol! Oh I like this one, Ridill in Spike Flail Guild). A very good guild (Raiding The Eye / SSC) is also name Star Onion Brigade O.o I wanna join them T_T. I should make a char and level it just to join that guild xD! Of course, there’s also socializing guild. I like the banner of this Star Onion Brigade guild xD.