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Arena players say they can't compete with Death Knights
A Korean Arena team named Kill e A has dropped out of the upcoming Extreme Masters tournament and claimed that they just can't compete with Death Knights in the Arenas. "Due to recent balance changes resulting from the 3.0.9 patch, we believe that it is no longer possible for the Mage and Rogue character classes to remain competitive in a high-level PvP setting," says the statement posted on the ESL's site. They go on to say that "our testing has shown that it is now impossible for other classes to compete effectively with the Death Knight." Since they don't have a DK player and their team's strategy is based around using a Mage and Rogue, they're out, and another team from SK Gaming is in. The SK Gaming team will be running with a DK, and they say they're certain they won't be the only ones.And Kill e A isn't the only team dealing with the power of the Death Knight. Gotfrag has an interview up with Rumay "Hafu" Wang of Fnatic/Orz, winners of two big tournaments last year. She too says Death Knights are a force to be reckoned with, though the recent changes might bring them down a notch. Plague Strike, as even the NPC Death Knights say, is a Lifebloom-killer, and Hafu says that as a Resto Druid in the Arenas, she can't match them.Blizzard will definitely be watching during the upcoming Arena tournament -- if Death Knights are as overpowered as these players claim they are, we might see some PvP-based nerfs in their future.
The best of WoW Insider: January 20-27, 2009
What a week in the World of Warcraft. We've had game-breaking bugs, gold ads on the official forums, and there's a rumor going around that the official WoW mouse might be broken, too. But don't worry -- when things break in Azeroth, as they definitely have this past week, WoW Insider is there to pick up the pieces. Check out our top stories of the past week below. News The disaster of patch 3.0.8Blizzard's latest patch is riddled with bugs, from bad to worse. World of Warcraft 3.0.8 patch notesHere's what's supposed to have happened. But most of this didn't actually work until late last week. Steelseries WoW mouse is dangerous in no uncertain Terms (of Use)Could an officially sponsored mouse get you officially banned? Breaking news: Arenas disabledYes, things got so bad last week, Blizzard temporarily took both Wintergrasp and the Arenas out of the game. Gold ads appear on Blizzard's forumsBlizzard suffers an amusing slip in its forum advertising. Features The Overachiever: Completing the Lunar Festival achievementsA guide to finishing up all of the goals for the Lunar Festival, now happening in Azeroth. The Queue: Who cares about 3.0.8, where's 3.1?Our readers wonder where the new content is. Breakfast Topic: Is 68 too low for Northrend?A daily discussion about when the right time to head north should be. The Art of War(craft): How 3.0.8 changes PvPPlayer vs. Player and what's different with the new patch. Two Bosses Enter: Keristrasza vs. CyanigosaOur showdown of in-game bosses is back for Wrath, with some dragon on dragon action.
Arenas shut down in World of Warcraft
If you're looking for your arenas in World of Warcraft, you won't be finding them. As our sister site WoW Insider has found, Blizzard has temporarily shut down the arena servers.The problem seems to stem from the ratings calculation system, which seems to be generating inconsistent results. Until this problem is resolved, arenas will be remaining offline. This is, of course, in addition to all the other bugs that have been introduced with patch 3.0.8, including the bug that has caused Blizzard to completely close off the zone of Wintergrasp as well.Currently there is no estimated time for the arenas to come back up, but we'll keep you informed as to any breaking developments.
WoW Insider Show live this afternoon on Ustream
Our podcast is back as usual this afternoon, and it looks to be a great show. We'll have the results of Turpster's authenticator contest (there's still time to put the code word -- it's "bananas" -- in over on Facebook, if you haven't entered yet), and as usual, we'll do what we always do, which is answer reader email and chat about the most popular posts of the last week. This week, that'll include what's going on with professions lately, and how Blizzard might make them better, whether Ulduar will be harder or not, how some folks see WoW as offensive, and the new time limit on Arena matches (and whether it will make a difference or not).And of course we'll talk about what we've been up to in the game lately, and if you stick around afterwards, we'll be live on the aftershow, when you can talk directly to us from the comments without those pesky recorders taking down our every word. It all kicks off at 3:30pm Eastern (8:30pm GMT) over on our Ustream page.And as usual, I've also embedded the feed live in the second half of this post, so you can just click through to join in on the show and the conversation today. Whether you're raiding or soloing this afternoon, feel free to jump in the chat and give us a listen!
Scattered Shots: New Year's Resolutions for Hunters and for Blizzard
Welcome to Scattered Shots! This week, your author has managed to take a break from lamenting that the stores about to stop selling eggnog to make a few Hunter-specific resolutions.The New Year is considered by many people to be the time for a fresh start, a time to wipe the slate clean of past missteps, or just to make some changes to your life to make it even better. In that spirit, I'd like to propose some Hunter-related resolutions for both Blizzard and for Hunters in the spirit of promoting peace, harmony, and understanding in the new year for all Survivalists, Marksmen, and Beastmasters.
Do you care about PvP anymore?
Today, our own Zach Yonzon asked if you were ready for Arena Season 5. This led me to reflect and realize that no, I'm not ready. I don't even know if I'd say not ready so much as finally, completely and totally uninterested in PvP entirely. I simply don't care, not even remotely. I don't care about Wintergrasp, haven't been there since it opened. I don't care about Strand of the Ancients, or any of the older battlegrounds. I sure as heck don't care about Arena and I'm not trying to come up with a comp for any of the brackets there. By intertwining the aspects of PvP as they have, making it so any of the decent rewards require you to do both arenas and gather honor points, Blizzard has finally succeeded wildly in their 'Make PvP totally uninteresting to Matt Rossi' program. They've been working on it for a while but with Wrath of the Lich King, they've finally delivered the goods.
Arena Season 5 start date announced
The big announcement has been made, and it's about what one might have expected. Season 5 for the Arena will begin on December 16th, when level 80 characters will begin rated play to compete for gear and end-of-season rewards. This announcement came during a reminder that the "Limbo Season" will end this Tuesday. That means you're not going to get Arena points for any rated matches you're playing this week. There will be no rated Arenas again until December 16th, which is kind of a shame when you consider the two new Arenas in place. A side effect of this announcement, of course, is that we now know for certain when Blizzard expects most of their players to reach level 80. Since you have to be 80 to get into the rated matches, you can guess the developers were waiting for a significant portion of the playerbase to be ready before starting the season. No doubt, high end Arena fighters will already have been storming the battlegrounds and collecting honor before the season starts. WIth the gear changes and mechanics changes, it's going to be exciting to see the first season of Wrath. I'm definitely excited to see what new dynamic Death Knights bring. It's certainly going to be a different show. Good luck!
The Art of War(craft): The limbo season
Welcome to the most worthless Season ever. This Arena period, not technically a season because there are no associated rewards, is a season in limbo. The end-of-season rewards for Season 4 have been handed out -- incorrectly in some cases -- and there is no scheduled end to the current one with no new gear will be released for Level 70 players. Unlike in the past, this season has an indefinite end for Level 70 players and no foreseeable continuity with future Arena Seasons which will be focused on Level 80 play. Ironically, this is also the best season for a lot of players to catch up on their Arena gear. For one thing, the top Arena players no longer have anything to play for. Most have already gotten full Brutal Gladiator sets, their titles and / or mounts, and have no incentive to continue participating in Arenas. Because Arena points are wiped the moment a character levels to 71, players who have all the gear have no point in accumulating it. Because there are no end-of-season rewards, ratings don't mean anything. Lastly, dedicated Arena players typically use one season to gear up for the next. Because the next stage of meaningful competitive play is at Level 80, this makes the current season's gear useless for future Arena PvP.
BigRedKitty: Defaming character since January, 2007
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary. We were much too busy "earning a paycheck" and "keeping Mrs BRK in a manner in which she demands" to attend Blizzcon. But that doesn't mean we're incapable of scoring a major, one-on-one interview with an important someone at Blizzard. When one talks with a person who controls the fantasies and desires of eleven million people, one would expect that person to have a slightly elevated ego, and perhaps a bit of pride at all he's accomplished. This was hardly the case. For most of the interview, our subject mumbled incoherent phrases like: "... 1800+ in 3v3 and he wants more cowbell..." "... I told him, I'm a Shaman, not a doctor..." "... and you will know my name is the Lord, when I strike down my Warglaive upon thee..." Yes, it wasn't very Larry King-esque, that's for dang sure. The unedited, surreal, and sometimes hair-raising conversation follows forthwith.
Patch 3.0.2: Echoes of Doom
From the North, a cold wind blows, and brings with it Echoes of Doom. A king is ready, after all these years, to return to his people...Blizzard has named the last content patch before Wrath of the Lich King -- it's "Echoes of Doom." They've created a page for patch 3.0.2 in their Under Development section, and all of the features we've become familiar with over the past few months -- from Inscription to two new Arenas (no mention yet of the new battleground, unless they just meant Wintergrasp) and lots of UI modifications -- are listed right there as ready to go in with the new patch.The page still seems like a placeholder, though, so expect to see it changed over the next two weeks or so -- we'll see more detailed patch notes, of course, near release, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some information about the World Event that will likely kick off Wrath. "Echoes of Doom" -- are you excited?Update: WoW Insider has obtained this exclusive video of what the new patch may be like.
Breakfast Topic: Honorary wipe
Well so much for the honor wipe. As you can already see from the comments on that post, players have all kinds of opinions about this -- some believe that Blizzard should have gone through with the wipe, giving everyone a clean slate as the expansion started. Some players disagree, saying that honor is honor -- if you earned it, you should keep it. Some players are unhappy that the prices for level 80 items are going to be raised as part of the non-wipe, leaving new players in the dust. And even other players are just angry because they listened to Blizzard, and already spent the honor they thought they were losing anyway.So the question this morning isn't how you feel about the Honor non-wipe, since odds are you've already expressed that. But it is: where do we go from here? Are you going to step up Honor farming in the hopes of picking up new, expensive items right away at level 80? Or are you just done with the system completely, and planning to worry about what's available at level 80 when you get there?You should keep in mind that for all of the gnashing of teeth, we still don't know for sure how rewards will worth in Wrath -- Tigole has even said that tuning is still happening, and so any tweaks Blizzard may make might actually turn out to make the whole thing easier on everyone. But now that you know the Honor isn't going anywhere, what's your plan before the expansion?
Scattered Shots: It ain't over till it's over
Scattered Shots occasionally wanders around collecting arrows and bullets when they totally miss the target.The key to understanding hunters in the beta is to look at the big picture. This is something affecting all classes currently, but I'm going to discuss it in relation to hunters in particular. Beta testing buffs and nerfs ultimately come down to a matter of perspective -- do you see your class changes happening in isolation, for now and forever as long as you and your pet shall live? Or are your particular class changes happening as part of an ever-evolving system involving you, me and everyone else over time?As you've probably heard, hunters got some nerfs in the latest beta update, and some people are understandably upset about them. I'm not worried about it though -- and now I'll tell you why.
The Colosseum: Ryzer, the Warlock
The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.So far, your intrepid Colosseum has brought you a shaman multi-boxer, a rogue, a warrior, a druid, and a hunter. This week, we're looking at a Warlock player -- Ryzer of Shadow Council. The Warlock class itself used to be a great deal more dominant in Season 1 of the Arena. Now in Season 4, of course, it's not been faring so well. Armor penetration, increased tactics for dealing with Fear, and a few nerfs have come together to make the Warlock class a reasonable, but not dominant, Arena class.This is what makes Ryzer's 3v3 team -- SUPER CUTIE FEAR SQUAD -- an interesting team for this week's Colosseum. Comprised of a Druid and two Warlocks, it's a team that definitely leans on its class makeup for some interesting fights. Check out what Ryzer had to say behind the cut.
Blood Sport: Arena-weary
It happens from time to time. Players get tired. Whether it's from raiding or PvP or just playing the game in general, there comes a low point where you just feel like taking a break. Right now, I'm just about tired of Arenas. This comes after a long wait for Season 4 to start. It just doesn't feel as fun anymore and even a little stale. Nothing significant has changed from the last Season, with the biggest -- if it can be called that -- class balance change coming in the form of a nerf to Cheat Death. Class representation hasn't changed, with Druids, Rogues, and Warriors still generally on top of the 2v2 and 3v3 food chain.I write this knowing that two classes I play -- Paladin and Shaman -- are bottom-feeders in the 2000+ range in 2v2 and 3v3 brackets (along with, you guessed it, Hunters). That's fine. I know my classes' places in the hierarchy of Arena viability. Pro player Serennia's poor and embarrassing use of the Paladin at MLG Orlando only further exposed the problems of the class in the 3v3 format. That's the reality, and I've dealt with it for the past seasons. I concentrate on our 5v5 where those classes are more viable, get my points, get my gear, and that's that. But therein lies the problem -- that's that. Nothing more.
Totem Talk: The future, shaman?
Welcome back to Totem Talk. Last week I said we're talk about pre-Kara cloth and leather gear for shamans. So of course, being my usual distracted, scatterbrained self, I've spent the entire week poondering and fretting about completely unrelated issues like shaman stacking for 25 man raids, the future of the shaman class when totems go raid-wide in Wrath, shamans in PvP and other such issues facing the class.The cloth and leather discussion is still important (the comment thread from last week was very active, which I always take as a sign that you guys want to talk about it) and so I want to give it the detail it deserves. I think at this point it should go beyond Karazhan and into drops in ZA, SSC, TK with an eye towards gearing your shaman for Hyjal Summit and Black Temple. Which means I should also expand on a basic gear guide for what drops you'd want to get BT/Hyjal ready for all shaman specs, and that's going to take a few columns to do properly. I'm aiming to start that next week, unless you guys leave a lot of comments telling me you're totally uninterested.So first let's talk about PvP, or at least my recent experiences with it, and then we'll talk about Shaman Stacking..
Tracking the Tournament Realm rankings from the armory
If you're interested in keeping track of the 3v3 Arena Tournament, You can look at Vhiari's breakdowns, sure, and good ones they are. But there's also another resource that should come in handy: The official ladder listings right on the official Armory. By choosing the Coliseum 1 battlegroup, you can see the rankings for the Tournament Realms. The current top 3v3 team, Outrageously Better Pros, Is a Priest/Rogue/Druid team, although the Druid has no games played. Maybe they used to be Priest Mage Rogue, which is a pretty strong combo these days. It should be fun to watch these rankings as the tournament progresses, both to see what class and spec makeups stay near the top, and to see what outrageous and silly names people can come up with for their teams -- without breaking the naming policy, that is. What's interesting to me is that despite the fact that the Tournament itself is 3v3 only, the 2v2 and 5v5 brackets are still in full swing, with quite a few teams. I suppose this is a sign that people really do like the idea of a good solid PvP only realm to duke it out with high powered characters to prove their worth. I have to wonder if Blizzard is watching those brackets as closely as they're watching the 3v3 bracket, or if this is a sign that they may make these arena practice realms more permanent in the future. Either way, all this activity should be fun to watch. Keep your browser pointed to WoW Inside for all the latest Tournament Realm news, including the escapades of our own WoW Insider Arena Team. Here's some arena page trivia too, while we're on the subject: Mike pointed out to me that the blade that Draenei chick on the arena ladder page is holding is known as The Hungering Cold. Its model was used for the Infamous "Sword of 1,000 Truths" in the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft." It currently drops in Naxxramas, so chances are we'll see it again come Wrath of the Lich King.
Challenging Chilton on old world PvP nostalgia
Players are reacting to (quite a few things, actually, in) the Tom Chilton interview we linked to earlier, but one of them is rubbing a lot of older players the wrong way -- when Gamespy asks Chilton about world PvP, like the kind that took place between Tarren Mill and Southshore, he called any fondness for that "nostalgia" -- he says that people didn't really like it at the time, they only want to go back to that because they're nostalgic for it.Fortunately, we here at WoW Insider keep all of our old archives online, and as you can see, most people did actually enjoy the old Xroads and SS/TM world PvP -- I have fond memories of fighting in Ashenvale as well. But Chilton isn't wrong that there was complaining (isn't there always?): it was usually just complaining that those were the only places any real PvP happened. Nowadays, we've got BGs and Arenas, and actual rewards for world PvP, but it's still a little hard to come across one of those all-out battles that used to rage in Xroads or south of Tarren Mill. Most of the time, the only reason those battles were going on was because, well, what else did you do besides raiding at 70? Now that there's more choices, no level 70 would waste their time fighting lowbies in SS -- there are much more epic rewards doing dailies or fighting in the Arenas.There's no question that nostalgia definitely makes things better, but Chilton is wrong to dismiss any wishes for SS/TM-esque world PvP as simple nostalgia. Blizzard has a tough line to walk here -- they're being asked to encourage, by careful planning, something that always happened spontaneously in the past (and mostly because PvPers didn't have much else to do). It's not nostalgic to think that it was fun (it was fun), but nowadays we've got choices that are fun and give epic rewards, so old world PvP just doesn't compare for most players.
Blood Pact: Why people hate warlocks
Between Arenas, V'Ming spends his time as a lock laughing ominously in AV, tanking Olm with his own minions and pondering troll fashion from Zul'Aman. He's recently started to plumb the depths of SSC with his 0/21/40 build and bragging about 8k shadow bolts.This progressive patch is a roller coaster ride; is Blizzard toying with our emotions? I can imagine the folks at Irvine playing WoW as a grand social experiment: "Let's put in this class-changing nerf and see how they respond, muahahahaha!" The Warlock community certainly responded, and the mood is somewhat settled, now that the Life Tap change has been rolled back and Kalgan has confirmed that "No other Warlock nerfs are planned for 2.4."I do not see this as a "victory" for warlocks, as the change was uncalled for to start off with. A PvP-driven change to a class-defining mechanic that affects PvE more than PvP simply defies logic - although some insisted that it was a storm in a teacup. Without arguing (again) how BIG this Life Tap change was really going to be, this episode brought one aspect of the WoW community into clear relief for me.We are very passionate about the classes we play, and react strongly to all changes - good AND bad. While many non-warlock players saw the implications of the Life Tap change, others simply gloated and cheered that their most hated PvP opponents were nerfed. Understandably, players engage in different aspects of the game, and even PvE players have varying degrees of experience playing with warlocks. However, there's been a plethora of rational discussion, from warlocks and non-warlocks alike, on why the LT nerf was uncalled for. There shouldn't really any grounds for hating (the class, hopefully not the players) out of sheer ignorance.So why does the class trigger such a negative emotional response with some players?
Scattered Shots: The line of sight between hunters and the Arenas
I'd like to take a break from the hunter leveling goodness we've had the last few weeks in Scattered Shots to take a look at where hunters stand as a class in Arena PvP, and where we might be going in the future. Blizzard developer Kalgan's measurement of how the different classes are faring in the Arena got me thinking quite a bit about the state of hunters -- currently functioning at the lowest place with 50% or less representation in the three Arena types at high rating brackets, followed by mages and shamans, in the 2vs2 Arena especially.What in the world is causing such a huge discrepancy between hunters and other classes when it comes to high-rating arena representation? When I play in Arenas and Battlegrounds, I don't feel like my class is somehow deficient or underpowered. My team's Arena rating is average -- we're not the best, but not the worst either. When I get beaten, I usually feel like the other team actually played better (or outgeared us, at least), so it's rather hard to see what's so messed up about hunters.The most obvious issue I can think might be the issue is that of Line of Sight. Hunters obviously have a rough time shooting at things behind sort of obstacle. In battlegrounds there are more wide open spaces, so it seems less of an issue there, but in Arenas it can get fairly annoying. Classes like warlocks and shadowpriests can just put a damage-over-time spell on you, and then hide behind a pillar, while druids can move freely around obstacles to give them plenty of time to heal themselves between your attacks. Warriors and other melee classes can hide for a bit, then get in so close that you can't use your best ranged abilities on them for a few seconds until you can somehow get away.
Bornakk: Incoming Arena queue relief in 2.4
Bornakk revealed a welcome bit of future patch info on the general forums recently, announcing that there is an incoming improvement on a future 2.4 update that should lower arena queuing times across the board. This is definitely welcome news for many of us, although those who counted on getting chores done during the queue might get a little disappointed!We've heard in the past that blizzard didn't want to rush in to any quick fixes and was considering the queue time issue carefully, so hopefully that means they've found a solution that will stick. Thus far, aside from the occasional mishap from a sneaky warlock and the lack of certain expected class changes, they seem to have had a smooth and well received patch on their hands. While some people were asking for a hot fix in the thread, Bornakk assured them that the change was complicated enough that needed a patch. Being someone who often ends up running his 2v2s on Saturday or Sunday evening and experiences queue times that sometimes climb to 10 minutes or more, I'd say the wait will be worth it if it means I don't have to wait around quite so long in the future. Faster queue times, at the least, mean I can fit another daily or two in.
