Posts with tag pvp
Posted Oct 10th 2007 7:22PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Priest, Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, PvP
The pic above,
via The Nameless One on WoW Ladies LJ, shows you just how bad the state of battlegrounds healing is. In a WSG where she was healing, she topped the healing meter, and second place went to
a Warlock. Drain Life and healthstones for the win. They're already OP-- do we really need them topping healing meters, too?
Of course, this is just one screengrab from one match, but it's true that
healing in the BGs is just plain sad. And it's not surprising why-- there's a huge focus on DPS and taking the other side down in BGs, and there's almost no reward at all for healing. Out of the eight stats listed on that screen, only one of them has anything to do with healing (OK, bonus honor and HKs might get a nice boost if you're a good healer, but at this point, odds are they'd get an even better boost if you're DPS). Healers get all of the damage (since healers are targeted first), and none of the glory.
I'm not sure how we can fix this, either-- tracking "average lifespan," as a way of recognizing healers who stay alive? Providing bonus HKs, just for healing? Providing better
PvP healing talents and gear? Personally, I love healing the BGs-- I love sitting behind a tree and keeping my faction alive long enough to take the flag or kill the other team. But right now, it's pretty much its own reward. When a Lock takes second place to a Priest in PvP, you know players need a little more incentive to break out the Greater Heals and Healing Waves.
Posted Oct 8th 2007 11:15PM by Amanda Rivera
Filed under: PvP, Instances, Wrath of the Lich King, Forums
Patch 2.3 is adding a lot to the game we know as WoW, including a new ten man instance,
Zul'Aman. With the addition of this instance,
a question arises on the forums: exactly how will players get into the instance with all the chaos that will be going on outside?
By chaos of course I mean PvP. Like the original poster states in the title to his forum post, "one does not simply walk into the Ghostlands." For some this is a concern, for others it points to an exhilarating challenge looming on the horizon. On PvP realms this sort of struggle is common (can we say Ashenvale kids? Come on, say it with me Ashenvale.), but on other realms, PvE or RP, the sudden forced PvP that must inevitably occur outside the gates of Zul'Aman is something dreaded.
Continue reading Forum Post of the Day: The fight to enter Zul'Aman
Posted Oct 5th 2007 1:59PM by David Bowers
Filed under: PvP, Expansions, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King
Sorun is a rogue who loves his Horde-Alliance conflict. As
he posted on the forums, he feels that every action and little quest in the
World of Warcraft should reflect the reality of War that exists in that world, not the good old intra-faction get-together that Shattrath has turned out to be. If
Dalaran is going to be a neutral city in
Wrath of the Lich King, however, it could really mess up the lore and war-filled feeling of the game:
Neutral Dalaran? How does that even make any sense when horde to this day have quests to go attack the ruins of dalaran and can and have been freely killing the wizzards [sic] all around that area.
He's got a point there. What is Blizzard really going to do with Dalaran in the next
expansion? Read on to see what Blizzard says about it.
Continue reading Dalaran might be Alliance-only
Posted Oct 5th 2007 5:00AM by Robin Torres
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, Forums
Blue poster
Vaneck announced on the European Forums that Alterac Valley would be undergoing some major gameplay changes in
Patch 2.3.
In order to emphasize strategy more in AV, they are introducing the concept of "reinforcement count". Both teams will begin with a starting number of reinforcements which can be reduced in various amounts according to what is lost. A team loses when its reinforcement count is reduced to zero.
The death of Drek'Thar or Vanndar will still end the game, as all reinforcements will automatically be eliminated. Losing towers and Galvangar or Belinda will cause significant amounts of reinforcements to be lost. And staying alive will now be very important as player deaths will reduce the reinforcement count by one.
To quote Vaneck:
Defending your own teammates, towers, and key NPCs will be an important aspect of maintaining team resources and achieving victory in Alterac Valley. More on the AV changes after the jump...
Continue reading Major Alterac Valley changes coming to Patch 2.3
Posted Oct 3rd 2007 1:00PM by Chris Jahosky
Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Talents, The Light and How to Swing It
Greetings Paladin fans! Once again, we're here to examine the various aspects of one of the most beloved (and reviled) classes in the World of Warcraft. This week we're looking into the mechanics behind healing in a PvP situation. Reader Draeth from Deathwing wrote in recently to ask why so many successful Paladin PvP healing builds are 41/20/0 (or some variation thereof).
The 41/20 is quite common for Paladin healers that are interested in maximizing their chances for survival in Arenas and other PvP venues, and there's a number of reasons why...
Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: PvP Healing Build
Posted Oct 1st 2007 7:48PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Blizzard, PvP
I hear it constantly from my Alliance friends... Horde always win in battlegrounds! The Alliance is seriously gimped and never manages any success. The conversation then goes on to blame specific racial abilities or terrain issues that cause the battleground to favor the Horde. And then I go chat with my Horde friends, and those of them who PvP can't get over how unbalanced the battlegrounds are. The Alliance always win! How will they ever collect enough tokens to buy that trinket when all the Alliance has to do is...
By this point, my eyes will have glazed over and I'll be trying to remember which of my alts are unguilded and unknown so I can play in blessed peace and quiet. But sometimes it makes me wonder... why do both sides feel that the other is dominating in battlegrounds? Does either side dominate in battlegrounds? And this afternoon, Kalgan has hopped on the forums
to provide an answer to my question:
...generally speaking the win/loss percentages for WSG, AB, EotS generally fall somewhere around 55% to 45% on any given day (with Alliance also represented on the higher side).... AV has gone through greater swings, with alliance winning as much as 75 to 80% of battles (NA servers again as an example) before patch 2.2 and horde winning about 60% so far after 2.2. When asked about trends over the past month or year, Kalgan replied that they were
about the same. Much as I suspected -- a lot of winning and losing is a perception issue.
Posted Oct 1st 2007 5:15AM by Robin Torres
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Azeroth Interrupted
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Omigawd! I sound like such a twinkie on our
WoW Insider Podcast. I'd like to blame playing dozens of levels as a female Night Elf with all that bouncing or blame my move to
The Valley this year, but a good friend assures me I have always sounded like a twinkie, even though I'm not one, so it's ok. Regardless of my twinkie status, I had a great time with Mike and Turpster and we got to discuss all sorts of interesting stuff. And, when it comes right down to it, it's all about fun.
That's the reason why we play video games in general and
WoW specifically: fun. Otherwise, why spend so much time immersing ourselves in Azeroth and Outland, if we aren't enjoying ourselves? I get the idea from the comments, forums, general chat, guild chat, etc. that there are a lot of people playing the game who are currently not having fun, however. I'm not talking about the restlessness most of us are feeling in the
extra long gap between content patches. There are many vocal people who seem to be very unhappy, even with all of these
fun changes coming up in the next few weeks -- or because of some of the changes. So, if you aren't having fun, why are you still playing
WoW?
Continue reading Azeroth Interrupted: How to tell it's time to take a WoW break
Posted Sep 30th 2007 9:31AM by David Bowers
Filed under: Patches, Items, PvP, Forums
Tom Chilton is pretty busy this weekend talking with players about all the
updated PvP items in
Patch 2.3, and he's revealed another
interesting new tidbit of information about coming changes to the Gladiator PvP sets earned from fighting in the arenas:
As of patch 2.3 all items in the gladiator season 1, 2, and 3 sets will be part of the same set, so you can use those items interchangeably and keep the set bonuses (ie: you can wear the season 2 shoulders along with the season 3 helm, chest, legs) and retain the 4 piece set bonus.
The separate sets for separate specs are going to
stay the same, but now the set bonuses for each spec
will be upgraded to work the same as the new 2 and 4-piece bonuses that are coming out, regardless of season. So for example, your class and spec's dps set bonus will work no matter which season your arena dps gear comes from. If I were an arena gladiator, I would be jumping up and down for joy right now. As it is, I still think that's pretty neat.
[edited for clarity -- the set bonuses will work between seasons, but not between different specs, so healing sets and dps sets won't combine together. Also, the arena season 1 gear will still be moved into the honor system once season 3 comes out]Posted Sep 29th 2007 4:00PM by Matthew Rossi
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Analysis / Opinion, PvP
I've said before that I enjoy
Alterac Valley. Even with my somewhat limited PvP abilities I've managed to rack up thousands upon thousands of HK's in there, ground up enough honor for the HW sword before the expansion came out, and have continue to play through the
AFK'ers and into the dawn of this
new, glorious age where AFK'ers get much less out of it. In all that time, I've listened to my fellow Alliance complain that
they can't win in PvP and I've listened to my fellow Horde complain that
they can't win in AV.
The two characters I primarily run AV on are my Tauren Warrior and my Night Elf Warrior. And both have probably won and lost AV about the same. People complain about choke points, about AFK'ers, about terrain and NPC's and Windsor only knows what else sometimes to the exclusion of
playing. I can remember one AV where someone was so incensed about people spending their time in the cave that he actually went into the cave and counted them all
while the Alliance was making their big push on Drek'Thar.
Continue reading We have met the enemy, and he is us
Posted Sep 27th 2007 6:38PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Bugs, Realm Status, PvP
Are Battlegrounds and Arenas your favorite things to do in-game? Well, for today at least you may want to reconsider. Both US and EU realms are reporting problems with Battlegrounds and Arenas that are causing players to get stuck inside after the Battleground or Arena has finished. Having not heard of any issues with PvP yesterday, I've got to wonder if this might have something to do with the hotfixes applied early this morning. (Though I don't have any details on what the hotfixes were applied to fix -- it could have been related to
voice chat --
rolling restarts to apply them started in the US at 5:00 AM PDT and ended at 7:20 AM PDT -- with the initial post about Battleground and Arena issues coming at 7:25 AM PDT, the timing is suspicious.) Though Blizzard is working on the problem, we don't yet have any information on when the issue may be resolved, but until then, EU
CM Aeus says that if you're stuck in a Battleground or Arena, you may safely escape by either exiting and restarting your game client or by entering /afk (which, if done when the Battleground is finished, should kick you out without marking you as a deserter).
Posted Sep 27th 2007 8:00AM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Patches, PvP
I got the idea for this breakfast topic when I saw the following two posts virtually back-to-back in the WoW forums:
Reporting AFK'ers - a Pleasant Surprise, and
AFK Reporting System Broken And Abused. The former tells the story of the AFK system going well, all the AFKers being removed from the game, and the Horde going on to win. The latter is from the perspective of a player who was erroneously flagged AFK, and asks for several changes to be made, including a limit to the number of AFK reports a player can make in a given amount of time. (It turns out that limit, while not user-visible, is
already in place.)
So there are obviously some diverging perspectives on this AFK debuff system thing. What do you all think of it, having had a couple days to check it out?
Posted Sep 27th 2007 1:26AM by Krystalle Voecks
Filed under: Rogue, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items
In a move that many Rogues knew was coming, but
some are acting shocked at nonetheless... The "Stealth in and Sap flagged players just to annoy them" routine isn't working so well anymore. Specifically, if you're on a non-PvP server and you Stealth in and Sap a flagged player, it now flags you for PvP. There have been reports of folks getting their
faces eaten by guards in neutral cities for just Sapping other people. There's also been some
good World PvP starting up out front of instances for the normal/RP servers due to Rogues thinking they're going to be smart and interrupt flagged folks using the summoning stones/mounting up/etc.
Whoops...
Personally, I feel that Sapping another flagged player just to be a prat should always have flagged the Rogue in question. Sure, you've still got
a chance to get away if nobody happens to see through your stealth and/or you can pop Vanish or Sprint away fast enough. But 'lo and 'ware to any young Rogue thinking s/he can annoy another player by Sapping them and not get flagged by it any longer.
Posted Sep 26th 2007 11:05PM by Robin Torres
Filed under: Patches, News items, PvP, Forums
The
patch 2.3 lovefest continues with some PvP action, starting off with the Arena. Blue posters Drysc and Kalgan
have released information about Season 3 and what changes will be for it in patch 2.3:
Season 3:
- The Rating (not the points) required to purchase Season 3 weapons will be 1850.
- The Rating required to purchase Season 3 shoulders will be 2000.
- The Rating will not be required to wear the items, just to initially purchase them.
- The Personal Rating will be used to purchase the items, not the team rating.
Continue reading Patch 2.3 and you: PvP edition
Posted Sep 25th 2007 4:15PM by David Bowers
Filed under: Druid, PvP, Classes, Shifting Perspectives
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by Dan O'Halloran and David Bowers.Every class has its pet PvP problems. Some whine a lot about how many times they've been nerfed; others just whine about warlocks. But most of these classes have a pretty clear idea about what they're supposed to be doing. Sometimes they whine that they don't like "what they're supposed to be doing" and would rather remake their class into something completely different -- but that's another issue.
Here's the generally accepted conventional wisdom on what each class is supposed to be doing in PvP:
- Rogues: Kick buttocks (by surprise)
- Hunters: Shoot buttocks (from a distance)
- Mages: Freeze and burn buttocks (and sheep)
- Priest: Melt buttocks (or heal)
- Shaman: Shock buttocks, drop totems (and heal)
- Warrior: Charge in and smash buttocks (with a healer in tow)
- Paladin: Stay alive (and heal)
- Warlock: Laugh maniacally (a lot)
- Druid: Mix and match your healing, damage absorption, and buttocks-destruction by being in the right form at the right time to do the right thing that needs to be done based on whoever is around you and whatever is going on at any given moment (lol wut?)
Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: PvP is hard
Posted Sep 24th 2007 6:30PM by Matthew Rossi
Filed under: Realm News, PvP, RP, Forums
Tipster Shewa sends in this
interesting forum discussion from an RP-PvP server (Defias Brotherhood - EU) about what, exactly, is in bounds on such a server. Is it griefing to attack an RP function? Or is it okay as long as you're
in character as, say, a malevolent Alliance warrior who hates all blood elves and attacks them whenever he can, even when they're peacefully congregated for (as a possible example) a picnic in the woods?
I tend to be more in line with poster Rumbalt in this
page of the thread, when he says
Perhaps I expect to (sic) much of people, when stuff like this happens I have no trouble weaving unexpected stuff like this into a storyline, an a mass of the shadow being attacked by a violent and dangerous Horde guild. Back when I played on RP servers, I didn't wait for other people to roleplay, I played and let the chips fall where they may. Other posters point out that, since you can't communicate with the other side anyway, it's effectively impossible to know if they're attacking you in or out of character and so you should just always assume they're in character and ignore stuff like forum posts and message boards that would ruin the RP illusion anyway... since you're already missing one gloriously amethyst eye anyway. (I kid, but it's a good comic strip and deserves to be linked.)
I suppose I fall on the side of the 'it doesn't matter what they intend by attacking, you're on an RP-PvP server, role play your PvP response and just move on'. But it's an interesting debate. What are your thoughts?
Next Page >
