Kisirani calls for focused testing on the Argent Tournament
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 19th 2009 at 5:00PM
Kisirani's thread on the official forums lays out a few things: First, a lot has changed since the early PTR. This means that if you only did the quests in the first week or two of the Tournament, you should try them again before submitting feedback. If you've never been to the Tournament before, Jean Pierre Poulain awaits you on Krasus' Landing in Dalaran. He'll send you out there for free. If you want to do it yourself, the Tournament is just north of Sindragosa's Fall.
What kind of feedback are they looking for here? Kisirani says: "Whatever feedback you have to share. Bugs, balancing issues, clarity of purpose, overall feel, portions you particularly like or dislike, quests you find too difficult or easy, how the fights feel against NPCs or other players... let us know your thoughts on the Tournament."
If you're on the PTR and Ulduar hasn't been on your radar, I think this is a good opportunity to make a difference. The Tournament is going to be the new hotspot for solo play, and it should prove to be great fun... if it works. So let's make sure it's working as intended before it goes live, eh?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Events
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dreyja Mar 19th 2009 5:25PM
This is good to hear. I'm not interested in hitting Ulduar myself on the ptr but I am PUMPED about the new content coming with the tournament (now that I know it's not arena stuff). This gives me something to work on other than fishing quests and hunter changes. ;)
if this turns out to be a double post-srry, browser issues. :)
Fried Mar 19th 2009 5:29PM
I'm never one to turn down more daily quests, so this event is gonna be great!
gundamxzero Mar 19th 2009 5:37PM
Really looking forward to being able to get more pets and mounts.
Lowangel Mar 19th 2009 5:41PM
So far it great, but dear lord the valiants and champions are so hard, they all have different strats, but there all OP.
Jay in Oregon Mar 19th 2009 11:49PM
You are correct in that they all have different strategies. They are not all overpowered, though a couple of them need to be tuned down in my opinion.
Just because these dailies do not involve PvP doesn't mean they don't want them to be challenging. Also, the current implementations allow you to gang up on an NPC, so the worst-case scenario would be that you team up with someone to finish the duels.
--Champion of Gnomeregan and Ironforge, currently stuck at 2 factions due to a bug.
Akhi Mar 20th 2009 8:31AM
The problem isn't really how hard it is to kill them...it's how long it takes. As soon as you figure out the best strategy to take them out (for a couple it's to always stay in melee range) it's pretty easy, it just takes forever. I've actually had some of the champions time out on me because I took so long to beat them down with a lance at melee range (which is an odd method of combat, imo). Plus they sometimes charge so far out of the arena that I get dismounted trying to stay close (at the beginning, I've learned how to maneuver to keep them in). Difficult doesn't have to mean tedious, and this is definitely tedious.
Coming from a PVP server, though, it is occasionally nice to have horde ride up and start shield-breaking my opponent out of the goodness of their hearts, plus it makes the fight go a lot faster. As long as Blizzard doesn't modify it so you can't get help from someone else, I'll be willing to grind through them long enough to get my mounts and pets, etc.
Avan Mar 19th 2009 6:27PM
I tried to test AT stuff, but it was just too impossible with taking 3 minutes to chop a tree down for lumber (because of lag), or the world server going down every 6 minutes.
Shruikan Mar 19th 2009 6:32PM
Do you get any rep with the qs in PTR or is it just for gold?
Haarits Mar 19th 2009 7:30PM
If by 'rep with the qs' you mean rep with quartermasters of each city, then yes. Sorta. I think you MIGHT get rep for doing the dailies at Valiant or Champion level for each city; I'm already Ambassador, so I don't know for sure. You DO get a writ as a reward choice from some of the quests (or a bag of 10g) that's redeemable for a city reputation token. I think it currently functions so you can only redeem it for a city you've reached Champion level with, since that's the only way to access their quartermaster.
Akhi Mar 20th 2009 8:33AM
You do for the tournament-related dailies, not for the construction dailies (lumber and stone).
Lucid Mar 19th 2009 6:56PM
I think the overlooked motivation towards this tournament is to provide lots of solo content for those who can't hit up Ulduar right away for whatever reasons. Its a good plan to help keep everyone happy all around.
Kryxx Mar 19th 2009 6:57PM
It amazes me how much free testing Blizzard gets from PTR players. They should reward the diligent testers with something, since it's saving their QA department thousands of dollars.
I test software for a living, so I would never even dream of doing any kind of testing for free. Kudos to those who do, though.
bakura Mar 19th 2009 7:01PM
In their eyes, the testers get one of the greatest rewards that they coudl have asked for, they get to see content before anyone else. For them, this is all that matters and the reason that the do the testing :)
Kemikalkadet Mar 19th 2009 7:01PM
It's a win/win situation though, there's are thousands of people willing to test this content for squat just to get a sneak peak at the new stuff. Testers are happy because they see things sooner, and get a look in at the development of new content; and blizzard are happy because they get free mass-testing of content. They don't need to offer an incentive because there'll always be people willing to do it for free.
Balius Mar 19th 2009 7:09PM
On the one hand, it's free grunt labor. On the other hand, the volunteer testers have no interest in actually testing the new content as opposed to simply playing through it, so the information you get is of very low quality in very high quantity.
Akhi Mar 20th 2009 8:40AM
Actually, most of the people on the PTR are over there to make sure that when the patch is released it works correctly right off the bat, with everything as balanced and un-buggy as possible. So far I've seen very few casual players copied over (possibly because they aren't aware of it, idk) and a disproportionately large number of Twilight Vanquishers and arena nether-drakes. Hardcore raiders get a lot out of seeing new content early, true, but the most important part for that group is knowing that when you're in Ulduar on your home realm, about to take a server first, an easily-fixable bug isn't going to keep you from finishing until the next Tuesday.
Dreyja Mar 19th 2009 7:15PM
I do it to give my guildies a leg-up and help my own learning curve. I take time to learn things and I'm a hunter officer so all the changes are going to effect game-play a bit and I'd like to help my hunters hit the ground running.
I like to find the new dailies at first to sooo... there ya go. Still if it was my job I'd likely be less amused by it all.
blightmare Mar 22nd 2009 1:21PM
I love the undercity mount it looks just like one of the 4HM's from naxx sweet. Which 1 rides the white one.
PeeWee Mar 20th 2009 9:51AM
I feel so stupid but.... what the heck is the Argent Tournament? If it involves PVP, don't bother to reply, though. =)
Evi Mar 20th 2009 11:35AM
It's PvE content coming to Icecrown. Check the tags used in the post above and you can find more information on it.