Ten Ton Hammer's First Look

Arenas

by Amber "Aurael" Weldon


The first thing to know about arenas is that, unless you are level 70, any arena time is for
practice only. According to the WoW official site, however, arenas are supposed to be the "ultimate PvP
challenge." With this in mind, practice could come in handy.





Xerin, Aurael, and Aurael's pet (Myth),
ready to fight

The intrepid Xerin set out with me to explore all that is arenas in the BC beta. We began by speaking
to the goblin battlemaster in Stormwind. She can be found in the War Room in Stormwind Keep, along with
all the battleground battlemasters. The menu is modeled after the battleground menu. You can join as a
group or by yourself. A group is immediately formed with your team when you enter the arena.


Battlemaster

Battle Menu

Enter Battle Message

You start out in a holding area, where you are given a buff which allows no mana loss while you
are buffing to prepare for battle. According to the official WoW site,
health and mana are set to full, soul shard costs are reduced to zero (so that warlocks can summon
healthstones for their group and pets), and existing buffs and conjured items will disappear. The last
is to ensure that only conjured items and buffs from the arena group are used.

You are given a flag automagically and the color of the flag is the color of your team. We
discovered that communication (at least in the form of /yell) is available in the arena if the
opposing team is the same faction.

The play was actually surprising for me; the arenas are much faster-paced and require more teamwork than battlegrounds.
Even though, we never won, the battlegrounds were a lot of fun. The game ends when the players on one team have all died.
If you die while the battle is still going on, you can release only into spectator-mode. This is a ghost-mode where you can still run around the arena and watch
the remainder of the battle. The end-screen is also fashioned after the battleground end-screen, it shows how each player ranks (killing blows, damage done, and
healing done).


Spectator Mode

End Screen

According to the World of Warcraft site, other things to note are that bandages
and conjured items are the only consumables allowed in the arena; if a spell has a cooldown longer than 15 minutes, it cannot be used in the arena; and
there is no time limit for arena matches.

After Level 70

Since we were not level 70, we were not able to explore the rating system of the arena. At level 70, you can form arena
teams. These are like guilds in that you are allowed to create a name and symbol for your team. The symbol is placed on
your team's flag (that you are given in the starting area of the arena). You can be on a team for each type of battle (2v2, 3v3, 5v5) at the same time.

The fight begins the same way, by talking to a battlemaster. From there, you are set up with a team of similar rank and away you go! Arena points are awarded at the end of each week,
and the points are used as currency to buy the arena rewards.

For more information:


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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