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  1. #1

    Warlords of Draenor - Trial of the Gladiator Gone, Skirmishes and Spectator Mode

    Character Level Boost to 90 priced at $60

    Warlords of Draenor - PvP Update
    Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
    Warlords of Draenor will introduce tons of new features and updates to improve and expand upon many aspects of World of Warcraft, including the PvP experience. We gave you a first look at some of our PvP plans BlizzCon, and as with any development process, plans can sometimes change as they—well—develop. We’d like to share a few of those changes with you today.

    The Tale of Trial of the Gladiator
    At BlizzCon, we unveiled plans for a new form of ranked Arena competition called the Trial of the Gladiator, a mode of play that would available during certain hours and which would require players to use a special Trial-only set of gear. The goal was to concentrate high-level competition to specific times, to better match players against competitive opponents, and to make exploitation more difficult.

    While there were a lot of potential benefits to that system, ultimately we agree with some of the concerns community has raised about the way it worked. Ultimately, players who couldn’t play during the pre-set times for Trial of the Gladiator might feel like they’re missing out, and it was possible that normal Arena games would lose a lot of their replay value without rating to push for. Because of these issues, we’ve decided not to continue development of Trial of the Gladiator and to focus our efforts on giving players more ways to find PvP that suits them—so here’s what we’re doing instead:

    Arena for Everyone: Skirmishes
    You might recall the Skirmish feature that went alongside ranked Arena play when that feature was first introduced. It was virtually identical to ranked play, with the exception that there was no ladder or rating involved. However, Skirmishes felt very redundant at the time, and few players took advantage of them, so they were removed with the release of Cataclysm. However, as more and more players get involved in PvP, a higher demand for a form of “lower-pressure” Arena gameplay made us think it was time to revisit the Skirmish idea . . . and make a few important improvements along the way.

    In Warlords of Draenor, Skirmishes will return as a form of unranked Arena play that will allow you to queue for 2v2 or 3v3 battles with friends or by yourself. Winning a Skirmish will reward you with Honor and a random bonus, which could be gold, more Honor, a small amount of Conquest Points, or possibly something entirely different. We think this will be a great way for players who haven’t tried Arenas before to get their feet wet, and will allow experienced players to experiment with alternate specs or builds without worrying about tanking their rating.

    But Wait, There’s More: Spectator Invite System
    While Skirmishes should provide a great opportunity for some more laid-back PvP gameplay, we also wanted to address top-end competition as well. Tournament organizers, often with the use of various third-party add-ons, have been able to piece together a “spectator mode” of sorts and run online tournaments, but they’ve been required to jump through several hoops to actually make that work. We’d like to simplify that process and put more power in the hands of add-on developers so that community-run tournaments will be easier to organize, manage, and broadcast.

    Our new Spectator Invite system will allow a match organizer to invite two teams to play against each other in a PvP spectacle called a War Game. Then, when the match begins, everyone in the match organizer’s party will be able to watch those two teams duke it out. We’ll also be opening this feature up to add-on developers so they can come up with tools for tournament organizers to customize how the match is presented on the screen. Finally, we’ll be providing Tournament Mode gear—a special set of gear that can only be used in War Games—to help tournament runners ensure that all players are on equal footing.

    We’re excited for these new features, and we feel they’ll allow a much broader spectrum of players to be able to find a type of PvP gameplay they enjoy. Whether you’re looking to compete against the best of the best in a tournament or just want to hang out and relax with a little bloodshed, we hope these updates provide something for the PvPer in you.

  2. #2
    The Lightbringer
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    Shame they won't be able to watch more arena games and the hacking is going to remain out of control.

  3. #3
    Nice. More room for more tourneys.

  4. #4
    Trial of the Gladiator was one of the only things I was looking forward to in WoD. Now that's gone. Hopefully they talk about the new PvP zone soon because my hope is waning.

  5. #5
    ...blizzard.. from here on.. announce only what will be released.. why bring hopes up..

  6. #6
    Deleted
    Okay, I never was overly excited for Warlords like I was TBC, Wrath, WotLK and Cata with new classes and such.... BUT SKIRMISHES, I now have something to look forward to. Cannot wait, used to always use them, great news !

  7. #7
    These changes sound great for the casual PVPer looking for an alternative to honor farming.

    I wonder how many people will use the Spectator Mode outside of tourneys. I know a lot of us just want to watch random arenas, and that isn't accomplished here. Great for tourneys tho.

    Given how fast Arenas are, it'll be interesting to see how they tune skirmishes. If the honor gain at a 50% win rate is better than bgs we might see a huge shift. If there's experience rewarded it might be a fast way of power leveling at lower arena brackets too.

  8. #8
    Ah TBC all over again.

  9. #9
    The Unstoppable Force Puupi's Avatar
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    Okay so they are scrapping one more feature out of the "already long list of features" of WoD.

    Calling skirmishes with honor rewards a new feature is........just so Blizzard.

    Spectator mode? Sounds fun. Ends up being a coach mode for teams. 2 guys playing, 3 guys spectating and shouting on voicecomms what is happening and what they should do.
    Quote Originally Posted by derpkitteh View Post
    i've said i'd like to have one of those bad dragon dildos shaped like a horse, because the shape is nicer than human.
    Quote Originally Posted by derpkitteh View Post
    i was talking about horse cock again, told him to look at your sig.

  10. #10
    Sad that TotG was scratched. Pre-scheduled time would be bad for a lot of people, but would really improve dealing with hacks on high level play. Can't really expect a full array of employers watching over all Arena/RBGs matches 24/7.

    On a brighter note, glad Skirmishes are back.

  11. #11
    GJ blizz scrap away the only way the arena was able to be even remotely balanced, now I;m not sure I'll get this game, I might as well just pre-order ESO...

  12. #12
    Old God Shampro's Avatar
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    So I can do arenas to get honor instead of Bgs?

    Oh. My. God. Praise the lord.

  13. #13
    So... is Mists of Pandaria the only expansion that delivered every promised feature they initially made so far? :P

  14. #14
    Honestly, this sounds awesome. I was never really on board with the ToTG idea, and these laid back honor arenas seem like a fantastic way to gain honor other than through BG's or dungeon conversions.

  15. #15
    Instead of fixing the issues, here's something that is quite probably the direct antithesis of what we were going to originally implement!

  16. #16
    Well they canceled the feature because people didn't like it.... to those complaining don't blame Blizzard, blame your fellow players.

    And doing Arenas for honor is going to be awesome... Finally can do some honor grinding without dealing with random BG dredge.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Puupi View Post
    Okay so they are scrapping one more feature out of the "already long list of features" of WoD.

    Calling skirmishes with honor rewards a new feature is........just so Blizzard.

    Spectator mode? Sounds fun. Ends up being a coach mode for teams. 2 guys playing, 3 guys spectating and shouting on voicecomms what is happening and what they should do.
    Spectating is only for wargames, so you can't actually do it for ranked arena play.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by ombus View Post
    ...blizzard.. from here on.. announce only what will be released.. why bring hopes up..
    this is exactly why they normally don't release information about something until its done. however the community keeps requesting that they want updates as soon as possible. its a lose-lose situation for them. either they don't announce stuff until its done and people get pissed cause they are impatient and want new updates now or they announce stuff too early in development and when it gets scratched people get pissed again. if the community is gunna demand new features be announced early on then they are gunna have to live with the fact that not all of them will end up in the game.
    Quote Originally Posted by Marxman View Post
    I think many people use the word "scale" the same way the smurfs use "smurf".

  18. #18
    Another good feature fucked up, good job Blizzard, you could only remove the time limitation instead of removing it completely...

  19. #19
    Great news! I cant praise blizzard enough!
    Now, bring back flying! *grasps hands like she has power*

    Wait, I dont have super powers just yet.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    "ultimately we agree with some of the concerns community has raised about the way it worked"
    "players who couldn’t play during the pre-set times for Trial of the Gladiator might feel like they’re missing out"


    Blizzard listened to the players and scrapped TotG, now people cry because they removed it?!
    fuck off already

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