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Hyperspace Beacon: Five tips for making SWTOR conquests work for smaller guilds
In my last column, I explained the shortcomings of the conquest system in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Despite the issues I have with the system, I still think it's a great way to encourage players to revisit older content, and most importantly, to build guild unity. I know there are some guilds on my server in which members don't even have to participate at all in conquests for that guild to appear on the top ten. But what about those guilds who don't have hundreds of members? What about those guilds who have maybe 20 or so members? Can they even compete? My guild has about 20 people who log in on raid nights; when the raid is done, maybe five or six will stick around. Now, I'm not saying that this is a healthy state for a guild (we are looking for more members!), but the few dedicated members pulled us ahead. For the last two weeks, our guild was in the top 10, and not barely in the top 10 either. This week we hit number seven, and the week before we were six. Here are my tips for how your small guild can get ahead in conquests, too.
Simplify point-based currencies in Warlords
We've covered in the past how the best way to gear for PvP is to grind justice points, and I have recently experienced this - since I wanted to get some pieces of Season 14 for transmog (and to do some PvP on the side, since I like running random BG's) I spent the past couple of days capping honor so that I could pick up several pieces as soon as possible. This led to running dungeons for justice points. Lots of dungeons. And this led me to realize that justice points themselves have a lot of uses - picking up older gear to catch up, converting to honor for PvP gear - but they feel strange and antiquated. There's literally two ways to get them in the current endgame - run scenarios or dungeons - and they only upgrade blue dungeon gear, so their use as an upgrade currency is fairly limited. While you can in fact also buy them with honor, that would have been self defeating in my case.
PvP Gear: The Season 14 fiasco explained
Another PvP season, another set of gear-related issues. It was no surprise that the conquest vendors were despawned shortly after season 14 began, the same happened for season 13 after all, but it turns out that their return may have been more than a little premature. As Blizzard Community Manager Lore explains, the initial removal of the vendors was really just the start of an ongoing comedy of errors that is, as yet, not completely resolved. Lore's full post is after the break, but let's sum up the key issues here. At the start of Season 14, a small number of players had a conquest cap of 28,000 instead of 2,200. This was due to some issues with the catch-up cap rolling over from season 13. Conquest vendors were removed while the error was fixed. Conquest vendors were reintroduced, but it turns out the error was never fixed, because it transpires that realms should have been restarted. Conquest caps remained far too high. Players were able to purchase gear they shouldn't have been able to get, and some even got the Grievous Conquest achievement, allowing them to purchase conquest gear with honor. Blizzard's team is working hard to fix the issues, starting with the correction of caps from 28,000 down to 2,200. They've also pulled the vendors selling conquest gear for honor, and made the Grievous Conquest weapons unavailable. Unfortunately, as it's a far harder issue to fix, removing the extra gear from people who shouldn't have it is going to take a lot longer.
Conquest cap hotfixed, vendors have returned
WoW Insider posted a couple of days back about a bug that caused the removal of the Conquest Vendors, leaving nothing but an empty space and a hole in our hearts where Armsmaster Holinka used to be. But happy news is on the horizon, as Blizzard Community Manager Rygarius reports: Rygarius A fix was made to restore the Conquest cap back to the proper level of 2200. A very small number of players were able to purchase more gear than intended, and we will be addressing those on a case-by-case basis. We're currently working on implementing a hotfix to bring the Conquest vendors back as soon as possible. source And indeed, just an hour after Rygarius posted this, the vendors returned! Blizzard are redefining "Blizzard Soon". The issue was that, for some reason probably related to the conquest catch-up cap implemented last season, certain players had the full catch-up cap of 28,000 conquest points, instead of the correct cap of 2200. It's hard to be sure exactly what caused some players to have it while some didn't, but from the above those who abused the bug, intentionally or otherwise, are being relieved of their ill-gotten gains. A level playing field will be restored, and hopefully our conquest vendors will return to Pandaria before the reset takes place.
PvP Season 12 ends March 5
Attention Arena and Rated Battleground enthusiasts! Blizzard has announced the end of Season 12 for both Arena PvP and Rated Battlegrounds. The season will officially end on Tuesday, March 5, at which point the process of determining which players are eligible for end-of-season rewards will begin. Until rewards are handed out, those that feel they are eligible for titles or mounts should avoid transferring their characters until after the season ends, just to avoid any problems with handing out the goodies. While players will be able to keep their Valor in patch 5.2, Conquest points will still be converted to Honor points. Keep in mind however that all Season 12 gear will be able to be purchased with Honor points at that time -- while 5.0 and 5.1 Valor gear will still cost Valor. Also note that any items with a rating requirement attached will no longer be available for purchase after the Season's end, so be sure to pick up any gear you're missing before March 5. Blizzard Entertainment Arena and Rated Battleground Season 12 is scheduled to end on Tuesday, March 5. At that point, we will determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards, a process that should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for Arena titles and/or the Malevolent Gladiator's Cloud Serpent to refrain from transferring their characters to another realm or faction until after Season 12 ends. The awarding of Season 12 titles and mounts will occur approximately 2 weeks after the season ends. At the end of the season, Conquest Points will be converted to Honor Points and any honor above 4000 will be converted to gold at a rate of 35 silver per point. The honor cap will remain at 4000. All Season 12 items will cost Honor Points (equivalent to their previous Conquest Point cost) when the season ends, with the exception of any items with rating requirements attached. These items will no longer be available for purchase. The next Arena and Rated Battleground season will begin approximately one week after the current season ends. During the break between seasons, all Rated Battleground and Arena matches will be unavailable. Team and Personal Ratings will be reset when Season 13 begins. source Does this mean we'll see patch 5.2 hit the live servers on March 5? Possibly -- but as always, dates are subject to change, and we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, if you're a PvP enthusiast, consider this your heads up to decide what to do with any remaining Conquest or Honor points you may have kicking around.
Preparing for PvP in Patch 5.2
Community Manager Daxxarri posted today with a lot of useful information to help players get to grips with the new PvP gearing methods in patch 5.2. There's some old information repeated, but if you weren't paying attention the first time around, here's his recap of the changes to the PvP gearing system: Daxxarri Rating requirements will be removed from PvP gear. Malevolent Gladiator's gear will be available for purchase with Honor Points. A new tier of Conquest Point gear will be added that becomes available once 27000 Conquest Points have been earned for the season. Team Rating will gradually increase during the season for teams and players who continue to compete in PvP. This system is explained in the Mists of Pandaria PvP Dev Watercooler. source But that's not the most complicated bit that players have to prepare for. That arises when deciding what to do with conquest points now, and after patch 5.2. Unlike valor points, which are not being reset, conquest points will be converted to honor after the patch, with any that put the player's total honor points over 4,000 converted into gold. The upgrade vendor is also disappearing. This creates an interesting conundrum when it comes to gear choices.
Patch 5.2 PTR: PvP dailies, and additional rewards for PvE Dailies.
The option to choose between PvE and PvP dailies was mentioned a while back in the first set of patch 5.2 PTR patch notes, and now they're finally live. There's no unlocking required, either, both factions simply need to complete their "Assault on..." scenario -- for the Alliance it's Shaol'Mara, for the Horde, Zeb'Tula. Both scenarios play out exactly the same, speak to either Jaina or Lor'themar to start the solo instance, and fly over the island with your scout, and go from there. I won't spoil it, but a little while and a lot of killing (the Alliance one was quite a bit harder than the Horde one for a fire mage) later, you'll leave the instance and find yourself in either Sunseeker Premontory or Violet Rise, depending on faction. Once you've unlocked the faction base, you'll need to seek out the Assignment Map to choose your variety of daily quest.
Patch 5.2: Valor and Conquest Points will be reset
Given that patch 5.2 includes a new raid and a new PvP season, it is no great surprise that Valor and Conquest points are being reset. However, one element of said reset is not proceeding quite how recent arrivals to Azeroth might expect. Blizzard PvE Valor -> Justice All Valor is converted to Justice Justice -> Gold Justice above the 4000 cap is converted to gold at a rate of 47 silver per point So let's say the realms go down for the 5.2 patch and you have 450 Valor and 3800 Justice. Because of the 4000 Justice cap, you'd log back in after the patch is released with 0 Valor, 4000 Justice, and be 117 gold and 50 silver richer after the conversion. With 5.2 we won't be changing current Valor items to cost Justice, but they will be much cheaper (discounts from 50-75% off their current costs). You'll need to acquire Valor after the patch is released to buy pieces for their discounted rate, or to buy the new 5.2 Valor items, but we're also introducing new items to spend your Justice on, including heirlooms and Pet Battle stones. source This seems to follow the logic of Blizzard's raid nerf strategy, where players' prior efforts are not wholly negated, but will doubtless ruffle a few feathers. There is also further information provided about Charms, and PvP points.
Developer Q&A with Wowjuju
Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym emailed WoW Insider yesterday to give us a heads up about a lengthy developer Q&A which was published over at Wowjuju. This is a hugely in-depth interview, so let's dive right in with our synopsis. Classes A couple of questions came up regarding the Monk ability, Zen Pilgrimage. This ability allows monks to travel to the Peak of Serenity in Pandaria, and on re-use, returns the player to their previous location. Death Knights, understandably, were asking for the same to apply to their Death Gate, which takes them to the Ebon Hold, and unceremoniously abandons them there. Monks, conversely, were bemoaning the confusing effect of the ability if they don't use it a second time, and hearthstone back instead. The devs said that both concerns were reasonable, and that they would look into rectifying the issues. WoW Insider thinks that Monks are missing a trick with what could essentially be a second hearthstone! Hunters queried whether the increase in available pets might lead to more stable space, which, to the consternation of sentimental beast masters everywhere, was met with a resounding "No." There was also some discussion of the hunter ability Scatter Shot being dodgeable, while a rogue Blind wasn't. Rogues and hunters work very differently, rogues are reliant on expertise and positioning to avoid being dodged or parried on a plethora of other abilities, so the devs didn't really feel this was a valid comparison.
Patch 5.1 PTR: Upgrading items with justice and valor
One of the most interesting features of Patch 5.1 is the ability to upgrade your items with justice and valor points (as well as upgrading PvP items with honor and conquest points) and in order to give you a sense of what the current state of this feature is on the PTR, I went looking for the upgrade vendor. They're not hard to find -- look for the ethereals who do transmogrification and reforging, and you'll find them standing in the same areas. I confirmed this by going to Orgrimmar and the Shrine of Seven Stars, and there they were. Since I was on a premade character with no honor or conquest gear and no epics, I could only test the justice point interface. Still, it's worth taking a look at how the process will work. As you can see from the above screenshot, the current interface will look familiar if you've reforged your gear at any point. But there are some differences.
More Conquest Point Changes: PvP to PvE?
Following the recent alteration to a so-called bug which had existed since the launch of Patch 4.2, conquest points are to undergo further alteration. In preparation for Patch 5.1's system, which will allow PvP and PvE players to upgrade their gear with all four types of point, Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has posted about an upcoming increase to the conquest point cap: Daxxarri To help everyone keep up with the upcoming system in 5.1 that will allow you to upgrade your Conquest gear with Conquest Points, a hotfix is being implemented very soon that will raise the Conquest Point caps: At 1500 rating, the Arena Conquest Cap will now be 1800 (up from 1350), while the Rated Battleground Conquest cap will be 2200 (up from 1650). As always, when your rating increases, so will your cap. Plan accordingly! source While this is a welcome change, the question remains: does this repair the earlier issue of players having to enter rated battlegrounds to complete the weekly cap? We aren't sure. And furthermore, it seems possible that Blizzard's team could be opening themselves up to a second issue. Since the stats on PvP gear were altered to all but match those on PvE gear, PvP gear is viable in PvE. But conquest gear has no reputation requirements, and conquest points can be earned far faster than valor, with one arena win awarding 180 points. With these increased caps, will PvP become the way to gear for PvE? Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Conquest Point hotfix: making it harder to PvP
This has been an unfolding drama over the past few days, and for me is one of those moments where, even making the best effort, I literally cannot understand where Blizzard are going with a change to the game. For a while now, the Conquest system has remained the same. If your rating in either arenas or rated battlegrounds is below around 1550, your arena point cap is 1350 for the week. The total cap is 1650, but in order to reach that higher cap, you need to do battlegrounds. If you're doing rated battlegrounds, you can get all the way to 1650, but not with arenas, unless your rating is high enough. So, when players noticed they weren't getting their conquest above 1350, they took to the forums.
Patch 5.0.4 currency conversion clarified
While we put together a comprehensive guide on what to expect with patch 5.0.4, there was something missing from the list. Currency conversion had yet to be explained on the current patch notes -- while we knew it was coming on Aug. 28, we didn't know the exact details. Blizzard has finally clarified the conversion rates, going one step farther by outlining what currency conversion will look like all the way up to patch 5.1. Valor points will be disappearing, converted to justice points, and conquest will be converted to honor. There will be no gold conversion for excess points, because the cap for justice and honor points will be removed until Mists of Pandaria launches. Blizzard Entertainment The currency conversion coming with Mists of Pandaria is going to happen in three stages, and this is how we plan for it to progress: With Patch 5.0.4 on August 28 Valor points will be converted to Justice points, and Conquest points will be converted to Honor points. Neither of the resultant currencies (Justice and Honor) will have an enforced hard-cap at this time. The current Arena season will end. Players will no longer be able to earn Valor or Conquest points (bosses will drop Justice, Arenas will be closed). Items formerly purchasable for Valor/Conquest will be available for Justice/Honor. With Mists of Pandaria on September 25 Valor can be earned again. Characters can earn up to 1000 Valor per week, and carry a maximum of 3000 Valor. Daily quests, random Scenarios, random Heroic dungeons, and all levels of raiding will reward Valor. Valor will be used to purchase ilvl 489 gear in Mists of Pandaria. The Klaxxi, Golden Lotus, Shado-Pan, and August Celestials factions will sell this gear. Revered reputation with each faction will be required. Conquest will become earnable. There is a cap of 4000 Conquest points. Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds reward Conquest. It will be used to purchase ilvl 483 gear from Pandaren battlemasters on the Great Wall. With Mists of Pandaria, Patch 5.1 We currently plan to upgrade the Valor system as Ghostcrawler described in Mists of Pandaria Looting Explained in the 5.1 patch, allowing you to upgrade your gear using Valor points. We'll have additional information once Mists of Pandaria launches and we get closer to the 5.1 patch release. Do you have questions or comments about currencies in World of Warcraft? Please let us know in this discussion thread. source Hopefully this clears up everyone's questions about this process. If not, you can always check out the discussion thread on the official forums and ask away! It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Gold Capped: This is the wrong way to do epic gems
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Epic gems are here, and they're designed differently than we're used to. To be specific, they're designed without fairness baked in, which is somewhat of a new feeling for people who weren't around buying epic gems in The Burning Crusade. Fairness is actually the wrong word for this. Life isn't fair, and neither is WoW. Instead, I'll talk about balance. Blizzard has gone to great lengths to ensure that the game remains fun for as many people as possible by trying to avoid changes that suddenly disadvantage an arbitrary subset of players or shift the desirability of choices made a long time ago. Balanced changes don't force competitive PvP and raiding group to play the gold-making game to be on a level footing with the competition. They also don't provide a tangible itemization difference between the profession perks of different crafting professions.
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.
Patch 4.3 PTR: Valor and conquest point changes
Bashiok has just announced new valor point and conquest point changes coming with patch 4.3 that aim to de-emphasize the collection of valor points as a primary way to gear up for content. Both 10- and 25-man versions of the Dragon Soul raid will give 100 VPs per boss, down from 115 and 135, and Firelands bosses will only give 50 points each. The changes are intended to encourage killing bosses for loot rather than killing bosses for valor points to purchase loot. One can also surmise that the change is being introduced to give players more of a reason to try the new Raid Finder feature, where bosses drop loot with a unique power level. On the PvP side of the equation, the number of conquest points received for the first daily Battleground is increasing to 100 up from 25, allowing players to work toward their conquest point caps quicker while not feeling like they have to run Rated Battlegrounds or Arenas. Both Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will still earn players points more quickly, but this change should allow those players who prefer regular Battlegrounds to not be left in the dust.
Honor compensation date announced for recent PVP gear debacle
Blizzard's Bashiok has posted a time frame for the previously announced 4,000-honor point compensation package for players who spent honor on old gear during the week between the PVP Season 9 and Season 10. Any player who spent honor on ilevel 365 gear during the transition week will be awarded a free 4,000 honor points, which can go over the point cap and can be spent on the new, higher tier of Vicious PVP gear. This free honor will be awarded to players during maintenance on July 19 (this coming Tuesday). I think this is a pretty good compensation package for players who were not informed of the change in how PVP gear would be handled this season. The biggest issue from the debacle was that players spent a huge amount of time and effort grinding out honor for ilevel 365 gear during the off-week, then spent it, only to see the gear became useless just days later. Now that work has essentially been restored in the form of new, shiny, over-the-cap honor points. You will not be able to earn more honor points until you dip below the cap again, however.
Blizzard to offer compensation for PVP Season 10 transition woes
Yesterday, we talked about an issue that had PVP players in an uproar: Conquest points were accidentally down-converted to honor points a week early, with excess points converted to gold. On top of that, Blizzard launched a new tier of ilevel 371 gear without warning, just after making ilevel 365 gear available for purchase with honor. Players who spent their points decking themselves out in the latest PVP armor found themselves abruptly faced with the stunning realization that had they saved their points, they could have had better gear. It was a mistake, and it was acknowledged by Zarhym (Blizzard community manager) in a fairly lengthy blue post, along with a mention that Blizzard was exploring some options to try and make it up to players. Happily, it appears those options have been explored, as Blizzard's Bashiok posted today with a proposed solution for compensation: Players who were caught off guard by the change will be provided with 4,000 honor points, stacking over the cap. Players will not be able to accumulate more honor until spending below the 4,000 cap, but that should give PVPers a chance to pick up that new gear. This will not be immediately implemented, as it seems Blizzard is still trying to figure out how, exactly, to determine who was affected by the sudden transition and who was not -- so don't expect those 4,000 points on your character tomorrow. Still, it's nice seeing Blizzard acknowledge something that was clearly a miscommunication in regards to the transition between seasons and that it will be making sure those players caught in the middle of the fumble will be getting something back. Follow after the break for the full announcement from Bashiok.
Patch 4.1 PTR: New PvE-to-PvP currency conversion
If you've seen the patch 4.1 PTR patch notes recently, one thing will probably jump out at you immediately. Namely, you can now buy honor points for justice points and vice versa, and you can also buy conquest points for valor points. Updated 4.1 patch notes for April 7, 2011 General Honor is now purchasable from the Justice Commodities Vendor at 250 Honor per 375 Justice. Justice is now purchasable from the Honor Commodities Vendor at 250 Justice per 375 Honor. Conquest is now purchasable from the Valor vendor at 250 Conquest per 250 Valor. source
Blood Sport: Gearing up for arena, Cataclysm edition
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. It's the beginning of a new arena season. Recently hitting 85 myself, I noticed a lack of information about the best ways to acquire PvP gear for my upcoming adventures in Azeroth. Well, I've put together a little guide for you that I hope will aid you in whatever your PvP goals are this season. Conquest points are the most important type of PvP currency in Cataclysm -- and they're awesome. They're incredibly easy to get, as you only have to win four or five arena games a week to get to the starting cap of 1,343. The average piece of conquest gear is bought for 1,579.4 conquest points, so even if you never break 1,500 rating, you'll be getting a new piece of epic PvP gear almost every week. Try to save up early for your weapon, offhand, and relic/wand. These three slots are the only pieces of gear that can only be bought with conquest points -- don't make the mistake of buying other stuff with conquest points! You can just get a slightly inferior version of the other pieces via honor, but you might have to wave around that green or blue weapon for a while if you aren't wise about what you buy!
