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Cynwise dissects patch 5.2's battleground scaling
Well-known Warlock PvP blogger Cynwise has posted a typically excellent article dealing with the problems brought about by one of the patch 5.2 changes designed to improve low level battlegrounds. Patch 5.2 added battleground bracket scaling, to all brackets with the exception of the max level one, which caused an uproar among the PvP twinking community. And it seems from Cynwise's post that their fears were not unjustified. The addition of level scaling, where a low level character's health and base stats are scaled up to match that of the top level in the bracket, was meant to help even out the discrepancies that caused leveling battlegrounds to be anything other than fun. They were meant to even the playing field, but from Cynwise's research, it appears that they do exactly the opposite. He reports on his level 85 warlock, Cynwise, which is a PvP-focused twink, and the problem's he's faced thanks to the scaling. To cut a long story short, and you should definitely read the long story, among the higher level brackets which span expansions, there are huge problems in place thanks to the availability of gear.
Updated: No more /follow in battlegrounds
Unannounced features are often par for the course with big patches, and this one is no exception. Blizzard Customer Support EU tweeted the following this morning: #Patchday fact number 1: /follow no longer works in Battlegrounds. #WoW - Blizzard CS EU (@BlizzardCSEU_EN) March 6, 2013 The reasoning behind this is, of course, not completely understood. It is possible that this is the latest strategy in Blizzard's unending battle against bots, which might occasionally, though definitely not always, use following as a way to help avoid being afk booted. However, it is more likely a decisive step to making it far more difficult for multiboxers to dominate in battlegrounds. While not against the terms of service, multiboxing in random battlegrounds is a big problem for many players, when five DKs or five elemental shaman are running around causing havoc, it's hard to enjoy yourself. We've all been there, and it is definitely annoying, although they can sometimes be taken out with a group effort. Based on the latter reasoning, it's probably a good thing for the overall enjoyment of casual PvPers, who vastly outnumber the people who want to five-box their way through battlegrounds. Anything that makes random battlegrounds more enjoyable is just fine by me, but should Blizzard have given multiboxers more warning? Or is this more part of the anti-bot measures, in your opinion? Updated: Hit the break for Blizzard Senior Community Manager Bashiok's input.
PvP Season 12 ends March 5
Attention Arena and Rated Battleground enthusiasts! Blizzard has announced the end of Season 12 for both Arena PvP and Rated Battlegrounds. The season will officially end on Tuesday, March 5, at which point the process of determining which players are eligible for end-of-season rewards will begin. Until rewards are handed out, those that feel they are eligible for titles or mounts should avoid transferring their characters until after the season ends, just to avoid any problems with handing out the goodies. While players will be able to keep their Valor in patch 5.2, Conquest points will still be converted to Honor points. Keep in mind however that all Season 12 gear will be able to be purchased with Honor points at that time -- while 5.0 and 5.1 Valor gear will still cost Valor. Also note that any items with a rating requirement attached will no longer be available for purchase after the Season's end, so be sure to pick up any gear you're missing before March 5. Blizzard Entertainment Arena and Rated Battleground Season 12 is scheduled to end on Tuesday, March 5. At that point, we will determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards, a process that should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for Arena titles and/or the Malevolent Gladiator's Cloud Serpent to refrain from transferring their characters to another realm or faction until after Season 12 ends. The awarding of Season 12 titles and mounts will occur approximately 2 weeks after the season ends. At the end of the season, Conquest Points will be converted to Honor Points and any honor above 4000 will be converted to gold at a rate of 35 silver per point. The honor cap will remain at 4000. All Season 12 items will cost Honor Points (equivalent to their previous Conquest Point cost) when the season ends, with the exception of any items with rating requirements attached. These items will no longer be available for purchase. The next Arena and Rated Battleground season will begin approximately one week after the current season ends. During the break between seasons, all Rated Battleground and Arena matches will be unavailable. Team and Personal Ratings will be reset when Season 13 begins. source Does this mean we'll see patch 5.2 hit the live servers on March 5? Possibly -- but as always, dates are subject to change, and we'll just have to wait and see. Until then, if you're a PvP enthusiast, consider this your heads up to decide what to do with any remaining Conquest or Honor points you may have kicking around.
Is it time to kill Arena teams?
I had a very brief twitter conversation with Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street a few days ago. It went something like this: @oliviadgrace We would in fact consider it. Also debating if teams are cool or a hindrance. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) February 13, 2013 His response was certainly interesting, and rather unexpected. Let's break it down into the two main parts. Cross-Realm Arenas First and foremost, what was I thinking tweeting that question? A friend of mine had recently returned to WoW after a hiatus, and leveled his feral druid to 90. He had previously been a friend with whom I did casual arenas on characters I wasn't too fussed about, we had a laugh, we won some, we lost some.
Three reasons to be cheerful about PvP
Firstly, an important note: PvP gear is now available on the PTR for pre-mades. Get in there and get PvPing. The future depends on you! I've been rather critical of Blizzard in recent columns discussing the state of PvP. I've spoken before about the problems PvP has faced in recent times, and while the current season's rating is in tatters and crumbling around us as yet another win-trading bug is exposed, yet more suspensions roll out, and yet more players are stripped of rating, we can at least do what the devs appear to be doing and look forward to patch 5.2, and a fresh start. While it's yet another black mark against season 12 that another win trading bug has been doing the rounds, win trading is hardly new, and it's good to see that Blizzard are taking steps to fix it, if rather slowly. Win trading has been around for a very long time indeed, and there are whisperings that this bug has existed for some time, although that remains unconfirmed. Quicker action from Blizzard would be welcomed, but there may be things preventing this, that we're not aware of, behind the scenes. 1. Gearing changes are a good thing These have been quite the hot topic of late, with the recently announced changes to PvP gear which purport to flatten out the gear curve and aid the late starter to the season. While many players on the forums seem to be the polar opposite of cheerful about these changes, asserting amongst other things that they're the worst thing to ever happen to PvP, the stupidest decision ever made, and various other prophecies of doom.
Suspensions issued for win-trading bug
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri posted on the forums today regarding a Win-Trading bug. Daxxarri Providing an environment where players can compete in the spirit of fair play is extremely important to us, particularly in rated Player versus Player combat. As part of that commitment we regularly monitor gameplay, and have discovered an issue where some Rated Battleground teams have exploited the queuing system to obtain high team ratings and engage in win trading. These, and all, exploitative activities are absolutely prohibited. We will investigate the situation carefully, and players that have been found to have participated in exploitation will be subject to the appropriate actions against their World of Warcraft accounts. In the meantime, we are currently working to resolve any remaining issues with the queue system to prevent this behavior in the future. source Punishments in the form of suspensions have already begun to appear, as well as rating resets for all players suspected of being involved in win-trading. As forum posters have been quick to point out, the trouble Blizzard's team faces is that many players have faced these win-trading teams, despite not actively engaging in win-trading themselves. This issue means that, apparently, some players are affected who never engaged in exploiting intentionally, but it can be difficult to be sure who is who. Nakatoir adds the following: Nakatoir After a thorough investigation and liaising with multiple departments, we can confirm that the recent wave of actions taken against Rated Battleground exploitation and win trading are indeed correct. The team of investigators have made sure to avoid any false positives and we will not be overturning any of the actions taken. source Encouragingly, several prominent PvP streamers who have actively participated in win-trading using this exploit have already received suspensions and been stripped of their ill-gotten rating. Time will tell whether the new PvP gearing system has any impact on this behavior, but it seems unlikely, given that, for many, rating and titles are incentive enough to exploit the system. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Patch 5.2: PvP undergoing some huge gearing changes
It's been talked about for some time now, with both Daxxarri and Ghostcrawler teasing the community with ideas on the new setup for PvP gearing. They've been saying things would change, and they certainly have! The question is, have things improved, or not? The PvP gearing blog was posted late last night, and was an accurate summary of the issues faced by PvPers in WoW at the moment, followed by an explanation of the planned changes and how they will work. The full blog is after the break, but what exactly is going on? The Rating catch-up system which didn't make it into patch 5.1 will be introduced to patch 5.2. This means that teams playing more games will gain higher rating, allowing them to overtake inactive teams sitting on high ranks and not playing. There will be four tiers of gear (please note that ilvls are datamined and may change) Dreadful -- item level 458 crafted gear; Malevolent -- ilvl 483, purchased with honor. This is the current conquest gear; Tyrannical -- ilvl 493, purchased with conquest, and with honor in patch 5.3, once the player has earned 27,000 conquest in the season. Weapons are exempt from the points requirement come patch 5.3; Elite Tyrannical -- ilvl 515, purchased with conquest only after earning 27,000 conquest points in the season. There will no longer be any rating requirement to purchase any gear Players with higher ratings will still have a higher conquest cap A dramatically increased catch-up cap will be implemented with patch 5.3
PvP on the PTR, and predictions for 2013
We've had a lot of exciting news about PvP changes in 2012, with some promises not delivered upon, and some sweeping alterations in our chosen section of play. But let's get the tin foil hats on and see what we think is coming in 2013. As I write this, the PTR is active, and I urge all arena and battleground fans to get in there and PvP as much as you can. Ghostcrawler has commented several times on twitter about how there's often not a great deal of PvP testing in PTRs and betas, which in turn leads to issues like warrior burst and the hunter Stampede bug going unnoticed. So, let's not let that happen again. If you're a PvP enthusiast, download the PTR, get on there, and PvP. Class changes The big winners and losers from the Patch 5.2 PTR changes appear to be to be monks and rogues on the winning side, and warriors, mages and feral druids on the losing side. This is not entirely unexpected, nor is it unfair, as monks were very under-represented at high level, as were rogues, with warriors and mages being on quite the opposite end of the scale. Feral druids I've included simply because of the Cyclone nerf, which is a heavy one to one of their major, and most aggravating crowd control abilities.
How do you pick a class for PvP?
It's a question which has been asked many a time on the forums, and many times to me, and likely at least a few times to almost anyone who plays WoW! If you haven't been asked it by others, it's possible you've asked yourself. It has a lot to do with personal preference, and while I can't pretend to know what you should play, I can help you have a fair stab at working it out for yourself. Flavor of the month If you want to work out a good class for you to PvP on, there are some questions you need to ask yourself about play-style, preferences, expectations, and what you want from your PvP. One of the first things to assess is what you want from PvP. Particularly right now, although Blizzard's team are forever working to change this, there continue to be what are known as "Flavor of the Month" or FOTM classes, often just referred to as FOTM in the forums. These are basically whatever class is overpowered right now, so right at the start of Mists, before the Stampede bug was fixed, that was beast mastery hunters.
Battleground gear disparity
Blizzard's Daxxarri responded to a thread recently in the official US forums saying the following: Quote: Simply tier the BGs by ilvl. It's not simple, unfortunately. It would a) require a retooling of how Battlegrounds assemble teams and b) even under ideal conditions, it would likely slow down queue times dramatically. As Ovenmitz demonstrates, there are a lot of players who are very opposed to that. source This isn't a bad idea, in itself. One thing I've long wondered about is whether it would be possible, as the thread's OP suggests, to make battlegrounds face players off according to their gear. This would, as the OP notes, perhaps avoid the situation where players are faced against hugely disproportionately geared teams, so full epics against crafted and PvE gear. While he didn't speak directly about this, taking two of Ghostcrawler's recent PvP Dev Watercooler points together could shed some light on Blizzard's plans for gear and scaling.
Is instant-cast crowd control too ubiquitous?
First, no, Polymorph isn't an instant-cast spell. Second, onwards! Blizzard Community Manager Nakatoir has posted this morning about Blizzard's current thinking on instant cast CC. Nakatoir First things first, I want to make sure you're aware that the information below reflects both short and long-term design considerations on our end. This isn't all on the table for patch 5.2 for a number of reasons. To make this clear right off the bat: This shift of instant casts back to cast times is not just targeted at crowd control. We also wish to start moving some heals back to having a cast time rather than being instant. That said, we're not necessarily planning on overhauling many of the spells and abilities that have been instant for a long time now, such as Hand of Justice. We're looking at some of the big outliers that we see brought up a lot, which are instant-cast, area-of-effect abilities like Blinding Light, or Presence of Mind in combination with Ring of Frost. We think that there are too many of these AoE CC spells at this time, especially instant AoE CC, which can create some frustrating gameplay experiences. Some other particular crowd-control effects that are on our radar are abilities like Blood Fear, which we're considering redesigning altogether, and Predatory Swiftness in combination with Cyclone, which feels virtually impossible to counter. Posted by Inférnal While we are talking about cc what about having some more spells share DR with each other. A pala can repentance/blinding light/ hammer. No Dr at all. Why is it that fear and blind share a DR and polly/fear and cycone dont? and many more examples like this. We're looking at diminishing returns for CC right now as a possible way to help with CC in PvP combat, but it's the type of gameplay overhaul that can be risky to implement in the middle of an expansion cycle if the change is too drastic. We are, however, taking a look right now at the DRs within particular classes, as well as special snowflakes like Cyclone. Either way, the design discussion will undoubtedly continue! ^^ source
Trinket nerfs insufficient to repair PvP burst issues
We reported last week on the trinket nerfs implemented by Blizzard's team, in order to help fix the current issues in PvP burst. Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri explained that Blizzard's team's data led them to believe that the on-use trinkets were a major contributor to the very high levels of burst currently being experienced by players. Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street recently tweeted the following: .@rick97950219 We are concerned that trinket nerfs were not sufficient in curbing mage and warrior burst. Discussing options. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) December 7, 2012 Given Ghostcrawler's tweet, it seems that warriors and mages are still putting out too much damage, in Blizzard's eyes at least. While it may be the case that specific actions are required to address these classes, any attempts to improve the situation in PvP are appreciated. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Patch 5.1: PvP trinkets hotfixed
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri posted yesterday about a hotfix Blizzard's team are implementing to PvP trinkets, to help address the current issues with burst damage. As we've reported, patch 5.1 is fraught with PvP problems, and this is hopefully the first in line of fixes Blizzard will make. While it's great that changes are being made, the question remains: will this be enough? Naturally, Blizzard's team have access to numbers that the rest of us don't ever see, but it seems like a tall order to repair the current issues by simply changing a few trinkets. Daxxarri does go on to say that there is a risk that this changes means players simply won't die, but this seems a little unlikely. A greater risk seems to be another point Daxxarri addresses, being the potential this offers for the use of PvE trinkets in PvP. Particularly for burst-reliant comps such as anything with 3 DPS players, resilience is not a huge consideration, as a lot of the time their plan is to end the match quickly with very high up-front damage, scoring repeated kills. It seems possible that PvE trinkets with very high on-use bonuses could reappear, but Daxxarri promises that Blizzard will continue to monitor the situation. Hit the break for Daxxarri's full post.
Blizzard takes a stand against pre-made battleground groups
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has been very active in the past 24 hours in a topic on the patch 5.1 changes to battleground queues. He's been responding to criticism of these changes, and, at the same time, being characteristically forthright on the issue of pre-mades. Quote: if you break it down, what does a full oQueue premade bring to the table that is unfair? I'll try to break it down as clearly as I can: Any addon that enables a full, organized Battleground group to queue against a randomly assembled group is creating a scenario where that coordinated group has a huge advantage. That is not in the spirit of the experience we want to provide in the normal Battleground queue. Playing with friends is fun and important, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the spirit of the game nor the fun of others. The normal Battleground queue is for players to jump in and play against other players in a similar situation. We realize that it's not a perfect system, and we're still looking at ways to improve normal Battleground queues further. Regardless, it's not meant for organized groups to "pug stomp" and get quick Honor. We have built in outlets for players that want to organize--if a competitive, social experience was really the goal, then there are clear ways to achieve that. The ultimate effect that this kind of queuing has had is to drive players away from PvP. Perhaps it's been a long time since you've been in a random group, but a lot of players will see that they're up against a premade and simply quit. At best, they suffer through it. To an extent premade groups count on this. Heck, one of the popular addons announces opposing players that appear to have rage quit. Addons aren't really a viable solution for botting issues, but we do take those issues seriously and we'll continue our work on improvements to the Battleground system, including better ways to deal with botting and other exploitative gameplay. source
Has Patch 5.1 broken PvP?
If you read the forums, you may well think it is. There are several very vocal threads about the state of PvP right now, about the heavy burst coming from melee classes with the weapons upgrade, and the absence of a resilience upgrade to repair it. Those threads are always very vocal, always very convinced that PvP is worse now than it's ever been. While I try my best to be positive about the game, I'm not entirely sure that the forums are wrong, this time around at least. PvP Power and PvP Resilience Patch 5.1 brought about some changes to these two stats, introduced by Blizzard to help make PvP balance easier. They essentially provide a dial, which allows the increase and reduction of damage, healing and defense in PvP, without those changes impacting PvE. They're a great idea, but before Patch 5.1, as I spoke about months back, they weren't quite working as intended. One of the stated aims of PvP Power particularly was to remove the viability of PvE items in PvP. Blizzard's team have been very keen that PvE gear does not become viable in PvP, and up until recently, PvP weapons were, for melee classes in particular who are far more directly affected by weapon stats than casters, not the best choice for maximum damage output.
Gear that's used as a currency will keep its upgraded status
If the title confused, you, fear not, you're not alone. WoW Insider had to read Bashiok's post a few times to wrap our collective heads around it, too. Bashiok Quote: So here is my question.. If you upgrade the Regular Season 12 Malevolent gear twice and then say you get 2200 and upgrade to the elite, does your upgrades you already made to the previous gear remain or do you now have to spend additional conquest to upgrade the 2200 gear twice now? They remain. If a piece of gear is used as currency for a new piece of gear, upgrades are preserved. source Say, for example, you have a piece of the standard-issue Malevolent set, the current conquest set. You achieve a rating of 2200, and in order to upgrade your piece to the Elite equivalent, you have to hand in the original piece. It's a straight swap. And players can now upgrade the standard-issue Malevolent pieces with conquest points, so what Bashiok's saying is that those upgrades will remain in place on the Elite equivalent. The Elite equivalent can, of course, also be upgraded with conquest points. This is only currently relevant for conquest gear changes, as this is the only situation where gear items are used to purchase other gear items. It would not apply to raid finder tokens, as it's the token that is redeemed, rather than the item itself. That is not to say that other applications of this rule will not arise in future, as they have in the past. Wrath heroic raid upgrades used a similar system, and, of course, both Cataclysm legendary weapons. With the minimum item level for upgrades set at 458, these items will not be applicable for the upgrade system. However, it will be interesting to see if it applies with the Elite conquest weapons. These, unlike the armor, are a substantial upgrade in item level, going from 470 to 490. If the upgrades are passed on with these items, it could result in an even more problematic gear escalation situation than currently exists in PvP. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Countering heavy burst in PvP
The early part of the first Mists of Pandaria season features a lot of what Blizzard was trying to avoid -- heavy burst damage. This is particularly a problem when combined with a high level of crowd control, and as I've regularly said, heavy burst is one of the more frustrating things to counter. There is still heavy burst in the game, post the fixing of the hunter Stampede buff, so the question remains, what can you do about it? I won't be giving you a class-by-class guide on what exactly to do about burst damage. Unless you happen to play one of the classes I specialize in, chances are you know your class far better than I do, and even if you do play one of my classes there's still a possibility you know it better! This definitely isn't class-by-class advice, but a general guide about mentality, tactics and the like. And please, do add to it in the comments with class-specific advice if you have it! Everything helps. Prevention is better than cure This is me stealing something doctors and aunts and grandparents used to say when I was a kid, usually referring to illness rather than WoW PvP. But it applies for this, too. If you can stop someone unleashing their heavy burst on you or your team-mates, that's a far better solution than having to pick them up from extremely low health afterwards. I haven't seen something in an arena in a long old time that can genuinely take a player from 100% to dead in one global, but there are some really hard-hitting abilities out there.
Arena rating reset for players over 2200
After the release of last week's information from Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri, more has been added to the list of action Blizzard is taking to rectify the problems caused by the recently discovered arena MMR exploit. Amongst other things, this exploit made win-trading far less onerous. Win-trading is a practice, completely against the terms of service, where players queue, particularly in 5v5 at the quietest times of day, to attempt to ensure they face the same team repeatedly. The two teams will then trade wins, allowing one team to advance to a high rating, then the winning team may switch to an alt team, allowing the losing team to do the same. This is, as we mentioned, completely against the terms of service, and will likely get you banned. With the exploit, win-trading could be carried out without the losing team suffering an MMR loss. Thanks to this, very high ratings were achievable, and in order to rectify this issue, Blizzard has decided to reset every team and player with an MMR or rating above 2200 to 2200. This would usually have an immediate effect on conquest point caps, but that will take effect next week and will be implemented as usual. Is this fair? It seems like it might not be for those who have legitimately gained 2200+ ratings, without using the exploits, and for those who benefited unwittingly from the exploit. Equally, why has Blizzard not gone further and completely reset MMR and rating? Do these things only matter at the top? Hit the break for Daxxarri's full post.
Blizzard will take decisive action against arena exploiters
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has posted today regarding a recently discovered Arena exploit. While precise details are not known, it appears this relates the a method whereby players could escape from playing against comps they were struggling with, countercomps, or teams they had faced previously, without losing MMR by exiting the game. This, while not win-trading itself, led to win-trading, and, as Daxxarri says, both win-trading and the use of exploits are completely against the rules. Daxxarri Providing an environment where players can compete in the spirit of fair play is extremely important to us, particularly in rated Player versus Player combat. As part of that commitment we regularly monitor gameplay, and have discovered an issue where some Arena teams have exploited the queuing system to obtain high team ratings, "dodge" unfavorable team compositions, and engage in win trading. These, and all, exploitative activities are absolutely prohibited. We will investigate the situation carefully, and players that have been found to have participated in exploitation will be subject to the appropriate actions against their World of Warcraft accounts. In the meantime, we are currently working to resolve any remaining issues with the queue system to prevent this behavior in the future. source Players will have to wait and see just what Blizzard's investigation reveals, and what their actions will be as far as punishing the perpetrators. Many are already calling for ladder resets and MMR resets, but of course, these can punish the innocent as well as the guilty. The nature of this bug is such that it's possible some players benefiting from it may have been unaware they were doing so. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Arenajunkies interviews top Arena priests
With the Battle.net World Championships coming up in just a few days' time, ArenaJunkies has been very busy interviewing some of the top arena players who'll be battling it out in Shanghai. We've got interviews from two of what I can fairly confidently say are among the world's top priests, Zunniyaki and Talbadar. Zunniyaki is a member of Yaspresents, with Another on a death knight and Cara on a paladin. Yaspresents stormed to a decisive victory in the Battle.net European Invitationals in Cologne, comfortably dismissing most of their competition in an undefeated run of best of 3 matches. Talbadar is one third of Team Evil Geniuses, along with renowned shaman and warlock Cdew and Azael. Again, like Yaspresents, Evil Geniuses took a victory in the North American Invitationals, comfortably securing their place in Shanghai. Both these priests are at the top of their game, and bound to make a splash during the tournaments coming up between November 16 and 18. Hit the break for the second video interview with Talbadar!
