5v5s, FigurePrint, and Such

Yesterday was the first day I managed to wrangle together a team for Season 5. I really hadn't done 5s since Season 4, since it seems they are tricky to not only find, but to find ones that are stable, skilled, and high on communication. One of the few I tried earlier this season was just some Mage inviting and knocking people off the team as he pleased (I'm sorry, but if I play 40+ games on a team in a week, I expect others to be kind and let me get points for the week on that team, but I digress... if people are going to be silly and boot you once just because, don't give them a second chance).

But honestly: I've been missing 5s a lot. 3s and 5s are some of my favorite brackets because of the skill and coordination it involves from everyone, and because it's not a juggle of rock, paper, scissors like 2s.

Making 5s happen however.... is another feat. Even one of my more solid 5s had issues in Season 3 since all five of us were in different guilds, with different raiding schedules, leading us into the whole "well, so and so will be 2 hours late, should we cancel or use a backup?" This, in turn, meant that most weeks we had 3-4 of the same folks, and then a few revolving spots, which simply isn't good for coordinated play. :-/

Part of the reason I came to Tich, however, was to be more active/competitive in 3s and 5s. Due to my own enjoyment of raiding, however, I've ended up with PvE oriented guilds (once again >_>), but with a few players in our ranks that really do love PvP, so I've been gravitating towards playing with them. I'm not sure how much "competitive" play is possible, but I'm hopeful. :)

3s this week went well, as I said, and yesterday I tried to wrangle together a 5s team, based around two things, mostly: 1.) People in the guild whose classes seemed to mesh/seemed skilled/seemed geared or trying to gear, and 2.) I wanted to play a DPS role in 5s. It seems at this point 2s could go either way, 3s I am a healer, and 5s, well, I wanted to find a way to try to make it work.

The comp I created was thus:

1.) Unholy/Frost DK
2.) Survival Hunter
3.) Holy Paladin
4.) Resto Shaman
5.) Heavy Balance Druid (me)

The thought being that with no Rogue or Mage, That I would need to be a mix of Range DPS/CC/Emergency Healing. It's certainly not a "cookie cutter" mix, and I haven't seen anyone else running it, but I figured it was worth a try, and if nothing else, since we're all from the same guild, hopefully we can get some more regular playtime in (and maybe use the 5s for points/rating for some that are lacking other teams).

Instead, we went 37 and 6, straight up to 1775 before the servers came down for maintenance, putting us at -exactly- #100 on all of BG9. :) I really wonder what that would have been if we weren't getting +2 to +5 per game won.... (The 3v3s calced at #168).

Oh, and we all got "Hot Streak" on our final game of the night! *laughs*

I am REALLY pleased with how things went. I was really proud of my teammates and I pulling off some really smooth 2345 and cold switches, and I really didn't feel even for our loses that we were out comped, we just were out played/out RNGed. That gives me a lot of hope that we will continue to improve and push on, which makes me excited as hell. It'd been awhile since I was the one making calls in 5s (my old competitive 5s was notorious for having two "alpha dog" male personalities that often clashed which lead to arguing between them >_>). It was all awesome to see people listening and assisting, peeling, CCing, switching, the whole deal. It just felt really, really incredibly solid for a first night, so I guess I might end up FRAPsing some 5s as well this week if I remember. :) Organized chaos can be so much -fun- with great comrades.

I am just pleased as punch to be playing all 3 specs in my brackets! Particularly for 3s and 5s I wanted to be in two separate roles, and I think one of my strengths is being a Hybrid, and playing as such, so Balance is -perfect- for me for 5s due to its situational versitility (and I can be more aware of calling switches, peril, etc.). Making calls as a healer is a lot more difficult in my own experience in 5s since it is so fast-paced. I am just even more thrilled the comp I formed and personalities therein seemed to work so well. Huzzah!

Happy day. :)

I also got my FigurePrint in the mail of Dreamspirit yesterday, in her Full Season 3 glory! I will have to take some photos later, but it turned out really well. That will always be a special season for me because it was the first time I hit 2k+ (and as such, was one of only 4 druids on Proudmoore with "shoulders").

Back to work!