Battlegrounds, Why They Are Important

A lot of people overlook the importance of battlegrounds when trying to get better at a class. The truth is, almost all problems with your play style can be worked on without tanking arena rating. A lot of people underestimate the skill level of other players in battlegrounds but,

“it’s like walking into a subway in New York, you don’t know who you are going to meet” (Azzamat).

Let uneven match ups benefit you. If you can, this is probably the best way to get valuable practice. A lot of people in BG’s are only there to gear up alts, this is why having an uneven battle will benefit you more. Some common problems to focus on would be:

Healers:

1. Survivability vs. mana conservation: I know this was a big reason I went back into battlegrounds on my shaman. The situation Earth Shield vs. Water Shield. Obviously tanking with Earth Shield will give you a lot more survivability but you will eventually go oom. As a Paladins you can work on the same issue of timing your Diving Plee after their cooldowns.

2. Healing Multiple Targets: If you only play 2v2 this usually isn’t as important for you, but finding a cast rotation that will allow you to keep 2 targets up will usually help against lock teams.

Casters:

1. Doing damage while taking damage: A lot of casters have the problem of not being able to do any damage with melee on you. Learning to juke Kicks or Mind Freeze while still setting up your shatter combos or burst is important in arena. Just remember, you do less damage locked out then spamming instants.

2. Crowd control under pressure: In arena, most mage/lock combos rely on CC. If your main role is to CC you should still be able to control 1 target with DPS on you. Practice setting up teleports to get off a fear or sheeping focus targets after a blink.

Melee:

1. Being patient: For rogues, making sure you have almost full energy before the full kidney shot on the kill target. DK’s/Warriors build ruinic power or rage to use with your interrupt to provide a nice burst.

2. Don’t miss: If you are going to use the energy to kick or the rage to pummel. Make sure you don’t miss. If you are going to miss the interrupt it would be better to let the heal go through and get the next one.

World of WarHammer?

Taking queues from the recent success of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, Tigole has posted about some upcoming ideas for the future of WoW PvP, many of which mirror the PvP style that Warhammer has implemented.  Source

Actually, we have been discussing new battlegrounds quite a bit lately. Wrath of the Lich King will feature Strand of the Ancients (attack/defend) as well as Wintergrasp (non-instanced, world PvP).

But past that, we are exploring ideas that would involve expanding our Battleground content in future patches and beyond. We believe we have some strong ideas for improving Battlegrounds and PvP as a whole in the game and we’re definitely going to focus on improvements in the future. Now, it’s very early to be talking about some of this stuff but I think it’s important for the community to know that it’s on our minds.

Our general thought is that we could provide more BG content over time. The BG content that we could provide could be of higher quality with a higher degree of accessibility. Overall, we’d like to have more content and variety. We also want the gameplay experience in the BGs to be better directed. We’re also exploring the concept of a complimentary “competitive” bg system as well. Over time, we’d like the focus of PvP to shift back to being more BG-centric and more focused on Horde versus Alliance — the core of our game.

We’re also planning on improving some Battleground and PvP features in general. For example, we want to give you the ability to queue for Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world. We’re also going to explore EXP gain through the PvP system as well as low level itemization to support that.

Please don’t take this post as a promise. This won’t be an overnight process. Not all of these things are set in stone and guaranteed to happen. It would take us a while to shift in this direction. But these are some of the current thoughts on the development team. I think it’s important for you guys to know some of our thought process in regards to PvP.

In my opinion, everybody wins here.  Even though I didn’t enjoy my time in the Warhammer beta, I always root for its success.  If Warhammer stays successful, fans of WoW will be getting content sooner rather than later and the same goes for Warhammer players.  As Borat would say, “Great Success”.

WotLK PvP Achievements: Part 2

In Part 2 of the multi-part series, I will be taking a look at some more of the PvP Achievements you can gain once the 3.0 patch hits live servers.  Don’t forget to check out Part 1 if you missed it!

Today I will be taking a look at two classic battlegrounds, Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch.

Arathi Basin

Arathi Basin All-Star – 20 Points

Assault and Defend 2 bases in a single Arathi Basin match.

Arathi Basin Assassin – 20 Points

Get five honorable kills at each of the bases in a single Arathi Basin battle.

Arathi Basin Perfection – 20 Points

Win Arathi Basin with a score of 2000 to 0.

Arathi Basin Veteran – 10 Points

Complete 100 victories in Arathi Basin

Arathi Basin Victory – 10 Points

Win Arathi Basin.

Disgracin’ The Basin – 10 Points.

Assault 3 bases in a single Arathi Basin battle.

Knight of Arathor – 10 Points *Horde equivelent is The Defiler

Gain exalted reputation with The League of Arathor.

Let’s Get This Done – 10 Points

Win Arathi Basin in 6 minutes.

Me and the Cappin’ Makin’ it Happen – 10 Points

Take 50 flags in Arathi Basin.

Overly Defensive – 10 Points

Defend 3 bases in a single Arathi Basin battle.

Resilient Victory – 10 Points

Overcome a 500 resource disadvantage in a match of Arathi Basin and claim victory.

Territorial Dominance – 10 Points

Win 10 Arathi Basin matches while controlling all 5 flags.

To the Rescue! – 10 Points

Come to the defense of a base in Arathi Basin 50 times by recapping the flag.

We Had It All Along *cough* – 10 Points

Win Arathi Basin by 10 points (2000 to 1990)

Master of Arathi Basin – 25 Points

Complete all of the Arathi Basin Achievements.

Warsong Gulch

Capture the Flag – 10 Points

Personally carry and capture the flag in W

arsong Gulch

Frenzied Defender – 10 Points

Return 5 flags in a single Warsong Gulch battle.

Ironman - 10 Points

In a single Warsong Gulch battle, carry and capture the flag 3 times without dying.

Not In My House – 10 Points

In a single Warsong Gulch battle, kill 10 flag carriers before they leave the Flag Room

Not So Fast – 10 Points

In Warsong Gulch, kill a player who is under the effects of the speed power-up.

Persistent Defender – 10 Points

Return 50 flags as a defender in Warsong Gulch.

Quick Cap – 10 Points

Grab the flag and capture it in under 75 seconds

Save the Day – 10 Points

Kill the enemy who is carrying your flag in the opposing team’s flag room while the opposing team’s flag is at their base, within their control.

Silverwing Sentinel – 10 Points *Horde Equivelent is Warsong Outrider

Gain exalted reputation with the Silverwing Sentinels.

Supreme Defender – 10 Points

Kill 100 flag carriers in Warsong Gulch.

Warsong Expedience – 10 Points

Win a Warsong Gulch in under 7 minutes.

Warsong Gulch Perfection – 10 Points

Win Warsong Gulch with a score of 3 to 0.

Warsong Gulch Veteran – 10 Points

Complete 10 victories in Warsong Gulch.

Warsong Gulch Victory – 10 Points

Win Warsong Gulch.

Master of Warsong Gulch – 25 Points

Complete all of the Warsong Gulch Achievements.

Wrath of the Lich King Achievements System

One of the most interesting new features coming out of the for Wrath of the Lich king is the achievements system. The new achievements tab will appear on your character screen and will serve as a permanent marker to your in-game accomplishments when other people inspect you.

Achievements vary dramatically, some are incredibly easy and can be completed in a few minutes, while others may require weeks or months for you to complete all the tasks associated with the task.

WoW Achievement Categories

Feats of Strength

Feats of Strength represent the past glories of Azeroth, and as such, players will find them very difficult — if not impossible — to earn. They’re worth no points, and unlike normal achievements, unearned Feats are not displayed in the achievements interface. Feats include old-world player-vs.-player ranks, obtaining rare mounts, special titles, and more. Feats of Strength will be awarded retroactively (that is, they’ll be immediately granted to your character if you qualify) since many of them will be impossible to earn in Wrath of the Lich King.

Player vs. Player

These include accomplishments related to arena, battlegrounds, and other world PvP scenarios. Here’s a few just for example.

• Arena Hot streak – win 10 arena matches in a row
• Alterac Valley All Star – capture towers, graveyards, and kill the enemy leader all in one game
• City Defender – kill 50 players in your faction’s capital cities

Dungeons and Raids

• Kill X dungeon boss – every boss, event, dungeon, etc. will have a achievement associated with it

Professions

• Advancing to each new tier of your professions will function as it’s own achievement

Quests

• Quest-based achievements include completing a certain number of quests and completing specific quest lines. This category contains zone-specific subcategories.

Events

• All seasonal events will have associated achievements, mid summer, brewfest, christmas, etc

World Exploration

• You earn achievements by exploring each zone

Reputation

• attaining exalted reputation with each faction

General

• This category could be better summed up as “stupid shit”. These achievements are things like a hair cut, give a /hug, falling off the great lift, etc.

Mage Talent Builds

If you’re looking for the best mage talent builds then you’ve come to the right place. This mage spec guide will be continually updated to reflect the current best arcane, fire, frost and hybrid builds for pvp, pve, leveling and more! With that said, let’s get to the good stuff!

PvP Mage Specs
When we consider mage pvp builds their are a variety of factors we must consider. The first, and most important is the purpose of the build. We basically have two types of pvp builds, those builds for arena, and those builds not for arena.

For the purpose of arena we are really looking at 2 types of mage talent builds. Mage builds that focus on burst or mage builds that focus on longevity. In essence, frost vs. arcane.

• 20/0/51 – frost, high survivability, high mana longevity
• 58/13/0 – arcane, high burst, moderate survivabilty
• 55/16/0 – arcane, variation on stanard arcane burst build, very similar to 58/13/0

If you’re looking for additional information on pvp and arena, head over here, mage pvp specs guide.

The following pvp specs are great for battlegrounds and world PvP, though I don’t consider them optimal for arena. That said, if you have the right type of team they could work.

• 0/56/15 – fire, high burst, moderate longevity, great for battlegrounds

PvE Mage Specs
The one thing I really love about raiding as a mage is the wide variety of potential specs you can choose to raid with. There are many great mage talent builds out there for PvE. They all offer a slightly different experience and play style, but each is viable in it’s own regard.

• 18/0/53 – frost
• 0/18/53 – frost
• 30/0/41 – frost / arcane hybrid build
• 0/51/20 – frostfire
• 18/53/0 – fireball
• 57/3/11 – arcane

Mage Leveling Build
For leveling purposes I like to keep it pretty simple…let’s just say we’re going to have a few points in frost. The following build is your ideal leveling build, you’ll have great AoE spells for pulling huge packs, mana longevity, and survivabilty. It’s the perfect build for long grinding and questing sessions.

• 0/0/71 – full frost

Additionally, if you’re looking for a kick ass guide to help you power through your levels check out this, level 1-70 in 6 days 5 hours. I’ve personally used this guide myself and let me tell you, it’s got an awesome in-game mod that guides you the whole way!