Posts with tag battleground

In the latest Mists of Pandaria beta patch, Wowhead has uncovered some quite interesting new client strings that might herald a change in the way you choose which Arena or Battleground to fight in.

• ERR_PVP_BLACKLIST_CAP = "You have already blacklisted the maximum number of maps."
• ERR_PVP_MAP_NOT_FOUND = "Blacklisted map not set."

To me, this seems like an excellent idea for Arena players. There's always lots of controversy about the random damage and LoS components found on some maps (hello, Ring of Valor); this would let you avoid that entirely. Of course, that means you can no longer use it as an excuse, either -- so you may not want to reach for the blacklist too quickly. While I don't do much in Arenas, I certainly wouldn't mind a way to ensure not getting WSG three times in a row.

One concern, though, is if Blizzard allows too much blacklisting, that could make matchmaking much more difficult. A smooth matchmaking process has been one of the highlights of WoW compared to other online games, so any algorithm tweaks have to be made carefully.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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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.

Battlegrounds are usually the new PvPer's first foray into PvP, unless of course you're on a PvP server, in which case you're thrown unwittingly into the world of the ongoing Horde vs. Alliance conflight almost from day one. A Battleground is very likely to be your first go at cooperative PvP and certainly your first go at cooperative PvP with strangers. There are 10 Battlegrounds available to you -- fewer when you start out, then gradually added as you increase in level. All these Battlegrounds have objectives, the majority of which are assessed by points on a counter at the top of your screen. Once one side either gains the required total points or completely runs out of points, the Battleground is won.

There are, of course, strategies associated with each map. As the maps and objectives grow more complicated, so do the tactics. But a Risk-style grand stratagem is not what we're looking for here and certainly wouldn't comply with our word limit!

What we're interested in is how not to play in Battlegrounds. Your team may not lose the Battleground because you made these simple mistakes, but it will certainly make it harder for them to win. So don't be the guy who's failing at Battlegrounds! How? Well, read on! (There are of course times and situations when these rules don't apply, particularly on those rare occasions when your team actually has a strategy that it's following.)

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.)

OK, I admit it. I've been trying out PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic. You can't claim to have diverse knowledge of disparate PvP systems if you don't ever, you know, play other games. "I hear it's hard to get the huttball across the line" isn't quite the same as "You touch the huttball and 15 Sith Juggernauts appear and teabag you like the Lipton Army."

That doesn't mean I've quit my time in WoW Battlegrounds. Not to offend any saber-jockeys out there, but the PvP in WoW is better. Don't get me wrong. I'm having a great time firing rockets and dodging laser swords, but WoW's PvP has been honed as a separate game style. Its balance and play is beautiful and elegant. I didn't even realize how true that was until I spent some time in SW:TOR's analogous group PvP area, called Warzones.

Let me put my money where my mouth is. This is a (small) list of things I've learned to love about Battlegrounds from doing Warzones.

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.

You've probably heard it approximately a hundred times in Battlegrounds, particularly if you play as either Horde or Alliance. Yep, they both have their moments -- the faction you're not in is no better than the grass is really greener on the other side of the walls of Orgrimmar. But that aside, you've probably heard people bemoaning the lack of PvP healers. "Hey," you think to yourself (like a good, contributing member of the team), "I've got that healer I leveled ... Maybe I should bring that character along to the next Battleground I do!"

That would be your first experience of the sheer, unadulterated joy of healing Battlegrounds. You may note a small quantity of sarcasm there; you'll be cursing your kind heart as you're repeatedly ROFLstomped by two DKs.

So how do you avoid your repeated untimely demise and start topping the healing chart in your local Battleground? And how do you transfer your skills into the Arena?

First and foremost, PvP is not PvE. Well, duh -- revolutionary stuff. But seriously, the skills you learned in PvE won't really apply here. The damage is not predictable. You can't prepare for it. There aren't phases. Standing in the same place in each encounter won't work. You don't have a tank whose job it is to protect you. And in one similarity to PvE, once people figure out you're the reason why they can't kill that warrior, they're going to be after you. Sadly, people can't be taunted, even with yo mama jokes. Also, none of this is true -- but I'll get to that much later.

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.

Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, you have to die before I get a new chocobo. Regrettable, but ...

We're back with the Mountain O' Mounts series, and today we're going to examine the 10 mounts available to each faction as a result of slaughtering everything and everyone in your path. If you're the type of player who likes to put the "war" back in Warcraft, you'll enjoy the array of options available to a dedicated mercenary.

Also read:

• Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts
• Mountain O' Mounts in Outland
• Mountain O' Mounts in Northrend
• Mountain O' Mounts in 5-man dungeons
• Mountain O' Mounts in raids
• Mountain O' Mounts from achievements

I mentioned in this week's Blood Sport that I'd soon have a video up for you guys. Well, it came sooner than I expected, as everything worked out splendidly. All together, it only took me a few hours to record video, record audio, patch both together, convert files, and upload to YouTube.

For our first PvP video together, we'll be discussing adventures in the Battle for Gilneas with my favorite affliction warlock. This is actually my third rated battleground ever -- in the first two, I was demonology in back-to-back Twin Peaks. The games weren't particularly exciting (we 3-0 capped both games), and there were some recording errors in each.

I don't have any listening music for this one; you can pick your own! If Windows Movie Maker allowed me to throw down an audio track, you'd probably be hearing Deadmau5. However, as a consolation, there is commentary from yours truly for 14 minutes and some change!

In this episode, I talk about:

• disparity
• 10v10 team compositions
• Battle for Gilneas strategy
• a helpful tactic not many teams are using right now
• myself (unfortunately for you, bwahaha)

If you have any constructive criticism, questions, or just things you'd like me to discuss next time, please leave a comment below!

Note: I talk a lot about 15v15 early on in the video to quickly explain even distribution. I understand Battle for Gilneas is a 10v10 and am just making points about distribution and disparity.

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Find out how the Cataclysm talent tree redesign affects PvP, how sub-speccing will work at higher levels in the expansion, and how the new Azeroth will affect world PvP. Visit Blood Sport for the inside line on arena PvP.

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Many players were a bit confused about some of the rules and mechanics revolving around the new rated battlegrounds coming in Cataclysm. Blizzard has, thankfully, posted a new FAQ on the official forums detailing some common questions players had about the new system.

Some highlights include the three brackets (10v10, 15v15, 25v25); weekly conquest point caps based on your highest PvP rating in any bracket; and winning in a group comprised of 80 percent guild members awarding guild experience. Hit the jump for the full blue post.

In an effort to connect more players through the dungeon finder tool and battlegrounds matchmaking, Blizzard is slowly rolling out a region-wide battlegroup matching system. This enormous undertaking will eventually link all of the North American realms to one another, allowing for faster queues, a more diversified opponent pool and much more. Since this is a huge step for Blizzard, both in terms of hardware and software, it will take some time. Thankfully, this is all rolling out slowly. Hit the jump for the official announcement.

Vrakthris (Blizzard customer service representative) posted a list of major issues people are coming across in patch 4.0.1, along with updates and expected timetables on when some of them will be resolved. If you're having issues with any of the following topics, read on to find out what is currently being done about the situation.

• Master riding
• Missing enchantments
• Insect Swarm
• Guild issues with authenticator
• Warlock pets renamed
• Missing characters
• Item durability standardization
• Removed from battleground

PvP fans can rejoice -- Blizzard released information today regarding the new Twin Peaks battleground today, located inside the Eastern Kingdoms' new Twilight Highlands zone. Twin Peaks is described as a "10 vs. 10, capture-the-flag style battleground" reminiscent of Warsong Gulch.

Alliance players will be called to the defense of the Wildhammer Dwarves, who are fighting to regain control of their home territory of Grim Batol. The Horde will be forging a new coalition with the Dragonmaw Clan, who seek to take hold on the territory as well.

More details are beyond the break.

Here at WoW.com we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we ought to follow? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow!

If you're interested in PvP battlegrounds, you're probably aware that patch 3.3.3 is turning the system on its head -- completely removing Marks of Honor as well as increasing honor gains across the board. Have a bank full of the things? Well, we've got good news for you -- at present on the PTR you can convert them to honor at the rate of 2000 honor per mark. Combine that with the recent explanation of Wintergrasp mechanics and what have you got? A lot of excitement about PvP battlegrounds. Here's what's making the rounds of the blogosphere.

• Cynwise thinks now's the time to be running battlegrounds and collecting Marks of Honor.
• Holypaladin.net talks about Wintergrasp imbalance.
• Birdfall discusses seeing the opposite faction as people.
• Getting back to the basics, Spiceytuna explains resilience and gives talks frost mage PvP 101.
• Already a PvP expert? Over on the official forums Nethaera is looking for Warsong Gulch advice to be included in the next World of Warcraft magazine.