WotLK
PvP Changes and Blue Posts
PvP Developer Q & A
Why is it so hard to measure skill in a battleground and have rated BGs
?
I wish it were that simple. However, for a rating system to reasonably
zero in on the skill of a single player in a game with teammates it
takes a number of games approximately equal to ten times the number of
players participating on that player’s team.
So for example, for a rating system to have all the information it needs
to know to figure out how “good” of a battleground player you are in
Alterac Valley, it needs to take about 400 games to do it (10 times the
number of players on your team). Unfortunately, that’s without the
additional complexities of being able to queue solo versus queueing as a
group, etc.
It would be kind of annoying to have to play about 400 games of AV
before the system could decide what items you’re eligible for. So, there
are some complexities in creating a system to work around that problem
(among others).
Archavon changes (Lake Wintergrasp Boss)
We don’t plan to change Archavon, as he needs to have compelling loot
that isn’t something you can’t possibly get another way. However, I
think it’s important to note that Archavon does not drop the helm or
shoulder slots (or weapons), which are the hardest to obtain both in pve
and pvp.
Why is PvP gear available for purchase for PvE tokens with no rating
requirement ?
To put it simply, you can’t endlessly wipe on raid bosses and get these
tokens. At some point, you have to succeed. Even then, the pvp gear you
get from these tokens is 1 tier behind their pve value (ie: the ilevel
213 pve tokens from Nax 25 only get you “Hateful Gladiator” gear which
is ilevel 200). It’s not possible to get the “best” pvp set items
through pve.
Are there any plans of allowing us to attain PvE gear through
honor/arena points?
For the most part (lack of tanking gear aside), if you have the
highest-end pvp gear, you can do fairly well in a “tier behind” raid (ie:
10-man nax). So, for the most part that dynamic already exists.
WotLK Battlegrounds Changes
No Honor Points Increases for WotLK
Battlegrounds wins/losses and honorable kills will not award experience
after the next patch, nor upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King. It
could always happen somewhere down the road as we work to improve PvP
progression, but there are no plans for changing this in the immediate
future.
Battlegrounds Discussion with
Tigole
Actually, we have been discussing new battlegrounds quite a bit lately.
Wrath of the Lich King will feature Strand of the Ancients
(attack/defend) as well as Wintergrasp (non-instanced, world PvP).
But past that, we are exploring ideas that would involve expanding our
Battleground content in future patches and beyond. We believe we have
some strong ideas for improving Battlegrounds and PvP as a whole in the
game and we’re definitely going to focus on improvements in the future.
Now, it’s very early to be talking about some of this stuff but I think
it’s important for the community to know that it’s on our minds.
Our general thought is that we could provide more BG content over time.
The BG content that we could provide could be of higher quality with a
higher degree of accessibility. Overall, we’d like to have more content
and variety. We also want the gameplay experience in the BGs to be
better directed. We’re also exploring the concept of a complimentary
“competitive” bg system as well. Over time, we’d like the focus of PvP
to shift back to being more BG-centric and more focused on Horde versus
Alliance — the core of our game.
We’re also planning on improving some Battleground and PvP features in
general. For example, we want to give you the ability to queue for
Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world. We’re also going to explore
EXP gain through the PvP system as well as low level itemization to
support that.
Please don’t take this post as a promise. This won’t be an overnight
process. Not all of these things are set in stone and guaranteed to
happen. It would take us a while to shift in this direction. But these
are some of the current thoughts on the development team. I think it’s
important for you guys to know some of our thought process in regards to
PvP.
Blizzard developers excited
about WotLK PvP-only zone
by Michael Zenke Jan 4th 2008 at 1:00PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Game mechanics, New titles, Previews,
PvP, Endgame
We've known for some time now that Blizzard's upcoming expansion to
World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King, would introduce new dynamics
to the PvP game. Siege weaponry, destroyable buildings, and other new
features will be central to the conflict over Lake Wintergrasp. In a
brief excerpt from an interview with the site PC Zone, CVG is reporting
that the Blizzard developers are mighty enthused by possibilities of the
zone.
They're also quite serious about the PvP nature of the zone. Jeff Kaplan
is quoted as saying 'in no way, shape or form will we support PvE
players in [Lake Wintergrasp]'. This would seem to address one of the
big vulnerabilities that WoW has in the face of Warhammer's upcoming
launch. Dedicated world PvP areas is a feature players have been asking
after for some time. It will be interesting to see what player reaction
will be to all this PvP love.
Jeff Kaplan Talks About WoTLK
PvP And More
by Angelo on January 4th, 2008
PC Zone had the honor to talk to Blizzard’s lead designer Jeff Kaplan (Tigole).
From what was released in the internet, it looks like the additional
information about WoTLK is very exciting. Unfortunately you’ll have to
buy the magazine to get the rest of the information at the moment or
wait until it’s leaked out by someone who bought it.
According to World of Raids Kaplan gave a the following description
about Northrend’s PvP only zone:
cool part of Northrend is new big PvP zone. It’s about the size of
Westfall, and will be all-PvP - in no way, shape or form will we support
PvE players in it
It’ll be optional, but it’ll be completely non-instanced, have multiple
objectives, siege weapons and destructible buildings
Having a PvP only zone for the WoTLK expansion should be a great way to
expand on the idea of the PvP areas in the current Outlands zones like
Halaa, Bone Wastes and the others. Making it a completely different zone
dedicated for nothing but pure unadulterated PvP is a great idea since
it will be more focused and it won’t get n the way of the people who
just want to quest in the zones. If you’re bored of doing the
battlegrounds or arena pvp, this should be a nice way to try something
new.
World of Raids also shares that Kaplan mentioned about giving a better
feel to entering Northrend.
We absolutely need to make the entry to Northrend epic”
“…we originally had the entry to Burning Crusade’s Dark Portal as a
bunch of cohorts waling around, and people reacted badly. This really
hammered home the fact that we needed to raise expectations on entering
the expansions”
I actually thought that first area upon entering the Dark Portal was
kinda cool. If they’re making the entrance to Northrend even more epic
than that then now I’m really more excited to see what it might be like.
By the way, if you didn’t already know (since I failed to mention it
when it came out before), there will be two starting zones in the
Northrend called the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord. Having two
starting zones will allow for more flexibility when playing the game. If
you’re bored with one zone you can go to the other. If you intend to
level several characters to 80 you can choose one for your first and the
other for the second. It will really be up to you but it’s nice to have
a second option.