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.

 

 

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