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3 things Warzones taught me to love about Battlegrounds
OK, I admit it. I've been trying out PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic. You can't claim to have diverse knowledge of disparate PvP systems if you don't ever, you know, play other games. "I hear it's hard to get the huttball across the line" isn't quite the same as "You touch the huttball and 15 Sith Juggernauts appear and teabag you like the Lipton Army." That doesn't mean I've quit my time in WoW Battlegrounds. Not to offend any saber-jockeys out there, but the PvP in WoW is better. Don't get me wrong. I'm having a great time firing rockets and dodging laser swords, but WoW's PvP has been honed as a separate game style. Its balance and play is beautiful and elegant. I didn't even realize how true that was until I spent some time in SW:TOR's analogous group PvP area, called Warzones. Let me put my money where my mouth is. This is a (small) list of things I've learned to love about Battlegrounds from doing Warzones.
Hulu announces first original scripted show 'Battleground', plus more proprietary programming
2011 treated Hulu pretty well it seems, and it's clearly hoping new original content will make for an even better 2012. For starters, the service will be parading its first original scripted series, political drama Battleground, while fans of Morgan Spurlock's Hulu-only A day in the life will be pleased to see it return for a second season. More docu-fun comes in the form of unorthodox city-tour series Up to Speed, from Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater. Battleground hits screens this Valentine's day, and Morgan returns in March. You'll have to wait until summer for Up to Speed, but at least you'll have plenty more Face Match fodder in the meantime. Hit the PR over the jump for the official blurb on the new shows.
Top addons and UI settings for PvP
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of Battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. While derided by some purists, addons are a very useful part of your gameplay. In my opinion, they're far from being something that only people who don't know how to play have to use. Addons can help you improve. It should be noted that at top-level Arena tournaments, teams have to play without addons, so if that is your eventual aim, bear that in mind and try to use them to learn rather than becoming dependent on them. I'm not the most technical of ladies, so what you won't find here is anything that needs coding skill or an intimate knowledge of .lua to edit. And, while basic UI modifications are often pretty straightforward, they can still help you enormously. So for the PvPer, what would I recommend? First things first -- let's get involved in that interface screen. Go into the Interface menu by pressing Escape, click on Combat, and put a tick in that Class Colors in Nameplates box. Why? Well now, instead of uniform red nameplates hovering over your enemies' heads, you have class-colored ones. Remember how I was telling you about reacting to situations? Well, if you don't know who's trying to kill you, how can you react? If you don't have enemy nameplates at all, head to Names and fix that right now! And get your hands out of your pockets!
Your first Battlegrounds as a PvP healer
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of Battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. You've probably heard it approximately a hundred times in Battlegrounds, particularly if you play as either Horde or Alliance. Yep, they both have their moments -- the faction you're not in is no better than the grass is really greener on the other side of the walls of Orgrimmar. But that aside, you've probably heard people bemoaning the lack of PvP healers. "Hey," you think to yourself (like a good, contributing member of the team), "I've got that healer I leveled ... Maybe I should bring that character along to the next Battleground I do!" That would be your first experience of the sheer, unadulterated joy of healing Battlegrounds. You may note a small quantity of sarcasm there; you'll be cursing your kind heart as you're repeatedly ROFLstomped by two DKs. So how do you avoid your repeated untimely demise and start topping the healing chart in your local Battleground? And how do you transfer your skills into the Arena? First and foremost, PvP is not PvE. Well, duh -- revolutionary stuff. But seriously, the skills you learned in PvE won't really apply here. The damage is not predictable. You can't prepare for it. There aren't phases. Standing in the same place in each encounter won't work. You don't have a tank whose job it is to protect you. And in one similarity to PvE, once people figure out you're the reason why they can't kill that warrior, they're going to be after you. Sadly, people can't be taunted, even with yo mama jokes. Also, none of this is true -- but I'll get to that much later.
Blood Sport: How will patch 4.3 impact PvP?
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. With patch 4.3 imminent and Arena season 10 due to end Nov. 29, it seems reasonable to assume the patch will appear in early December. While you're racing to get your team into title range, get that last piece of gear, or just running laps of your capital city, you might be thinking forward to the arrival of the patch and wondering what your fate will be in PvP as the nerf bat winds up for another swing. Firstly, let's deal with some housekeeping. Conquest points, the PvP equivalent of valor points, will now be far, far easier to earn from ordinary Battlegrounds. The first daily Battleground win will now award 100 conquest points, up from 25, and wins after that will award 50 conquest point, up from, well, none! The conquest cap will remain, so while it will still be far quicker to reach it through Arena, it will also be attainable via Battlegrounds of the non-rated variety. This makes it far easier for solo players to build up the resilience numbers people often demand (fairly or otherwise) for access to Arena and Rated Battleground teams or just to gear for Battlegrounds.
The OverAchiever: Mountain O' Mounts from PVP
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, you have to die before I get a new chocobo. Regrettable, but ... We're back with the Mountain O' Mounts series, and today we're going to examine the 10 mounts available to each faction as a result of slaughtering everything and everyone in your path. If you're the type of player who likes to put the "war" back in Warcraft, you'll enjoy the array of options available to a dedicated mercenary. Also read: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts Mountain O' Mounts in Outland Mountain O' Mounts in Northrend Mountain O' Mounts in 5-man dungeons Mountain O' Mounts in raids Mountain O' Mounts from achievements
The Codex added to RIFT's PvP weekend
Looking forward to RIFT's upcoming PvP beta weekend? You're in good company -- a lot of people are, which is part of the reason Trion Worlds has made the event even sweeter. Aside from the already-announced Black Garden warfront, players in the 20-29 level range will be able to take part in the Codex battle. It's a chance for Defiants and Guardians to cross swords for control of the eponymous artifact with unknown purpose. In terms of gameplay, the Codex will be a domination-style map, with players seizing control points around the artifact and attempting to control the Codex itself. Players can also earn points by defeating enemy players as well, helping to put the game on a faster clock when players interact with one another. RIFT fans can test out the warfronts this weekend, starting at 1 p.m. EST tomorrow and running until the same time on Monday, January 10th.
Battle for Gilneas video with strategy commentary
I mentioned in this week's Blood Sport that I'd soon have a video up for you guys. Well, it came sooner than I expected, as everything worked out splendidly. All together, it only took me a few hours to record video, record audio, patch both together, convert files, and upload to YouTube. For our first PvP video together, we'll be discussing adventures in the Battle for Gilneas with my favorite affliction warlock. This is actually my third rated battleground ever -- in the first two, I was demonology in back-to-back Twin Peaks. The games weren't particularly exciting (we 3-0 capped both games), and there were some recording errors in each. I don't have any listening music for this one; you can pick your own! If Windows Movie Maker allowed me to throw down an audio track, you'd probably be hearing Deadmau5. However, as a consolation, there is commentary from yours truly for 14 minutes and some change! In this episode, I talk about: disparity 10v10 team compositions Battle for Gilneas strategy a helpful tactic not many teams are using right now myself (unfortunately for you, bwahaha) If you have any constructive criticism, questions, or just things you'd like me to discuss next time, please leave a comment below! Note: I talk a lot about 15v15 early on in the video to quickly explain even distribution. I understand Battle for Gilneas is a 10v10 and am just making points about distribution and disparity. Find out how the Cataclysm talent tree redesign affects PvP, how sub-speccing will work at higher levels in the expansion, and how the new Azeroth will affect world PvP. Visit Blood Sport for the inside line on arena PvP.
Exclusive Zentia contest information and more
My, how Zentia has grown! One moment, the charming game is slowly working its way into our hearts, and the next it's parading around with a fat playerbase and upcoming contests. Well, we have more exclusive information for you again -- this time it involves server changes and prizes. Time to celebrate the first PvE server opening for Zentia! The PvP server Spoon will be converted to a PvE server (date to be announced) There will be no force attack on regular maps anymore The battlegrounds War of Camp, Royal Hunt Park and Treasure Island will have force attack enabled Don't worry; dueling will still be allowed on all maps In celebration of the new server and the holidays, ChangYou has decreed that lucky random players will receive 200 tokens to use in the cash shop -- a total of $50,000 in tokens! On top of that, four really lucky players will receive a $500 Amazon gift card, just in time for some holiday shopping. (I wear a small, by the way.) If you'd like to find out more information about the game, check out some of our first impressions here and here. You can sign up for a free account on the website and follow the game on Facebook.
Massively interviews BioWare on SWTOR's crafting and PvP
This past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to head down to LucasArts in San Francisco to check out the current build of Star Wars: The Old Republic and chat with some of the BioWare developers. While my hands-on with the game won't be out until next month, we can deliver a couple of smaller interviews on two of the recently revealed systems in the game. And I think you'll want to hear what the interviewees have to say! Join me past the cut as I ask lead writer Daniel Erickson and lead PvP designer Gabe Amatangelo all about the Alderaan Warzone, the PvP reward system, avoiding battleground design pitfalls, companion tradeskilling, player-made gear, and hardcore crafting in SWTOR.
Rated battlegrounds FAQ
Many players were a bit confused about some of the rules and mechanics revolving around the new rated battlegrounds coming in Cataclysm. Blizzard has, thankfully, posted a new FAQ on the official forums detailing some common questions players had about the new system. Some highlights include the three brackets (10v10, 15v15, 25v25); weekly conquest point caps based on your highest PvP rating in any bracket; and winning in a group comprised of 80 percent guild members awarding guild experience. Hit the jump for the full blue post.
Blizzard announces phase 2 of region-wide battlegroup matching
In an effort to connect more players through the dungeon finder tool and battlegrounds matchmaking, Blizzard is slowly rolling out a region-wide battlegroup matching system. This enormous undertaking will eventually link all of the North American realms to one another, allowing for faster queues, a more diversified opponent pool and much more. Since this is a huge step for Blizzard, both in terms of hardware and software, it will take some time. Thankfully, this is all rolling out slowly. Hit the jump for the official announcement.
Status update on current patch 4.0.1 issues
Vrakthris (Blizzard customer service representative) posted a list of major issues people are coming across in patch 4.0.1, along with updates and expected timetables on when some of them will be resolved. If you're having issues with any of the following topics, read on to find out what is currently being done about the situation. Master riding Missing enchantments Insect Swarm Guild issues with authenticator Warlock pets renamed Missing characters Item durability standardization Removed from battleground
Expansion brings new PvP battle systems to Archlord
Archlord fans can expect a new expansion in the coming weeks, and it will bring some new PvP content to the game. Episode 5: The Grand Cross will bring a new system called The Battle Ground to Archlord. The Battle Ground will bring race-vs.-race PvP to the game in a massive battle held every Thursday and Saturday. Players will join an army of their race, infiltrate the enemy base, and seek to kill the enemy players and heroes. Winners will gain not only bragging rights, but a special race spirit ability which will make all members of that race army stronger. Players will also earn Charisma points for kills in battle, which can be used as currency at the Charisma Gate. Keep an eye on the Archlord site for all the details on The Grand Cross, and check out our gallery for a first look at the expansion. %Gallery-97406%
E3 reveal: Player spaceships and PvP Battlegrounds in SWTOR!
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/E3_reveal_Player_spaceships_and_PvP_Battlegrounds_in_SWTOR'; A new door has been opened today in Star Wars: The Old Republic: the door to your very own customizable spaceship! Mary Bihr and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, of LucasArts and Bioware respectively, stood on the stage at E3 to shock Star Wars fans everywhere. Since the first movie with the Millenium Falcon, the starship has been the center of every character's personal story. Friendships were built, and characters even fell in love, on starships. What story will your character build in his or her starship, and what personal touches would you like to see? Battlegrounds will be the primary focus of PvP combat in SWTOR. Indeed, the new trailer called "Hope" alludes to the fact that one of the primary battlegrounds will be on the planet Alderaan. We know from the official site that Alderaan is a planet estranged from the Republic. This Core planet is the first announced area which will be hotly contested by both the Republic and Imperial forces. So gear up your Trooper and ready your lightsaber, the battle for the Old Republic is about to begin!
Blizzard releases information on new Cataclysm Twin Peaks battleground
PvP fans can rejoice -- Blizzard released information today regarding the new Twin Peaks battleground today, located inside the Eastern Kingdoms' new Twilight Highlands zone. Twin Peaks is described as a "10 vs. 10, capture-the-flag style battleground" reminiscent of Warsong Gulch. Alliance players will be called to the defense of the Wildhammer Dwarves, who are fighting to regain control of their home territory of Grim Batol. The Horde will be forging a new coalition with the Dragonmaw Clan, who seek to take hold on the territory as well. More details are beyond the break.
The cynic's guide to World of Warcraft
We tend to be very careful while composing articles here at WoW Insider. We're always mindful that not everyone plays the game in the same way, or has the same experience on different servers or factions, but every so often a certain madness seizes us and we feel the urge to ... tell the truth. In that vein, I am pleased (sort of) to present The Cynic's Guide to World of Warcraft. This article owes a heavy debt to Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. If you want to see a real master at work, read that.
The Daily Quest: PvP edition
Here at WoW.com we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we ought to follow? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! If you're interested in PvP battlegrounds, you're probably aware that patch 3.3.3 is turning the system on its head -- completely removing Marks of Honor as well as increasing honor gains across the board. Have a bank full of the things? Well, we've got good news for you -- at present on the PTR you can convert them to honor at the rate of 2000 honor per mark. Combine that with the recent explanation of Wintergrasp mechanics and what have you got? A lot of excitement about PvP battlegrounds. Here's what's making the rounds of the blogosphere. Cynwise thinks now's the time to be running battlegrounds and collecting Marks of Honor. Holypaladin.net talks about Wintergrasp imbalance. Birdfall discusses seeing the opposite faction as people. Getting back to the basics, Spiceytuna explains resilience and gives talks frost mage PvP 101. Already a PvP expert? Over on the official forums Nethaera is looking for Warsong Gulch advice to be included in the next World of Warcraft magazine.
Breakfast Topic: What are you most looking forward to in Patch 3.3.3?
So just when it looked like things might be getting quiet in the wake of Patch 3.3, Blizzard stirred things up again last night with a release of PTR Patch 3.3.3. There's some pretty big changes coming our way. In addition to various class changes, we've got some other cool stuff too, including an abolishment of battleground marks, a way to get rid of all those annoying Frozen Orbs clogging our banks, new auction house functionality, and a lot more.
Upcoming battleground and honor changes
Zarhym has announced today major upcoming battleground and honor changes. These changes will be present in the next minor content patch, which will be on the PTR soon. Some of the key points: Marks of Honor are going away. Holiday weekends will now be denoted as "Call to Arms" and award tiered system of honor for participation. The tier is based on you winning or losing the battleground, and if you've won or lost before. Honor kills reward 100% more honor, Wintergrasp weekly quests give 50% less honor, and XP rewarded from honor kills are reduced by 50%. Implementation of the Random Battleground Finder -- much like the current Random Dungeon Finder. There are further honor rewards, which are similar to the ones provided by the Call to Arms. Obviously, there are a ton of implications in these changes to the basic way people participate in PvP. These changes also represent a good start to the massive overhaul we'll see in Cataclysm when rated battlegrounds are introduced. The full statement after the break.
