focused-assault
Latest
Hotfix to address issues with flag carriers in rated battlegrounds
It's tough carrying the flag in Warsong Gulch or Twin Peaks, primarily due to the Focused Assault debuff which increases the damage you take when you pick up the flag -- but it's about to get a little tougher for tanks playing these rated battlegrounds. According to CM Lore, in rated battlegrounds tanks who carry the flag should be getting a bigger debuff -- 50% additional damage compared to the 20% others get. However, a bug is currently treating tanks just like everyone else, so expect a hotfix soon (no restarts required). In addition to fixing debuff damage, there are plans to add the same kind of debuff system to orb carriers in rated Temple of Kotmogu and cart carriers in rated Deepwind Gorge. These changes will take effect next maintenance cycle. All of these changes are for rated battlegrounds only, where they should make it a bit easier to take out enemy flag carriers -- and tougher to keep your own alive.
The Art of War(craft): Warsong Gulch reborn
I once wrote that Warsong Gulch was my favorite Battleground. To be quite honest, in the past couple of weeks prior to Patch 2.4, I had seriously begun to doubt that. I was grinding reputation with the Warsong Clan on my Blood Elf, and increasingly, the games became excruciatingly long and even though I often engaged in exciting combat, the protracted games would sometimes end in a 0-3 loss that would net 0 bonus Honor and 0 reputation. For many players, this is the prevailing experience. For many players, Warsong Gulch sucks. Despite how much I always enjoyed my WSG games, grinding it for reputation is a total pain. That hasn't quite changed with Patch 2.4, which still doesn't award any reputation whatsoever for losing games as opposed to Arathi Basin or Alterac Valley, but the games will no longer last for hours.Paradigm shiftI know that Mike speculated that the changes to Warsong Gulch might not have helped, but I have a dissimilar experience. The important thing to remember is there has to be a complete change of attitude because it's no longer possible to turtle. Yeah, I know that people have been groaning about the continued turtling. They're wrong. That's because when the Focused Assault debuff is on, there's absolutely no way healers can keep up the flag carrier. In some of the games that I've participated in, players going after the flag were still concerned about the healers and wasted time burning them down or crowd controlling them. One word: don't. Ignore the healers when the debuff is on. Unless they have nine guys spamming heals on the flag carrier, it will be next to impossible to keep up a flag carrier with the debuff on, even more so with Brutal Assault. Ever tried healing through an enraged raid boss? Or maybe Gruul at 20 grows (who even lets Gruul get to 20 grows?)? It's sorta kinda of like that. Enjoy.
