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UPDATE:
Changes to the current Blade's Edge and Dalaran arena are live on the PTR. The pillars in Blade's Edge have been exchanged for stairs and there are now stairs behind the boxes on the Dalaran map.
This looks really good! Knockback classes won't have a unfair advantage anymore over others, especially melee, which had no chance to kill certain classes if they stood on the pillar/behind the boxes.
A new arena with the Shado'pan theme has been added. It looks a bit like Tol'vir, except that it has two small platforms (with fences).
Looks good. Nothing really special, but that's just how an arena map should be in my opinion.
Hildegard has made a video about the two changed maps and the new one, you can check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0sGH_p6QjM
EDIT: Suggestion to the 'PvE vs PvP'-problem would be to make a PvP set bonus for ALL pieces (not just the main ones), this would give +x amount of Resi or smt, which favors the PvP gear over PvE gear with extra slots. Fixed?
- All characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.
- Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear.
- Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493.
- Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.
- Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496.
This sounds really, really good. I will break it down for you.
1) Increase of base Resilience means that we take less damage in general, which is good.
2) Season 13 Tyrannical gear was only slightly better than Season 12 Malevolent 2/2, it's good that the item level (and therefore stats) gets increased.
3) Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear was so much better than normal Season 13 Tyrannical gear, it was basically just like the upgrade system we had in season 12. This was only making the gap we have in gear between characters even bigger.
4) Scaling down item level, also scales down the stats. In 5.3 we will have PvE gear with an item level that is A LOT higher than the current PvP gear. There was a chance that it would become better than the PvP gear. By scaling down gear to item level 496 in PvP zones, this should hardly be a problem (if it would be a problem at all).
5) Resilience has been removed from most PvP, hmmm. I can't really comment on this yet, we will need more information on which pieces this concerns, if the Resilience gets buffed on other pieces, etc.
One minor concern would be World PvP. If the item level of PvP gear is only 496, PvE gear might be very dominant here. To be fair with you though, I'm not that bothered with World PvP in the first place, so don't mind this at all.
New Arena: Shado-Pan
Gladiator hopefuls have a new location to test their mettle amidst the Kun-Lai mountain tops, in the training grounds of the powerful Shado-Pan. Players must make use of the looming tiger statues and fenced platforms to gain an advantage that will bring victory and glory!
Sounds good, however, I am a little worried about "looming tiger statues and fenced platforms to gain an advantage that will bring victory and glory!". In the past, we had Ring of Valor (http://www.wowhead.com/zone=4406#screenshots:id=112059) which had pillars that moved up and down (and also fiery fences popping up sometimes), which was an awful experience to play around. Sometimes it bugged out and you fell through it, Warlocks could set their portal up their and become invincible for a couple seconds, etc. We still have the multiple floor-arena's, Blade's Edge and Dalaran. Some classes have major advantages here because of this: knockbacks, portals, etc. I think all arena's should be liked Tol'vir and Nagrand, as that's a fair playground for most classes (sure, Warlocks can still portal behind a pillar, but that's much less worse than jumping down on Blade's Edge and then port-up again).
Hopefully Blizzard keeps this in mind.
New Battleground: Gold Rush
In the new Battleground situated in the Valley of the Four Winds, the Alliance and Horde continue their war for Pandaria’s precious resources. While the two factions battle for control over mines, they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them!
Cool, a new battleground. It sounds a bit like Silvershard Mines, except for "they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them". I'm curious how this will work and if it will be added to the Rated Battlegrounds, I'm looking forward to thinking of new strategies!
Blog with additional information and explanation for the reasoning behind PvP changes will be available very soon.
Cool! Can't wait till we get more information.
tl;dr: looking good, Holinka, well done!