Posts with tag patch-5.3-pvp-changes

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.

It's often the case that more patches means more problems, and while the majority of Patch 5.3: Escalation is running like clockwork, there are a few hiccups popping up along the way. WoW Insider reported on one late last night: the issues with the Tyrannical Conquest achievement. This achievement, awarded when a player has earned 25,000 conquest points in a season, also allows players to purchase conquest gear for honor. It was being awarded far too early, and allowing players who weren't entitled to do so to buy that Tyrannical gear for honor. A hotfix was swiftly implemented, blocking purchases from the vendor selling Tyrannical gear for honor, and a fix to the achievement is in the works.

The devs are also working hard on a fix that allows players to resurrect inside Lorewalker Cho's Seat of Knowledge room above Mogushan -- this contested territory is the base for the first run of new scenarios, so was seeing heavy traffic from both factions, and is out of reach from the normal resurrection run.

And what's more, Deepwind Gorge, the new battleground in patch 5.3, has been temporarily pulled from the rated battleground rotation, thanks to problems with base captures. Lastly, there are also reported problems with sound-generating addons such as Deadly Boss Mods, but WoW Insider has only been able to replicate this in certain situations. For the rest of the issues, hit the break!

We've been quietly downloading patch 5.3 on the background service for a little while now. Needless to say, the major question on everyone's minds today has been whether or not we'll see the new patch hit tomorrow. Wonder no longer: It's been confirmed both by blue posters and on the official Warcraft Twitter account.

@steve_cam Hah! No I guess that was misleading. No, 5.3 will not be released this week.

- World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) May 13, 2013

The countdown to patch 5.3 is well and truly upon us, as Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri posted a detailed blog on how to ready your account and gird your loins for the upcoming conflict. As ever, you can see the full post after the break.

There's a reduction in XP to get from 85-90, first and foremost, and Daxxarri actually posts that you should dust off your alts! Next up on the list is clarification of Item Upgrades. The voidbinders have returned from their vacation in, well, the void most likely, and are back to upgrade your items. PvPers can only upgrade season 12 items, at the same cost as before, 750 Conquest for upgrades of four item levels, and (most likely, although the blog says different) 1500 honor points for an upgrade of eight item levels. PvE gear can be upgraded in the usual manner, at the massively reduced cost of 250 Valor Points to upgrade per 4 Item Levels, for a total of 500 Valor for 8 Item Levels per item. This also applies retroactively to all items that can be upgraded using Valor, and the exact same numbers apply to Justice gear.

Blizzard is also adding more ways to get your hands on Lesser Charms with patch 5.3, they will drop from outdoor world creatures level 90 and above, as well as from rare spawns in Pandaria. There are also a ton of PvP changes, which we've covered at length, and some other useful tidbits. One thing which isn't discussed is currency conversion, but it seems likely, though not absolutely certain, that no conversion will take place. The PvP season is still ongoing, and there is no new raid tier. Hit the break for Daxxarri's full post.

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:

The latest set of patch 5.3 PTR patch notes has just dropped, and boy is it a doozy. There are some pretty significant changes in there, so let's dive right in to the highlights, as ever the full notes are after the break.

If you're even remotely interested in WoW PvP, and aren't yet following Brian Holinka on Twitter, you really should be. We've been talking about him quite a bit lately here at WoW Insider, as he's the main agent behind the huge PvP changes coming in in patch 5.3. He's also incredibly responsive, open and helpful on Twitter, and seems to set aside a huge amount of his free time to respond to players' concerns, and hold open and constructive discussions, while not being afraid to fire out some sarcasm crits on the trolls that often haunt those in his position.

He's previously tweeted about the return of the skirmish system, and has been very responsive indeed about the 5.3 changes, and lately he's also been discussing some more confirmed and potential changes in patch 5.3 and beyond.

Now, please do take these changes with a pinch of salt, these aren't even PTR patch notes, but potential changes, some of which are being tested and appearing on patch notes, and some of which are just in the pipeline for the future.


Potential Battleground Changes

One thing that caught our eye here at WoW Insider was a very recent tweet regarding some changes in the the larger battlegrounds such as Isle of Conquest and Alterac Valley.

The patch 5.3 PTR notes brought some big, scary changes to PvP, which WoW Insider explained for its readership yesterday, and now Blizzard's official blog has, as promised, arrived. It deals with a lot of the same concerns as we addressed yesterday, but also adds in several pieces of new information for players to digest. Let's start with that. Here are the changes in full:

I can understand why you did panic. The patch 5.3 PTR notes had a little section of PvP gear notes -- five bullet points that pulled the rug out from under our feet. These changes are characteristic of the bold, sweeping alterations that Blizzard's new PvP Designer Brian Holinka has been spearheading since he joined the company in August of last year. And these are big changes. If you missed the notes, let me repeat them for you here.