Tag Archives: Barad

Tol Barad hotfixed to reward 360 honor on offensive win

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After the hotfix last week (rewarding 1,800 honor to the offensive team) aimed to increase Tol Barad changing hands from faction to faction, Blizzard has recanted and lowered the amount of honor gained when the attacking side wins the PvP objective. There was much confusion over why Blizzard would introduce such a huge honor gain for the attackers, as it clearly encouraged players to win-trade Tol Barad back and forth, negating the whole reason for a PvP objective.

However, Blizzard has just changed the amount of honor gained when the attacking side wins Tol Barad to 360 honor, down from 1,800. Let your servers know that the win-trading can stop.

Zarhym — Tol Barad Honor Change
As you’re probably aware by now, an update was applied to Tol Barad shortly before the holidays which granted the attacking side 1800 Honor Points for a victory. While the goal with that change was to provide more incentive for the attacking forces to claim victory, it ultimately led to an undermining of the spirit of competition in Tol Barad. We’ve just applied a hotfix which has lowered the attacking faction’s gain to 360 Honor Points for a victory. The defending faction will still earn 180 Honor Points for a victory.

We appreciate all of your feedback regarding this change. We’ll continue working to make Tol Barad a fun and engaging PvP environment.


In addition, Blizzard is currently working on a fix for what many termed the “Tol Barad Bridge Marathon,” where players would run across the Tol Barad northern bridge to enter the zone as the battle was ending to reap the benefits of the victory, even if they were not called to participate in Tol Barad.

Quote:

Whats the word on the bridge exploit?

We’re working on a fix for this right now.

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Tol Barad hotfixed to reward 360 honor on offensive win originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Queue: Why the Tol Barad change is putting lipstick on a pig

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Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.

We’re going to take a moment out of our normal Queue banter and focus on a change to Tol Barad implemented recently in a hotfix. The change is as follow:

Blizzard — Hotfixes
Tol Barad: Winning as an attacker now rewards players with 1800 Honor Points, up from 180. Winning as a defender still rewards players with 180 Honor Points.


This makes it much more advantageous to gain control of the zone, and indeed will likely act as an effective stimulant for players to return to the zone in hope of capturing it. However, this is not a fix for the zone, nor does it do anything other than create a system of unsustainable inequality. Let me elaborate.

With this change, we’ll see one of three possible results. First (and I think the most likely), the controlling side will be encouraged to just let the other team capture the zone, in order to retake the zone themselves the next cycle. This back-and-forth swapping will give the greedy person (which modern economics dictates we are) the most reward (honor points) and thus, the most happiness. Another possibility is that one faction will control the zone without allowing the other team to take it back (which is much too easy) and not reap any rewards ever; I consider this a potential on servers that have a high-end raiding guild that’s already bored with the content. The final possibility is that this will actually encourage proper equitable fighting in Tol Barad, which I find to be the most unlikely of possibilities.

Continue reading The Queue: Why the Tol Barad change is putting lipstick on a pig

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The Queue: Why the Tol Barad change is putting lipstick on a pig originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Art of War(craft): Winning Tol Barad

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP.

Just like Wrath’s introduction of Wintergrasp, Cataclysm implemented an outdoor (non-instanced) PvP zone where the Horde and Alliance fight for control. This place is called Tol Barad, and most of what I’d written from the beta still applies. What I didn’t write about then (and what wasn’t quite apparent from beta testing) was how imbalanced the zone could be in favor of the defenders. If you’re level 85 and play a few battles of Tol Barad, you’ll understand what I mean. While I’ve won more assaults than I’ve lost, this anecdotal experience belies the fact that the defenders have a distinct advantage — they only need to keep one point from being captured, while the attackers need to hold all three at once. Because of how the flag is captured, through proximity and numbers (similar to the towers in Eye of the Storm), it is ridiculously easy to ruin an assault by simply zerging one capture point.

Mat McCurley’s post going through the problems of Tol Barad is a pretty good read and should give you an idea of the problems with the zone and some suggestions on how to fix them. For today, we’ll take a look at how we can win in the zone despite the overwhelming odds. A fix is probably due, but until then, we’ll all have to do battle under unfavorable conditions. This happens often in war — so soldier up.

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The Art of War(craft): Winning Tol Barad originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Know Your Lore: Kul Tiras and the mystery of Tol Barad

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The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You’re playing the game, you’re fighting the bosses, you know the how — but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

A hot topic of contention among Cataclysm players is the new PvP zone of Tol Barad and the accompanying Tol Barad peninsula zone. They features a host of new daily quests and two new factions with some truly stunning rewards — have you seen those spectral mounts? Gorgeous!. Players were really looking forward to playing around in the new area. Unfortunately, between mechanics issues and queuing woes, few people are actually enjoying the new content.

However, Tol Barad isn’t quite as “new” as you’d think — at least not from a lore standpoint. Today, we’re going to take a look at the history of Tol Barad. But before that, we need to take a look at the nation that owned it, a nation that’s been mysteriously absent in World of Warcraft: the island nation of Kul Tiras, birthplace of Jaina Proudmoore and home of one of the strongest naval fleets the world had ever seen.

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Know Your Lore: Kul Tiras and the mystery of Tol Barad originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 26 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The problems with Tol Barad (and how to fix them)

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Tol Barad, the newest contestable PvP experience in Cataclysm, is great fun and provides the winning side with an awesome daily quest hub and a Vault of Archavon-style encounter, Argaloth, that drops the new tier legs and gloves. Using the same style of play as in Wintergrasp, the previous winners defend the island prison of Tol Barad against the invading faction. Tol Barad would be fun if it weren’t so horribly broken in its goal and mechanics. The battleground of Tol Barad has only been active for about a week and a half, with most people only having experienced it for the first time within a few days.

There are six distinct problems with Tol Barad at the moment:

  1. Defending Tol Barad is too easy.
  2. The cap mechanics to secure capture points make it too easy to switch.
  3. The towers in Tol Barad that grant extra time to the attackers have no reason to be defended by the defending faction.
  4. Tol Barad’s victory condition for the attacking faction has created a frustrating environment in light of the mechanics at play in the battleground.
  5. The graveyards are skewed in favor of the defenders.
  6. The losing side in Tol Barad receives no Tol Barad commendation for participating in the battle, while the winning team receives three.

Continue reading The problems with Tol Barad (and how to fix them)

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The problems with Tol Barad (and how to fix them) originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The problems with Tol Barad (and how to fix them)

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Tol Barad, the newest contestable PvP experience in Cataclysm, is great fun and provides the winning side with an awesome daily quest hub and a Vault of Archavon-style encounter, Argaloth, that drops the new tier legs and gloves. Using the same style of play as in Wintergrasp, the previous winners defend the island prison of Tol Barad against the invading faction. Tol Barad would be fun if it weren’t so horribly broken in its goal and mechanics. The battleground of Tol Barad has only been active for about a week and a half, with most people only having experienced it for the first time within a few days.

There are six distinct problems with Tol Barad at the moment:

  1. Defending Tol Barad is too easy.
  2. The cap mechanics to secure capture points make it too easy to switch.
  3. The towers in Tol Barad that grant extra time to the attackers have no reason to be defended by the defending faction.
  4. Tol Barad’s victory condition for the attacking faction has created a frustrating environment in light of the mechanics at play in the battleground.
  5. The graveyards are skewed in favor of the defenders.
  6. The losing side in Tol Barad receives no Tol Barad commendation for participating in the battle, while the winning team receives three.

Continue reading The problems with Tol Barad (and how to fix them)

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The problems with Tol Barad (and how to fix them) originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blizzard releases new Cataclysm preview: Tol Barad

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Blizzard has released another zone preview — this time, it’s the world PvP zone of Tol Barad, otherwise known as Cataclysm‘s Wintergrasp. Located off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, Tol Barad is a strategic point for both Alliance and Horde, making it a highly sought-after piece of property. Some highlights from the preview:
  • Tol Barad is not only an open PvP zone; it’s also a daily quest hub.
  • Unlike Wintergrasp, Tol Barad won’t have a Tenacity mechanic. Instead, players will be matched up at a 1:1 ratio, with a maximum of 80 players allowed in the zone.
  • Much like Eye of the Storm, players will have to claim three keeps around the zone. Unlike Eye, if a player dies while defending a tower, that will directly affect the slider bar, moving it in favor of the opposing faction. So stay alive!
  • Winning Tol Barad opens a raid, just like Wintergrasp. The Tol Barad raid takes place in Baradin Hold.
  • And of course there are reputation rewards, including two brand new mounts with a ghostly look.
Check out the full post by Zarhym for more details, screenshots and information — and check out our gallery of Tol Barad, below, for a closer look at the new zone.

Gallery: Cataclysm Beta: Tol Barad

Tol Barad loading screenBaradin HoldUnderneath Baradin HoldA closer look at Baradin HoldBridge to the Slagworks

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider’s Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW’s third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.

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Blizzard releases new Cataclysm preview: Tol Barad originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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