ArenaPvp
Latest
This is the arena that never ends
It just goes on and on my friend. Jbangalanga, Weaslelawd, Spiked and Deunan started playing it, not knowing what it was, and they continued playing it for ten hours and twenty minutes just because ... Yes, you heard right: there was a 2v2 arena match that lasted for over ten hours. According to Weaslelawd, the DPSers of the teams -- the warrior and the warlock -- got killed in the first few minutes. This left Weaslelawd, an orc resto shaman, and Spiked, a night elf resto druid, to battle it out. Neither healer could out-DPS the other's heals, and both were too stubborn to give up. The druid was unable to rez his own partner due to cooldown restrictions, but stayed alert enough to interrupt any attempts from the shaman to rez the warrior. Jbangalanga created a character on Spiked's server to try to negotiate a settlement, but talks fell through as neither Weaslelawd or Spiked was willing to throw the match or /roll for it. Weaslelawd actually talked to a GM halfway through, but unfortunately chose to host the picture on imageshack, where they can't be seen due to excessive bandwidth usage. Eventually, it hit 5 AM in Spiked's area and he began to zone out. Also, he said, eight pieces of his gear were broken. He emoted to Weaslelawd that he was ready and let the shaman kill him. Weaslelawd walked away from his ten-hour match with ... 15 added to his arena rating. Wow. Spectators on both Burning Legion and Shadowmoon have suggested that both teams deserve a couple thousand arena points and a Manly Man award for a ten-hour fight. I would probably have given up around the twenty minute mark. What would you have done in the same situation -- fight it out or give up?
This week in the Arena
Players participating in Arena PvP get more than cool prizes -- the top 0.5% of participating teams are also going to be immortalized in Blizzard's Hall of Fame. And the top teams from season one have just shown up.Also, the second qualifying round for the 2v2 Championship Gaming Series has begun. The live CGS tournament will be taking place at BlizzCon in August -- and everyone here at WoW Insider wishes the competing teams the best of luck.And finally in Arena news for the week, we've got stats on the top 20 US Arena teams compiled by Caster. The data, as always, is interesting (if a bit disheartening for some classes). Here's the basic class breakdown, but for more details on precise numbers of each class and talent spec breakdowns, check the original post.5v5 Arenas Paladin: 18% Warrior: 18% Priest: 14% Shaman: 12% Mage: 12% Warlock: 11% Rogue: 6% Hunter: 5% Druid: 4% 3v3 Arenas Warrior: 16% Priest: 15% Paladin: 15% Warlock: 14% Mage: 13% Rogue: 12% Shaman: 8% Druid: 6% Hunter: 2% 2v2 Arenas Warlock: 21% Priest: 15% Paladin: 15% Warrior: 14% Rogue: 13% Druid: 9% Mage: 5% Shaman: 5% Hunter: 2%
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.
Selling arena titles for fun and profit
Death and Taxes has made WoW headlines for many things, mostly due to their raiding achievements. But today on the forums another aspect of the guild's performance made heads turn: their PvP arena teams. In the PvP arena 3v3 bracket Death and Taxes guild members have been using the current rule system to their benefit. What exactly does this entail? Well, to be specific, members of the top ranked teams are sharing their skill with lower ranked PvP players in order to raise their standings and get them the coveted Armored Netherdrake and an easy title. Seeing the success of one D&T arena team after another is frustrating their opponents, and therefore the vocal forum protest. Members of D&T have naturally spoken up in their own defense, and fairly eloquently I might add. One of the accusations leveled at the guild was that they are using top crafted items to gain an edge in PvP, essentially using their power as a PvE guild to dominate the PvP domain.
WSVG makes a deal to show events on CBS
Looks like at least someone thinks there's an audience for arena PvP-- World Series of Video Games has announced they've signed a deal with CBS (yes, that CBS) to show four one-hour episodes featuring four of their upcoming events. Which means you could be seeing WoW arena matches (including a few guilds dueling it out in real life) on network television in the near future.Our good friends at Joystiq say the play-by-play will be done by some dude named Greg Amsinger, who has called WSVG events before. He's not the same guy they've got calling arena matches now, is he? Because if so, they should shell out for someone new. No word yet either on who's producing it or what it will be like-- we don't even know for sure that they'll show WoW. They may decide to stick to the slightly-more-accessible first person shooter matches for network TV.But if you want to watch, the first special is supposed to drop on July 29th, just a few days after the WSVG event in Louisville. Are eSports really going to turn out to become big ticket spectator sports? Looks like we're about to find out.
5v5 Arena team gets a sponsor, goes professional
One of the top 5v5 teams has become one of the first groups of WoW players to become professional gamers-- Curse reports that CheckSix Gaming, an e-sports agency (or should that be promoter? sponsor?), has picked up ZERG IT DOWN as the first professional 5v5 arena team (one of the first actually, see Update below). CheckSix also sponsors Counterstrike, Call of Duty, and BF1942 teams, and while they say they were skeptical Blizzard would be able to make WoW a part of "eSports," the arena system is what put it over the top-- it provides a quantifiable way to determine which team has the better players.ZERG IT DOWN is made up of players in Insurrection, a guild on the Horde side of Tichondrius (the team is currently second place in the Bloodlust battlegroup). As part of the deal, CheckSix is sponsoring the whole guild-- they've put up a new website and are running a Vent server for them. In return, ZERG IT DOWN will serve as CheckSix's official team at future Arena tournaments. If there are any, that is-- the only real competition is currently the ongoing ingame season, but it's not a stretch to think that in the future, gaming tournaments will set up shop in Azeroth and pit certain arena teams against each other. In fact, Blizzard could probably benefit from helping them do that-- one of the team's leaders speculates that some Arena matches would benefit from seeing a normalized gear system, which currently only Blizzard could implement, if they even wanted to.But it's awesome that these guys were able to pick up a sponsor, and even more awesome that a company like CheckSix was willing to take a chance and bring WoW into the growing realm of professional gaming. Congrats and good luck to both of them.Update: Almost simultaneously, Boubouille sent a tip (thanks!) that Team Pandemic, another gaming sponsor, has also picked up another Arena team-- it's Power Trip, currently the first place team in Bloodlust. Looks like we've got our first professional rivalry.Update2: Curse has an interview with Power Trip.
Arena rankings for sale
Want to get some of those awesome PvP arena rewards, but don't have the friends or talent to win the points yourself? Buy your way in!A poster on the Elitist Jerks guild forums says a rogue and shaman in his guild (he's part of Paradox on Eredar) are supposedly selling arena spots on highly ranked teams. These guys go in, get the rating up to 2000-2100, and then charge 500-800g (depending on the rating) to join the team and play 10 matches. At the end of the week, "customers" pick up 500-600 arena points, and within a few weeks and a few thousand gold, they're buying a Gladiator's weapon.Is this cheating? I don't think so, any more than the selling of Onyxia slots way back when was. This team is probably known on the server (or they will be now, if they're not already), so anyone but the two guys running it won't get the respect those with such a high ranking normally would. And if the two guys can actually hold down a 2100 ranking while adding in random people from week to week, I say they deserve the cash.Who knows what Blizzard will say, though. Sometimes they're hands off on this stuff (I don't think they ever had a problem with guilds selling raid spots), and sometimes they take an interest. To tell the truth, I'm not really sure how big a market there is for this anyway. Would you pay 3000g to run the arenas 10 times a week and pick up the epic weapon when you're done?Update: Robert says in the comments that he talked to a Blizzard GM about this, and the GM says it's cool. So there.[ Thanks, Robert! ]
Losing 5v5 matches gives more arena points than winning 2v2
How much time have you all spent in the arenas so far? I've played a few skirmishes, but most of my time lately has been spent making my way up to 70. A friend and I had planned to roll a 2v2 arena team, but now I'm not so sure: the latest math done by players says that if you lose a 5v5 match, you actually earn more arena points than if you win a 2v2 match.Paladinsucks has the tip on this one: they link to this forum post by Darkhorse on Mannoroth that lays out the problem pretty well. Basically (and regular readers will know how bad I am at math), Blizzard has put a reduction to 60% on arena points earned from a 2v2 rating. The reason is because consider that it takes more skill to beat a 5man group than a 2man group. Here's the numbers crunch-- I'll be staying away from those, except to say that winning 10 arena games in 2v2 nets you only 335 arena points, while losing 10 5v5 games will still grant you 377 arena points. If gaining points is your goal, you're way better off messing around in 5v5 rather than clawing your way to the top through 2v2.Now, not everyone is after points necessarily-- Blizzard obviously wants the 2v2 people to do it for the glory, not the points. And Drysc does point out that these numbers are only after one week of winning or losing-- if you continue to win in 2v2, you'll get lots more points than losing in any bracket, while if you continue to lose in 5v5, your points will start to drop pretty precipitously. As for solutions, the current setup is "working as intended," but lots of players are asking for the points reduction on the 2v2 and 3v3 matches to be weakened-- 2v2 shouldn't be worth as much as 5v5, but it shouldn't be worth nothing. Whether or not Blizzard will go for that remains to be seen. Looks like I better find three more people and make a 5v5 team.
Lots of Arena PVP info from Drysc
Drysc has practically written a novel today on the upcoming rewards for Arena PVP. When a player asks how the rewards will be distributed, Drysc opens up and answers a lot of questions we had about how the Arena system would work. Arena honor points will be given based on ranking every week during maintenance-- if you have a high ranking, you get more points than if you have a low ranking. This means that everyone will eventually have access to all of the Arena PVP awards. If your team is terrific, you'll get access to them much faster than a team that flouders in the rankings, but no matter how you play, as long as you have a ranking, you'll earn points every week. Arena seasons will last three months, and and the end of a season, the teams with the top rankings for that period will get "cool prizes." Drysc says that, unlike the normal Arena PVP awards, these rewards will be "purely status or cosmetic in nature," but what that means we're not sure-- special mounts? Special tabards? Cooler looking versions of Arena weapons? One of the rewards will be titles for the top teams at the end of the season. The other big news: rankings won't go into effect until you're level 70. You'll still be able to play Arena "skirmishes" that don't count towards the ranking (they'll still give honor points, however), but not until you ding 70 will you be able to enter the tournament system. In addition, the skirmishes will be seperated by every 5 levels-- 60-64, 65-69, and 70 for the ranking system. And once you do start ranking, you need 10 matches minimum to enter the system. So Drysc says most players will probably play their ten, and then decide whether it's something they want to stick with or not. In addition, he predicts matches will run "5 minutes or less"-- in sharp contrast to the BGs currently in the game. Finally, Drysc says players will be able to be on one team of each size-- 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5. Sounds awesome-- can't wait to see what kind of rewards come out of the system, and the prospect of "5 min or less" matches sounds a lot more enticing than the looooong WSG and AV matches I've been stuck in lately. While we're at it, here's a little Arena video as well. In just the Arena system alone, PVPers will have plenty to play with come the Burning Crusade.
Burning Crusade Arena PvP
The folks over at WoW Vault managed to get some information about the new Arena PvP in the Burning Crusade via Nethaera from Blizzard. Nethaera repeats some info we already know, and lets out a little bit of new stuff as well. While I am not a heavy PvPer by any means, these points caught my eye... The Arena system will attempt to match people up by gear. This seems like a fabulous idea. Abilities, spells and items with cool downs longer than 15 minutes cannot be used while in the arena. You can't use consumables beyond bandages and conjured items while in the Arena. The rating system is explained. If you want a more careful explanation of how the rating system will work, check out Relmstein's article on the subject. Again, I am by no means a PvP expert, but I can see some of this really annoying certain classes. There is a bunch more info in the article. so you should definitely head over to WoW Vault and check this story out for yourself and let me know what you think of the proposed plan.
Life without Burning Crusade
Joeh asks an interesting question over on livejournal... What are you going to be able to do if you don't buy the Burning Crusade expansion? There are probably at least a few people out there planning on not buying the expansion-- either for money or time reasons.So, without the expansion, it looks like you're going to get a free respec, and of course all the talent changes on the trees-- but you'll still have only 51 points to spend, even though the trees will now go up to 61 points. And you'll still have access to all the content currently in the game-- you'll be able to play Strat, Scholo, ZG, AQ, and even Naxx until your heart's content. And even though you won't be able to play the new races, you'll still get to goggle at them as they run past you, sometimes on their very sweet epic mounts (although you won't see the flying ones, because those will only be in Outland, somewhere you can't go).What else won't you get? You won't get to learn Jewelcrafting, although you will be able to use Jewelcrafted items and obtain drops. You won't see any of the new dungeons, and you won't be able to level a single XP past level 60.And then there's some things we just don't know about. All players will be affected by the Honor System changes, but will Arena PVP be only for Burning Crusaders or will everyone get to play in them? And Blizzard hasn't said a single word about how the expansion will be implemented in-game-- will there be a World Event like the Scourge Invasion, and if so, will everyone see it, or only those who buy the expansion? Caverns of Time, we know, will be a world event in the "old" content of Tanaris-- can everyone participate in that or only those with BC?And I know it boggles the mind, but what about post-expansion patches? Will Blizzard upgrade the entire game, or just the expansion folks? Lots of questions to be answered as we move closer and closer to BC's release date.
Blizzard Insider Interview with Tom Chilton on PVP
The official newsletter Blizzard Insider has posted an interview with Lead Designer Tom Chilton about the new PVP system and world PVP options showing up in the Burning Crusade (read the transcript at that link, or listen to audio here).The interview's pretty softball (hey, what do you expect from an official source), but Chilton does talk a little bit more about the new PVP arena matchups. Players will fight in teams of 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 from an "arena team" (consisting of main players and benchwarmers) that "has a lot of strong parallels to the guild system" in that you can invite or release players at will. Chilton also answers the question about the arena "seasons"-- matches will be organized in periods of every few months, and at the end of the season, scores will be reset. Chilton says they're planning to change around certain PVP rewards from season to season, and he doesn't rule out the interesting possibility of a "Super Brawl"-- whatever that exactly means.Chilton also talks a little bit more about 1.12 world PVP in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands, but here's an interesting question he doesn't answer: Is world PVP only confined to the higher classes? Is Blizzard trying to think of any ways to offer world PVP options to lower levels?Combined with news from the forums yesterday that players with current PVP titles will be able to keep their highest rank even in the new non-ladder system, it sounds like there are a lot of wacky shakeups coming to PVP in both 1.12 and the expansion. Sounds fun.
PVP Revamped, 25 Man Max, New Hybrid Buffs in BC
1up is reporting, courtesy of Lead Designer Tom Chilton, that Illidan's Black Citadel will be the most challenging instance in Burning Crusade at release-- and it will have a 25-player limit. Eyonix has confirmed, so if you were planning to take 39 of your friends to a brand new raid in Burning Crusade, better disappoint a few of them.Other bombshells: The PVP system will be completely revamped-- no more ladder system. Instead, you'll earn Honor Points, which can be spent for different rewards, including new gear. "Arena PVP," in which players can get a charter to form teams for 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5. Also, a "season-based concept" for arenas. Your guess is as good as ours on that one. Chilton says that putting Shamans and Pallys in both factions will let them "differentiate them more." Shaman will get Bloodlust, a level 70 party haste buff. Pallys will get a castable AOE taunt buff-- cast it on a player that's getting attacked to bring mobs to the Pally. Instances will have different difficulty modes at different times-- an instance played at 62 will be easier and give different rewards than the same instance at 70. Wow. A new PVP system alone will be great news to a lot of players (and terrible news to others who have spent hours gaining ranks in the current system). Arena PVP sounds really interesting, and should help more and more premade groups get together. And speaking of being a Shaman looking for an endgame role, the new buffs sound wild.
