A Real Battleground

[Cosineoftheta]

I know it's a wall of text sorry. Please read the whole thing before you make assumptions. Thank you.

So every so often people bring up this idea of a Defense of the Ancients battleground. Why? Because they love DotA and want everything to be like it. Hey, maybe I'm one of them ;D. The problem is that everyone like to think in large scale. They want it to be DotA with the same non working paradigm that Blizzard continues to use for battlegrounds. Now I'm not saying battlegrounds aren't fun, cough cough, but they could use some work.

So enough of my rant, lets get to the suggesting! That suggestion is?? A real port of DotA as a battleground. To bring the same level of competition that arena has, but as a battleground.

Please don't stop reading, take a good look at what I say and think about it. Don't think of it was a port, but imagine if this was the first time you saw how this was going to work in WoW. For some of you, maybe you don't know DotA so this will be good.

Here is the outline:

Map:
5~7 people on each side start in their base. The base will have a vendor (get to that later) and a statue that can be destroyed. Around the statue are a few turrets. There would be 3~4 lanes (based on if it is a 5v5 or 7v7) that lead directly to the other side. Along the lanes are a few towers (turrets controlled by allied NPC). They can be destroyed with enough damage. Once the game starts, NPCs will run along the lane at intervals. At lvl 80, you could compare each one to like an 80 normal mob (killed easily but in a few hits) and a set of hard mobs in each of the teams forest. There will be a high level elite in a cave, and between the lanes there will be a forest that have wandering mobs. finally there will be a path that leads along the middle of the map (connecting the lanes) that has occasional power ups (like sprint or health regen).

Goal: Kill enemy statue.

Start up:
There is some setup time adding buffs, summoning pets, creating food. During this time you can run along the lanes up to a point, but not beyond it (essentially you can't run over to the other side). And the gate will open and the first interval of mobs will start down the lane.

Mobs: Each enemy and hero will drop temporary emblems. I will explain how to use them in a bit. When a tower is killed, everyone on the team will get a set amount of emblems. Now the neutral enemies between lanes also drop these emblems. As the time goes on, stronger enemies will spawn. They may start with 5k hp and get 1k hp every minute or so. An important enemy is the main elite. It should take multiple players on the team to kill him, but when they do one person can loot him for an item that buffs the player. This buff lasts until they die, and it instantly rez's them with full hp (CD still remain).

Gear:
The biggest issue with this port is how to incorporate DotA's level/ gear system. Essentially in DotA you start off at level 0 and can level up to 25 through killing mobs and so on. While Blizz could sure implement this, it would mean not really using your character as it is. So what is the solution?

I offer 3 ideas. In each you keep your character as it is, a level 80 with whatever spec you picked. Please look at all of them before you angry face. >

The first is a more drastic approach. Instead of using your own gear, you are given basic gear and use emblems to purchase new gear as you continue.
Pro: Everyone can play as soon as they hit max level. It also evens the playing field starting.
Con: You worked so hard for PvP gear, why can't you use it?

The second is the easily implemented. You use your gear, but you buy buffs (more damage, more hp). These buffs last the entire match.
Pro: You get to use your character as it is and buff it as it goes. If you were full Furious, then you get to be powerful and stay powerful
Con: Pre-made teams with full PvP gear will be really hard to beat. Essentially, who ever gets better geared players will have a better chance to win.

The third is a mix. You start with your gear and you use your emblems to purchase new items and new buffs. So while your character might not be AWESOME at the start, if you can last through the beginning you can start buying items to get the advantage.

Buffs/Items: The idea is that they are game changing. If you are a clothy, you might want to stack HP buffs or get gear with stam rather than just SP. Or maybe you want to go out in a blaze of glory and stack as much power as you can hold and just fire away in hopes that no one will notice (oh but the rogues will notice). More than just stats, you should be able to grab a buff that adds HP regen to everyone around you (or maybe a trinket). Grab a sword that heals you for 20% of the damage done.

Blizzard has most of these mechanics implemented into the game, they just never put it together. Battlegrounds could be more than just a rush to the middle and mindless smacking of buttons, dying, rezzing, repeat. I don't mean to attack people that are serious about their battlegrounds (there are those), but for the majority... we don't have 15 guild members all wanting to do a pre-made AV at the drop of a dime.

Finally I'd like to say, DotA bring a level of competitiveness that is hard to come buy. There is real passion in those who play it, and to bring it to a game like WoW could really bring new life into this game. Also, based on my suggestions there doesn't need to be class balance because these are "extra" mechanics.

Please offer suggestions and ideas as to how this is good, or could be fixed.

And thank you for your time, I know this was a block of text a mile high.


Q/A

Can blizzard legally make a copy of Defense of the Ancients even though they didn't make it?
Some may say that Blizz can't do it because they don't own DotA. They do, in fact because DotA was made in their SC/WC3 map maker, they own it completely. It is their and they can make as much money as they want off of it.

DotA has fog of war, it is a huge element of suprise, how can you do this?
Northrend also added in a fog of war in some regions. They just limit your vision with a fogginess.

Arena ruined WoW, this will too.
That is not a question sort of an angry resentful statement, but as long as bilzzard continues to balance for both PvP and PvE there won't need to be special consideration just for this BG. Most of the mechanics are "extra". Ie, a buff might need to be nerfed because of paladins, but paladins won't need the nerf because of the buff.

[Cosineoftheta]

One of the main reasons I chose to emulate the size of DotA (player wise), is because a huge complaint of battlegrounds is the lack of coordination. Unless it's a pre-made, no one really works with each other. Someone yells out an idea, everyone bashes him and then chaos ensues. If the group has a lot of experienced players, then it results with a sort of unspoken plan that gets put into action based on following people.

With about 5~7 people, you can actually discuss strategy within reason. If someone calls for help in the middle lane. You won't just see a mess of people rambling in that direction and hope they are helping, you'll see a priest run over from bottom lane and know why.