arenaseason2
Latest
CGS 2v2 Arena information
There were some people out there who thought that since WoW wasn't an FPS or RTS, that it didn't really belong in the world of competitive gaming. Heck, a friend of mine used to like to say that it wouldn't work unless you were "trying to judge one elf dancing on a mailbox compared to another." (This friend, I should add, is anti-WoW) That's why I'm glad to see the Arena competitions becoming more and more prevalent as time goes on. As Drysc recently announced on the forums, World of Warcraft is set to appear in this year's Championship Gaming Series. Players will have a chance to land a spot in the draft at BlizzCon. And for those who thumb their noses at gaming as a possible job -- the winners stand to make between $30k and $100k when you figure in the base salary, bonuses for winning, and prize money. (I just hope it includes good medical, because I sense some carpal tunnel in the mix too. :D )Check out Drysc's full announcement from the forums behind the jump...
Pandemic wins again at WSVG Louisville
WSVG's Louisville event took place this past weekend, and the results say that Pandemic has done it again, winning the 5v5 3v3* tourney and taking home the big prize of $10,500. Nice work if you can get it!Pandemic, you'll remember, won it all in China as well. They definitely look like a winning arena team-- Warrior, Paladin, two Priests, a Shammy and a Mage. Strangely enough, both Priests are Disc/Holy, which might not surprise you arena vets, but it surely surprised me. Their Paladin is Holy, too, while the Shammy is a more reasonable Elemental, and their Warrior is specced Arms.Grats to Pandemic for that one-- the next WSVG WoW arena event will be in Dallas on July 5-8 (and if you haven't signed up yet, they're giving away Blizzcon tickets to a few lucky participants). Will Pandemic three-peat? Considering their arena season 2 score is 22-1, it seems a pretty safe bet.Full list of this weekend's winners and their prizes after the jump.*Update: My fault, this was a 3v3 tourney, not a 5v5. The team on the Armory may or may not have been the team that played, or if it was it's likely they switched players in and out. Thanks, commenters evo_dragon and Den!
Xfire Debate Club: Best and Worst Classes transcript
The transcripts from the sixth Xfire Debate Club ("Best and Worst Classes in WoW") are now available on Xfire's main site. On the main floor, I moderated a debate between such heavy hitters as Wowhead's Skosiris, Curse's Mek and Teza, Ming the rogue, and arena masters Tarde, Nuvas and Tiz. I wasn't able to format the full transcript for WoW Insider, but feel free to visit the link so you can see me ask questions and the panelists ... well, ignore them and keep arguing about the last question, or fight about which arena is the most interesting, or claim that the other panelists will one day be working for them. But it was fun anyway! Xfire also has a transcript from the open debate room, where Xfire users debated the questions themselves. I'd like to thank everyone who came to the debate or proposed questions to ask. I hope to see you all again on Xfire!
Curse interviews HUKs, WSVG kicks off in Louisville
Just in time for the WSVG's kickoff of the Louisville event this weekend, Curse has a video interview up with THE HUKHUKHUKHUKHUKS of Flow Gaming, the US Regional 5v5 Champions. The interview itself isn't really that gripping unless you really follow this arena tournament stuff (I like that they do fit in at least one sports interview cliche: "I feel really good about our win today"). There one complaint about the way WSVG handles gear-- apparently, they give everyone standard gear to make sure things are balanced, but HUK's Shaman says that he gets resilience gear rather than the stamina and crit that he usually uses.Unfortunately Curse doesn't ask about the disqualifications that happened recently (when players were found to be using each other's accounts, against the ToU), but they do ask about another problem I have with WSVG, and that is commentating the matches for spectators. As the players say, "they don't even have a good system to really view the matches as they're happening." So there's a nice goal for some would-be entertainment mogul: figure out a way to make watching players play videogames both understandable and interesting.Meanwhile, the WSVG is in Louisville, and their sparse schedule says they've got WoW on the menu for all four days. If you can't make it down there, Curse will have streaming video all weekend (if you can get it to work-- I couldn't) right here.
Arena season 2 vendors are way too popular
The pic above is courtesy of reader Scott, and it shows the aftermath of the chaos around the vendor for the Arena season 2 gear. Everyone is jumping on the servers to check the gear out (if you haven't seen it yet, we linked to what it looked like on the PTR a while back, and WoWWiki looks like it should be updated with live stats fairly soon), and so things are crazy around the vendor in Area 52, especially when PvP fights break out.A couple of players have been complaining about the insanity, so Drysc says on the forums that there are now temporary versions of Krixel, the rewards vendor, appearing in Orgrimmar's Hall of Legends, Stormwind's Champion's Hall, and outside of the Blade's Edge arena. There's no time set as to when the extra vendors will disappear (why wouldn't they have them in all places all the time?), but if you want a firsthand look at what there is to offer, you've got three more places to do it.
Arena Season 2 rewards from the Public Test Realms
Thanks to our friends at MMO-Champion, we have an early look at the armor sets, weapons and possibly new mount rewards coming in the next content patch. Notes of interest: Weapons have the same graphic (so far) of Season 1 rewards Season 1 armor rewards have been reduced in cost New armored mounts are in the art files, but not listed as rewards yet Right now the PTR is going up and down, but you can find stats on the new rewards as well as screenshots of the armors at MMO-Champion. Keep in mind this is the first time these items are showing up on the test realms, so any and all aspects are subject to change before they go to the live servers.
Raiding gear vs. Arena gear
With the advent of Arena season 2, a lot of people are looking forward to the new arena sets. But others are wondering if gear gained from the arenas should be better, worse, or equal to gear from raiding. Two forum topics -- "ARENA GEAR should NOT = RAIDING GEAR" and "Raiding gear should NOT = Arena gear" purport to pit PVEers against PVPers, even though most people seem to do a mix of both. Basically, the argument goes like this: Raider: Anyone can get arena epics fairly easily just by PVPing a few matches a week, so why should they be as good as the drops I spent hours raiding for? Arena player: Any brainless monkey can mash a keyboard against programmed opponents. Facing other people is the real test of skill in WoW, so we should get the best gear. Everyone else: Hey, aren't the PVP sets better for PVP and the PVE sets better for PVE? What's wrong with that? It's not like that stamina and resilience are gonna do most people tons of good against Kael'thas. Personally, as one of those elusive casual raiders, I like having the arena sets equal to raiding sets. It gets all the people who just want to gear up through raiding, then /gquit and PVP all the time out of raiding guilds. PVP gear should be best at killing other players, and PVE gear should be best at killing bosses. And when did doing Arena for a month to get ONE epic item become "easy epics"? It's only easy if you compare it to the old PVP honor system, which was life-destroying. Drysc puts it pretty well in one of the threads: "You're not actually concerned that someone else is getting something easier than you, because you would go do it and wouldn't look back. You're either unable or unwilling to switch to what you perceive is the easier route, and want what you're invested in or willing to do made easier based on what you perceive matches the effort invested in the other." Basically, if you're raiding for gear and complain that Arena is easier, go do Arena, and vice versa. Are you okay with the gear from raiding and from Arenas, or would you like to see one part of the game buffed? Is "PVEing to PVP" still a viable way of winning in PVP?
Arena Season 2 item stats (Warrior) [u]
MMO-Champion comes through again with concrete details on new content. As listed in the patch notes, 2.1.2 on the PTRs contains the Arena Season 2 items. The set names are apparently "Merciless Gladiator's [Whatever]." Most of the sets do not seem to be activated yet, but we have the full stats and appearance of the Warrior set, Merciless Gladiator's Battlegear (pictured at right).Thanks to a helpful commenter at Wowhead, I have the following comparison between this set and the Season 1 equivalent, Gladiator's Battlegear. The new set has, as compared to the old one:+639 armor+36 strength+31 stamina+22 crit rating+18 hit rating+6 resilienceThe gem slots and set bonuses remain the same. It would be nice if you could mix and match between Season 1 and Season 2 sets in order to get set bonuses, but I'm not sure whether this is actually the case.Hopefully stats on the other sets will come to light soon; if that happens, I'll update this post.Update: skins and set bonuses for all the classes' sets are now available.
Blue Notes: Arena Season 2 delay, spam reporting tweaks
The upcoming second Arena season, with new rewards, will be starting on June 19th, a week later than originally estimated (Drysc): As we mentioned in our initial announcement of the second arena season, the start of the next season is planned to coincide with the release of a small patch. Due to additional development time and testing needed we will be delaying the scheduled release of the patch, and thus the start of Arena Season 2 by one week, to June 19. This current schedule is of course subject to change as well. Also, don't forget that team ratings will be reset to the default 1500 with the start of the new season, allowing all teams to once again compete for top honors with a fresh start. The delay was necessary because the new items for the new season are contained in the patch (presumably 2.1.2), and the patch will evidently not be ready for the 12th. The new date will be June 20th instead for European subscribers, by the way.Also, the new-in-2.1 "report spam" feature is getting slightly changed (Eyonix):The new spam-reporting feature has been updated so that you can now report members inside your group or raid. This will allow players who are invited to groups created for purposes of spam to report the abuse appropriately. To report this type of spam, simply right-click on the player's name in the chat interface, and choosing the "Report Spam" option. Once you have selected this option, a dialogue box will open to confirm that you wish to report the target player, and your report will be sent once you confirm your choice. Please make sure you're only using this reporting feature for spam. All other forms of abuse should be reported appropriately, by petitioning a Game Master.This will keep people from pulling you into a group from the LFG tool just to spam you, which I've heard has been occurring here and there. How's the spam reporting functionality working out for you? Personally, I've been seeing very much less spam since 2.1 came out.
Arena season 2 and you
The word has come down from on high (read Drysc) that round two of the arena battles will begin June 12th. The season opener will coincide with a small patch, so if the patch gets delayed, so will the arena season. Intrigued? Yeah, me too. Still no official word on the spectator sport concept, but perhaps this patch is just the thing we've been asking for. Some changes have been made to the arena system now that they have one season under their belt to examine. All arena players will have their ratings reset to the default 1500 at the beginning of the season, although you'll be able to keep your points. For this new season expect new items and rewards for all your hard work, arena awards and as well as honor rewards. It looks like they have put a good deal of thought into the next season. Let's hope it's as exhilarating as the last one. Speaking of the last one, those who landed in the top 20% will be getting their end-of-season rewards and the top .5%, the best of the best, will be receiving that most coveted of prizes, the armored Netherdrake *drool*. Are there any uber arena combatants out there? What would you like to see in the season to come? [via WoW Forums]
