Project Lore

Battlegrounds have been much more popular than every other area of PvP. They don't require you to even think about making a group and only a few people there are from the same server, so you can play as bad as you want; those people will never see you again! There are objectives, so you can significantly contribute even if you are not the best at PvP combat. The first thing you should be aware of is the new battleground in patch 3.2, Isle of Conquest. Amatera already posted a great breakdown of the battleground, so go check it out if you are completely unfamiliar with it! This new 40 versus 40 battleground is the first 40 man content we've seen since original WoW's Naxxramas, and fans of Alterac Valley should cheer at its introduction. It seems to be a great way to get honor, and it introduces yet another battleground token. These tokens appear to only be used for the repeatable quest For Great Honor or Concerted Efforts. Currently you can exchange one token from each of the five battlegrounds for 1241 honor. In patch 3.2, you'll need one from all six battlegrounds (Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch, Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients, and Isle of Conquest), and receive more honor. I'd suggest saving up marks from other battlegrounds, as if you want the next tier of gladiator gear that you want with honor, you are going to want as much honor as possible next season. Speaking of honor, one of the only ways to get the new epic gems in patch 3.2 is to buy them with honor. Its sure to be a goldmine, so if you enjoy battlegrounds and Wintergrasp, you can buy lots of epic gems at just 10,000 honor. You can use them yourself, throw them at your guild and have them love you, or fetch a high price on the auction house. Its like converting honor to gold! If you want ways to stockpile honor for patch 3.2, consider the following methods:

• You can save up to 5 Commendation of Bravery between patches. That will run you 500 arena points from this season and give you 10,000 honor for next season. 500 arena points is just 2 weeks of games regardless of your rating for 3v3 and 5v5 and 3 weeks for 2v2, so get a team together, lose all of your games if you have to, and get some free 3.2 honor!
• Stone Keepers Shards can convert to honor at the price of 30 shards for 2,000 honor. 9 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor get you 2,000 honor as well, both via Wintergrasp Commendation (which is BoA). There is no hurry to buy these, as you can save these items through to next patch.
• I say it again: Battleground marks! By running Isle of Conquest, if you have lots of other marks stockpiled, you will receive honor at a great rate!

If you are going to be doing any kind of PvP in the patch 3.2, be aware that resilience is much better than it is now. You may want to get more PvP gear if you have been using your PvE gear in battlegrounds. Resilience now reduces all damage received from players. If you are unfamiliar with the change, check out my post about arenas in patch 3.2. The way we fight in battlegrounds may change in patch 3.2 as well. You will receive additional honor if you are in the proximity of a capture point that you can defend in Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, or Isle of Conquest. Hopefully, now players will defend more. This change needs to be propagated to Alterac Valley, and badly. Hopefully this brings the honor gained from these battlegrounds in line with Alterac Valley and Wintergrasp. For Arathi Basin, there are two major changes. First off, capturing a base takes 8 seconds, instead of 10. For rogues, this is amazing. Using Sap on a player incapacitates them for 10 seconds, so there is a great window of opportunity for capturing bases now or forcing players to PvP trinket out of sap. Additionally, objectives should be changing hands a lot faster now. The other major change is that the first team to 1600 resources wins, instead of 2000. This is 20% less time in Arathi Basin, and while this seems like it'll be more fun, also be aware that the achievements like Arathi Basin All-Star may be difficult to do with less time. The reduced time to capture flags might have partially been a response to keep the achievements at the same difficulty level, but they will probably be more difficult with that much less time in Arathi Basin regardless. Here is a list of achievements you might want to grab in AB before the patch hits:

• Arathi Basin All-Star
• Arathi Basin Assassin
• Disgracin' the Basin
• Overly Defensive
• Resilient Victory

Eye of the Storm is getting similar changes, with the flag taking eight seconds to grab as opposed to ten, and the game plays to 1,600 resources instead of 2,000. This makes the flag much more valuable, as the towers will spend "less time" gathering resources over the course of a game. In addition to these implications, these achievements may be much harder:

• Bound for Glory (maybe)
• Stormtrooper (maybe)
• Stormy Assassin

The team that is attacking in Strand of the Ancients is now randomized, theoretically giving Horde players a more "fair" chance at winning the battleground since having fewer overall players gives the attackers an advantage, and there are fewer players at the start of battlegrounds. This means that many of the achievements for both factions may be easier and the battleground may see an increase in popularity, even though its already one of the most popular. Finally, Warsong Gulch has a time limit. The battleground will end after 20 minutes. The team with the most flag captures wins. If its a tie, then the team that got the first flag wins. If noone has captured a flag, its a tie. Its the first time a tie can happen in battlegrounds, and I'm not sure what kind of rewards it'll give. Again, this should change (wise) player behavior. If you are ahead, a "standoff" when both teams are hiding with the flag becomes advantageous to you. Additionally, the first flag capture becomes more valuable, so think about rushing the flag early on in the game. With a shorter game, and games ending before three flag captures, these achievements may be more difficult:

• Frenzied Defender
• Ironman
• Not in My House
• Warsong Gulch Perfection

In summary:

• Save up battleground marks for the next patch so you can get a head-start on honor.
• You want honor next patch for epic gems and better PvP gear.
• Save up Wintergrasp Commendation and Stone Keepers Shard.
• Do the time limited achievements now for Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and Warsong Gulch.

What are you going to be doing now to prepare for PvP in patch 3.2?

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A dark, stormy night. The thunder of cannon fire ricocheting off the rocky cliffs. A lurching behemoth moves across the sky, ready to rain destruction upon the ground below. Fireballs burst forth from the vents of a nearby manufacturing plant. If nothing more, you could say that the Isle of Conquest is appropriately moody. Atmospheric, even. In my opinion, probably one of the finest works of visual design in the game. Which is why it's such a shame that, for all its bravado and promises, it doesn't really seem to move the concept of the Battleground forward. I regaled you in a previous post with the things I desired to see in the future of PvP combat, and the initial previews for the Isle of Conquest suggested that it might just be headed in that direction. A brief reminder: resource collection, enforceable objectives, hard modes, and an epic scale. Of all those, the end result  seems only to incorporate the last. Standing in front of the imposing Horde Keep. Now, I shouldn't say "end result." After all, IoC has only seen a day of public testing, and there's plenty of time to tweak and change it before Patch 3.2 gets tossed out on live servers, but that may not be enough if the fundamental mechanics are potentially broken. With a couple dozen matches under my belt, I've noticed that zerging still hasn't gone out of style. Just like Arathi Basin, people burst forth from their starting gates and scramble to capture several objectives strewn about in the middle of the map (even the icons are the same!). Controlling the Docks will give you access to the new Glaive Thrower vehicle (which, I have to admit, is pretty bad ass; it's physically weak, but has a lot of range and reminds me of those cool little foam disc shooters I had as a kid). The Siege Workship, which sits square in the center, allows you to ride the now-familiar Demolishers and Siege Engines (the latter of which will activate after you've maintained control for awhile). And then there's the Airship Hangar, which is the objective du jour. Hold onto this building and your faction's got an automated battleship ready to unleash chaos on your enemies. Taking a portal at the Hangar transports you on top, allowing you to either man the powerful on-board cannons or take a flying leap into the opposing Keep (don't worry, a parachute will guide you down safely). As absolutely cool as this mechanic is (and it may account for some of its current popularity), it's also evidence that zerging has certainly not gone out of style. Currently, Isle of Conquest seems to consist of two things: rush the Hangar, assault the Keep. Capping doesn't take very long, and there are no other towers to take down to delay the process. The only other pre-condition is that you blow up the front gate (which can be done from inside after your paratroopers land) in order to make the enemy commander appear. Wide shot of the two airships hovering just above the Hangar, one of the Isle of Conquest's capture points. The Oil Derrick and Cobalt Mine (which sit on opposite diagonals of the map), thus far, seem to attract far less attention, and I can see them becoming just like the mines in Alterac Valley (i.e. a random, lonely player looking to stay away from the main action will likely cap them in order to make themselves feel like they're actually helping). With all the zerging going on, who needs reinforcements? Essentially, there's nothing offered in IoC that pushes people to create new strategies or think about Battlegrounds in any way different from before. The matches I played last an average of 8-15 minutes, which is criminally short for something that's supposed to be this epic. Where are the stop-gaps? The objectives on the Isle are more like various options to complete the same objective, whereas they should be working in tandem to open up or shut down the enemy's Keep. The Workshop, for instance, could control a forcefield that either keeps people from parachuting into a  base or greatly reduces the amount of damage that can be done to its walls. They'd have to hold it in order to make the Airship Hangar a worthwhile choice. Or how about the Derrick and Mine? Make them spawn resources (not mere reinforcements) that, when accumulated over time, allows your faction to purchase the vehicles (instead of having them simply sitting there once the objective is taken)? Looking clear across the battlefield, you can see the enemy Keep. Mechanics like this would force players into a multi-step procedure for winning the fight. You must complete Phase 1, to even access Phase 2, and Phase 2 must be completed before you can finally assault the opposition. But the more I think about it, the more I consider that there's an alternate motive for the speed at which IoC moves along, and that is, quite simply, its sister Battlegrounds. In order to keep it fresh, current, and well-played, instead of quickly forgotten, it must offer something to appease the mass of players that cares more for accumulating Honor than a fun, well-fought battle. Alterac Valley, in zerg mode, is the fastest way to earn the (not-so-)precious commodity. For the Isle of Conquest to take over as the premiere venue for PvPers, it must be even faster. Beyond that, it's just catering to those with short attention spans and the desire for instant rewards. And this seems like a bit of a defeatist attitude for the Battleground designers to have. Their aspirations seem like mere window dressing, a thin coat of "cool" to hide the dirty truth about what players really want, and reluctantly or not, they're letting them have their way. But hey, that's business, and as much as I'd love it, they can't simply kowtow to people like The rising smokestacks of the Oil Derrick/Docks area. me, who are far more involved in the raiding and questing aspects of the game anyway. I'll say it again, it's a beautiful setup, and the vehicles add a much needed layer of scope to the proceedings. There are a lot of things I like about the Isle of Conquest so far, but that makes the underlying issues even more glaring. I was hoping that this would be the one to sell me on the concept of Player versus Player again, but unless sweeping changes are made to the basic mechanics of the Battlegrounds or the philosophy upon which they are conducted, I think I may have to pass. Nonetheless, we have a whole test period ahead of us to see what changes. Perhaps some of the problems can be corrected through tweaks, while others can be rectified by players simply getting used to the Battleground and molding it into something different than what I've seen thus far. Then again, learning to zerg is something that comes later on in the cycle, and if its already appearing, people have either already exploited some glaring holes, it is designed as I've speculated in this article. Speak out, readers, and let me know how you feel about the Isle of Conquest, especially if you've put some actual time into on the PTR. Are you a lapsed PvPer looking to get back into the game? Does the new Battleground look like it could whet your appetite, or is it more of the same? Or are you dedicated to the fine art of ganking? If so, are you happy about these developments and the ease of farming Honor? You can also tell me to sod off with my sour grapes, and go raid something if I don't like having my butt whooped in PvP!

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As a dedicated progression raider, I may only PvP once in a blue moon, but when I do it's almost always in a Battleground. To be frank, the beating handed down for my first and only Arena match several years ago was enough to let me know I wasn't cut out. And world PvP? Well, there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot of incentive beyond a hearty laugh from ganking some flagged Alliance outside of an instance portal! But I love the concept of a Battleground: a protracted war against a set number of people with actual goals beyond random slaughter. My favorite? Alterac Valley. Sure, the other ones are just fine, each representative of a type of match you're bound to find in other popular, competitive online games (Capture the Flag, Assault, and so on), but AV comes closest to matching my ideal. Or, at least, old Alterac did. It borrowed a lot of ideas from WoW's RTS predecessors, including the gathering of resources, help from NPCs, unit upgrades, and base destruction (well, by proxy through "capturing" towers). By looting materials off of enemy players or the local fauna, you could summon several types of destructive assaults, as well as your faction's super-unit: either Ivus the Forest Lord or Lokholar the Ice Lord. Battles could (and many times would) last for hours, no less heated towards the end than when they began. You'd be hard pressed to find this icy bruiser on the Fields of Strife these days. If you never played World of Warcraft before its first expansion, you might not even realize this version of Alterac Valley once existed. For the rest of us, my complaints aren't exactly recent news. Sure, many of the mechanics are still there, and you might find someone running off to capture a mine once in awhile, but for the most part it's an honor grind these days, likely accounting for why it continues to be the most played Battleground despite the introductions of Eye of the Storm and Strand of the Ancients since. Admittedly, it's hard to keep any aspect of gameplay from narrowing to the razor sharp point of efficiency. Players always tend to figure out the best way to do something, whether it be class tweaking, boss strategy, or otherwise. Their methods get posted on the internet, and everyone else follows. I'm actually not surprised at all that Alterac Valley has turned into what it is, considering that rushing through it is absolutely the best way to earn honor. Of course it could be argued that if Blizzard had retained its original tuning, AV would still as interesting as it once was. On the flip side, there would be a whole lot fewer people playing it. So, keeping these issues in mind, how do we go about making a Battleground that is compelling and fun while satisfying all those ravenous honor hounds out there? Lake Wintergrasp is the first place to look, having revived the same sorts of large-scale battles that Alterac made popular. The addition of destructible buildings and siege vehicles is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, there are also a few drawbacks. As an element of World PvP, you can't simply jump into a fight any old time you want. Wintergrasp is on a strict schedule, so as to allow the winning side the chance to defeat the raid bosses inside of the Vault of Archavon. Likewise, it seems to accommodate pure Assault gameplay. Wintergrasp is a big zone. It can support a lot of people, but it doesn't exactly give a whole lot of incentive for the defending faction to protect anything but the castle itself, and perhaps the closest factories. On top of all that, there are no hard player limits. Even considering the buffs and debuffs doled out for population control, individual bodies still matter. An Alliance force with 50 players is going to whoop a Horde that only had 10, and vice versa. Battlegrounds tend to ensure that sides are kept even, at least in terms of raw numbers. So, then, what about Strand of the Ancients? It features some of the same conceits as Wintergrasp (namely Assault style gameplay and controllable vehicles/defenses), and makes up for the core balance deficiencies non-Battlegrounds suffer from. Despite that, it has yet to give me a rise, and I blame that on how absolutely wimpy it feels. For a scenario based loosely on D-Day, I expected masses of people, seemingly insurmountable defenses, and bullets flying everywhere. As it is, Strand feels a lot like the Battle of Normandy conducted on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Was 10 people people per side really enough? Or how about those pea-shooters they call defensive cannons? Clearly, both Wintergrasp and SotA suffer from their own unique problems, but I do think they're evidence of Blizzard proceeding in the right direction with Battlegrounds. In fact, the description for their next attempt leaves my mouth watering:

Isle of Conquest, a new large-scale siege Battleground, will be open. The Horde and Alliance will battle head-to-head for control of strategic resources to lay siege to the keeps of their opponents.

Kind of speaks for itself, but let me zero in on the key phrases: "large-scale," "control of strategic resources," and "lay siege." We're talking, in all likelihood here, a happy marriage between the Alterac of old and the best bits of Lake Wintergrasp. Though I'm a bit hesitant to go so far as to say that would be the "perfect" Battleground, it comes damn close to what I've always wanted. Of course, that little blurb is all we know about it so far, and it may not be until Blizzcon that we get a whole lot more. That considered, the only thing left to do is speculate. How could a battle on the Isle of Conquest be executed so as to meet the criteria (fun and gobs of honor) I set above? The simple answer is to actually dole out the amounts of honor people want. Put hard locks on different phases of the battle so that there is no possible way to rush right into the opposition's keep, and give large quantities of honor to everyone who participated in pushing forward. In order to keep people from bailing early, withhold their rewards until the very end of the battle, and at that time, give them appropriate bonuses for completing objectives/gathering resources that are not one-hundred percent necessary to win. In fact, I would award more honor for the optional bits than those required, perhaps as some sort of PvP version of raiding's "hard modes." For instance, how about a fight over some sort of bridge that both sides need to cross over at some point to assault the enemy's keep? Holding the bridge is one thing, but destroying it locks both sides out of the option of a direct ground attack, forcing the adoption of new, more complex strategies. The faction that chooses to destroy said bridge gets the bonus honor, but must also gather resources to produce air units necessary to continue the fight (assuming there will actually be any available), while the other side gets some free "emergency" reinforcements, but no honor at all for it. The bottom line is that there must be some way to incentivize the (perceived) optional mechanics of a Battleground so that the aggregate honor is significantly greater than a pure rush to the end. Now, as we know little about the actual nature of the Isle of Conquest, similar conceits may already been in place, but I'm also quite sure that it's far enough into development that no further major changes to its basic setup can be made before its release with 3.2. Those are my thoughts anyway, and I applaud anyone who's sat through my lengthy brainspew long enough to reach this point! If so, Why not contribute yourself? Let me know what you think of my ideas. Are they shining examples of game design brilliance or pure poppycock? Should Battlegrounds be epic in scale or do you prefer more intimate experiences like Warsong Gulch? What would your perfect Battleground be? Don't be shy, the comment box is just a few scrolls below!

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With patch 3.1 expected to hit live realms in the next 2-3 weeks, its time to start speculating about patch 3.2! We know that patch 3.3 or 3.4 (probably 3.4) will introduce Icecrown Citadel, but it is uncertain what the other two patches are to contain. Patch 3.3 is known to progress the Ashbringer storyline, but its unclear if this will be Icecrown Citadel or not. Not every "point" release has brought with it new raid or even new dungeon content. Zarhym did say that patch 3.2 would contain a new dungeon back in October in an interview with Curse, but he could have meant battleground. While most patches have released new PvE content, patches as late as 2.2 have not contained new PvE content. Patch 2.2 added in-game voice chat, Brewfest, and Hallow's End, as well as UI and feature additions. Expecting 4 PvE content patches for Wrath might not be completely accurate. There are many potential old-world zones that could be used for new raids. Grim Batol has a rich history with the dragons, which could easily work into the Wrath storyline. Neltharion is hiding somewhere out there, and Grim Batol may be that place. Alternatively, Uldum (in Tanaris) could be the logical progression to Ulduar, as there are many loose threads in the story involving Uldum. Hyjal is still not a finished zone, nor is Gilneas, and there are yet some unnamed zones on the map. Blizzard has stated that they want to keep the old world relevant, as they did in patch 2.4 by bringing players back to the Sunwell, and I don't think its unlikely that one of these zones will be added in either patch 3.2, 3.3, or 3.4. However, I think its likely that 3.2 will not contain a new major raid zone. There are several reasons why I think this. We have been teased with a new battleground that is on the scale of Alterac Valley, and AV marks have been re-added to the requirement for For Great Honor/Concerted Efforts. The battleground has been described as "epic", on the scale of AV. Additionally, they say they are "revamping" the battleground system to reward skill in PvP more than they have. Additionally, Arena has been receiving a lot of attention with rating reworking changes to open it up to new players and the tournament. Blizzard may be trying to draw players to PvP. Hardcore PvP certainly brings WoW into the spotlight as a competitive game and may prolong its lifespan. Thus, I predict 3.2 will largely be a PvP patch. Wintergrasp will be overhauled and rethought with the lessons learned since the release of Wrath, battleground rewards will be reworked, and the new battleground will be introduced. This would fit in with the theme of Horde vs. Alliance that Blizzard is attempting to re-kindle with things like the post-Wrathgate events and whatnot. To satisfy PvE players, I bet they open up another short raid in the Chamber of the Aspects. There are 5 portals there, and we don't really know whats going in those. Its likely that Blizzard will reserve one or two of them for the next expansion to keep players coming to Northrend (maybe the green portal if its Emerald Dream themed), but I doubt we won't see more open soon. Maybe the blue portal will open in response to the end of the Nexus war. One battleground that has faded into obscurity is Azshara Crater. It was originally alluded to all the back in patch 1.3 (released March 7th, 2005) and is brought up now and again. The terrain is in the game files and appears to be Tauren vs. Night Elf themed. The entrances are already made on the Forlorn Ridge. The Tauren have not been the key faction in any battleground, and the blood elves may also be interested in Azshara. Perhaps the zone will be further developed and the battleground added. The battleground is known to be on the scale of AV and since there was already so much development on it, perhaps it will be implemented. Blizzard had lots of problems balancing AV for a long time, but now that they claim they are satisfied with game legnth and win ratio of the factions, it may be time to see another "epic" battleground. What would you like to see in patch 3.2? More raids, more dungeons, or more PvP?

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I wish to gawd that people would learn how to play battlegrounds. It's hard enough to spend a weekend getting 12K honor points to get a nice new belt or something but to have freakin' morons f'kup AV by not know what the hell to do or what the real objective is really, really pisses me off! The game on a PvP server is frustrating enough so I don't have time for people who continually fail. So listen up all you people who don't know what the hell you're doing in AV and, for those that do, point your lame NooB friends and guildies to this post so we can clear this BS up once and for all. First let's focus on the goal of Alterac Valley. The goal is simple: to reduce the opposing team's resources to zero. Period. If you kill the enemy general, that team's resources go to zero instantly and you win. Got it? Enemy captains can be killed reducing resources by 100. Capturing a tower reduces their resources by 75. Capturing a mine gives your team 1 resource per 45 sec. Turning in various supplies quests increase you teams resources. Killing an enemy player reduces their resources by 1. Wait. What was that? Killing an enemy player reduces that teams resources by 1? Only 1? YES! Only freakin' 1 damn point. Damn it people listen up here. Caping a tower gets you 75 point reduction in their resources AND more honor points while wasting time ganking people or chasing after runners to try and kill them only, ONLY gets you 1 point reduction in their resources!! Sure you get 1 point reduction in the other team's resources and slight satisfaction for pwnin some Noob tart with the skills of a baby Murlock but that is a far weaker return for effort than say... KILLING THE ENEMY GENERAL! DO YOU FREAKIN GET IT YET?!?! So listen up all you noobs: here's how to win AV for the last freakin time. 1. Cap the towers. 2. Keep three people at each til they cap. 3. Take every graveyard you can all the way to to the opposing side's base. 4. Wait til all towers cap. 5. Kill the general. NOW stop pissing me off NooBs and go and freakin' win AV!

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