PvP

Late in August we learned there would be a patch containing a lot of Wrath of the Lich King's features. This patch, known as Echoes of Doom, is expected to be released Tuesday morning. Most importantly it will include all the new talent builds, including new 51 point talents and several new abilities. Everyone will receive a free respec, meaning you will get all your talent points back. Additionally, you'll need to visit your class trainer to learn your classes new abilities.

Yesterday we found out that Season 4 will be suspended with the release of Patch 3.0. A snapshot of rating will be used to reward end of season rewards but the season will continue. Today Nethaera gave us their promised 2 week notice for the ending of Season 4. Reasoning says that October 14th will not only be the end of Season 4 but also the release of Patch 3.0.

Last week Blizzard began the Great Honor Controversy by announcing that all player earned Honor and Honor Marks would be wiped out when Wrath of the Lich King goes live. This was set to affect players of all level and skill. Players sprung up on the forums pointing out that an Honor reset was similar to a gold reset. Players argued that precedence was set when The Burning Crusade went live, when they DID NOT reset honor. There was even reference made to the official World of Warcraft Honor FAQ which says stated:

After making an official statement in May explicitly saying that Honor and Honor Marks would not be reset in the expansion, Blizzard changed their minds and promised to do the exact opposite.

Let's take a look at what type of impact this is going to have. Anyone who spent the last 3 months saving up 75,000 honor and 100 marks of each flavor will be forced to spend them on existing or new honor gear (listed below). Just to get 75,000 honor we're talking 50-100 hours. If you actually managed to cap all the marks that's another story I won't get into. This is roughly equivalent to 5,000 - 10,000 gold, and easily more (of doing dailies, farming primals, doing heroics, etc). All completely gone.

Battle Grounds do not have hisotry of being very even, in the Whirlwind Battle Group Alliance loses Eye of the Storm a lot more often than it wins. When I played on Stormreaver Horde was in a similar position. Several people have been kind enough to share their opinions publicly. Some people believe there are trends about who play Horde opposed to play Alliance:

If you have played a warrior past level 15 you probably already know they have been typecasted as tanks, even though they are poor tanks in the majority of 5-man instances. You've certainly received tells asking you if you'd 'tank arc' or 'come tank SV.' No, these folks aren't conducting surveys, they are assuming that you are capable of tanking and they want you to join them.

I picked up my Protection Paladin and leveled it to see how it tanked. I realized during the mid 60s they are much more enjoyable to tank with than my already geared Protection Warrior. I decided to keep at it, and I've enjoyed the character in PvE more than any I've had thus far. Since then I've decided I'm not a fan of staring at the horrible human male model run around.

Blizard mentioned again that they are reviewing a system to allow players to have 'two talent specs.' I have been a big critic of WoW getting easier and easier and easier but I'm actually anticipating this implementation.

Lately I've found myself noticing a lot of things about World of Warcraf that are very different than 4 years ago when I started playing. Things that make me want to say, 'in my day, I actually had to look for quest items, not look for sparkling objects or follow yellow ? on the minimap.' Most notably, it's gotten ridiculously easy to get a character to max level. With patch 2.3 last year and the easy quests in Outlands, players of with less patience and time commitment have been able to join us in end-game content much easier. Here are some things that are collectively reducing the difficulty of reaching high levels in World of Warcraft, and effectively degrading the accomplishment of WoW:

Bornakk announced last night that free character transfers will be open on selected realms starting today at 12pm PDT (Thursday 7/10). These transfers will assist in 'population dispersal,' something we've talked about recently. The transfers are scheduled to stay open for a week, but as always, Blizzard will close them early if they determine it necessary. It's good to see an active approach to level out character populations before Wrath, if left uncorrected we'll see a continuation of problems that we've seen in the past with World PvP and LFG.

* Barthilas and Frostmourne will be open to transfer to Dreadmaul.
* Illidan, Mal'Ganis and Warsong will be open to transfer to Zuluhed.