What seperates a gladiator from a normal player?

[Deleted]

I was browsing the PvP forums and saw posts saying you can beat this setup and beat that setup unless of course you come across a gladiator. Now I'm wondering to myself what makes that 0.5% able to perform so much better than everyone else. I figured I'd ask the question here since a lot of you are pros. In PvE it's alot easier to point out why for example Ensidia performs better than my guild: time, dedication, min-maxing, keybinds, swapping out dps based on encounter etc. But I'm not really sure why an equally geared Enhancement Shaman would own my Shaman in arena hands down with no contest.

Haven't you ever been in an arena match where literally before you can do anything pretty much, you're dead? I mean those matches where you had absolutly NO CHANCE whatsoever despite you having beaten the past 10 teams you met. You know those people who even if you give them a green unechanted, ungemmed character, they'll still wtfpwn everyone.

What makes these brilliant PvP'ers so different from everyone else?

[blaqkmagick]

practice?
they know from experience.

[redsunrising15]

There's a gladiator warrior on my realm, only alliance gladiator, and when I used to duel him (hunter), he would kick my butt in aproximately 6-7 seconds with a full length of cc and burst.

It's been that way for 3 years. Three nights ago, I dueled him (he's full ruthless, I'm still missing rings/trinkets/head), and I beat him 5/7 times. He said I was the best hunter he'd ever seen, and I'd come a long way since our first duel, and if I wasn't stuck on this server full of failures, I'd easily rate at least 2400.

The key is knowing every move your opponent is going to make before they make it, knowing what they can and can't do, and knowing how to counter it.

[Drefan]

They have wide knowledge about the game.
They know all classes inside out, what they can do, and when they do it.
And then they think out strategys on how to counter the moves the opponets do.

[Durandro]

All of the above, but there's also a small element of luck involved. Getting 'easy' teams to farm wins from, having a nice crit streak at the right moment, not suffering lag at a critical moment, good procs...

Good players can work around luck for the most part. But to get to that 0.5% with loads of good competition? Luck is useful to have on your side.

[Jonathonjar]

Knowing not only there class extremely well but also ALL classes very well. They need to know what exact abilities to blow trink on or spell reflect etc. They need to know exactly when and where people are going to use abilities.

[roahn the warlock]

Rating. .

[Avlli]

It is NOT one player. It is TEAM.
in 1v1 everyone can be GOD, but arenas = teamwork

Im playing with my friend mage since s1, we did glad in s3/s4.
Now we can't pass 2400 because of low healers ,who can't los/fake/avoid some avoidable CC.
Setup isn't perfect war/mag/healer, but with our friend who stoped playing few weeks after seson started, we had 2700 easly.

So, it is all about team, not only one player.
One or ever Two players can't carry 3rd.
Everyone need to be good 1v1 as well in teamplay

[Arrowkeys]

Redsunrising15 put it pretty good when he said it's knowing what your opponent's going to do.

When I'm quite a bit better than an arena opponent, I can offer them "opportunities" to do things that look good at the level they're playing the game, but that I can take ruthless advantage of. Superior opponents abuse me the same way.

[Yoshimiko]

Everything.

The major factors, though, are innate 'talent' if you will, skill/experience, knowledge, and ultimatly what everything boils down to; time.

There are a handful of people who, a month after hitting level cap can reach glad level(I know one, he's an amazing player at any game he picks up - really awesome to play with him), but for the majority It's all about practice.

Now, There's a big difference between Glad level, and R1 level. Just glad you can scrape by with the normal stuff - timing, proper comp, and proper people... but when you're looking at R1 players - here's where things get interesting.

The difference between a R1 player and your average Glad player is as big a difference as between glad and challenger. These are the people who know the game inside and out - know how to react to everything that can happen, know what people would do to avoid your reaction, etc etc. If you want to see an example of this - just check out the Holy Paladin in the blizzcon tourneys hunter team(It was PHD I believe). This guy was just amazing. Hands down one of the best players I've seen - and it really shows if you watch him.

But all around, it comes to time invested properly. Everything can be learned with experience, and experience only comes at the cost of time.

---------- Post added 2011-11-14 at 12:50 AM ----------

It is NOT one player. It is TEAM.
in 1v1 everyone can be GOD, but arenas = teamwork

Im playing with my friend mage since s1, we did glad in s3/s4.
Now we can't pass 2400 because of low healers ,who can't los/fake/avoid some avoidable CC.
Setup isn't perfect war/mag/healer, but with our friend who stoped playing few weeks after seson started, we had 2700 easly.

So, it is all about team, not only one player.
One or ever Two players can't carry 3rd.
Everyone need to be good 1v1 as well in teamplay

Err, right now 2400 is glad level :x. The highest legit teams are around 2500. MOST teams over 2400-2500 aren't going to get titles, due to MMR exploit.

[Ieft]

Err, right now 2400 is glad level :x. The highest legit teams are around 2500. MOST teams over 2400-2500 aren't going to get titles, due to MMR exploit.

Playing at start of season and sitting =/= mmr exploiting.

[Brewski]

What separates them is the fact that they are just very good players, and mastered their class.

[Yotei]

Nobody said anything about the fact that Gladiator's tunnel vision is different? I forget the exact term.

A 'normal player' will have trouble focusing on most of the information that Gladiator's easily spot, the normal player would focus on one spot and the rest of the information would fly out of the window. A Gladiator should be able to see most of what's going on and be able to react to it, with proper communication and knowledge of their class and other classes.

While people say "it's not about the individual".. well, that individual's on the team too, so it is partially about each of the individuals on the team. Communication is a must from all of them, knowing their classes as well, and all knowing how to spot things that fly over the heads of normal players.

There's obviously more, positioning, knowing their comp and how it should be played versus other comps, and so on.. but I just wanted to say the most important bits that should be worked on first.. communication, knowing your class and other classes, and one's tunnel vision.

[klaps_05]

much faster reactions and knowing what you can do and cant do at any point of the match, guess that summarizes it.

[Yousend]

Nobody said anything about the fact that Gladiator's tunnel vision is different? I forget the exact term.

A 'normal player' will have trouble focusing on most of the information that Gladiator's easily spot, the normal player would focus on one spot and the rest of the information would fly out of the window. A Gladiator should be able to see most of what's going on and be able to react to it, with proper communication and knowledge of their class and other classes.

While people say "it's not about the individual".. well, that individual's on the team too, so it is partially about each of the individuals on the team. Communication is a must from all of them, knowing their classes as well, and all knowing how to spot things that fly over the heads of normal players.

To be fair, when a normal player has trouble focusing on most of the info, that's because of lack of experience. He doesn't know what to look for, so he doesn't focus on anything. Once you get more experience, you notice that if the Warlock gets low, he'll probably portal away.

[unreall]

Only one thing makes them so good.

Their level of involvement in their characters.

Most of People just play to get gear and have some funn but gladiators put alot of effort in their characters like a thing to be recognised and revered, not just another player. They stand out of groups.

[rofltroll]

Skill

(or exploiting)

[Deleted]

Everything.
(...)

Speaks the truth. What truly makes a good arena player is knowing everything. You know your class, you know others' classes, you know how to play with and against every class, you know how most players will play a certain class, you know how to counter their play and you know how you can prevent them to countering you. If you don't have it you just don't have it, but most of it comes from practice. If you have the potential, you practice until you've got it. If you can't find someone who syncs with you, you find new partners until you find someone who does or you move server. You play with different people. Learn from them and from playing with them. You get better. You find better partners and start executing stuff better and better.

I know this sounds extremely cheesy and cliché but that's the way it is, together with flawless control over your class(es) you have to know how your opponent will play regardless of who your opponent is, if that makes any sense, and this comes almost only with practice. Rest is team work.

Then there's comp. Certain players wouldn't have glad or rank 1 titles if it wasn't for a certain comp during a certain season but those you should disregard. However people may put it, they're the minority, least as far as rank 1 goes - most people who have those titles would've gotten it sooner or later regardless of how powerful their comp was at the time.

[Ihsatakar]

Hardware/internet connection, class comp, and practice. Lots of practice. Mostly practice.

[blackone]

In PvE it's alot easier to point out why for example Ensidia performs better than my guild: time, dedication, min-maxing, keybinds, swapping out dps based on encounter etc.

Awesome. It didn't come to your mind that they might also be a little bit, you know, better than you?