I finally stepped into the Arena.

It was exciting.  Only 7 our of 10 men for ICC 10 continuation showed up so we decided to do some other things.  Helped a few gulidies get their Childrens week PvP stuff done and then decided to try an arena team out.  The two people I was with, a Shaman and a Mage are both very experienced in PvP and both have some solid Arena experience as well.  So basically they were carrying me and teaching me along the way.  We did 23 fights last night, won 10 and lost 13.  Not all that bad for a team that had a beginner, namely me, in it.

Add to the fact that many of the oft used things in Arena I do not have key bound and that lead to a ton of mistakes, bad timing and slow reaction.  Mind you, if you read my blog you know I know better, but it was a spur of the moment thing.  Trial by fire so to speak.  I am a reader, I read up on everything I can and try to absorb as much information as I can before doing something.  Then I do my best to learn by doing.

Kind of like how I learned to kite.  I read up as much as I could and then went around kiting anything I could find.  Practiced running and shooting while going around in circles in Dalaran shooting freezing arrows every 28 seconds.  Sure, none is really ideal but when the time came for me to kite I did not totally suck.  I only partially sucked and I've gotten better since.

I try to be prepared.  To be prepared you read, you watch and you practice.  Practice is somewhat easy.  You can play Arena techniques in battlegrounds.  Again, not perfect but it helps learn reaction time and shot placement.  Even if you only go at it thinking CC only and not damage so you can learn that end you might not help the battleground so much, but you learn.  Oh well, there are other people doing the job of winning the battleground and I am alliance anyway so I expect to lose 80%-90% of the time.

The issue with being prepared is the reading part when it comes to Arena.  I looked everywhere, high and low, under rocks even, and there is nothing to be found anywhere online that teaches anyone in Arena.  Sure there are some awesome sites like Arena Junkies which I spent a ton of time at and other places but all of them seem to have the approach that anyone asking a question has been doing arena for years already.

Someone asks a question that I had and I see a response like, "Well if you are facing an ABC then do this move and that move to start off and if you are facing and XYZ you will not have to worry about this so don't do that.".  I read it over and over again and really have no F'N clue what they are talking about.  I do not know what an ABC team is or an XYZ team is.  Sure, they might be common slang for people doing arena forever and know what it is but I am new and do not know. 

Why does everyone on any arena site I go to think that only people that know everything there is to know about arena go there?  I would love for an arena site to teach me as if I am a complete idiot.  Or at least have a guide that tells me the basics like an ABC team is these 3 classes and an XYZ team is made of these 3 classes.  I might be a quick learn and might not be an idiot, but sometimes it is nice to have things laid out for you when you want to get a foot into something you know nothing about.  Would it really be hard for them to have a beginners guide to Arena slag?  That is all I ask for.  I can gather the rest of the information reading the forums if only I knew what all the slag meant.

Sure, reading as much as I have I have figured out what some slag means by seeing them mention specific things that I know only certain classes can do.  I figured it out.  But why do I need to read 10 posts on ABC teams to try and figure out what an ABC team is.  I am making the effort to but wish they would just have an index that said and ABC team is this.

I think the reason so many people shy away from Arena is exactly that.  There is no helpful place to start out at.  There are no "Arena for Idiots" guides out there.  It is almost like they do not want anyone else joining them in Arena out of fear that person might end up beating them one day.

Either way, despite the fact that it seems no one in arena wants anyone else to join I am still reading and I am still learning and I will get better with the help of friends but it could have been so much easier and so much more enjoyable if the Arena community where more user friendly to new people.