Scatter Shot vs. Readiness in Arena

The survivalists greatest pvp dilemma: Scatter shot or Readiness in arena. I will be honest, the decision is very hard to make. It's like trying to figure out if you want a warm chocolate chip cookie or a fresh fudge brownie! The good news is: either way, you win. So, it is may be more important to consider your play style. Let's explore!

Crowd Control: 20 points
- Scatter Shot: Scatter shot allows you to neutralize your target while you place the trap at his feet. This make it easier to get traps on the desired targets. There are many moments in arena where a trap is placed and the opposing party can avoid it. Traps are more likely to work with scatter shot.

- Readiness: One would think readiness for trapping would be amazing. Unfortunately, this was ruined by diminishing returns. I can live with my traps having a diminishing return, but for my Wyvern Sting to share that return, is just ludicrous. That is a 31 point...a shaman can frost shock my 50 times in a row and never have a diminished return, but i can't trap then sleep him for two full cc's? Frost shock is free to everyone! Cyclone and roots also don't share cooldowns for druids and those are innate druid skills. No rogue skills stuns share it either. It is just nuts if you ask me.

What this really means is that readiness in arena for CC is near impossible to make as amazing as we would all like. It would be best served as a slowing/surviving mechanism. Use frost trap and then immediately use snakes or a second frost trap (if both frost traps are broken and you have the correct trap enhancing talent points you could cover a huge area in snow!). One nice thing about readiness is a double deterrence. Twenty seconds of immortality if you can keep the target in front of you.

Verdict: Scatter shot wins for arena in the cc realm because you will never need to dual crowd control as much as you will need to scatter shot. Scatter shot is a huge utility (escaping, interrupting heals, positioning your trap target, etc.) and readiness needs to have a buff via the Wyvern cooldown not mixing with the trap cooldown. readiness is only nice for a double deterrence, but if you have scatter shot you wont need deterrence as much as you need the space created by scatter shot.

Scatter Shot:15 points

Readiness: 5 points

Damage Output: 20 points

- Scatter Shot:It is not the damage done by the shot, but the damage you do after the shot. More importantly, did the scatter stop a big heal and then your continued dps finish the deal. It is also important to note that a timely scatter followed immediately with an aimed shot is huge vs a healer + dps team.

- Readiness: Readiness provides you with an excellent opportunity to burst harder than any BM or Marksman ever could. If you rapid fire and then simply use wyvern sting as a stopping mechanism or as your best DOT, then you can have a big burst. The beauty of readiness is if you don't kill someone during this reign of DPS, then you get a do-over and they likely have spent many cooldowns. The ultimate arena burst.

- Verdict: Readiness wins in a landslide for dps. The one issue it has is that arena is all about line of sight these days. So, regardless of your dps output, you need the target to stay in your view. If he takes a corner and you are set 20 yards away, you will have wasted that rapid fire running over to him. Scatter shot allows for you to position and control better to do more dps after the scatter has set up the opponent. Maybe not a landslide after all.

Scatter Shot: 7 points

Readiness 13 points

Consistency: 20 points
- Scatter Shot: If you have 5% hit, then scatter shot is very dependable. Aside from an evasion tapped rogue, scatter is pretty much a guarantee. i would say scatter shot can be an important part of every win.

- Readiness: The ability itself will obviously always work, but it's effectiveness is in question. I would say (being generous) that Readiness can win 30% of your arena battles by itself. Most of the time the shared cooldowns or misplaced traps will waste Readiness and it will have proved useless if things don't go exactly right.

- Verdict: Scatter Shot easily wins here. Readiness has too much luck factor to consider. Even if all goes well, if the other team survives then you are out of cards. Scatter will be back in a matter of seconds!

Scatter Shot: 14 Points

Readiness - 6 points

The Price: 20 Points
- Scatter Shot: 21st point with no pre-requisites. Easy to dabble in the Survival tree with scatter shot.

- Readiness: 41st point with with 5/5 Master Tactician points required to obtain it. The problems are are these: 1) 41 points is expensive for something with a 5 minute cooldown. 2) Master Tactician are points you would avoid for arena if you didn't have to use them for readiness. they aren't awful points, but they aren't as good as say, Improved stings (for arena).

- Verdict: Scatter shot is far more economical and provides for a lot of flexibility. Essentially you can get all the arena friendly points in survival and still have scatter shot! Readiness does however, bring a slight dps increase if master tactician proc's at the right time. Risky chance to make for points 35-40.

Scatter Shot: 12 Points

Readiness: 8 points

My overall experience: 20 points
Just to reflect on what has worked for me, let me say that scatter shot has long been in my arsenal. It is very difficult to avoid dying to warriors and rogues without scatter shot. Readiness simply doesn't have the escape power of scatter shot. On the other hand, readiness is amazing for your warlocks, mages and priests when you can keep them in your line of sight and in range. Having used both, I strongly lean to scatter shot for it's short cooldown and it's saving my butt when i really need it too (in a dependable way).

Scatter Shot: 16 Points

Readiness: 4 points

Final score comes to . . .

Scatter Shot: 64 points

Readiness 36 points

Take that for what it is: a random point system I tried to use to gauge the strengths of each ability when set beside the other. 13-7 simple means i feel in 20 scenarios, scatter would be better in 13 of them and readiness in 7.

Side Notes:
- The bigger the arena you are doing, the better readiness will get. That being said, I would still lean towards scatter in 5v5 arena simply for how powerful a successful trap is as opposed to a "maybe trap" when it is crucial. Play it by ear, your team may need some extra burst or some extra control. readiness gets the burst and scatter gets the control.

- What would make readiness the clear victor? If the survival 31st and 41st points were treated like 31st and 41st points. Wyvern Sting shouldn't share the same diminishing returns as traps. In addition, make readiness a 3 minute cooldown!! :)