#1 - March 23, 2013, 11:35 a.m.
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UPDATE 17/04/13 (I thought this thread was deleted, hence the late update):
Eye of the Storm: The starting platforms have been lowered.
No longer will Paladins and Death Knights lose their health at the start because of their speed increase, awesome!
Picking up the Alliance or Horde flag while in a Rated Battleground now increases damage taken by 50% for characters in a tanking specialization, and increases damage taken by 20% for characters in a non-tanking specialization.
This will make more specs a viable FC, but current FCs might lose their role because of this. I'm not sure what to say about it, it can turn out very nice, or very, very bad.
Tyrannical Gladiator’s Tabard and Tyrannical Gladiator’s Greatcloak are available as new prestige items at 2500 rating for 1000 Conquest Points
Great to see more vanity items in PvP. I'm wondering if the rating inflation system will make a significant difference to how hard these items are to acquire. We really need some mid-rating rewards though.
- Glorious Tyranny weapon enchantment now grants 600 PvP Power instead of 400 PvP Power and 200 Resilience.
- New weapon enchantment: Bloody Dancing Steel is functionally equivalent to Dancing Steel, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.
- New weapon enchantment: Spirit of Conquest is functionally equivalent to Jade Spirit, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.
This should make these enchants viable for more classes, which is good. I haven't seen these in-game yet though, are they easy to spot - and therefore prestigious?
Tyrannical weapons no longer have a conquest-earned prerequisite to purchase them.
Nice! This will make it easier for alts to jump in later on in the seasaon.
- Battle Fatigue now reduces the amount of healing and absorbs by 45%, up from 30%.
- PvP Power bonus to healing is now based on class and specialization.
- Healing specializations receive a 100% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
- Damage specializations for Druids, Monks, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans receive a 70% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
- All other specializations and classes (including tanking) receive a 40% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
I like that PvP Power is now based on class and spec, because it should make adjustments a lot easier. I'm not sure what to say about the other nerfs or buffs, anyone on PTR who can give more information on how these changes are affecting PvP at the moment?
Changes to the current Blade's Edge and Dalaran arena are live on the PTR. The pillars in Blade's Edge have been exchanged for stairs and there are now stairs behind the boxes on the Dalaran map.
This looks really good! Knockback classes won't have a unfair advantage anymore over others, especially melee, which had no chance to kill certain classes if they stood on the pillar/behind the boxes.
A new arena with the Shado'pan theme called The Tiger's Peak has been added. It looks a bit like Tol'vir, except that it has two small platforms (with fences).
Looks good. Nothing really special, but that's just how an arena map should be in my opinion.
Hildegard has made a video about the two changed maps and the new one, you can check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0sGH_p6QjM
- All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.
- Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear.
- Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493.
- Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.
- Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496.
This sounds really, really good. I will break it down for you.
1) Increase of base Resilience means that we take less damage in general, which is good.
2) Season 13 Tyrannical gear was only slightly better than Season 12 Malevolent 2/2, it's good that the item level (and therefore stats) gets increased.
3) Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear was so much better than normal Season 13 Tyrannical gear, it was basically just like the upgrade system we had in season 12. This was only making the gap we have in gear between characters even bigger.
4) Scaling down item level, also scales down the stats. In 5.3 we will have PvE gear with an item level that is A LOT higher than the current PvP gear. There was a chance that it would become better than the PvP gear. By scaling down gear to item level 496 in PvP zones, this should hardly be a problem (if it would be a problem at all).
5) Resilience has been removed from most PvP, hmmm. I can't really comment on this yet, we will need more information on which pieces this concerns, if the Resilience gets buffed on other pieces, etc.
One minor concern would be World PvP. If the item level of PvP gear is only 496, PvE gear might be very dominant here. To be fair with you though, I'm not that bothered with World PvP in the first place, so don't mind this at all.
New Battleground: Deepwind Gorge
In the new Battleground situated in the Valley of the Four Winds, the Alliance and Horde continue their war for Pandaria’s precious resources. While the two factions battle for control over mines, they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ebdH2k2fBw
Cool, a new battleground. It sounds a bit like Silvershard Mines, except for "they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them". I'm curious how this will work and if it will be added to the Rated Battlegrounds, I'm looking forward to thinking of new strategies! I really can't comment on this, as it's not yet finished on the PTR.
Blog with additional information and explanation for the reasoning behind PvP changes will be available very soon.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/9331806/