Level 70 Elite Tauren guards (not to be confused with L70ETC) have been stationed outside Zul'Aman on the test server. I agree with Elizabeth that the race choice makes no sense, but according to CM Nethaera, the guards (in some form) are there to stay. This is, of course, in response to the overwhelming complaints from Alliance players that have to go to Horde territory in order to try out the new instance.
Nethaera also says that they will be implementing a Contested Area around Zul'Aman to further alleviate the unbridled ganking currently occuring there. She says that in the past, they could only flag entire zones as contested, but now they have the ability to change the PvP status of just an area within a zone. This change will be implemented on the PTR first before coming to live servers.
They are also going to be surrounding other instances with contested areas, such as the Scarlet Monastery. Unfortunately for the Alliance players currently trying to farm the Headless Horseman, this change will come a bit late. But maybe it will be implemented in time for next year's event.
Players have been voicing concerns about changing the areas in lowbie zones to contested. How will it affect the level 10s trying to quest around these new contested areas?
Nethaera says that they will be watching the situation, but that the contested area will be the immediate area surrounding the instance and shouldn't overlap into lowbie quest areas. My concern is the graveyard near the Scarlet Monastery. If that falls within the contested area, the recently dead Undead may be in for a rough time.
I wonder if instances like Deadmines and Wailing Caverns will be surrounded by contested areas as well in the future.
Some players have applauded the new contested area idea as being good for World PvP, but want the guards to go away. What do you think of these changes?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-26-2007 @ 9:06AM
Autumnbear said...
Hahaha!
To make it balanced and fair, they should make Deadmines easily accessable and 'safe' for the Horde.
Hahaha!
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10-26-2007 @ 9:09AM
Hoofio said...
must be being extra dumb on a friday here but how does posting horde guards protect alliance from pvp???
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10-26-2007 @ 9:19AM
BaboonNL said...
Of all the horde races, Tauren are the most neutral, so they could be neutral guards.
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10-26-2007 @ 9:22AM
Anon said...
Maybe they are neutral gaurds like the Goblin Cities.
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10-26-2007 @ 9:27AM
robodex said...
Finally.
And to the inevitable person who complains that WoW is killing World PVP: Camping at an instance door with the express intent to kill unwilling participants is NOT PVP. It's being an asshole.
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10-26-2007 @ 9:27AM
RogueJedi86 said...
Could be Cenarion Circle Tauren. Make one of the 2 guards a Night Elf just to reinforce it.
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10-26-2007 @ 9:30AM
Hoofio said...
hmmm maybe... it'd be a sad day when a tauren guard intereferes with me (a druid, even) indulging in the age old tradition of gnome punting
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10-26-2007 @ 9:30AM
Aurdon said...
Only people I see ganking at HH are alliance. Usually on my realm there are 10-15 of them (aka more then enough for a group) just standing around killing those that are flagged when they port back from the graveyard. I guess they haven't got better things to do....
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10-26-2007 @ 9:32AM
Zumwalah said...
i think they should make the areas Sanctuaries like Shat and the Dark portal, dont Flag everyone, flag no one, that will stop ganking...
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10-26-2007 @ 9:38AM
Buckshot said...
Leave it the same, there are too many proteced/neutral areas and cities already. Remember, Alliance is the ruling party, so contested areas are actually under alliance jurisdiction. As such any of the horde found in these areas must be eliminated. As the horde should attempt to do when alliance are venturing into their territory.
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10-26-2007 @ 9:50AM
evestraw said...
wel some weak mages tried to aoe us at hh
you shouldnt be able to enter an instance a few seconds after you do an hostile action like arcane explotion
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10-26-2007 @ 9:51AM
Johan Forn said...
As an Alliance player, i say this is crap. It is Horde territory, plain and simple. They've already made Horde and Alliance buddy-buddy to often. Now to also let them camp in each others territory is just stupid. It kills the entire idea of Horde vs Alliance.
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10-26-2007 @ 9:53AM
Shealtiel said...
@1: At the level ranges that you're going into VC/WC, you'd only just be venturing into the contested zones anyway. If the instance level is
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10-26-2007 @ 9:54AM
coil780 said...
The part I find especially amusing is that on my server at least, Alliance absolutely *own* the Scarlet Monastery foyer. Making it contested is going to seriously screw over the horde. ^^
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10-26-2007 @ 9:54AM
Shealtiel said...
Boo for comments getting cut off earlier!
@1: At the level ranges that you're going into VC/WC, you'd only just be venturing into the contested zones anyway. If the instance level is higher than 20, it makes sense for them to be inside of a specific side's territory. If you really want to make things balanced, we would need to apply the same rules to Gnomeregan--of course, who wants to actually GO to Gnomer?
Truth be told, though, we don't even need to talk about balance. There are FAR more instances in Horde zones than Alliance zones:
- Alliance: Deadmines, Stockades, Gnomeregan
- Horde: Ragefire Chasm, Wailing Cavern, Razorfen Kraul, Razorfen Downs, Scarlet Monastery, and now Zul'Aman
On a PvP server, I'm much more in favor of guards/contested zone than a sanctuary. One of the facts of life on a PvP server is the -chance- that somebody will attack you. I have no problem with increases the consequences of making such an attack, but removing even the possibility of an attack changes the server.
It will always be easier for the "friendly" faction to gank in these zones, if for no other reason than that their flight points/cities are closer. However, I think that making the immediate area contested would certainly help the situation, and so I'm in favor of the contested zone part.
I also think I'm in favor of the guards. Again, it allows the possibility of an attack, but basically includes consequences. Let's be honest--some people will genuinely PvP outside of these instances, but there will also be a lot there simply to grief the other side. Ah, the personalities that come out when given the anonymity of the internet....
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10-26-2007 @ 10:05AM
CauthonDM said...
While I do dislike ganking at instance entrances, on a PvP server it should really be expected and players know they have to be careful. Whether you like it or not, the ruleset is simple enough for everyone and I'm not sure adding increasing numbers of special cases for guards is going to make things better in the long run. If you are going to protect ZA, why not TK, SSC and KZ, or all summoning stones, or Blackrock Mountain. Once the precedent has been set, anyone who gets killed outside an instance could complain about it.
On the PTR I would certainly have guards (which would be capable of running at 400% speed, immune to all slowing effects, level 90 and able to one shot any player). It should be about testing the instance, not about killing people outside it. On the live servers, a contested zone would make a lot of sense to provide partity between the sides. At least for instances which both sides have reasonable expectation to go to.
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10-26-2007 @ 10:10AM
ThorinII said...
I'm on a PVE server. I don't care what they do. If I'm not flagged I have no enemy players, only enemy npc's. :0P
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10-26-2007 @ 10:21AM
original2k said...
yeah i'm on a pve server as well, but more often than not will you find alliance high levels camping the monastery waiting for somebody flagged to roll thru. i really don't care too much since my realm is pve but i think it is a silly idea since the instance is in horde territory. if your going to do it to one then do it to them all. but really if it's in controlled territory then the other faction should be SOL.
on a side note, there's something absolutely annoying AND hilarious about using the meeting stone to port somebody who was just in a battleground, just to get jumped by a draenai paladin just before entering the cathedral lol
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10-26-2007 @ 10:27AM
Kahja said...
lol "pvp"
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10-26-2007 @ 11:00AM
Guidinglight said...
Whinning crying 12 year olds. I say get the f over it. Especially if you are on a PVP server. I deal with the fact that the Alliance camp outside of Kara and never actually run the instance.
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