Project Lore

A new season of PvP is upon us! Along with all the great new armor for arena players, there is a lot of gear you can get without ever stepping foot into the arena. The entire Deadly Gladiator set is available for honor only, and many pieces can be attained in the Vault of Archavon. The chart below should be a handy reference for what pieces you can pick up. Its sorted first by rating required, with the first dozen or so not requiring any rating. This means you can get them from just doing battlegrounds. The "honor required" and "arena required" columns are non-exclusive; that is, a piece with an entry in both columns means that you must pay both the honor and arena points cost. For some pieces, you have a choice as to whether to use just honor or honor and arena points. Those options are listed in the "option two" columns. The VoA column shows the pieces that drop in the Vault of Archavon, with E25 standing for 25-man Emalon, K10 standing for Koralon 10-man, and K25 standing for Koralon 25-man.

Item	Rating Required	Honor Required	Arena Required	VoA	Option Two: Honor	Option Two: Arena
Deadly Gladiator's Idol/Libram/etc	0	15300	0
Deadly Gladiator's Gloves	0	31600	0		7200	200
Furious Gladiator's Wrists	0	31600	0	E25/K10
Deadly Gladiator's Shoulders	0	31600	0		9600	275
Furious Gladiator's Necklace	0	38000	0	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Rings	0	38000	0	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Cloak	0	38000	0	E25/K10
Deadly Gladiator's Legs	0	49600	0		12000	350
Deadly Gladiator's Tunic	0	49600	0		12000	350
Deadly Gladiator's Helm	0	49600	0		12000	350
Furious Gladiator's Belt	0	49600	0	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Boots	0	49600	0	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's PvP Trinket	0	49600	0
Furious Gladiator's Idol/Libram/etc	700	6400	350
Furious Gladiator's Gloves	800	7200	400	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Legs	900	12000	700	E25/K10
Furious Gladiator's Tunic	1000	12000	700
Furious Gladiator's Helm	1100	12000	700
Relentless Gladiator's Wrists	1200	39400	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Belt	1250	62000	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Boots	1300	62000	0	K25
Furious Gladiator's Shoulders	1350	9600	550
Relentless Gladiator's Gloves	1400	0	1300	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Neck	1450	47400	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Rings	1500	47400	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Legs	1550	0	2150	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Tunic	1600	0	2150
Relentless Gladiator's Battlemaster Trinket	1650	62000	0
Relentless Gladiator's Cloak	1750	47400	0	K25
Relentless Gladiator's Weapons/OH/Wands (Tier 1)	1800	15000+	1100+
Relentless Gladiator's Helm	1900	0	2150
Relentless Gladiator's Shoulders	2000	0	1750
Relentless Gladiator's Weapons/OH/Wands (Tier 2)	2200	0	1245+
Relentless Gladiator's Tabard	2350	0	500

What are you going for this season?

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Blue Stew is a new semi-daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. Yesterday was 9/9/09, guys and gals. An important date in history, and not only for its numerical symmetry! If you hadn't heard yet, it was the day that The Beatles made their triumphant return (as if they could ever, truly, go away). Not only was The Beatles: Rock Band released, but so was the entire remastered album collection. It also marked the 10-year anniversary of the Dreamcast console, arguably the gaming console with the most concentrated amount of awesome in the history of the medium. It didn't last very long, but it really blazed some trails while it did. So what about the forums? Well, they're still kind of reeling from the long weekend, sadly, but there's at least one indication it's back on the road to recovery: Ghostcrawler is posting again! And, thanks to some data-mined PTR patch notes, he's got a helluva Hunter problem to deal with... Bestial Wrath Change Flies from your glaive! According to the new PTR build, the BM Hunter skill "Bestial Wrath" is undergoing some modifications. This "last ditch" technique is being reduced to from 18 seconds to 10. It's companion skill, "The Beast Within," is getting a similar reduction, but now also increases the Hunter's damage by 10% for the duration. It seems as though the primary justification for this change is as follows (according to Ghostcrawler):

"It should be no surprise to anyone who has been on these boards for long that we're trying to chill out abilities that convey offensive and defensive bonuses with the same button press. At the same time, BM damage was a little low and too dependent on the pet. With this change, hopefully, Bestial Wrath becomes more of a defensive ability while taking Beast Within will boost hunter (and just the hunter) damage at all times."

Of course, this change is based mostly on the class' Arena performance. Not specifically that they're good or bad (according to many, Hunters have been nearly shut out from Arena teams altogether), but rather that this particular skill doesn't fit in with Blizzard's philosophy on how Arena should work. In and of itself, it may be one of the Hunter's most powerful PvP abilities, but leaving it alone simply due to poor overall class performance is not fixing the problem. That's to say you don't give a diabetic kid a candy bar just to make him feel better. The way I understand it, Blizzard just doesn't want Hunters relying on "Bestial Wrath" so much, and more positive changes that could offset this nerf, and bring up BM-spec DPS and utility in other ways, will come later. Besides, GC let slip that, even though it's not on the new tooltip yet, "Bestial Wrath" also breaks CC when activated. Let's remember, folks, that this is all still on the PTR. These things aren't final and who knows if they'll even make it to the live servers. Nonetheless, that didn't stop the forums from exploding with complaints. Morobir can't remember where he left his keys and is planning on suing the car company for making such hard-to-find keys. It turns out he simply can't stand that 10% of the population that can go anywhere they want anytime they want just because they have such an easy time staying organized! He rages on the "Bestial Wrath" subject as such:

"Thanks. Thanks so much for basing all your balancing decisions on a stupid mini-game that 90% of WoW players don't play and don't care about. Now that you've nerfed my spec. into the ground I can go into battlegrounds and get completely destroyed while everyone counters all 10 seconds of my Bestial Wrath. That will be so much fun. I could go in untalented and not do much worse."

Now, I am not the most preeminent Arena player in the game. In fact, I've admitted before that I have next to no experience with it. And you know why? Because it's quite involved, it takes a lot of effort to gear up and learn different sorts of strategies in order to compete. A stupid little mini-game, I think not! Even if I'm not a fan, I can see that much. But I honestly expected such complaints to come from someone who favors PvE combat, not a fellow PvP player. Methinks Morobir doesn't quite understand the more flexible nature of Battlegrounds, and Ghostcrawler seems to agree:

"Most of the PvP discussions in these forums tend to focus on Arena balance because frankly that's what most of the participants here seem interested in discussing. If I had to guess, it's because you are constantly running into BG situations in which class balance makes very little difference, say the other team was smarter with how they handled the flags. Or maybe you just plain went up against 20 opponents at once, in which even our most naive posters don't really expect their 51-point talent or whatever to be able to save them... Perhaps Arenas just shine a harsher light on class balance than do BGs."

Indeed, it seems rare that changes to a single skill are going to drastically affect your performance in a Battleground. There are simply too many other factors to consider, from the macro (how did your whole team do) to the micro (were your key skills on cooldown?). Arena matches don't last nearly as long, and you're probably going to find yourself using skills like "Bestial Wrath" only once over the duration. Unless Morobir is one of those "special" people who run around worrying solely about their DPS and Honor Kills instead of actually helping their team capture points and win. Hunters may able to rely on themselves in the wild, but in the middle of a war, they better learn some teamwork! Anyway, I think that's quite enough for this edition of Blue Stew. Sure, I only covered one subject today, but it's an awfully meaty one, and it's most certainly the topic du jour on the official forums. I'd really like to see the Hunters chime in on this one. I might've gone a little harsh on Mr. Morobir there, but I know there are a lot more level-headed folks out there that can perhaps clarify just how they think they'll be affected by the changes to "Bestial Wrath." The floor is yours!

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We dedicated players can bicker all we want about Arena balance or Rogues being over-powered, but what about the presence of PvP available in the game itself? When you have a game as popular as World of Warcraft, you're bound to attract the ire of the gaming community at large. In my travels around the internet, I've learned that there are quite a lot of people fed up with Blizzard's baby, and one of the chief complaints, next to simply being an MMO, is that it doesn't focus enough on Player versus Player combat. I suppose this isn't a new argument. After all, the game's been criticized for its "care bear" approach to open-world ganking since before its launch, and, at that point, I can understand why. It stands to reason that the people most interested in the game at the time were those that had spent extensive amounts of time playing through the Warcraft strategy games. WoW offered them a new, interesting, and more intimate way of engaging in the age-old conflict between the Alliance and the Horde. With so much standing animosity between the two factions, it would be reasonable for your average pre-release gamer to expect copious amounts of wanton bloodshed and for all-out war to consume Azeroth whole. Well, the fight with the Burning Legion mellowed those tensions. The Alliance lost their core leaders and Thrall tried his best to pacify the more chaotic aspects of the Horde. So when it came to retail, the only thing you could do in WoW was to attack someone on the opposite side if they let you, duel with fellow players, and play a silly game of "capture the flag" in Warsong Gulch (though, if memory serves correctly, Arathi Basin may have been available, as well). Quite the disappointment for some, but a great boon for others. The game's population swelled not only on the brand name, but the number of players who wanted to work cooperatively towards their goals. But Blizzard didn't completely forget about PvP. Instead, they made great strides to make it more and more a part of the game without completely alienating their base. But to this day, the game takes a lot of guff from those who have long-since quit the game or never played it in the first place. In fact, so heralded is this mythical PvP nirvana, that a lot of people believe that's the only way to make a dent in Warcraft's armor. That its players simply continue to bide their time and play such a "boring" game because a real, honest, PvP-dedicated MMO has yet to come along. Isle of Conquest... on of Warcraft's most recent PvP additions. The problem is that they have. Guild Wars, Warhammer, Aion. Countless other Korean MMORPGs. More games than I'm willing to list here have used PvP as a selling point to distance themselves from WoW. And yet, its success remains unparalleled in the genre. Now that's not to say that they're bad games or that they don't present a viable PvP option, but rather, I propose, the market for such games isn't quite as big as one might initially think. After all, not only are these games competing with Warcraft, but also games in other genres: Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament, HALO, Gears of War, Madden, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros., Starcraft, Warcraft 3. Taking a quick look at the pro circuit will allow you to see what sorts of titles are dominating the competitive gaming scene at any given moment, and MMOs are curiously absent... aside from, ironically, Arena play in WoW. In my experience, the vast majority of competitive gamers prefer instant action, as opposed to the typical need to grind to a certain level to even start playing seriously. Now here is where WoW excels: it's got some excellent PvE content to pull you along, making that grind more or less worth it (at least the first time through). PvP, even if it isn't in its ideal form, is layered on top of that core structure. But some people maintain that the game simply doesn't go far enough. Really? Currently, you've got your choice of six different Battlegrounds, an extensive, rating-based Arena system, and World PvP objectives like Wintergrasp (and, to a lesser extent, Venture Bay, Halaa, and the Bone Wastes as the next most popular locales). The next expansion will add ratings to Battlegrounds, three brand new ones to fight in, the Tol'Barad PvP zone, and most certainly several unrevealed Arena maps, to boot. I contend that the sum total of World of Warcraft's PvP content eclipses that of  nearly any competing MMORPG. Is it as integrated into the game as it is in other titles? Perhaps not, but that's splitting hairs. If a game's PvP is restricted primarily to certain zones, regardless of whether or not they are physically connected to the core game world, I don't think it's any different from the way Battlegrounds are set up. And, of course, there's always rolling on an open PvP server if that's the way you really want to play the game. Blizzard may have shifted their focus to PvE content early on, but I think that the concept of PvP in Azeroth has come back in a very big way. With those old conflicts rising once again, both the Horde and Alliance marching to war against each other, even with a greater threat looming, I think the game's potential for competitive player combat can only become greater. So, I ask you readers: Is Blizzard really short-changing PvP? Have you been satisfied with the amount of content added, or do you think other games have succeeded at competing on this front, offering a better, and supposedly more comprehensive PvP experience?

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Look Kids, It's Greg Street! I love Ghostcrawler (again). Not only does he have one of the coolest jobs around (one which likely made him grow a thick skin and an endless supply of ponies) at one of my favorite developers, but he gets to help design, create and then announce some of the craziest stuff to grace World of Warcraft. It isn't one of those crazy, eye-popping, jaw-dropping announcements that has me firmly cheering for him, but a declaration of renewed support for the Battlegrounds.  Sir Pinch-a-lot had this to say about the neglected instanced PvP scenarios: "I will agree that we need to focus more on BGs. And to be fair we are in this very next patch, and there will be more announcements at Blizzcon." Of course we know that the second statement is true, thanks to the Isle of Conquest.  The second clause of the second statement only makes me more excited for BlizzCon 2009.  That being said, I don't think I'll be sitting through a whole PvP panel just to (hopefully) see an upcoming BG or just hear a quip about the possibility of one "soon."  The real interesting part to me is the first sentence, the admission that BGs have fallen by the wayside.  It's plainly obvious that Arenas have been the focus of PvP since their inception as part of TBC, due largely to the drive for a WoW eSport (my words not GC's). Senor Cangrejo points out later in the post that Arenas receive extra attention due to class balancing issues.  According to GC the 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 battles are far more useful in class balancing than BGs thanks to the very nature of BGs.  Meaning in BGs your goal, to capture the often spread out objectives, isn't very good at providing useful information.  After all, killing is a common occurrence, but not actually required.  On the other hand the whole point to an Arena is to dominate the other team.  The fast, localized and furious battles end up giving Blizzard more information on class issues than any other PvP mechanic, and that's why Arenas  receive additional attention. I'm a much bigger fan of BGs than I am of Arenas, so I am glad that the developer will attempt to rebalance their attention in my favor.  If only we could get a Tarren Mill vs Southshore style world PvP experience back into the game. Are you ready for a new BG, or are you more of an Arena fan?

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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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Last week, iTZKooPA touched on the information overload we're seeing with patch 3.2, which now is live on the Public Test Realm. One area that I thought it'd be fun to expand a bit on is the new experience changes related to battlegrounds. Patch notes for the PTR informed us that players now will gain experience for actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds. Pretty neat idea. But here's the kicker: players who don't want to gain XP now will be able to turn it off - both for within battlegrounds and for any other means available in the game. This is a huge change for anyone who enjoys the practice of twinking. In some ways, the practice will become much easier to do. You won't have to rely on your higher level character to provide you with all the best gear available at level 19 (or your preferred twink level) - you also will be able to seek out rare drops and quest rewards without worrying about the XP gains. You'll essentially be able to get all the best gear possible and never level up and out of your battleground bracket. Blizzard comically makes light of this - the NPCs who you pay 10 gold to in order to turn on or off XP gains are named Behsten and Slahtz (Best-in-slots). But it's a give-and-take situation. Players who choose to turn off their XP gains and compete in battlegrounds will only face off against other players who also have turned off their XP. Now, some people will be happy for this change - twinks facing off against other twinks would probably make for a more interesting fight. And non-twinks will no longer be battling against twinked out toons with double the stats. I'm certain there also are those twinks out there who are ticked off that they'll never get to beat down on the other unsuspecting battleground fighters. Perhaps those players will move on to world-wide PvP gankage. A lot of people would argue this change effectively nerfs twinks. And it also might drive up the prices for twink gear. I wonder how many players will exploit the changes by turning off XP just barely into their preferred twink level, then getting all the best gear and turning on the XP again for a limited number of glorious battles against weaklings. Meanwhile, a lot of non-twinks out there are rejoicing. The prospect of entering a battleground may be a lot less intimidating if you are more confident that you'll face off against others in similar gear. Then again, I cringe to think of what this change might do to already-long battleground queues. Another unrelated way in which turning off XP may change the game: Classic raiding and role-playing. Blizzard blue poster Nethaera pointed out that many players may have a purpose for turning off XP entirely separate from twinking. If you cap at level 60 or 70, you can raid to your heart's content in that Vanilla WoW or BC content you love. Or, you could turn off XP until a friend you'd like to play with reaches your level. Or, you may just wish to role-play a character at a particular level. Oh, the possibilities. What does everyone else think that these changes will mean for the twink population? Will you keep your twinks after 3.2? Anyone think you're more likely to create a twink? If I had to guess, I'd predict that the twink population may decrease a bit after these changes. But like many things in life, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

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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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At first, I didn't give it much thought when a WoW acquaintance asked me to join his 3v3 arena team for the tournament. "Sure," I said. "Sounds like fun." Actually, I didn't think it was a serious request. I mean, really - he was asking me, of all people? I'm still working to ding level 80 for the first time, and haven't ventured much into the realm of PvP. Back in the pre-BC days when my main was a warrior, I played a bit of Battlegrounds in Warsong Gulch. Even then, I never dared walk into an arena. And since I switched to my rogue, I've been focused more on leveling and only try out a battleground here and there when bored. So it seemed like an odd request. But the idea grew on me. I kept thinking about how fun it would be to play a super-beefed-up version of my rogue. A nice change of pace, I thought. And it turned out the guy was both serious and persistent in asking me to join. I explained my lack of experience, and he didn't seem to mind. So I caved. I paid my $20 fee. Rolled Pixiestixy. Signed the team charter. Decided on a 41/5/25 mutilate spec. Set up my action bars. And spent a couple hours figuring out the best gear, enchants and gems to use. All I needed was confirmation that the team had been formed so we could start playing toward 200 matches (and a glorious, golden-armored pet murloc) before the April 6 deadline to qualify for the next round. So I waited. And waited. Played around with some macros. Admired my glowing-red berserking Deadly Gladiator's Shankers. Waited some more. A couple days later, I got an e-mail. My friend decided to play with a couple of his other (and, as it were, more experienced) friends, instead. I sighed in exasperation. I saw it coming, but had been hoping that wasn't the case. So I started with the obligatory search for a PuG. It seemed no one wanted a PvP noobie in their group. I don't blame them - most people who sign up probably have at least some clue what they are doing. I got no responses, not even to "BElf rogue LF a good time." I started asking RL friends (I had my husband convinced at one point, but we still needed a third). I saw several PuG requests from people saying they would just play 200 matches and lose each one to get the murloc. Pet collectors, I guess. But, somehow, that feels like cheating to me. If I'm going to do this, I oughta at least try, even if those attempts are futile. So I made a final effort to PuG it before the extended deadline to register last Friday. And finally, found a couple of takers. Myself, an affliction warlock (who also said he was no good at PvP) and a hybrid holy/ret paladin (who wanted to make top 1,000 teams to earn the Vanquisher title, but said he'd stick with us even if we lost). We became The Misfits. The first few matches were mayhem. I had absolutely no experience to back up everything I've read about PvP. And let me tell you, the experience is much different. It's way harder to keep track of everything going on than I had expected. We only played 6 matches the first night, with an even 3-3 record, and set a time to play again Saturday. Another 12 games in Saturday, and we had been getting worked. Despite me starting to get a better feel for the hectic arenas, our record was 6-12. Our paladin kept going AFK between matches. And then, the dreaded message. Pally "has left The Misfits." Teamless, again. I'm taking a break to work off the annoyance, then perhaps back to PuG-ing. What have I gotten myself into? So who all's in the tournament? What have your experiences been so far? How should us who are new to PvP find a group willing to stick it out through the 200 matches? And is there still enough time to squeeze in 200 matches before the 6th?

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