Casual Arena

Some people assume that because I'm running around with a Vengeful helm that I'm spending all my WoW time in the arena. This is a very long way from the truth - I do my minimum 10 matches a week, in either my 2v2 team Wandering Monsters, or my 3v3 team Old Buggers. With our rating hovering somewhere in the 1400s, this earns me around 250 arena points a week. Vengeful armor pieces cost 1875 points, which means eight weeks of play for me to pick one of those lovelies up.

Needless to say, this is a really great deal. The items are fantastic and the time investment is tiny. We'd be unlucky to spend a single hour a week doing our 10 matches, which is nothing when compared to the many evenings we've all spent collecting Heroic Badges, running instances for gear, raiding, grinding and collecting Honor Points in battlegrounds.

The other thing that makes arena great is that it's actually really fun. People are running all over the place, pets are growling, spells are whizzing by, everyone's yelling in vent and (hopefully) the enemies are hitting the floor. We got completely pulverized the first week we played (1 win and 9 losses) but we still had a great time. The next week we won 6 and lost 4, and much cheering was heard across the internets. Every game is different, which makes it about as far from a grind as can be. Naturally PvP gear, a vent server and good class selection helps, although even getting pummeled ten zip each week earns points, and you can always make a new team if your rating gets too low.

So there we have it - arena, it's not just for sociopathic teenagers anymore.