Filed under: PvP

Deepwind Gorge: Simple strategy guide

by Olivia Grace May 23rd 2013 at 8:00PM

Deepwing Gorge is the newest battleground in the game, added in patch 5.3. At this precise point in time, it is not in the Rated Battleground rotation, thanks to some bugs, but it will return fairly soon. Nonetheless, this guide is intended for random groups, not for rated teams, who, with additional organization, will be able to execute more complex and precise strategies.

What are we supposed to be doing?

Good question. There are three mines, the Goblin mine, the Center mine, and the Pandaren mine. I wrote about this in more detail back when this was still on the PTR, but suffice it to say, for now, that the Horde has a slight advantage in getting to the Goblin mine, while the Alliance has a slight advantage in getting to the Pandaren mine. As a result of that, a strategy that seems to work well enough for random groups is to split your team, sending around half to the Center mine, and half to either the Goblin or Pandaren mine, depending on which faction you're playing. You will also need to take a few players, depending on your healer numbers, to get the opposite faction's cart. I've been having success with a warrior and a couple of healers as a cart team, but you will need heals at the Center mine, where most of the fighting will take place.

Filed under: PvP

Random Battleground healer balance system temporarily disabled

by Olivia Grace May 22nd 2013 at 8:00PM

Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka tweeted just a short while ago about the temporary removal of one of patch 5.3's shiny new systems: the one that balances healer numbers in opposing random battleground teams.

@phxtich We had to disable the healer balance system as it had a bug that only revealed itself with live numbers of users.
- Holinka (@holinka) May 22, 2013

Holinka later confirmed that this issue was the one that was causing some players to experience very long queue times for random battlegrounds, an issue that had cropped up in several places on the official forums. His tweet said that players, both healers and DPS, were becoming "stuck" in the queue.

As a result, the system has now been temporarily disabled. This means that teams with unequal healer numbers will reappear, so don't be surprised that the system is not working. Bugs do happen, and as I'm always going on about, PvP is a rare thing on the PTR. So it's no surprise that, when big new features like this go live, they might not withstand the strain. If you want to stop these problems, don't QQ, get on the next PTR and make with the stabby. You'll be doing yourself a favor! And while you're waiting, WoW Insider has a guide on helping the healers you do have in random battlegrounds.

Filed under: PvP

Hotfix incoming to fix Seat of Knowledge death issues

by Matthew Rossi May 22nd 2013 at 11:00AM

If you're on a PvP realm, you may have noticed that with the release of Patch 5.3 that things have gotten kind of hectic at the Seat of Knowledge, where Lorewalker Cho hangs out when he's not pushing buttons randomly in MSV. Apparently the guards at the Seat simply cannot cope with the increased volume of Horde/Alliance aggression, and players who die in the fracas are finding out that they can't easily get back to their bodies.

Rygarius, ever the helpful hippogryph, informs us that there's a hotfix on the way to smooth out these issues and allow players to get back to their bodies if they die ignominiously at Cho's feet. Or in the vicinity of his feet. His feet will be close, is what I'm saying. We're told that the hotfix may require a realm restart to take affect, so be on the watch for that.

Filed under: PvP, Mists of Pandaria

Conquest Vendors temporarily disabled

by Olivia Grace May 21st 2013 at 8:00PM

Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has taken to the US and EU forums to explain a temporary issue that has led Blizzard to temporarily disable the Conquest quartermasters for both factions.

Daxxarri

The achievement, Tyrannical Conquest, is only intended to be awarded when players earn 25,000 Conquest Points. Due to an issue that was not detected during the PTR testing process, the achievement could be awarded much earlier than intended. We are currently in the process of working to resolve the issue.

In the meantime, we've applied a hotfix that temporarily prevents players from purchasing gear from Tyrannical PvP item vendors.

source

This achievement required a hotfix back in patch 5.2, too, as it was incorrectly calculating the points required. It seems that, with patch 5.3, things have gone from bad to worse. The reason this is an issue is that the achievement's completion, at 25,000 conquest, now allows players to purchase conquest gear with honor. Allowing players to purchase that gear with honor at a far lower points earned level than intended was clearly a bit of an issue! Hopefully the developers will be able to implement a fix very soon, so that PvPers can continue to purchase their gear.

Update: Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka tweeted WoW Insider this morning to clarify that the only disabled vendor is the one selling Tyrannical gear for honor. The Tyrannical conquest vendor is, in fact, still available.

Filed under: PvP

Patch 5.3 PvP changes

by Olivia Grace May 21st 2013 at 7:00PM

From a PvP perspective, patch 5.3 is one of the biggest patches in a really long time. A really, really long time! WoW Insider has been covering the changes from a PvP angle to a pretty reasonable extent, from the first moment the resilience changes were announced, through the new arena and the new battleground, right up to the more recent alterations to tank damage and the like. All our coverage is collected in one easy place, so do check it out if you're searching for more information.

So we've struck upon a few changes already, but let's dig into the patch notes and provide some additional clarity. I've pulled out the PvP-specific items from the patch notes, but if you want to see them in full, that's absolutely fine too.

Filed under: PvP

Your PvP Questions: Spell announcers, MMR and patch 5.3

by Olivia Grace May 15th 2013 at 8:00PM

It's been a little while since I last did a PvP mailbag, and the emails have been piling up! So, if you have PvP questions, do drop me a line, I will do my best to respond to them, possibly in columns such as this one, or if I can fire off a quick email I will. Do note that I'm far from a PvP specialist in all the classes in WoW, and PvP questions which are class-specific would probably be better directed to the relevant class columnist.

Janrana wrote:

Hi Olivia, since reading about it a while back in one of your columns I've been a big fan of SpellAlerter, but it doesn't seem to have had any updates in a long while and is a bit broken for me. It doesn't seem to have all the spells any more and it also causes some errors to appear when it's on. Do you know of any alternative?

As it happens, I do! First and foremost SpellAlerter is alive and well... ish. It was updated for patch 5.1, but hasn't had any further updates since then. It still works at least fairly well, but I wouldn't rely on it completely. At least, it still allows you to set up custom alerts, so if there are spells it's missing you can add them in.

Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

Should WoW add a Deathmatch Battleground?

by Matthew Rossi May 3rd 2013 at 7:00PM

I was reading twitter as I often do... no, really, it's for work, I'm not just wasting time posting jokes about wearing a crown roast as a helmet... when I saw Nethaera post this tweet, which led me to this forum thread. While perusing the thread I eventually found Neth's response to it, and that got me thinking about the concept.

Nethaera - Could we get a PvP battleground?

Battle grounds have always been missing an important part of world pvp.... PvP. Make it like a big arena but not so big that people can't hide. 10 to 15 players forced into all out pvp. First to so many kills or 10 minutes, whichever comes first, wins the round.

No need to even create an area for it. Just make a copy of Blackrock mountain in an instance.

That is PvP I would actually like... its the reason I liked AV so much back before it was turned into race where pvp sometimes breaks out.

What you're asking for is a straight Death Match type of Battleground. I'm not sure it would be compelling as you think. I'm a big fan of DM as well, at least in FPS', but for an MMO like World of Warcraft, I question how enjoyable it would be in the long run for people. I think for players who feel very comfortable with their abilities, straight head on PvP like that would be fun for them, but for others, I'm not sure it would have the same appeal.

That said, I'm not killing the discussion. I'm just interested in how you feel this would work or appeal to a wide enough audience for it to be worth creating.

source

I have in the past advocated a deathmatch style BG because I do understand the original poster's point. But let's really take a look at what a deathmatch BG would have to entail.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Mists of Pandaria

Finally, a title for someone Gorgeous like me

by Michael Sacco Apr 30th 2013 at 7:00PM

It's hard being pretty in Azeroth. Everyone's always like "quick, we need you in Arathi Basin right now, I don't care if you're wearing your expensive tunic" or "what do you mean you didn't come fight Nalak because you were busy washing your hair?" There's no thought to how being beautiful might consume our time -- nay, our very being. Some things cannot be rushed, and beauty is one of those things. Do people not appreciate beauty, or do they simply not realize it when they see it? Well, no more. Blizzard has provided every fortunate son and daughter of Azeroth a way to broadcast just how lovely they are: the Gorgeous title, available in patch 5.3 as the reward for the meta achievement for Deepwind Gorge, the brand-new battleground. Sure, it'll take some legwork. Sure, you might break a nail or end up with split ends or, worse, have to interact with trolls in any way whatsoever. But think of how much easier your life will be when you can say "Please excuse me from tonight's challenge dungeon; I'm overdue for an eyebrow waxing," and people will open their mouths, look at your title, and say "Ah, yes. Of course. That seems reasonable."

Filed under: PvP

Patch 5.3 PTR: PvP Power percentage nerfs

by Olivia Grace Apr 28th 2013 at 4:00PM

The latest PTR build has brought with it a change to PvP Power, as MMO-Champion reported earlier today. The change was to the amount of points of PvP Power that it takes to push your percentage up by 1%. The number of points for a 1% increase in PvP Power went from 265 to 400. Currently, if you have, say, 12,000 PvP Power, on live servers you would get around +45% damage from PvP Power, and 22.6% additional healing from PvP Power.

On the PTR, however, 12,000 PvP Power will only give you an extra 30% damage from PvP Power, and, at current numbers, which are still fairly fluid, around 30% extra healing. Of course, don't forget with those healing numbers that Battle Fatigue has been increased to a proportionate level.

This change was a little surprising, so I did what I always do now, tweeted Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka to get his input on the change. He tweeted the following shortly thereafter:

PvP Power change intentional. Reduce gear gap. Reduce bursty damage/healing gameplay. Reduce power of sockets.
- Holinka (@holinka) April 27, 2013

Holinka makes some excellent points. This is a great way to reduce the power of sockets, and to bring down the burst which has caused such problems this season, as well as taking healing down in proportion. So what's all the fuss about? Well, players are worried that, with the resilience changes, this will make PvE gear a more equal or even superior choice for PvE come patch 5.3. And it's a reasonable concern. While it's great that PvE gear will be viable for PvP, PvP gear should still be the out-and-out best.

I discussed the comparisons between various levels of PvE gear and PvP gear in an earlier article, but this change may well alter these numbers. Both Cynwise and Eldacar, PvP maths masters, are looking at the numbers, so we'll have to wait and see the result. Preliminary reports from ArenaJunkies look good, still asserting that PvP Power is strong enough to beat PvE gear. Also, I can't help thinking that Holinka and his team have considered this issue. To repeat my earlier message, don't panic!

Do you want to capture flags, invade cities, attack towers, and dominate the enemy for your faction? Do you dream of riding your War Bear with pride? We'll steer you to victory with secrets of Battlegrounds and Arena, prepping you with proven addons and keybindings that win! Send questions or comments to olivia@wowinsider.com.

Filed under: PvP, Mists of Pandaria

Which battleground might get the axe?

by Olivia Grace Apr 22nd 2013 at 7:00PM

We talked briefly about the most recent Ask The Devs on PvP in the patch 5.3 PTR, but one thing that came up which merited further discussion was the following quote:

Blizzard

Question - (Olivnia, Stormscale):
A new battleground and arena are planned for patch 5.3. This is really cool, do we have any more plans for battlegrounds and arenas and what can you share about these?

Answer - (Systems Design Team):
There is nothing new in the pipeline at this time. We may spend some time fixing older ones. We have a lot of data now about which Battlegrounds players are voting out of participating in, so that gives us some direction on which Battlegrounds we could potentially fix . . . or even cut.

source

The notable part here is the last bit. Cut a battleground? That's new. Not really what anyone expected. So the question is, which battleground might be cut and why?

Filed under: PvP

Five ways to help a healer in random battlegrounds

by Olivia Grace Apr 22nd 2013 at 4:00PM

Do you wish there were more healers in random battlegrounds? Do you hang your head on the many occasions when your faction ends up with just one healer and the other side has four or five? Isn't your faction just the worst at PvP? Your faction, hey? What scrubs. So, what can you do to improve these healer numbers? What can you do to ensure there are more healers backing you up when you charge a boomkin, priest and elemental shaman at Lumber Mill all by yourself with your trinket on cooldown? Help your healers, that's what.

Here's some insight for you from an experienced PvP healer: healing random battlegrounds is really not that much fun. There are various reasons why, and I'll get to them, but what we're really here to talk about is how you can make your healers' experience a better one. Why should you care? They'll keep you alive if you do. And being alive is considerably more fun than being dead!

1. Identification

In order to help out your healers and keep them happy in battlegrounds, you'll need to know who they are. Now, when I'm healing, the first thing I'll do on zoning into a battleground is right-click my character portrait, go through the drop-down to set my role, and choose healer. My hope is that, by taking these simple steps, I can point out to those around me that I'm healing. I'm going to be keeping them alive, or trying to.

Filed under: PvP

Ask the Devs PvP changes now up

by Matthew Rossi Apr 19th 2013 at 1:00PM

Not too long ago it was announced that there would be an Ask the Devs dedicated to the patch 5.3 PTR changes. Now, it's here. If you're dying to know exactly how all these changes are going to play out, this is the Q&A for you. Some highlights:

At patch 5.3, gear will simply be capped. During patch 5.4 the plan is for the cap to go up so that new gear will have a purpose in PvP.
They are still considering ways to calculate the cap (one possibility being a cap based on the average of your gear rather than a flat cap). Elite PvP gear is intended to be a cosmetic difference.
The goal is not to prevent PvE gear in PvP - would be simple to do just that, but rather to make it so players who are in full Conquest gear don't feel forced to run PvE for trinkets and other off pieces.
Resilience changes are based around the idea that resilience was too necessary to have any chance in PvP - this way, you can gear to overcome it.
PvP power on Conquest gear will mean a PvP geared player will have an edge on all but fully heroic geared PvE players in World PvP, and will be fairly even against them. World PvP is inherently less fair than structured PvP, part of its charm.
They will be discussing other PvP rewards down the road now that Elite gear is cosmetic, other PvP rewards that aren't just gear.

So for all that plus a lot more, go give the Ask the Devs PvP edition a read.

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, Mists of Pandaria

Shado-Pan Trinket Hotfixed for PvP

by Olivia Grace Apr 18th 2013 at 5:00PM

A forum thread was created earlier today by a concerned agility trinket user, talking about the changes to their preferred piece, the Shado-Pan Assault trinket with the agility proc. This has been the subject of a lot of complaints from PvPers, as the proc is so incredibly strong that it's easily the best-in-slot for agility classes in PvP. There are also similar changes being made to the strength version.

Basically, in a similar vein to the usual PvP proc nerfs, they have altered the effect of the trinkets to be half as potent, and last twice as long. But, fear not players who are using this for PvE, as Nakatoir clarifies, the change is only applicable in PvP environments. The tooltip hasn't yet been updated, as this requires a client side patch, but checking your character sheet while in a battleground or arena will reveal the change.

These changes will also be impacted in patch 5.3, when item level downscaling comes to PvP situations, as Nakatoir calculates, saying that "the value of the stat proc in 5.3 will be approximately 3454, with Superluminal lasting 40 seconds and Surge of Strength lasting 30 seconds". Players have still been asserting that this trinket is one of the best available, so it will be interesting to see if any further alterations are made. Nakatoir adds that the devs don't intend to prohibit PvE gear in PvP, so maybe there will be no further changes.

Filed under: PvP

Patch 5.3 PTR: Flag carrying deals more damage to tanks

by Olivia Grace Apr 17th 2013 at 5:00PM

The most recent batch of patch 5.3 PTR notes caused quite the stir thanks to one particular bullet point referring to PvP. WoW Insider thought this merited some clarification and background, and, it seems, so did both Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka, and Lead Systems designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, as both made an effort to clarify the change on Twitter. The change reads as follows:

Blizzard

Picking up the Alliance or Horde flag while in a Rated Battleground now increases damage taken by 50% for characters in a tanking specialization, and increases damage taken by 20% for characters in a non-tanking specialization.

source

To be completely clear, in an effort to avoid confusion, this change is currently only active on the patch 5.3 PTR, not on live servers. What's more, it only relates to Rated Battlegrounds. This is not applicable to random battlegrounds.

With that housekeeping out of the way, there's something else that everyone should know when assessing the weight and purpose of this change, which Brian Holinka clarified via Twitter shortly after the patch notes were released.

Filed under: PvP

Patch 5.3: New Battleground Deepwind Gorge

by Olivia Grace Apr 17th 2013 at 3:00PM

Patch 53 PTR New Battleground Deepwind Gorge

The battleground is set in a relatively large map, reflective of its 15v15 size, with three mines in a north-south line across the middle. From the top to the bottom of the map, they are the Pandaren Mine, the Center Mine, and the Goblin Mine. The Alliance base is at the eastern end of the map, with the Horde starting at the western end. There is only one graveyard on either side.

As can be seen from the screenshot in the header image, there's a pretty open central run from the Alliance to the Horde bases, both of which look down on the Center Mine, which is indicated by the vertical beam of light in the middle of the image, and in the middle of the map!

Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

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