Eye of the Storm

[MongoJerry]

Originally Posted by TseTse
Netherstorm BG called "Eye of the Storm"

(EotS or ES for the 1337) *** this info is a work in progress ***

If you want to see where it's normal "entrance" is, then check out this map.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burni...utlandmap.html

That region is not accessible to Beta yet, so we cant really see what the rewards are for it (not counting generic pvp gear which sometimes requires EotS marks).

It's aesthetic is like the Netherstorm screens. Spacey-fantasy stuff with barren rocks and weird clouds of energy-n-stuff all over. http://i11.tinypic.com/2vdpiqa.jpg

You can jump into it from a battlemaster Shattrath in Outlands, or the usual faction capital battlemaster rooms.

Unknown: How many marks we get for win/loss
Unknown: Rewards from EotS faction
Unknown: How we get awarded the flat rate 28 points or so throughout the match

GAMEPLAY:

15 vs 15

http://i11.tinypic.com/4322s0z.jpg

There are 4 nodes you can control. Each is "captured" like a node in EPL (they are all over in world pvp in outlands). You simply need majority people there. A special HUD pops up indicating the degree of control from alliance-neutral-horde. If a few people are at this node, it takes very little time to capture it.

There is also a flag that spawns in the middle. It's out on a bridge in the middle of the map, and it requires 10 seconds to grab. It's akin to capturing a flag in AB where you run up and have to channel-take it.

The object is to get 2000 pts first. You get pts for holding nodes and for capturing the flag. You get like 1 pt a second per node held. You get 75 pts for capping a flag.

CONFUSING MATH

(these are my best estimates thus far)

- Your team gets 1 point per 2 seconds, per node with 2 nodes
- Your team gets 5 points per 2 seconds with 3 nodes
- Your team gets 10 points per 2 seconds with 4 nodes
- Your team gets 75 points per flag capture
- Your team get awarded a generic flat rate 28 pts every so often (unknown math)

(lvl 61-67ish stats)
Average Honor Points Per Kill: 6-8 (range of 2-13)
Average Kills Per Match: 30-40 (range 20-70)
Bonus Honor: 100-200 (200 for win)
Average Match Time: 15-25 mins

* I dont think any match would go over 35-40 mins.

TACTICS & STRATEGY

Imagine AB with only 4 nodes to control and BS is a flag. You try to control the majority of the nodes to win... and you can also get bonus points for bringing a flag from BS to one of the nodes you control. We'll normally see folks struggling to hold 2 flags while a posse runs the flag.

You cant really focus on JUST capping or JUST holding flags, because your opposition can beat you doing the opposite approach if you are not careful. Holding all four flags is obviously nice, but it will be very hard to do against any team that can function in the most basic way.

Zerging is bad. If you can hold 2 while capping steady, you will win... but it's very easy to get too focused on either capping or holding nodes which makes this fun.

A team with 3 nodes should still hold off against a team with 1 node who is steadily capping. You can cap approximately every 50 seconds (10s respawn plus 10s to regrab plus 30s druid running). Thus, if my assumptions are correct, the team that just successfully turtles on 3 nodes should always win (this might get difficult to do as folks learn the BG). That is, even if you chain cap with only 1 node... you will fall behind.

Likewise, coming back from behind once a team gets around 1600-1700 becomes very, very hard because you really cant win with just 2 nodes even if you go on a capping spree.

The premade uber-team with flying mounts is likely to try to 3-4 cap, then pin the opposition into their spawn while they run the flag in the rear. With flying mounts, this could be hard to achieve. We'll see.

PuG Farmers will not want to defend flags... more than ever, due to the disparity between what you can get from bonus honor and from honor kills. They will zerg for kills, which is precisely how to lose fast.

Sounds like an interesting battleground to me. Has anyone here tested it out?

[Sword_of_Doom]

Here is an interesting video of the new PvP arena.

http://subcreation.net/2006/11/04/subcreat...e-of-the-storm/

[MongoJerry]

Comments from a priest guildmate on our guild forums:

i just played eye of storm with tao and we got the insomnia group from the pvp server.

We beat them first time and second time our pugs were horrible.

It really is fun since you can hold towers and then run flag back. The scoreboard ft is kinda neato so you can see whos sniping kills, whos not healing, etc.

We didnt get any tokens for our win so that should be in next push i suppose.

yes it will suck with pug players because they will just follow the group and zerg. Priests do have it nice in the middle is a thin platform we can mc people off the ledge so thats a +.

[MongoJerry]

Here is an interesting video of the new PvP arena.

http://subcreation.net/2006/11/04/subcreat...e-of-the-storm/

Nice video. I'm confused by the map, however. It looks like the bridge in the center where the flag spawns is the only way to get across the chasm. In that case, it seems like all you have to do is zerg and clog up the bridge as a choke point and continually run the flag back to the two towers on your side of the bridge. Is there a way to cross to the other side of the chasm that I'm not seeing?

[Monkey]

Nice video. I'm confused by the map, however. It looks like the bridge in the center where the flag spawns is the only way to get across the chasm. In that case, it seems like all you have to do is zerg and clog up the bridge as a choke point and continually run the flag back to the two towers on your side of the bridge. Is there a way to cross to the other side of the chasm that I'm not seeing?

The level cap currently prevents the use of Flying Mounts, which will probably help address that concern.:)

[MongoJerry]

The level cap currently prevents the use of Flying Mounts, which will probably help address that concern.:)

Ahhh... my thought process has not yet adjusted to the new paradigm. Good point.

[lemekim]

Ahhh... my thought process has not yet adjusted to the new paradigm. Good point.

No, actually, there are 2 more bridges that you can use to get across - on the video that's linked here, around 3:20 into it, you can see a map of the place, and if you look closely, you can notice those bridges, one between the west towers, and one between the east towers (if you have trouble seeing them still, there are roads leading up to them). And at around 3:45-4:00, you can see the bridge itself.