Isle-of-Conquest
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Does PvP need more queueing options?
WoW Insider received a question to our tip line from a player who's lost their way a little when it comes to PvP: I greatly enjoyed PvP during Cata, but I just haven't been able to get into it during MoP at all. I'm part of a small guild (4 active players), and none of them enjoy PvP. Since I usually have to go it alone, I have a preference for the larger BGs -- AV and Isle. It's easier to be a part of the crowd where individuals carry less weight, but still feel useful and able to help in the smaller skirmishes along the way. PvE has several queuing options -- LFR, Flex (with a group), Scenarios, regular dungeons and heroics. There's a size and activity for everyone. PvP on the other hand has BGs (random or rated) or arena. While not quite adding more options, do you think Blizzard may consider separating out the BGs into different sized-based queues?
The OverAchiever: Mountain O' Mounts from PVP
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, you have to die before I get a new chocobo. Regrettable, but ... We're back with the Mountain O' Mounts series, and today we're going to examine the 10 mounts available to each faction as a result of slaughtering everything and everyone in your path. If you're the type of player who likes to put the "war" back in Warcraft, you'll enjoy the array of options available to a dedicated mercenary. Also read: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts Mountain O' Mounts in Outland Mountain O' Mounts in Northrend Mountain O' Mounts in 5-man dungeons Mountain O' Mounts in raids Mountain O' Mounts from achievements
15 Minutes of Fame: Premade players QueueQ for battlegrounds wins
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. I participated in one of their runs yesterday. It was freakin' amazing. Well run. Their Vent had two full AV premades going, with an additional 60 (players) in the waiting room. In the heyday back during June, they fielded five full AV premades with more on the waiting list. It wasn't uncommon for them to have an 8-hour wait list. -- Matt Low of Raid Rx and self-proclaimed "world's worst PvP priest" on QueueQ Premades The Bloodlust battlegroup appears to be home to more than its fair share of PvP enthusiasts. Arena participation outstrips that of other battlegroups by orders of magnitude, and as for battleground enthusiasts ... Well, BG enthusiasts on the Alliance side have QueueQ Premades. Players who sign up for QueueQ's cross-realms premade battlegrounds service enjoy 85 percent win records on average -- with zero resilience, gear or achievement requirements. The atmosphere is clean and professional: no exploits, no inappropriate chat or Vent chatter. "QueueQ" himself, aka Revash of Kil'Jaeden (US-A), has been running QueueQ Premades for a little over a year now, developing winning strategies designed for fast wins with maximum honor.
Breakfast Topic: Sorry, not happening!
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program. Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements. To put it bluntly, I love this game. Since its inception I have logged countless hours of my free time playing World of Warcraft. Yes I've dabbled in other MMO's but I've always been drawn back to WoW mainly due to its freedom. Freedom in the sense that you are free to choose what you want to do for the most part. There's honestly a ton of content in this game. World of Warcraft is full of stuff. There is stuff everywhere. Stuff to see, stuff to do, stuff to kill, stuff to talk to and well, you get the point. But when you have so many things to do, it's only natural to dislike, or even flat out despise, some of these activities. I think it's pretty safe to assume everybody reading this can think of one or two things that they really cannot stand in World of Warcraft. Whether it's questing, running battlegrounds, world PvP or whatever else, there's always something that will make a guild member say, "No way dude, [insert event here] sucks." Personally I flat out refuse to run Isle of Conquest. Period. I cannot stand that battleground and no amount of gold can get me to run it (okay that's not actually true, but it would have to be a lot of gold). But how about all of you? What event, action, spec, class, play style, NPC, zone, area, mechanic, raid, dungeon, faction, race, spell, talent, boss do you downright refuse to take any part in?
WoW.com's top ten stories of 2009, part 4
The Argent Tourney and its related instances and quests weren't expected at all before this year, and yet, at the end of the year, this is probably where most players ended up spending most of their time. This patch changed the mount levels, and perhaps most importantly for the future, it showed how Blizzard would update the Emblem system -- by providing us options to trade the various currencies for older levels of gear, as well as rewarding us with Emblems even just for running 5-man dungeons. In the end, it probably wasn't the best patch of 2009 -- lots of people wondered why we were fighting each other when Arthas was right there, and while lots of players ran Trial of the Crusader, it probably won't win any popularity contests against Ulduar or Icecrown Citadel.
WoW Rookie: The absolute beginner's guide to Battlegrounds
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. For links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's, visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide. Now that you can spice up your leveling experience by adding a little PvP to the mix, you owe it to yourself to do it up right. Battlegrounds can be bufuddling for new players, and WoW Rookie would be sad to hear you'd given up on them based on a couple of false starts. Head straight over to Zach Yonzon's A-to-Z coverage of Battleground basics in The Art of War(craft)'s Absolute beginner's guide to the Battlegrounds. Join us after the break for a complete list of the Battlegrounds you can enjoy, starting at level 10.
The Art of War(craft): Guide to the Isle of Conquest
The Art of War(craft) strives to bring you anything and everything related to PvP. Well, mostly anything that isn't covered by Arenas, anyway, since that's kind of Colby's territory. And stepping on Colby's territory can get Zach into trouble. I mean, have you seen that guy? Those beady eyes and razor-sharp teeth? Yikes! Oh wait, that might've been a shark. Or it could've been Colby after someone drank from his Chai Tea Latte in the office fridge. He's just kind of a monster that way.Patch 3.2 introduced a new 40-man raid Battleground, technically the biggest instance since old world Naxxramas. In Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, raid dungeons were cut down to 25-players and the two Battlegrounds since then, the Eye of the Storm and Strand of the Ancients, were limited to 15 players per side. Isle of Conquest sees the return of epic battles not seen since Alterac Valley. Well, okay, epic battles with less lag not seen since Wintergrasp, anyway. If you're just hit Level 80 or are curious about the new Battleground, here's a quick guide to help you out.What's the deal?There are essentially two ways to win the Battleground, identical to the new and improved Alterac Valley -- kill the enemy General or deplete the opposing team's Resources. The Horde forces are led by Overlord Agmar, the orc after whom the Horde base in Dragonblight is named, the leader of the Kor'kron Guard who looks like he's wearing Northrend greens or blues, at best. On the other team is High Commander Halford Wyrmbane, the leader of the 7th Legion and whom Alliance players will typically first encounter giving quests in Wintergarde Keep in Dragonblight. He isn't any better off than his rival, as he looks like he's in Sunwell epics. Cool, right? Alright, now let's figure out how to kill them.
The Queue: Questions, comments, complaints...
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Allison Robert is your hostess today.I have absolutely no idea what the hell the above video is about, but have been required to place it there on threat of firing by Alex Ziebart. Questions, comments, complaints? Send them to him!Pyril asks...(On the faction champions fight in Trial of the Crusader): Why would Blizzard force PvE players to basically learn PvP skill sets now, when they've been so good about keeping them seperate to this point? Any chance the encounter will be reworked? GC has said he doesn't want to force raids to bring certain classes, but if you don't to this encounter it's a 3 hour wipe fest.Is the encounter likely to be changed? No, at least not its basic mechanics. Blizzard fielded similar complaints concerning the Priestess Delrissa fight in Magisters' Terrace, which could be an incredibly ugly experience on heroic if you didn't have CC or weren't well-geared. But are aspects of the encounter likely to be nerfed, or at least tweaked? Maybe, maybe not. It'll depend on how much trouble Blizzard sees people having with the fight. What's certain is that the Faction Champs encounter is a very common target for complaints right now. Some of this is the result of players still gearing up, but others are voiced by people who intensely dislike the arenaesque feel of it all, or who run a raid setup that's less-than-ideal for whatever champion comp they get that week. I think you're entirely correct in saying that the fight becomes significantly more difficult (or at least more gear-dependent) if you're running a raid with limited options for purging/dispelling the mobs' buffs or keeping their healers locked down, and it's probably that aspect of it that Blizzard's keeping an eye on.
Every kind of player's guide to Patch 3.2
If you've been hiding under a rock these past few months (and who doesn't do that every now and then, really?) you might have only just noticed that Patch 3.2 recently went live. For some of you, it's as good an excuse as any to log back into the game while for others, it might've been a surprise to find yourself suddenly downloading upwards of 300Mb of content. If you fall under the category of surprised, lost, or surprised and lost, have no fear! WoW.com is here to hold your hand and guide you through the wild and wacky wonders of the Call of the Crusade. Let's take a look at what the latest patch holds for you - and there's something for you no matter what kind of player you are - after the jump.
World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 Mage Guide
WoW.com has covered patch 3.2 extensively. Everything from the surprising changes to flying mounts, to the latest and greatest loot, and all the changes in between. In our patch 3.2 class, raiding, and PvP guides we take a look at exactly what changes and how the changes will affect your playing. So...a patch happened or something? I guess it's a big deal. People are excited or whatever. I'm way too cool to show any kind of positive emotion, so...meh. Meh, I say.Ok, I can't keep that up. Patches always make me happy. I've been known to break into song and engage in impromptu yet highly choreographed dance routines on patch days. This time around it was a little number called "Living Bomb is Castable on Multiple Targets Now...Yay!" The lyrics are actually quite clever. They go like this: "Living Bomb is castable on multiple targets now...yay!" repeated several times, and sung to the tune of whatever Wiggles song my kids happen to be listening to in the background at the time. Or sometimes to the Knight Rider theme. Don't ask me why. I'm a musical genius and I don't have to explain myself to you.Anyway, let's take a quick look at the ways this patch will be affecting Mages. Here's a five-word preview: Living Bomb Multiple Targets Yay
Patch 3.2 in pictures
Over the course of the Patch 3.2 PTR's lifetime, the WoW.com team probably spent a rather unhealthy amount of time there. Sure, it makes us wonder what the heck is wrong with us, but it pays off for you guys. You've seen the fruits of our labor pretty much all day long, and will continue to. That said, there are a lot of simple things that we haven't put in front of you guys since we originally discussed them. Primarily, our image galleries.Embedded below are almost all of the galleries we put together for Patch 3.2. Tier set stats, the Isle of Conquest, Children's Week quests, the new Heirlooms, badge gear, and more. Please note, however, that the screenshots were taken on the PTR, so any of the stats you see in the pictures may differ slightly from what went live. Only slightly, however. Enjoy, and don't forget to click through the cut below for the rest of the galleries.%Gallery-66277%%Gallery-66638%
Call of the Crusade Trailer
A lot of people were wondering if there was going to be an official Blizzard trailer for World of Warcraft's Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade, and lo' and behold, there is! Just not out in its usual promptness. The trailer itself is made up of mostly in-game footage of the various events in the new dungeon, the Argent Tournament. We see some boss fights in the coliseum raid, a few overviews of the tournament grounds, etc... The new Battleground, the Isle of Conquest, is also featured in the trailer, and there are some good shots of PvP going on there.There isn't really any lore or story to it - other than that the Argent Tournament is preparing us for Icecrown Citadel. Nothing we don't already know. You can get a cool desktop background though.You can watch the trailer above on YouTube or head over to the Blizzard site and download it in super high def. WoW's Patch 3.2 ushers in the Crusaders' Coliseum, the Isle of Conquest, flying mounts at 60, and much more. WoW.com has all the patch information your Worgen obsessed mind can handle in WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2!
World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 PvP Guide
WoW.com has covered patch 3.2 extensively. Everything from the surprising changes to flying mounts, to the latest and greatest loot, and all the changes in between. In our patch 3.2 class, raiding, and PvP guides we take a look at exactly what changes and how the changes will affect your playing.Patch 3.2 is finally here, and is anyone else kind of surprised by how fast things are coming these days? To be fair, as most of my co-workers here at WoW.com have assessed, this newest patch is one of the more lackluster patches in a while considering it merely appends to much of existing content (the Argent Tournament). There's a smattering of stuff for raiders, soloists, hardcores and casuals, but what's in store for PvP enthusiasts?There are a lot of major changes in this patch that will impact PvP greatly, one being the blanket change to Resilience which now affects all damage taken, rather than just critical hits. Another is the effective neutering of the 2v2 Arena bracket with the change blocking access to the best weapons and end-of-season rewards. A third big change coming is the introduction of a brand new Battleground, the Isle of Conquest, which is the technically the first 40-man raid instance since the original Naxxramas. There's also the whopping introduction of experience gain in Battlegrounds, too. Caught your breath yet? There are a lot of other things in between, and we'll take a closer look at everything after the jump.
Crusaders' Coliseum and Isle of Conquest Q&A
Blizzard has just released a Q&A on the Crusaders' Coliseum and the Isle of Conquest. The Q&A is done with Tom Chilton (Game Directory), Scott Mercer (Lead Encounter Designer), and Alex Afrasiabi (Lead World Designer). The Q&A is a long one and has a lot of good information throughout on both of these major upcoming features in Patch 3.2. Some of the highlights include: All dungeons can be called the Crusaders' Coliseum. 5-man normal and heroics are called the Trial of the Champion. 10 and 25 man normal raids are called the Trial of the Crusader. 10 and 25 man hard mode raids are called the Trial of the Grand Crusader. 5-man version on par with current Wrath dungeons. "There will be no 310%-speed mount offered through a meta-achievement reward, as the current 310%-speed mount offered will not be removed when path 3.2 is released." And later on... "For those working through a tribute run, there might also just be a surprise or two in the chest at the end... if you have what it takes to master this run." Possibly a new twist to the conflict between Horde and Alliance in the next expansion? "Right now both sides are honing their skills through the Argent Crusade's tests. Should they take the fight to the Lich King and succeed while animosity between the Horde and Alliance continues to build, there's no telling what lies in store for the denizens of Azeroth." Average Isle of Conquest match to last around 20 minutes. There is some concern over graveyard camping in the Isle of Conquest. Once again, the dedicated World of Warcraft players are screwed out of pony. I was promised one, and I want it. This is a slap in the face. Where's my gin? Where's my coffee? Quick! Someone write an angry letter about Ghostcrawler, he's the worst thing that happened to WoW since...since...forever! Nerd rage! Don't forget to check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for more information on the Crusaders' Coliseum and the Isle of Conquest. The full Q&A is after the break.
Blizzard to focus on battlegrounds more
Ghostcrawler has posted a little paragraph on the forums, reaffirming something we've already heard from Blizzard: that in the past, they've spent more time on Arenas to the detriment of battlegrounds, and that battlegrounds are going to be gaining a little more focus in the future. They've already started, actually, with the Isle of Conquest in 3.2, but GC says there's even more on the table, and that future plans will be revealed at BlizzCon.He also brings up another good point, however: in terms of class balance, Arenas are a much more striking example of imbalances than battlegrounds are. Battlegrounds have all sorts of things going on, and so you don't get as good a picture of just how the different classes work with and against each other as you do in Arenas. And so, if you're a dev trying to figure out class balances, of course you'll spend more time looking at the Arena gameplay than the BGs. GC also says that the majority of issues in BGs tend to be map-based rather than class imbalances, which is really a whole other science. Not that BGs aren't relevant to how the classes work, just that there are many more variables in there than the relative vacuum chamber of Arenas.All good points. I'm a fan of battlegrounds much more than Arenas, but I don't particularly feel that Blizzard has ignored them necessarily. The real problem, to my mind, with BGs is simply how faction imbalanced they are: it seems like on every realm in every given BG, one side always seems to have the upper hand, for whatever reason. Sometimes it's a population problem, sometimes it's a map issue. But GC is right: those problems are more pressing than class balance in the BGs.
Tom Chilton talks about 3.2 and the future of World of Warcraft
Videogamer.com has a nice long interview with World of Warcraft Producer Tom Chilton about everything from patch 3.2 and the Argent Tournament to the future of the game at large. They caught up with him at the Warcraft Regional Finals 2009 tournament in Germany this past week, and in part one, he talks about the upcoming patch and what Blizzard is expecting to get out of it. He says the Isle of Conquest battleground is their most "epic-feeling" instanced PvP setting since Alterac Valley, and that they want it to feel nuts, with players fighting each other via air and land. He also mentions Arena, and says that it was originally designed to be "a fun side PvP activity" that they went a little overboard with during Burning Crusade. Finally, he talks about twinks, and says that neither Blizzard nor twinks, apparently, want to see other players crushed by those who have the time or money to max out their low level characters. Even twinks, says Chilton, want to see competition against each other, and the option to turn XP off will let them do that. I'm not sure I agree with that last one -- many twinks seem to beef their characters up just for the chance to lay waste to "normal" players, but Chilton says Blizzard believes otherwise.The second part of the interview is more general -- he talks a little bit about the next expansion (with the same speculation we've already heard: Gilneas, the Maelstrom, the Emerald Dream), and says that designing a race is tougher on artists, but designing a class is tougher on designers. He admits that because we had a new class in Wrath, it's unlikely we'll see another class so soon in the next expansion, but "not impossible" of course. And he does note that Blizzard tries to "pre-seed" the races before they use them as playable races, so if they are adding in races, chances are we've already seen them (which, you may note, wasn't strictly true with the Draenei in BC). Finally, he talks about the future of Blizzard's MMO in general, and says it's still wide open to them: they plan for the game to last for years, and what they do between now and then, whether that be more expansions, microtransactions, or even a free-to-play model, will have to depend on what they want to do at the time.Very interesting interview. Chilton doesn't really reveal anything, but you do get the sense that save for a very skeleton plan of one or two years in the future, Blizzard is really playing it fast and loose with World of Warcraft. Even he admits that the game may look very different, depending on how things go, in another four years from now.
Breakfast Topic: Where will you be honor grinding in Patch 3.2?
So patch 3.2 will be bringing some pretty significant changes to PvP Battlegrounds to say the least. Not only will Wintergrasp be morphing into a weird quasi-battleground with queue, but Warsong Gulch is getting a time limit, Eye of the Storm and Arathi's resource goal is being slashed, and we're getting a whole new battleground in the Isle of Conquest. In short, we're going to have some soul searching to do while we decide where to get our non-arena organized PvP fix on.
Patch 3.2 PTR Isle of Conquest upcoming changes
I hope everybody's been having fun on the PTR. I know Matt's been having a grand time in Patch 3.2's new Battleground, the Isle of Conquest. Thanks to all the players who have been airship-dropping, flag-capturing, glaive-thrower-riding, and general-killing, Blizzard has announced that they will be making some changes to the Isle of Conquest in the next iteration of the PTR build. The changes are as follows: Increased all the gates' health from 300,000 to 600,000. Increased the reinforcement count from 200 to 400. Significantly increased the health and damage of the keep generals. Reduced effect range of the siege damage caused by Seaforium. Both the player damage and the siege damage caused should be 10 yards now. The Huge Seaforium piles will now despawn for 20 seconds once looted. Glaive Thrower - Reduced the cooldown of Blade Salvo from 60 seconds to 30 seconds. Glaive Thrower - Reduced movement speed. Demolisher - The Hurl Boulder and Ram effects no longer share a cooldown. Keep Cannons - Fixed a bug that was causing them to do much more damage than intended. Keep Cannons - Can now be repaired once they are destroyed by clicking on them. This repair process takes 8 seconds and can be interrupted, similar to capturing a PvP objective. Siege Engine - Significantly Increased health. Zarhym thanks all the players for their invaluable input and encourage further testing and continued feedback on the PTR. The Battleground looks like a whole lot of fun, and the changes should lengthen the considerably short matches. See you guys on the battlefield... as soon as I get this blasted client patch to download, that is...Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Isle of Conquest gameplay screenshot gallery
The new Battleground coming with Patch 3.2, the Isle of Conquest, is live on the 3.2 PTR as we speak, and we've been running some games on said Isle to see how it measures up to the current BGs. We're pretty happy with it so far -- it certainly looks great, as you'll be able to tell by checking out the screenshot gallery we've compiled for you. It shows the BG and all its sundry parts in action. We'll keep you up to date with new Isle info as we get it. If you're on the PTR too, then be sure to queue up -- who knows, it might just be one of us you're ganking! %Gallery-66277% Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
PvP Q&A with Blizzard's Cory Stockton
Blizzard's Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton answered quite a lot of questions about the upcoming PvP changes in Patch 3.2. There are a lot, particularly the experience gains in Battlegrounds which also has deep implications in PvE as players can simply toggle experience gains off (any Level 60s up for Molten Core?). It's a pretty lengthy interview and Stockton goes into detail with the new Isle of Conquest Battleground. Some highlights from the chat: Experience gain in Battlegrounds is slightly slower than questing or grinding Players can toggle experience gain on and off with a mere 10 Gold There are plans to include greens and "the occasional blue item" at the end of each Battleground match (!) but won't make it to Patch 3.2 The Isle of Conquest is in the Frozen Sea, North of Icecrown Objectives in Isle of Conquest are captured exactly like flags in Arathi Basin -- I totally called this wrong when I said it would probably be a numbers and proximity thing Battlemaster Achievement isn't likely to change (whew!) but Blizzard is considering what to do with the Achievements for the Isle of Conquest Rated Battlegrounds are coming. Not quite soon®, but an announcement will be made during BlizzCon Blizzard plans "to deliver more Battlegrounds to the players as often as we can" Oh, man. That last bit made me want to change my underwear. Blizzard is actually paying attention to Battleground enthusiasts, realizing that while Arenas are nice and all, a lot of players love the BGs, too. New Battlegrounds "as often as we can?" Yes, please! Head on over to the official site to read Stockton's interview in full. Bombs, cannons, parachutes, angry Generals... 3.2 is shaping up to be one explosive patch, indeed.Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
