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Aion Abyss rankings show assassins like it on top (Korean)
We stumbled upon this interesting Aion chart that shows off the current Abyss rankings on the top five Korean servers. There are a few things you should know before drawing any absolute conclusions. First, the list only ranks players by their total Abyss Points (AP) and doesn't factor in many of the variables associated with AP gain (e.g., solo, group, PvE, PvP, exploit, etc.). Also, it doesn't necessarily reflect class imbalance issues (power or population), but we're sure that's the conclusion most people will jump to.After tallying up the class numbers, you can see that Assassins seem to be dominating the Abyss rankings, while Spiritmasters are at the bottom. Of the top 100, 48 are Assassins and 2 are Spiritmasters. With three classes tied for second and a few others not far behind, at least that seems quite balanced in terms of class spread. Exploitation is also mentioned in this thread and there appears to be one blatant case of it in the rankings (i.e., the level 30 Ranger with the top rank for his server). PvP games inevitably result in lists like this and it will be interesting to see how things pan out on the North American servers when Aion launches later this month. Want to know more about Aion? NCsoft invites you into the world of Atreia where the Elyos and the Asmodians fight each other and the evil Balaur for control of the shattered planet. Check out out all our coverage of this highly anticipated MMO!
BlizzCon 2009: Rated battlegrounds and the return of PvP titles
One of the most widely-cheered announcements during the Game Systems panel was the introduction of rated battlegrounds and the reappearance of old PvP titles from the now-defunct ranking system. It's a question we've seen asked a lot -- plenty of people out there aren't fond of arena but love battlegrounds, and many of them chafed under the inability to get up-to-date PvP gear. It looks like Blizzard will be trying to reward better battleground play without punishing people who have the bad luck to land on an indifferent PuG. Here's what we know so far: Whichever battleground is currently on its holiday weekend will also be a rated battleground for that week. Battleground wins will award both rating and arena points. Battleground losses won't punish you with a ratings loss, but also won't award any points. I would assume that you can continue to accrue honor and a single BG token per loss. Points earned will be capped at a certain number (not yet known) per week to keep rated battlegrounds from feeling too "grindy." Your battleground ratings will, like the current arena system, encompass two ratings: a personal and a match-making rating. Old PvP rankings will make their reappearance as end-of-season titles (e.g., "Scout," "Commander," "Centurion"). No word yet on whether these are permanent or if, like the non-Gladiator arena titles, you have to earn them each season to continue displaying them. "Special epic ground mounts" will be made available to people playing the rated battlegrounds. Rated battleground wins will also contribute to the new guild talent system. BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!
A PvEer's guide to PvP in Guild Wars
So you think you want to get into Guild Wars PvP. Maybe you've taken a look at Observer Mode and thought, "Hey, I can do that!". For the sake of argument, let's assume that you're a veteran Guild Wars player, but you've focused solely on PvE for the duration of your stay in Tyria. Let's continue the hypotheticals and say you've become quite bored with farming the same vermin, or clearing out the same certain Woe of the Fissure-like nature night after night with PUGs. After almost three years of playing against mobs and spawns with predictable patrol patterns, you're looking for something new to spice up your favorite game.PvP in Guild Wars can be quite intimidating at first. You can enter one of the arenas, jump into a battle and get slaughtered in a matter of seconds unless you know what you're doing. This might be the very thing that has turned you off of PvP in the past, but we're here to make sure you get off on the right foot to eventually enjoy your PvP experience. You'll be flashing a Phoenix before you know it!
PvP rank statistics
PlayOn has been collecting some interesting data on PvP in World of Warcraft. And while I'm not sure any of the information provides grounds for conclusion, it's certainly interesting to peek at. Both of these charts take into account sample data from 128,477 unique characters across 5 realms (one RP, two PvE, and two PvP) during one week in October. Above is their chart of average PvP rank for each class -- as you see, shaman takes the top spot and priest the lowest, but there's relatively little difference in rank between the two. (Perhaps suggesting that any class can be competitive with effort? Or simply that more shamans, warriors, and mages PvP?)Then we have average PvP rank for time played. Unsuprisingly, those attaining rank 13 are nearing 80 hours a week of playtime (for reference, the Daedalus Project suggests the average MMO player spends 20 hours a week in game), while those at rank 14 are dropping closer to 60 hours (possibly a sign of no further play efforts after reaching the maximum rank).
To Turtle or Not to Turtle...?
We're 45 minutes into an Alterac Valley run and 30 players are sitting in our base playing defense, fighting a pitched battle that doesn't help us win, but slows down the rate at which we're going to loose. We haven't managed to hold a single graveyard throughout the fight, and the Alliance has a line of defense that quickly picks off most players attempting to move north from the Horde spawn point. I manage to sneak up to the next graveyard with a hunter friend while everyone else is busy fighting back in Frostwolf hold - and we manage to tap the flag there. However, before we manage to make the capture, a group of five Alliance comes down hard, and we're sent back to where we started.My friend whispers to me, "They have no idea what causes people to turtle, do they?" And, while I hadn't thought of it in this way before, I'm forced to agree - this sort of fight is probably no fun for either side. By playing such heavy defense, and not allowing a single capture, they push us back towards Frostwolf hold again and again - and when there's nothing else for players to do, many of them regroup back at one of the worst bottleneck points in the game, and the match ended up lasting an nearly an hour and a half. So what's your experience with turtling? And is there, perhaps, something to be said for letting the opposing side take a little, just to prevent them from fighting with their backs against the wall? Or is there some better strategy to avoid or break the opposing team's turtling efforts?
Additional Honor System Modifications Coming
We already know that the honor system's curve is getting adjusted in patch 1.12, but apparently that's not the only change planned. On Friday, CM Nethaera let us know that there will also be some reduction in honor decay. The exact patch note reads: Honorable Kills now diminish at a rate 10% per kill rather than 25% per kill. The phrasing of the post lead to some confusion, so she later clarified - in patch 1.12 you're going to be able to kill the same player more before you stop receiving honor. If it seems like a minor tweak, well, Nethaera admits that it's only a temporary measure, and that there are bigger changes coming.
Gear-brackets in Battlegrounds?
Battlegrounds are already divided up by level - but even with equal levels, gear can dominate, especially at level 60, where you get a mix of players who have just started traversing 5-man dungeons and players in guilds who are farming Naxxramas. This post in the general forums proposes a radical solution to this problem - give everyone a standardized set of gear when they enter a battleground, and leave the rest to player ability. However, far more interesting than the original idea is the fact that it received a CM response, with Drysc chiming in that they wouldn't want to eliminate the hard work players put into acquire the best gear, but were working on a "player matching system" which might help nudge players into appropriate battlegrounds. No further details on how such a system might work, though Drysc does let us know that it won't be coming before the expansion.
More on PvP in Patch 1.12
We've gone over some of the PvP changes that will show up in patch 1.12 - both cross-realm battlegrounds and the new world PvP objectives. However, this is not the only change coming. When patch 1.12 goes live, the honor curve will be softened, somewhat, allowing a larger number of players into the upper ranks. There are no specific details on the numbers here, of course, and it's unlikely we'll understand the full impact of such a change until after it's been up and running on the live realms for a while. [Fan art by Guillaume Bonnet]
