Players are reacting to (quite a few things, actually, in) the Tom Chilton interview we linked to earlier, but one of them is rubbing a lot of older players the wrong way -- when Gamespy asks Chilton about world PvP, like the kind that took place between Tarren Mill and Southshore, he called any fondness for that "nostalgia" -- he says that people didn't really like it at the time, they only want to go back to that because they're nostalgic for it.
Fortunately, we here at WoW Insider keep all of our old archives online, and as you can see, most people did actually enjoy the old Xroads and SS/TM world PvP -- I have fond memories of fighting in Ashenvale as well. But Chilton isn't wrong that there was complaining (isn't there always?): it was usually just complaining that those were the only places any real PvP happened. Nowadays, we've got BGs and Arenas, and actual rewards for world PvP, but it's still a little hard to come across one of those all-out battles that used to rage in Xroads or south of Tarren Mill. Most of the time, the only reason those battles were going on was because, well, what else did you do besides raiding at 70? Now that there's more choices, no level 70 would waste their time fighting lowbies in SS -- there are much more epic rewards doing dailies or fighting in the Arenas.
There's no question that nostalgia definitely makes things better, but Chilton is wrong to dismiss any wishes for SS/TM-esque world PvP as simple nostalgia. Blizzard has a tough line to walk here -- they're being asked to encourage, by careful planning, something that always happened spontaneously in the past (and mostly because PvPers didn't have much else to do). It's not nostalgic to think that it was fun (it was fun), but nowadays we've got choices that are fun and give epic rewards, so old world PvP just doesn't compare for most players.
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Every three hours in the heart of the Stranglethorn jungle, Short John Mithril bellows out the call to arms: "Arrr, Me Hearties! I be havin' some extra Treasure that I be givin' away at the Gurubashi Arena! All ye need do to collect it is open the chest I leave on the arena floor!" His summons sets off a true PvP free-for-all – players of both factions, including your own – in a race to recover and open the pirate's chest dropped at the center of the arena. Players like Venwe scrabble against friend and foe for bragging rights and a shot at the chest's booty -- except unlike Venwe, most players haven't succeeded more than 700 times.
I always roll on PvP servers.I don't know why, but I just don't feel comfortable on a PvE server.There's just something exhilarating about always looking over your shoulder to see where the next attack may be coming from.Since there is such a strong division between Alliance and Horde, PvP just seems natural.Sure, I get ganked, but I can hold my own.
When I'm soloing, I very rarely take advantage of PvP in the environment.I'm usually too busy leveling or grinding for cash to start a land war.I've even been known to help out an ally in distress.About the only time I attack unprovoked in the environment is when there is a quest monster close by that I need to fight.
After publishing a recent Breakfast Topic on whether there should be a sense of personal honor in PvP, I wasn't really all that surprised to see a few comments echoing the sentiments of "If it's red, it's dead" and "Don't roll on a PvP server if you don't want to get ganked." These crop up in any discussion about PvP, and while there's an undeniable sense to them -- why would you roll on a PvP realm unless you wanted to, I dunno, PvP? -- I've always felt that they did actual PvP a disservice. You can't frame ganking as true PvP. There's no such thing as strategy, skill, or even combat when a player one-shots another, so I've never considered ganking to be defensible along the same lines that actual PvP is.
One of the two World PvP daily quests that was added in Patch 2.4 was The Spirits of Auchindoun, which is arguably the easiest of all daily PvP quests because it actually doesn't necessitate combat. The quest becomes available at Level 63, giving players leveling in Terokkar Forest a chance to help their faction take control of the Bone Wastes. Alliance players can obtain the quest from Exorcist Sullivan in Allerian Stronghold while Horde players can talk to Exorcist Vaisha in Stonebreaker Hold. At Level 63, the quest awards 186 Honor points, 3 Gold 70 Silver, and 11,650 experience. At Level 70, players are awarded 209 Honor points and 11 Gold 99 Silver.
Interestingly enough, just like the Halaa quest, The Spirits of Auchindoun do not require the factions to take control of the Bone Wastes, merely for players to assist in the capture of one tower. For most Level 70s, this is extremely easy, particularly with a flying mount. It takes about 1-2 minutes to capture one tower, so it's possible to complete the quest immediately and turn it in at the nearby camp. It's arguably the easiest 12 Gold to earn in the game, the only caveat being the timing of the quest, which can only be completed every 6 hours. The quest can be completed in a raid and can be shared, making it easy to PUG the quest with nearby allies in the zone. Note that in order for the objective to count, you must see the tower's slider move from uncontrolled to your faction. If you are on a flying mount, make sure that you've landed.
As detailed in one of my earlier articles, control of the Bone Wastes grants a zone-wide buff, the Blessing of Auchindoun, which grants +5% to all damage dealt and +5% experience gain. The buff also allows the capture of Spirit Shards within the Auchindoun instances of Mana-Tombs, Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls, and Shadow Labyrinth. Once captured, the Bone Wastes remain under the winning faction's control for six hours and cannot be captured again, making The Spirits of Auchindoun one of the few time-sensitive quests in the World of Warcraft.
Patch 2.4 is finally going live, and with all of the new content, it will be pretty overwhelming when you first log on and attempt to decide what you want to do.
With new loot, new quests, and new areas to explore, there will be plenty to keep you busy!
04. For the explorer: If you like to be prepared, check out our coverage of the maps for Sunwell Isle. If you'd rather dive right in and be surprised, then check out your own map of the Eastern Kingdoms. The little island at the very top is your new destination! Either way, the easiest way to get there is from the Ironforge (Alliance) or Silvermoon City (Horde) Flightmaster.
For the rest of the countdown, hop through the break!
Relmstein has a good post up about how Blizzard's world PvP has evolved over time, and what we might expect from Lake Wintergrasp, the PvP zone in Wrath of the Lich King. When world PvP began, it was very much an ad-hoc environment, which lead to a lot of 1v1 battles that eventually escalated when wandering guildies or alts showed up. As Relmstein says, the large majority of battles started with that stealthing noise (that used to inspire chills in the spines of those on PvP servers), and ended with an all-out brawl with no rewards but to get the other guys back.
Nowadays, world PvP is much more organized, in the sense that there are specific objectives and goals to go after. The original reward was a zonewide buff (in Silithus and the Plaguelands), but Blizzard eventually morphed this into something more permanent -- in Auchindoin, you fight for a buff that earns you tokens for rewards, and in Halaa, you fight to get the rewards themselves.
Which leads Relmstein to suspect that Wintergrasp will have direct rewards of its own, almost equal to the gear you get from endgame dungeons and Arena PvP. He predicts that it will be token-based (not a bad idea, considering all the badge changes Blizzard has put in lately -- in fact, Blizzard might even cut a corner and have Wintergrasp reward players with WotLK's version of badges directly), and that it will be updated with each Arena season, to keep players fighting there. All good ideas -- Blizzard has definitely innovated (successfully or otherwise) in the area of World PvP rewards, and we'll look forward to Wrath to see what they come up with there.
Okay, so back when the old Grand Marshal and Warlord PvP sets were scrapped in favor of Gladiator gear for honor, I was actually pretty dismayed, but not for the same reason as most others. I wasn't really concerned about "Welfare Epics" or "AFKavers" simply standing at the entrance of AV and getting good gear because of it. I was sad because the look of the sets was going away!
Yeah, that my sound a bit crazy, but bear with me for a bit, let me explain myself.
If world PvP or looking at pretty pictures is your thing, you might want to head over to the main WoW site today, where Drysc has announced the posting of two new player submitted screen shot galleries showing world PvP action and Halaa fighting. It looks like some people had a lot of fun making these, and I have to admit, they've made me more nostalgic for the old Southshore-Tarren Mill fight days. Maybe I'll try heading out to Halaa and making some screen shots of my own. I've been meaning to get in some practice for Lake Wintergrasp anyhow, so this is as good a time as any!
How about the rest of you? Are these galleries inspiring you to go grab your sword and fight the Horde (Or grab your kitchen appliance and fight the Alliance, as the case may be)?
I was one of the lucky few that was able to copy my character and log onto the public test realm over the weekend. Playing more than I probably should have, I was able to check out all the new daily quests and snap screenshots of much of the new content. In the midst of my frenzied trek around Outland and the Isle of Quel'danas (the new zone that hosts the upcoming dungeons), I made certain to check out the two new PvP daily quests mentioned in the patch notes. These are not the new Battlegrounds Daily PvP quests that are being introduced with the same patch, but all new quest options for World PvP objectives.
First off, I headed to Allerian Stronghold in Terokkar Forest. Near the Spirit Shard vendor, I found a new NPC, Exorcist Sullivan, offering that zone's daily quest. The objective is simple enough, merely help in the capture of one of the Spirit Towers in the Bone Wastes. In return you'll be awarded some cash and honor: 11 gold, 99 silver and 209 honor, to be exact. While I haven't been able to check out the Horde version of the quest yet, I'd imagine the NPC should be easy to spot in Stonebreaker Hold, near Spirit Sage Gartok, the Horde Spirit Shard vendor.
theflamecrow on LJ had an interesting little occurrence: he was in Darkshore when he saw a flash in the World Defense channel that Darkshore was being attacked. The only problem? He's Horde.
Now, most people may think that Horde doesn't have a base in Darkshore that can do under attack, but in fact, they do-- it's the Dancing Troll Village. So apparently some enterprising Alliance had found it and started killing. But here's the bigger question I got from crow's story: does anyone really pay attention to World Defense?
I know I don't. But then again, I play on a PvE server, so odds are that anyone attacking a lowbie level like that is just a level 70 on a rampage. But even on PvP servers, do blaring Defense channels really mean that anyone cares? People will protect their guildies, and of course they'll join the fight if they smell blood (or at least someone they can beat in a fight). But do the Local and World Defense channels really point the way to a good PvP clash the way the developers surely intended? Or do they just mean chat spam, and that there'll be trouble if you try to speak to NPCs in that area?
Reader Ekrim sent us a tip to let us know that when all instances crashed on the Earthen Ring server over the weekend, Horde-led raids descended on to Stormwind and Ironforge. Word quickly got out to the Alliance and an epic battle ensued for the next hour until the entire server was brought down to fix the crashing problem. Not an unprecedented event, but certainly fun.
This reminds me of old school world PvP at Southshore/Tarren Mills (on my server). There was no goal or objective other than to overrun the enemy town before they overrun yours. It was pure, unadulterated, unmitigated fun. Blizzard experimented with structured world PvP in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands, and then some more when they launched the Burning Crusade expansion, but they failed to capture the lawless, unpredictable quality of the good old days when we just did it ourselves.
Which brings up the topic at hand: why aren't we doing it ourselves anymore? Because of the lack of Honor, welfare epics or Arena rankings from the proceedings? When's the last time you've spontaneously joined in on a mass world PvP party for fun and not for profit?
Tigole has been busy on the forums today, and that always tends to bring out interesting tidbits about the future of our favorite game. While it is certainly not earth-shattering, the most interesting thing that he mentions has to do with the future of the PVPbattlemasters. In patch 2.4 these guys will be put on a pedestal, literally. Much like the auctioneers in many cities, the battlemasters will be placed on a raised platform that is inaccessible to players in order to keep people from blocking them with their character's model. He also hints that Wrath will see even better improvements. This is certainly a welcome change to remove a minor annoyance that is sometimes imposed upon us by our fellow players.
Other posts hint at the future of guild banks, the title system, and a possible reward for Wrath'sLake Wintergrasp. First of all, he mentions that they're "exploring" the option to allow guild masters to set prices for items in the guild bank. I know in my guild this would be great for the guild leader, since it would probably save him a lot of time in the auction house and also provide an easy solution to those situations where he gets a valuable item and is not sure how to distribute it to the rest of the guild. I imagine that this could be exploited, to an extent, by guild leaders who might suddenly slap a price on everything in the bank rather than allowing free withdrawals, but that would probably fix itself over time as people leave the guild and/or stop donating to the bank.
The 20th episode of our podcast is now live for your listening pleasure over on WoW Radio's site. On Saturday afternoon, Turpster, John Patricelli (our Druid blogger) and I sat down and talked about the last week in WoW. We hit on:
A little listener email, including more Alliance slogans, and we helped a listener compare the different DPS caster classes.
We talked a little bit with John about his other blog, Big Bear Butt, and how he started blogging for us here
And we just generally got a little silly in the second half-- Turpster recorded a funny gnome voice, and we all made our predictions for the year that's coming. Definitely give it a listen, as I think this is one of the best podcasts we've done yet. If you've got feedback of your own (or Fandral Staghelm downing pictures, because I hate that guy), send it along to theshow@wowinsider.com.
And don't forget that we do this every week. If you couldn't tune in to listen last Saturday, mark your calendars for this coming Saturday at 3:30pm EST to show up at WoW Radio and check the show out.
Nethaera has confirmed that there will be no new battlegrounds revealed prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, much to the chagrin of PvP'ers everywhere. Although players have previously expressed interest in having more choice, Blizzard has voiced concern about the effects that a fifth choice might have on queues. Hopefully they have some tricks up their sleeves for combating this when the highly anticipated new battleground arrives via the expansion.
Although this is a bit disappointing, it is hardly unexpected, and there are so many upcoming positive changes that it's hard to be a sad panda for long. Currently, the devs are focused on improving Alterac Valley for patch 2.3 and creating new content for WotLK, which will include an outdoor PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp. Following in the wake of Halaa's undeniable success, this zone will boast siege warfare, and many other innovations in world PvP.
As for what the new battleground will be like? I'd still love to see an Aldor vs. Scryers battleground; and as much as we all love to see new content drop, we can at least try to satiate ourselves knowing that what we will be getting will continue to advance PvP as we know it. Now; a little less sad panda face please!
Players are reacting to (quite a few things, actually, in) the Tom Chilton interview we linked to earlier, but one of them is rubbing a lot of older players the wrong way -- when Gamespy asks Chilton about world PvP, like the kind that took place between Tarren Mill and Southshore, he called any fondness for that "nostalgia" -- he says that people didn't really like it at the time, they only want to go back to that because they're nostalgic for it.
After publishing a recent 
Patch 2.4
Relmstein has 
Okay, so back when the old Grand Marshal and Warlord PvP sets were scrapped in favor of Gladiator gear for honor, I was actually pretty dismayed, but not for the same reason as most others. I wasn't really concerned about "
If world PvP or looking at pretty pictures is your thing, you might want to head over to the main WoW site today, where .jpg)
theflamecrow on LJ
The 20th episode of our podcast is now 
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