Warcraft Experience

Vaeras of Blizzard shed some light on what the rules will most likely be for the up coming arena battles that are coming with The Burning Crusade.

With the upcoming expansion we will be introducing arena battles and to give you a better idea of what to expect, here are the rules:

• You do not talk about arena battles.
• When a player enters an arena battle, all buffs and conjured items are purged/deleted. This is done to ensure no outside buffs or items from members outside of your team are able to be used in an arena battle.
• No consumables other than bandages and conjured items can be used while in the arena. There will be a waiting area similar to the current battlegrounds where players on the team will be able to conjure items and cast buffs.
• Abilities/spells/items with cooldowns longer than 15 minutes cannot be used while in the arena.
• Each arena team will be given a rating, and will be matched up in the arena queue against teams of a similar rating. As time progresses the matching system will broaden its search up to a limit if a closely rated team cannot be found.
• Ratings adjustments are made in the same way that ELO ratings adjustments are made. This system works by adjusting each arena teams rating from a specific match based on the rating of the team they are up against. If a team wins against a team of a higher rating, the increase of their arena rating would be much higher than if they had won against a team of a lower rating. This system will help promote players improving their skill and besting teams which may have previously held the top spots.
• At the end of each week, characters receive arena points based on their team’s rating. A team must have fought a minimum number of battles for the week, which we have announced as currently set to 10 games. A player must have played in at least 30% of the team’s battles that week in order to be eligible to receive arena points. Each eligible player will then receive a fraction of the team’s total awarded points to spend on arena rewards.
• Players may spend their points on arena rewards, or save their points until they have enough to get the rewards they desire.
• There is a limit to the number of points a player can stockpile, which is currently planned to be as high as the most expensive item.
• At the end of a season, players on a team are given a title based on their team’s relative position on the ladder which will last through the next arena season.

Thanks

A couple of points from Blizzard and first up it’s a note on the honor system titles and changes in the BC:

The current plan is to allow players to retain their titles obtained in the current honor system; but not through use of the new honor system. We may however reincorporate them into the game at a later time. We also have plans to allow for a kind of rank selection list, allowing the title for highest rank achieved through the old honor system, new titles from the arena combat system, and any other titles obtained through play to be changed and displayed at will.

The lowering of the player cap for dungeons has been a hot topic in the past week and the community is still split on this one. Just so make sure everyone is clear, Blizzard could well create larger dungeons in the future. Remember folks, a decision now is not a decision forever

We are not currently planning any dungeons above a 25 player cap for this expansion. I can’t provide something as absolute as “never again”.

Aeus from Blizzard Europe had some exciting news to share with the community. Have a listen…

The Drums of War draw closer and with it Cross-Realm Battlegrounds! For the first time in the history of World of Warcraft, you will be able to join allies and face foes from other realms in the Battleground of your choice. Sharpen your weapons, replenish your mana, and hone your skills for the battles will soon commence!

Click the read more link to find which realms are in your battlegroup!

Read more… »

Blizzard has announced the realms that can now kick butt. Check it out!

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/battlegrounds/battlegroups.html

IGN published an article that unveils the first details of its upcoming player-versus-player enhancements. Go give it a read…

It’s no secret that an MMO must continue to evolve and add content to keep people coming back, and World of Warcraft is no different. Since its launch in November 2004, we’ve seen the introduction of several large dungeons, zones, and seasonal celebrations, not to mention new loot, crafting recipes, and Battlegrounds, the popular PvP arenas that Blizzard will be enhancing with cross-realm support in the upcoming 1.12 patch (which, interestingly, will be available on the Public Test Realm ahead of the patch’s final release). If you’re a player who regularly waits an hour or more for a PvP match that may only last ten minutes, cross-server Battleground should bring some much-needed relief from the waiting game, as well as making Alterac Valley a viable option for people who are playing on servers not in their time zone.

Read the rest 

Arathi Basin can be very intimidating. It has more players than Warsong Gulch, it is considerably bigger, and the objectives aren’t nearly as clear.

This in-depth guide over at OGaming has your name all over it.

Outside of the Battlegrounds, we want to focus on PvP gameplay in general. One common concern has been that lower level players have a difficult time advancing in the PvP Honor System, so we’ll be changing some things in regard to the Honor requirements in order to help these players make more progress. Another popular player request has been for us to increase outdoor PvP battles. Prior to the Battlegrounds, the outdoor landscape was fraught with PvP. However, once the Battlegrounds were introduced and NPC dishonorable kills were implemented, outdoor PvP greatly decreased. We want to bring back the hectic action of mass PvP, but with some improvements. One idea on the table is to place a capturable objective in the exterior environment. With something like this, we can encourage outdoor PvP again while centralizing the action to a designated location.

For those gamers around before the introduction of Battlegrounds, you will remember the complete thrills of large scale, out of control battles that raged over the realms and boy was it awesome. I hope Blizzard brings this back!!

Find out more here! This article is dated from October and nothing new has been added since; however, it does bring hope that we will eventually have our Tarren Mill PvP back in full swing.

Spiritwalk posted this guide on the WoW Forums for all you PvPers out there.

Anti-Turtle Guide v1.0
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Welcome to my FAQ about Anti-Turtling. This guide will help you against those people that decide that the best way to win is to send only 1-2 people out while the rest decide to stay and buff their defense inside the flagroom in Warsong Gulch. Note that I will do this FAQ on both Factions. I will do my best, since this IS my first guide after all.

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FAQ
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Q: What is turtling?

A: Turtling is when one faction decides to go into a full defense strategy. 8 to 9 members staying around base, beefing its defenses and making it hard to impossible to break through. (If they constantly keep the defenses in check). This is NOT against Blizzard’s PvP policy. I personally consider this an act of desparation. Its both stupid and dishonorable in my opinion.

Q: How can we go against such a force?

A: The Turtling force is indeed a formidable opponent. But like most forts, they crumble and fall after damage has struck them. In other words, a good course of action and planning is what it takes to win in Warsong Gulch. Don’t give up!

Q: What if my side considers turtling?

A: Don’t do it! Its simply not worth waiting 1 hour just to capture the flag. And farming for honor is just stupid.

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