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Keypoint In Fun

Winning in arena.

When you're winning, there is a large temptation to become addicted to gaining points. I've seen teams go from not caring about what happens to realizing that they actually have a very good team and suddenly get very, very serious. I'm talking incredibly serious. Serious business serious.

Winning is fun. It's a thrill and a rush to play with teammates and pound out some victories. Enjoyable teammates make arena matches have an incredible about of replay value. With each patch, arena players don't get to see new dragons and dungeons. We're lucky if we see an arena map or two per expansion. The thrill of arena is fighting enemy players and coming out on top. Seeing one step ahead of your opponents and executing flawlessly is one of the most skill-based and difficult things to master in WoW .

However, it's important to remember that winning isn't the only thing arena has to offer and that some teams enjoy arena even if they only win one out of every 20 games. If that team is laughing and having a blast in all 20 of those games, I want to be a part of that team -- not a #1 gladiator team that can't stand to talk to one another. Most high-ranking teams have good relationships with one another; don't take that last sentence as an indicator that high rating and high fun are mutually exclusive.

Losing inarena.

Losing can be frustrating. There is almost always an enemy team out there that can stomp your guts out, even if you're sitting in the Rank 1 spot. For most of us, about half our battles will end in defeat. That's nothing to be ashamed of, as the system generally pairs you up against equally skilled opponents.

Instead of getting angry at both your opponents and your teammates, learn to take losses as lighthearted ways to learn more about your class, your composition, and arena in general. The most fun I think I've ever had playing arena was playing naked 1v2s. I think I lost over 100 games before I got a win, and it was a pretty enlightening experience. Once my rating started to get fairly low, I started to feel like I could actually win one and the lack of gear forced me to use unconventional strategies.

Keep your eyes open to ways you can improve your game when you're losing, and you might find a diamond in the rough that allows you to jump 100 points. We were caught in a big losing streak playing a warlock / rogue / druid 3v3 and just decided to have some fun and not care about rating. We tried different crowd control rotations, damage combos, and target swaps. Nothing was working until we had discovered a way to pump tons of damage out of our warlock when stunning an enemy out of a Cyclone.