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A response to the "Do you like PvP?" Breakfast Topic
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 making with the stabby and turning people into frogs. A little while ago, I wrote a Breakfast Topic asking if you like PvP. I was really pleased to see lots of people commenting, and we got some really interesting responses telling us why some folks don't like PvP. A lot of it was predictable, things I had anticipated as someone who's gone from really disliking PvP to absolutely loving it, making it the main thing I do in WoW, and eventually writing about it for WoW Insider. I know you may not believe me, but my early PvP experiences were basically just going into Battlegrounds and having no comprehension of what was going on, and declining duels. Now, I'm not trying to persuade you to become a PvP nut like me. I just want those who don't like PvP to take a moment to read this and maybe see if I can persuade you to try a little PvP, armed with some more knowledge. That is, after all, my main aim. A good number of complaints relate to PvP gear, how you have to grind for it, and how you need it in order to be successful. There are a few simple steps to deal with this, though! Buy the crafted set from the Auction House, or have it crafted, or craft it yourself. There is a set for everyone, and a jewelcrafter can make you jewelery to go with it. The mats aren't hard to find or expensive to buy, and anyone who's leveling the profession that makes the gear will be making it. Ask in trade; you may get it for the mats. This will net you a cool 3,250 resilience. If you're a dedicated raider or PvE player, you're going to have spare valor or justice points lying around by now. Justice points convert to honor at a rate of 375:250 and valor to conquest at 250:250.
2012 Arena Pass registration now open
Last night, Blizzard annouced that registration has opened for the 2012 Arena Pass! Players registering will have access to arena geared level 85 characters, as well as a host of epic gear to choose from as they battle their way to the top. Gold is no object on the Arena Pass realm. You can have whatever you want, including training, respecs and gear. The top 1,000 players will earn an exclusive Vanquisher title for their live realm character, and all players will receive access to an exclusive level 90 Arena Pass realm after they upgrade their account to Mists of Pandaria. What's more, players who participate in 50 or more rated Arena Pass games on one character and with the same team by the end of the six weeks will be eligible to receive the Armored Murloc pet for their live characters. You can create up to three level 85 characters, all of which will be started at level 85 with a "hefty sum" of gold, parachuted in to a starting zone. Once you have your level 85, you'll need to get on board with a 3v3 team, which, as on live realms, can have up to six players on their roster. The first two weeks are for practice, to allow players to meet, form teams, and get some matches in that won't count toward their eventual ranking, although teams will gain rating as normal. After the first two weeks, all ratings will be reset to zero, and for the next two weeks, there will be a -150 rating penalty for team roster changes. Teams will build ranking from the third week until the end of the six-week period. In the final two weeks, rosters will be locked down and no changes will be permitted. If you want to change team rosters around in the final two weeks, you'll need to start a new team. Good luck!
RIFT developers answer a new round of community questions
There are a lot of questions within the RIFT community, questions the development team seeks to answer with a new set of responses to community inquiries. Some of the answers are a bit on the negative side; there are no plans to expand the game's lore into novels, for instance. There are also no plans to add in arena-style combat or the option of visible cloaks, with the developers feeling that the former makes the game seem less massive and the latter has a detrimental impact on game performance. That doesn't mean it's all bad news, however. The developers are looking into more ways to allow cross-faction interaction beyond the mercenary PvP system. There's also some talk about the next big raid and player feedback, which according to the answers is largely positive. There are also plans for more Souls in the future, which should provide RIFT players with even more options to custom-build a character. [Update: Trion contacted us to clarify the cloak question. They say that cloaks aren't completely off-the-table, they're just not focusing on them right now. There was even a hint that cloaks will be a definite future addition to RIFT.]
PvP twinking for dummies
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 making with the stabby and turning people into frogs. So we're getting to that time in the expansion. People are winding down a bit, relaxing their playstyles, taking a break from raiding after getting their last targets down and killing a certain dragon on whatever mode takes their fancy. So what do you do? Why, PvP! Of course, you can take your beloved max-level main, convert all that valor you don't need after completely gearing yourself in 397s or better into conquest, and get on the PvP train. Your justice points, of course, convert to honor (not at quite such a good rate), and that legendary staff you got when Firelands was still cool will do just fine. Better than fine, in fact. (Grumble, grumble.) But my residual bitterness about PvE gear in PvP is not what we're here to talk about today, nor is max-level PvP conversion. No, my lovely reader, we're here to talk about twinking. What on earth is twinking? Well, it's when people level a character ... then stop. They might lock their XP or just not actively level at max speed for a level or two. In PvP, twinking centers around Battleground brackets and Arena levels, and it's really good fun! First and foremost, you need to know how to lock XP, if you want to. Simply visit Behsten for Alliance or Slahtz for Horde. Bring 10 gold with you. It should be noted that locking XP is definitely not a requirement for twinked PvP! On certain battlegroups (my main battlegroup sadly included), XP-locked Battlegrounds leave you with a wait time that is "undetermined" -- you're not getting in any time soon. Exploits that get you around it are just that -- exploits. Blizzard may well borrow Adam Holisky's Ban Hammer!
Early Mists of Pandaria talents and 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. The Mists talent trees have been up for a little while now, and we've all had a chance to look through them for our specific classes. I can tell you right now, I'm excited. Gone are the days of the boring talent -- you know, the one like Bane that shortens the cast time of a spell by 0.5 seconds. To my mind, the majority of these talents are like the special, gold-bordered one that you get excited about working toward as you level. Now, a caveat, as we must have said a hundred times here at WoW Insider over the past few weeks that these are in their early stages and definitely not set in stone. I mean, heck, some of them aren't even finished yet! But the ones that are there are pretty exciting from a PvP perspective. In order to avoid boring you with a huge, long list laying out each talent and discussing its potential PvP implications, I'm going to bundle them into a few categories. Trust me, I've done that discussion in my head, and it wasn't pretty. But first, let's consider these in a more overarching way. Right now, if you're facing, for example, a restoration shaman in Arena, you're likely going to have a pretty good idea of their abilities. They cast shields -- one that generates health when you hit it, and one that generates mana. They have a totem that avoids fear effects, one that grounds spells, one that increases spirit, and one that shares out the health of everyone in the swirly disco.
One gear set for PvE and PvP in Mists of Pandaria?
This has been coming up quite a lot following Ghostcrawler's recent Coffee with the Devs (where's my vanilla latte, devs?), and I thought it was something worthy of a moment's thought. I'm assuming here that all gear is equal in stats according to ilevel and it can all have PvP power/defense, or none of it can. EDIT: I want to make it clear that this is purely hypothetical, and imagined! Blizzard aren't doing this. I'm wondering what's stopping them. Now, I understand that back in the halcyon days before The Burning Crusade, resilience didn't exist in its current form. Please note, however, that this isn't meant to be a discussion on that period of WoW. So what would be the positive and negative aspects of such a system? One area where I see a bit of a struggle emerging is as follows: How do you get this gear? How does it scale? Where does the best gear come from? If I were a dev (with or without my coffee), I'd have to say that one's a tricky one. I suppose you could let people earn points from both PvE and PvP and have them spend those points, similar to valor or conquest now, except both are taken to the same vendor. You could still have lower tiers of gear available for honor or justice equivalents that are easier to reach.
Looking at the PvP stat changes outlined by Ghostcrawler
I'm sure you all have seen the latest Dev Watercooler by the big man (Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street) himself. And I'm sure you will all have noticed the biggest news in there (in my opinion, anyway) is the section about the PvP-related changes to resilience. Disclaimer: This is not absolute. Just like the changes, it's almost impossible to see how they will play out without trying them for ourselves once the beta comes along. But I want to hear your opinions, both on these changes and on my thoughts. Let's talk it out, people! First and foremost, I don't know about you, but I am really not digging the names. I reckon a tidy solution might be to sling in a PvP section in the character pane. If Blizzard did it within the character pane, it would just avoid the clumsiness of adding the "PvP" into the actual stat, and (I think) it would make it easy for players to understand what they were looking at. Of course, Blizzard could call the new stats "Bob" and "Vera" for all it would really matter to their performance!
5 ways to fail at Battlegrounds
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. Battlegrounds are usually the new PvPer's first foray into PvP, unless of course you're on a PvP server, in which case you're thrown unwittingly into the world of the ongoing Horde vs. Alliance conflight almost from day one. A Battleground is very likely to be your first go at cooperative PvP and certainly your first go at cooperative PvP with strangers. There are 10 Battlegrounds available to you -- fewer when you start out, then gradually added as you increase in level. All these Battlegrounds have objectives, the majority of which are assessed by points on a counter at the top of your screen. Once one side either gains the required total points or completely runs out of points, the Battleground is won. There are, of course, strategies associated with each map. As the maps and objectives grow more complicated, so do the tactics. But a Risk-style grand stratagem is not what we're looking for here and certainly wouldn't comply with our word limit! What we're interested in is how not to play in Battlegrounds. Your team may not lose the Battleground because you made these simple mistakes, but it will certainly make it harder for them to win. So don't be the guy who's failing at Battlegrounds! How? Well, read on! (There are of course times and situations when these rules don't apply, particularly on those rare occasions when your team actually has a strategy that it's following.)
Drama Mamas: The case of the PvE wife and PvP husband
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Next week will be another results edition of Drama Mamas. But there is still time to email us. If you have written the Drama Mamas and we have answered you in print, please send us an update at robin@wowinsider.com. We would love to know how your WoW dilemma worked out! Dear Drama mamas, I've been a longtime wow player and I almost exclusively pve, while my husband only enjoys pvp. I've tried without success to get him to try raiding, and have given up on that. Instead I found an awesome guild and I love raiding with them a couple nights a week.
3 skills to improve your Arena performance
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. One thing I'm asked fairly regularly is the following: What can I do to improve in Arena? My usual response is a slew of questions. First, how much resilience do you have? I've spoken about this in past articles, so I won't harp on about it here. The second question is simply do you practice? Again, as I've mentioned, practice makes perfect. That is really the most important thing you can do to make yourself a better player in the Arena, so take every opportunity. Even on my healers, I generally fly around on my non-PvP realm with PvP switched on. I'm not going to be able to kill anyone of my own level, but I might get some practice surviving! But this week I'm looking to be a little more specific for you, and we're going to talk about some skills or gameplay styles or whatever you'd prefer to call them. If you can incorporate them into your gameplay, chances are you'll improve in Arena. Obviously, in order to incorporate them, what are you going to need to do? Practice, of course! So, what first? Let's talk movement. Movement in PvP is much more subjective and situational than in PvE. It's not just a case of getting out of bad; positioning and movement can win and lose battles. If you're being chopped up by a paladin with a big sword, you want to be moving away; if you're being zapped by casters, you want to do your best to be using line of sight to your advantage.
What I want to see from Mists of Pandaria 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. Unless you've been living in the little cave on Darkmoon Island for the past few months (and frankly, if you have, well done -- that must be one awesome time machine!), you'll have heard about the impending expansion. I previously posted a short plea for WoW Insider readers to head over to Blizzard MVP Eldacar's thread asking for PvP feedback over on the official forums, and it got me thinking about what I would love to see from PvP in Mists of Pandaria. Now, I'm excited about the upcoming changes that Blizzard is talking about; you've no doubt seen the information over on Battle.net. Resilience as a baseline stat sounds pretty great to me and will make PvP at lower-level brackets a bit more fun, but I'm curious to see how Blizzard's going to scale it within those brackets. If it scales with level, then a level 64 is going to have an even easier time beating up a level 60 and basically being a one-toon killing machine. And this won't serve to help PvP at lower levels at all, although it will make entry into max-level PvP a lot easier. And the new Battlegrounds look interesting, the proposed Valley of Power BG especially, because the premise is pretty simple. I don't think overcomplicated Battlegrounds that require complex player-environment interaction are the most fun. I prefer simple maps that place the emphasis on, you know, killing the opposite faction. There's a term for that, I'm sure ... Oh, yeah. PvP! But I'm thinking big, ladies and gentlemen, really big -- Azerothian-moon-on-a-stick big. Now, a brief disclaimer: This is fantasy from the deranged mind of an Englishwoman and certainly not a scoop of exciting early news. I'm just throwing this out there!
Blood Sport: 3 ways to improve your Arena play
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. So last time, we talked about how to get started in Arenas. I'm going to flatter myself and assume that a few readers had a little try at Arena. How did it go? I really hope it wasn't that bad and didn't put you off; it's a steep learning curve. Resilience -- the 4,000 mark is a good place to be, but remember that people who've been gearing up aggressively will likely be in the 4,800 area at the moment, depending on their stat strategy. Resilience scales a bit strangely, but take it from me that 800 resilience is a substantial chunk. If you're into math (and re-reading posts to properly understand them), check out this official forum post to get a better understanding of resilience scaling. But it's OK! The MMR system will save us! I mentioned it very briefly in my last column, but Mackeli's comment makes me think I didn't make it clear enough. Due to the MMR reset at the beginning of this season, you will start with an MMR (Matchmaking Rating) of 1,500. Trust me, that's quite a lot, especially for complete Arena beginners. An MMR of 1,500 means that the game expects you to win against teams with a rating of 1,500 roughly 50% of the time. That might not sound so bad, sure, but unless you're a PvP genius, 1,500 MMR is going to result in quite a lot of losses at first. Don't be disheartened. It's normal! You're going to learn to win by losing. I promise.
Blizzard forums MVP calls fellow PvPers to arms
MVP Eldacar has dropped WoW Insider a line asking for a hand directing all our wonderful PvPing readers over to a feedback post on the official forums to give feedback on Cataclysm PvP and thoughts on improving PvP in Mists of Pandaria. I think this sort of player participation is really important. Much as I'm a fan of pew-pew over QQ, constructive criticism is a great thing. Eldacar wants to know your opinion on the current Mists of Pandaria PvP proposals and what you love about PvP, as well as what your PvP gripes are from Cataclysm. What's great about our particular omniscient deity in Azeroth is that Blizzard not only listens but responds. And, if it gets enough consistent feedback about something, it may well do something about it. So if you have something constructive to say, get over there and say it! You could shape the future of Azeroth. However, what nobody is looking for is OMG Blizz nerf mages like now! -- so just don't, OK? Here are Eldacar's guidance questions to think about when posting: What are your biggest PVP-related quality of life issues (things that are an inconvenience but don't significantly affect gameplay or balance)? What Cataclysm BG changes and additions did you like? What Cataclysm Arena changes and additions did you like? What Cataclysm general PVP changes and additions did you like? What are your top issues with Battlegrounds in Cataclysm? What are your top issues with Arenas in Cataclysm? What are your top issues with general PVP in Cataclysm? I can definitely think of some things to point out, and I'm sure you can too. Go to Eldacar's thread right now and make your voice heard! Do you want to capture flags, attack towers, invade cities, and dominate the Arena for your faction? Do you dream of riding your War Bear with pride? We'll steer you to victory with the secrets of PvP, including proven addons and keybindings that win!
Wings Over Atreia: F2P and vet rewards and bears, oh my!
OK, so maybe there aren't really any bears. Wait, I take that back -- there are maybe sorta bears... at least alluded to! Polar bears, to be exact. No really, work with me here: What Winter Festival, Atreian or otherwise, doesn't conjure up images of polar bears? We just won't get into the whole dancing bears thing. What we will get into this week in Wings Over Atreia, however, are musings about a few topics of interest that are swirling around lately, most notably Aion's upcoming conversion to free-to-play in Europe, the changes to the veteran reward system, and the aforementioned Winter Festival (sans dancing bears). Quick quiz now: Other than involving Aion, what else do these three subjects have in common? Give up? Time. While this column usually delves into single topics at a time, the fact that two of these are time-sensitive necessitates that they share face-time, else the news most relevant to Daevas would become obsolete. The third is less time-sensitive but more time-relevant.
Age of Conan's Craig Morrison talks conquest vs. competition
PvP is a naturally contentious subject, particularly when focused on its various flavors in the MMO space. Everyone thinks they know best, and whether they're arguing for a three-faction system, full loot, or open-world objectives, the discussion often devolves into verbal throw-downs every bit as violent as their in-game counterparts. Age of Conan game director Craig Morrison recently waded into the fray via his personal blog, and he says that defining PvP in an MMO context involves separating the wish for conquest from the wish for competition. Morrison touches on several interesting aspects of MMO PvP, including a bit of history relating to the arenas and battlegrounds that are usually reviled by hardcore player types. "The needs of accessibility dictated that designers try and find a way to accommodate the appeal of the conquest style of play while also retaining the fairness of the competitive desires of the players," he explains. Ultimately, Morrison offers a bit of hope for those who prefer open-world conflict. "It's great to finish a great story and storm the castle and beat the bad guy. It is something else altogether to get to keep his castle, and for you to become the bad guy for the next would-be hero to try and conquer," he says.
Blood Sport: How to get started in Arenas
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. Now, I've put that video up there because I think it's the culmination of one of the most exciting Arena finals I've ever watched. Bear in mind if you're watching it on speakers that the commentators get pretty excitable at various points, and there are a couple of "cr*ps" in there. The Arena is, in my opinion, the biggest rush in the entire game. Nothing in PvE can compare. And these guys in this video are the best of the best -- quite literally, in fact. That's what this match was, the final match of the BlizzCon Arena Grand Finals of 2011. If you enjoyed watching it, I heartily encourage you to watch the rest of it. If you're a pure PvE player, you may possibly have watched that and thought "Holy moly, what on earth just happened?" I wouldn't blame you. It's fast-paced, reactionary, and confusing as all hell when you get started. So that's why I'm writing this post -- to help you get started. So what's Rule 1? Resilience. Resilience, resilience, resilience. We touch on this in our initial PvE to PvP guide, but for Arena, I can't express strongly enough how important it is.
How to transition from PvE into PvP
Well, the end-of-expansion blues are here, there's this other MMO out there, and guilds are seeing members drop like flies. Now's the time when many players who don't want to give up WoW find themselves turning to PvP as a way to kill time and keep playing while they wait for old friends (and new content) to come back around. The thing is that PvP is a fundamentally different game from PvE. I'm not saying one's better or worse; the two aspects of WoW just have significant variations in gear, thought processes, and playstyles that can make the transition a little bumpy. As such, let's renew a guide to getting away from killing bosses every week and get down to how to kill your fellow players. (In game. Let's not get weird here.)
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 should you prepare for season 11 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. So you've had a week away from the arena. What have you been up to in that week? Playing in the autumn leaves? Finally cleaning your keyboard? Or maybe you've been frantically gathering a transmogrification set (once you'd got over the fact that you couldn't transmogrify your paladin into a power ranger)? I know I have, and I'm now in love with Kezzik in Area 52! Perhaps you've been running the new dungeons or flirting with the new raid? ...Or ganking your GM in the Darkmoon Faire's Deathmatch Arena, like @trimbleirl. If you are one of the people who has done enough hard work in season 10 to get a title, you should give yourself a pat on the back. Well done! You're well on your way to the upper echelons of PvP, and I hope you climb even higher this season! And if you're one of the people who has been working through Battlegrounds every day to get your conquest points, congratulations! You're going to be among the first to get your grubby mitts on the new gear. But moving on from what you could have been doing to what you could be doing now, what are the top tips to prepare yourself for season 11?
