Ever since World of Warcraft first launched in 2004, there has been a constant conversation about your PvP options. The game started with none and was later wounded with relatively fun, if not outright engaging battlegrounds. When Burning Crusade was released, Blizzard added the Arena game which some players easily took while others cursed and threw their keyboards across the room.
It’s been a bumpy road, but Blizzard is always trying new things, trying to find the perfect solution to their ongoing PvP woes. Last year they introduced outdoor PvP with Lake Wintergrasp and with Cataclysm they are going to revamp their battlegrounds, while adding at least one new one (to the already impressive list or 7) and doing it so you can start getting grades for your efforts. . Along with the big changes to the Battlegrounds, Blizzard will also bring us a long-awaited feature: the return of the PvP titles we all loved so much when they were just BG, before 2.0.
The Ranked Battlegrounds
The biggest change is the arrival of Ranked Battlegrounds. The way it’s going to work is that you will now earn rating and arena points when you win a battleground. However, to prevent players from being punished for getting stuck in a bad team, you won’t lose any points if you lose (which many people tend to do). On the other hand, you will still earn the honor and battleground tokens that you always got when playing any BG.
There will be a weekly cap on the BG points you can earn and there will be special rewards for those who want to take advantage of just BG instead of the arena, including some rare mounts. The best part is that Blizzard has already noted that they will try to avoid making it a grind, something everyone can get behind.
PvP titles return
The PvP titles that everyone remembers from the pre-arena game will also return for those who do well in the BG each season. Titles like Commander and Centurion will be used to describe anyone who performs well in these situations. To top it off, it’s been noted that the new Guild Leveling system will be integrated into this feature in some way.
For a game that started out without any organized PvP options, WoW has come a long way in 5 years. Here’s hoping Blizzard has even more surprises up its sleeve.