Posts with tag PvP

3 things Battlegrounds should borrow from SW:TOR's Warzones

by Michael Gray Feb 22nd 2012 at 3:00PM

We talked the other day about three things I learned to love about Battlegrounds by playing Star Wars: The Old Republic's Warzones. Honestly, I stopped at three on purpose. There's so much to complain about in Warzones that it could keep a retribution paladin (which I am) busy for weeks. But I didn't want to give the wrong impression; I really do enjoy SW:TOR Warzones.

Warzones offer a different game, different playstyle, and significant change of pace for a grizzled PvP veteran. While I could just go all mushy about my assault cannon, I'm more interested in the design aspects that really work well in Warzones. With that in mind, here are three things I think WoW should borrow from Warzones.

(And no, I'm not talking about Huttball here. Huttball is fun and all, but it's just a specific game. That'd be like saying "SW:TOR isn't good because of Alterac Valley." That's not particularly helpful, even if I do love scoring a goal through a sweet ball-passing chain. I'm talking about overall game dynamics.)

Filed under: PvP

World of Warcraft War College: Getting Geared

by Mathew McCurley Feb 9th 2012 at 2:00PM

Daxxarri has hit the official World of Warcraft blog with a new feature called the World of Warcraft War College, a new initiative to open up the PvP scene to more players with information, forum topics, and discussion about breaking into player-versus-player action. Discussions between players, mixed with official Blizzard topic suggestion and input, are hoped to fuel a new avenue of information for players looking to get into the scene.

This week's discussion is all about getting geared up for PvP. Gear is important in PvP because of the resilience rating, which increases your effectiveness and defenses specifically against other players. Daxxarri asks players to discuss their best techniques and tricks to gear up quickly to be competitive in Battlegrounds and Arenas. Do you have something to share? Hit up the official thread on the WoW community forums.

Filed under: PvP

Retribution bug hotfixed, Vengeance temporarily returns to PvP

by Matthew Rossi Feb 2nd 2012 at 3:45PM

Zarhym has given us an update on the bug with Seal of Truth from yesterday, and it opens a fascinating window into the complexities of the code that ultimately is the World of Warcraft.

Zarhym - Update on Retribution Paladin Bug

The bug where paladin Seals could sometimes cause excessive damage has been fixed. This bug came as a result of a hotfix we put in to fix an issue where some attacks, such as Scatter Shot, were still causing Vengeance in PvP situations. While these things may seem totally unrelated, it has to do with our proc system, which is an extremely complicated mechanic under the hood. We reverted that hotfix, meaning you may sometimes see Vengeance in PvP. But we don't think that will present a major balance concern at this time.

To be clear, we have no current plans to take action against players who experienced this bug last night unless we come across any extreme cases. The error was ours and we haven't seen any evidence -- so far -- of players excessively exploiting the bug. We reserve the right to take action if we do find evidence of players crossing the line to repeatedly exploit this bug for major in-game advantages.

source

I won't lie, I find this fascinating. The idea that the issue lies in a system that on the surface would seem totally unrelated gives me the shivers just imagining what it must be like to maintain and advance the design for code that's been around for years and years. I have to agree that letting Vengeance sometimes pop up in PvP is probably the better option. It's only going to happen in an extremely limited set of circumstances, anyway.

I'm also glad only extreme edge cases will be seeing bans, as I had no idea the bug even existed while leveling my ret paladin last night and only figured it out afterwards.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.

Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Blizzard, Cataclysm

How to win at Warsong Gulch

by Michael Gray Jan 19th 2012 at 1:00PM

In our continuing efforts to help players new to PvP get out there and blow up other players, we're focusing this week on Warsong Gulch. We'll talk briefly about the rules of the game and then look at common strategies.

Warsong Gulch is one of the simpler Battlegrounds in terms of raw strategy. It's essentially Capture the Flag. Each team has a base, and a flag that sits in that base. Your team's goal is to grab the enemy's flag and return it to your base without losing your own flag. Do that, and you score. Score three times and you win.

When you pick up the flag, you can't mount or use certain effects without dropping the flag. Notably, druids and shaman can engage their travel forms while carrying the flag, making them speedy options for what's known as the flag carrier. (Speedy does not imply superior; we'll get into that later.) The longer the FC holds the flag, the more damage the FC will take from player attacks. When you kill an FC, the flag will temporarily sit on the ground, waiting for someone to pick it up. If the friendly team does so, the flag returns to base. If the enemy team does so, they now have a new FC.

There you go. Those are the basics.

Filed under: WoW Rookie

Is choosing a server becoming obsolete?

by Anne Stickney Jan 13th 2012 at 5:00PM

Let's hop in the wayback machine for a minute, because I enjoy doing that. Once upon a time in the days of vanilla WoW, players who had just purchased the game were faced with a choice upon logging in for the first time: What server would they call home? There were three different server types, each with their own flavor: PvP, for those that wanted to log in and have the opportunity to whale on the opposing faction at any given opportunity; PvE for those who would rather avoid fighting with other players and simply enjoy the content; and RP, for those who wanted to create character stories and roleplay with other characters. Later, the RP-PvP realm was introduced for roleplayers who really wanted to whale on the opposing faction as well as roleplay.

But the choice went beyond a simple matter of what type of game you wanted to play. Each server had its own cast of characters, and as the years went by, these players turned into friends and foes alike. Servers weren't just about how you wanted to play; they were a collection of people you interacted with on a daily basis. Guilds were composed of people with the same ideas in mind, but those guilds weren't the be all and end- all of your interaction with people in the game. Every server had that one guy who was always cracking jokes in trade chat. Every server always had a ninja or two. And of course, there was always the guy who didn't seem to get what social interaction was all about.

These days, we have cross-realm grouping via Real ID, the Raid Finder for those who don't want to bother with joining a raid guild, and now we've got the up-and-coming feature that will allow us to group with players cross-realm for raiding old content as well as the new stuff. So the big question is this: Do servers even have a purpose anymore?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

Breakfast Topic: Do you PvP to win or to make the enemy lose?

by Matthew Rossi Dec 24th 2011 at 8:00AM

I'm not sure why I do this, but every so often I spec protection, get on my best PvP gear, and go out of my way to prevent other players (opposing faction players, usually) from achieving their objectives -- not, to be clear, to prevent them from killing me or anyone else. No, I don't care if they kill me. The goal is to prevent them from achieving whatever the victory condition is.

Is it to capture a flag? Assault an enemy warmaster? Take over a base? It really does not matter. I seriously don't even care if we win sometimes, just so long as they don't. This is not always possible, mind you. But one of my best moments was in managing to charge into Drek's room on my tauren, hit every survival cooldown, and fear, then Shockwave the Alliance's healers, keeping them occupied just long enough for Drek to kill their tank. Did I survive it? Heck, no. Neither did they. And it was glorious -- even though we still lost.

Something about PvP just makes me like this. I don't care if I win, as long as you lose, forcing you to try and recap a tower or run back to Mage Tower, or even keeping you in mid-field while your flag runs back to the Dragonmaw base.

Have you ever felt this way? Have you even PvPed purely out of spite?

Gold Capped: This is the wrong way to do epic gems

by Basil Berntsen Dec 9th 2011 at 1:00PM

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail!

Epic gems are here, and they're designed differently than we're used to. To be specific, they're designed without fairness baked in, which is somewhat of a new feeling for people who weren't around buying epic gems in The Burning Crusade.

Fairness is actually the wrong word for this. Life isn't fair, and neither is WoW. Instead, I'll talk about balance. Blizzard has gone to great lengths to ensure that the game remains fun for as many people as possible by trying to avoid changes that suddenly disadvantage an arbitrary subset of players or shift the desirability of choices made a long time ago.

Balanced changes don't force competitive PvP and raiding group to play the gold-making game to be on a level footing with the competition. They also don't provide a tangible itemization difference between the profession perks of different crafting professions.

Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped

Blood Sport: How should you prepare for season 11 PvP?

by Olivia Grace Dec 7th 2011 at 5:00PM

WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs.

So you've had a week away from the arena. What have you been up to in that week? Playing in the autumn leaves? Finally cleaning your keyboard?

Or maybe you've been frantically gathering a transmogrification set (once you'd got over the fact that you couldn't transmogrify your paladin into a power ranger)? I know I have, and I'm now in love with Kezzik in Area 52! Perhaps you've been running the new dungeons or flirting with the new raid? ...Or ganking your GM in the Darkmoon Faire's Deathmatch Arena, like @trimbleirl.

If you are one of the people who has done enough hard work in season 10 to get a title, you should give yourself a pat on the back. Well done! You're well on your way to the upper echelons of PvP, and I hope you climb even higher this season! And if you're one of the people who has been working through Battlegrounds every day to get your conquest points, congratulations! You're going to be among the first to get your grubby mitts on the new gear.

But moving on from what you could have been doing to what you could be doing now, what are the top tips to prepare yourself for season 11?

Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

Blood Sport: How will patch 4.3 impact PvP?

by Olivia Grace Nov 23rd 2011 at 6:00PM

WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs.

With patch 4.3 imminent and Arena season 10 due to end Nov. 29, it seems reasonable to assume the patch will appear in early December. While you're racing to get your team into title range, get that last piece of gear, or just running laps of your capital city, you might be thinking forward to the arrival of the patch and wondering what your fate will be in PvP as the nerf bat winds up for another swing. Firstly, let's deal with some housekeeping.

Conquest points, the PvP equivalent of valor points, will now be far, far easier to earn from ordinary Battlegrounds. The first daily Battleground win will now award 100 conquest points, up from 25, and wins after that will award 50 conquest point, up from, well, none! The conquest cap will remain, so while it will still be far quicker to reach it through Arena, it will also be attainable via Battlegrounds of the non-rated variety. This makes it far easier for solo players to build up the resilience numbers people often demand (fairly or otherwise) for access to Arena and Rated Battleground teams or just to gear for Battlegrounds.

Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

Scattered Shots: Scatter-trapping with grace and ease

by Basil Berntsen Nov 5th 2011 at 6:00PM

Frostheim appears to be decimated, unable to write this week, over the loss of the most recent raiding gun from the patch 4.3 PTR files. As someone who PVPs to get my first raiding weapon of most patches, I can choose whichever ranged death-dealing machine I want. Of course, as a Worgen (not to mention someone who is generally the butt of many of Frostheim's jokes on our podcast), I usually choose a crossbow after buying, returning and screenshotting the gun.

Today, Scattered Shots will be all about a very basic hunter PVP survival skill: scatter-trapping. All hunters of all specs can scatter-trap, and whether you're being ganked doing dailies, trying to win Baradin Hold, or doing competitive Arena, it's one of those skills that can really set you apart.

Traps on their own are only useful for people you can force to cross through them. Mostly, this means melee, although you can sometimes force a ranged player to cross a trap if you're humping a pillar properly. What do we do when we want to freeze someone who isn't chasing us, though? Freezing Trap is really our most effective crowd control ability. We'll often want it to be used on someone that matters like a healer. Unfortunately, short of stepping up to a healer and dropping a trap on them, there's no way to force them to cross our path.

Filed under: Hunter, PvP, (Hunter) Scattered Shots

WoW Moviewatch: PvP by Ken Ashcorp

by Michael Gray Oct 25th 2011 at 12:00PM

PvP won the BlizzCon 2011 song contest. This isn't Ken Ashcorp's first song, but here's hoping this is the one that turns into a breakaway hit for him. On the BlizzCon floor itself, we only heard a few second of the music -- a disappointment, since you could instantly hear what a catchy tune it must be.

This isn't much of a video; actually, it isn't a video at all. While we don't normally cover non-videos like this, PvP is more than good enough to make up the difference. It's hard to believe this is a battle anthem, considering the lighthearted, fun style, but PvP clearly speaks to antagonistic, heavy-breathed combat. The lyrics are clever and fast-paced, relying on alliteration and poetic timing to convey a sense of anticipation.

Here's hoping someone reaches out to Ken and offers to turn this into some machinima. It's wonderful music with fun lyrics, worthy of all the attention it can get.

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.

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

Scattered Shots: Improving hunter PVP

by Basil Berntsen Oct 14th 2011 at 3:00PM

Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union uses logic and science (mixed with a few mugs of Dwarven stout) to look deep into the hunter class. Mail your hunter questions to Frostheim. This week, his evil twin, Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, is covering for him while he sleeps off the after-effects of the last Hunting Party Podcast.

Hunter PVP is in a bad state right now. This does not mean that you can't get Gladiator with a hunter, but it does mean you have to be way better to do it than if you were to play, say, a warlock. You also have to do it in a very small subset of viable team compositions, where your warlock alt could succeed in a large variety of team compositions.

Before you burn a hole through that "add comment" button arguing with me about viability and how Arena representation isn't worth the pixels it's displayed on, remember that I'm arguing that it takes more skill to succeed in PVP as a hunter. I'm not arguing that you can't do it, and I know that Arena class representation isn't a perfect measure of class balance. The same way some specs (like BM) are underrepresented in the top 100 PVE raid parses, the highest-rated PVP players in the game tend to play classes they feel they will do best, which skews the representation farther away from some perfectly viable spec/class combos. Arena representation is, however, one quantifiable number we can look into for insight.

Filed under: (Hunter) Scattered Shots

Patch 4.3 PTR: Season 11 PVP sets might blow your mind

by Alex Ziebart Sep 28th 2011 at 4:38PM

Intrepid, independent dataminers have managed to dig up what is probably the Season 11 Arena gear in patch 4.3, and speaking as a paladin (pictured above), it is just incredible. These sets, titled Cataclysmic Gladiator, manage to look both delightfully ornate while still appearing to be valid battle armor. That balance is something Warhammer has always done well but Warcraft has often failed to capture.

Comparisons between tier 13 and Season 11 armor will almost certainly be a hot debate this patch. I'm not entirely sure which side I fall on. As a paladin, this Season 11 armor will be driving me toward PVP, but our resident warrior extraordinaire isn't so hot on the Cataclysmic Glad outfit for warriors. Different people have different opinions -- who knew?

Our thanks go out to Leviathon over at Scrolls of Lore for the images.

Gallery: Patch 4.3 PTR: Season 11 PvP sets

Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

Filed under: Cataclysm

Lichborne: Cataclysm PVP basics for death knights

by Daniel Whitcomb Sep 13th 2011 at 2:00PM

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done.

This is about the time in an expansion's life cycle when PVE content is just getting a little too repetitive, to be frank. With only one instance at the top raid tier and only two dungeons at the top LFD tier, it's pretty tempting to try out a few battlegrounds or an arena or two just to spice things up. Personally, the RBG reward mount is one of my favorite-looking ones out of the whole bunch, so that's even more reason to try this PVP stuff out. This week, we're going to look at some of the most basic stuff you'll need to know if you plan to do some PVP as a death knight.

Filed under: PvP, Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne

Breakfast Topic: What are your rules of engagement for world PVP?

by Mike W. McVey Sep 11th 2011 at 8:00AM

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

I have found that everyone likes to PVP in different ways. Some like to play in the Arena, some in Rated Battlegrounds, some in regular PVP, and some like to do my favorite -- world PVP! I personally have rules for world PVP:

I only attack when I am within one level of my prey.
If they are fighting a mob, I wait until they kill the mob.
I will not attack if they are less than 90% health/mana.
I refuse to camp someone.

If they attack me, the above rules do not apply. My aim is to not die, as I generally do like to run back. If a level 70 tries to kill me, I have no probably one-shotting them. If I kill someone and they start attacking me as soon as they rez, I have no problem retaliating in kind.

I realize I am not a typical world PVPer. I know I am not unique in the hundreds of thousands of times that I have been ganked. But even in a game, I have a problem taking out my anger on another human being, even if it just their avatar. Do not get me wrong -- I still get angry. But I take it out in dungeons or battlegrounds.

Do you have any rules of engagement when you PVP?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts

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