wow-arena
Latest
Warlords of Draenor: What CC needs to be cut?
Blizzard Community Manager Lore posted yesterday about the devs' plans to reduce CC with Warlords of Draenor's changes to abilities. If you haven't been keeping up, their general plan is a so-called ability squish, removing certain skills from every class, with a particular focus on those suffering from button bloat, such as hunters and shaman. We spoke a little while back about how they should cut abilities, and what you could stand to lose, and now Lore's weighing on CC. Lore We are planning to take a strong look at CC in Warlords with the intent of dialing things back a little. We do think it's important that players are rewarded for using CC intelligently (by coordinating usage, being mindful of diminishing returns, etc), but we think we can approach things in a way that allows us to tone down CC overall while still providing that gameplay. source To me, the key here is this: "We do think it's important that players are rewarded for using CC intelligently..." CC, in my opinion should have to be used intelligently. It shouldn't be something you use just because it's off cooldown, because there's no risk to using it, because it's effectively a surefire thing. That is not intelligently using CC, that's using CC blindly, and it's because there's no risk to doing so. So, what's bad CC? What would I cut, if it was up to me?
Warlords of Draenor's Trial of the Gladiator
Warlords of Draenor is bringing some big changes to many parts of the game and PvP is no exception. Not only are there various long-overdue UI changes coming in, but we're also going to be seeing a whole new PvP island zone, a new system of measuring battleground performance and a new arena ladder: Trial of the Gladiator. Of these, the biggest change, the biggest thing people are worried about is certainly the Trial of the Gladiator system. So, let's dispel some myths about that. Lore I don't know where this idea came from, but just to clear things up, we have no plans to remove the current Arena ladder. source World of Warcraft Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka was also very clear on the BlizzCon Global Invitationals stream, on the virtual ticket videos, at 8:43:28 on the second video of the first day's play, that the existing ladder wasn't changing. The Trial of the Gladiator is going to be a completely new system on top of what currently exists. Trial of the Gladiator: What is it, and why? Trial of the Gladiator is, on a very basic level, a system that allows players to gain rating and ladder position at specific times through the week. So, for example, if you want to gain rating and try for a title this season, you'd want to be playing at these times. They might be Saturday at 10am, maybe also Wednesday at 6pm, Monday at 8pm, Tuesday at 4pm, and so on.
Are you already dodging expansion spoilers?
It has begun. The Warlords of Draenor are already pushing their way into our consciousness -- and players who are allergic to spoilers have already begun the slow push back from the table. BlizzCon weekend and the tidal wave of announcements isn't the issue, not at all. Pretty much everyone likes to watch expansion trailers and poke through teasers about the new gameplay features ahead. But once BlizzCon is a wrap, fans begin gnawing at the edges. Will players be able to opt out of this new thing or that new thing? How does this change over here affect hunters? And for the love of Elune, won't someone think of spirit?! It's easy to get sucked into the debate, only to find yourself several months down the line sitting disconsolately in a puddle of tweaks, hits and misses with no idea which things might actually be coming to pass and which turned out to be pipe dreams. It might have been easier to wait for the beta to shake things out. Have you drunk your fill of details about Warlords of Draenor? Have you already turned a deaf ear to the roar and begun dodging expansion spoilers?
Arena stealth changes coming soon
With the announcement of the upcoming replacement of The Crowd Chose You with the Dampening mechanic, many players have been worried about stealth classes, particularly rogues, being able to abuse the Shadow Sight system currently in place in arenas to stealth until the Dampening debuff starts to ramp up. At the moment, rogues can grab the crystals, intended for their opponents to be able to see them, and immediately disappear. This is most notably the case for rogues, although night elf feral druids can put Shadowmeld to use here. Blizzard CM Lore has posted on the forums about an upcoming change to remove this issue from arenas: Lore Quick update: several of you have expressed a concern about stealth teams staying hidden until late in the game, when Dampening starts to stack. This would require them to grab Shadow Sight orbs as much as possible, which would be tricky but is actually possible (particularly with mechanics like Vanish). We're not totally sure it would be a problem, as it would require quite a bit of skill and more than a little luck to pull off, but we do see the concern and want to avoid promoting that sort of behavior. So, when the Dampening change goes in, we'll also be changing the Shadow Sight debuff to prevent the player who picks up the orb from using stealth mechanics while it's active. That will also include abilities like Vanish or Shadowmeld. source
The future of CC and Diminishing Returns
Following his post on Friday listing out the giant categorization of Diminishing Returns (DR) in PvP, Blizzard Community Manager Lore has posted again regarding the future of DR and its PvP implications. Lore As our senior PvP designer Brian Holinka tweeted over the weekend, we've got some pretty solid goals for the future regarding crowd control. We do think it needs to be toned back a bit, both in the amount of CC effects available and in how frequently they can be used. That said, CC is still an integral part of World of Warcraft PvP. Dealing with it intelligently, both in choosing when to use your own CC as well as reacting to opponent CC's, does have strong gameplay value. Quote: Honestly going to guess they're getting the exact opposite of what they planned from it. Our only "plans" were to try to make an admittedly confusing system less so. Confusion about which CC effects share DR's doesn't help anyone. source So where do we go from here? First up, the post he's referring to in the section about their "plans" is the Diminishing Returns list published last week. This is an incredibly useful resource, which all teams should have at least a cursory glance at before they start trying to make CC chains. There's no need to memorize it, but it's good to have an idea of how your comp's CC works. But that aside, it's a pretty scary list. As Lore mentions above, Brian Holinka tweeted about their plans to rectify the issues behind the DR system in the next expansion. What are the options? What should they do? What shouldn't they do?
Definitive word from Blizzard on Diminishing Returns
Diminishing Returns on CC is one of PvP's more confusing systems. DR, as people call it, is the mechanic whereby if you're repeatedly CC'd by CCs of the same nature, the duration is shorter the second time, shorter again the third, and then you're immune. The tricky question is, of course, what DRs with what? So if you're feared, does that mean subsequent Seductions will be shorter? If you're CCing with Sap, does that mean that a Hex used straight out of it will be shorter in duration? Various sources have had a stab at sorting out just exactly what DRs with what else, but there is so much mixed messaging and conflicting information out there. I was researching it for a column, and struggling, so I dropped PvP Designer Brian Holinka a line on Twitter. He came back saying that he'd try to get the CM team to put something together, and he's a man of his word. Community Manager Lore just posted a summary of just what DRs with what. How do you use it? Well go on over to the forum thread he made, do a CTRL+F of the spell you're looking for, and you'll be able to see what it DRs with. If you want to look at specific categories, then follow the links in the first post. This is a truly fantastic resource, and it's about time there was a definitive source of this information. But my god, there needs to be some optimization done in this system. It's insanely huge and confusing and hard to remember. Stick with your own spells at first, when you're working out your comp's CC chains, and worry about the rest as you go! Do you want to capture flags, invade cities, attack towers, and dominate the enemy for your faction? Do you dream of riding your War Bear with pride? We'll steer you to victory with secrets of Battlegrounds and Arena, prepping you with proven addons and keybindings that win! Send questions or comments to olivia@wowinsider.com.
The Crowd Chose You: Upcoming changes
We told you a change was coming, and as Blizzard Community Manager Lore posted late last night, Blizzard has an idea in the works to replace The Crowd Chose You, the controversial arena match-ending buff. It seems from his post that it isn't quite ready to go at this point, but nonetheless, they have a plan. Lore With Patch 5.4, we added a mechanic called "The Crowd Chose You" to Arena gameplay. This mechanic was added to suit two primary goals: keep the game from dragging on too long, and make sure matches always end with one team declared the winner. However, we wanted something that wouldn't make players feel they needed to change how they played the game. Unfortunately, the implementation of The Crowd Chose You that went live with Patch 5.4 is not filling that last requirement. So, we're going to take a different approach. In an upcoming hotfix, we'll be removing The Crowd Chose You entirely, and replacing it with a new mechanic called Dampening. If a match should last for 10 minutes, all players in the Arena will begin to receive a stacking debuff that reduces healing done by 1% every 10 seconds. This will continue until one team is eventually able to claim the victory. In the extremely unlikely event that neither team has won after 20 minutes, the match will end in a draw. We feel that this mechanic will have a much smaller impact on playstyle, team composition, and decision making than The Crowd Chose You, and thus result in more fun and exciting matches. We're currently testing the hotfix internally, and will provide an update when it goes live. source
The Crowd Chose You: A change is coming
Last week, I had a lengthy discussion with myself about The Crowd Chose You, the arena match-ending buff. I'm not going to go back through all the detail I covered in that article, or all the theories I had for how they could improve this problematic system. Nor am I going to go into the detail on how I thought that the very worst thing the Blizzard PvP team could do right now was to make further changes to arena tie-breaks in the game, to go further down the rabbit hole. Nonetheless, the post Community Manager Lore made today is completely non-specific about what's actually happening. All he says is as follows: Lore We're not really happy with how The Crowd Chose You is working out at the moment. We're exploring a few options for exactly what we'd like to do, but we will be changing it. source I am going to remain cautiously optimistic that they will not make a bad call, and stack the buff up with some other mechanic. I'm also hoping they don't go down the route of stacking debuffs, as I discussed at length in the previous article. From Lore's follow-up post, it doesn't look like they will be testing anything on the PTR, so live servers will become test servers for whatever they decide to do. I'd be happy if they just reverted it to what it was before, and went back to the drawing board rather than messing around with the season any more than they have already. We'll see what comes to pass.
The Crowd Chose You: ruining arena for everyone?
Season 14 has got off to a rather inauspicious start. We've had some big problems with conquest points, caps, weapons, vendors and more, which means that some players have rampaged through the ratings with full Grievous gear, which, of course, isn't scaled down to the same level as everything else. Blizzard is working on fixing the issue, but they've made no comment about resetting rating for the worst offenders. There are some bright sides, though, as the new downscaling system means that Conquest gear is categorically the best for PvP in all but the most extreme of cases. What's more, cross-realm arenas remove a restriction that previously stood in players' way. However, the much-celebrated fix to the RBG element of the conquest cap hasn't worked, and some people really miss having teams. But the biggest change, the one that is causing the most complaints, is the controversial match-ender, The Crowd Chose You. Why is it causing complaints? Well, where should I start...
Arena Pass 2013: Rated Phase delayed
If you aren't aware of the usual progression of the Arena Pass realm, it's cut into several chunks. We start off with the practice phase, where players are intended to form teams, make friends, get some cohesion and work together to get a group and a comp that's good for them to progress into the next phase. That phase is the rated phase, and itself is divided up into chunks, but it's when things get serious on the Arena Pass realm. Team ratings are wiped, everything is reset, and the competition begins for real. But right now there's a problem, as Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri reports: Daxxarri We have become aware of an issue that has prevented Arena Pass teams from being reset. To allow for time to resolve the issue and allow teams to plan accordingly, we currently intend to extend the practice phase and instead begin the rated phase of the Arena Pass on August 6. Currently, the conclusion of the rated phase is still planned for August 27. We appreciate your understanding in the meantime, and look forward to fierce competition when the rated phase begins. source It's a little surprising, perhaps, given that the start of the rated phase has been pushed back a whole week, the end of the rated phase hasn't received the same treatment.
Still no spectator mode in the works for WoW arena
While there are many changes in store for the arena in patch 5.4, there are still no development plans for a spectator mode according to EU community manager, Nakatoir. The latest blue post on the matter reiterates much of what we've heard before -- that yes, a spectator mode would be awesome but would require great number of resources to develop. Thus it's not currently in the cards. Nakatoir -- Spectator mode and the esport scene in general I don't deny that getting a working spectator mode would help with community ran competitions and tournaments and it's one of the reasons that we would like to have one. Understand that this is something we know that players want and it's something that we would like to provide to you. We simply have no plans at this time to implement such a feature, but when we are able to implement this feature we'll be sure to let you know about it. source Given the incoming arena and PvP changes slated to arrive in patch 5.4, one might expect the demand for a spectator feature to increase, but who knows for sure? What do you think? Would having spectator mode increase your interest and participation in arena? Do you think the WoW eSports community would grow if there was a dedicated spectator mode like the ones found in StarCraft 2 or League of Legends?
Blizzard debuts new Battlegrounds Guides
Look, I have a shameful admission -- I really don't PvP at all these days. I used to, but this was back in the days where Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley were your only options. In TBC, I dabbled a bit with Eye of the Storm, but my interest in battlegrounds waned as I turned my focus back to raiding. That said, once I finally got to the stage of the legendary quest chain that required me to go win Silvershard Mines and Temple of Kotmogu, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. It took several tries to get the victories under my belt, and I fervently wished I had someone to explain to me exactly what I was supposed to be doing in there. Although it's a little late for me, Blizzard has finally launched that which I fervently wished for -- an easy reference guide to all current battlegrounds. The guide clearly explains the purpose of each battleground, what unique elements to look for -- like useful buffs and nodes -- the rules of the game, and most importantly, how to win the thing! Also included are maps of each battleground, so you have a general idea of what to expect once you're inside. If you've been thinking about giving PvP a try, but been intimidated by the sheer variety of battlegrounds out there to choose from, or just a lack of understanding, take a look at the guides. They do a really good job of explaining everything so that even someone like me that hasn't participated in PvP in years understood what these new battlegrounds are all about. And if you're on your legendary chain and a little confused like I was, wondering what the heck the Temple of Kotmogu is all about, or how to claim a mine cart in Silvershard Mines, the guides have all the explanation you'll ever need.
Patch 5.4 PTR: PvP changes thus far
A week or so back, I made a rather rash promise on Twitter. Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street and Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka were teasing their joint follower base about "exciting PvP work being done" on the PTR. I responded to this tweet, saying that if the exciting work was cross-realm arenas, I would bake them a million cookies. Each. You can see from the header image, and indeed from a recent update to the patch 5.4 PTR notes just exactly what happened next. Blizzard announced, with those notes, that cross-realm arenas were here. They followed this up with a blog on the subject, so let's take a look at just exactly what the changes entail. Arena teams have been removed. All you need to queue for arenas is a party of the appropriate size, so two, three, or five players. You can make cross-realm groups to queue for arena, with friends of the same faction from anywhere in your region The arena rankings, along with the titles and rewards associated with them, will be region-wide, instead of by battlegroup Conquest point cap, MMR, ranking, and overall rating will now be based on you as a player, not on your team.
Patch 5.4 PTR: PvP Mount requirements
Late last week, WoW Insider reported via Wowhead on the new PvP mounts that had been discovered on the PTR. This week we have clarification via Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka on Twitter of the requirements to get our hands on this horse, and the wolf that accompanies it. Unlike previous PvP mounts, which have either simply required honor points to purchase, or required a top title, these fall somewhere in the middle of the field, and reward participation. As Holinka confirmed via Twitter, they are won by doing 3v3 and RBGs. @Deontto Win 100 3V3 arena games and 40 RBG in a season - Holinka (@holinka) July 3, 2013 The requirement is for both sets of wins, so you can't just win 100 3v3s, or 40 RBGs, both requirements must be completed to get the mount. The aim, as Holinka again clarifies, is that these mounts should reward the well-rounded PvPer. They are attempting to increase participation in both 3v3 and 5v5, and these mounts are part of that. Of course, it's early PTR, and never say never, but it's unlikely that 2v2 will receive a similar reward. I get the impression that this is just the first of many incentives coming for players to get into PvP.
Breakfast Topic: Will patch 5.4 bring you into the arena?
I have to admit, even as a gamer who doesn't typically tend towards PvP combat, the recent news that Blizzard was removing the arena team requirement from participation has piqued my interest. I've played a bit of arena before, with a small team of friends, but we were never serious about it -- or particularly good at it -- and our mutually busy schedules didn't give us much time to play together. But now, participating in an arena battle looks like it will be as simple as queuing up for a battleground or dungeon run. On the plus side, that makes it easier for newbies (like me) to give the system a try. And, who knows? Perhaps arenas will become my new favorite thing. And on the down side, it might mean arenas will be flooded with newbies like me, who will be a nuisance to everyone (possibly including ourselves). But dangerous flood of newbies are not, will the patch 5.4 changes be drawing you into the arenas?
Arena Pass 2013 how-to video
As our own Olivia Grace wrote about not too long ago, registration for the 2013 Arena Pass is currently open for those interested PvP players. Quickly put, the $20.00 Arena Pass grants players access to a separate server in which you can create up to eleven level 90 characters and purchase high-quality PvP gear in order to compete in 3v3 arena matches. Participants can earn the Armored Murloc pet for completing 50 matches on the same character, and those in the top 1000 teams at the end of the rated phase can also earn the "Vanquisher" title for their characters on live realms. For those who might still be feeling a bit confused by how all this works, Blizzard has released a video tutorial that walks you through the process of signing up for the Arena Pass. If you're thinking about the 2013 pass, but still unsure, you might want to check it out embedded above. And for those of you who will be competing this year, good luck!
Patch 5.4: Arena teams out, cross-realm arenas in
Patch 5.4 is already shaping up to be a big one, and today Blizzard announced some major arena changes in addition to the tie-breaking system. Aiming to improve the arena experience by making it easier for anyone to compete, arena players will no longer need an arena team (in fact, arena teams don't even appear in the UI on the PTR): in patch 5.4, queuing for an arena match will work similarly to queuing for rated battlegrounds. You'll be matched with other players queuing to fight with and against, based on your rating. Additionally, matches are no longer limited to your battlegroup: you'll be able to play with or against anyone in your region, and even be able to compete in cross-realm groups with friends on other realms. Matches themselves will stay (mostly) the same, though your conquest point cap and requirements to purchase items will be based on your personal rating. These changes are live on the PTR now if you want to check them out for yourself. See the full text of Blizzard's announcement under the break.
Blizzard clarifies arena tie-break
There has been an excellent thread running in the EU forums laying out constructive criticisms of the new arena tie-break system. This system, if you hadn't heard, introduces a new buff called "The Crowd Chose You!!!" which will be applied to one team or another based on two criteria: the team with the largest number of players alive, and the team that brought an enemy player closest to death. Blizzard EU Community Manager Taepsilum posted in the thread to clarify that this is still very much in iteration, and to calm the fears of the posters, but a couple of great points were brought up. Firstly, if one team gets an enemy player to repeatedly low health percentages, for example, they get a mage to 10% then to 5% then to 8%, but their opponents get one of them to 2%, do their opponents win? It sounds, from reading about the system, like the team that got the player to 2% would emerge victorious, but this seems a little counter-intuitive. Another great question is whether the health for the calculation is percentage based or numerical. Percent would make more sense, it seems. Hit the break for Taepsilum's post.
Patch 5.4 PTR: The new Arena Tie-Break system
WoW Insider reported last week on a pretty crazy debuff that a player had found on the patch 5.4 PTR, The Crowd Chose You!!!. At the time, we were very sure to clarify that, as Brian Holinka mentioned on Twitter, this was not a tie-breaker in itself, rather it was, and is, a match-ender. It is the mechanic by which a match is ended once a tie-break system has decided who should emerge victorious. Rather like boxing, where not every fight can end with a knockout, and the judges use specific criteria to judge the winner, the tie-break system is in place to ascertain who should be awarded a victory, and give them this buff to put that victory in place. As I discussed in a Blood Sport a while back, the important element here was always the mechanic within the game that decided who would get the buff. For clarity, the current mechanic is very simple: if you are unable to kill the entire of the other team before the timer runs out, you will draw, and both sides will lose rating. The arena system currently favors a knockout, and refuses to recognize any other type of win, to continue our boxing analogy. But this is all set to change in patch 5.4, so let's take a look at the patch note excerpt that clarifies the new system.
Registration for the 2013 Arena Pass now open
At long last, registration for the 2013 Arena Pass has opened. This pass, which you have to purchase for the princely sum of $20. Once you're in, you can create brand new level 90 characters with full sets of PvP, and usually some PvE gear, and join arena teams to duke it out with your friends and enemies. There are various rewards to be gleaned from getting good ladder positions, such as titles, but there's also a Murkimus pet that players can earn just for participation in 50 rated games. The tournament is done in phases, starting off with a practice phase, then moving into the ranked phases. After the practice phase ends, after about 5 weeks, there is a rating penalty of 150 for team roster changes, so be sure to have your teams set by that point. Once the rated phase is over, Blizzard will leave the realms open for players to practice and try comps for the rest of the year. It's a great place to go to just have a play around with characters, classes and comps, and do some PvP!
