This Monday, December 15, please join members of the World of Warcraft development team in PvP on Midnight Beta test realms as we playtest the Slayer’s Rise Epic Battleground, a new 40v40 Epic Battleground map located in the Voidstorm, where your goal is to siege the opposing faction’s fortress and slay the enemy Domanaar.
We’ll get underway at 1:00 p.m. PST (3:00 p.m. CST, 4:00 p.m. EST) for two hours of dedicated playtesting.
To playtest with us, log on to the endgame realm “Xal’atath’s Endgame”, which has max level character templates and access to various vendors. To queue up, open the Group Finder (default hotkey: i), click on the Player vs. Player tab at the bottom, select Quick Match and then navigate to Slayer’s Rise at the bottom of the Specific Battlegrounds view .
We recommend taking some time to get your character setup properly for PvP combat. Please check out the various gear and profession vendors in Orgrimmar and Stormwind and utilize the latest trinkets, PvP gear, and class sets in Midnight.
We look forward to playtesting with you and reading your feedback afterward, see you there!
It’s crazy this test is happening when the vast majority of player buffs still are not tracked on nameplates’ “enemy buffs” category. This is obviously bad for gameplay and visual clarity, but it’s also a balance problem. For example, you can see Blur but not Evasion. So demon hunters get screwed and rogues get a benefit because you have not done a basic pass on spell IDs for nameplates.
Also, there is currently no way to track crowd control diminishing returns in battlegrounds. We are going to test this new battleground blind to one of the most important aspects of PvP.
Sounds interesting… but are you guys planning to do anything about the existing epic battleground maps that are noticeably imbalanced/have ongoing issues?
I highlighted some of the main issues in that other thread:
Since we still haven’t seen the new map, and based on Blizzard’s track-record with balancing (or lack) of 40v40 maps, I would GUESS that this new Slayer’s Rise map will end up devolving into some sort of PvE “boss rush” that is over in a couple minutes once players figure out what the “meta” strategy is - based on the description provided anyways
Will you do anything with the feedback though? The forums have been complaining about/pointing out the imbalance problems present in the existing 40v40 epic battleground maps for literally years… but nothing gets done about said ongoing imbalance problems/map issues
It will be quite amusing to see if this new “Slayer’s Rise” map gets active map balancing/active map tweaking while the rest of the epic battleground rotation maps just continue to be a cesspool of map imbalance/ongoing issues from lack of attention. That kind of sheer discrepancy in attention will be hard to ignore or paper over imo
Here are the buffs that should be included in nameplates’ enemy buffs tracker. Some of these buffs are already included in the beta, but the vast majority are not. I have marked the buffs that seem more optional to me with an asterisk. I tried to be comprehensive, but please check to make sure I’m not missing any important abilities.
Pillar of Frost
Icebound Fortitude
Anti-Magic Shell
Lichborne*
Dancing Rune Weapon*
Metamorphosis
Void Metamorphosis
Blur
Glimpse
Darkness*
Spectral Sight*
Incarnation (of all types)
Berserk
Barkskin
Survival Instincts
Ironbark
Dragonrage
Tip the Scales
Obsidian Scales
Nullifying Shroud
Time Stop
Time Dilation*
Trueshot
Bestial Wrath
Takedown
Aspect of the Turtle
Survival of the Fittest
Survival Tactics*
Roar of Sacrifice*
Combustion
Arcane Surge
Glacial Spike*
Ice Block
Alter Time
Zenith
Life Cocoon*
Thunder Focus Tea
Fortifying Brew
Touch of Karma
Peaceweaver
Zen Focus Tea
Dematerialize*
Avenging Wrath
Avenging Crusader
Divine Protection
Sentinel (protection paladin)
Divine Shield
Blessing of Protection
Blessing of Spellwarding
Blessing of Sacrifice*
Blessing of Sanctuary
Ardent Defender
Guardian of Ancient Kings
Guardian of the Forgotten Queen
Voidform
Apotheosis
Guardian Spirit
Dark Archangel*
Evangelism*
Dispersion
Pain Suppression
Phase Shift
Psychic Shroud
Sanctified Ground*
Adrenaline Rush
Shadow Blades
Shadow Dance*
Evasion
Cloak of Shadows
Feint*
Cheat Death*
Ascendance
Stormkeeper
Doom Winds
Totem of Wrath*
Astral Shift
Stone Bulwark Totem*
Burrow
Grounding Totem
Counterstrike Totem*
Unending Resolve
Nether Ward
Dark Pact*
Avatar
Recklessness
Die by the Sword
Bladestorm
Enraged Regeneration
Shield Wall
Spell Reflection
Intervene
Rallying Cry*
While I’m at it: The nameplates’ enemy buffs tracker should show newest buffs first or at least have the option to do so. Newer buffs are almost always more important to know in PvP, because players usually most want to know that a buff was used at all, not its remaining duration. Prioritizing newer buffs would also prevent the problem of two dispellable buffs (which are always shown for dispellers) blocking the visibility of all other buffs.
Finally: We need a crowd control diminishing returns tracker on nameplates or target and focus frames. Being unable to see diminishing returns outside of arenas feels bad.
Are we going to actually address epics issues ? Like the qsyncing premades etc that go along with the category ? Because alooottttttt of the general feedback is going to be how will we address alll the qsync communities/guilds that circumvent the 5 man groups and use addons to see what groups are in q etc .
This comes with the epic bg topic of feedback tbh .
Granted there will be feedback on the map etc but this is also a great time to give feedback on all of the issues with epics rn . We need to tackle all of this first and properly address it in order to enjoy the new map.
Yeah the most important thing is having balanced/fair maps All else comes second
If this new Slayer’s Rise map comes out the oven and it turns out it’s “just another Wintergrasp” with 1-sided map mechanics then that’s not good. Obviously now is the time to voice concerns and complain if it looks like it’s gonna have Wintergrasp-style/1-sided map mechanics
With the way it’s described with “siege the opposing faction’s fortress” I really hope it’s not going to feature a lame “attacker or defender” mechanic since that type of map design has already been proven/shown to be imbalanced (Wintergrasp)
The description also mentions some sort of NPC endboss… will it be tuned/scaled properly? People have been PvE-rushing Drek and Vanndar down in 3-4 minutes with 0 towers down for months now (on live servers) so I’m skeptical if they can get the tuning right to avoid the boss simply being zerged down by power-creep’ed/rising iLvL geared players
And for those who might say bringing up other epic battlegrounds is off-topic and isn’t relevant to Slayer’s Rise, many of the concerns players have with the existing epic maps will also apply to Slayer’s Rise. Maybe not in season 1 where NPC/vehicle health is better balanced, but what about later in season 2 or 3 of Midnight?
Fixing these issues now will help Slayer’s Rise avoid the same issues the other epic maps currently have on live. Hence why they are being brought up here.
It might be a really cool map with a lot of neat mechanics and strong objective play, but if the bosses are rushed down in 5 minutes, terrain is asymmetrical giving one faction an advantage, and queue manipulation/role imbalance remains unaddressed, none of the map’s objectives and design principles will even matter.
After it’s done can someone post a brief “TL;DR” description on here of how it plays like, for those of us who are at work (like me) and can’t see it firsthand?
I’m curious how the basic map design works - is it like Wintergrasp? Is it like Alterac Valley? etc?
As most BG’s there’s no indication on the objectives and we must still rely on Veteran players to guide us.
Since this is a new battleground, no one knows where to go and what the objectives are. It would be great to have a splash screen at the start that highlights basic objectives.
-The bases need to have bigger/clearer icons on the map
-There should be icons for the cannons and void orbs
-The NPC’s could and should spell out the BG objectives similiar to what happens in Deephaul Ravine as the game is getting ready to start.
So much lag (and not the usual kind), eg would not let me take flight so I mount up instead, 30 seconds later whist on my mount running across the map I get dismounted and get a parashoot
2nd this, trying to click players on the 40 man raid frames through all the buffs / debuffs I don’t care about. Far more customization is needed for the UI interface and this really stands out in a 40 man
- based on the description provided anyways
All else comes second