WoW PVP Panel Recap

We just got back from the World of Warcraft PVP panel where Tom Chilton, Cory Stockton, and Greg Street told everyone about the new PVP gameplay being added in the expansion, as well as some things on the horizon.  Read on for the recap of both the panel and the Q&A that followed.

The panel started with Cory Stockton -- Lead World Designer -- telling us about two new arenas: Ring of Valor and Dalaran Sewers, a new battleground called Strand of the Ancients, and Lake Wintergrasp -- a completely open, non-instanced world PVP zone.  “It gives players something they can't see anywhere else in the game. They can only experience this in Wintergrasp,” Stocking said.

The Ring of Valor

• Animated Platforms

• Dynamic Fire Hazard; 10% damage for 3 ticks (new damage type to prevent locking players down on the hazard)

• Very close starting positions; the fight starts right away

  • Pillars have unique textures so players can call out during games where they are.

  • Pillars rise on timed intervals with the fire to make you choose whether you want to have LoS blocking or not.

Dalaran Sewers

• Simple layout

• Dynamic Water Feature

  • Standing in the middle when water turns on causes you to be knocked back.

  • Creates collision and blocks line of sight.

• No Mounts

• Starting areas off-limits

  • You start in pipes; pipes are raised off the ground. If you stay inside the pipe you get knocked into the arena.

  • Crates placed on corners to create a perma-LoS blocker.

Strand of the Ancients

• Attack/Defend Gameplay

  • Winning attack round faster reduces time other team has to attack.

  • Changed from 10vs10 to 15vs15 and double the siege vehicles currently in beta.

• Destructible Buildings

• Siege Combat

  • Mines players can place at walls to deal siege damage. 3-4 second timer after dropped where enemies can come up and disarm.

  • Emplacement cannons players can get in and fire down on attackers. No cooldown other than global cooldown for firing.

• Multiple attack points

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  All walls have unique icons and colors to call out where they're attacking/what needs defending.

Wintergrasp

• Non-Instanced PVP

• Siege Vehicle Combat

  • Players must earn ranks to unlock the ability to use vehicles. Killing enemies earns you ranks.

• Destructible Buildings

• Attack/Defend game mechanics

  • Cooldown between games; 2 ½ hours between games.

    • Daily Quests open up specific for their faction.

    • Portal in Dalaran that opens to Wintergrasp.

    • Players can obtain Stone Keeper's Shards from bosses in Northrend.

  • Faction that controls Wintergrasp defends.

  • 35-45 minute game durations. Continually being tweaked in beta.

• Winning faction gains access to a unique raid instance.

  • 1 day lockout on instance.

Then it was time for Tom Chilton to take the microphone and share what's next for World of Warcraft's PVP systems.  One of the big things coming is a return to stronger itemization for battlegrounds.  “Players want to get PVP rewards from a different number of activities,” Chilton said, speaking of how Blizzard originally expected players would like all types of PVP gameplay, but they quickly learned that wasn't the case.

What's Next?

• Revisit pvp itemization, including arena vs. battleground rewards.

• Queue from anywhere

• Competitive battlegrounds or guild battlegrounds (“TBD”)

  • Ability to reward some of the better loot in the game via battlegrounds.

  • Measure a player's contribution and how successful you are to apply a rating.

• Experience gain in battlegrounds

  • Award experience in addition to honor.

  • Have daily quests all the way down at low levels to award experience.

Finally players had the mic turned over to them so they could ask questions of the developers.

Q&A

• Why don't pets get resilience?

  • “We have to balance how much time people spend killing the pet” -Tom Chilton

• Why can't Hunters shoot at point-blank range like casters can cast spells?

  • Hunters wear mail armor and are more durable than casters, primarily. -Tom Chilton

  • Disengage allows to get away and is a more interesting mechanic than simply allowing you to shoot point-blank. -Tom Chilton

• Will we see improvements to old battlegrounds to give them a facelift with new PVP mechanics?

  • Rather than mess with old battlegrounds, we want to make an effort to introduce more battlegrounds than in the past. -Tom Chilton

• Will we see changes to allow Paladins to stay in melee range?

  • We don't have plans to give Paladins the ability to Shadowstep or Charge, at the same time what we have done is try to make sure the control abilities you do have like Repentance and Hammer of Justice are more usable than before. -Tom Chilton

• Will there be a buff for the faction with less players in Wintergrasp?

  • Absolutely. Tenacity will scale based on the number of players in Wintergrasp. It scales your damage output as well as reducing the amount of incoming damage taken. -Cory Stockton

• How are ranks in Wintergrasp going to reset? I can sit back afk and still get honorable kills.

  • We don't have forced grouping, so you can't just leech honorable kills. You have to actively participate. -Tom Chilton

  • Ranks reset after each battle. -Tom Chilton

• Will the fire be there right away in the Ring of Valor?

  • It will be there right away. -Cory Stockton

  • Fire doesn't block LoS; casters and Hunters can attack across it. -Cory Stockton

• Resto Druids need nerfed in PVP, but can you do it without nerfing Balance and Feral?

  • Wrath is a different beast. From the beta tests we've seen, Druids don't look like the dominant force they are today. -Tom Chilton

  • We've changed the game quite a bit from Burning Crusade to Lich King. Hunters, Paladins, etc. A lot of those problems shouldn't be around in the arenas. -Greg Street

• Will we ever see racials balanced so certain races aren't better for certain classes?

  • We feel racials play a fun part in the game. We're trying to change them so they don't feel as crucial a part in arenas and make them more balanced. -Tom Chilton

• Will there be a grouping mechanic to help healers actually see health bars in Wintergrasp?

  • We're trying to avoid that because of the AFK problems, we don't want to give players free kills. -Tom Chilton