Blizzard's PvP podcast: the Forever Open finals map, ruleset commitment, camping and hidden recipes

A separate map for the finals, and the divine bombers

Asmongold has floated an idea for an army of exploding Paladins: a chest piece with a damage effect that triggers when its wearer dies, Paladins running into a Horde raid under Divine Shield, then returning with Soulstones to do it again. He called them the divine bombers. In the clips we found, the target was a Horde raid in the open world, not the tournament.

If Asmongold and Olympus had wanted to crash the finals of the $100,000 Forever Open, the October 15 PvP podcast showed an obstacle. The finalists were moving on October 18 to a separate map that an outside raid cannot simply walk into; Blizzard's staff would move players and the event crew there. Nothing suggests the map was built because of him.

The crater came from the original Mount Hyjal. When the zone was reshaped for questing, one developer wanted to keep it as a dueling spot, so it was preserved on its own map, and the team brought it forward for the finals. The developers promised vendors for Soul Shards and reagents, though they had not been placed when the camera toured the site, and said a cooldown-reset NPC could be added if the organizers asked. The event remained a community tournament run by Tips Out's team; Tips Out said they had expected about 1,000 sign-ups and got more than 6,000. Asked whether class changes were being made for the tournament, the developers said no; the next balance notes were posted after the podcast went out, ahead of the finals.

Sources: Official WoW Forever Podcast, Episode 4: The PvP Episode ft. TipsOutBaby and Savixirl, October 15 · Official forum post for Podcast Episode 4 · Third-party clip of Asmongold's divine bombers idea (open-world target) · Second third-party clip of the same idea · Official development notes posted October 16, after the podcast

Choosing PvP or Normal is meant to be a commitment

Forever is built around one megaserver per ruleset. Normal is the PvE option; PvP puts the other faction in your way while questing. The developers want players to treat the choice as lasting. In Classic, free transfers helped turn a bad night into a wave of departures from the losing faction, leaving the rest with even fewer fair fights. They pointed to faction balance in Season of Discovery and Anniversary, where players could not move freely.

For Forever, a free switch from PvP to Normal is unlikely, so a player who regrets PvP months later may need a new character. Their advice: pick PvP if you enjoy being hunted, Normal if you want to quest in peace. There is no current plan for an RP-PvP ruleset; the concern is that splitting a smaller roleplay community again could leave a ruleset without enough people, and they said they are reading the feedback.

Sources: Official WoW Forever Podcast, Episode 4: The PvP Episode ft. TipsOutBaby and Savixirl, October 15

Camping, Honor and premades

Asked about a level 60 camping a lower-level player until they log out, the developers said ordinary camping comes with the PvP ruleset. They will act on cheating and exploits but are reluctant to decide how many kills are too many. Their usual answer is other players: call your guild or return on a main. Designed events are different; in Season of Discovery, Blood Moon and the Battle for Blackrock Mountain used brief protection after resurrection.

The developers say they have made Alterac Valley a little less lucrative and greatly increased Honor in Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Darkspear Islands, with holiday weekends meant to make the featured battleground an obvious choice. Honor is the currency you spend; Rank Points measure progress toward rank 14, so the best activity can depend on which you are chasing.

Matchmaking is meant to put premades against premades and solo players or very small groups against each other; the group size that counts as a premade is still being tuned. Wargames, arranged by chat command, may miss launch day but are expected fairly soon after, and Honor from them raised win-trading concerns. There was no firm answer on hard timers for Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin, though limits may be added to stop matches dragging on for hours, and spots that let players hide a flag or stall are being fixed.

Sources: Official WoW Forever Podcast, Episode 4: The PvP Episode ft. TipsOutBaby and Savixirl, October 15

Hidden recipes, rare materials and world bosses

Tips Out asked for more things worth fighting over, such as a world boss or the few Devilsaurs that supply valuable leather. The developers expect players to discover unseen recipes once they can reach level 60, along with rare materials from particular creatures in particular places, and some recipes are being kept out of the game client for now. They compared it to finding the Crusader enchant, with low drop chances. Tournament players asking where certain Engineering recipes, including a bomb, come from will have to find out. If a material comes from one place, holding that spot could mean controlling its supply.

World bosses are undecided. Season of Discovery instanced them so more people got kills, but the developers feel some of the fight for control was lost. They would like to bring back events such as Blood Moon and the Battle for Ashenvale, with no committed schedule. The Eastern Plaguelands towers and Silithyst turn-ins are not being enabled at launch; capital-city raids are closer to the fights they want.

Sources: Official WoW Forever Podcast, Episode 4: The PvP Episode ft. TipsOutBaby and Savixirl, October 15

Large battles, layering and the October 19 stress test

Blizzard says its engineers have spent a lot of time on large battles, and described internal maps of player deaths with PvP as the leading cause of death in the world. Work includes keeping groups together across layers, tools for groups larger than a raid and smoother fights across zone boundaries, with as much as possible ready for launch and improvements after.

A short stress test on launch hardware was announced for October 19: 7 PM CEST in Europe and 2 PM PDT in the Americas and Oceania. Any WoW account could join without an active subscription, and stress-test characters, including their names, were to be wiped afterwards before the beta reopened.

Sources: Official WoW Forever Podcast, Episode 4: The PvP Episode ft. TipsOutBaby and Savixirl, October 15 · Official: WoW Forever stress test, October 19

Rated PvP and public duels

Blizzard is cautious about a permanent rated system, worried it would make players judge every class through one mode and pull gear into a separate progression; for now the focus is objective battlegrounds. Savix proposed a public dueling area that resets cooldowns after a fight, and the developers are open to exploring it. Access to the finals map stays staff-controlled, and no public dueling queue has been announced. Ideas mentioned include the unreachable arena under Dalaran, Darkmoon Faire-style crater exhibitions and, as one developer's personal wish, a King of the Hill battleground in Blackrock Mountain.

Sources: Official WoW Forever Podcast, Episode 4: The PvP Episode ft. TipsOutBaby and Savixirl, October 15