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WotLK Guide: Battlegrounds, Arenas and World PvP
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Battlegrounds
There will be a new instanced battleground in Wrath of the Lich King called
Strand of the Ancients
. It will feature siege vehicles, and introduce an attack / defend gameplay mode where one faction will enter on defense and the other on offense. The team on offense will enter the battleground on boats (!) and land on a beach and will have to push forward past the opposing team's defenses, taking control of siege vehicles on the way, in order to claim objectives and eventually to defeat the other team. This battleground is currently palnned to be either 10v10 or 15v15.
Arenas
Blizzard also intends to change the instanced PvP arenas to include more dynamic game elements, such as moving platforms and will be changing the way players enter the arenas to prevent players from turtling in their spawns. The two new areans in Wrath of the Lich King are the
Dalaran Arena
and the
The Ring of Valor
, in
Orgrimmar
.
The
Dalaran Arena
is intended to resemble the sewers of Dalaran, an will feature a pipe in the center from which water will flow down, offering a temporary block to line-of-sight. In addition the water, several blocks and platforms are located around the arena to serve as static line-of-sight blocks (similar to the pillars in Nagrand arena).
The
The Ring of Valor
will have two constantly moving pillars that players will be able to step onto to attempt to escape a player. There will also be two tracks of spikes that shoot up from the ground which may prevent players from taking hasty actions to reach an enemy fleeing on one of the platforms.
Outdoor PvP: Lake Wintergrasp
Given the always rising popularity of PvP at the end-game of World of Warcraft, Blizzard plans on implementing many new, dynamic elements to the game's PvP system looking beyond only arena and battleground play. In addition to plans for adding new arenas, there will be a new PvP-enabled zone (yes, even on PvE realms),
Lake Wintergrasp
, in which players will battle for objectives and claim victories for their faction. New PvP features at Lake Wintergrasp include:
Destructible environment
- Players will be able to alter the scenery of the battlefield to their advantage by destroying buildings, walls, bridges and other objects.
Siege weaponry
- Players will be able to take control of at least four different types of siege vehicles (similar to those found in the Warcraft RTS games) such as catapults, siege engines, flying machines, and goblin shredders, which can be used to destroy the environment or your foes.
Air combat
- One of the siege vehicles able to be controlled is a flying machine (similar to those created by engineers), which can be used to drop bombs and possibly for direct player versus player, air-mounted combat.
Blizzard has also made it clear that players must participate in arena content to obtain the arena-quality PvP gear (ie. the season gear). PvP gear will still be available via Honor from battlegrounds (bracers, belts, boots, rings, etc.) and good quality PvP gear will also be available for purchase with the new token system being implemented for Lake Wintergrasp, but Blizzard does still intend for players to participate in the arena system for their arena-quality equipment. This basically means there are no plans to allow you to obtain any sort of 'gladiator's' gear (chest, shoulders, etc.) in battlegrounds.
