Despite the Extreme Masters moving slowly closer to the business end of the season, World of Warcraft news has come slow and steady. Much more of a trickle than a stream. God only knows how many times I’ve started a column with a similar disclaimer but something about WoW makes PvP news ebb and flow rather than gush.

For dragonslayers it’s been a busy, hectic and exciting time. Ever since 3.3 was released on the PTR it’s been an almost non-stop torrent of tweaks, changes and announcements. From pointless vanity pets to loot and boss information, barely a day goes by without something getting the lava-dodgers wetting themselves with anticipation.

But arena just keeps plodding along. Season seven seems to be becoming WoTLK’s answer to the eternal TBC season three. Will every expansion take three seasons to get balance close to okay and then make that season last months and months? I guess we’ll have to wait for Cataclysm to find out.

It’s not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with season three being the peak in itself. It’s just that, rather than coming across as consistent, it just feels a bit dull. Maybe it’s my server, which was one of the worst hit by faction transfers. Alliance on Lightning’s Blade was never particularly great, but now it’s like a graveyard. If only I had the funds or the inclination to transfer myself! Hell, if I could even make up my mind and stick to gearing up one character it’d be a start.

I’ve written in the past about the on-season/off-season fluctuation in WoW. But over the last few months it feels more like on-fortnight/off-fortnight. We had the most exciting MLG tournament in the league’s history, followed by… well, nothing. We had the Extreme Masters qualifiers (filled with unheard of teams), followed by a week of… yep, nothing.

Ah, yes, the unheard of teams. This has always been, and continues to be, one of the biggest stumbling blocks of WoW. It’s hard to get excited about people you’ve never heard of playing under some ridiculous (though sometimes quite funny) name. The way teams change names and lineups without even telling anyone is not only confusing, it’s quite irritating for coverage staff here. Even the ESL commentators took the qualifying rounds less seriously, and that really is saying something. It’s almost like you can feel a sense of drudgery seeping into the entire game, and even 2GD and co can’t avoid it.

Unfortunately, it seems like this is likely to continue for a while yet. Dreamhack is the only upcoming tournament and almost no teams have signed up. Defending champions Godmode (ex-Ensidia) are unlikely to attend due to their lack of sponsorship and I know for a fact that SK won’t be going. What kind of message will it send out to the attendee(s) from Blizzard? We don’t care about PvP in Europe, can we have more lava to avoid standing in please?

Hopefully Dreamhack will prove me wrong somehow but at the moment I’m expecting this column to be about WC3 again next week.

The Zechs Files returns next Tuesday, but you can follow me on Twitter for regular updates. Check out last week's (WC3) column by clicking here.