Posts with tag PvP

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill is free to pet battle all day, e'ry day.

I tried to gauge when Patch 5.3 would hit so that I'd end the series on World of Logs just in time, but unfortunately I overestimated and the new patch has cut me off. With my original plan of posts, I'd be a week short, but now...uhhhh it might be a halftime break.

In case you've missed the World of Logs posts so far, here's a recap:

• A brief overview of ranking and the combo of how to tell what warlock or pet you would or should be looking at,
• Looking closer at some of the graphs on World of Logs, and
• How to use the buffs and debuffs graph to gauge proper cooldown or proc usage, as well as a basic understanding of what stats (for trinket procs) do for each spec.

I intend to explore some warlock-specific examples using the expression editor to dive deep into the combat log, but I'm not sure I can fit it all into one post. I'll finish the series off with a deeper look at the damage done tables and how the spells spread for each spec in general raid encounter styles.

But this week? This week is a little shorter and lighter while we go over what Patch 5.3 means for warlocks.

There are certain things in WoW that I just don't do, not because I don't think they're fun, but because they intimidate me. Those activities would be tanking and PvP. Here's the thing, I don't dislike those thing, and actually, I'd love to do more of them! Sometimes I'll sit down and think, "Yeah, I would love to try tanking that boss!" or "Man, running battlegrounds seems like fun!" And then I kind of swallow anxiously and think, "Well, maybe another day..."

What's ridiculous about this, for me, is that I have successfully done both those activities in the past. I tanked tier 9 on my druid when my 10-man team needed a change of pace, and I spent significant periods of time in Arathi Basin circa level 45 back in Burning Crusade, also on my druid. Feral PvP was fun! And challenging! Those were the days when you couldn't transfer directly between druid forms; you had to shift to caster form in between (i.e. bear > caster > cat), so there were some different challenges to manage compared to PvE, and I like that! Oh, I also tanked on my paladin when he was a lowbie - Shadowfang Keep, Blackfathom Deeps, stuff like that. Considering I once had so much fun doing these things, I have no idea why I find it so intimidating now!

Do you have any similar hang-ups in WoW? What aspects of the game intimidate you? What would it take for you to give it a shot?

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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.

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."

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• 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.

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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.

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Mists of Pandaria is like playing in a field of daffodils while drinking from a mug of stout. Very little to complain about, if you don't mind the eternal dailies. But even with the household chore of doing your dailies, there's one element I still miss from previous expansions: Wintergrasp. (Or Tol Barad, if you prefer).

While Wintergrasp and Tol Barad both had their design challenges, always revolving around that unpredictable critter called human behavior, these World PvP Zones provided dynamics to the game you can't reproduce with queued BGs.

It was a place to play with your server mates, matching your own PvP skills against other folks from your server. While you might run across a familiar face in the regular BGs, Wintergrasp and Tol Barad were the best places to get your home server action happening. These days, Alliance vs. Horde guild rivalries feel a little silly. You don't see each other to have a real feud, unless you're on a PvP server.

The fight timing of the zones lent itself to "WoW breaks." Busy cleaning the house, studying for a test, and otherwise being a productive member of society? Well, trotting off to Wintergrasp or TB when it was up provided a nice, occasional timed break. That probably seems like a minor thing, since you could just do the same as with a BG, but the game's enforced timing gave that work-break-work habit a more natural feel. And the Pomodoro Technique of productivity is effective for a reason. This was the Wintergrasp Technique.

A wild post has appeared on the EU forums, detailing the ground rules for an upcoming "Ask the Developers" opportunity relating to the PvP changes on the patch 5.3 PTR. It's currently locked, but on April 9th the thread will go live for 48 hours, during which time players are encouraged to post all of their PvP-related questions and to vote on their favorites. Don't ignore the voting option, because Blizz will be prioritizing their responses by popularity, and the questions with the most votes are the most likely to be answered.

There are also some ground rules for how the thread will work that are typical for "Ask the Dev" designated posts, and shouldn't be anything new for forum veterans. If you're planning on participating in the post, it's worth reading over them so your questions have the best chance of being taken seriously. So far it looks like this Q&A opportunity is only available to those with EU forum access, but we'll keep our eyes peeled for any similar posts appearing on the North American forum. You can find the full blue post behind the cut.

Over at the World of Warcraft official blog the announcement is finally live - PvP season 13 has begun! Ratings have been reset for both rated battlegrounds and arena teams. If you've been waiting to get back in the other-player-slaughtering-game, your time is nigh. I unfortunately have a laggy internet connection and terrible twitch reflexes, so I will not be joining you all, but good luck to those who participate. May you see your name in lights atop the leaderboards!

For more information about PvP in patch 5.2, check out these further resources from WoW Insider:

• PvP in patch 5.2: Gear changes, resilience changes, class changes
• Battleground queue changes save us from ourselves
• Updated: No more /follow in battlegrounds
• Patch 5.2 PvP healing changes
• Preparing for PvP in patch 5.2

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It's an eternal challenge. You're not the best PvP player in the whole wide world, but you want to get started. How do you make someone think you're pretty good at PvP? How do you make someone think you're an experienced battleground hero? That's where Slightly Impressive's newest video comes in. How to Trick People Into Thinking You're Okay at PvP will get you by!

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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Does logging in fill you with dread?

Do you feel obligated to log in? Are you only playing because you feel like it's expected of you, or that your guild will fall apart without you? Do you resent them for it? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then you, dear reader, are suffering from player burnout.

Player burnout is a consequence of social gaming. In a game like World of Warcraft, activities like raiding, arena or rated battlegrounds cannot be accomplished alone, they require groups of people to engage in them. They require scheduling and ask us to do more than simply show up and play - there's research into strategies, learning proper group composition, handling the minutia of loot distribution or discussing how to counter specific enemy action or what have you. Especially when leading a group of players into these situations, there's a level of added responsibility. Be it as a tank, as a DPS lead, as the person calling for focus fire in arena, the flag carrier in rated BG play, or as the person behind the scenes managing loot council or running the website, players can grow exhausted with what comes to feel like a burden.

So what if you're going through player burnout? What can you do about it? Well, I'm no psychiatrist, but there are a few things you can do in game to reduce your stress level.

This comes as a bit of a surprise, although WoW Insider's original post did point out the difficulties of discerning, in some cases at least, players who had involuntarily faced win-trading teams, from players who had actively engaged in win-trading.

Nonetheless, the attitude that suspending innocent players is worse than letting a few guilty players get away with cheating is probably one to be applauded.

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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.

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