E
Eldorian
Guest
The WoW PVP Panel just ended and displayed was a whole slew of new information on the PVP front. The panel was hosted by lead designer Tom chilton and lead level designer Cory Stockton.
*Wintergrasp
The first thing shown was the PvP zone Wintergrasp. Wintergrasp is going to be the first world zone solely fr PvP. It will work like a battleground that is not instanced. Because of the unkown of how many players will be participating at any given time Chilton had said that the primary challenge of Wintergrasp was making sure it could support both large scale combat and small scale combat.
Wintergrasp will have siege weapons and destructible buildings. The siege vehicles also include flying air combat as well as ground. The objective will be an attack/defend type game of capturing and protecting your bases. The land sits on top of a large frozen lake that is melting and the melting causes choke points between patches of ice as bridges are built to cross over. The bridges are desctructible and would probably be a focal point of combat for players to attack and defend. The bridges will change appearance depending on how much health it may or may not have. For example if it's taken 25% damage it may look different then if it's taken 75% damage. The bridges can also be seen across the land for players to better spot if a bridge has been destroyed or not before they begin to head toward the bridge only to find out it's not there anymore.
The reward system in Wintergrasp will consist of honor and also marks of honor. You will be able to buy specific items dependent on the marks and honor combination like you can with battlegrounds.
Siege Vehicles
We were given a sneak peek of the siege vehicles we can expect in WoTLK. All of these weapons can be used by either faction.
The Demolisher is considered the baseline weapon for all siege damage. It will be able to do bother short and long range damage and has a set of spikes in front for plowing into things and doing more damage. The weapon will be able to hold a driver and 3 passengers that will be able to cast. Chilton made the joke that this could be the first time we start seeing drive by shootings in World of Warcraft.
The Forsaken Catapult is the most agile weapon but has a limited range. It can only hold one driver and has the lowest cost to get (they haven't explained what "cost" means yet"). The catapult also has lower damage than that of the the Demolisher. Also it can shoot fire out of the front to hit close by opponents.
The Siege Engine is the hardest hitting weapon and has the longest range. It can hold a driver, a gunner, and passengers.The gunners can control their gun turrets independently from the vehicle.
The Flying Machine is a swift but fragile flying siege weapon. It's extremely vulnerable to anti-air weapons and includes a bomber and a gunner.
The Goblin Shredder has anti-air rockets and can also jump rather high to try and take down the Flying Machine. It can be used as a personal armor suit as you are not killed when it is blown up, you simply fall out of the armor and are exposed that way. The Shredder has excellent close range melee but is very vulnerable to siege weapon damage.
Arenas
The first Northrend arena introduced was the Dalaran Arena located in Dalaran City. The arena will have a dynamic line of sight element with a pipe in the middle that will occasionally shoot down water and allow people to hide behind it. It's a very simple and small arena and will be the first arena to not allow players to mount in.
The second arena introduced was the Orgrimmar Arena located Orgrimmar. There's been an Orgrimmar arena for a longtime in the Valley of Heroes but Blizzard has never done anything with it. The players start out extremely close to each othe, maybe 10 yards a part as they enter but will have a few seconds before the spikes between them go down for them to move. This arena is a bit bigger than the Dalaran one. Triggered objects (spikes on the floor that come up) can damage players but it's an element created so that you can choose if you want to run from your combatant that is beating the living snot out of you or take your chances with the spikes. Mounts will be allowed inside this one.
Northrend Battleground
Tital Isle is the new Northrend Battleground located off the southern coast of Dragonblight. This battleground reminds me of the Normandy Beach Invasion. Attacking players arrive from boats onto a beach. Defending players must protect their flags and have blockades of walls to defend that attacking players will use siege weapons to destroy. The nice thing about this new battleground though is you have a timer to get as many flags as you can as the attacking team. Once you are done, you become the defender and the defender become the attackers. The winner is determind by who got the most flags after it's said and done.
During the Q&A following the panel one person asked if Blizzard might create a spectator mode for Arena. Chilton said that it's something they want to do and are working on but aren't sure how to implement it yet since some players may not want to allow spectators. He also said that it's something they would like to do with raids and instances as well by having a spectator mode for players to learn the raids before they play.
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*Wintergrasp
The first thing shown was the PvP zone Wintergrasp. Wintergrasp is going to be the first world zone solely fr PvP. It will work like a battleground that is not instanced. Because of the unkown of how many players will be participating at any given time Chilton had said that the primary challenge of Wintergrasp was making sure it could support both large scale combat and small scale combat.
Wintergrasp will have siege weapons and destructible buildings. The siege vehicles also include flying air combat as well as ground. The objective will be an attack/defend type game of capturing and protecting your bases. The land sits on top of a large frozen lake that is melting and the melting causes choke points between patches of ice as bridges are built to cross over. The bridges are desctructible and would probably be a focal point of combat for players to attack and defend. The bridges will change appearance depending on how much health it may or may not have. For example if it's taken 25% damage it may look different then if it's taken 75% damage. The bridges can also be seen across the land for players to better spot if a bridge has been destroyed or not before they begin to head toward the bridge only to find out it's not there anymore.
The reward system in Wintergrasp will consist of honor and also marks of honor. You will be able to buy specific items dependent on the marks and honor combination like you can with battlegrounds.
Siege Vehicles
We were given a sneak peek of the siege vehicles we can expect in WoTLK. All of these weapons can be used by either faction.
The Demolisher is considered the baseline weapon for all siege damage. It will be able to do bother short and long range damage and has a set of spikes in front for plowing into things and doing more damage. The weapon will be able to hold a driver and 3 passengers that will be able to cast. Chilton made the joke that this could be the first time we start seeing drive by shootings in World of Warcraft.
The Forsaken Catapult is the most agile weapon but has a limited range. It can only hold one driver and has the lowest cost to get (they haven't explained what "cost" means yet"). The catapult also has lower damage than that of the the Demolisher. Also it can shoot fire out of the front to hit close by opponents.
The Siege Engine is the hardest hitting weapon and has the longest range. It can hold a driver, a gunner, and passengers.The gunners can control their gun turrets independently from the vehicle.
The Flying Machine is a swift but fragile flying siege weapon. It's extremely vulnerable to anti-air weapons and includes a bomber and a gunner.
The Goblin Shredder has anti-air rockets and can also jump rather high to try and take down the Flying Machine. It can be used as a personal armor suit as you are not killed when it is blown up, you simply fall out of the armor and are exposed that way. The Shredder has excellent close range melee but is very vulnerable to siege weapon damage.
Arenas
The first Northrend arena introduced was the Dalaran Arena located in Dalaran City. The arena will have a dynamic line of sight element with a pipe in the middle that will occasionally shoot down water and allow people to hide behind it. It's a very simple and small arena and will be the first arena to not allow players to mount in.
The second arena introduced was the Orgrimmar Arena located Orgrimmar. There's been an Orgrimmar arena for a longtime in the Valley of Heroes but Blizzard has never done anything with it. The players start out extremely close to each othe, maybe 10 yards a part as they enter but will have a few seconds before the spikes between them go down for them to move. This arena is a bit bigger than the Dalaran one. Triggered objects (spikes on the floor that come up) can damage players but it's an element created so that you can choose if you want to run from your combatant that is beating the living snot out of you or take your chances with the spikes. Mounts will be allowed inside this one.
Northrend Battleground
Tital Isle is the new Northrend Battleground located off the southern coast of Dragonblight. This battleground reminds me of the Normandy Beach Invasion. Attacking players arrive from boats onto a beach. Defending players must protect their flags and have blockades of walls to defend that attacking players will use siege weapons to destroy. The nice thing about this new battleground though is you have a timer to get as many flags as you can as the attacking team. Once you are done, you become the defender and the defender become the attackers. The winner is determind by who got the most flags after it's said and done.
During the Q&A following the panel one person asked if Blizzard might create a spectator mode for Arena. Chilton said that it's something they want to do and are working on but aren't sure how to implement it yet since some players may not want to allow spectators. He also said that it's something they would like to do with raids and instances as well by having a spectator mode for players to learn the raids before they play.
More...