We all know that it can be hard for new level 70 characters to break into the arena.Many people start out playing their 10 games a week in order to scrounge up arena points for their first PvP pieces.Welfare epics?Maybe, but having decent gear makes it easier for many players to progress.It make some time for players to really learn to play their classes in a competitive PvP setting.Despite their best efforts, Blizzard has largely failed at fixing problems in the arenas.
Cyrse of Farstriders suggested the creation of a minor league arena with reduced rewards to help players get their feet wet in PvP.The oginal poster listed several advantages of such a system.A minor league for PvP might discourage point and team selling, which despite Blizzard's efforts is persistent in the arena.It would also allow elite players to only be bracketed with folks who give them more of a challenge.
The Arena Tournament Test Realm (TTR) has been live for a few days now.It seems there have been some hiccups, which is to be expected during a stress test.Hortus has popped up in a few instances on the TTR forum to address some of the major concerns that players have brought up.
Lag is far and away the biggest issue on the TTR.Hortus indicated that one of the main functions of the TTR is measuring the best way to handle the massive number of contenders on the official tournament server.Blizzard currently has no plans for opening up any new TTRs to relive the stress.Logging into the server, I find the term "laggy" to be an understatement.Movement is dizzying, and players crowd around.
I love playing in the Arenas, but I'm getting kind of bored with the same three maps. I was very exited Ruins of Lordaeron map was introduced with Season two.It was something new and exciting.It's still my favorite, but now its just as dull as the other two. I wish they would introduce a new fighting ground for Season four.
I would love to see a map in Stormwind City. I picture it as something like the legendary tournament venues of the Medieval Knights. There would be banners all around it and an audience of noisy NPCs in the stands. In order to spice things up, it would be awesome to include environmental hazards like boiling oil or escapable, but painful pit traps. Also, if I were designing an Arena, players would be forced into combat more quickly, since the preparation areas would close one minute after the battle began.
It would never happen, but a girl can dream. If you could design a battleground for Arena combat, what would it look like? What new features would you add?
We just talked about this issue in Shifting Perspectives a week ago, but it appears Blizzard is already doing something about the tauren cat form -- albeit not very much. Many tauren have long complained that their cat form is much uglier than the night elf version (compare for yourself here), and while these changes aren't comprehensive, at least they're a tiny step in a new direction.
Beaux on the US forums showed everyone how, in patch 2.3, Blizzard has modified the tauren cat form's face to look more like a lion and less like a monkey, and changed the neck of the lion so that it doesn't look so hunchbacked as it moves. It's not as pretty as the tauren cat form suggestion submitted in Blizzard's art contest, but it'll do for now I would think.
[Update]: Our reader tmklein supplied us with some interesting links for what the EU player Andrige thought the various forms should look like -- all with a distinct visual style. Would you like this sort of change?
We all know that it can be hard for new level 70 characters to break into the arena. Many people start out playing their 10 games a week in order to scrounge up arena points for their first PvP pieces. Welfare epics? Maybe, but having decent gear makes it easier for many players to progress. It make some time for players to really learn to play their classes in a competitive PvP setting. Despite their best efforts, Blizzard has largely failed at fixing problems in the arenas.
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