Mists of Pandaria Classic Arena Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
The Arena participation in the MoP Classic Beta has been amazing. Play-testers have reinforced that keeping the Beta online and restarting the season was the right call. Thank you so much for your feedback. We’ve gotten valuable data, and that data revealed what we can do to improve PvP. Here are the changes that are now live in the Beta:
When players got their hands on the iLvl 490 Elite PvP weapons, many games sped up considerably, but the data revealed some concerns. The amount of damage that 20 item levels provides is enough to make it feel like an overwhelming advantage, and unlike the Beta, not everyone will have the weapon. This difference between the weapons was only present in MoP for the very first Arena season. In Seasons 13, 14, and 15, the Elite PvP weapon is a Transmog appearance that adds no power compared to the base Conquest weapon.
When we investigated the original Mists of Pandaria documentation and footage, it was apparent that Season 12 was an outlier. Season 12 happened right before various improvements to PvP were rolled out. Season 12 had no dampening, no PvE item level cap, no base Resilience, and no reduced maximum game duration (it was 25 minutes). It did have Battle Fatigue at a low value, but that was it.
We didn’t move everything to iLvl 490 because in Season 13, the Conquest weapon is iLvl 498. This means that there’s only an 8-item level difference between those two seasons. For context, the jumps between the later Arena season weapons are 24 and 28 item levels. So it makes sense to have at least 15 item levels of improvement between weapons. Right now, players would essentially have a Season 13 weapon in Season 12.
So we decided to follow in the footsteps of most, although not all, of the later seasons in MoP. The item level of the weapons was unified with the armor pieces, so we decided it made sense to align them all at item level 483 (the iLvl of the Season 12 armor).
Nonetheless, we had several more questions to answer.
Why was there an item level difference in Season 12, if players weren’t supposed have an advantage after earning it?
At the time, it was definitely meant as an advantage once earned, but the rationale for the existence of the Elite weapon in its current state does not hold up with the Arena changes that came along in later seasons in the expansion. The Season 12 item level difference was there because in original Mists of Pandaria, the item level cap for PvE items in Arenas did not exist until Season 13. In order to remain relevant, the Season 12 Elite weapon had to compete with heroic raid weapons, which can reach iLvl 509. Because there’s already an item level cap for PvE items in Arenas, this is no longer an issue, so an advantage for the Elite weapon is unneeded, as it no longer has to compete with PvE weapons.
Why increase Battle Fatigue at the same time?
Players are losing damage by having a lower item level weapon, so we want to bring healing down by even more. We felt this shouldn’t be a healing reduction you can opt in or out of, like dampening. We will monitor this level of Battle Fatigue and see if it feels right.
Faster games are better; why not just use high item level weapons?
With this change, games should be faster. With Battle Fatigue’s reduction increasing from 30% to 40%, this is a 14.3% reduction in current healing experienced. This will mean you deal less damage with the 7 item level reduction to the Conquest weapon, but healing is simultaneously being reduced by a larger amount. This also makes things slightly less bursty, but at the same time makes it more likely that damage sticks and that you don’t need to reach dampening to feel you are making progress against certain compositions.
Doesn’t this make the weapon worse in PvE for players who want to transition to raiding from PvP?
We believe that Celestial Dungeons are easy enough to get the player up to an iLvl 483 weapon with a Sha-Touched Socket. This would provide an opportunity to add +500 primary stat with a bit more effort, and that will be comparable to the old 490 item level weapon.
We may make further adjustments before the start of the season, but once the season begins, our intent is to lock in all aspects of Arenas: base resilience, Battle Fatigue, etc., and we don’t plan to make further adjustments which could potentially disrupt the field of play after the season has started.
We are so grateful for all of the feedback we’ve received as we continue to iterate on what Mists of Pandaria Classic Arenas will look like. Thank you for your patience as we fine tune things, and thank you for helping us craft Mists of Pandaria Classic!
–The WoW Classic Team
Continue reading...
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
The Arena participation in the MoP Classic Beta has been amazing. Play-testers have reinforced that keeping the Beta online and restarting the season was the right call. Thank you so much for your feedback. We’ve gotten valuable data, and that data revealed what we can do to improve PvP. Here are the changes that are now live in the Beta:
- Item level of Season 12 Elite PvP weapons lowered to 483 (was 490).
- Item level of Season 12 Non-Elite PvP weapons raised to 483 (was 470).
- Battle Fatigue’s healing and shielding reduction raised to 40% (was 30%).
When players got their hands on the iLvl 490 Elite PvP weapons, many games sped up considerably, but the data revealed some concerns. The amount of damage that 20 item levels provides is enough to make it feel like an overwhelming advantage, and unlike the Beta, not everyone will have the weapon. This difference between the weapons was only present in MoP for the very first Arena season. In Seasons 13, 14, and 15, the Elite PvP weapon is a Transmog appearance that adds no power compared to the base Conquest weapon.
When we investigated the original Mists of Pandaria documentation and footage, it was apparent that Season 12 was an outlier. Season 12 happened right before various improvements to PvP were rolled out. Season 12 had no dampening, no PvE item level cap, no base Resilience, and no reduced maximum game duration (it was 25 minutes). It did have Battle Fatigue at a low value, but that was it.
We didn’t move everything to iLvl 490 because in Season 13, the Conquest weapon is iLvl 498. This means that there’s only an 8-item level difference between those two seasons. For context, the jumps between the later Arena season weapons are 24 and 28 item levels. So it makes sense to have at least 15 item levels of improvement between weapons. Right now, players would essentially have a Season 13 weapon in Season 12.
So we decided to follow in the footsteps of most, although not all, of the later seasons in MoP. The item level of the weapons was unified with the armor pieces, so we decided it made sense to align them all at item level 483 (the iLvl of the Season 12 armor).
Nonetheless, we had several more questions to answer.
Why was there an item level difference in Season 12, if players weren’t supposed have an advantage after earning it?
At the time, it was definitely meant as an advantage once earned, but the rationale for the existence of the Elite weapon in its current state does not hold up with the Arena changes that came along in later seasons in the expansion. The Season 12 item level difference was there because in original Mists of Pandaria, the item level cap for PvE items in Arenas did not exist until Season 13. In order to remain relevant, the Season 12 Elite weapon had to compete with heroic raid weapons, which can reach iLvl 509. Because there’s already an item level cap for PvE items in Arenas, this is no longer an issue, so an advantage for the Elite weapon is unneeded, as it no longer has to compete with PvE weapons.
Why increase Battle Fatigue at the same time?
Players are losing damage by having a lower item level weapon, so we want to bring healing down by even more. We felt this shouldn’t be a healing reduction you can opt in or out of, like dampening. We will monitor this level of Battle Fatigue and see if it feels right.
Faster games are better; why not just use high item level weapons?
With this change, games should be faster. With Battle Fatigue’s reduction increasing from 30% to 40%, this is a 14.3% reduction in current healing experienced. This will mean you deal less damage with the 7 item level reduction to the Conquest weapon, but healing is simultaneously being reduced by a larger amount. This also makes things slightly less bursty, but at the same time makes it more likely that damage sticks and that you don’t need to reach dampening to feel you are making progress against certain compositions.
Doesn’t this make the weapon worse in PvE for players who want to transition to raiding from PvP?
We believe that Celestial Dungeons are easy enough to get the player up to an iLvl 483 weapon with a Sha-Touched Socket. This would provide an opportunity to add +500 primary stat with a bit more effort, and that will be comparable to the old 490 item level weapon.
We may make further adjustments before the start of the season, but once the season begins, our intent is to lock in all aspects of Arenas: base resilience, Battle Fatigue, etc., and we don’t plan to make further adjustments which could potentially disrupt the field of play after the season has started.
We are so grateful for all of the feedback we’ve received as we continue to iterate on what Mists of Pandaria Classic Arenas will look like. Thank you for your patience as we fine tune things, and thank you for helping us craft Mists of Pandaria Classic!
–The WoW Classic Team
Continue reading...