Battle for Azeroth Preview: War Mode, PvP Talents, and More

[chaud]

Battle for Azeroth Preview: War Mode, PvP Talents, and More

Many PvP additions and updates are coming with Battle for Azeroth, including changes to PvP Talents, the introduction of War Mode, Bounties, and a new Dueler’s Guild. In this preview, we’ll give you a bit more information on what’s in store for each.

Updated PvP Talent System
With Battle for Azeroth, we’re making changes to how we’re handling talents in PvP. In Legion’s current Honor Talent system, talents become available as you earn Honor levels through participating in PvP, which puts players looking to get into PvP for the first time at a disadvantage until they earn the tools everyone else already has. In Battle for Azeroth, we’re streamlining the system so that PvP talents will become available as you level, keeping players on more even footing.

In Legion, PvP talents were organized in rows of three, much like regular class talents; in Battle for Azeroth, players will be able to select any three PvP talents from a large pool of options, along with a special crowd-control-breaking talent (variations on the old “PvP trinket”).

You’ll earn this crowd-control breaker at level 20, choosing from one of three available options via a fly-out menu. By level 110, all PvP talent options will be available to choose within the Talent pane (N). This system offers more options for customizing your character to suit your play style or your environment, whether that’s world PvP, Battlegrounds, Arenas, or the new Dueler’s Guild (more on that below). As with your class talents, you’ll need to be in a rested area to switch between these.

War Mode—Are You In?
We’re introducing a new way of getting into PvP out in the world with a system we’re calling War Mode. War Mode tears down boundaries and server rule-set distinctions, allowing players on any realm to decide when they want to jump into a world PvP experience full of like-minded players in the ongoing battle between Horde and Alliance.

This new system gives us the opportunity to revisit World of Warcraft PvP as an open-world experience, building on the latest game technology available. Players can decide on the type of gameplay experience they want to have no matter their realm of choice. Whether that means opting out of world PvP entirely, gathering allies and venturing out into dangerous lands when the mood strikes you, or turning on War Mode and never looking back—the choice will be yours.

With War Mode, we wanted to solve the problem of some players feeling “locked” into one play style or another by their realm choice. They might have picked a PvE realm purely because their friends were there, even though they were interested in open world PvP. Conversely, they could have chosen a PvP realm to start, but later decided it wasn’t for them anymore. War Mode provides a way for both styles of gameplay to co-exist for every player—and with the way realm sharding works now, we felt this was the right opportunity to let players choose.

By toggling War Mode on, players will venture out into a world full of others who have made the same choice. This structure also provides a foundation upon which we can offer all-new systems to encourage and reward world PvP, open to all interested players regardless of their choice of realm.

Players who choose to turn on War Mode will get a few additional bonuses while in the mode. First, while War Mode is on, all PvP talents you’ve chosen will be available to use anywhere PvP can occur, providing a more consistent and efficient experience as you level. Rather than having your PvP talents toggle on and off depending on your location in the world or whether you’re engaged with a creature or another player, you’ll have access to them everywhere PvP can happen. Sanctuary areas will still be PvP free.

Players in War Mode will also get an additional bonus to experience gains while leveling up. We understand that when players choose to engage in PvP, the added danger from other players can result in a slight loss in leveling efficiency. We wanted to provide a way to balance this out without creating a situation in which players who choose not to engage in War Mode feel they’re losing out on an opportunity. For the same reason, at max level, War Mode also offers an additional bonus to gold, Resources, and Artifact Power earned from World Quests.

War Mode can be toggled on or off beginning at level 20 by visiting either Orgrimmar or Stormwind and setting their preference in the Talent pane (N). Beware! Once you venture out in War Mode, all zones will become contested, including zones such as Northshire Abbey. Additional War Mode features such as Bounty Hunter and Air Drops (more on those below!) will only be available in the new zones in Battle for Azeroth.

There are a few additional caveats when looking at grouping while in War Mode. If you’re taking part in dungeons or raids while you have it turned on, you will still be able to be summoned by players who do not have it on. Once summoned, you won’t be able to see each other until you have zoned into the instance. When using the Premade Group Finder to search for groups for outdoor activities such as questing or world bosses, you will only see groups containing players who also have War Mode on, unless you return to Orgrimmar or Stormwind to change your status.

War Mode has a couple of additional features to make things even more interesting:

Bounty Hunter System
Infamy has its ups—and its downs. You can become infamous in War Mode by killing a certain number of players of the opposite faction without dying. Once you do, you’ll achieve the status of Assassin and gain an increase to your damage and healing by 15%. Congratulations!

Of course, there’s a downside to your newfound infamy. The more players an Assassin kills, the more likely they will show up on the zone map for other players to target and kill to gain a bounty. Players who successfully kill an Assassin of the opposite faction will receive Conquest points as well as other rewards. There can be three (or potentially more) Assassins on any Battle for Azeroth zone map at a time, providing plenty of opportunity for players—or groups of players—to take their revenge on the opposite faction’s Assassins.

Air Drops
From time to time, a flying machine will make its way across the sky. The rumble of its engine is a clear indicator that something is afoot. You’ll want to keep an eagle eye on the sky and watch for a War Supply Crate to drop somewhere in the zone. Similar to the chest in Gurubashi Arena, players can fight over the crate and claim it for their faction. Once a faction has gained control of the crate, anyone of that faction who is within the area will have a short period to open it and collect a piece of personal loot.

You Could Be a Contender: Battle in the Dueler’s Guild
Take your duels into the new outdoor arenas in either Boralus or Zuldazar. Similar to the Brawler’s Guild, players can speak with an NPC who will queue them to take part in 1-on-1 duels in the arena. Once in the arena, you’ll battle it out against a rival player to see who continues on. If you lose, you’re out. How far can you go before you’re no longer the top of the heap? Getting far enough through the gauntlet of players will provide some achievements, including Master of Duels, which rewards the title Contender.

You’ll also find the PvP reward chest in the Dueler’s Guild if you’ve filled up your Conquest bar for the week. Read more about it in our Rated PvP Updates post.

Honor Level Changes
Legion’s Honor system was originally crafted around the idea of earning PvP talents through participation, and then resetting progress to gain Prestige—and cosmetic awards—in the process. Now that PvP talents are instead earned in the regular course of leveling, we’re refocusing the Honor system around open-ended progression that offers various cosmetic rewards for engaging in PvP.

By participating in any type of PvP, you will gain Honor and eventually Honor Levels. As your Honor Level increases, you will earn rewards like titles, pets, mounts, and more. As your Honor Level rises, you will also progress through a series of icons associated with your character frame and displayed prominently on Battleground scoreboards, showing off your accomplishments for all to see. In Battle for Azeroth, Honor and the rewards earned through your participation are all account-wide. All Honor earned by individual characters in Legion will be aggregated into a single account-wide total Honor Level in Battle for Azeroth.

For those who have already earned any of these rewards in Legion, you will retain them regardless of whether you meet any new Honor requirements.

Whether you’re a grizzled PvP veteran or interested in trying your hand at world PvP for the first time, the Horde and the Alliance will have plenty of opportunity to prove their prowess in Battle for Azeroth.

[Khuros]

So hyped!!

[Jotunhammer]

Bonus everything for the PVPer and those not PVP get squat.... nothing new... Blizzard been moving from the old PvE and defeat the bosses to lets do overwatch for world of warcraft....

Can't people see...truly this glaring snakesales attitude? Lets put more into PvP and then we do not have to develop as much PvE, we throw in some new arena or
some new PvP zone and let the players beat eachother that way we do not have to develop as many new PvE stuff, this is what it will end up being.

Put more umph into PvP and more interest, and guess what, once you get use to PvP they will add more and more required stuff into PvP, and before you know it
you have to do PvP quests just to get ahead in the PvE and then a few expansions down the road, why even build bosses, lets just build areas for PvP and yay
we can cut down on the developers and their salaries...

It would not be the first game that went from PvE and good storyline and slowly over time it became more action and more shooter and pvp oritend until
in the end its nothing like what it presented itself to be.

Look at for example Final Fantasy... anyone that played the first 3 can actually say they like the newest action-rpg SE released?

I hope World of Warcraft remains PvE oriented and those wanting PvP go over to overwatch or get a stand alone game and stop mixing PvP and PvE
and stop pandering to the PvP players.

[Nyctin]

Oh man even zones like Northshire Abbey can be contested? This is going to be so fun

[Fincayra]

Bonus everything for the PVPer and those not PVP get squat.... nothing new... Blizzard been moving from the old PvE and defeat the bosses to lets do overwatch for world of warcraft....

pvp has had nothing new for basically the entirety of the game besides new bg's and arenas. This is the first time that world pvp will be incentive based. Nearly everything else in the game has been pve oriented. I really don't see the argument about how it's "nothing new" when this is literally one of the first times they've gotten anything at all.

[Alvito]

Bonus everything for the PVPer and those not PVP get squat.... nothing new... Blizzard been moving from the old PvE and defeat the bosses to lets do overwatch for world of warcraft....

This does have some pretty nice benefits for PVE also. Claiming the game is moving away from PVE is pure nonsense also.

[Jotunhammer]

pvp has had nothing new for basically the entirety of the game besides new bg's and arenas. This is the first time that world pvp will be incentive based. Nearly everything else in the game has been pve oriented. I really don't see the argument about how it's "nothing new" when this is literally one of the first times they've gotten anything at all.

seriously nothing new?
in every expansion PvP has gotten more
more arenas
larger and more variation kind of conquest areas
ladder arenas
ranked games
really you think thats nothing new???

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This does have some pretty nice benefits for PVE also. Claiming the game is moving away from PVE is pure nonsense also.

read the entire post, it moves slowly and I fear the future will move away from pve to pvp
and sooner or later it will be a faction against faction game

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This does have some pretty nice benefits for PVE also. Claiming the game is moving away from PVE is pure nonsense also.

Oh... by the way, in the class hall quest chain, there is a PvP requirement, to win a PvP game.
Thats not moving away from PvE towards PvP, what comes next?
Kill 500 players to get to next rank in your class?

[Draele]

Bonus everything for the PVPer and those not PVP get squat.... nothing new... Blizzard been moving from the old PvE and defeat the bosses to lets do overwatch for world of warcraft....

PvE players get to continue wandering around the world with a 100% damage/convenience focused builds not having a care in the world besides completing quests. The XP bonus and PvP talents are simply there to offset the slower pace of leveling while PvP is turned on (getting ganked, having to pull less mobs since another player could attack at any time, etc.) The only time that War Mode is going to be a net bonus is in the first several days of BFA when the other faction won't even be around yet. Most PvE players I know will be turning it on for the first week or so and then turning it off after since once the PvP starts it will be slower (even with the bonuses) to level on War Mode than on the PvE shard.

[Jotunhammer]

This does have some pretty nice benefits for PVE also. Claiming the game is moving away from PVE is pure nonsense also.

Please tell me what benefits there is to the PvE player?
Does the person that has no interest at all in PvP and only want to improve his/her PvE and storyline
quests, gear, etc has any interest in PvP??
seriously tell me where you see any benefits for the PvE player.
Bonus xp?
Bonus world quest points??
Bonus gold??
Bonus anything??

[Renedric]

Holy moly this sounds amazing. Seriously this is the first time i've been hyped about BFA lol

[Sanguinerd]

Please tell me what benefits there is to the PvE player?
Does the person that has no interest at all in PvP and only want to improve his/her PvE and storyline
quests, gear, etc has any interest in PvP??
seriously tell me where you see any benefits for the PvE player.
Bonus xp?
Bonus world quest points??
Bonus gold??
Bonus anything??

Could you please untwist those panties? Good lord.. the amount of whine is astounding.

PvP gets something new and you're being the embodiment of "REEEEEEEEEE" right now.

PvE will get plenty of love(as it's gotten for the entirety of the game), no need to worry WHAT-SO-EVER.

[Jotunhammer]

Only thing I see being awesome and good idea is the bounty hunter part, where if your really skilled you get bonus, and ofc you get then hunted for your skill. Old wild west kind of style, Billy the kid

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Could you please untwist those panties? Good lord.. the amount of whine is astounding.

PvP gets something new and you're being the embodiment of "REEEEEEEEEE" right now.

PvE will get plenty of love(as it's gotten for the entirety of the game), no need to worry WHAT-SO-EVER.

You best shut up about panties...

PVP has always gotten new stuff every single expansion PVP has evoled.
Has PVE evoled? its STILL same shit.... kill trash, kill boss, loot. There nothing new in that.
Pretty scenery does not make anything new.
Or has that not gone through your witless brain?

PvP has evolved greatly but PvE has stagnated since the BC basically
Its still same thing, nothing new at all...

[truulte]

@Jotunhammer Stop being so entitled and let people enjoy what they want. You have absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to the amount of content for pve vs pvp, pve is at least 90% of the game. The benefits for the non-war mode-player is in efficiency.

[Jotunhammer]

@truulte sure thing, ill stop talking. Thats the way to meet a different opinion. Tell them to stop being entitled. Dont show any ANY facts pointing to counter the points or arguments, just shut up and go away, silence the opposition, hell, round them up and get rid of them...that has worked so well for those before...

[Sanguinerd]

snip of nonsense.

Yeah.. PvE has gotten nothing new. No challenge modes, no mythic raids and dungeons, no PvE artifact challenges or World Quests.. just nothing. Not even scenarios(like em or hate them) - you're totally right man. /s


edit; Oh I forgot, you're not getting anything new either. No new AI or anything.

[Deleted]

Please tell me what benefits there is to the PvE player??

Can never be killed or harassed by players of the opposite faction. Seriously, you do not see this as a benefit?

Why would Non-Warmode players get increased rewards for playing in a low-risk overworld mode? It throws the risk vs. reward balance out the window.

[Jotunhammer]

Can never be killed or harassed by players of the opposite faction. Seriously, you do not see this as a benefit?

Why would Non-Warmode players get increased rewards for playing in a low-risk overworld mode? It throws the risk vs. reward balance out the window.

Can never be killed or harassed by players of the opposite faction
You obviously never been on a server where the opposit faction kills the quest givers?
or camps the quest mob and kills it repeatedly to prevent the others from going onwards...

[truulte]

@truulte sure thing, ill stop talking. Thats the way to meet a different opinion. Tell them to stop being entitled. Dont show any ANY facts pointing to counter the points or arguments, just shut up and go away, silence the opposition, hell, round them up and get rid of them...that has worked so well for those before...

No, because what you want is to get the developers stop making content for the people that enjoy PvP, so you can have more of what you enjoy. That has nothing to do about silencing an opinion, because your opinion is very entitled and selfish and is objectively stupid... More of one thing doesn't rule out the other.

[Jotunhammer]

Yeah.. PvE has gotten nothing new. No challenge modes, no mythic raids and dungeons, no PvE artifact challenges or World Quests.. just nothing. Not even scenarios(like em or hate them) - you're totally right man. /s


edit; Oh I forgot, you're not getting anything new either. No new AI or anything.

what does everyone of those have in common? Challenge mode, Mythic Raids, Raids, Dungerons
1. clear trash
2. kill boss
3. loot

does a new UI change that???

How about PvP
you got now conquest PVP, where in reality you do not HAVE to PVP in order to win, just own an area of the map
or... gather resources and win... another way of earning pvp
or kill opposing member

thats now 3 different ways in how PvP has evolved from the original kill em all and let god sort em out.

Can you , honestly, say that PvE has changed in equally evolving manner?

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No, because what you want is to get the developers stop making content for the people that enjoy PvP, so you can have more of what you enjoy. That has nothing to do about silencing an opinion, because your opinion is very entitled and selfish and is objectively stupid... More of one thing doesn't rule out the other.

We shall see. Hoping for the best

Hope those alliance at Tarren Mill think its worth turning on PvP flag...

https://realmpop.com/eu-tarren-mill.html

[Deix-EU]

Bonus everything for the PVPer and those not PVP get squat.... nothing new... Blizzard been moving from the old PvE and defeat the bosses to lets do overwatch for world of warcraft....

Can't people see...truly this glaring snakesales attitude? Lets put more into PvP and then we do not have to develop as much PvE, we throw in some new arena or
some new PvP zone and let the players beat eachother that way we do not have to develop as many new PvE stuff, this is what it will end up being.

Put more umph into PvP and more interest, and guess what, once you get use to PvP they will add more and more required stuff into PvP, and before you know it
you have to do PvP quests just to get ahead in the PvE and then a few expansions down the road, why even build bosses, lets just build areas for PvP and yay
we can cut down on the developers and their salaries...

It would not be the first game that went from PvE and good storyline and slowly over time it became more action and more shooter and pvp oritend until
in the end its nothing like what it presented itself to be.

Look at for example Final Fantasy... anyone that played the first 3 can actually say they like the newest action-rpg SE released?

I hope World of Warcraft remains PvE oriented and those wanting PvP go over to overwatch or get a stand alone game and stop mixing PvP and PvE
and stop pandering to the PvP players.

Yeah, cause there is only "non mmo game" (overwatch) who can bring "PvP like style of a game" /sarcasm.
MMO are built uppon PvP with PvE serving the sole purpose of PvP, in case you missed the story of the genre in your life.
A good MMO is doing both at the same level. Any player claiming the want only PvE or only PvP is NOT a pure MMO player. Unfortunately, there is so much nowadays.