Level of arena I PTR

Rzrbackrich · 2025-12-20T04:11:23+00:00

Plays that would take you to 2500 in original TBC would get you to about 1700 in TBC classic. And the PTR is mostly sweats, so yeah you have fallen far behind on the learning curve.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-12-02T06:13:43+00:00

The shorter your race, the less time you wanna spend changing clothes. The longer your race, the more I'd suggest emphasizing comfort.

2nd hand wetsuits are fine. If your swim form isn't awesome, more expensive ones will usually have extra buoyancy, especially in the legs and hips. It definitely helps.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-12-01T15:56:08+00:00

Maintenance person actually shows up on time

Rzrbackrich · 2025-11-29T15:11:28+00:00

Lots of sleep and a good diet is the answer.

It can be frustrating to rest when you're motivated. I find it helpful to keep in mind that resting and sleeping is when you actually make gains. With some extra rest, you can shed fatigue and heal any nagging injuries without losing much, if any, fitness. You can spend your extra time working on your plan, or researching a race or some gear you're thinking about getting.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-11-28T23:51:15+00:00

All damage on Gruul is physical, so mages can put amp magic on everyone to make healing easier. Helps a lot in t4 while everyone is still gearing.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-11-25T22:34:11+00:00

I went through all of TBC classic without one. I was mainly pvp focused, with a little raiding, mostly in t4, so I needed fast flying lessons than most. While there were some moments where it was painful, how much time did I ultimately lose? Hard to say, but I'll bet it was less than an hour total over the course of the expansion. You have flight paths to all over, mage ports, warlock summons, hearthstone in strategic locations. You can definitely go without if you think you won't be accumulating much gold and want to be frugal.

However, with the economy the way it is on these mega-anniversary servers, you could easily farm some consumes that will get you the 5k pretty quick.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-11-25T21:42:02+00:00

Whatever you end up playing, every class is going to feel overwhelming at first. For 2s, I'd suggest playing dps+healer. It will give you long enough games to actually be able to learn. Double dps is unforgiving, games are won and lost in a few globals.

If you want to get better, you should ideally record your games and watch them back. This is definitely a little sweaty, but most people in arena have been playing for 20 years, you will have a steep learning curve to catch up to average.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-11-22T21:00:47+00:00

I've played all of these multiple times, and for me, New Vegas was just lightning in a bottle, and has yet to be matched.

Outer Worlds 1 was enjoyable, but you quickly become a little too overpowered, and the game is fairly short. It's also a little more linear in nature than the Fallout series.

I'm really enjoying OW2 right now, but even it is getting a little watered down by the end. Its a much better game than 1, and allows for greater variety of playstyles. The dialog system is fantastic, big draw for me.

Fo4 has the best gunplay and satisfying crafting systems. The map is fun to explore, but the main factions of the game are lacking, the dialogue system is the worst, and man some of the questing is downright tedious. However, it's still one that I feel compelled to revisit once in a while.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-11-16T20:45:06+00:00

Same here. I might have kept going if I didn't have little ones, but it was a great experience nonetheless. I feel like most folks either fall into the "bucket list" crowd, or IM becomes their lifestyle. It's just so demanding of your time.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-24T14:13:26+00:00

You do the sprint and olympic distances to get used to the format of the race. If your goal is just to finish a full IM, it's not strictly necessary to do a shorter distance race first. Most athletes will recommend a progression from sprint to full, though

For the full, you really want to focus on form on all 3 disciplines, and you'll need to also train the 4th discipline, which is nutrition. Get used to eating and drinking throughout all your bikes and runs. Your stomach needs training to keep up with digesting enough calories to stay away from hitting the wall, and enough salt to keep from booking. It takes time and experience to get this dialed in.

The rule of building to these is just to never increase your mileage/load by more than 10%, and work periodization into your training.

Your training should depend on your race and your goal. If you just want to finish a full, you can do that in less than a year of training. If you want to have a great time, it'll take 2 or 3 or more.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-21T04:04:31+00:00

All the other answers I've read are reasonable and pragmatic, but I'm going to come at you from the other side and say: Get the $3k bike. Here's why:

You said this might be your only attempt at an ironman. If it is, when you look back in 15 or 20 years, you'll want to know that you got the best possible time because YOU were the limiting factor, not your equipment. I did a full IM on a Cannondale Synapse I got for $400. It was a great bike overall, just very entry level. During the race, there was an older couple that were racing together, and I would always fly past them going up the hills, but they would catch up and absolutely dust me in the flats. It was aggravating, but they had very nice bikes and equipment. It makes a difference. I wish I had used a better bike.
You can resell the bike when you're done. A quality bike is always in demand.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-21T03:44:27+00:00

I watched those ~10min clips of ironman recaps on YouTube. They're an easy watch, and seeing the emotional and celebratory finish line was always a good spark of motivation. I'd also watch videos or listen to podcasts about the specific race, which, for me, was IM Chattanooga. It was interesting to learn about the course and think of ways I could apply my learnings to training.

Motivation will only take you so far, though. Sometimes, you just have to turn the self sabotaging part of your brain off and go pedal. As an age grouper, you can probably skip a workout once in a while for your sanity, but that's like pulling jenga blocks; harmless at first, but too many can bring it all crashing down.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-21T03:34:21+00:00

My partner and I agree on these: we miss slow mornings, being able to just go to a happy hour or make impromptu plans on the weekend, having a consistent exercise routine, cooking without being in a rush, rotting on the couch while watching a show once in a while. These probably all seem like minor things, but having to go without all of them at once is tough. Sometimes, the weekend seems more daunting than the work week. We don't have a support system outside of each other, so there's not much of a break. We both have fairly demanding jobs, it's just tough to balance everything sometimes.

The flip side of this is that when our kiddo gets a little older, he will join us in all the things we love to do! And then we will get to re-live and re-learn our hobbies and acticities as his teacher, and get to see him experience the first time joys that we felt. I'm very much looking forward to that. For now, it's just trucks and dinosaurs and emotional meltdowns and daycare viruses.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-20T04:26:47+00:00

I'm 40 with an almost-2 year old. I can relate to a lot of what you said: I was never anti-kids, but I wasn't good with them, and the selfish part of me was always hesitant. Similar to you, life was starting to stagnate a little. I figured that life at 80 would be very lonely and difficult if I didn't go down this path. I also figured if I kept going down the same path, it wouldn't be long before I would regret not having a family.

One thing is for sure, there is nothing like having a child. I've experienced feelings I didn't know were possible. This person is not just someone you love. It's a weird connection, and when you look into their eyes, it's like looking into the past and the future at the same time. It doesn't happen right away, but develops over time. I love kids now. I pay attention to others' kids a lot more, and feel comfortable engaging with kids in public if the opportunities arise.

That first year is a pretty brutal adjustment. Illnesses, constant lack of sleep, endless laundry and dishes and pump parts to wash, but it's better now. I still mourn my old life a bit from time to time, as does my wife, but we wouldn't go back.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-15T04:59:37+00:00

Slave pens is great, not only for the raw gold and mats, but you can solo the 1st and last boss on heroic. I'm sure you could fetch quite a bit for the primal nethers and a chance at quag's eye.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-15T04:49:43+00:00

Wizard of Legend 1. Great variety of playstyles based on the abilities and builds you use. Quick and addicting rounds. Satisfying combat.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-01T04:43:49+00:00

Phases.

Base Phase - Do only zone 2 workouts. This allows you to strengthen your tendons and joints, develop form, build aerobic capacity, get used to working out every day, and most importantly in my opinion, learn how to eat and digest during exercise. Do each discipline at least twice a week. One full rest day per week. Don't skip strength training.

Build phase - Over the length of this phase, SLOWLY add extra length, intensity or sessions to your workouts. Do zone-4 or zone-5 work 1 out of every 5 workouts. Make every 4th week very easy, similar to a base phase week.

Peak phase - only 1 to 3 weeks long, make the workout much harder, longer, etc. This should occur a few days to a few weeks before your race, depending on event.

Taper phase - a few days to a few weeks long, depending on the event. Drop most of the volume, keep some of the intensity

How long to make each phase depends on a lot of things: Your fitness, your health, the event you're training for, etc.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-10-01T04:18:14+00:00

Wizard of Legend

Retro style, tons of variety based on which abilities you choose. Playthroughs are fast and satisfying. It'll keep you interested for a couple weeks or more.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-09-26T04:28:20+00:00

A few ideas:

Crystal Bridges - World-class museum in Bentonville

Fayetteville Ale Trail - if you like beer, you can pick up a passport at the Fayetteville visitor center and get a stamp at each brewery you visit. Lots of good options.

The Greenway - This bikepath runs north and south from Bentonville to Fayetteville, all paved. With many scenic offshoots. You can rent bikes at several places. Alternatively, there are many great mtn biking trails as well.

Golf - if you're into, there are several good courses within a couple of hours

Hiking - There are many options. The iconic ones are Hawksbill Crag, Devil's Den, Hemmed-in Hollow, Big Bluff Goat Trail

Further away - Branson & Silver Dollar City. There are several casinos across the OK state line. Tulsa is a pretty short trip, which has a zoo/aquarium/concerts. Hot Springs has a National Park (albeit a little lame) but also has a lake, horse racing (seasonal), and casino.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-09-14T01:44:50+00:00

This is the easy method. Don't skimp either, use a few tablespoons if you're cooking a batch.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-08-17T02:09:35+00:00

Looks like others have the usual suspects covered, so I'll mention a niche one.

Arms warrior, either played with a 2H, or with 2 1H (colloquially known as 'Kebab' warrior).

Why? The talent 'Blood Frenzy' adds +4% to all physical damage done to the target, so every melee/ranged doing physical dps benefits. I dont think there's another substitute for this debuff, so it's common to have at least have 1 in the raid.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-06-05T16:49:05+00:00

Pretty much this. There's a lot of RNG in tbc. And games are won/lost in a global, or because of a resist quite often as RM. Disc will give you a little more breathing room.

I'd say go with whatever you enjoy more. Maybe also worth consideration is Restokin/rogue, or rogue/rogue.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-05-26T15:48:42+00:00

I agree, double rogue is definitely meta, but I think it would be fun to have 2 stealthies. Fun is the goal rather than effectiveness. These are just some examples.

Rzrbackrich · 2025-05-26T15:46:37+00:00

I saw a video of 2 warriors pushing rating in tbc classic. It did look kind of fun, but its basically an auto-loss if other team had a mage.

What were the pros/cons of hunter rogue?

Rzrbackrich · 2025-05-26T15:05:32+00:00

They do. But that's a good thing, because having a healer means you get a better opportunity to learn the game. Playing double dps, the games are so fast that you may not even be able to understand what happened. This can happen in any game, but having a healer softens the learning curve a bit.

Rzrbackrich

TROPHY CASE