Blizzard has dropped a page up that introduces the first new battleground in the Burning Crusade expansion: it's called Eye of the Storm, and it works as kind of a cross between WSG and AB. The battlefield is 15v15 with four capture points connected by bridges, and a single flag spawn in the middle. Each tower has a different scheme to it (Draenei, Human, Fel Reaver, and Blood Elves), and players fight for control of the towers, but can earn extra "victory points" by bringing the flag to a tower controlled by their faction. A win earns Eye of the Storm marks of honor, of course, which can be turned in for honor rewards. EotS is for players 61-70, and the only other interesting point about it (besides, you know, actually playing it) is that there is no portal to it-- it can only be reached by talking to battlemasters in the major cities.

So far, the player reaction is... mixed (when players can actually see the battleground's page-- for a while tonight it was down in place of an XML error). A few players lament Warcraft for turning into Spacecraft-- from the screenshots, it's true that this is quickly becoming not your normal fantasy setting (but was it ever that anyway?). Some people think it sounds thrown together, and that the lack of a portal means Blizzard cut corners. But personally, that sounds more appetizing to me anyway-- the only way I ever use battlegrounds now is by hanging out in the cities.

Player are also asking if flight will be allowed in the BG, but Drysc says it will not, as it will allow some players to reach unreachable terrain. I agree that the idea Blizzard has cooked up for this one doesn't really sound original (I'd like to see a story based battleground, where players fight around events like the summonings in AV), but all in all, EotS sounds like a fun new take on a mix of old ideas. I'm sure that as soon as 30 players hit 61, we'll be hearing "3 INC FRR" all the time. In the meantime, we'll keep an "eye" (ha!) out for info on Azshara Crater, the other rumored BC battleground.

Tags: battleground, burningcrusade, eyeofthestorm, pvp

Filed under: Ranking, Blizzard, PvP, Instances, Expansions