Horde Now Control Darkshore, Endgame Moves - Getting to Go, DLC #660

[chaud]

Horde Now Control Darkshore
The Horde has taken Darkshore!

• The world boss Ivus the Forest Lord is up in Darkshore for Horde players. He rewards a chance for item level 385 loot so be sure to kill him!
• Darkshore rares have had their loot lockouts reset for Horde.
• Horde have access to the Warfront cycle quests Buzzkill, Remaining Threats, and Tapping the Breach.
• Horde has access to world quests in Darkshore.
• Alliance can now start the contribution process to launch the Darkshore Warfront.

Level	Type	Slot	Name	Model Viewer
385	Trinket	Trinket	Ancient Knot of Wisdom
385	Trinket	Trinket	Knot of Ancient Fury
385	Trinket	Trinket	Forest Lord's Razorleaf
385	Cloth	Chest	Garments of the Forest Lord	Modelviewer
385	Cloth	Waist	Ivus' Tanglemoss Waistcord	Modelviewer
385	Leather	Head	Warring Ancient's Crown	Modelviewer
385	Leather	Waist	Protector's Tangleroot Belt	Modelviewer
385	Mail	Shoulders	Forest Protector's Shoulderguards	Modelviewer
385	Mail	Hands	Gnarled Bough Gauntlets	Modelviewer
385	Plate	Head	Petrified Ironbark Crown	Modelviewer
385	Plate	Feet	Stoneroot Stompers	Modelviewer

Ivus the Forest Lord
Summoned by the night elves in times of desperation, Ivus the Forest Lord has wielded his raw strength against the Horde time and again. Now he has returned from Alterac Valley to stand in defense of his home and crush any who threaten it.

• Overview - Ivus the Forest Lord often uses abilities to attack several players at random and will retreat to the safety of his Petrified Bark when at low health.
  
  • Tanks -
    • Ivus will cast Frost Breath in your direction, leaving a Frost Patch on the ground beneath you.
    • Lunar Strike will leave a few clear areas on initial impact before spreading.
    • Wisps summoned while Ivus is Petrified fixate on players at random and cannot be controlled through threat generation.
  • Healers -
    • Hurl Boulder will hit players at random.
    • Lunar Strike will leave a few clear areas on initial impact before spreading.
    • Wisps will channel Ancient Spark on a random player until they are dispatched.
  • Damage Dealers -
    • Hurl Boulder hits players at random.
    • Lunar Strike will leave a few clear areas on initial impact before spreading.
    • Ivus will remain immune to damage while Petrified. Dispatch all active Wisps to make Ivus end the Petrification.
• Frost Breath - Inflicts 30 Frost damage to all enemies in a cone in front of the caster.
  
  • Frost Patch - You take 30 Frost damage every second you remain in the area and your movement speed is reduced by 20%.
• Hurl Boulder - Hurls several boulders at random enemies, inflicting 30 Frost damage to players within 3 yards of their impact.
• Shockwave - The caster slams the ground, sending a shockwave out in front of the caster that inflicts 30 Physical damage to all players caught in its path.
• Lunar Strike - The caster calls down the power of the moon at random locations. Each point of impact creates a Lunar Rune that will expand rapidly after a few moments, inflicting 60 Arcane damage to all players caught in the rune.
• Petrify - The caster enters a petrified state and calls forth a swarm of wisps to fight for them. While petrified, the caster is immune to all damage.
  Defeating all of the wisps will end the petrification effect.
  
  • Wisp -
    
    • Ancient Spark - Blasts the target for 5 Arcane damage.

Endgame Moves - Getting to Go

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive World of Warcraft. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’ve been bringing you Endgame Moves.

What do you do when you’re in dampening and you need that extra little push to secure the win? We talked to some of the top Arena pro players about what they do to close out a game.

Focus Down
Securing the endgame is first and foremost about regulating your own gameplay. “The focus points are without a doubt cooldowns, crowd control, and interrupts,” said 2018 BlizzCon champion Chuck “Cdew” Dewland.

Cooldowns especially are important. “Both offensively and defensively, [they] are going to be the main concern of every match,” he said. “Using defensive cooldowns properly is going to help you survive in intense situations.” Cdew said that focusing on yourself and your own play is vital as well. “Keep a level head and focus on your win condition,” he advised, noting that Rogues and Mages in particular should resist the urge to make flashy plays.

2017 BlizzCon champion Alex "Alec" Sheldrick agreed, talking about the importance of keeping a cool head. “In the end, the rules of WoW Arena are simple: do damage and don’t die,” he said. “Usually the team that does the most damage and [applies the most] pressure wins the game, not the team that crowd-controls the most.” Alec says it’s important to remember that crowd control is the means to an end, not an end in and of itself. “Crowd control enables your team to do more damage and makes enemies deal and heal less,” he said. “Make use of it.”

Go Time
So you’re focusing on keeping it simple and keeping track of cooldowns, crowd control, and interrupts—next is knowing when to go for the kill. This brings us to the concept of the “go.” The “go” is when the enemy team reaches a critical weak point, which is the perfect time to go all-in on taking them out.

Artur “Vilaye” Riabtchenko says that keeping track of when the enemy team is popping trinkets is vital. “[Watch for] bad usage of trinkets, so you can capitalize on it next go,” he said. Other things to keep top of mind include where an enemy is positioned, what defensive cooldowns they've used (especially their PvP trinket), and how much mana the opposing healer has, according to Cdew. “During a match, any one of these scenarios could help you lead to the ‘go’ to secure the win,” he said.

It’s worth noting that different classes could have very different “go” signals. “As a Frost Mage, my ‘go’ is very different than if I was a Fire Mage,” Alec said. “Frost Mages prey on immobile players stranded [in the] open field without mobility or clumped in a tight corner. As a Fire Mage, positioning is less relevant—you will focus more on trinkets and major defensive cooldowns, such as Ice Block.”

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this will help you both recognize and arrive at your own “go” in Arena. For more Endgame Moves, see our previous stories in the series—Lessons from Arena in 2018 and Going Fast in Mythic Plus dungeons. Return tomorrow as we examine at how kills are secured via different comps and combos.

Dark Legacy Comics #660
DLC #660 has been released.

[Deleted]

Not on my server apparently.

[precious]

still says 10 hours in eu. maybe its for na then?

[Kveldulv]

It's only for NA servers.

[Volardelis]

Doesn't the alliance face Ivus the Decayed? Horde faces Ivus the Forest Lord.

[Deleted]

Doesn't the alliance face Ivus the Decayed? Horde faces Ivus the Forest Lord.

Yeah would be very odd if the the alliance killed one of theor own champions.

[Volardelis]

Yeah would be very odd if the the alliance killed one of theor own champions.

I think whoever wrote his article doesn't release that there are two versions of this world boss. (Or they got them mixed up). Ivus the Decayed is for the alliance to kill. Ivus the Forest Lord is who the horde kill.

[Mrbleedinggums]

Dark Legacy missed the mark on a joke. That particular fish should have been an Eelemental Shaman instead of a warlock.

[Nelle]

Nice bias to the smallest WoW population (NA-Servers)

Darkshore aint horde yet in the mainland (EU)

[saidolol]

6 more hours.

[Eleccybubb]

Nice bias to the smallest WoW population (NA-Servers)

Darkshore aint horde yet in the mainland (EU)

Yes I'm sure the "bias" is based on server population and not where this site operates from right?

Bloody hell.... The game has been like this for years. NA usually get stuff a day or two in advance.

[Mhyroth]

Yes I'm sure the "bias" is based on server population and not where this site operates from right?

Bloody hell.... The game has been like this for years. NA usually get stuff a day or two in advance.

Exept World Firsts.

[Kathranis]

I think whoever wrote his article doesn't release that there are two versions of this world boss. (Or they got them mixed up). Ivus the Decayed is for the alliance to kill. Ivus the Forest Lord is who the horde kill.

They also linked to the Alliance version of the cycle quests -- and it seems to me that only one of them is a cycle quest. At least, Buzzkill and Tapping the Breach aren't available to me (I completed them during the first patrol week).

[Katsutomai]

I guess Blizzard didn't like how quickly Rares were resetting in Arathi, eh?

[mtmf]

What's that about the cycle quests? I only got one quest to kill 12 rares for 200 resources. The other quests aren't available this time.

[Deleted]

Dark Legacy missed the mark on a joke. That particular fish should have been an Eelemental Shaman instead of a warlock.

Fish rerolled. Shamans don't give water breathing, just walking.

[Alkizon]

Usually the team that does the most damage and [applies the most] pressure wins the game, not the team that crowd-controls the most.

It wasn't always like this, and not only new “classes” design is to blame for changing this paradigm, but also gameplay philosophy as a whole.

Previously game taught that control is life, now it's speed and power of causing damage - that is player's main goal. This is how game teaches newbes how to cope in PvE, which means this is how they tend to act in PvP, and devs happily trying to adapt game to them. This is vicious circle: this is how game brings up players, and they in own turn are waiting more of it from devs. Yes, game was slower earlier, which made it even more attractive for me, because it reminded some kind of real time "tactical games" - which means that win belong for those who have more knowledge, who're more prepared in advance and have enough ways (cc, cd, knowledge in own class design = plan how to spend this all at right time and situation = variability and adaptability) to implement it... and not the one who quicker presses the buttons, or *swearing quietly* tablet screen.

I don't know. I see almost nothing of that kind in game today. Yeap, I don't play, and for a completely different reason (see signature), but this what I see from videos, from forums' discussions, from developers' words about their game design philosophy, this is what banal logic tells me... and by the way, focus on end-game is one of these vicious points, which cuts off everything that comes up before - exactly process of familiarization, training and upbringing (process of teaching and falling in love with the game):
- Let's just focus directly on preparing children for work in factories, in laboratories and for political movements! Why do we even need schools and kindergartens?! It's just a waste of time. This is genius!

...such a nonsense. Only "same type weapons" (power starts and ilvls, there is nothing more clever, more cunning, thought-provoking (but without "requiring scientific degree for this")) growth and accumulation.

ps. What I read so far - either obvious things, or mutually exclusive paragraphs, or just verbiage (and often it's all together).