Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: Events, WoW Insider Business, Virtual selves, Blizzard, PvP, NPCs
Yes it’s the end of another year, and it’s time to celebrate! Just in case you’re not out and about partying this evening,
Azeroth is enjoying New Year’s Eve as well, and the good news is that you can drink all you want with no hangover at all! This evening in the capital cities, there’ll be kegs and holiday food to eat, and fireworks will light up the sky every hour (starting around 6pm server time, if this year is the same as years past). Plus, all the guards in Booty Bay are taking their annual night off, so there’ll be PvP aplenty down there. And there are
two quests in the game, one for each faction.
Enjoy the holiday and stay safe, whether you’re in the World of Warcraft or elsewhere tonight. From all of us at WoW Insider to all of you, thanks for making 2008 great, and here’s to an even better 2009.
New Year’s Eve in Azeroth tonight originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King, Battlegrounds, Arena, (Hunter) Scattered Shots
Welcome to Scattered Shots! This week, your author has managed to take a break from lamenting that the stores about to stop selling eggnog to make a few Hunter-specific resolutions.
The New Year is considered by many people to be the time for a fresh start, a time to wipe the slate clean of past missteps, or just to make some changes to your life to make it even better. In that spirit, I’d like to propose some Hunter-related resolutions for both Blizzard and for Hunters in the spirit of promoting peace, harmony, and understanding in the new year for all Survivalists, Marksmen, and Beastmasters.
Continue reading Scattered Shots: New Year’s Resolutions for Hunters and for Blizzard
Scattered Shots: New Year’s Resolutions for Hunters and for Blizzard originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, Forums, Battlegrounds, Arena
If you’ve been in the Arena during Season 5, you probably have noticed a particular change to the way gladiators fight. It can be summarized in a single word: “Damage.” In the bygone days of Season 4, drain teams and Mortal Strike debuffs were all but an entry requirement to high ranked play. Without a strategy to reduce or nullify your enemy’s healing, you were unlikely to produce sufficient burst DPS to actually kill anyone. A few double-DPS teams managed to thrive, but for the most part, a gladiator’s number one priority was shutting down the healer.
That dynamic is all but dead in Season 5. Players output such a high level of damage compared to other players’ health that healing is almost a non-factor in most matches. My friends, Ghostcrawler is aware of this dynamic, and is looking into it. (It turns out, Ghostcrawler mostly plays a healer in the Arena.) As stated by the crab himself, the Arena should not simply be about burst damage. (Nor, however, should it be solely about healing or solely about crowd control.)
Of course, Ghostcrawler does admit he has difficulty saying what the long terms plans are going to be. The design team hasn’t had enough whiteboard time to say anything with complete honesty. But he also hopes that as more Resilience gear enters the PvP system, the damage might scale down to be more reasonable. (To quote, “It’s mostly just math.”) Still, there’s hope that future teams will include more than just seeing which team can burst down the other first.
The future of healing in the Arena originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: PvP, Wrath of the Lich King
I’ve never been a fan of PvP. I have neither the twitch skills nor the patience to put up with being repeatedly ganked. I tried Battlegrounds and Arena, even some Burning Crusade world PvP, but the result is always the same: after getting a free ticket back to the graveyard courtesy of some Rogue that comes out of nowhere or a Warlock with their mez/fear/dot triple whammy I was done. Then came Lake Wintergrasp.
I admit that what first drew me there was greed. I heard that it was the richest source of mining nodes for the faction that controls it (as well as Eternal drops.) I was only level 73 when I first zoned in and knew I was going to get pwned by all the level 80s running amok, but to my surprise there turns out to be a feature that levels the playing field: siege vehicles.
Hoping into a catapult or manning a tower cannon eliminates the level difference between you and your opponent. In no time, I was laying waste to the enemy and racking up the Honor Points. I was suddenly having so much fun that I forgot to look for mining nodes (which is good, since the roaming mobs in the zone are level 80.)
Now, when I log on, the first thing I do is check how long until the next Wintergrasp battle starts (two and a half hours after the last one ends). For those who haven’t tried any kind of WoW PvP I recommend trying your hand at piloting a Demolisher in Wintergrasp at least once. You may find yourself enjoying the game in a whole new way.
An avowed non-PvPer can’t get enough of Lake Wintergrasp originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, PvP, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements
Tipster Tomek sent us a note about his friend Zbijmnie of EU Vek’nilash, to see if, at level 49, he might be one of the lowest level players to every hit the goal of 100,000 honorable kills for the achievement, but after looking around for a bit, I’ve found the achievement is pretty commonplace. Because the count actually started way back when HKs were first added to the game (and not when achievements were), lots of people have picked up the seemingly gigantic number already. In fact, here’s a level 19 who did it right when he logged into the expansion for the first time (which means he had killed 100,000 people even before patch 3.0.2.
Which is kind of a shame — after Gears of War’s “Seriously” achievement (to kill 10,000 enemies) was met, they added a “Seriously 2.0″ to the sequel (to kill 100,000 enemies), and that one’s been met as well.
So in retrospect, getting 100,000 HKs isn’t too hard — even if you got one every second, it’d really only take you about a day of playtime, which is probably a lot less than a month of realtime, depending on how long you play for and how good a player you are. Maybe in the next achievement update we’ll see a really impossible goal for players to work on: 10 million mobs killed? 10,000 instances run? A million players looted in the battlegrounds? There’s got to be something in the game that seems impossible for someone crazy out there to work on.
Meeting the goal of 100,000 honorable kills originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: Items, PvP, Guides, Arena
The current trend in Arena matches nowadays are quick and dirty fights that last no more than a minute. Perhaps two at best. This is because of the prevalence and dominance of burst damage, which Blizzard acknowledges. This is in contrast with the latter seasons of Arenas where matches were drawn out and crowd control, mana draining, and exceptional healing dominated matches. Blizzard is aware of this trend but say they want to observe things first until players get more Resilience.
One common question I’ve been asked and often seen thrown in the general and trade channels is “what is the new Resilience cap?” The answer isn’t a straightforward one. It’s important to first understand what Resilience means and why it’s so important for PvP. Resilience is the character attribute that reduces the chance a player will get hit by a critical strike, reduces the damage done by critical strikes and damage over time effects, and reduces the amount drained by mana draining effects. It’s an awesome mechanic and is probably my favorite item stat. More Resilience means higher survivability in PvP, but conversely — because it takes up valuable stat points — means players generally deal less damage than players dressed up in PvE gear.
Continue reading Wrath 101: Resilience at Level 80
Wrath 101: Resilience at Level 80 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: How-tos, Walkthroughs, PvP, Quests, Expansions, Factions, Guides, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
It’s the day after Christmas. A fair portion of our readership is only now getting Wrath of the Lich King installed on their computer, especially after the gift exchanges of the last few days. Over the weeks since Wrath’s release, we’ve had quite a bit of content to ease you through your first steps into Northrend. With this latest wave of people hitting the frozen shores for the first time, it’s a good opportunity to look back on a lot of that.
Continue reading Going to Northrend for the holidays
Going to Northrend for the holidays originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: Mage, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Expansions, Features, Raiding, Classes, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance, Wrath of the Lich King
Each year, Arcane Brilliance cooks up 52 columns about Mages, each one roasted at precisely the right temperature for precisely the right amount of time (usually a couple hours on Saturday morning over a soggy bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, to be honest). As we arrive at the 52nd week of 2008, Arcane Brilliance would like to thank each and every one of the Mages who come here every weekend to celebrate our wonderful class by reading a giant, well-cooked wall of text. Arcane Brilliance would also like to say to the Warlocks who come here to mock us and drink our delicious tears, “We hope your felhound eats you.”
Wow, so 2008, huh?
A lot of things happened this year, right? Crazy.
We here at Arcane Brilliance thought that since next week’s column will be posted in 2009, we should take a moment this week to remember the year that was, and what it meant to all of us who walk the path of magic. There were some pretty high highs, and some exceptionally low lows, so we figured it would be fun to throw the highs into a ring with the lows and let them fight to the death. Join us after the break to see who wins!
Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: The best and worst of 2008
Arcane Brilliance: The best and worst of 2008 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: Rogue, PvP, (Rogue) Encrypted Text, Wrath of the Lich King, Battlegrounds, Arena
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we discuss the new Arena Season 5.
Like many of my siblings of the shadows, I play WoW in both the PvP and PvE environments. As a guild leader, it is my responsibility to organize raid groups and to lead my team to victory (and the associated purple loot). While keeping up Hunger for Blood & Slice and Dice & Rupture up may seem interesting for others; after a while the raid DPS grind wears away at my soul. I was not born to be a number-crunching math machine. I am a Horde assassin at heart: born to taste the blood of my Warchief’s enemies!
I have been flexing my PvP muscles in the new Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients battlegrounds, though I find myself sitting in a turret or catapult fairly often. The arena has always been my true love. It was what brought me back to WoW for TBC, and it is what tempted me to level in Northrend for the next installment. With Season 5 now officially underway, my week has consisted of the most bloodthirsty battles I have ever been a part of. So go buy your Hateful Gladiator’s Band of Triumph (best initial upgrade with no rating requirement) and read on!
Continue reading Encryped Text: One Rogue’s take on Season 5
Encryped Text: One Rogue’s take on Season 5 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2009 under PvP |
Filed under: PvP, Guides, Battlegrounds
One of our site leads, Dan O’Halloran, asked me a question that surprised me yesterday. He asked me what he was supposed to do with Honor points and where he could spend them. See, Dan isn’t a huge fan of PvP. In fact, he only happened to try out the wonderfully fun and crazy Wintergrasp in between exploring on his brand-spankin’ new epic wings. I think he found it fun enough to play it again.
This brought us to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, a whole lot of players are going to be accumulating Honor pretty soon without them knowing it. He thinks that a lot of players, mostly strictly-PvE carebears, would be curious enough about Wintergrasp to try it out… and hopefully enjoy it enough to play it again. I hope so, too. This means a whole lot of players who’d never PvP’d before, like Dan, for example, would need some sort of guide on Honor points and what to do with them. Here’s where we step in with this handy little Honor overview.
Continue reading Wrath 101: Honor points
Wrath 101: Honor points originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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