Rated-Battlegrounds
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Blood Sport: Arena should be more like rated battlegrounds
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. Rated battlegrounds -- like them or love them, they're here to stay. While rated battlegrounds aren't perfect, they're definitely a lot of fun and a great way to pass the time. One of the things Blizzard placed a heavy emphasis on with rated battlegrounds, which you may or may not have noticed, is the simple and elegant rating system. The rated battleground (or RBG) system is pretty different than most other systems in the game. I've been very impressed with it -- so impressed that I believe Blizzard should just copy it for arena. The whole world (of Warcraft) would benefit from making arenas more like rated battlegrounds, at least in this regard.
Same-faction battlegrounds to be available for testing on the PTR
Say you have this friend who's constantly running her mouth about what a good discipline priest she is. And say you want to get together a bunch of your friends and take Dawn ... er ... this friend ... down a couple notches in Warsong Gulch. But, oh darn -- you play Alliance, and so does she. Well, it's time to box up that purely hypothetical feud and take it to the PTR -- Blizzard is going to be testing same-faction rated battlegrounds.
Breakfast Topic: Have rated battlegrounds met your expectations?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. When Blizzard announced the concept of rated battlegrounds, many players, including myself, were ecstatic. Only my old vanilla main has a PvP title, and I'd always wanted to try getting one on my druid. I imagined that we would queue for battlegrounds as usual, but that our ranking on the ending scoreboard would combine with our personal win/loss ratio to create our personal battleground rating. Over time, players would be separated by rating and would wind up in battlegrounds with others of similar skill. The way I imagined it, forming premade groups would be an advantage, but not a necessity for rated play. Needless to say, that's not how things turned out. I understand the reason why Blizzard requires full premade groups for rated battlegrounds, and I can see how very good players could wind up with a less than stellar personal rating due to unlucky battleground groups. Still, it's not what I had envisioned, and the fact that my favorite large battlegrounds like Alterac Valley and Isle of Conquest are not represented is disappointing. Blizzard recently announced that it's eliminating the 15v15 bracket, making all rated battlegrounds 10v10, which might help groups that are scrambling to find enough players -- but will (at least for the moment) exacerbate the problem of battleground diversity. Blizzard plans to adapt other maps for the 10v10 bracket, but for now, the available rated battleground scenarios are much less numerous than normal, unrated battleground options. Have you tried rated battlegrounds? Were they everything you'd hoped for? What do you think Blizzard could do to improve the system ... or do you like it just the way it is?
All rated battlegrounds to become 10v10s
Coming in a hotfix soon -- before next Tuesday -- Blizzard will make all rated battlegrounds 10v10s. This is in response to the popularity of 10v10s when compared to 15v15s. Ideally, this will also lead to increased participation in rated BGs, and we can all have an easier time at obtaining those coveted titles. Blizzard's full statement is as follows: Blizzard Entertainment We're in the process of developing a hotfix to push before next Tuesday that will change all 15vs15 rated battleground weeks into 10vs10 weeks. Looking at participation, the 10vs10 rated battleground weeks have been far and away more popular than the 15vs15 weeks. The difference in organizational requirements as well as battleground map popularity have been a couple big factors that have led to the 10vs10 weeks seeing a great deal more action. By making this change and supporting the popular option we hope to encourage even more players and teams to participate, as they won't have to wait out every other week, or struggle to beef up to 15 players to match the requirement. We also have plans to adapt additional battleground maps in the future to work in the 10 player bracket to increase the variety of maps available. source
Blizzard's guide to conquest points
Blizzard's official blog has answered the confusion about conquest points. If you're wondering how to get them, where to spend them, and what your weekly cap is, worry no more! Well, you can worry if you want to, but they've answered the questions, so it would be slightly silly. Things to keep in mind for your conquest point acquisition: There is a weekly cap on how many conquest points you can gain that scales with your personal rating. Everyone starts out at 0 with a weekly cap of 1,342 conquest points. There is no overall cap to conquest or valor points. Conquest points convert into honor at the point where the next tier of items becomes available, so there's no reason to hoard them. In order to increase your weekly cap on conquest points, you need to raise your personal rating over 1,500. At 1,800 personal rating, your cap increases to 1,940 conquest points a week, and it continues from there to a personal rating of 3,000, allowing for 3,000 conquest points a week. For complete information on all these factors, please take a look at the blog post at Blizzard's World of Warcraft community site. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Blizzard on 2200 rating PvP weapon availability
Confused about when you'll be able to use your 2,200 arena rating weapons? Well, Blizzard has decided to clarify exactly when that will be, and the answer is not Jan. 25 (yesterday) but rather two weeks after patch 4.0.6 drops. Why, you may ask? Daxxarri - 2200 Rating Weapon Availability The decision to further delay availability of weapons requiring 2200 rating was not made lightly. Currently very few guilds are clearing PvE content that drops weapons of this caliber, which would make rated Battlegrounds and Arenas the primary source for top-tier weapons. We of course don't want players who are pursuing PvE content to feel as though they must engage in heavy PvP to obtain these weapons in order to be competitive or successful. source Understandably, some folks are upset -- probably the ones who either already have the ratings and points ready to spend, or the ones who managed to get the weapons during the brief window where there was a bug. Daxxari answers those concerns in a later post as well.
Blood Sport: An early analysis of Cataclysm PvP
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Sport for arena enthusiasts and The Art of War(craft) for fans of battlegrounds and world PvP. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more. If I had to summarize Cataclysm PvP in one word, it would be fun. Between the novelty of rated battlegrounds, a very strong emphasis (and success) on balancing classes in PvP, and the presence of a diverse metagame at the top of the arena ladders, this is shaping up to be a great expansion. We're almost two months into Cataclysm now, and it's been quite an expansion for PvPers. Are there problems? Sure. Is the patch going to throw us for a loop and possibly switch things up considerably? Perhaps. But is the whole of Season 9 miles better than Season 5? You better believe it.
Eye of the Storm rated battlegrounds video with commentary
Work warning: NSFW language in video commentary. I originally wrote an article to go with this video. If you have some time, check out my Eye of the Storm rated battleground strategy article. After our last video, I got a special request for Eye of the Storm, as it seems there are many different kinds of strategies going around with this particular battleground. So for our second episode of rated battleground videos, I'm bringing you an Eye of the Storm, complete with Ventrilo audio (NSFW language). The audio is quite humorous at times (16:10, I'm looking at you) -- just make sure you're not around small children or your boss. This is one of the first rated battlegrounds I've done as a human;- I recently realm transferred to Kel'Thuzad and faction-changed to Alliance. In this video, I only have 1,200 resilience and 240 battleground rating. I apologize for my somewhat robotic-sounding voice; I'm going to look at investing in a higher quality microphone some time in the near future. Hopefully you'll enjoy the video; we were all very surprised with how it ended (as you can tell from the audio).
The Art of War(craft): Eye of the Storm rated battleground strategy
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. C. Christian Moore is filling in for Battlemaster Zach Yonzon this week, and does he have a treat for you -- rated battleground strategy! Rated battlegrounds are a very fun subject to theorycraft strategies for; they're new and interesting. I recorded a rated Eye of the Storm that I originally intended to go with this article, but instead, I'll be bringing you the written strategy now and video later, complete with Ventrilo recording! If you need a refresher on Eye of the Storm or you're new to battlegrounds in general, Zach wrote a great Eye of the Storm primer. I've only played Eye of the Storm three times now in rated battlegrounds, although I've been a part of many different strategies from premades in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. As far as I know, there are six seven different ways to play the battleground, although they're lumped into three camps. The three camps are 2v2, 3v1, and 4v0. The numbers are how many towers your team intends on capturing. Each camp (save 4v0) has differing sub-strategies within it.
Rated battlegrounds now award honor at conquest point cap
Rated battlegrounds have been criticized as being unnecessary after a player reaches his conquest point cap for the week, which is fairly easily obtainable. This resulted in many people shying away from rated games after the cap, and queues for rated battlegrounds being lengthy and annoying. Blizzard has just announced that rated battlegrounds will now award honor points when a player has reached the conquest point cap. Bashiok -- Rated BGs Now Award Honor at Conquest Cap We've recently made a change in an effort to promote continued play in Rated Battlegrounds. Now when a player is at their weekly Conquest cap they will receive the full amount of Honor from kills, objective completions, victories and losses while in a Rated Battleground match. Those not at their cap will continue to earn Conquest normally, and will only earn Honor once they reach their weekly cap. Whether you're capped and others on your team aren't, or you're all capped and just want to keep playing, we hope this change will allow more flexibility for those participating in Rated Battlegrounds. source World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Cataclysm 101: A guide to PvP changes and challenges
There are quite a few changes to PvP in Cataclysm. Let's have a look at how the changes in the past few patches will affect the other aspect of World of Warcraft gameplay ... Resilience is different Resilience no longer reduces critical strike chance but instead only reduces damage across the board. As resilience is the premier PvP stat, this impacts gameplay in a major way. First, critical strikes are back on the table. This means that talents contributing to crit are valuable in PvP again. Burst damage from crits will happen more often, and players can opt to stack crit for PvP without it being devalued ... much.
New battlegrounds added to the in-game calendar
The in-game calendar has been updated with battleground information in preparation for Cataclysm. The following events have been added: Rated battlegrounds The 10v10 rated battleground will be switching weeks with the 15v15 rated battleground on a Tuesday-to-Monday schedule. Call to Arms All Call to Arms weekends have been moved around to accommodate the two new battlegrounds. The Battle for Gilneas The first Call to Arms weekend for this 10v10 BG begins on Dec. 17. Twin Peaks The Call to Arms begins Dec. 24 for this capture the flag 10v10 BG. We've updated our calendar on the right sidebar to reflect the new schedule. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
Ghostcrawler: Vengeance not a fun toy for PvP
A lot of people seem somewhat terrified of the new Vengeance mechanic and how it might play in PvP. People are always leery of tanking specs in PvP, due to the general tendency of people playing in arenas and BGs to want to, you know, kill the other guys. Tanks are generally designed to be harder to kill, which tends to make people nervous, especially when tanking specs saw increased damage output in Wrath of the Lich King and went from "Hey, guys, look, it's a free kill!" to "Wait, you mean trying to burn down the dude specced and geared to not die is a bad idea?" The forums seem to be rampant with terror that Vengeance will rule them all. I personally don't see the concern. Vengeance doesn't stack up terribly fast and it falls off fairly quickly; you'd need to focus fire a tank for significant levels of damage while he was being focus healed (and you'd need to completely ignore his or her healers) in order for Vengeance to really be a concern. But don't take my word for it -- just ask Ghostcrawler. Not only do the developers not think Vengeance will be an issue in PvP, if it turns out to be, they'll just turn it off. Ghostcrawler - Re: So Vengeance... am I doing this wrong? Q u o t e: In group PvP, there is an answer to vengeance. Don't attack the tank. Vengeance is a really good idea imo. If you are sitting on a tank and stacking that buff up, why shouldn't they do comparable damage? And from my experience, even with a max stacked vengeance, the coils between blood and unholy are relatively the same. Also, there is more to DPS between the two specs than Deathcoil. Even if someone is sitting on my blood DK I can assuredly say Unholy and Frost do more overall DPS, in pvp. If a couple of people are beating on a tank, Vengeance isn't likely to stack very high. You need to take damage that is a big chunk of your whole health pool, which typically only bosses are available to provide. Now if you have several folks beating on a tank flag carrier, then Vengeance may stack up, but once you have several people, you almost certainly have a way to dispel the Vengeance or just CC the tank. If Vengeance ever gets to be a problem in PvP, we'll just remove it, plain and simple. The mechanic is only there to help with raid gear scaling, not to give tanks a fun toy for PvP. source
Rated battlegrounds FAQ
Many players were a bit confused about some of the rules and mechanics revolving around the new rated battlegrounds coming in Cataclysm. Blizzard has, thankfully, posted a new FAQ on the official forums detailing some common questions players had about the new system. Some highlights include the three brackets (10v10, 15v15, 25v25); weekly conquest point caps based on your highest PvP rating in any bracket; and winning in a group comprised of 80 percent guild members awarding guild experience. Hit the jump for the full blue post.
The Art of War(craft): Your Cataclysm launch day PvP countdown
Every Thursday, Zach brings you the battlegrounds PvP column The Art of War(craft), while C. Christian Moore covers all aspects of arena play at Blood Sport every Tuesday. So it's official. All those clues and rumors pointing to a Dec. 7 launch date turned out to have more than a grain of truth to them. We now have officially a little over eight weeks to go before the expansion drops on our collective heads and much, much less before Patch 4.0.1 kicks off the chain of events that breaks the game world pretty much literally. Now what? With the clock ticking to definite date, we have to plan ahead. With the revelation that arena Season 9 and rated battlegrounds begin a week after launch, that doesn't give us a whole lot of time. So let's plan ahead. Not that most of you haven't already laid out your plans, but considering I'm a lazy player, I'm betting a whole bunch of people haven't been conscientious about their preparations for Cataclysm. Today, we'll keep it simple -- we'll run down the next few weeks with a checklist of things we should do in the days leading up to the expansion. We'll count it down from Tuesday, maintenance day, or what many players typically know as the day we get to go outside the house. Besides, Dec. 7 falls on a Tuesday, so we'll count backwards from there.
Arena Season 9 to begin on Dec. 14, Cataclysm launch Dec. 7?
If Wowhead is to be believed, arena Season 9 is set to begin on Dec. 14. The curious folks at our favorite WoW database (as well as Boubouille of MMO-Champion) found a little snippet of text while scrounging around the game files: Arena battles and Rated Battlegrounds are only available during an active player versus player combat season. Season nine will begin on December 14th, so be prepared at that time to take your shot at glory! This would coincide neatly with the recent announcement that arena Season 8 can end as soon as Oct. 12. What makes this finding interesting is that arena Season 9 actually corresponds to rated battlegrounds Season 1, which means Cataclysm should be live by then. This could mean sometime in November. We'll find out for sure at this year's BlizzCon, but for now, all clues point to Blizzard's being on track to release the game before the end of the year. This gives players about a month or even less time -- about a week, to be exact -- to hit max level. If the uncovered code holds true, we should expect to see Cataclysm on the shelves by Dec. 7, if not sooner. Zach delivers your weekly dose of battlegrounds and world PvP in one crazy column. Find out how the Cataclysm talent tree redesign affects PvP, how sub-speccing will work at higher levels in the expansion, and how the new Azeroth will affect world PvP. Visit Blood Sport for the inside line on arena PvP.
The Art of War(craft): Building your battleground kill crew
Zach of The Art of War(craft) enjoys PvP in all its forms, which includes competitive sports, martial arts and the considerably less badass and infinitely geekier miniature wargaming. Like Warmachines. Or maybe it's because he kind of just likes anything with the word '"war" tacked onto it. Last week we took a look at the delicious possibilities that Cataclysm will bring to battlegrounds PvP. It's going to be pretty brutal out there, and you're going to need friends. While there is a whole bunch of cool stuff all over, the best thing about Cataclysm for battleground enthusiasts will be the rated battlegrounds. Unfortunately, one of the things this will contribute to is the decline of solo play. In order to get the most out of your battleground experience, you'll need to be part of a group so that you'll reap the benefits of rated matches. The new Vicious Gladiator gear for arena Season 9 (or rated battlegrounds Season 1) is listed on MMO-Champion, and I'm sure avid battlers are drooling in anticipation of how these sets look. Then again, it could just be me. At any rate, there's a whole load of gear waiting to be claimed through honor and conquest! Most importantly, one thing that separates itemization this upcoming PvP season -- and this is a game-changer -- is the availability of personal-ratings-free weapons and armor through the new system. That marks the first time that max-level PvP weapons will become obtainable by players of all skill levels and the first time that top-tier PvP armor will only have a cosmetic distinction separating them from their ratings-free counterparts. You read that right: PvP gear with ratings requirements will have the exact same stats as PvP gear with no ratings requirements.
Cataclysm Beta: Arena Season 9 available for testing
Bashiok has just posted that the Cataclysm beta is now host to Arena Season 9. The developers are looking to test arena games and the bugs therein, as well as the much-lauded rated battlegrounds. Fire up those betas for some awesome PvP action. Bashiok -- Arena Season 9 Available for Testing Arena Season 9 is now running and available for testing in the Cataclysm beta. To help facilitate testing we'd like to ask that those interested in providing bug reports and feedback focus on playing arena games, but also participating in the rated battlegrounds. Please let us know if you find any issues or have any feedback. Thanks. source
The Daily Quest: Trickier than a dragon
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. Dear, dear Bolvar Fordragon. You may be caught off guard in the image above, but you can still handle yourself around a bunch of dragons. Player versus dragon may be easy for you, but player versus player is often a little more surprising than even a small fleet of dragons suddenly appearing in the throne room of Stormwind. While the advice is no longer timely for Bolvar, lets take a look around the blogosphere for PvP tips for those of us not currently occupied with ... other chilly activities. Spicytuna has some words of advice for frost mages regarding gearing for PvP. The Hunter's Mark talks about PvP specs for -- what else -- hunters! World of Matticus discusses leaping into PvP the correct way. Cynwise's Battlefield Manual fills us in on rated battlegrounds and how to prepare for them.
The Queue: Elephants
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. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Re: the title -- unlike them, I do forget. To write The Queue. Wil asked... "Is Blizzard considering making emblems bind-to-account? For someone who's got multiple alts (and intends to level more), this would be a godsend. What would be the pros and cons of such a change?" Blizzard has said that they intend for emblems to be an endgame, character-specific reward. Heirlooms, purchasable with said emblems, are a secondary reward to help your alts get to the point of being able to get their own badges. Will this change for Cataclysm, though? Do we ever really know the answer to that?
