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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.
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.
My first and only taste of PvP was the outdoor variety. The old Tarren Mills/Southshore dance. It was chaotic and horribly unbalanced and immensely fun. I haven't progressed to more formal forms of PvP, but it got me thinking lately about the different ways players enjoy combat against each other.
That leads me to ask: what is your favorite form of PvP and why? Old school outdoor PvP for chaotic tag and run? Arenas for the emphasis on skill? Battlegrounds for the variety and challenge? Outlands outdoor PvP for occasional PvP fun during while soloing? Or just straight up PvP servers where you never know when your next ganking is going to materialize from behind or come blazing toward you from afar?
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.
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.
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...
All versions of the trinket have a click effect to gain 1750 max health (kind of like the old lifegiving gem effect), along with a passive effect (your choice of 47 spell damage, 40 spell crit rating, 80 attack power, 40 melee crit rating, or 88 healing). (source)
They cost badges of justice, which will also be available off Kara and Zul Aman bosses. (source)
They're open to all classes. The click effects share a cooldown though, so you won't be able to stack that effect. (source)
One player was very unhappy that he would be forced to PvE just so he can got back to PvP'ing. Kaplan responded that experiencing different parts of the game isn't such a bad thing and stood his ground on that decision. I wonder if he'd feel the same if he forced PvE players into PvP for better gear.
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.
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]
Arcane Brilliance is here again, this time looking at mage PvP. When I began playing the game, PvP consisted of standing outside of Goldshire spamming the "duel" request. Sure there was world PvP, but it didn't really take off until the honor point system was in place. A couple months after that, the battlegrounds were born, places specifically designed for factions to duke it out. The next iteration of WoW PvP came in the form of arenas, the caged death match of the game. Dueling was never my style, but I enjoyed the battlegrounds quite a bit (mostly due to the geek-out factor as a result of playing Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.)
I bring this up to make a point. PvP has changed dramatically in two years, and each aspect requires a different set of skills. In the battlegrounds I was a ninja mage who spent so much times camping Iceblood Graveyard my Alterac Valley ram and I could have built a winter cottage there. I stood in the trees or on ledges and nuked anyone who might happen by. I see much that is similar in dueling and arena combat. Lock down your opponents by any means possible, and once you have the adds controlled, nuke 'em into next Tuesday.
The PvP of today is a vast new world that sometimes scares me, and in the words of Illidan much of me is not prepared. But I can save you the trouble by giving you a glimpse into the stats required for mage PvP.
In one of the rarest turnarounds I've ever seen on the forums, a couple of posters made doom and gloom posts with titles like "Tom Chilton doesn't care about healer people!" -- apparently because the developers didn't make a special PvP cloak available in the game. So then Tom Chilton, posting as the fearsome lich Kalgan, comes right back at them and says "one PvP healing cloak, coming right up!" followed by, "would you like fries with that?"
No that's not actually what he said... but close enough. He really said:
There's a PvP healing cloak in patch 2.3. The vital stats are...
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.
After not playing in there for what probably has been months, I found myself back in Alterac Valley this morning-- with the recent AFK changes, things have just gotten so much more active in there, and considering this weekend is an AV honor weekend, there will probably be a lot of blood shed beween the Frostwolves and the Stormpikes. Of course, just because players are active doesn't mean they know what they're doing-- we had twenty people standing around the SP GY flag this morning, and I was the only one actually clicking on it to capture. Oh well.
And now that players are playing in there, it's time to look at the other problems in AV-- map balance and fun factor. That bridge is still an issue when Alliance actually sit down and guard it, but the past few matches I've seen have a completely other problem-- it's just a zerg race. Sure, some folks stay on D at times, but really it's just a matter of which side gets to the other boss first.
And Neth says changes are coming, specifically that Blizz wants to make AV "more fun" and "more balanced." She can't say what that means yet, but I'd be very surprised if the "more balanced" part didn't involve a little map adjusting. As for the "more fun," who knows? Personally I'd like (and I know some of you share this sentiment) to see additions in terms of the PvE stuff, but Blizzard has learned a lot since they first created AV. Instead of the summoning quests and the NPCs entering the action, I'm guessing there'll be things like zone-wide buffs and other Halaa-like happenings.
But as always, we'll see. In the meantime, who wants to go get Balinda with me?
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).
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?
After not playing in there for what probably has been months, I found myself back in 
I got the idea for this breakfast topic when I saw the following two posts virtually back-to-back in the WoW forums: 
