As players are more and more used to the pace of the game, the better players/teams are rising to the top regardless of the comp they run.  Mindless zergs happen a lot at lower ratings, but at higher level you still have to create a window of opening while shutting down their offense.  It just happens at a much quicker pace and every mistake you make is far more costly than TBC.  It is kind of like going from Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition to Street Fighter 2 Turbo for the first time, once you get used to it, the faster pace is just so much better.  It actually allows offensive classes/specs to actually play offense, yet at top tier, it is still all about getting the defensive stops.   …  More

Tonight I opted to do a post that I've been wanting to do for some time now. It just figures that Ming decided to do a top 5 right before this, but hell, lists are almost always entertaining.

Reading comments is by far one of the most entertaining aspects of World of Ming. Jasi days, flame wars, Lusitania's photoshops, random bickering, arguments etc. are completely expected by every keyboard warrior that clicks on the WoM link. Over the past 6 months, I've been saving a couple of gems that I re…  More

First of all, a happy New Year to all of our readers, from Ming and Estel. Whether you come here to admire me, hate me, laugh at me or cheer at me, I hope you had a happy holiday.

Gameriot's December 2008 traffic was almost quadruple what we had in December 2007, and we couldn't have done it without you.  Things looked bleak when WSVG went down, but we went back to the drawing boards and I defended our village like any shinobi would.

WOMCN (The Chinese version of the site) was merged with Fires…  More

For many, the arrival of the new year goes hand in hand with burying away all of your shortcomings, **** ups and failures of the previous year with each swig of your preferred poison. For me, it was realizing that while Chicago is an amazing city, wasting 8-10 dollars for every drink after already paying a 20 dollar cover is just not worth it anymore; regardless of how much pre-gaming you do before hand. While paying such an absurd amount is downright frightening for any average Saturday night, I really pity those who submitted their wallets to the douchebags responsible for herding the  masses into believing that paying 200 dollars for an all-night open bar at your more "prime" club or even bar on new years eve is actually a good deal. Realizing that you will only get enough attention from the bartenders to average 1 drink an hour is a wonderful way to welcome the new year with your new, significantly lighter wallet. There's just so many other alternatives that usually provide a much better time for a much lower price, but that's a discussion for another time - let's talk about Priests.…  More

Season five has been ongoing for just over two weeks now, players have had ample time to farm honor and build up their resilience, and teams have had time to strategize and refine their comps. So what we have learned from all of this? Well, aside from the fact that damage is absolutely insane right now for a multitude of reasons, there are many less obvious problems that exist right now and given the fact that I know Blizzard developers read these articles, I'll cover them and present solutions to hopefully help develop this game better. …  More

The first two weeks I probably spend too much time jumping between teams, and as a result I racked up a lot of games with very little to show for it.  Estel is still new to New York City and I really need to spend more time with her as my mainhand weapon requires a lot of raid attendance as is.  For the foreseeable future I probably will hold onto my current teams (still would like to try DK/Paladin/Rogue, although DK/Paladin will probably see some dramatic nerfs over the next a few patches) and I am now under Estel's strict supervision during arena.…  More

For one of the few times in the entire lifecycle of WoW, Blizzard has finally responded to the increasing number of complaints geared towards the current state of PVP and Arena balance, albeit with a reply often considered complete and utter bull**** like usual. With the constant debating between the actual player base, consisting of both the hardcore and casual players, it's good to see their perspective on commonly accepted issues among their community even if they personally come off as completely disconnected from their own game. …  More

With almost two weeks into the season, it is clear paladin/death knights are the hero classes at the moment, with mage/hunter right behind.  Before WOTLK I said mutilate/prep rogue is probably as balanced as you can possibly get as a mid-tier, and we have been hovering around 11% presentation on SK-100.  Damage as a whole is definitely getting lower as everyone start replacing their Naxx 25 pieces with deadly armor (although cape/neck/ring are still terrible), and people are used to the pace of the game, I expect rogue to hover right around 10% for the foreseeable future.  …  More

While hunters are smack dab in the middle of the SK-100 "most popular top 100 classes", the percentages have a decent chance of changing once readiness no longer resets BW. As Ming spoke of last night, the power of having two back to back BW's is pretty much impossible for any melee class to deal with, especially when the Hunter is teamed up with a Paladin and the most annoying glyphs in terms of defensive abilities. If you aren't melee, you can pretty much expect to be raped if you're ever caught out in the open or are in Orgrimmar arena.…  More

If you play 2v2 as a rogue at all, the hardest counter comp at the moment is not DK/Paladin, it is Hunter/Paladin.  I can't think of a rogue comp that can handle them at equal skill/gear.  BM hunter drops me in 10 seconds through evasion solo.  With double BM, I can not put out any real damage with him being completely immune to all snares/ccs while I am running through a frost trap.  Any healer caught in the open is instantly killed, and in Orgrimmar with no place to hide, you may as well leave and give him the points.  …  More