The Art of War(craft): Tol Barad field report from the beta
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The latest beta patch had a lot of goodies from the obvious, such as new talents, to the subtle, like changed items. The most interesting news for me, of course, was that Twin Peaks and Tol Barad are finally open for testing. I didn't have much luck getting into a Twin Peaks game even after hours of being in queue, but I did manage to get more than my fair share of Tol Barad battles. Granted, it was far from massive -- neither side barely managed more than two parties, let alone a full raid -- but it was easy enough to learn how everything works.
Today we'll dive right into Tol Barad, from the landscape to the gameplay to other random notes about the new world PvP zone. The isles of Tol Barad's actual geographical location is a bit curious at the moment. From the games panel at last year's BlizzCon, the developers showed a map where Tol Barad was in a body of water west of Khaz Modan, south of the Hillsbrad Foothills and east of Gilneas. The current Cataclysm beta map isn't the same, although there are two small islands west of Gilneas and north of Vashj'ir that could represent Tol Barad. There is currently no physical means to go to or leave Tol Barad -- players must enter by queuing for the battle and leave through other means such as a hearthstone. The zone currently does not permit flight, even between battles.
The southern island of Tol Barad is where the battle occurs. Each battle has a 30-minute timer and occurs every hour, although I have seen instances in the beta where battles happen as close as 15 minutes from each other. There are three buildings that can be captured and three towers that can be destroyed. Attacking forces must capture all three buildings and hold them for a certain period of time (although in the beta, merely capturing the third tower ends the battle immediately), and destroying the towers adds several minutes to the timer.
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As mentioned, buildings are captured through proximity and numbers -- so if the Alliance and Horde have equal numbers, the slider will not move. However, if one side has even just one more player over the other, the slider will move control toward the faction with higher numbers. The progress appears to be constant, although I haven't experienced enough numbers on the beta realms to be absolutely certain. From what I've seen, the slider moves at a constant rate regardless of how much one faction outnumbers the other.
It goes without saying that it's important to take down enemy players to whittle down their numbers. Fortunately for the attackers, there's an attacker-friendly graveyard right beside the building. Defenders resurrect in Baradin Hold, at the center of the map, roughly 30 seconds away from any building flag on an epic land mount. The distance favors the attacking forces slightly, and defenders will find themselves losing more and more players even against evenly matched opponents. Once attackers wrest control of all three buildings, the game ends immediately and control is ceded to them. If defenders successfully prevent the attackers from doing this for 30 minutes (or more -- more on that in a bit), control of Tol Barad remains with the defending faction.
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That's pretty much it. The mechanics are pretty simple, and it'll take about one game of running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out the map before players understand the battleground. Blizzard learned its lesson this time around and wisely spread out the areas of conflict, which should prevent the lag and world-breaking chaos that Wintergrasp wrought on Northrend. Because three areas need to be controlled and another three areas defended, there are basically six hot spots where players are likely to amass. Due to low numbers in the beta, there's no way to stress test the zone, but like Wintergrasp, there's a player limit to Tol Barad enforced through the queue system, so it's unlikely to be a problem.
The map also seems to encourage a lot of moving around. When a building is under siege, the zone alerts all players and gives them the option to head to the area of conflict. Attackers begin the game at the South Spire, while defenders start atop the tower in Baradin Hold. The raised area effectively prevents kill farming by a superior attacking force but also leaves defenders very few options. Defenders gain a Slow Fall buff for a few seconds after resurrecting to allow them to jump down without taking any damage.
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Once the battle ends and Tol Barad is controlled, players can presumably head to the northern peninsula, which is slated to be a daily quest hub for Cataclysm. There are Horde and Alliance encampments on the island, so it's unclear whether either side can undertake or complete quests while the island is controlled by the opposing faction. There are no faction NPCs in this current beta build, although there are level 85 mobs populating the island, comprised mostly of undead, spiders and humanoids. Currently on the PvE beta server, players become unflagged for PvP in the peninsula once the battle is over, although Zarhym has noted that the plan is to keep Tol Barad a PvP zone at all times (the northern peninsula might function differently from the southern combat area, however). MMO Champion also showed some items tagged as Tol Barad rewards, although curiously, none of them appear to be PvP items.
It doesn't appear that gameplay will change much until Cataclysm launches, other than perhaps a few tweaks to timers or adjustments to towers or siege tank health values. It looks like fun for now, but it should be even more amazing with full raids. We'll see if the developers add more to the world PvP zone in coming builds, and as always, we'll be in the thick of battle to bring you intel from the field. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe another battle is coming up in 6 minutes and 26 seconds.
It doesn't appear that gameplay will change much until Cataclysm launches, other than perhaps a few tweaks to timers or adjustments to towers or siege tank health values. It looks like fun for now, but it should be even more amazing with full raids. We'll see if the developers add more to the world PvP zone in coming builds, and as always, we'll be in the thick of battle to bring you intel from the field. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe another battle is coming up in 6 minutes and 26 seconds.
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20101102043254im_/http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2010/08/zach-taowc-cata-grab-bag-pvp_thumbnail.jpg)
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, The Art of War(craft) (PvP), Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
NightEternal Aug 19th 2010 4:10PM
Any word on whether or not there will be a VOA style raid that is accessible to the winner of the Tol Barad battle? Seems with the battle every 30 minutes, it doesn't leave much room for raiding. However, the frequent battles might be in place for testing purposes. I heard that this place was supposed to be a large quest hub. So 30 minutes seems a bit quick.
Hob Aug 19th 2010 4:25PM
The question about a raid was addressed on The Queue this morning (there is one: Baradin Hold). However, your question also brings up the point of daily quests; the faction in control of the zone is supposed to have "more" daily quests than the other faction. I agree: it doesn't seem like there's enough time do do everything...
BritishBulldog Aug 19th 2010 4:34PM
I'd say it's for testing purposes, Considering the raid isn't testable yet (Or at least I assume it's not). When they get more feedback on finetuning the battle and start testing the raid I'm betting on them raising the time similar to VoA... Or at least putting something in place to make sure people have enough time to complete the raid.
Zach Aug 19th 2010 6:07PM
The battle lasts for 30 minutes, but control of the zone has ranged from 15 minutes to an hour, if I recall correctly. I'm fairly certain it will be a longer period once it goes live.
AnneM Aug 19th 2010 4:14PM
They had mentioned using a new population balancing system for Tol Barad and Wintersgrasp to try to keep the alliance/horde population more even. Is this in effect? How is it working out?
Zach Aug 19th 2010 6:08PM
Yes, actually. They have a new system that (obviously) doesn't get to see effect due to the low numbers in the beta. You can read more about it in greater detail here:
http://www.wow.com/2010/04/30/upcoming-changes-to-wintergrasp-tol-badard-details-revealed/
Eirik Oct 7th 2010 4:44PM
As a representative on a Low-pop, vastly-imbalanced realm (Chromaggus), I can authoritatively state that the balancing system mentioned (the april 30 post that was linked earlier) will guarantee that while many in the dominating faction on the server will be unable to enter Tol Barad, that same faction will dominate the battleground from the moment level 85 characters begin appearing.
We have difficulty getting 10 people into Wintergrasp (on the underdog faction) simply due to population. At peak server times.
There are more reasons than organized boycotts for battlegrounds to be under-served. ... and it seems silly to expect that Tol Barad will, by itself, be motive enough to encourage faction swapping, or server moves to underdog factions.
Thallium Aug 19th 2010 4:17PM
Have they mentioned a player cap, or something similar to tenacity? There's a huge faction imbalance on my server, so we only capture WG once out of every 4 times attacking. If capturing a node is based on population, should I give up on ever capturing Tol Barad now?
Zach Aug 19th 2010 6:09PM
See my response above. They've got a cool new system they plan to implement and should be applied to Wintergrasp in a future patch before Cataclysm goes live.
Thallium Aug 19th 2010 7:34PM
@Zach - Thanks for the follow up. I remember reading that now, of course, but having a refresher's nice.
ATechRevolution Aug 19th 2010 4:19PM
It seems to me that, while defenders are at a disadvantage once the game gets going, they may be at an advantage at the very beginning. Since attackers need to capture ALL of the bases, and since the mechanic of Tol Barad forces even numbers (as long as the numbers are over 25), in a 25v25 match, what if all defenders went north and just sat there the whole time? They would get there before the attackers, as they start half the map closer. The other team would not be able to get control, as the defense would have max players there. An entrenched defense is also likely to be stronger than a bull-rushing offense (let's be honest, when do we ever see anything more coordinated than GO WEST!!!! in WG). Thus, the attackers can have the other two bases, destroy all the towers, and the defense can still have a solid win.
I'm just wondering if this is a feasible strategy, or if someone who knows far more about large-scale PvP than I do could debunk my theory?
Iirdan Aug 19th 2010 4:56PM
Well, in theory, that will only work as long as the offense is occupied destroying and capturing. Once the towers are all destroyed and bases captured, they'll all go to the northern tower since defense isn't assaulting other towers. Every player of the offense vs. every player of the defense could go either way, so it's really not a very good strategy in the long run, I'd say.
mingdi9 Aug 19th 2010 5:07PM
That's a pretty stupid strategy because you've just handed the other five objectives on the map to the attacking side. Let's say it takes about four minutes to claim the two bases and destroy the three towers with no defenders, and that destroying a tower gives you about four minutes (I honestly hadn't been paying attention, so I'm not sure how much time it gives).
That means the defenders have to hold onto the northern base for about 38 minutes to win. Keep in mind, also, that the numbers will likely be more balanced than in WG, and also that the defenders will respawn in the middle while the attackers will respawn next to the base, which means it's fairly unlikely that the defenders will win unless they're just that much better than the attackers.
Zach Aug 19th 2010 6:10PM
You only need THREE objectives, the buildings. The towers just add to the timer.
Will post strategies once I actually get a feel of bigger scale battles.
ATechRevolution Aug 20th 2010 7:46PM
It makes a lot of sense that this defense would fail because the attackers would spawn right next to the base, while the defenders would have to run back. I didn't take that into account in my original plan. Thanks!
Peter Aug 19th 2010 4:56PM
It looks like it will mostly turn into WG2.
Attackers start at the bottom, they destroy the southern tower ( which adds more time) fairly quickly. If they split evenly, they should also be able to capture the two southern buildings.
Seems to me, it will be just like WG, where after 10 minutes, everyone is focused around that northern building and a small force(from attackers) is kept south to defend the two other buildings (similar to how we should defend the southern towers).
The early fighting will happen on those 3 bridges and north of the swamp, but once the two northern towers are destroyed, the defends will be forced to turtle the last building (similar to the courtyard now).
I think what they are going for is something similar to AB where the action can occur at any of the 3 buildings (5 in ab).. but I think the attackers have too much of an advantage with 2 of the 3 buildings and there are a LOT more people playing WG than there is in an AB.. it's much easier to keep defenders behind when there are a 100 of you. In AB, 'rear' resources are often left unguarded in Pugs just because of lack of communication, so it's easy for the other team to pick one off now and then. This won't happen with 100 players.
Boobah Aug 19th 2010 6:11PM
The big difference between this and Wintergrasp, objective wise, is that the attacker has to hold onto the captured buildings.
The defenders, thanks to respawning in the center of the map, have an advantage when it comes to shifting their efforts from one building to another. The offense has the advantage in pressing an attack home, since they respawn closer to the objectives.
Zach Aug 19th 2010 6:11PM
Not quite. It'll be pretty evened out, from what I've seen. Players will move around the map or defend one area. It's pretty much guaranteed not to lag because of the hard cap on players allowed into the zone during a battle.
Jack Miles Aug 19th 2010 5:27PM
On a video I've seen (totalbiscuit I believe) it's possible to go underneath the capture points via the tunnel systems and start capturing like that. Since there's no direct route from a capture point to the rooms below, this creates 3 more points of conflict.
Zach Aug 19th 2010 6:14PM
That's an awesome tip, Jack. Will go try that.