This is Not the Post You're Looking For...

New PTR Push, and no I haven't downloaded it yet coz I'm trawling through MMO's site, where they have. There's a gazillion sound files for Icecrown, and there's a lot given away. Go there at your peril.

What has grabbed me most however (apart from the Meeting Stone change, which frankly is well overdue) is this line of text:

PvP
Battlegrounds

• All level 71-80 Battleground daily quests will now award 25 Arena points in addition to their current rewards.

Now, this is fairly huge. Yes, really, it is. Before 3.3 THE ONLY WAY to get arena points was via the Arena, quite obviously. The fact that Blizzard has now decided to award them for BG victories is pretty damn significant.

I assume it will work like this: all current Season's gear (the stuff that requires an actual team rating) will remain as is, but the previous Season's gear (and by that I don't just mean armour, I mean weapons as well) will have it's rating removed, thus allowing people to purchase them both after reaching the current points total. By far the biggest beef of everyone I know in PvP is the fact you have to play arena to buy resilience weaponry. Not any more, I'd fancy.

This is great news for my slacker PvP aspirations. Yes, I can see myself  grinding a 2 hander for P at least. But what is probably more significant is the fact that from 71-80 I can now level in BG's and have some points towards what would be (if it is true) some fairly decent kit for my alt family. Weaponry is always a big beef at 80: not just the main hand stuff but (certainly in the case of my casters) the offhands. Offhands are like hen's teeth when you run on a casual basis. Shields too, especially in the case of my Shaman.

I can see a lot of hardcore Arena players getting annoyed by this, as it's undoubtedly another concession by Blizz for the casuals. For me at least it's a great step forward in making PvP viable in my relaxed playing style.

Never Easy...

I feel the Shaman's Achievement List is worth reproducing today, for several reasons:

Yes, that's the Alterac Blitz, right there. It's the first time since the Achievement appeared I've been in a group that looked anywhere capable of completing it. Doing so, frankly, was glorious. Forty people went to Garv, dispatched him, and then 40 people went to Drek, without exception. 23 people got the Achievement with me. All on a Monday Lunchtime too... I'm going to be forced to do the rest of the AV achievements now... :D I should also make a nod to the two significant Ulduar achievements as well: XT in 205 secs, Sif and Thormin down to 45% before we wiped. This means we're now in the top 10 of Strict 10 Man Achievements on our Server. Not too shabby at all.

Now, all I need is enough Honor for a trinket and a pair of boots and I can add Epic To M's Achievement list...

The Glory Days

Standing Guard at Snowfall

It's official: PvP is great again.

For me at least, Arenas kinda sucked all the life and fun out of the entire PvP experience. It became too much about the gear and not enough about enjoying the game. To do PvP you needed to be Pro: top notch gear, imba friends, hours of practice for quick bursts of adrenaline and rewards that, although impressive, did not seem enough for all the work needed to get them. If you did BG's they were slow, frustrating and ultimately depressing if you were Alliance in my Battlegroup. When Blizzard announced the XP gain in Battlegrounds and the changes to each area a bit of me silently /cheered and hoped that finally there'd be some love for the people who play their game in PvE and take PvP as a hobby. As it stands, I've yet to be disappointed.

Losing a game is no longer a loss when everything sub L80 has a benefit. My Shaman's been PvP-ing pretty much constantly for the last three levels between questing, and it's 325 kinds of awesome. I'm getting honor I can save to buy some very useful (and relevant) L213 items once I hit 80 (so what if they have resilience as a stat, it gives me a head start over the items I'm already wearing), which will supplement my existing PvE gears (the pile in the bank of crafted epics and AH-bought items is growing nicely) As I fight my way through the BG's I pick up a pretty steady stream of Achievements as I go, and yes they are working as just that, a way of making me feel I am progressing. My XP gain is frankly immense (so much so I find myself thinking Blizzard may nerf AV, nearly 19,000 XP per tower captured with rested seems too good to be true) However by far my most important gain while doing this my skill in healing. My reaction times are faster, I'm thinking in a more group-orientated way, and PvP is making me better. I can feel it happening, and when I've been healing in 5 mans I know that the skills I've picked up in AV, AB and in WSG especially are helping me to make a better character. I cannot state this fact enough.

There is a downside: PvP doesn't make you money. However, this is SUCH a minor issue for me, as I have plenty of other characters who can do dailies and supplement my needs while levelling, that I find myself thinking that the cash doesn't matter. Anyway, I'm having way too much fun to care anyway!

There's also moments of utter brilliance and comedy, moments which make you just feel GOOD, and I love the fact this game can inspire such emotional responses. There was the Strand of the Ancients game that we won with five seconds to spare with a display of utter teamwork from a group of random players as to make you wonder why it's taken this long for people to work out what to do. Or there was that AB match which we won with no-one in the party higher than 75 with higher-levelled opposition, and by 200 resources, where three people took the time to whisper me and to thank me for my superlative healing. That makes a girl feel good.

The best moments however are in AV. I'm in the same battlegroup as the German servers, who's reputation as battlers is pretty legendary. You get the Germans in your BG and you KNOW you're in for a long fight, in the middle of the map with no ground given. To make matters worse the Horde have started forming insanely organised premades, headed by 5 or 6 L80's who forge ahead and cap everything, leaving lower levels to guard the captures. Yesterday, 30 of us camped out in the Hall of Stormpike as a last ditch attempt to stop one such group. I got half of my Loyal Defender achievement in one hit. It's possibly the most fun I've had in a BG for a LONG time, and I'm not even 80 yet.

The word is spreading: I've seen an increasing number of 80's in my Guild in Battlegrounds or in WG, and it's not simply for the gear or the Achievements. More than ever before PvP his a great way to let off steam, or play your character and improve their skills if you have limited playtime. Wait times are down, enjoyment is up. Blizzard did exactly the right thing when they updated the PvP options, and I for one hope that things continue in this vein.

Long live PvP!

Shorts

- Further to the Arm Pen grumbles, I now get why Blizz are doing this. If you take a look at the team who completed the World First Heroic Trial of the Crusader, 3 of the top 5 placed DPS-ers are Combat specced Rogues. Check their gear out on the Armoury... Arm pen gems in EVERY SINGLE SLOT. #1 dps in that fight = 10,003.

Now I understand.

Ironically there was one hunter in that group. He was Marks. He has just about every slot gemmed Arm pen as well. He only managed #14 on the meters.

As my US brethren would say, Go Figure.

- I did the Occulus last night in under four hours. I remember how traumatic that place used to be, but with better gear, drake scaling and a sensible game plan it's now no more hassle than any other Heroic. Amazing what a little gear and some time can do to soften the blows. I'll need to do it again when the Proof of Demise quest rolls around but after that, truth be told, I'll be happy never to go there again.

Some places just hold too many bad memories.

- We now present, for your viewing enjoyment, my Hunter's next Project after 40 Exalted Reputations:

So I've decided I'll be aiming for 25,000 acts of well-calculated slaughter in the coming weeks (probably should add months here as well ^^). As it's taken 4 and a bit years to get this far I have no idea how long the remaining 3265 will take to complete, but it should be interesting to watch the counter. This will in turn allow me to completely upgrade all my PvP gear to 213 and beyond via the wonders of Honor, plus I am sure there will be achievings. I could get all the mounts as well I suppose...

- This week will therefore be some PvP, some levelling and quite possibly a fit of mass gathering to restock all my alts with potions, foodbuffs and other sundry gubbins...

Hit it and Hope

So I have finally done some experimentation with the merits of levelling in BG's.

Here's my Shaman's achievement list from yesterday. I managed Damage Control after three AV's, the Grim Reaper and Class kills came from the first. It took me several weeks of play to pick Stormpike Perfection up on my Hunter: that came from the second AV of the day. I was getting invites roughly every 5 minutes: each tower destruction or enemy target awarded 18.5k XP with Rested. Yesterday I did pretty much a level in an afternoon (Rested bonus plus two +10% XP items). In the group there would be 2 or 3 L80's, the rest were 71+, and it was INSANE, but in the best of ways. At one point I was one of fifteen people in Iceblood Tower trying to beat off a particuarly insane L80 Pally. Healing spec really paid off, my regen was pretty good and clearly I could do the big numbers over a reasonable battle. Only when the German server group turned up did I see anything like an epic fight, and that only lasted 35 minutes. The rest of the time it was quick, clean, and pretty much the fastest levelling experience I've seen.

Suffice to say I'd bet this XP level will be nerfed by Blizzard at some point, because I reckon it's giving an advantage to people levelling via this method. If you want to advance using PvP, make the most of it!


So, I've done Koralon in both modes with the Hunter, and even with 25 it's hardly difficult (though saying that I would not want to heal the fight, the potential for stupidity really is very high) We had the dreaded 1% wipe with only my second PuG, and he died next pull. It took a LOT longer to grab the achievement with Emalon. I've seen Rogue loot drop from 10 and 25 man a LOT, and yet again last night there were no rogues around to sweep it up. Where have they all gone? :( Happy though, 226 hunter gloves are now MINE, 3/5 tier also dun. IoC was yesterday's BG daily as well (though still need to complete it) but this did give me a chance to do some Achievement sweepage. Back Door Job ftw! (fnar fnar)

This week I will look at the other BG's with the Shammy, but I'm betting that none will do the job as well as AV for instance XP. Plus, there's the small matter of the 25,000 HK achievement on the Hunter...

They Don't Like it Up'em!

It's a Wednesday, and I've been a bit lax on the updating again. There are a number of very good reasons for this as well, at least one I'm not going to go into here. Needless to say with the steady trickle of 3.2 updates from Blizzard, there will be a renewal in updatery interest, especially as I am more than a little excited at the prospect of a new 40 man BG.

I have of late been doing a large amount of PvP.

My primary objective has been to Epic P the Hunter, in a PvP stylee. Yesterday I picked up the Honor cloak which means, with the exception of 1 ring and a belt, I now have a totally purple set of PvP gear. I've been running 25 and 10 man WG instances as soon after reset each week in the hope of snagging gears, making sure I've done every WG I'm available for, but of late I've been combining the Steamweedle grind (almost there!!!1!!1!1!!!111) with AV trips (do a run, pick up a spare key, dial a BG) to rack up honor. To give you an idea, I've picked up

• Legs (Hateful Gladiator's Chain Leggings)
  
• Cloak (Deadly Gladiator's Cloak of Victory)
• Ring (Deadly Gladiator's Band of Victory)
  
• Necklace (Deadly Gladiator's Pendant of Triumph)
• Shoulders (Hateful Gladiator's Chain Spaulders)
  

all whilst I've been slogging away in Dire Maul. It's a PHENOMENAL amount of honor, but it does show that with a bit of thought and some application, you can gear yourself to an epic standard without the need for ever being part of a Guild.

The most fun has been with the German groups I've faced. Since we got a BG merge with a bunch of other servers the entire face of AV has changed. I will always check when I'm prepping to see if it's a German group because I know what's going to happen if it is:

1. They all wait for us outside Garv. ALL of them.. well except for the three who always go and take Winterax and then force us to rez at Stonehearth. They camp at Iceblood and use the bottle neck and refuse to let us pass.
   
2. They farm kills mercilessly and with ruthless Germanic efficiency whilst sending stealth teams North to pick off the bunkers.
   
3. They NEVER kill Balinda coz she's a waste of time.

This then results with a BG that annoys the zergers to Hell, but that I always LOVE. It forces a team into defense, who effectively rides North and recaps every Bunker and GY and as they head south the stealth teams head North again and the entire process repeats, whilst in the meantime we will have forced the main bulk of the force back to the Frostwolf GY. There'll be a team in the Horde base of course, trying to take the towers but the Germans will exploit any lack of defence inside by instantly recapping. So, a zerg is impossible, and most people don't want to zerg by now anyway because of the huge amount of honor they're racking up...

This is the best thing that's happened to my battlegroup for a VERY long time. I am VERY interested to see how these guys approach the new Battleground... gief PTR!

So today, if I hold my nerve and the keys drop my way, I should be 38/40 to the Exalted.

Wish me Luck!

What's Next?

For what's it's worth, I'm a HUGE West Wing fan. Any excuse to stick in a picture of my favourite mythical President and I'm there like a shot.

Via www.leftybrown.com: my favourite Democratic President until Obama arrived...

So, this afternoon I got into a conversation with one of my favourite Guildies: what's next? Okay so the paint's still not quite dry on the sign to Ulduar but we know that Blizzard are already looking ahead, deciding where we go in 3.2. There have been hints of late, most specifically that Blizzard may not trail 3.2 as extensively because of the reaction they had to 3.1. I think I know the reason behind this.

3.2 will be known, I predict, as the PvP Patch.

It's no secret that there is a new battleground in development. It's no secret either that Arenas are fundamentally no-go areas for large parts of the Warcraft population, simply because you need such ridiculous ratings to get anything useful. I know the next season will fix some of this but the fact remains, most people really aren't that good at PvP. It, like the niche occupied by the Professional gamers is pretty small. People want accessibility like you get in Wintergrasp. Let's face it, WG is probably the best PvP most people will ever see: 30 minutes, clear victor, tangible and realistically-attainable rewards for the vast majority, and fun. It's not fun to stand around for an arena match and be the one who's ass is whupped. Constantly. I've been there and done that and I reckon I'm not a hugely bad player, but someone has to lose.

What Blizzard need to do is to give the larger player base a bigger chance to win, just as they have with End Game Content.

I am going to stick my neck out here and predict the following. Please feel free to mock me soundly if I'm wrong.

• We see with the Argent Tournament a way of duelling with others which relies not on gear but luck and skill. I think this kind of 'mounted' combat could be a great way of getting more people into a PvP arena, as it is currently with vehicles in Strand of the Ancients and Wintergrasp.The right mixture of mounted combat, vehicles and ground assault will, let's face it, make WoW more old style Warcraft, something I'm sure the purists would love and the casuals could get very attached to. Therefore I predict the new Battleground will have all these elements to appeal to as wide a base as possible. It will also have a time limit, but will allow for lots of WG style Zergs. Most importantly, it will offer unique PvE rewards for rep with the new faction who run it. If I were Blizz I'd offer shoulder enchants with pure stats (crit, def, hit) to draw new L80's in and trinkets/pets/unique rewards for the more hardened veteran. Most importantly of all, this BG will have Hard Modes, so the real PVP veterans can aim for special items only available this way.

• I predict a MAJOR revamp of Arena rewards. I'd even go so far as to suggest that Arenas could have Normal and Hard modes, and you need to play in Normal to get to a certain level before being given a score which will allow you to Hard Mode. Normal mode would reward lesser gear, Hard Mode the more serious gear.

• I doubt it will happen in 3.2, but as World content in Professions has been streamlined it would be nice to think that Blizz might consider doing it with World PvP across all four continents. I wonder how difficult it would be to streamline the events in WPL, in Silithus, in Hellfire and Zangermarsh and Nagrand and instead of having them all award different marks for different rewards, to make them all award the same kind of mark which can be exchanged for rewards from 50-80, perhaps even PvP heirlooms in the same mould as the normal heirlooms available currently with Emblems.

One thing is very clear: PvP works, but not as well as it could. There are lots of different ideas out there, many of which don't even get used any more because the game has changed. What would be great would be to see them brought together and made more attractive to the general playing public and not the minority as was the case with raiding endgame.

So, when do we get 3.2 then?

Spend, Spend, Spend

So, thanks to that lovely Pally over at Banana Shoulders it seems that I should be considering doing summat useful with the Elbows of Heroism currently stacking up in P and M's Currency window. As there's a new level of Elbow (extra pointy?) available once you start raiding in Ulduar (blue post here) it seems logical to focus on the 25 man raiding tokens and use my other stuffs for PvP Gears (dumbass here didn't realise you could use badges for gear until yesterday, boy am I ever behind the curve) So, some actual research may be needed.

For now I'm dreading logging on and the inevitable assult on my senses that will result from That Valentine's Event...

So Then...

See that there? That's a Black War Bear, that is :D

Needless to say the LAST thing I expected when I logged on last night was to get this. As is often the case in this game, you know the right moments when they happen. You are aware of when something is right, and it's time to run with it.

I logged to see someone PuG-ging for the Achievement. Their selling line in Trade made me laugh out loud (that a certain person had left the Raid, someone who if you end up in a PuG with them you KNOW it's gonna be bad) and I signed up with P (despite a 10 man slot in Naxx being available for M. Time to let someone else go.) As it stood before last night I already had three out of four Racial Leaders dead anyway, and all I needed to snag the Achievement was Lor'themar Theron. No matter, I could do the other three again without a problem.

I knew I was in a good group when I rode into Duotar and saw EVERYONE else making their own way there. No-one asked for summons, everyone was focussed and prepared. Within five minutes of the raid hitting 40 people EVERYONE was outside Orgrimmar and ready to roll. We moved in, killed Thrall, and had portalled back to Theramore within three minutes of the kill. At that point I realised we were onto a winner. Each kill went fast and smooth, mages having portals open as soon as we'd downed the leader. Thunder Bluff portals opened to Ironforge, people met at the Bulwark and dispatched Lady Sylvanas Windrunner with frightning speed, and then we were flying from the Island of Dailies back to ZA for the ride to Silvermoon. Even Hubby at this point had to concede how impressive a 40 man raid can be when it all just works.


Yes, I rode around Dalaran like a loon for thirty minutes afterwards, then did the same in Ironforge. Yes, I am a 12 year old at heart. Working as Intended :D

After that I rode into Wintergrasp and finally grabbed M her hat: Titan-forged Leather Helm of Dominance is not a pretty thing but it meant I could finally move some hit gems out of my set and go back into crit a bit. I spent money at the AH, grabbed the Kirin Tor head enchant and was about to have an early night when the 10 Man Naxx raid lost two people at Sapph. Well, I wasn't going to deny the other 8 people the instance clear, now was I?

KT died, and the Druid Tier Token dropped. The only Mage in the raid rolled 97. 'Never gonna beat that,' thinks I 'I've had all my luck for the evening.'

M rolls 100 (1-100)

Some days, try as you might, nothing goes wrong :D



So as you see above I now own 2 bits of Tier, have the bonus damage with Insect Swarm, and really need to sort out my PvP set now I own a kickass (spare) helm...