Before I start, just a side note that my last exam is Tuesday, so afterward I’ll do my best to finish editing Arena Vol. VII before I go on vacation on Friday, but I’m not going to rush and make it shitty either, and with the upload time I’m not sure if it will be out this week, or when I get back at the beginning of May. I’ll keep you updated.
I’ll also be letting other authors touch on the Cloak change to 100 percent, but I’ll just note that it kicks ass and it’s about time.
Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas: Will it be one or the Other?
This is going to be one of the biggest questions facing cataclysm PvP. Will rated battlegrounds serve to replace arena? A lot of this will depend on the success of rated Bgs and how they are presented. Initially, of course, don’t expect many players to be playing arena when rated Bgs are the new kid on the block. People will always want to try something new, and coupled with that fact I think that a good portion of the WoW populace is disillusioned with or at least a bit tired of arena being the only real PvP left in the game.
The idea behind rated BGs is to be able to offer the best PvP rewards through both Arenas or BGs. If you love BGs but don’t like Arenas, you can still get great rewards. If you love Arenas, hopefully the experience will be even better for you because the guys who don’t like Arenas will be off doing something else. If you like both Arenas and BGs, great, you have more choices in what you do that week. If you like PvP but still lose a lot, yes you’re still going to be a season behind the guys who win a lot. We’ll reward you gear just for participating, but if you want th best gear, you still need to win.
There are a lot of potential issues with rated battlegrounds however. The first of which being how do you organize it? WoW isn’t the same game it was 5 years ago, where players were much more hardcore and millions were happy to spend most of their waking lives playing WoW. I think (mostly because Blizzard wanted this) the playerbase has become much more casual, for better or for worse. Even if you have a guild that’s only focus is rated bg’s and you’re confident in its players, it is always going to be hard to organize 10 players or 15 players to be on and ready at the same time and not leave. Anyone who’s tried to organize a 5v5 will probably understand. Expect the few guilds that are actually able to organize top players to dominate, and other players to trade chat BG teams that will probably fair about as well as trade chat arena teams.
Having played some very competitive battlegrounds back in vanilla WoW (both on reckoning and the then BG9), I can say that they were both intense and a lot of fun. You really didn’t want to lose, and mistakes were met with group kicks. At the same time, this has only ever been true of Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin. This may be in part to the death of BG’s in the Burning Crusade, but even so, expect only 10 – 15 player battlegrounds to be utilized competitively. You can also expect Blizzard not to realize this whatsoever.
The ultimate determining factor here will be if rated Bg’s are pretty much the same as battlegrounds are now, except you get arena points. I think that how Blizzard handles this new idea will be the determinant of the success or failure of PvP in cataclysm. If they don’t work out, expect people who care about competition whatsoever to return quickly to arena. I’m not exactly sure what “6” means but the following quote doesn’t exactly get me pumped for rated BGs:
Allows player to earn Arena points through Arena or BGs; no punishment for losing, but points via BGs may be capped at 6 or so per week; required to join as a group, but not one dedicated like Arenas – may be awarded special epic ground mounts.
The way that sounds, rated bg’s will be like a daily quest for arena points that you can only do as a group. I’m sure some people will take it seriously and you may occasionally get the game of coordinated premades facing off with both teams in vent and playing strategically (which is what we want!), but mostly it will be half pug groups that are just playing to get their points, and rated Bg’s will suck almost as hard as wintergrasp. Almost.
To the PvE Haters
This is just a short note for the people hating on the site talking about PvE. PvE is a huge part of this game; more people PvE strictly than PvP by a very large amount. I realize it seems that this site is primarily concerned with PvP, and I suppose it has been, but one of the biggest reasons for that is I haven’t raided seriously in a long time. In the Burning Crusade, I posted a lot about raiding, specs, and gearing for PvE.
I see this trend a lot where PvE has fallen out of favour and is seen as “the enemy” by the PvP community, but first and foremost, one of the biggest goals of this website is to help rogues, all rogues. More rogues strictly PvE than they do PvP, many are interested in this part of the game. I’m not asking you as a PvP’r to read PvE articles that don’t concern you, but at the same time it isn’t hurting you that they are there. Are there other PvE websites? Yes, but these rarely cater specifically to rogues, and if they do they do so in a very elitist way where you can expect every question to be met with “check your spreadsheet”. What Seperation is planning to do is tackle PvE from a rogue perspective, and at the same time make it accessible to people who aren’t on Lich King hard mode.
And if you’re still not happy:
Moment of Anti-Zen
I’ve talked about this kind of thing before but it never ceases to baffle me. I appreciate fans but…seriously. Seriously?
Edit: Late Edition
Just saw this now, woundman released another video, 3v3 with commentary. A great look at rogue perspective of RLS and Rogue S priest Shaman, not only does it show solid top-level game play but it also reminds me just how annoying it can be to play a rogue in 3s. Even when being played correctly and effectively, its frustrating to watch vanishes randomly break, stealth removed by lucky novas or cone of colds and kicks that sometimes just don’t work. Even so this is a really good watch, I found the dance section more entertaining but the mutilate section more realistic and also a lot more intense.
Related posts:
Hey liked the post mate, i understand how it is for a pure pvp’r to hate the pvers who are able to obtain gear way before someone in arena can like weapons that do way more damage etc.
Anyways, i liked the post, and hope it stays ok for arena and rated battlegrounds.
Comment by Phy — April 19, 2010 @ 9:40 am
Edit : Oh and on your next video Let time take it’s toll, it’s got to be how you always make vids with your soul
Comment by Phy — April 19, 2010 @ 9:41 am
Yes Akrios SERIOUSLY.And what so ever iam supprised at the amount of watches that guys receives just becouse people don’t notice at first that its not your movie but some random rogue’s ;D
Comment by Desolator — April 19, 2010 @ 9:50 am
lol that picture is win
Comment by Rando — April 19, 2010 @ 10:07 am
I hope arenas will be replaced by rated BGs … arenas are only for the VERY skilled players, while BGs are open to all players skilled and non-skilled. For example: if Iìm a rogue I cannot win against some classes (paladins)… and for this reason some arenas match are already written in some ways <.<
Comment by lou_bot — April 19, 2010 @ 10:19 am
i know this is a bit offtopic but whats the evis macro u use in your movies? envenom / eviscerate macro you got going?
Comment by Alk — April 19, 2010 @ 11:05 am
just uses rocket gloves
Comment by Akrios — April 19, 2010 @ 11:26 am
so i still say; fuck pve keybord turning baddies. i hate coming to this webite and having to scroll through 10 paragraphs about the first and easiest boss in icc.
keep pve seperate.
btw pvp is 100 times more interesting than spamming 2 buttons against a computer
Comment by uschearak — April 19, 2010 @ 11:47 am
I don’t understand why your stalker keeps making movies. He just keeps getting flamed.
Comment by Dolch — April 19, 2010 @ 11:51 am
“Seperation is planning to tackle PvE from a rogue perspective, and at the same time make it accessible to people who aren’t on Lich King hard mode”
sooooo make pve understandable to people who cant understand; mutilate 4+cps envenom, rinse repeat. oh and dont stand in aoes. hard stuff
the reason there arent any sites dedicated to rogue pve is because rogue pve is boooooooooooooooooooooooring.
seriously, give pve a tab to click on (they are used to clicking) and keep pvp front page.
Comment by uschearak — April 19, 2010 @ 11:52 am
“I don’t understand why your stalker keeps making movies. He just keeps getting flamed.”
He’s from Singapore and barely speaks English, so I doubt he realises just how much people hate him.
Comment by tora — April 19, 2010 @ 12:05 pm
Ultimately what it comes down to is how fun PvP is for this game. Is PvP balanced? I would say yes it is right now, in the sense that everyone can do an insane amount of damage.
PvE well gl seperation, you definately got your work cut out for you. Im glad to see Akrios backing you up while at the same time I also believe PvE is… dull. making guides for it will be a challege to make it both exciting and to talk about stuff that isnt widely known already.
I once ran into an 80 rogue that had 0 HK’s. I asked him why play a rogue if you dont PvP? He replied, “they have the highest possible DPS”. I thought wow, he is missing out on so much foregoing PvP. Although I didnt ask him if he knew who Akrios was he would have probably replied “no”. My point is if people truely want to know how to PvE they will do one of two things.
1. Go to EJ and do the “Sreadsheet thing”
2. Ask for help on WoW community forums and then they will get a reply that states “Spreadsheet it, or http://www.elitiestjerks.com“.
Pretty much every rogue that ever heard of this site or Akrios heard about him through PvP, Which is why so many people have problems with it. That said I dont envy Seperation.
Ahh well, rogue rogue will always be a great rogue site.
Comment by TrueWan — April 19, 2010 @ 1:38 pm
Good luck on your exam, mine are still a few weeks away, but I’m not too worried.
Comment by Zeneroth — April 19, 2010 @ 2:50 pm
Eventhough the challenge will be that a 10-15 players group has to be in coordination, I still think that rated BGs will be the easy and cheap way to get the good gear out there. Of course, here comes something diferent from what we’re used to see, but in the end, it’s still none less than 2 premades fighting.
The problem with that type of feature is that one will be able to rely way more on its team than in arenas where you have to religiously know your class in order to be among the best. Which I think will contrast with rated BGs where you are part of the winning team, you get to do your share, but maybe not prove you’re necessarily more skilled than other PvP’rs.
My point is that you’ll have the average player in this good BG team with the same gear as the skilled guy doing great in arenas, people won’t see use of doing as much arena games as they would’v normally, which will weaken and/or threaten once more the arena bracket.
However, I’d like to be wrong and will try to enjoy this new PvP feature as much as I can.
Comment by Chaosthane — April 19, 2010 @ 4:53 pm
If you wanted to help all rogues your last 30 posts wouldn’t just be about PVP.
Stick to pvp or gtfo.
Having PVE as well is just a good way to increase more user traffic onto this site to spread the words.
Comment by sigh — April 19, 2010 @ 6:04 pm
Good post Akrios, The purpose of this website is to inform the Rogue class. Not just the PvPers. Don’t rush the video, people can wait. I’m interested in hearing more about how the internal stat changes will effect the rogue class, and about what to expect from other classes. I know they aren’t rogues, but the first time i ran into a DK i was full brutal and i was absolutely dominated by a DK in greens and 3 levels below me.
Comment by Roec — April 19, 2010 @ 8:01 pm
I hope they don’t screw up rated BGs, I haven’t been a fan of arena since the end of BC :/
Comment by Randø — April 19, 2010 @ 9:03 pm
Rated BGs will be fun, especially if I find a guild dedicated to running them. WSG, AB, and EOTS will be a blast, but the others, mainly AV.. fuck that shit. It wont be too hard to organize a 15 player group, itll be easier than putting together a 25 man raid. I just hope they only pit rated teams against other rated teams, similar to how twinks are now. And ill be pretty pissed if bgs give better gear than arenas, bc im fucking pumped for RMP in cata. Smoke bomb, life grip, time warp, holy shit.
On a side note, what do you all think the best race for rogues are atm? human for the extra trink and stealth detect, undead for well the nerfed wotf and coolness, or belf for arcane torrent?
Comment by Bendickson — April 19, 2010 @ 9:08 pm
Why do PvE haters needs to whine like sissies and do a big drama? If you want a full PvP oriented site, why don’t make your own? I’m just saying. If anything, why not skip the PvE posts? Simple problems, simple solutions. In the end, It’s to the site host to have the final word so why wasting energy…
Comment by Chaosthane — April 19, 2010 @ 9:20 pm
woundman was awesome
Comment by undaddy — April 19, 2010 @ 10:12 pm
wow he even has the ui to go along with it. thats so funny.
Comment by Larryfine — April 20, 2010 @ 12:22 am
@chaosthane
hi we speaks engrish curz we wiv in merica.
Comment by uschearak — April 20, 2010 @ 8:44 am
nigga please
Comment by uschearak — April 20, 2010 @ 8:45 am
Sure buddy.
Comment by Chaosthane — April 20, 2010 @ 10:54 am
“I’ll do my best to finish editing Arena Vol. VII”
for the love of God, link us a torrent like u used to
can’t wait for it.
Comment by AbeOfArabia — April 20, 2010 @ 8:57 pm
What’s the big deal if there’s stuff about PvE on this site? I don’t get it.
It doesn’t affect the amount of PvP talk there is on this site at all. It just means that there’s PvE blogs here on some days instead of nothing at all. If you don’t like it, fine, don’t read it.
Comment by Ado — April 21, 2010 @ 4:10 am
hello eviscerate!!
remember when you were playing on Gurubashi?
remembers a gnome rogue named vampiroo, with which you duel?
that’s me! heheh
much time has passed …
I went back to playing WOW more or less 6 months … and I have been following your site ever since!
great content! you’re still an awesome player, but I’m still better! hahahahah
hug’s and congratulations!
salute!
Comment by Bobjon — April 23, 2010 @ 11:11 pm
oh, I forgot.
I’m currently playing on horde in Warsong, with the name of Bobjon…
cya
Comment by Bobjon — April 23, 2010 @ 11:12 pm