battlegrounds
Latest
Battle Bites: Preparing for Battle
Never go into battle unprepared. Before you queue up for a Battleground or Arena, make sure to repair your equipment so it doesn't break in the middle of an encounter. PvP takes its toll on your armor just like in PvE, albeit at a slower rate, so always be mindful of your repairs. While you don't receive durability damage when you die, your equipment still suffers every time you get hit. I once PvP'd for almost 15 hours straight without repairing and had my armor almost break on me. Though far from being as expensive, PvP is an endeavor that entails costs just like raiding or other instances.Always have a mental checklist for buffs when entering an Arena or Battleground; before a match begins, players receive a buff called Arena Preparation or Preparation which reduces the cost of all spells and abilities by 100%. This period allows you to buff yourself and, ideally, your entire team as well. Note that although the spells are free, they still consume reagents in Battlegrounds (but not Arenas) so be mindful of your stocks. It's always good practice to have full stacks of reagents, so remember to replenish now and again between battles. If you're a Mage or Warlock, your teammates will be extremely grateful if you throw up a Ritual of Refreshment or Ritual of Souls. Extend courtesy to your fellow players and be sure not to take more than Conjured Manna Biscuits than you actually need! In Battlegrounds, dying is a good opportunity to refresh oneself for the fight. When running low on health and/or mana, don't rule out the option of dying to top yourself up, specially if there's a nearby Graveyard under your faction's control. Right after you rezz, you receive a 6-second buff called Spirit Heal, which reduces the cost of all spells by 100%. Considering global cooldowns, you can cast maybe up to three buffs for free before heading back into the fray. Remember to cast your most expensive buff first, and stack as many self-buffs as you can to provide a buffer for dispel abilities. Preparation pays off, or in this case, costs nothing!Battle Bites is a short feature that gives out weekly tips for PvP. Have fun storming the castle!
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%
The Art of War(craft): A rambling year in review
In last week's column, where I went over the World PvP objectives in the Outlands, some players expressed indignation at how Blizzard supposedly "forces" PvE players into playing PvP. There are different views on this, such as Massively's Craig Withers, who wrote about a distaste for impersonal PvP in WoW and thus avoids it like the plague, and well, myself, who would actually like to see more PvP-oriented goals implemented in the game. As the shadow of the aptly-named WAR, or Warhammer Online -- which trumpets a supposedly rich PvP and RvR (Realm vs. Realm) experience -- looms, World of Warcraft appears increasingly lacking in PvP content. More and more, suspicion arises that WoW PvP is flawed by design. In his article, David points to reader Aviel's well-ordered thoughts on the matter -- that PvP's basic flaw is that it is an Honor grind, Honor being the currency for gear. As long as it is currency, Aviel says, people will find ways to earn it in the quickest manner possible (e.g. AFKing).For the most part, I agree with that statement. Blizzard has designed WoW PvP to be a task/reward system that is vulnerable to abuse. The simple fact, however, is that the entire game is a huge task/reward system, from the very existence of mobs (including bosses), which award loot when killed; to quests, which give rewards for completing certain tasks. Without that mechanic in place, the entire game would break. Players do daily quests not out of sheer enjoyment -- although some can be fun -- but because it's a reliable method for earning gold. When Patch 2.4 eventually hits, players can earn upwards of 300g by doing daily quests. I am willing to be that people will be doing daily quests not (just) because they're fun but because most players need gold.In its current iteration, Honor is a currency, making it a prime candidate for farming. This design is largely due to the fact that WoW PvP has mostly been an afterthought. Actual PvP objectives and rewards, i.e. the Honor system, didn't come into the game until Patch 1.4, about five months after the game's release. The first Battlegrounds came out a month later in a subsequent patch. Because PvP isn't deeply interwoven into the world, the Honor system feels tacked on, distinctly separated from other currencies or means of acquiring loot, or reward. What matters, however, is that Blizzard recognized the need for PvP and managed to find a way to incorporate it. Blizzard Vice-President of Game Design Rob Pardo, in his 2006 AGC keynote speech said, "Early on we really didn't know how the honor system was going to work, we didn't know if we were going to have titles and achievements but we knew we had to have PvP and we knew that it had to be fun."
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.
Harsher penalties for AV AFKers
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Blizzard_cracks_down_on_AV_AFKers'; Leeching in Alterac Valley -- or, as Blizzard puts it, "non-participation in Battleground games" -- has been a problem for about as long as the new Honor system has been in place (not so new now). In patch 2.2, a feature was put in place where players who were obviously not participating could be reported, and would end up getting a debuff if they got enough reports. This helped, but the problem is far from solved. Many people think the debuff is simply not a strong enough penalty to defer the unscrupulous from reaping free honor. Well, if you are one of those people, you should be pleased. Bornakk just announced that, as of right now, warnings and penalties will be issued to those who receive too many reports. The penalties include account suspensions and the removal of honor points and honor rewards. He says they'll be "taking action against thousands of accounts immediately," and of course we are all reminded to keep on reporting people that seem to be out of the action for too long. This looks like a big step in the right direction. Will the AFKer problems be solved, or are additional measures required? I guess we'll see.
Fixing healing in BGs with daily quests
Reader James sent along this shot as an example after he saw my post a while back on how bad the state of healing in the BGs is, but actually, I think it's an improvement-- sure, most of that Paladin healing was probably on themselves, and especially the second Paladin was spending just as much time doing damage as he was healing, but really, this isn't too bad-- you've got at least two Pallys and two Priests who are casting heals the BG.I think that certain people are healing in BGs than when I wrote that post back in October-- I've been in AB quite a bit lately, and I've seen more healing Paladins in there than ever. But I do think that Blizzard could still stand to offer some rewards to players for doing the right things (including healing) in the BGs, and I am convinced, as we've said on the podcast, that daily quests are the way to do it. Blizzard should offer daily quest bounties for doing x amount of healing, standing a few meters from an objective while it's captured (to encourage people to fight on the flags), and for doing all the other things that people really should do in BGs but don't do as much.They shouldn't offer a quest for doing damage or making flag captures (because everyone already does that). But Blizzard should go out of their way to incentivize stuff that's less heralded like this-- the more reward they place on healing fellow players, the more people will step up to do it.
More Alterac Valley changes on the horizon
As we've noted before, a sizeable portion of Alterac Valley players are growing more disgruntled each day about the AFK'd players that leech honor and, given enough, cripple the team's efforts. The main unfortunate side effect of all of this frustration has been extra long queue times on many servers, which is only serving to fuel the fire.When the ability to report a player as AFK was first introduced, there were mixed reactions. The tool did seem to reduce the volume of moochers in any given battleground, but it also put the onus on the honest, responsible fighters to take the time to locate and report the individual. Because of the fact that no action would be taken against any AFK'd player until a sufficient number of reports had been received, AFK'ing continued, and went back on the rise. To combat this, Blizzard hotfixed the reports, lowering the threshold required before the debuff would be planted.
Watch out for Ritual of Refreshment ninjas
I've heard about this multiple times since Ritual of Refreshment was first introduced in 2.3: Mages are a little combusted over casting this food creation spell in the battlegrounds. Their first complaint was the reagent cost-- even though casting buffs is free in BGs, the reagent cost is still there for mages, and so lots of them haven't bothered casting it at all (I ran an AB to research this story-- tough work, but someone's got to do it-- and though we had two mages, I didn't see a table at all).But now, the other problem arising is actually ninja looters-- people are joining the battlegrounds, grabbing all the food from the table, and then afk-ing out. It seems crazy to me, but it's happening, and Neth says (as per Blizzard's rules) that stealing items from other players in this way isn't actually a violation of game policies. But it is dumb. Never mind why you would need all that food, but it seems like the issue would be easy enough to fix-- either make food conjured in BGs stay in BGs, or just make the food unique to 100 (apparently people are sometimes stealing all 50 stacks right off the table). Of course, that doesn't fix the other RoR problems-- a few mages are also wondering why they get to lay a great spread, while only getting crumbs and water themselves, but that's a problem for another day. Have you had your Manna biscuits ganked in the BGs?
Player suggestions for fixing Alterac Valley
In response to a post-patch-2.3 post about the limitations and issues with the new AFK reporting feature for battlegrounds, many people commented with some interesting ideas for improvement. They vary greatly from fairly lenient to quite harsh, making it ever more apparent that this is a controversial topic. Many of you agreed that the system should automatically report players that are AFK, rather than relying on those of us who are fighting and defending to point them out. There also seemed to be an agreement that AFK'd players should not be allowed to remain so; after a certain period of time, they should indeed be booted from the battleground. In order to avoid harsh penalties in a legitimate and unavoidable AFK situation, jr suggests that whatever punishment is implemented, it should not be so for manually /AFK'ing oneself, or when the player is disconnected. Our own Matthew Rossi does point out; however much we might like to impose a more aggressive system of punishment, players will find a way to exploit and abuse it. Malachi145 also pointed out that, no matter what, AFK'd players should not be gaining credit for the daily battleground quests. Several players even outlined complete systems that could be implemented in a future patch to further reduce the problem that AFK'd players in battlegrounds pose for their teammates.
Breakfast Topic: Quitting battlegrounds
Battlegrounds, one of the main resources for PvP action in World of Warcraft, may be growing less popular with the average player. On the flip side, they may be gaining in popularity for players who are new to the whole experience. Why are so many avid battlegrounders boycotting the queues? The most popular battleground that is off-limits is Alterac Valley, and many are getting fed up with the afk'ers and Blizzard's attempts to solve the problem they create. In fact, ever since the dynamics of AV changed in patch 2.3, some people have been longing for the honor grind to return. Queue, run north/south for 10 minutes, gain much honor. Not everyone is enjoying the actual PvP action they're seeing. The recently explained honor calculations have also been causing controversy, especially regarding holiday weekends. At the same time, many battleground regulars are becoming annoyed with the increased population of players new to the grounds popping in, either for arena season one gear, or for the daily battleground quests. Some are even spewing their opinions on the subject rampantly in /bg chat, making the experience less fun for everyone. How much time do you, or have you, devote to battlegrounding? How are you feeling about battlegrounds these days?
On battleground belittlers
There's a growing list of things that aren't cool in battleground chatting: Whining and complaining about how your faction and everyone in it is a noob. Getting depressed about how you lose all the time Belittling other players for not being perfect. This last one is particularly not cool in the case of healers, who tend to get the most unfair blame (whereas a rogue, for example, can just stealth about the map avoiding combat for the most part, and no one says anything). Too often I see one player, who inevitably thinks he really knows his WoW inside and out, berating the healer because of one mistake: "Why didn't you heal me? You suck! Get out of the BGs!" Seriously, battlegrounds have a lack of healers to begin with, and any healer willing to do sincerely his or her best is better than no healers at all. They have a lot of responsibility in PvP; the last thing they need is for their teammates to belittle them in front of everyone -- even if they really do need some improvement. The whole idea of a team is that its members cooperate with one another, and cooperative language is generally a lot more productive in any case: "Hey, I appreciate your healing in here. Next time I'm carrying the flag, though, could you and I team up with you focusing on healing me in particular? Thanks!" Some people can't take any suggestion or advice whatsoever, but chances are that the healer actually wants to cooperate and help his or her team succeed. They just even be happy to accept a polite request. And if not, spewing all manner of insults just makes the insulter look like the bigger idiot anyway.
WoW Insider Weekly
Wondering what to do on this lazy Saturday afternoon? Why not enjoy some of our terrific weekly features from the past week? Here they are, all in one post. It's a week's worth of WoW Insider content, all served right up for you.Two Bosses Enter: Moam vs. Hakkar the SoulflayerI completely agree, Elizabeth-- Batman can (and has, multiple times) beat Superman like a drum.Sunday Morning Funnies: The beginningOur new weekly look at the best in Warcraft comics.Arcane Brilliance: Fun with utility spellsWhy else do you roll a mage in the first place? To mess with people!Addon Spotlight: Comix - the returnThis is definitely an addon that some people really hate, and some people really love.Officers' Quarters: A case of the blahsHow to shake the ennui from your guild.The Art of War(craft): Idyllic Arathi BasinZach takes you into my favorite battleground for some fun and strategy.Shifting Perspectives: So you're thinking of playing a DruidThink our new Druid blogger sounds familiar? He's none other than Big Bear Butt, right here on WoW Insider.Build Shop: Warlock 43/0/18Chris dissects one of the most "feared" builds around-- Affliction.The Light and How to Swing It: Ret gear part 1Stuff to wear when you're going Ret.Guildwatch: Worth every wipeIs the drama worth it? Ask a guild after they down Gruul for the first time.Blood Pact: The final stretchBringing Warlocks home to 70.Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn: The story beginsWoW Insider presents a new standard in graphic storytelling for the WoW universe.World of WarCrafts: Murloc Fin SoupA brand new column about making things in real life for and by Warcraft fans.Well Fed Buff: Winter's Veil BarkOur other new column, about RL cooking, breaks out a tasty snack for Winter's Veil.Totem Talk: Gearing up Elemental 66-69Get the gear you're going to be tossing for all those phat epix.Blood Sport: Gearing up for ArenasWhat to wear in there.WoW, Casually: December 14-20 and Feast of Winter's VeilFun things you can do this week in just a short time.Insider Trader: Hawking wares via the webAn interview with Elite Fish Vendor.The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Tanking knicknacksTasty tidbits about tanking.Ask WoW Insider: Are you who you play?When you get in a car accident, you don't say, "His car hit my car!" You say, "He hit me!" Weird, right?Phat Loot Phriday: Delicious Chocolate CakeIt makes you happy. Do you really need to know anything else?
The Art of War(craft): A Poke in the Eye of the Storm
The Burning Crusade brought in many new things to the World of Warcraft -- new spells, ten new levels, outlandish new zones and more -- quite a lot of things, really. For PvP enthusiasts, BC also ushered in the era of Arenas and introduced a sort of brand new Battleground called Eye of the Storm. I say sort of brand new because even though it's an entirely new map, it rehashes elements from Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and the outdoor PvP objectives in the Eastern Plaguelands. Eye of the Storm fuses resource gathering elements from AB with the capture-the-flag aspect of WSG, creating a familiar feel in a new, almost alien environment. The result is a fast-paced game where fortunes turn very quickly. Unlike the other Battlegrounds, there is no faction associated with Eye of the Storm. There is no Frostwolf Clan defending their territory against the Stormpike Guard; no Defilers and League of Arathor squabbling over resources; there are no outraged Silverwing Sentinels decrying the rampant logging of the Warsong Outriders. Even though Blizzard has stated that Battleground reputations are now obsolete -- you can buy PvP items using relevant Marks of Honor regardless of reputation -- I personally felt that the various Horde- or Alliance-aligned PvP factions added depth and character to the game. While other Battlegrounds have "real" locations one can access through an instance portal, the Eye of the Storm isn't even situated anywhere one can reference -- it's simply, nebulously somewhere in the Netherstorm.
Alterac Valley is now awarding honor correctly
Ever since patch 2.3 dropped, there has been speculation that battlegrounds have not been awarding honor properly. Because of the confusion over how the bonus honor from the daily battleground quests are awarded, I merrily ignored such debates and popped into Alterac Valley, as well as other BGs, like nothing was happening (hey, I wanted arena season one gear). It soon became clear that at the very least, Alterac Valley was not shelling out honor as intended. You may have even noticed recently, a message delivered upon log-in, stating that the development team was currently working to resolve the issue. Fortunately, Eyonix has confirmed that the situation has been fixed and AV is once more running smoothly.At this point, players all over the forums are requesting that honor be retroactively awarded. While I'm not sure if this is even possible, I doubt that we'll see it. Were you affected by the reduced honor, or did you not even notice? Are you seeking lost honor, or were you having fun in spite of the problem?
Forum Post of the Day: A casual's guide to winning BGs
Our own Zach Yonzon is putting together some great guides to the battlegrounds (WSG is the last one, and Arathi Basin is being worked on as we speak), but just in case that's not enough for you, Digo of Hyjal has written up a great (and succinct) guide to how the premades win battlegrounds. From WSG to AB to EotS to AV, he's got a terrific writeup of what needs to be done and how to do it to walk away from the BG with more marks than the other team.He markets the guide as one for casuals, but it's got great tips for everybody: fight on the flags, not on the road. Make sure you've got something held before moving on. Send a druid after the flag and control WSG's midfield. Stick together and assist and heal. This is all stuff every single person who queues up for a BG should know (and unfortunately, it's also the same stuff that's yelled in every /bg channel because lots of players don't listen).Great post, and a must read for anyone routinely going into the battlegrounds. If you aren't doing this stuff already, take the lesson, and do it from now on.
WoW Insider Show episode 14: A podcast of PvP
WoW Insider's Zach Yonzon joined Turpster and I on the podcast this past weekend, and boy did we have a good time. Zach actually woke up at 4:30 a.m. his time (he's in Manila) to join us, but we got a lot of good discussion in about Arena PvP, battlegrounds, and all the other news from the last week of WoW Insider: We chatted about Arena Smurfs, and I forced Zach and Turps to come up with ways to stop them. We talked about robbing the guild bank, and how you can get away with it. Alliance players: don't hate yourselves. Hate us Hordies. We asked if daily quests were bad for battlegrounds. (Short answer: no, but we need more of them). And finally, I asked Blizzard to keep the Ghost Wolf around, and sure enough, that's just what they did. All in all, a superlative hour of podcast listening (except for my stupid mic clicking all the time-- sorry listeners, I swear that by the next time we go on, I'll have a brand new, completely silent mic), available right now over on WoW Radio. Check it out, won't you?And while you're over there, be sure to listen to the rest of their great shows, too-- they are now broadcasting 24/7 on the front page, so if you've missed any of the shows in their archive, keep your speakers tuned to their page. And tune in next Saturday at 3:30pm for more WoW Insider show-- it's just like this great blog, only in audio form.
Monstrous Kaliri, how I hate thee
Some days this quest is easy, and some days I am wearing six giant birds before I get to the first patch of eggs. Much wisdom flows from my wife, she who tames transparent wolves and gets multiple instance runs the second I log off to use the bathroom. (In my defense, I really had to go.) I myself have also noticed that on some days, especially when the cooking quest calls for Giant Kaliri Wings, the run to complete Fires over Skettis is quite tolerable. On other days, I am convinced that my character must have bathed in barbeque sauce before coming out to drop bombs, because he's intensely popular with gigantic, screeching birds that live and breathe for just the chance to dismount him. Have I mentioned how often they actually manage to knock me off my mount so that I fall with six health left right in front of a wandering Talonsworn Forest-Rager? Because I love that. That sound? That's not weeping. I don't know why you would say that. My keyboard's plenty dry.
Defense wins all but one Alterac Valley node
On Monday, the Horde of Retaliation managed to capture every node in Alterac Valley except the Stormpike Aid Station (and the bugged Irondeep Mine), whittling the Alliance down to 0 reinforcements and almost no honor. Surprising to many, this coup was achieved because of a strong, co-ordinated defensive team. This was not achieved through a premade, and voice chats were not used.As we have mentioned before, playing defensively is not everyone's cup of tea. Recently, as players are adapting to the new Alterac Valley, we are starting to see new defensive maneuvers take shape. In fact, the strategy has actually become a great way to farm some HKs, gain more overall honor from each win, and see some unpredictable action. At the beginning of the match, defense met up at the Iceblood Graveyard, Garrison and Tower. After being initially pushed down to Frostwolf Graveyard due to Alliance players breaking south, several players managed to monopolize the Field of Strife while offense pushed steadily forward. Soon after, defense reclaimed Iceblood and suddenly the Alliance had nowhere to resurrect except the Stormpike Aid Station. Defense quickly rode through midfield toward Icewing Bunker. About a third stayed there, hindering the progress of any opposition that tried to slip through by walking past the lake rather than on the road. Another third road forward to help push north with offense, as the Alliance had retaken Stormpike Graveyard by this point. Even though the Horde was forced to resurrect at Stonehearth Graveyard, we managed to push back to Stormpike in no time.
The Art of War(craft): Warsong Gulch, the Broken Battleground
I have a confession to make. I love Warsong Gulch. It's my favorite Battleground. Most people I know abhor the place, but I genuinely enjoy it. The way I see it, Warsong Gulch is a map that's conducive to combat. It's small, straightforward, and fairly uncomplicated. Other Battleground maps are big enough to avoid confrontation. Alterac Valley, in particular, often turns into a race with minimal conflict -- even with the new changes. There are games in Arathi Basin or the Eye of the Storm where one is left guarding a node for the entire game and hardly see combat. On the other hand, it takes a monumental effort to avoid fighting inside Warsong Gulch. Warsong Gulch is situated in the Southern part of Ashenvale and the Northern part of the Barrens. It represents a contested area where Grom Hellscream's Warsong Clan made incursions into Ashenvale with their logging operations, earning the ire of the tree-hugging Silvewing Sentinels. Fighting in Warsong Gulch awards Warsong Gulch Mark of Honor, which is used as currency along with Honor points for various items. Players can fight in Warsong Gulch starting at Level 10, making it the first Battleground players can enter. Warsong Gulch is the domain of the Level 19 twinks, so lower-level players wishing to get a taste of their first Battleground would have it in their best interest to be prepared to face opponents decked out in fully enchanted crafted and twink run blues. As a general rule, it would be best to be at least at the highest even-numbered level of a bracket -- 18, 28, 38, etc. -- when joining the Battleground in order to contribute more.
Breakfast Topic: Mounting annoyances
In keeping with my recent battlegrounding streak to complete my arena season one collection, an e-mail sent in by Rihlsul caught my eye this morning. He writes that he has noticed a recent increase in the volume of AFK'd players who "park their netherdrakes and kodos as on-top-of-BG-masters as humanly possible." Now, other games often get around this by giving each character and NPC its own space, mutually exclusive from the space around it. In other words, you can bump into things, but not stand in them, enveloping them. While such a method may be more true to life, I think WoW's way of doing things is quite handy, considering the sheer numbers of players in big cities or on heavily populated realms. Unfortunately, it can indeed become a bit of a nuisance. I become especially frustrated in the banks, when some characters feel the need to stand in the banker, rather than in the crowd, or when I find it difficult to click target a quest-giver.
