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Around Azeroth: Arf!
Kiwibird of Shattered Halls sends in this photo of Spike. Spike lives in Arathi Basin where he spends his time hanging out around the blacksmith's and occasionally chasing the cat. (Kiwibird would have gotten the cat's name, too, but got caught up in the heat of the battle.) Spike looks a bit... unfriendly... in this shot, with the Horde holding the blacksmith, but I wonder if he turns into a more ordinary pup when the Alliance take over.Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see your idea of the best looking instance on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! %Gallery-1816%
Around Azeroth: Waiting...
Reader Andy sends in this unique perspective of Arathi Basin, pre-battle. And though any of you who have run AB will know this view by heart as you autorun up against the gate, ready to spring forth as soon as possible, this particular moment of tension is rarely captured in screenshot form. Just look at the blacksmith in the distance, an undefended node, ripe for the capturing, as soon as these pesky gates open!Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see your idea of the best looking instance on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! %Gallery-1816%
AFK punishment is still just a band-aid
The AFK problem has been with us for a long time now, and ever so suddenly Blizzard has decided to step up and enforce a new form of punishment on their side, to take away honor and PvP rewards from people who have been reported AFK a lot. Definitely this is an improvement, and it should help to discourage this unfair practice, yet at the same time it's not a true solution.As Drysc said, the problem isn't just a matter of punishing people who break the rules, it's finding out why they are doing this, and change their incentives, so that they don't want to break the rules in the first place. Our reader Aviel has some insights as to why people AFK and how to fix it, and she (or he) has posted her excellent analysis on the official WoW forums.In short her argument is that, while Blizzard is trying to develop PvP content that is "fun, competitive, and compelling," players are generally making "game theory" decisions, about how to maximize their honor gain in the time they have to play. Fun is definitely an element, but overall, if people can't earn enough honor to make their time worthwhile in a particular battleground, they will quit or seek alternatives. She points out that as long as honor is a kind of currency to be spent, people will choose the method with the easiest honor gain over the one they enjoy most (which can lead to get-rich-quick schemes such as AFKing). She leaves her solutions to this problem for the Suggestions forum (though I could not find her actual post there), but posters in that thread share some ideas, and there are many other player suggestions out there as well. Of course Blizzard is tight-lipped about their own solutions so far, but we can rest assured that they care about the issue and plan to do something about it.
Breakfast Topic: How is your PvP Battlegroup doing?
Lately there have been a number of people complaining about how their faction constantly loses in battlegrounds, especially in AV. I play, Alliance PvP mostly, so naturally I hear a lot of Alliance players complaining that they always lose, claiming that they want to lose, and that it's all really some other player's fault. But my experience is not necessarily representative of all PvPers. Today I'd like to find out from all of you how things actually stand in your battlegroup. (You can find a list of servers and battlegroups here)Tell us which faction you play, on which server and in which battlegroup, and then report how things seem to be going for you and your side. Do you always win in some battlegrounds and always lose in others? Or is it 50/50? Do you tend to do better or worse at certain times of day? What seems to make for the difference?Please try to limit yourself to your own actual observed experience, and refrain from conclusions based on assumptions or guesses. I'm not particularly interested in hearing "Because Horde is better at PvP!" or "Alliance is all 12-year old noobs!" because these answers are just conjecture and don't actually convey any real understanding. If you have some kind of practical knowledge as to why your faction wins or loses a lot, however, then feel free to share that as well.
Around Azeroth: That was a close one
Reader Kragragh offers up this screenshot of a very close match in the Eye of the Storm battleground. (How close? Just check the score in the top center of the screen!) Says Kragragh, "We were doing some frantic math trying to make sure we'd win.... the points were escalating and I wasn't sure how it was going to go."Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see your idea of the best looking instance on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!%Gallery-1816%
WoW is a game -- you're supposed to enjoy it
In the battleground matches I've played lately, it seems that somehow the number of people complaining and whining has decreased, even though our faction seems to be losing just as much as before. Instead, the Alliance players I fight with seem almost depressed, as if every match is a torture to them -- they don't shower blame on other people, but instead say things like, "I have a dream that one day we might win a BG," or "Golly, this is horrible, I hate Alliance PvP." They have their heart set on a particular PvP reward, and as soon as they have enough honor or marks, they will heartily abandon their fellow teammates to the sad task of losing to the Horde day in and day out.It's true that losing isn't fun, and whatever the reasons our side seems to be losing all the time seem quite outside of our control. That's hard no matter which faction you're in. But there is a thing we've all heard about growing up called "good sportsmanship." When we play competitive games with each other, the idea is that we're supposed to enjoy the actual playing of the game more than the winning or the losing. Indeed, as with anything in life, if you get too attached to the outcome of a particular endeavor, you are less likely to do well than one who plays for the love of the game itself.I've been thinking about this lately because I myself don't want to log on to WoW only to feel like the game is like banging my head against the wall. It has helped a great deal to realize that whatever rewards we get are more like milestones along the path, not really an end in themselves. After all, if I play, it should be because I truly enjoy playing, not because I absolutely must posses some item that will be out of date in a few months no matter what I do. This realization has enabled me to pace myself, so that I don't allow long losing streaks to carry on for hours and ruin a good part of my day. If I'm losing a lot, I can stop and do other things, then come back to it another time with an entirely fresh set of allies and opponents -- and more importantly, a fresh desire to do my best and improve my skills. WoW is supposed to be fun; but if it isn't fun for you anymore -- whatever the reason -- then it's time to either change your approach or do something else.
Just one more
Whether I'm fighting the seemingly undefeatable hordes of... the Horde, or battling against hordes of easily defeatable world creatures, I find than my truest, greatest enemy is my own self. Indeed, the greatest weapon my self uses against me is that little voice which comes into my head whenever I finish a battle or a quest -- it speaks those tempting, ever-so seductive words: "Just one more..."If I've just lost a battle in PvP, the thinking is, "Just one more -- maybe the next one will be a winner! If you log off now, you'll miss it!" But if I've just won a battle, the voice says, "Just one more -- you just won a match, so chances are you'll win the next one too!" Whenever I review my progress with honor points, gold or experience, to see how I've done this session, the voice insists: "Just a few more, and your goal of <insert however many points you think you need here> will be complete!" Even if I've firmly decided that I'm fighting no more battles of any sort today, there's always the temptation to log in to "just one more" alt to check mail, auction items, or chat with a friend for a while longer. Just logging off for good can take a long time if I'm not firm with myself, and naturally, whatever I was going to do afterwards (often sleeping) may suffer for it.By far the best weapon I have discovered for fighting off this insidious enemy inside my own head is to decide beforehand exactly how many battleground matches I am going to play or quests I'm going to do, no matter whether I'm ultimately successful or not. This works better for me than, "I'm only going to play for <insert amount of time here>", because it is based more on exact activities I have planned. With a time limit, the little voice will say, "But I just have a little bit left to finish!" but with the activity limit, once my number is up, this voice will assuredly say "just one more" again, but then I can reply, "NO! Three is the limit! End of story! Go to sleep!" I can then click on "exit game" with glee at my complete and total victory over... me.
AFK Gamer reviews post-2.3 Alterac Valley
In a great post called 'Let's Swap', Foton of the AFK Gamer blog breaks down the post-2.3 changes to the Alterac Valley Battleground in World of Warcraft. After several weeks of post-patch gaming, Foton laid into the new 'improved' PvP experience. While he acknowledges that honor awards for the BG were a bit off (I knew it, you knew it, they knew it), I think his complaint that he earned just 20 bonus honor for his time vs. '600+' for the victorious Horde is a valid one. He runs down the usual excuses, debunking them as he goes: maturity, class targeting, organization, gear, skillz ... and finds them all wanting. In the end, he says, he want to put this argument to rest once and for all. The best way to answer the question "Is the Alterac Valley map inherently mismatched?" is to swap sides.Sure, it'd be a pain to code, but it would settle the arguments and dispell the myths - from both sides. I'll assault Dun Baldur with my merry band of crappy paladins, and you Horde can assault Frostwolf Keep with your stomping cows and after a few weeks, we can see who's crying then ... or still. Mostly this would be to satisfy my own curiosity, because whether the map is or isn't at fault in Alterac Valley, it will be the same result: players will not queue for a battleground that won't put out. Losers need more for their time than, umm, ZERO, unless there's absolutely no other alternate activity. Fortunately, there is such an alternative. Salvation, thy name is Eye of the Storm. What say you, WoW players? Does the Horde have an unfair advantage in AV? Or is the Alliance just full of sour grapes? An even bigger issue: does AV offer up enough reward to make it worthwhile to play?
WoW, Casually: December 14 to 20 and Feast of Winter Veil
Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.The weather outside may be frightful, but the Feast of Winter Veil begins Saturday which is always delightful. Well, the weather isn't frightful where I live, but I used to live where there are those season-things, so I feel for you in my high 60s and sunny. Really, I do.Of course, the seasons don't change in Azeroth either, but the weekly Call to Arms bonus weekends do. This week it's Eye of the Storm. My EotS tip for this week is: let the Wookiee win. Er, let the Droods run with the flag. Otherwise, they're going to spend all their time whining in BG chat about how slow Ghostwolf form is, etc. Seriously, life's too short to listen to all that bellyaching -- though I suppose there's not much else to whine about in EotS. I mean, this is a Battleground where standing around doing nothing (as long as you're at a tower) watching everyone else fight in the middle is actually a good thing. So take advantage of extra honor and shorter queues while getting your marks this weekend.
The Art of War(craft): Idyllic Arathi Basin
All political leaders love resources. In fact, most wars are waged because of them. Most of them must've read Sun Tzu, who once wrote, "a wise General makes a point of foraging on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one's own store." The leaders of the Forsaken Defilers and the League of Arathor must've had The Art of War in their battle chests, too, since they've been at odds for some time now over the resource-rich Arathi Basin. Unlike Alterac Valley, where one of the goals is to destroy enemy resources, Arathi Basin is all about taking them.Arathi Basin is the third Battleground to be introduced in World of Warcraft, a few patches after Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley. Situated in Arathi Highlands, the basin is the cause of conflict between the Horde-aligned Defilers and the League, who are loyal to the Alliance. The Battleground is a 15-player map consisting of five nodes that can be captured to acquire resources -- the Blacksmith, Farm, Gold Mine, Lumber Mill, and Stables. Each node has a clickable flag that allows your team to capture it; it takes 10 seconds to tag a flag, and tagged flags will convert to your side in one minute. The objective of the game is to be the first team to reach 2000 resources -- If you control a node, your team will accumulate resources. The more nodes you control, the more resources you get at a faster rate. Players can enter Arathi Basin as early as level 20, but the real fun starts at levels 40 and 60 -- when players get apprentice and journeyman Riding skills, respectively. Any sooner and Arathi Basin usually ends up being a lot of running and a little fighting. If you're in the mood to play WoW's version of king of the hill, head over to your nearest Battlemaster and enlist. And don't forget to pack your Riding Crop. You'll need it.
Are Daily Quests bad for Battlegrounds?
When the Call to Arms weekends first started for Battlegrounds, there were a lot of complaints about the honor junkies causing losses and generally noobing it up. The regulars were right to a point, playing Battlegrounds on non-honor bonus weekends usually means you are playing with people who know what they are doing. But, in my opinion, because both sides had honor farmers during the Call to Arms weekends, it pretty much evened out.Since Patch 2.3, we have the Battleground Daily Quests. They are great for cash, honor (if it works) and even experience if you aren't max level. They are also easy to get, since you just have to be the qualifying level of the BG in order to do the quest. You don't have to do pre-quests or collect anything -- nothing except win a BG to complete the quest.So now, on weekdays and when other BGs have honor bonuses, questers are infiltrating the games that used to be reserved for the well-practiced BG regulars. The difference between the Daily Quests and the honor bonus weekends is that it is different by realm. During the Call to Arms weekends, everyone has the same Battleground for bonus honor. If your Daily Quest is for Warsong Gulch on your realm, the other realms in your Battlegroup have different BGs for their quests. The noobs may all be on one side, with the other filled with veteran twinks.
The enemy within the Alliance
It used to be that Alliance players thought of Alterac Valley as the only battleground in which they had a fighting chance, an advantage to make up for their apparent inability to win any of the other battlegrounds. With the changes to Alterac Valley in patch 2.3, however, the idea is gradually spreading like an infectious disease among Alliance players that Blizzard loves the Horde most and purposely lets the Horde get speedier access to lots of Honor rewards. Just visit your nearest Alliance battleground match to hear the latest crying and whining about how all the other Alliance players are stupid noobs who can't tell how bad they suck and are going to lose every time. Alliance: please, get real. The more people there are in either faction, whining and moaning about how hopeless things are, the more likely that faction will lose. The whiners are spending all their time typing out their useless babble, not leading, fighting or healing. To boot, they're also demoralizing the whole group, breaking down all sense of coordination, cooperation, and confidence. If you encounter such a moaner/whiner, do not engage in any long discussion with them -- just put them in their place, "/ignore" them, and encourage others to do the same. They whiners are dead set on depressing themselves and anyone who will listen and no matter how witty your comebacks may be, and the more energy is wasted on them, the less is going into the game.If it is in fact true that the Horde wins battlegrounds more often, then this is itself the reason. The "For the Horde" mentality bolsters the idea that the Horde is good at PvP. If you think your side is more naturally good at something, you're much less likely to think "Blizzard hates us!" when you lose, and much more likely to try and improve on your game for the benefit of your faction. Yes, there are plenty of Horde-side players who moan and whine too, but these don't fit in with the "For the Horde" spirit of the group as a whole -- and everyone knows it.
BG daily quests are one more reason to buy BC
Bornakk confirms that, as Robin posted here the other day, players will need Burning Crusade to complete the Battleground daily quests.Which brings up the question, yet again, of why there would be people out there who still haven't picked up the expansion that released almost one year ago. It's $30 at Amazon right now (which means you could probably find it in a few places online for less than that), and given all of the content now available, not only in Outland, but back in Azeroth, it's really a no brainer.Now, maybe you just didn't want to make the investment of the Battlechest, and maybe you haven't yet reached 70 and figure you don't need to play BE or Draenei or do these daily quests. Maybe 60 is good enough for you, and jewelcrafting isn't your thing. But especially with the holidays coming up, it's not surprising at all that Blizzard is placing more and more content behind the Dark Portal. If you haven't installed the expansion yet, why not?
Guide to Battleground Daily Quests
I talked about the Battleground Daily Quests in WoW, Casually this week, but I have since found out more information. Here are some need-to-know tidbits about the new BG Daily Quests: You pick up the quests where the Battlemasters are in a major city. The Alliance talk to the Alliance Brigadier General and the Horde talk to the Horde Warbringer. You have to win the Battleground in order to complete the quest. It is not for the collection of marks or completion of any other objective. The Daily Quests are random for each realm. This applies to Regular Dungeon, Heroic Dungeon and Cooking Daily quests as well. So, if the Battleground for the quest is Warsong Gulch on Daggerspine, it does not mean that everyone else in the Battlegroup has the same Daily Quest. [Source: Bornakk]
More AV changes coming
Big changes are coming to the Alterac Valley battleground in patch 2.3, and, as is often the case with these things, players are already expressing their discontent. Nethaera responded to a thread on the official forums yesterday in order to address such complaints. She reminded everyone that the developers are currently monitoring the changes to AV and are tweaking the honor earned in order to keep the overall gain as similar as possible to the current rate on the live realms.The most interesting part of her post, of course, regards a change being implemented regarding the mechanics of capturing a mine. When a mine is captured by a player, his or her team will be awarded a steady stream of reinforcements. According to Neth, the capturing team will receive about one reinforcement every forty-five seconds or so. Since I haven't played the new AV on the PTR, it's difficult for me to develop an opinion on this change. What do you think?Update: Blizzard poster Salthem has posted a few more details of the change to the mines.
No new battleground until WotLK
Nethaera has confirmed that there will be no new battlegrounds revealed prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, much to the chagrin of PvP'ers everywhere. Although players have previously expressed interest in having more choice, Blizzard has voiced concern about the effects that a fifth choice might have on queues. Hopefully they have some tricks up their sleeves for combating this when the highly anticipated new battleground arrives via the expansion. Although this is a bit disappointing, it is hardly unexpected, and there are so many upcoming positive changes that it's hard to be a sad panda for long. Currently, the devs are focused on improving Alterac Valley for patch 2.3 and creating new content for WotLK, which will include an outdoor PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp. Following in the wake of Halaa's undeniable success, this zone will boast siege warfare, and many other innovations in world PvP. As for what the new battleground will be like? I'd still love to see an Aldor vs. Scryers battleground; and as much as we all love to see new content drop, we can at least try to satiate ourselves knowing that what we will be getting will continue to advance PvP as we know it. Now; a little less sad panda face please!
PTR Notes: BG Daily = 400 honor, Focused Will and Elemental under consideration
Patch 2.3: the patch that just keeps on alternately disappointing and bringing joy to the player community. Apparently, the staggering 4000 honor that had been previously reported to be the reward of the new daily battleground quest was a typo, of the "extra zero" variety. The correct reward is 400 honor, still up from its original value of 200:It's off by a factor of 10. Battleground Daily quest bonus honor is supposed to be equivalent to 20 player kills at your level, ie 400 honor at level 70. (Drysc)The new Priest talent Focused Will, reported yesterday, is going to be redesigned, so don't bother commenting on it in its current state. This is a good thing, because as far as I know no-one really liked the talent they proposed that much.We wanted you to know that we're going to be redesigning the new discipline talent, focused will, so please hold off on providing further feedback on the ability until the new version is announced and/or it's pushed to the public test realms. The goal of the talent will still focus on survivability. (Eyonix)The intention of this talent is provide an alternative to the holy talent, blessed resilience, so the priest who desires a talent of this nature has more than one option, adding more flexibility to the talent choices they make leading up to either. (Eyonix)And finally, the changed-up Shaman Elemental tree is under much scrutiny from the dev team at the moment:Though not the best thread to plug this into give what was provided, I'd like to state that we are looking into this [Elemental] quite extensively at the moment. (Eyonix)
Major Alterac Valley changes coming to Patch 2.3
Blue poster Vaneck announced on the European Forums that Alterac Valley would be undergoing some major gameplay changes in Patch 2.3.In order to emphasize strategy more in AV, they are introducing the concept of "reinforcement count". Both teams will begin with a starting number of reinforcements which can be reduced in various amounts according to what is lost. A team loses when its reinforcement count is reduced to zero. The death of Drek'Thar or Vanndar will still end the game, as all reinforcements will automatically be eliminated. Losing towers and Galvangar or Belinda will cause significant amounts of reinforcements to be lost. And staying alive will now be very important as player deaths will reduce the reinforcement count by one.To quote Vaneck:Defending your own teammates, towers, and key NPCs will be an important aspect of maintaining team resources and achieving victory in Alterac Valley. More on the AV changes after the jump...
Changes coming to Alterac Valley
It looks like Blizzard is finally starting to take this issue of AFKing in Alterac Valley seriously, and not just with the AFK-reporting feature that you've likely already heard about.In response to one poster who begged Blizzard not to implement this reporting feature because he says the map is imbalanced and the Horde always loses anyways, Drysc gave us a relatively long list of changes that Blizzard is making in order to help solve the problem -- not just reporting AFKers, but also finding other ways to encourage them to get in the game as well, such as fixing exploits, changing or removing NPCs, and yes even modifying the map a little bit.Here's what he said: There are quite a few changes coming, all of which we hope will culminate into making players want to participate, and ultimately win the battleground. Obviously as most people know we have the anti-afk reporting measure, by which you can right click on someone in the battleground and mark them as AFK. With enough reports they receive a debuff that keeps them from earning honor in that battleground, and only by entering combat can they remove that debuff. It's going to help, but it's certainly not enough on its own. Other things we're doing are changing or pulling out NPCs in key locations to help even out the balance of time and effort each side has to take to push through. As well as some minor changes to locations that people find are easily exploited to advance faster. We're shifting some of the honor from the earlier NPCs, that help make AFKing so lucrative, to the end of the battleground and more for actually winning. The graveyard spawning is being changed so that players aren't sent back to the cave unless there is nowhere else to spawn, which should help encourage horde to play a bit more defense if they're being beaten back. And we're also correcting the ... I think Jeff referred to them as "creative pulling mechanics" with the general's. Everything together, we feel, should help encourage players to participate, while also improving overall balance.
Breakfast Topic: Favorite battleground
There are four battlegrounds in the game right now, but you can still only play one at a time -- which means you've got to have a favorite. You know, the battleground you hope will come up even while you're in another. I have to say, I think my favorite is still Alterac Valley. I've always loved the massive battle that plays out there, and how it integrates PvE elements in a PvP framework -- however, I can't say I'm fond of the AFKers these days... But this isn't about my favorite battleground -- today we're asking which of the four you favor, and why. So tell us, do you have a favorite battleground?
