4.1 Predictions (RLS Domination), Interview with Glyptic & Neilyo 16!

Hello everyone, this’ll be my first Blog I write for Hydramist and hopefully not my last, a brief introduction. I’ve played on several realms at pretty high rating, as a Resto Druid. I’m currently more or less inactive due to not having a geared character or motivation to really try until warriors ‘re fixed, but I have had the chance to hit the PTR!

It’s no secret, the game is currently a bit of a mockery, some classes are completely rendered invalid unless paired with a warrior, the damage is through the roof and plenty of people have ranted about it, so I won’t really elaborate much on it. Setups such as Shaman / Warrior / Hunter are out of control due to damage, while at the same time the set-up who does the exact opposite than ridiculous single-target pressure is also in a very, very good state.

With this in mind, there are a few other comps that are aiming for the stars, Shadowplay (Shadow Priest / Warlock / Shaman), Balance LSD, WLS, RLS … The real question is, what’ll be good next patch and what not?

It’s been predicted by many players, this might just be the ultimate RLS season. A personal friend of mine, Glyptic (currently playing Shadowplay with Hydra & Fabio at 3015 rating) ‘s words, RLS will dominate. Why? Well, it’s a combination of several changes.

Warriors

• Colossus Smash now only reduces the Armor of a PvP-target by 50%
• Shield Bash has been removed from the game
• Spell Reflection cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds (up from 10)

What this means is that the warrior domination, will be no more. With these changes made, warriors will still be decent but nowhere near what they are now, they’ll require more skill to score a kill which is contradicting to the Spell Reflection change, which was a big part of what defined a warrior’s capabilities, for example reflecting instant Cyclones from Feral Druids will now only be possible once every 25 seconds, this is a big deal. Shield Bash’s removal also affects the comp due to not being able to lock out a target for 8 seconds anymore while you’re defensive, anyone who plays a caster knows that when it happens to you, your damage output is reduced substantially. But more importantly, these changes mean that the top RLS’ that are currently forced to play defensively against warriors, will really be able to go all out and abuse the momentum they get from their opener.

Shamans

• Cleansing Waters now has a 6-second internal cooldown.

• Grounding Totem cooldown has been increased to 25 seconds, up from 15.

• Earth Shield healing done by Restoration shaman has been reduced by 20%.
• Nature’s Blessing has been improved to 6/12/18% bonus direct healing on Earth Shielded targets, up from 5/10/15%.

This might be one of the most important changes for RLS. The amount of healing a Shaman could put out while just mashing dispel versus warlocks was absurd, this’ll definitely tone that down and make it so that if he dispels Unstable Affliction (certainly with the doubled damage penalty), he’ll pay a high price for doing so.

Mage

• The root effect from Shattered Barrier now shares diminishing returns with the root from Improved Cone of Cold.

Anyone who plays a rogue will agree with me when I say, this is a huge deal. It means you’ll have a lot more time on a mage outside of the shadowdance burst, which when taken individually isn’t that big of a deal, but when you look at the bigger picture and think about the past, RLS versus RMP match-ups were always quite intense and balanced. As we saw at the MLG tournaments in 2010, going on the mage was eventually a good solution to minimize the RMP’s pressure and momentum, while the RLS would always have a lot of pressure going out due to the warlock’s dot’s ticking on everyone, the mage would have to run more than he would be able to cast into a target and set-up kills utilizing the CC they can put out.

Warlock

• Haunt damage has been increased by 30%.
• Shadow Mastery (passive) has been increased to 30%, up from 25%.
• Unstable Affliction damage done when it is dispelled has been doubled, but this damage can no longer be critical.
• Shadow Bite (Felhunter) damage and effect has doubled.

This is pretty big, the single-target damage a warlock puts out has been SIGNIFICANTLY increased, more importantly the pet’s Shadowbite crits for ~14k on a target with 4000 resillience. Together with the flat 5% damage buff and the UA dispel change.

Conclusion: RLS will be an amazing comp, as it was previously (only) hard countered by Warrior/Hunter/Shaman and Warrior/Enhancement cleaves, this creates a whole new window of opportunity for the die-hard RLS to show their worth. Neilyo’s RLS (Yog & Seaman), Kollektiv’s RLS (Shinnaniganz & Ohnoes), Glyptic’s RLS (Kalimist & Fabio) will definitely prove me right if everything goes as planned.

People see it coming, when in the current state of the game, the only thing keeping DK’s in line are warriors, what’ll happen in 4.1? We all know how good Warlock/DK synergy is, and with nothing to keep this beast on the leash, will it’s competence reach Season 6 state? We’re yet to find out but Another & Inflame definitely believe so. As far as 4.1 goes, the slower comps will be really powerful again. I’m thinking WLD, Shadowcleave (Druid & Shaman-version), WLS, RLS, SHDk, …

Other comps I feel will be really strong in 4.1 are RMP and a more mysterious comp, Hunter/Lock/Shaman. All suggestions etc. are very welcome when it comes to 4.1, feel free to throw me one ingame or on the forums (Cheeks).

Q: Hey there Glyptic, thanks for taking the time of your busy shedule to  do this interview. Let’s start with a basic question, what are your plans for the next few weeks, when it comes to Arena?

A: Well, since the Tournament Realm’s launch date hasn’t been released yet, I’ll just be playing on the live realms. It’ll be very interesting with the 4.1 Queue changes as well, basicly playing as much as possibly, practicing different comps on numerous characters.

Q: You mentioned 4.1, it’ll bring a lot of changes to Arena as we know it. Have you got any specific plans about comps you’ll run and how do you think the Cleansing Waters change ’ll affect your play in general?

A: Personally, I can imagine RLS being extremely competent next patch and I’ll be practicing with it as much as I can, however I’ll definitely still be running Shadowplay with Hydra & Fabio due to our previous success with it on the live realms, as far as Cleansing Waters change, I believe it’s very necessary especially with the upcoming Mastery buffs, we’re not druids, we’re supposed to be casting heals.

Q: There’s been a lot of rumor about you joining Team Dignitas to compete alongside Hydra & Kalimist, do you have anything you can tell the audience or is it top secret business for now?

A: I can’t disclose any information about that, mainly because nothing’s been decided, sorry!

Q: The new arena tournament is imminent, with BlizzCon 2011 being around the same date as 2010, we can expect the Tournament Realm to be launched soon. What’re your plans and what’re your goals?

A: Practice, practice, practice. That’ll be what we’ll be doing and that’s also why my goals are the highest, win it. Dominate the scene, due to my country (Iceland, haha) being excluded from tournaments in the past, I’m very excited about this chance and I’ll definitley grab it by the horns. As far as things are right now, I’ll definitely be running Shaman/Warlock/X. I’m teaming up with BlizzCon 2010 winner Fabio, who I’m also playing (successfully) with on live realms. My hopes are set on a strong Shadowcleave or RLS. But as for now, only time can tell.

Q: Let’s be honest, you’re more than ever a force to be reckoned with. But in the past, no one that hasn’t played with you or against you on Cyclone, has really only heard that much about you, can you tell us a bit about your history at high level arena?

A: Yeah, that’s definitley true. As you said, most of my time has been spent on the Cyclone battlegroup (Europe), I started playing as a warrior throughout season 2 to 4, competing at the top against all the well known players, such as Hydra, Inflame, Sonny, .. as a matter of fact I’ve been included in Sonny’s movies aswell, back then. During season 5, I quit the game due to the incredible imbalance and decided to come back a Shaman in season 6 where I got rank 1 in both 3vs3 & 5vs5, where I played mostly RLS and MLS. In season 7, Daanzka had an epiphany to transfer off to get rank 1 in the last week (thanks for that, king Iceblock). During season 8 I had to take some time off due to real life issues, those’ve been resolved and I’m really dedicating a lot of my time to Arena now.

Q: Streaming and recording your play has really become a trend with the very best and highest rated players, do you plan to do either one or both?

A: Streaming is  definitely something I’m looking at, I’ve been doing some research on getting a new internet connection and if everything goes as planned, I’ll be streaming in the near future! As far as recording goes, I’m afraid that’ll have to wait until I upgrade my PC.

Q: What do you think about the current state of the game?

A: It’s no secret that it need some tweaking, the upcoming changes are definitely a step in the right direction. As I play a shaman myself, I can tell you that we are somewhat overpowered right now, and more or less reign supreme among healers, I could point out a million things, but what I’m mostly concerned about is the impending resillience change and how it’ll affect the duration and playstyle of arena games in general, wondering if we’re going to see some more WoTLK gibs as gear’ll be a tier higher aswell next season, or if it’ll still be slowplay.

Q: Thanks for your time, Glyptic! Are there any additional comments or shoutouts you’d like to make?

A: I’d just like to give a shoutout to my arena partners, Ryan, Fabio & Chris for being great people to play with, and my best friend for life, Jarkko. Also, thank you for interviewing me!

Neilyo, after having vanished from the scene during WoTLK, has been actively playing this expansion and now released a movie with very recent footage, playing mostly RLS & Warrior/Priest/Rogue but there’s also some Ret/Rogue/Shaman in there.

I can tell you one thing before you watch, I played with him quite a bit and I can vouch that he’s definitely not lost his touch! Enjoy the movie and don’t forget to read to read the comment from the rogue master below!

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=183363

Cheeks: Hey Neil, this is the first time you’re using Skype throughout your entire movie, what made you change your habits?

Neilyo: I wanted to do something new for my first arena vid in a long time. One great thing about skype is not only does it make it much easier for the viewer to understand what your team is doing as an entity, but it also makes it easier for the viewer to follow all the smaller things that you are doing individually, if you have thorough communication that is, and call the small details. So it isn’t necessary to point out or slow mo any actions to highlight them if you are already highlighting them in skype. Skype also of course can intensify the matches when you get close to scoring a kill or the other team gets close to a kill and everyone in skype has an urgent tone.

Cheeks: You use no Add-Ons whatsoever, do you feel this will give you an edge over other rogues on the Tournament Realm?

Neilyo: Being completely used to no addons will give you an edge mainly in that you will not need to get used to playing withot addons if that is required. Some examples would be: instead of relying on stuff popping up on your screen notifying you of what is going on, you are instead forced to build better team communication, relying on your teammates to call things that are out of your current scope.  You are also forced to have more raw situational awareness without text and cool down counters for not only your own cd’s, but the enemies, this means you will have to develop a better internal clock for your own cd’s (without numbers on them) and your enemies cd’s. This also requires you to increase your ability to recollect past cd’s that you either witnessed being used or were called by a teammate so that you are aware of what outs they have without looking to an addon that is keeping track. I still need to work on remembering whose trinket is down so that I know who will eat a full blind and who is on blind/fear DR. I’ve got stun DR down pretty well, which is important vs teams where you need to ping pong peel based on stun DR without a DR tracker.

Cheeks: You’ve been playing a lot of different comps lately, do you have any set or potential plans for the BlizzCon Qualification Realm?

Neilyo: I hope to be able to run RLS because it has a much more fun dynamic than cleave. Or if RLD were to be good that of course would also be equally as fun. I prefer playing with locks to mages because the rogue gets to play more “free” being able to ping pong to dotted targets and apply good pressure without having to wait for all the stars to align for you and your mage to burst.

Cheeks: Can we expect more movies in the future? Perhaps Streams?

Neilyo: Yes, I just need to fix my problem with fraps. I don’t plan on streaming unless I have a really good reason to. If anyone has any ideas on what might be wrong with frapsing send me a message. WoW runs fine still, fraps never “warms up” anymore, I get unplayable choppy fps lag or good fps and constant stutters, I’ve reinstalled fraps to the newest version more than once and updated graphics drivers. Going to try picking up an external HD and/or reformatting if no one knows anything.

Cheeks: Thanks again for your time Neilyo, are there any shoutouts or additional comments you’d like to put out there?

Neilyo: You’re welcome! Id just like to give a shoutout to ArenaRating.com, check it out! And also, http://www.skill-capped.com/watch/6587/neilyo-rogue-vs-rogue-guide/ !

Content: 8/10

It really shows Neilyo’s perspective and the role he plays in his teams, with the lightning fast reflexes and good swaps it’s very enjoyable to watch, although I’m dying to see some more RLS/RLD/RMP!

Editing: 6/10

I personally like movies like these a lot, but I wouldn’t mind some editing, although I don’t value this even close to content, it’s still something I like in a movie.

Music: 8/10

New, refreshing. Makes it very enjoyable to watch.

Overall rating: 8/10.

Well, that’s all for today! I’m not sure how frequently I’ll be blogging as it really depends on the time I can spare, depending on the comments and critiques you guys deliver I’ll do it oftenly.

Thanks for reading,

Cheeks.

P.S.  Here’s the much requested song from Hydra’s latest movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqXRpbXzLUI