He got game

Hey I GOT game, how about you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RhaYKeUW0o&feature=related

(This post in particular is aimed towards helping players who struggle with just being responsive in their gameplay, they may not even be aware of it, but read anyway, you might find something relevant to you)

AH yes, nothing quite like a sweet fresh beat to keep my thoughts corresponding to my actions, keep in the rhythm of things, kinetic memory, the flow you know?  Whatever kind of music works for you.  But anyway, speaking of games, what is game? Who got game? ... you got game?

I noticed a lot of people out there really want to be good at a class/spec in WoW, or even any particular activity in life, but they are (to be brief) simply just missing something.  Maybe these people (key turners) aren't really approaching the "game" the right way.  A lot of people try to get into something like a sport, or gaming with a lot of stress going on, or a lot on their minds.  It's easier for some than most to be able to channel thoughts away from everything occupying the mind so they can just focus on improving at this one thing for the next few hours or so.

Just enter whatever you do with the mindset that you're going to be responsive, impulsive, and reactive.  Like if you don't already have key binds and you think you should, go ahead and bind keys to your abilities, whatever you think would be most convenient for you.  Like for me bear form is shift + mousewheelscrollDown, and cat form is mousewheelscrollUp (like defensive is back, offensive is forward, something easy for my mind to remember).  Just make yourself key bindings if you haven't already for any particular ability that you think you should, and if you aren't used to it the first couple days don't worry, just remind yourself where it is and take note of it.  You have to approach learning about anything and everything like that, don't beat yourself up about it, just remind yourself and eventually things will come together as you correct yourself and your brain forms the branches neccessary to satisfy these actions.

Pretty much everything I know and learned about PvP, or just playing in general, my play style, comes from watching and observing how the pros get it done.  So my advice to those having trouble mastering anything is; observe and emulate.  Ask questions such as "why did he throw a cyclone on that guy right there?"  And think about it.  Eventually you'll get used to doing things as you're imitating and your style will slowly but surely improve.  Just keep practicing where you think you should and where others suggest you should, you'll get it down and own eventually.

As I was once a noob, I had to go through all this improvement at one point, and ultimately WE ALL have to.


Now what else should I expand this blog to?

In 3's

So I guess next I'll talk a bit about the 3v3 composition I run with during the active season (since it's down until tuesday) which I've received some questions about seeing as it isn't very common seeing a Feral above 2200 rating, let alone in arena.  I run a somewhat common 3's set up for a feral; Feral/Rogue/Discipline Priest which I find is HUGE fun if you have competent partners who are all for learning and being productive.

This is a great comp because of the tremendous potential it has for consistent pressure, synchronization of crowd control, priest dispells, innervate (for priest), and coordinated, huge burst when you need it most.  A simple instant cyclone or blind on a healer can be game making.
Some general basics about this composition:
- When the opposing team's healer's trinket (and possibly bubble if a Paladin) is on cool-down make sure you (the Feral Druid) and your Rogue have your offensive cool-downs ready, because you are both going to try to blow through an isolated target when he's vulnerable in 5-8 seconds.
- Talk to your Rogue!  This cannot be stressed enough, you and your Rogue team mate should be communicating through something like Ventrilo (real time communication), because your synchronization between you and your Rogue is what it comes down to every game.  Just like in 2v2 Rogue/Feral, you both have a lot of potential together if you're just used to each other's play style and know what to do to get the job done.
- Know where your team is at all times, and know what they're doing or about to do if it's game making or breaking.  Again, communication is key.
- Have strategies for every composition you face, if you don't already have one for a team you're up against that's fine, just go for it and learn from losing what your team should do better next time around. 

vs.  Death Knight/Warrior/Healer
Say you go up against a strong melee cleave team (DK/Warrior/Paladin in this case), you have enough pressure to really lock down a target, especially a Warrior in a DK/Warrior/Paladin team, forcing him into defensive stance sword and board.  The warrior can't bladestorm because of the pressure you're unloading on him, but most of the time they're stupid enough to go into battle stance, equip their two-hander and do it anyway, which is always a mistake since they usually do it when they're at about 60% health, dropping defensive stance and their shield is enough for them to lose the game, your damage output should prevail.  If not, get more gear.  Really if you just train the Warrior and properly time some instant cyclones on the DK (if he's on your priest or doing too much damage) and Paladin you can have the game fairly easily.  It gets a little trickier once you start facing the better teams, but I think that's strategy we're used to for the most part.


That's one strategy to start this blog off with, maybe I'll go into vs. Mage/Rogue/Priest later since that seems very difficult to face, but in reality is not so challenging.

Any questions you have let me know and I'll be glad to answer them in another post.

I think I'll start posting more about feral in general, and other things to open this up a bit.

here's a little something for ya

Alright so this blog is starting out as a journalism class assignment, but I hope to eventually turn it in two things:

(1)  A place to discuss, assist, and prepare inexperienced or troubled feral druids in the game World of Warcraft in mainly the ARENA environment of all brackets (2v2 and 3v3 particularly).  The reason being there isn't a lot of coverage out there about how exactly to approach playing such a unique type of style, which I might I add is exactly why I fell in love with feral druid to begin with.

and...

(2) A place to discuss daily/weekly life, certain philosophies to provoke thought (because after all you can't play such a complex class without an active mind) and to possibly, hopefully help people out with the many questions or riddles of life.
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Just a little on my perspective:

I think what first attracted me to the Druid class in World of Warcraft back in 2005 was that being a Druid, you could take many different forms to ultimately adapt to any situation and overcome it.  That's what PvP (Player vs. Player) is about, being able to read your opponent and make the changes neccessary in order to take home the win.  In fact, that was pretty much what Bruce Lee's outlook on martial arts was; taking the most useful aspects of every other form of fighting to be able to change, morph, adapt or adjust if you will, to the opponent's strict style with obvious limitations and boundaries which eventually became known as Jeet Kune Do.  A little bit of fencing, boxing technique, etc.

So relating this to a Feral Druid where you have; bear form (mitigation of damage, increased stamina), travel form (40% increased speed, 55% with 4-piece arena gear), cat form (increased damage output), aquatic form (swim speed), and caster form (spells, heals) you might see how they're kind of the same philosophy as far as adaptation goes.  You're taking a bit of everything to create this great style (feral), a bit of what they used to relate it to back in the day; Warrior, Rogue, Mage, and Priest.  As a Feral Druid you're provided with a lot of great tools which originated with other more core classes, making this class/spec more of an obvious hybrid which can prove to be I think pretty brilliant in PvP especially with the mechanics (berserk, tiger's fury, rend and tear, etc.) we have now as far as patch 3.3 goes.

Playing a Feral Druid in PvP effectively requires a great deal of practice and trained skill which can be produced given the right direction and perception.  This is a class/spec that is used to being commonly overlooked in the past and even now even with such great potential it possesses today.

Here's the link to my character:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Rivendare&cn=Bluelegend

That's it for my first entry, just setting the tone so I can give more.
 ;)