Blizzard plan to introduce a new arena in Mists of Pandaria called Tol’vir Proving Grounds. While I joked in the past at what form this arena might take, it seems Blizzard have learnt their lesson.  Indeed, this arena looks quite impressive with a simple layout based on Nagrand Arena—the most balanced arena in the game. It’s Egyptian themed with four golden statues standing in roughly the same position as the pillars in Nagrand.

The fact this arena is situated in Uldum suggests they were aiming to release it in Cataclysm. However, while it may in fact be a delayed feature, the design and allusion to Nagrand Arena allows any such delay to be forgiven. Indeed, it’ll limit the chance of Ring of Valor popping and that can never be a bad thing.

While some might criticise the design for been lazy or just a simple retexture, this isn’t necessarily a problem when it comes to arena design. Indeed, while retextures are a bad thing in terms of BGs, sticking to a simple yet balanced design is perfect when it comes to arena. We get a nice change of scenery without certain design flaws giving one team a massive advantage over another.

Yes a raging fire, a one shot mechanic in the form of a Tornado and a poorly drawn dragon is absent. But you can’t have everything!

Twitter and Email

In other news I’ve set up a twitter account to post blog updates and general musings about WoW when I just can’t be bother to write a full post! You can find it here – twitter.com/HMCeon. Follow me if interested.

I’ve also got a fancy Hydramist email address. So if you want to contact me with any content ideas, feature requests or anything in particular, you can do so. The address is ceon@hydramist.tv

Please do not send it to @hydramist.com. That would indeed be Hydra and Kalimists carpet cleaning business where even the toughest stains are stunned and Smited away!

So far Blizzcon 2011 has featured hot chicks, a panda-pokemon expansion, and awesome information surrounding the next big ticket game by Blizzard: Diablo 3.

When I heard about the panel discussion earlier on Diablo 3′s Gameplay and Real Money Auction House, I had truly high expectations. Having heard the news and information which this panel provided, my expectations are now somehow even higher.

Here’s some food for thought before I go through my thoughts on the panel’s discussion. First off, Blizzard is offering a free copy of Diablo 3 to any World of Warcraft players who purchase a yearly subscription to the world’s most popular (but declining) MMORPG. That’s huge! That tells me that Blizzard is so sure Diablo 3′s real money auction house will make them money that they are willing to give up $60 per player who already owns World of Warcraft and is buying their subscription in yearly chunks.

In fact, they have to believe that they are going to make a lot more than $60 per person that picks up Diablo 3; even for free.

So why is Blizzard so confident that Diablo 3 will be a massive money maker thanks to its real money auction house? I can tell you by explaining three concepts which were further discussed and fleshed out by today’s panel.

1. Randomness of Crafting
2. Recycling of Loot
3. Numerous Viable Builds

These three concepts are going to bring stability to the new Diablo 3 economy. For starters, loot is so random in terms of the stats you get (especially when crafting), that you are going to be almost required to go to the auction house to get what you need. It just won’t be economical to try and craft your own gear. Instead, you’ll want to craft what you can, sell it, and then go buy what you actually want. The ability to trash loot in exchange for materials through the nephalem cube or gold thanks to the jordan jar thingy will provide players with even further means for selling their items.

At first, I was worried that the recycling of loot would be bad for the game, but I’ve now come to realize that it is the best way to keep the economy healthy. The way it works is that Diablo 3 loot can be enchanted and gemmed before getting recycled, so that means that the economy will lose those enhancements and return an inferior material or sum of gold during the process. Without this form of recycling, loot would forever build up and change hands until it was worthless.

Now for the icing on the cake and reason for so many players needing to take part in the Diablo 3 auction house: Numerous Viable Builds. Remember how I said that it would be better to craft your gear, sell it, and then buy what you really wanted? The “Numerous Viable Builds” concept is why. Unlike in World of Warcraft where groups almost always require certain cookie cutter builds and gear setups, in Diablo 3 there will be an untold number of viable builds to finish the game. Sure, some will be “better”, but the sheer amount of customization will allow players to defeat Diablo 3 with any number of gear/runestone setups. You could have a shield bearing Wizard who aoe tanks or a glass cannon demon hunter who does nothing but kite her opponents to death. The choices are literally endless and therefore the viable stats you want to min/max are also endless in terms of combination. Every item you find or craft could potentially be sold on the auction house due to this diversity of viable builds.

I have very high hopes for Diablo 3. Very high indeed.

Markco is a Season Six Gladiator in World of Warcraft and owns 2.1 million gold. Currently he writes about ways for you to make gold and real money playing Diablo 3.

After two disastrous events in the form of the EU Regional and US Invitational, there wasn’t much hope for the global Battle.net invitational at BlizzCon. However, in terms of World of Warcraft, it seems Blizzard had learnt their lesson and taken note. The event started on schedule without any technical difficulties. While there was a short delay before the second matchup and a DC later on, the event was flawless for the most part. Although the SC2 tournament didn’t run as smoothly, it’s still worth giving Blizzard credit where due. Hopefully they can repeat this performance next year.

The event got started with a back and forth between Team Roccat (R/D/P) and Skill Capped (MLP). Roccat, going against the grain for a Taiwan team, was actually able to put out some decent pressure onto Skill Capped. Indeed, they had some amazing switches in game one, forcing an early bubble out of Toez. However, the CC capabilities of Skill Capped and Roccats tendency to tunnel Pookz in game two saw them lose the series. It was still a fantastic start to the evening and gave just a glimpse at what this event had to offer.

After a short delay and switch up in the next match to be played on stage, Team EG (Shadow Play)—one of the favourites to win in our poll—made their first appearance. They met Anarchy Roc (WLS), the second team from Taiwan, who, unlike their counterparts, lived up to the kill fodder stereotype. Team EG won the series with ease.

The other favourite in our poll, Showtime or Yas Presents (Shadow Cleave), were up next. They too went up against the Taiwan WLS. With the vulnerability of DKs to melee, the WLS were probably right to focus Another. However, their inability to switch it up and control Fabio really cost them. It’s highly doubtful Yas Presents broke out in a sweat picking up the victory here.

Next up we saw one of the most anticipated games in the form of Yas Presents vs. Skill Capped (MLS). This was the most exciting matchup so far with a lot of back and forth action. Both teams were able to pressure one another and set up potential kill opportunities. Indeed, it was next to impossible to call a winner in most of their games. In fact, the only game that looked one sided was game number three on Ring of Valor.  Yas Presents gained so much momentum, forcing block, NS and Spirit Link early on. Unfortunately, the server went down and the game had to be replayed.  The replay was very much a back and forth between the two teams. Skill Capped were able to catch Glyptic into a CC chain as they focused their efforts on a cooldown-less Another for the win and the series.

The tournament momentum didn’t stop there though with Yas Presents coming back once again against Team EG. This was arguably the most anticipated matchup of the tournament with both teams been favourites to take home the $75,000 prize. Team EG were under constant pressure in game one and weren’t able to put out any of their own. Yas Presents took the game and very much looked like the dominant side. However, the phenomenal players of Team EG fought back in round two, scoring a kill on Glyptic with a spell lock, death coil and fear combo. Game three saw Yas Presents make a surprise switch on to Azael with a Strangulate on Cdew. Weirdly, Cdew did have both his trinket up and Fear Ward at this point, but didn’t trinket the Strangulate. There may have been some communication error here, but regardless Yas Presents took the series.

DNAW Trio (MLS) were up next against the Korean team of Kimchi Man (RLS). This series really gave us a hint that the Korean teams weren’t just a push over this year and, even without their famous RMP, they can still pack a punch. It was essentially neck and neck between the two teams in game one before a DC caused a premature end to proceedings. Game two was more of the game was some very close calls on Drudenhaus from the RLS. DNAW showed just how strong MLS burst was though with a kill, ala season 8, onto the Rogue. The last game took place on Blades Edge Arena where Kimchi Mans Rogue looked vulnerable throughout. The insane pressure of MLS reared its ugly head time and time again until they caught the Rogue with no cooldowns and his Shaman with a CS for the win.

DNAW, getting back to back Korean teams, were back on stage for the next matchup against OMG (PHD). By this point in the tournament, OMG were already showing signs of how formidable they would be with a victory against Team EG backstage. While DNAW were able to score a kill on OMGs DK in round two, they too seemed unprepared for the PHD, losing the series 2-1. This put OMG in second position just below Skill Capped as day one came to an end.

We entered day two and the stream once again started on schedule. We started out with a repeat of the EU Regional final with DNAW going up against Showtime (Yas Presents). While the MLS were able to pick up a win in game one, Yas Presents fought back in the next two games and took the series. It was another equally matched game though, with both teams having opportunities to steal the victory.

In yet another repeat of a final, Team EG went up against Skill Capped. After Team EG took their last series 6-0 at the US Invitational, they were certainly the favourites going into this. Skill Capped struggled to keep up with the DoT pressure in game one, eventually keeling over. While Skill Capped put in a better performance in game two, Team EG soon gained the momentum and scored a kill on Snutz taking the series.

Next up we had Team EG vs. DNAW to decide who would go into the single elimination round. With their string of victories against MLS, this game looked like Team EGs on paper.  However, the common adage about different regional play styles really came into fruition here. DNAW took games one and three, with Dakkroth porting out of LoS of his healer and dying to DoT damage in game two. It was an exciting series and Team EG came close to taking it from time to time, but, unfortunately for them, they were knocked out of the tournament.

At this point we had OMG, Yas Presents, Skill Capped and DNAW ready to duke it out in the single elimination round. First up was Skill Capped vs. DNAW. Unfortunately, their first series was not streamed. We can assume DNAW won though due to only having two defeats in the round robin phase which were against OMG and Yas Presents. We moved onto a best of five in this round and went right up to round 5 to decide the winner. While the series wasn’t as exciting as some of the previous matchups, the suspense of who would make it to the final was very much present. The fifth game was the first and only to hit the 15 minute mark and see the 25% healing debuff come into play. A few seconds before the end, the health pools looked like this:

It weas intense to say the last, but with no CC on Toez and CS going out on to Drudenhaus, DNAWs fate was sealed.

The last semi-final saw Yas Presents go up against, the dark horse of the tournament, OMG. While OMG were able to put out some serious pressure at the start of game one with a near kill on Fabio, that pressure soon faded as their cooldowns ended. Yas Presents were then able to take the lead and pick up a win with a kill on OMGs DK. Game two saw Yes Presents play very defensively, throwing some immediate control onto OMG. Yes Presents were then able to keep up the pressure and yet again score a kill on OMGs DK who received a BoP that did very little to help.

The tide started to change in game 3 when Ring of Valor popped up. OMG were just able to put out some insane pressure and eventually score a kill on Glyptic. Another made the play of the tournament in this match though, managing to predict and copy Divine Shield just as he was under some intense pressure. And the return of Ring of Valor in game 5 might as well have been the killing blow. There seemed to some sort of miscommunication in the next match up, with Another dropping dead as Glyptic was caught into a Strangulate and Scatter with his trinket still up. Finally, we had the deciding game and the return of Ring of Valor in might as well have been the killing blow. The PHD took the game and advanced to the final.

OMG gained the momentum, taking the first two games and, with the frustration getting the better of Snutz, OMG looked like the victors going into the third. However, Reckful came up to the stage and had a word with Snutz. To be honest, it’s quite bizarre why that’s even allowed. While it’s likely Rekful just gave him a pep talk, it seems stupid that there’s no rule against communicating with other pros that might be able to provide better strategy advice. Regardless, whatever Reckful said to Snutz seemed to work. Skill Capped made a solid comeback, taking the next two games. We then entered the final game of the tournament. This took place on Dalaran Sewers.  OMGs Paladin had some unique positioning and held out with bubble until he absolutely needed it. This allowed him to keep his team up, while Pookz got far too offensive and dropped dead. It was a fantastic series and one of the best finals we’ve ever seen at BlizzCon.

Everyone, including the players themselves, underestimated the Korean PHD. The lack of practice against the comp was really evident. While a different map selection in the OMG vs. Yas Presents matchup might have given us a very different final, OMGs victory cannot be put down to sheer luck. They played extremely well throughout the tournament and gave the competitors a lesson for the future: practice against every comp or they might just turn round and kick your arse!

Finally, after last year’s BlizzCon was filled to the brim with insomnia-curing games and a controversial final, it was fantastic to see that, even with a tournament filled with Shaman and Warlocks, WoW arena can still be as intensely exciting and nail biting to witness as it once was. Hopefully Blizzard will place more focus on arena in the future and we’ll once again have a vast array of tournaments rather than BlizzCon alone.

For those that missed the Grand Finals, you can relive the drama again beneath.

Update:

DNAW came third:

What a terrible image!

Thanks to Jouni in the comments for the info.

It’s always interesting to hear the commentators remark at how teams earned their place at BlizzCon. It’s even more interesting when a certain member of Blizzard knows for sure one team in particular doesn’t deserve their place. In fact, it’s more interesting still when this member of staff abetted this team in acquiring a place.

Isn’t it nice to have friends in high places? And who better to serve as an example than Pookz.

Poor Pookz was having trouble getting into qualifying range as DK/Mage/Priest. Fortunately for him, Snutz, Toez and HR weren’t having an easy time of it either as WLS. A bit of jiggery-pokery on the last day of Season 9 provided a much needed distraction and suddenly both teams weren’t doing so badly.

Snutz and Toez, truly a courageous and honourable pair, decided to ditch HR. Well he wasn’t going to stand for this; he hacked their accounts, deleted their characters and got them banned. While the retaliation may seem brutal, the phrase “just deserts” does come to mind.

Luckily for those two, Pookz has a friend.  His name is Tom “Kalgan” Chilton. You might be familiar with him. As the Lead Game Designer for World of Warcraft he certainly has a lot of sway.

Mr Chilton helps his friends out. He not only restored their characters with MMR and rating still intact, but he cloned them onto another account. With zero chance of qualifying without this intervention, some could say Mr Chilton is their knight in shining armour.

Unfortunately, the three of them still weren’t quite in qualifying range. It was no worry though because with a tiny bit of win trading anything is possible. In fact, it’s even speculated that Toez didn’t really fancy accepting a queue, so they achieved one of their many wins in a 2v3 scenario. I wonder how…

Rightfully an RLS should have had their place at the US Invitational, but Blizzard isn’t concerned about cheats and fair play. Indeed, Season 9 highlighted that fact. They were just glad they’d have the famous faces at the event.

It must be nice to have such contacts in the US. Indeed a series of top players in the US have had their accounts unbanned for activities such as using an Archaeology Bot. Kalimist though? Who’d unban him!

Fortunately, the team failed to capitalize on Kalgan’s corruption and ended up losing in the final to the Korean team, OMG.

**Edit**
Niko provided this interesting screenshot in the comments:
http://i.imgur.com/j1HPi.jpg

For those asking for a source, I’ll quote syeren in the comments:

“The players / teams / organizations who can provide proof are currently laying low, as it could prove detrimental to them depending on how Blizzard react.

The first I heard of this was the week following the US Regionals, where Yiska let me in on the whole drama.

The source is very valid, we just need the permission of the people providing the information to post up more information and names.”

Hopefully starting soon without as many delays as yesterday!

Blizzcon Live Stream Here

Showtime (Yaspresents) vs. DNAW Trio

Game 1:
DNAW started out on Another who immediately cast AMS as Glyptic ate a UA silence to mitigate their slight pressure. Showtime started pumping out the pressure on to the enemy Mage who was immediately forced to block. A stream freeze on my end, but DNAW won the game.

Game 2:
Once again Showtime went straight after DNAWs Mage. We see an early Gargoyle and empowered Pet from Another for the extra pressure. DNAW answered back with a Ring of Frost and Death Coil on to Another who dropped quite low. It was then a back and forth between the centre pillar and DNAWs starting area. DNAW really saw the advantage of positioning themselves in the starting area with Showtime having to run back and forth between there and the centre pillar. Showtime we’re really struggling to get on to their target. Glyptic got caught into a Deep, Coil and Howl but managed to survive. We then saw Showtime turn up the pressure on Rodriguez. Another got a fantastic Deathgrip on Rodriguez, pulling him out of LoS of his shaman. After a slight chase into the starting area, Rodriguez went down.

Game 3:
DNAW waste some early CC with a Hex and Ring on Another as Glyptic was pet silenced. They then started putting the pressure out on to Another who immediately uses AMS as Death Coil ends. The pressure was built up even further with a full Poly on Glyptic which forced an AMZ out of Glyptic. Showtime chose to start putting pressure out on to Dakkroth. They built up momentum when DNAWs Shaman dispelled UA. With the DoT damage brining him low, Showtime switched onto the Mage who was forced to block. We then had some back and forth between the two teams. Showtime caught the evocating Mage into a Death Coil dropped him dead.

Series taken by Showtime/Yaspresents

Team EG vs Skill Capped. Slip ‘N’ Slide

Game 1:
Both teams start out by trading damage, but it becomes clear that Skill Capped cannot keep up in a damage race with the DoT team. Talbadar was forced to drop out of Shadow and heal himself on a few occasions, but in the end EG just overpowered Skill Capped with superior play.

1-0 Team EG

RoV, the shooting range, the worst map in the game. Both teams mindlessly trade damage, with Skill Capped coming out ahead at the mid-way point of the game. All of a sudden Team EG take momentum and eventually secure a kill on Snutz.

2-0 Team EG

Team EG vs GameSense.DNAW

A very intense game to decide who was in the final four of the tournament.

GameSense.DNAW win and go through to the Final 4.

Skilled Capped vs GameSense.DNAW

Game 1:
This game wasn’t exciting with neither team really dropping below 50% too often. Rodriquez did outplay Pookz, keeping him without his pet for the majority of the game. Dakkroth did drop quite low in a deep when his Shaman was caught into a Poly, but was topped up by a Spirit Link straight after. There was one point where neither team had any dots up. As the game started to move to it’s third act, Toez trinketed poly to keep Snutz up and Pookz used his last block as Toez was caught into a hex and deep. All team members of Skill Capped were low at this point and a spirit link did very little to help. DNAW then made a hard switch to Snutz who got caught into a Ring and dropped dead.

Game 2:
This game was more one sided at the start with Skill Capped controlling the game. They put a lot of pressure on to Dakkroth, firstly at the start when his Shaman ate a UA silence and secondly when his Shaman was caught into a hex. However, Pookz also dropped low at this point. Turning the tide, DNAW switches hard to Pookz as his Shaman was caught into a fear and Poly. The team soon got him into another Poly as Snutz dropped low. We saw an howl and spell lock straight after, but he managed to live. Toez then dropped low himself and trinkets Death Coil to try and escape, but unable to get a heal off, he droped dead from DoT damage.

Game 3:
The team of Skill Capped start on the opposing Shaman. While DNAW were able to peel for him, he still had to use NS and his trinket to survive. They did try and reverse the pressure with a full Poly on to Toez while dropping Pookz quite low. However, even with a follow up CS, they were not able to drop him too low. We then saw DNAWs Shaman caught into a CS and drop quite low as his mage was also quite wounded. With a short switch on to DNAWs Mage, Skill Capped waited out the cooldown of CS anad Deep. They tried to chain both onto DNAWs Shaman, but the follow up Polymorph hits just as his trinket comes back up. After a bit of back and forth and a nice blink and evocate by Rodriguez, Drudenhaus was caught into a Sheep and Deep. Even with Snutz in CC, Skill Capped were able to get the kill on Drudenhaus.

Game 4:
There was a very exciting ending to this game. With no cooldowns left, Drudenhaus managed to survive time and time again. However, with zero mana left, Skill Capped didn’t even both throwing any CC on to Drudenhaus as they switched to a block-less Rodriguez for the kill.

Game 5:
The final game nearly hit the 15 minute mark. There was tons of back and forth action with both teams nearly scoring a kill at times. The lead up to the ending saw Drudenhaus drop low in a Deep, but he managed to save himself with a Spirit Link. The team of Skill Capped then switched their focus over to Dakkroth who managed to survive the first encounter by getting out of LoS while his parter, Rodriguez, landed a Poly onto Pookz. However, Skill Capped were quick to keep up the pressure on Dakkroth. They caught Drudenhaus into a hex, but he trinketed and was immediately caught into a Fear followed by a CS. This lead to the kill on Dakkroth.

Series goes to Skill Capped.

Showtime (Yaspresents) vs. OMG

Game 1:
At the start OMG charged in with all cooldowns popped. Fabio was their focus and immediately dropped very close to death, but an NS (I believe) from Glyptic kept him up. OMG then switched onto Another who also dropped low, but had AMS to counter some of the pressure. As their cooldowns run out, OMG started to fall behind. It might have been worth playing defensive, but they stayed in the open and it was only a matter of time before one of them dropped. Another got his revenge on the enemy DK and got the kill.

Game 2:
A really good opening here from Yaspresents. They went for immediate CC on to OMG with a Strangulate on to the Paladin and a Howl of Terror on to the DK and Hunter. They really disrupted OMGs opening. OMG did put out some pressure on Fabio who was struggling to get out of LoS, but a Spirit Link stops him dropping. Yaspresents immediately starts putting pressure out, forcing a Bubble from the enemy Paladin. While OMG were able to get some pressure out to Glyptic, the Paladin had nothing left to keep his DK up (except BoP that did nothing…).

Game 3:
RoV, guess who won?

Let me note though Another made the play of the tournament. Dropping quite low, he predicted the Paladins Bubble and managed to steal it to survive. Amazing stuff and well worth watching for.

Game 4:
Dalaran Sewer. Another dropped very low and the pressure persisted after AMS and IBF. Glyptic was caught into a CC chain and sued trinket at some point. With a Strangulate going on to him as Another was out of cooldowns, it was game over for Showtime. It seems one error cost them the game.

Game 5:
RoV again, guess who won?

The map alone decided the victor.

Showtime (Yaspresents) gets knocked out of the Tournament and OMG will be heading to the final.

Winners

The Korean OMG just beat Skill Capped in the final of the Global Battle.net Invitational.

Some really exciting games

Congratulations to them.