The Daily Quest : pvp

One Night of Fun...

Indelible — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:09:42 GMT

For those of you who care, I play on the European server, Bronzebeard. For those of you who were online last night, PvP probably wasn't the most fun thing as, for some of the night, there was no AV and then shortly after this, they took the rest of the battlegrounds down. That is when one of the best things since the release of The Burning Crusade happened to me.Â¦

Something must have bugged because everyone on Bronzebeard, both Alliance and Horde, who had queued for Arathi Basin when the cross-realm battlegrounds down, was shoved into the same AB together.

This won't mean much to many of you because, if you didn't play prior to the release of TBC, you won't have experienced old style PvP. Let me tell you about it.

Back before honour was introduced and cross-realm made battlegrounds readily available to the masses, PvP took time. A queue would last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. To give you an example, a typical AV used to last massive amounts of time. At one point, I logged on, joined AV and stayed in the AV for 13 hours. Things were so much more epic back then. The great thin was that you could really make a name for yourself based on how well you did. People on your server would begin to fear you.

Needless to say, cross-realm broke this feeling of epic-ness but it did bring obvious, easy-gear benefits.

So you get the idea. We were in AB - 15 Bronzebeard Horde Vs. 15 Bronzebeard Alliance. For the first time since the release of TBC, we would all get the chance to prove that our respective faction was the better of the two. This rare opportunity was not to be squandered.

Horde won. Like we always did back in the day. It was a comfortable win with little in the way of challenge. I say that like you aren't going to assume I'm bias towards my own faction.

I won't bore you with a rundown of the match but I shall quote Vortas, a rogue on my server, who sums up the game very well indeed.

Communication was excellent and teamwork was superb. Watching 6 alliance zerg the LM to be held up by 3 us and then to have to watch our roaming defence come charging up hill to wipe them out was just pure class.

Credit where credit is due, i enjoyed the game because you alliance didnt sit back an give up but kept coming at us trying to attack different positions an mixing it up! Thank you for the awesome game!

The sad thing is that this one match reminded me of how much I do, indeed, miss vanilla WoW. Oh how I wish we could go back to the good old days where names mattered and battlegrounds felt like more than a grindÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ unless you were going for High Warlord but that would be another, far more gruesome story.

I wonder, what do you miss about vanilla WoW that TBC changed?

Handholding into PvE

Indelible — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:33:02 GMT

In 2.3, Blizzard have made changes to both PvP and PvE to entice both parties into doing what Blizzard, in effect, wants them to do. The first changes of placing 2000 rating on the shoulder items and 1850 rating on some of the weapons gave the impression that Blizzard did not want PvEers in tiered items getting the PvP specific gear. The second and far more controversial change was the announcement that PvP rings and cloaks in Seaon 3 would only be available through the Badge system and that Karazhan and Zul'Aman would drop Badges off bosses.

PvE for PvP

Most PvPers exclaim that PvEers are not forced into PvP for items balanced for PvE and this is true. No single item in the PvP repitoire is balanced for PvE as they all have been balanced to surviability over damage. Despite this, lots of PvEers feel that the fact PvP weapons are so easy to attain is a way of forcing them to PvP in order to get items worth having in as little time as possible. I do not believe this is the case as there are, even if you do not have access to them, PvE weapons that are better at a particular task than their PvP equivalents and most importantly, the PvP equivalents aren't balanced towards PvE gameplay despite what the PvEers would like to think.

Despite this however, Blizzard have confirmed that items balanced towards PvP gameplay will only be available through the Badge reward system, requiring 60 badges for the PvP cloaks. This isn't too bad in the case of ranged, melee and spell damage DPS caster because there are already viable alternatives availabel through the honor system but healers have recieved the weak end of the stick.

Healer clocks will only be available through the badge system as their are no current PvP cloaks availabe through either the honor system of the arena system. As such, healers are compelled to enter heroics and 10-mans to attain those items.

That point not standing, there are still problems that face PvPers when entering PvE that determine this change to be a little bit awkward for Blizzard as they have to deal with what can only be called an onslaught of valid points that question the logic behind this decision.

Firstly, PvP specs for almost every class are specialised more so than PvE specs. Most classes have a defined PvE and PvP spec and 9 time out of 10 the PvE spec is also a fairly reliable PvP spec if you are not intending to hardcore PvP. PvP specs on the other hand present massive issues as Warriors, for example, are MS Arms in PvP (if they are wise) and will be required to respec prot if they wish to go to 5-mans or 10-mans. This presents a problem with respecing costs.

Secondly, PvEers, as I have already said, are not forced into PvP for any PvE orientated items. Yes, the arena weapons are good enough if you aren't a SSC/TK guild but at the end of the day, they are balanced for PvP and you are not working under the illusion that they are PvE items. If you are, you have issues. PvPers feel they are being handheld into PvE for PvP items. There actions are being dictated to them for items that are otherwise balanced for the aspect of the game they wish to play but are only available through the aspect of the game they wish to avoid. PvEers can, if they so chose, stay away from PvP and still get items that are good enough to progress convincingly through PvE content. PvPers are now being told that if they want the best gear for PvP situations they will have to jump into PvE or they will not get those items.

Blizzard have announced that the required reputation for Heroic keys has been dropped to Honored and you can attain honored with most factions while leveling up. I myself will have access to all of the Heroics thanks to this change but that still doesn't change the fact that we are being handheld into aspects of the game we have tried before and not enjoyed simply because Blizzard wants to milk as much longevity out of World of Warcraft as they can.

At the end of the day, players who don't want to PvE feel harrased by this patch. They feel that Blizzard are now dictating the game to them much like a single player FPS dictates what you shoot and when you shoot it. I feel that Blizzard are going in a direction they would be wise to avoid and with PvP orientated games like Warhammer Online and Fury due out this year and in early 2008, Blizzard need to start considering what they want there PvP player base to do. Do they want them to leave for better PvP experiences or do that want them to stay and continue paying for a game like WoW? If it is the latter, some major philosophical debates need to be had about PvP balance not only between the player base but also between the devs. Changes like the cloak change seem a little harsh and people don't like to be told what they have to do... especially in a gaming environment.

What Do You Listen To?

Indelible — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:42:53 GMT

Since gaming began oh so many years ago, music has been something that players have used to compliment the gaming experience. Today, World of Warcraft has many, "What are you listening to?" threads popping up here and there and it has become something of an obsession of mine. I like the thought of listening to Nine Inch Nails or Metallica playing whilst I'm owning Alliance in Warsong Gultch. It just... fits.

I thought I'd share with your my top 10 PvP songs. What you do with this information is up to you. Perhaps you can tell me how badly my taste in music sucks or you could go and listen to these songs to see if they are as good as I make them out to be.

10: Nine Inch Nails - Every Day is Exactly the Same
About a year ago now I was looking through a few Warcraft fan sites and one site had a, "WoW Number One," competition of sorts to see what was the most listened to song out of everyone song WoW players listen to. A few thousand people voted and this (just) came out on top. I can't remember the name of the site but I thought it was an interesting idea. Having never listened to this song previously (despite being a massive Nine Inch Nails fan) I stuck it on and proceeded to Arathi Basin and discovered that this song made that 4 minutes it was on so much more fun than they would have been.

9: Muse - Thoughts of a Dying Atheist
This one crops up by chance. It's a fast song with a time signature that makes you want to run around during the chorus. The lyrics however, frighten me a little because I am an aetheist and as such, I believe that life is the be all and end all and that when I die, there is nothing else. That said however, If I die in WoW, I just res. This song doesn't really suite the slow PvE nature of AV and it isn't heavy enough to psych you up for a 7 hour honor grinding session which is why it isn't higher up. That said, it is a brilliant song to WSG or AB to, especially when the guitar solo comes in.

8: Rammstein - Sonne
Now it's debatable but I think that almost any Rammstein song is good for PvP. Sonne however, stands out from the rest. It's heavy but not too heavy and that German voice does kind of psych you up with the strong lyrical undertones. I don't have a clue what he is saying but it must have something to do with Mind Blasting Night Elf Rogues, right? It's good to put on after you've had a few fast-pased hardcore metal tunes on too cool you down a little so you don't do yourself harm but at the same time, it keeps an acceptable level of psych so you can cool down, whilst killing. It's brilliant!

7: SOiL - Breaking Me Down
There are only two SOiL songs in existence that don't burst my eardrums and Breaking Me Down is only played when I'm in EotS. I don't know why but the fractured, floating pieces of rock hovering around with Nether Energy surging between them suit this song. In fact, it's fast pased and compliments the environment. I could imagine a song about Eye of the Storm sounding just like this one. Wierd? Don't get me wrong. It suits AB, WSG and AV ok but it is an amazing tune to play in EotS... especially when he says, "Breaking me down through the ground, sweet baby," and you fall of the edge.

6: Nightwish - Nemo

I don't usually like goth-operatic metal or whatever the hell they are calling themselves but Nemo is just a good tune. It's slow but it has enough power to just keep you going through every kill and death alike. Her voice is soft enough not to annoy the hell out of you and it actually serves to carm you when you would otherwise be prepared to take your monitor and throw it out of the indow.

5: Drowning Pool - Let The Bodies Hit The Floor
The lyrics say it all. "Let the bodies hit the floor." Yes! This song just has win written all over it. I'm surprised DP didn't write it specifically for PvPing to. It's amazing when you kill some just as he screams out those legendary words! I mean... come on? Who doesn't want to thave him scream those words just as some *** of a Warrior... hits the floor?!

4: Arch Enemy - Dead Eyes See No Future
Again - win! Arch Enemy are probably one of the finest heavy metal bands of my generation and Dead Eyes See No Future is an especially good song to PvP to. The lyrics don't matter. Half the time, I can't understand what she is saying anyway. It's the feeling behind it. There's fury in that song and fury is what you need when some Drenai Shaman has locked out your only damage tree (*cough* buff Shadow *cough*). Arch Enemy have some great songs and I vowed to only include one song per artist but We Will Rise and Nemesis deserves to be in at least anyones top 20!

3: Static X - Push It
We're getting in to the big boys now. Static X aren't exactly the most technical of bands but there is something about there music. I guess, like Marilyn Manson, they just rock! Push It isn't their best song but it is the best one to PvP to. Otsegolectric would probably be in the top 20 as well simply because it is a brilliant tune. The lead singer does that high pitched screaming thing that he does so well and it is entertaining whilst killing Night Elfs to listen to those rash vocals.

2: Sonata Artica - Black Sheep
I don't know why but ever since I started playing WoW this tune has cropped up at least three times a day, which is more than most others. It's fast pased and the band are technically quite entertaining. Listening to some of the vocals and guitar playing can be quite distracting at time but the art of a great PvP song is that it lets the time fly by without you knowing where it went. I mean, I've been listening to these songs as I've wrote about them. At one point in this particular tune, a rash guitar solo kicks in and you can't bu thelp get lost in it. I tend to go into autodrie and my hands kill things independent of my mind.

1: System of a Down - IEAIAIO
This is one of my most like tunes of all time. The vocals are madly fast in typical SoaD fashion and the guitaring is simple but furious. I ALWAYS sing along when he starts going I-E-A-I-A-I-O because you are compelled to - it's one of those things. It is probably the most entertaining song to PvP to. It's comical in a really odd way again, in typical SoaD fashion and it also makes dropping Nelfs for the 40,00o time in one day, entertaining again. It brings a whole new meaning to PvP for 3.08 minutes. It makes my PvP world seem that mush richer.

PvP Zones: The Good and the Bad

matticus — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:00:57 GMT

Don’t worry, I have absolutely no intention of blasting WSG, AB, EoTS, or AV. That’s already been done to death by countless others and I see no need in further adding my 1.8 cents to that pile (Canadian, remember?). With the release of Burning Crusade, Blizzard decided to add extra PvP related gimmicks to various zones in the outland after the huge, “success,” they had in Azeroth (Eastern Plaguelands) and Kalimdor (Silithus dust stuff). After that mammoth of a post I wrote yesterday about Priest gear and the time it took for me to make all the links Curse-able (Thanks Kody), I needed a break so let’s check it out shall we?

Hellfire Peninsula

The Good

This would the first PvP area that players encounter as they start to level from 58 – 70. The gimmick here is that killing members of the opposing faction or capturing the three points of interest (Stadium, Broken Hill, The Overlook) would net you honor tokens which you can turn in for some cool swag. In addition, if a faction held all three towers, that faction would get a zone wide buff good for PvP or PvE purposes (5% damage, still good in instances).

The Bad

Those three points change hands more times than Paris Hilton. It takes a party or even a small raid to maintain control of the points. No one’s going to take the time to do that. Players capture them then bugger off allowing the other side to take control and back and forth it goes. Make it more difficult and add something to dissuade the other side. I’m sure the Legion could install some Fel Flak Cannons around the area, which could be controlled by the faction owners of the points.

Zangarmarsh

The Good

A fair number of guilds have begun to enter Serpentshrine Cavern. That makes it beneficial to help get the zone wide buff (Also 5% in damage). What we have here is two towers flanking a middle tower. Capture them, and you get possession of a flag. Plant it at the central spire to gain the buff (No cheating, you can’t mount or shapeshift). Remember those marks you got in Hellfire? Yeah, they’re still good here. I know the Alliance one is somewhere a little ways from Telredor. I don’t have a clue where the Horde one is. Oh, you also get a graveyard in the middle.

The Bad

Did anyone really have an idea of what to do? There weren’t any instructions on how to properly get the bonuses. Talk about being noob-friendly. Aside from the graveyard, there wasn’t much of an incentive to do it.

Terrokar Forest

The Good

Here we go! This is one of Blizzard’s finest. Capture five Spirit Towers, and the entire zone gets 5% additional damage and 5% additional experience gained (Those of us at level 70 should gain 5% additional gold from mobs). Note that the effects last for six hours. After that time is up, the control of Towers can be disputed. With the Towers under your control, the Auchindoun instances now have Spirit Shards that can be looted from the bosses within. These Shards can then be turned into the Spirit Sages (Allerian Stronghold for Alliance, Stonebreaker Hold for Horde) for some cool epic swag. As a Holy Priest, he didn’t have much to offer me. What a waste.

The Bad

Players are too busy bombing eggs to help. The distance between Skettis and Skethyl Mountains makes it difficult to assist. I can’t count the amount of times I’d be busy trying to capture towers and yelling for raid invites and I’d get whispers saying: “Hold on! Just a few more eggs and I’ll be right down!” Get the Skettis Bird guys to start laying some eggs on top of the Spirit Towers. Make it easier for us to bomb them and capture them.

Nagrand

The Good

So here’s a town that’s capturable via PvP. All you need to do is bomb to submission the Guards (if there are any) and then make like Counterstrike radio spammers and “storm the front”. Your reward? Halaa, which is a town rich with amenities such as quest givers, vendors, and a (you guessed it) 5% damage increase buff across the zone. There’s 4 of these flight post things you can interact with that stuff you on a Wyvern (weird) which flies you around the city for you to lob explosives on players and guards below. When the Guards are neutralized, players go in and must defend the flag as it is being hoisted. Congratulations! The day is yours.

The Bad

It needs a flight path. Seriously. Or some kind of a portal which will shuttle us between the towns and Halaa. If only I had an epic mount to get me there. I think Halaa also needs some Flak Cannons. Nothing would bring me the satisfaction of shooting down a 64 Rogue who laughs, sneers, and spits as he flies by knowing there’s not a damn thing I can do about it (until he lands, anyway).

Wrath of the Lich King is promising additional World PvP fun. I’m waiting eagerly to see what it brings. That means more things to do in between those 50 minutes AV queues (Come on BG 9, I know you can do better). For the time being, we can only hope Blizzard might add another PvP gimmick in Netherstorm. I’d love to have 5% additional damage when taking on Kael’Thas. You know there’s this really popular map called DoTA on Battle.net, which might be adaptable to WoW…

In addition to the Daily Quest, Matt runs a WoW blog where you can find more related articles on Priests, Shamans, Guild Management techniques and more. Check it out at http://www.worldofmatticus.com/.

The Arena System - In General

Indelible — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:54:44 GMT

Needless to say, I want to complain about the queue system again so this time I am going to discuss interrupt effects first and then move on to the whine about arena queues and match ups.

Interrupt Effects.

In a team with warriors, rogues and shamans the only thing you can do as a caster is stand still and hope and pray that you don't die before they've finished with their interrupts. As a Shadowpriest (and thus only knowing what it is like from my perspective) this is not only the single most annoying moment in PvP but also the single most unbalanced against me.

Think about it this way: All other DPS casters have a multitude of trees they can cast from. Mages = Frost, Fire and Arcane. Warlocks = Affliction and Destruction. Even shamans and paladins can rely on their melee DPS when not being able to cast and they can also heal themselves as well. Shadowpriests, on the other hand, have one tree which is the Shadow tree. We can not heal ourselves and we have no other tree containing DPS options unless we drop shadow form. If we drop shadow form, we lose 15% of our durability and instantly die against melee. So what do we do? We just stand there and take it.

Originally, our 41-point talent was going to be a shadow heal ability. This would have balanced the above issue but instead, I got a mana return curse, that adds to my problems where interrupts are concerned and has to be renewed every 15 seconds. Add this to the fact that my two main abilities take time to cast and one of them roots me in position and I should basically have an interrupt effect above my head saying, "interrupts here," so that people can take me out of the fight without me even having to die.

I'm not complaining of course. After all, shadow priests shouldn't be balanced in group PvP because they are unbalanced in 1v1... even though by Blizzards admittance, 1v1 is not considered when balancing PvP. I'm perfectly willing to admit that I could be wrong but at the end of the day this is a problem that many priest has mentioned and it still gets ignored. One more thing to add to the long, long list.

Arena Match Ups

Earlier tonight I did 3v3 arena. This was fun because my arena team is a very dominant combination in this ladder as well as being 3 fairly good PvPers. What I did notice however, is that teams who had no hope of beating us were being presented to us time and time and time again and I failed to see how this was fair. Is it fair that a team who can't beat another team should be forced to play that team over and over again.

From what I can see, this is beginning to have a bad effect on players on my server. Teams who were constantly playing in season 1 have been driven out of the arena tournament and left hanging because they weren't quite skilled enough to play the teams that were constantly beating them. Don't get me wrong. I understand that you need to have some challenge when it comes to this type of thing but you wouldn't expect the top football (soccer) team in the world to lose to a few casual players, would you? Why should casual PvPers who want to do arena be forced to constantly lose to teams they have no hope of beating?

In other words, why hasn't Blizzard created brackets based on the average performance of teams in the season and why isn't the queue system stricter? All it takes is 10 matches and not the 1000 some teams seem to be putting in to raise your rating enough to smile about.

Maybe one day I will see something that will fix the shadowpriest interrupt issue. Maybe one day Blizzard will make an effort to provide an balanced PvP experience. Until that day comes, I shall sit here and grit my teeth for those of you who don't want to PvP in a hardcore way and I shall hope and pray that you get your worth... one day.

PvP and the Warcraft Movie

Indelible — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:00:50 GMT

At Blizzcon 2007, Blizzard executives Paul Sams and Chris Metzen as well as Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull and Chief Creative Officer Jon Jashni gave a presentation and held a short Q+A session to answer the crowds questions and to throw the press just enough to let them know that the project is very much alive.

One thing was clear after it all ended. Blizzard are not intending to make another PC game movie but rather an epic story that just so happens to based on lore created for a PC game initially. If we know anything about the Warcraft lore, we know that it is now shaped by far more than the PC games. Novels, comics and even cinematics have been labelled cannon by Blizzard so this just goes to show that this really isn't a PC to big screen conversion.

Another thing that was clear is the epic proportions Blizzard are going to, to make sure this movie is not only a massive success to the already-established fan base but also a massive success to the wider audience who haven't experience Warcraft yet. This is evident from the whopping $100 million budget that's been assigned to it as well as the comparisons to, "300, and, "Gladiator." Warcraft has a lot to live up to, being one of the tent pole movies for 2009.

What amused me was the description Metzen gave for the Warcraft movie, saying it was a, "war," movie. What does this mean? Well clearly it means we are going to be seeing epic battle scenes on a massive scale and this prospects impresses me. They did say, "Lord of the Rings," lots and this was very dangerous ground to tread in my opinion. If they take to much inspiration from the battle scenes in, "Lord of the Rings," the may be accused of copying the material and not giving us Warcraft-specific battle scenes. Then again, I've been playing WoW for a very long time and my idea of a Warcraft-specific battle scene is 8 hours in Alterac Valley. Ah, the good old days - the days when HK farming was perfectly fine because everyone else was doing it.

That leads me to my point. Will there be any familiar battles in this new movie? It would be amazing to see what Legendary think Arathi Basin or Warsong Gultch would look like in their view and I'd love to see Alterac Valley make an appearance in the movie so is it such an outrageous concept? I don't think so. None of the battlegrounds focus on anything other than the Horde v Alliance equation and don't really have massive lore behind them. In fact, they add to the lore, defining the major battles between the two factions. In my eyes, it would be criminal to leave these out and the movies should have at least one in there, at least for nostalgias sake. Come on, Metzen - do a kid a favor.

At the end of the day and as with all Blizzard projects, you never know what to expect. This movie could be a massive success, topping box office sales all over the world. On the other hand, it could be a complete flop.

We shall just have to wait and see but this gamer has one thing to say - say YES to AV for the Warcraft Movie!