Firstly, an important note: PvP gear is now available on the PTR for pre-mades. Get in there and get PvPing. The future depends on you!

I've been rather critical of Blizzard in recent columns discussing the state of PvP. I've spoken before about the problems PvP has faced in recent times, and while the current season's rating is in tatters and crumbling around us as yet another win-trading bug is exposed, yet more suspensions roll out, and yet more players are stripped of rating, we can at least do what the devs appear to be doing and look forward to patch 5.2, and a fresh start.

While it's yet another black mark against season 12 that another win trading bug has been doing the rounds, win trading is hardly new, and it's good to see that Blizzard are taking steps to fix it, if rather slowly. Win trading has been around for a very long time indeed, and there are whisperings that this bug has existed for some time, although that remains unconfirmed. Quicker action from Blizzard would be welcomed, but there may be things preventing this, that we're not aware of, behind the scenes.

1. Gearing changes are a good thing

These have been quite the hot topic of late, with the recently announced changes to PvP gear which purport to flatten out the gear curve and aid the late starter to the season. While many players on the forums seem to be the polar opposite of cheerful about these changes, asserting amongst other things that they're the worst thing to ever happen to PvP, the stupidest decision ever made, and various other prophecies of doom.

But they're not, and let me fill you in on why, just in case you were wondering. The removal of the 2200 requirement for elite gear is a step in the right direction. Why? Because that rating level was rather arbitrary int he first place, and served no real purpose except to create a hurdle. There was a point at 2200, where, after the season had progressed a little, players were able to purchase weapons that were considerably superior to those of players below 2200, and yes, it created a gear gap. There was no reason for that number to be 2200. Being above 2200 is not necessarily the mark of a good player, it could be someone who's taken advantage of a flavor of the month class, like beast master hunters at the start of the expansion, or arms warriors. And why not 2400, or 2600, or 2000, or 1800, and so on. The gating of gear behind a particular rating was a bad idea, in my opinion.

I don't fully understand why those who are angry about it have such a problem with this change. If you're a good PvPer, you're going to be able to regain or maintain your rating, even if the people who sit at around 1500 rating have access to elite gear through sheer perseverance. If anything, these gear changes make gear less of a factor, and skill more of a factor. And that is a good thing. There's already talk of introducing some cosmetic enhancements for players with high rating, but in my own opinion, rating itself and the titles (and sometimes mounts) that come with it are reward enough.

The addition of catch-up mechanics is another positive, as it's not always possible for players to start PvPing right at the very moment the season opens, and in season 12 the gear scaling has made it almost possible to catch up to the players who did. It shouldn't be the case that someone who wants to start PvP on an alt, or wants to start PvP in the first place, should be flattened every time they enter an arena. It's a bad thing, and the catch-up mechanics will go a long way towards fixing it. I still think the catch-up cap needs to be introduced way before 5.3 launches, as if that's not the case players will be better off waiting until 5.3 than starting in 5.2, and that's a bad thing. Of course, that's slightly dependent on when 5.3 appears.


2. A wild DotA appears!

Not just one, but two new battleground maps have been datamined recently. First we saw the amusingly named Defense of the Alehouse, then a few days later, Adriacraft unearthed a map currently named Gold Rush. There is absolutely no guarantee these maps will make it into patch 5.2, in fact, I'd go as far as saying that that seems extremely unlikely, given that there has been literally no announcement about them. But we can hold out hope that they won't be on that list of stuff that never makes it into the game, despite being dug up in the PTR.

But, Defense of the Alehouse, the name at least, has a distinctly pandaren feel to it. So, unlike previously where we could expect perhaps one or two new maps for an expansion, maybe more will be coming with a later patch. What's more, although they haven't really materialized yet, there has been talk of PvP dailies with patch 5.2. This is fantastic, and if it's a sign of things to follow, PvPers can look forward to more attention and more new content in future.

3. We can rebuild it

OK, I'll admit it, the class balance changes got me down. I was really excited about the previously discussed return to casting and interrupting rather than blanket silences and heavy burst. But, I should probably have realized that it was too big a change to come in mid-way through an expansion. When the class changes first started appearing on the PTR, I was so happy to see this change. The skill element of interrupting and juking was far better to me than blanket silences. And, I'll freely admit, the change halving Asphyxiate's cooldown seems like an odd choice. And reverting Cyclone's DR while it remains undispellable is also a strange redaction to me, but I'm sure druids would disagree.

Philosophically, though, they're moving in the right direction. Even though the blanket silence change didn't make it in to this patch, and may not make it in to this expansion, the philosophy behind it is sound. Interrupting a cast should be a skill, an important decision, and of course, the caster then has an opportunity to respond with juking, or fake-casting. AsGhostcrawler said: "...the continual arms race between instant spells, silences and silence immunity isn't good for the long term health of PvP." I wholeheartedly agree with this position, instant casts and blanket silences lead, mostly, to frustration.
Another Ghostcrawler post that fills me with hope rather than dread is this.

Ghostcrawler

PvP works better, in our opinions, when you have to be smart and react to what other players are doing. That means trying to guess what they're going to do next or deciding the right time for a crutch dispel or CC. If you find yourself asking for something to be undispellable, or to punish someone for dispelling it, or you're asking for something to work while crowd controlled, or something that makes you immune to something, or something that overall leaves your opponent no options, we're very unlikely to make those changes. Yes, all of those mechanics still exist, though we are trying to design as many as possible out of the game. We're much more likely to consider tools that have a counter, not tools that cannot be countered..

source

Abilities without counters are no fun. If you can do something that is entirely unstoppable, that's tiresome, that's boring, that's overpowered. Yes, there should be some abilities that can work through stuns, yes, there should be some abilities that punish the dispeller for dispelling them. But they should be few and far between! Much as it pains me to say it, the nerf to shaman totems which meant that they could not be used while silenced was a good decision, as it moved us more in this direction. What's more, the amount of attention being devoted to PvP balancing means they're listening. It's about time.

I can only hope they stick with this philosophy, and are not swayed by player complaints.

Here is our world know WoW player Tradechat in a Local Morning Show Interview

 I can't remember the last time I've fought a beholder. The earliest ones were seen during Burning Crusade right? The last time would've been on the prisons of Tol Barad. It's a giant eye which shoots laser beams and Durumu isn't an exception. I would have never guessed Lei-Shen would keep one of these around. This encounter specifically is going to stress on your raid's capabilities to think and move on their feet. Anyone else hate fighting giant, floating eyes? There is a tank swap mechanic here. You'll need at least two. Durumu will Hard Stare at his current tank. That player is going to receive a Serious Wound and an Arterial Cut. Every application of Serious Wound means 10% less healing (per application). On top of that, it's about 40k physical damage person from the Arterial Cut until they're back to full health.

See the blue trails? It's a lethal attack he deals called Disintegration Beam. He'll target a player and then zap in a cone anyone caught within the location.

There's a few other abilities that appear throughout the fight. The Appraising Eye fires shadowy missiles at two random players (Lingering Gaze). It takes him 2 seconds to cast it which is plenty of time to bail out. We tried to place the puddles as far back from the middle. It'll explode for 142k+ damage to anyone near it and create a little puddle on the ground. Step on the puddle if you wish to suffer shadow damage every second and a 30% slow.

The Hungry Eye will Life Drain random players and stun them for 15 seconds. The longer it's focused on a player, the more life will be drained from the victim to eye. They'll always drain the life of the closest player between it and the very first target.

Lastly, there is also the Mind's Eye. When summoned, it'll focus on a random player and knock back any players who are still within it's gaze when Force of Will finishes casting.

The Light Spectrum Phase

After about a minute (or more), you'll hit a new phase. There's three different colored beams that Durumu will emit. They'll inflict tons of damage if not properly handled.

The red beam is the Infrared Light. Durumu will target a player with a beam. A few seconds later, a red AoE cone will emit from Durumu centered on the beamed player. Wherever the player moves with the beam, the cone will follow. Standing on the AoE cone yields approximately 200k damage split evenly over players standing within it. Mind the stacking debuff though. Anyone in the red cone will gradually take increasing damage.

Not only that, there's a few adds lying around. The Crimson Fog can only be exposed when an Infrared Light source is shone upon them. The person with the beam needs to point the Infrared Light around the platform and attempt to find and destroy the three adds. All DPS should be focusing them down. Our raid had trouble trying to taunt and drag them around. Not sure if they're supposed to be rooted in place or if they can be mobile. Once all the adds are destroyed, this part of the fight ends.

The next beam is the Blue Rays. It works similar to the Infrared Light. And yes, it will also fry you and any players near you in the same way Infrared Light does except it will do so in high definition 1080p. A blue beam will target a player and follow them around the platform. Their job is to identify the Azure Fog. Thankfully, unlike the Crimson Fog, there is only one Azure Fog to worry about. Unfortunately, the Azure Fog will detonate and deal tons of damage to the entire raid the moment the cone from the Blue Rays are no longer shining on it.

The last beam is the Bright Light (it's the yellow one). Like the previous beams, it will target a player followed by a yellow AoE cone. Now unlike the previous beams, it will not follow them around. It will start off on a player before slowly moving clockwise or counter-clockwise. There are no yellow adds. The challenge is in negotiating the Infrared and Blue beams around it.

This whole phase is about beam and debuff management. Establish teams for Infrared, Blue, and Bright Light soaking purposes. Once your stacks get to a high level, the teams must rotate from one to the other.

We noticed it was possible for beam targets to change. This usually occurred when a player died but we also observed that even with the full raid up, the beam targets could still change. We're not sure if it's a bug or if there was a missed mechanic that wasn't in the dungeon finder.

In one of the more comical wipes I've witnessed, here are three beams absolutely destroying the entire raid. You can see the Infrared, Azure, and Distintegration beams.

Call it a hunch, but this eyeball is going to be a giant pain in the rear on the raid finder for sure. I suspect it'll present an excellent challenge to raiders when they get to it. My group was unable to vault pass the Light Spectrum phase.