Bitching About Line of Sight

LoS.

Line of Sight.

Every class knows about this.

For some, it is a blessing. For others, it is a curse. Every solid PvP player knows how to exploit LoS to their advantage. This is why warriors love the Blade's Edge Arenas, and Hunters loathe it for the same reason.

For mages, we depend a great deal on having Line of Sight on our target, but we are not gimped as badly as hunters are. We can still cast at point blank range, but hunters lose a lot of their prowess at that range.
Breaking LoS with a mage is almost a surefire way to gain some time. It will cancel most casts, only spells in flight and Arcane Missiles are not interrupted by this.
In the arenas, there are many opportunities to break LoS and prevent a mage from getting a spell off, horribly gimping their damage and forcing them to chase you.
Smart players know this, and exploit it with the same amount of vehemence as mages exploit the hunters deadzone.
So, I am here to talk about LoS in arenas, as me and vox experienced this a great deal tonight.
(If anyone cares, 70% wins).

The first thing we noticed with LoS was a warlock who, in the Blades Edge arenas, was an incredibly good player.
Earlier today in AV, I fought a warlock in full S2 arena gear. Upon CS'ing Fear, he stood there and did nothing until, 8 seconds later, be began casting Fear again.
This warlock, in the arena, casually blew Vox's entire Arcane Power cooldown with LoS kiting. This warlock literally took one step to avoid the opening PoM + Pyro, and proceded to kite Vox silly, by using a ramp and a single pillar. It was infuriatingly hard to pin this 'lock down.
And the warlock in question was wearing a couple of PvP epics, D3, and a single piece of S1 arena gear.

Now, we came up against this team again, but in the Lordaeron arena. Lordaeron has only one LoS breaker, the little smashed altar thingy in the middle. Quite simply, LoS kiting was impossible. They bit the dust HARD.

The difference? Blade's Edge is full of LoS breaks. This is why, as a mage, I loathe this arena far more than any other. A shaman can duck behind a pillar and fire off a Lesser Healing Wave, and I can't react fast enough to stop them. On the same note, Hunters in Blade's Edge are laughably easy to fight. They cannot get range to use their bows, and even if they do, I can quickly duck behind something and be free from harm.
Lordaeron, on the other hand, is a terrible place for healers. There is almost nowhere to hide, and it is incredibly easy to kill one. No Healing Waves for you! By the same token, hunters do very well (by comparison) in this arena. There is lots of room for manuevering, and it is very hard to break LoS.

So. If you want to kill a mage in the arena, break LoS. We cannot cast, we cannot use instants. It is very hard for us to hurt you when we can't "see" you. The game doesn't care if you're a Tauren, and I can clearly see your left arm. I cannot aim spells anywhere else but right below your head.

We mages love range. We love having lots of room to manuever. We love our targets to be unable to break LoS, so we can destroy their shiny behinds.

We mages hate melee combat. We hate having almost no room to manuever. We loathe our targets to be practically in our faces, able to break LoS with a few buttons.

I, personally, believe some arenas need some work, to avoid favoritism amongst the various classes.

Blade's Edge (Circle of Blood) is incredibly easy to break LoS with. Any class that uses ranged attacks, whether they be spells or bows&arrers is at a serious disadvantage.
Warrios, Rogues, Feral Druids, etc, are at a huge advantage here. Good healers are right at home here, they can break LoS and survive the usual "KAJOOM" attacks ranged would do to them (Paladins will whine if you break LoS on their heals, though. Be careful you don't up and anger them into speccing Ret). Mages, l4z3rch1ck3n dr00ds, warlocks, shadow priests, etc, and ESPECIALLY hunters are at a major disadvantage here, usually being forced to fight far closer than comfort.

Lordaeron is pretty much the opposite of Blade's Edge. It is very, very hard to break LoS here, only the center altar provides that, and that is laughably easy to counteract. Melee classes be afraid, you are food for the ranged ones. Healers beware, you are very much at risk here. Picture EotS, and try to remember the last time you felt safe from max range attacks there...
Mages, Hunters, Warlocks, cheer in triumph, this arena is where you shine.

The Nagrand arena (Ring of Trials) is the most balanced of the three arenas. There are four pillars, all capable of breaking LoS. However, these are the only ways to break LoS, and they are spaced apart by a good distance. There is both open spaces and close spaces here. Melee does better when near the outside (i.e. by the pillars), ranged fares better in the middle, with plenty of room. Overall, Nagrand is a very well-designed arena, and is our personal favorite arena to fight in.

In other news, most of Lost Cause has been invited to join the guild Anathema.
LC is basically a casual guild, we don't do much besides goof off. Anathema is a far more "serious" guild, having actually SEEN some high level content. They've actually downed Lurker, FFS. Lost Cause did Shattered Halls once.
I don't think its an "IF" LC signs up, its a "WHEN". And when we do, foxy voxy ain't gonna be speccing frost.
He's going to stay arcane, and he'll probably be gleefully killing stuff in Karazhan whilst I lament the loss of Resilience in S3 mage gear.