Arena talk, Blue posts, Wallpaper, Comics

Gotfrag have interviewed the World of Warcraft designer Kalgan. The article mainly cover aspects of the Arena.

Blizzard has released sign up information for its WoW Tournament; how do you think the community will react to this years event and what turn out are you expecting?

The community’s reaction has been very positive so far. We’ve used the feedback from last year’s event to refine this year’s structure, and we’re expecting a strong turnout for the tournament.

Blizzard’s tournament last year was the focus of the WoW competitive scene, are you hoping for a similar focus on this years Blizzard tournament?

We aim to hold premiere events every year, and this year is no different. Our intention is to continue running topnotch competitive events that players want to take part in and spectators want to watch.

The idea of “eSports” has been a big part of Blizzard’s corporate strategy, what impact do you think eSports has on the success from a business side for Blizzard and other game developers? We understand that Blizzard has established a dedicated eSports group. Could you comment on what that group is chartered to do?

For our company, eSports has been a key to the longevity of several of our titles. With StarCraft celebrating its 10th anniversary, there are still active communities and eSports organizations that support it along with our other titles. The Blizzard eSports group is responsible for developing Blizzard Entertainment’s presence in the increasingly popular eSports scene. Its main role consists of preparing and operating tournaments around the world. Additionally, it provides third-party support for various eSports leagues and communicates balance feedback to the developers.

Read the full interview with all the questions & answers here.

Blue Posts

Rogue 2 versus 2 in the Arena

Slorkuz returns and this time he's posting about his views on the Rogue in 2vs2 Arena.

Well, allow me to give you my personal take on this :)

I believe that rogues in 2v2 have a variety of viable combinations. Before entering into a debate on what partner you should chose though, I want to note that in my opinion, coordination and synergy between yourself and your partner is more, if not the most, important to gaining a winning result.

When you start playing with a new partner, I firmly believe that there is an "adaptation" process where you must first learn to combine your different play styles into one cohesive strategy. Allow me to use an example with Rogues; One Rogue might be a very "aggressive" player and charge out in hopes to get the jump on a target before they get "set up" or perhaps catch an enemy stealther off guard and get the opener. Another Rogue might have a more defensive play style and prefer to wait it out a little bit and perhaps capitalize on your opposing team getting impatient by catching an enemy player in the wrong location at the wrong time.

While both of these forms of "rogue play styles" can and does work very effectively if executed correctly, they carry a requirement of significantly different expectations to their team mates' approach and play style.

This kind of adaptation and team synergy carries over to every team composition, albeit arguably some more than others. Coordinating crowd controls, offensive bursts and positioning in the arena are the keys to functioning successfully as a team.

Personally, when doing arenas, I prefer to discuss with my partner possible matchups and what kind of "game plan" we should execute prior to entering. Then, later, if we encounter a setup or set of plays that left us with a loss, we often sit back and think/talk about what went wrong and what we can do to counter what just happened to us.

That being said;

For 2v2s as a Rogue I believe some of the most common setups are as follows:

Rogue/Restoration Druid

Combining the mobility and control of a Rogue with the survivability and utility of of a restoration Druid, this composition can be very effective while executed correctly. Between Cyclone, Sap, Blind, Roots and feral abilities on the druid's account such as feral charge and bash, a well coordinated set of plays can present your opponents with a tough choice; trinket a Blind in order to heal while risking getting charged/bashed, or eat the blind and hope their partner can stay alive by own merits for the duration of the CC.

Rogue/Discipline Priest

What discipline priests lack in terms of mobility, they make up for in terms of utility and synergy with a Rogue partner. Fears, mana burns, instant heals/shields and both offensive and defensive dispels couple very well with a Rogue's control abilities. A well executed priest fear on an opposing healer while their partner is low health (fear gets trinketed) followed by a Blind by the rogue and subsequently an optional Vanish->Sap can leave the lowhealth target without heals for a healthy duration allowing an opportunity to finish him off.

Rogue/Warlock

This team relies on the tactic "kill before being killed". Between the utilities and CC's of both classes and improved stealth detection from the warlocks felhunter, this combination allows the rogue to very often get the opener on a stealthed target. Add a warlock's survivability to the mix while executing some well timed CC combinations (fear->blind->vanish/sap), this formation is considered one of the most potent "double dps" 2v2 teams.

Rogue/Mage

Similiar to a Rogue/Warlock setup in the sense that this is a 2dps team requiring a quick kill, both classes have an arsenal of CC and survival abilities if they get jumped. The spike damage of a Mage "Shatter Combo" and a Rogue stunlock with damage, this composition can be particularly lethal if the crit numbers are high.

Rogue/Rogue

Also a popular 2dps formation currently, this team composition relies mostly on one thing; Getting the opener on your opponents and controling the fight. If either of the two rogues gets jumped/cc'ed off the bat, it can be hard to recover and pull of a win. Coordinating stuns and CC's is also an important part of this team's strengths. An example is having one Rogue unload a 5pt Kidney in anticipation that the target will trinket while the second rogue holds back ready to re-apply (albeit diminished duration) second stun. Coordinating interupts is also key to this combination.

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I am sure that there are other setups that can be effective, but I will leave the elaboration on those up to other players. Again, I would like to reiterate my opinion that the most important points to being successful in the arenas is communication, team synergy and executing a plan together.

I hope my opinions and suggestions have been helpful, and I welcome further discussion as always :)

Best of luck to you!

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"Worldwide Invitational" information

"Worldwide Invitational" relates to the tournaments being held for StarCraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft. An invitational is the style of choosing the participants, where they don't necessarily compete in preliminary rounds, but are hand picked to compete solely at the event.

While some contests for wwi may be restricted to EU residents only, our own BlizzCon is planned to have a similar set of contests from previous BlizzCon years and likely similar rules and restrictions. Keep an eye on the BlizzCon site for contest announcements and rules/restrictions as they become available.

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Will WotLK change profession slots from 2>3?

We have no current plans to add another main profession slot to characters in Wrath of the Lich King.

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Fan Art Wallpaper

We just added a new fan wallpaper to our World of Warcraft fan wallpapers section. This wallpaper features the dreaded demon lord, Kil’jaeden, facing Illidan, Lady Vashj and Kael’thas.