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Last night I was lucky enough to transfer into the test server and check out the new battlegrounds. They are going to become a huge new aspect of the game for anyone who likes PvP at all.
The Alteric battleground was very laggy from overloading last night so I didn’t stay there long (there were 50 different Alteric instances going, at 40-80 people each it’s no wonder they were laggy). I will try it out tonight and give a review about it.
The other battleground however was hardly laggy at all. I was 150ms most of the time with only minor spikes every now and then. It only had about 40 instances going at its’ peak, and each instance there is 20 people max (10 per side) so perhaps it was running on its own server that wasn’t bogged down. Whatever the case, I was able to get in fast, and played 4 matches with almost no lag at all. Now, presenting:
Mori’shn Rampart, 10v10 Capture the Flag Battleground!
This battleground is the answer to many players’ prayers. It’s 10 on 10, so fair numbers are forced. My impression is 10v10 really is the perfect number for small group fighting. More then that as we know is a bit zergish, making some classes more useful then others. 5v5 wouldn’t be enough to do a capture the flag type game. 10v10 feels just right. Enough players to both attack and defend. Also I hear the battlegrounds auto-split by age every 10 levels start at 20 (or 30, heard both). So if you are 25 and enter you get placed in with players 20-30, and so on. I didn’t test this myself, just what I heard.
I played 4 matches, 2 of them lasting over an hour each, the other to about half an hour. In every match the majority of the players got into a raid group. The 1 match where 2 people refused to, we lost horribly. Raid groups are quite necessary, since you can see everyone’s location on the map (which looks like of like a loading map for a Warcraft 3 Defense of the Ancients match). Even if you don’t use a raid group though, there is a general chat that is per instance only so you can communicate with everyone on your team.
Map: The battleground itself is small without feeling cramped. There are 3 main areas, a South base for Horde, North base for Alliance, and a center area. The center area is grassy, mostly level, and has large stumps and a few houses for cover. Each base looks unique but has the same basic layout. A main tunnel entrance that leads straight to the flag room. A right side entrance (on your right when you face the base) that leads up the bases graveyard and 2 other paths to the flag room. 2 of the paths into the flag room come at the rooms ground level, while a 3rd way in comes in on a ledge above the flag room. Thus you have 3 ways to enter but once you jump down, only 2 ways out. If a group is ground level defending the flag and another comes in above them, the ground level group is at a big disadvantage. It takes about a 30 seconds to get from the start of a base to the flag room, and about 50 or 60 seconds to cross the center area. You can mount in the center area, and outdoor portions of the bases.
Death: When you die your corpse can be “Skinned” by an enemy right clicking you. Skinning takes about 3 seconds to do, but once you are skinned you can’t rez at your body, it vanishes. When you die you appear as a ghost at your spirit healer. Every 30 seconds the healer pulses a raise for everyone in the area, raising you with about 75% health and mana. From the raise area you can jump right down into the center area or move back to your inner base quickly.
Flags: There are 2 flags, one in each base. You right click it to instant pick up the enemy flag. If you die you drop it on the ground. You can pick up an enemy flag off the ground but if they touch click it, it instantly goes back to their base. You have to take the enemy flag to your flag holder to capture it, and your flag must be there or you can’t turn it in. Each flag turn in gives your whole team about 466 bonus contribution points and the first side to get 3 captures wins. There is a broadcast announcement whenever a flag is stolen, dropped, or returned. If you stealth while holding the flag you drop it, and you can’t mount with the flag.
Bonus Buffs: There are a few special buffs that look like open chests with a unique icon over them that spawn on the ground in a few spots. Touching them gives you the buff. In the main tunnel of each base a speed buff spawns every now and then. It gives 100% speed boost for 20 seconds. I found it best to always use up that buff in your own base, else the enemy can get your flag, use that buff, and blow past you. In the houses in the center area a +30% damage buff for 1 min and a full health/mana regen over 10 seconds buff randomly appear every now and then.
Scoreboard: There is a scoreboard that shows the Name, Race, and Class of everyone in the battleground (even the enemy). It also shows how many deathblows they have landed, deaths they have taken, honorable kills they have got, and how many captures or flag returns they have done. Checking for how many stealthers are on the enemy team is a good idea.
Tactics: The battleground definitely encourages tactics. The first one I got in the horde won 3 to 1, mostly because we moved in 2 main groups, while the alliance kind of randomly wandered. Any time the alliance got our flag we crushed them in the center area. And any time we got their flag we did our best to escort it home. Also groups helping each other were able to beat larger masses of people all playing as if solo. I worked in a pair with a shaman for a while, and with him shocking and healing me we were able to kill 2 alliance that jumped us and hold out a long time vs 3 more, while someone stole their flag.
Balance: I would say the battleground is mostly balanced. Every class is useful. There is one big imbalance that I don’t expect to make it to the live server. Paladins can use their 2 immunity shields while they have the flag. This means they can grab it and get all the way to the center area with no way at all to stop them. If they pop a speed potion they can make it almost all the way to their own base. The only defense is to guard your flag so closely they can’t get to it in the first place, since I don’t think they can actually pick it up while shielded. Also, shaman can go ghost wolf and druids can go cheetah while holding the flag, which is also not balanced. The only other annoyance will probably go away in time. That is, twice it happened where each time had the others flag, and hide with it well enough that the other team could not find it. I had the enemy flag one of those times, and hid behind a small hill in their own base. After 15 minutes of no one finding the other I logged out for bed. This will probably become less of an issue when people know where all the hiding spots are and can check them.
Overall: The 10v10 battleground delivers the small scale, even match-ups that many of us have been praying for. Every class is useful and except for Paladins, no one has a huge advantage. Working in 2, 5 person groups is the most effective, though there are lots of opportunities for distraction tactics, flanking, and trickery. Coordinated teams will dominate. Matches look like they will typically take just under an hour, unless one team is really good and dominates. The PvP itself that happens is the best I’ve ever had. At no time was I insta-killed by a huge mob. I actually got in good 1 on 1, 1 on 2, and 3 on 3 fights. In one battle I took on both a warrior and a mage, and managed to kill the warrior and escape the mage with 5% life left. That’s the type of PvP I love! Conclusion, with a few more tweaks, this battleground will be a huge new source of fun in the game.
