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• News about Blizzcon, Cataclysm, Icecrown Citadel and Onyxia, all crammed into this month’s issue.
• Tons of details about the current state of the Auction House and what you need to know
• Continuing the quest of endless gold and why Titanium and Epic Gems should be the focus this month.
• Top notch strategies from T Dub on how to defeat the Faction Champions and the Val’kyr Twins.

And of course, the top questions answered, action plans mapped, and a sneak peak of next month’s issue. Get over right now and check it out before everyone else gets a jump on you.

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Have you ever found yourself being ganked by characters from the other faction before you even knew your character had the PvP flag set? Or maybe you were luckier and happened to notice that the PvP icon was set on your character’s portrait for no reason that you knew of? Knowing how your character gets into PvP mode can spell the difference between happily going on your way or making an unplanned trip to the nearest graveyard. Let’s get right to it and see how you can end up in PvP mode.

First, you need to understand that how you get into PvP depends on the kind of server you’re on. If you are playing in a Normal (sometimes called “truce”) realm, the rules are different than there are for a PvP realm. We’ll cover the ways for a Normal realm first.

In a Normal Realm

When playing in a Normal realm, your character will end up in PvP mode if:

• You attack a player character (PC) of the opposite faction and that PC is already in PvP mode.
• You use a beneficial spell or ability on (you help) a PC from your faction who is already in PvP mode.
• You attack a Non-Player Character (NPC) guard or civilian that is a member of the opposing faction.
• You foolishly enter an enemy capital city.
• You enter a battleground.
• You enter Gurubashi Arena or one of the other free-for-all PvP areas where you can attack anyone, even members of your own faction.
• You manually activate PvP mode by typing /pvp. Even if you immediately type /pvp again to exit PvP mode, your character will remain in PvP mode for for at least 5 minutes (see the following explanation).

Regardless of how your character got into PvP mode, they will remain in that mode until 5 minutes after their last action that could put them into PvP mode. So if your character went into Gurubashi Arena, the PvP flag would remain on the entire time your character is in there, not clearing until 5 minutes after they left the arena (unless they did something else to trigger PvP mode).

In a PvP Realm

If your character is in a PvP realm, all the conditions we just talked about apply. In addition, these conditions will also activate your character’s PvP flag:

• Entering a Contested zone.
• Entering an Enemy zone.

Basically in a PvP realm, going anywhere other than Friendly territory or a Sanctuary zone will put your character into PvP mode. After all, this is a PvP realm we’re talking about. So think back to when you discovered that your character was in PvP mode. With a little effort, you can probably figure out which of the above conditions you happened to trigger to set the PvP flag. If nothing else, you’ll at least know what to watch out for next time. Now all you need to know is how best to defend yourself when you are in PvP mode.

Eventually your character will end up in PvP mode, so learning how to fight well when you’re there only makes sense. To get the complete story on PvP, including the most current strategies & tactics you can use, you’ll want to investigate the Warcraft Formula.

When people start talking about PvP combat, it soon becomes clear that there are various settings where it can happen. This short guide to the settings will make it easier for you to find PvP combat when you want it, as well as understand what everyone else is talking about! Here’s your introduction to each setting:

Duels

Duels are voluntary one-on-one battles. You can duel pretty much anywhere you want, except within cities. One of the best places to find someone to duel against is the entrance to any major city, which is where duelists often hang out looking for someone to challenge.

The Battlegrounds

The battlegrounds are areas where Horde and Alliance compete to earn marks. You can use marks sort of like money, and trade them in for various items, including better PvP gear. You can only use marks at the special PvP vendor shops.

The Arenas

Arena combat is an organized, ongoing tournament. Teams (2v2, 3v3, 5v5) battle to earn Arena Points. Points are awarded by team, so fighting as part of a team rather than earning individual glory is the goal. When in the Arena, you can encounter teams from your own faction as well as teams from the enemy faction.

Random PvP

Random combat can happen whenever you run into an enemy player who has their PvP flag set. In PvP realms, you PvP flag is automatically on, except when you are in certain protected areas. You can manually turn your PvP flag on and off by typing /pvp. Regardless of what you do, various situations and locations will turn your PvP flag on automatically, even if you aren’t playing in a PvP realm.

World PvP

If you visit the Eastern Plaguelands, Silithus, Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terokkar Forest, or Nagrand, you will find goals that require PvP combat. If you want to achieve those goals, you had better be ready to fight.

PvP Zones

Wintergrasp is the first of a new type of zone that is totally dedicated to PvP combat. Expect more in the future.

Where Can You Get More Information?

You should now have a basic understanding of the different settings where you can find PvP combat. But if you want to dominate PvP combat, or even hold your own against more experienced players, there’s a lot more you should learn. To get the complete story on PvP, including the most current strategies & tactics you can use to dominate all aspects of PvP, the Warcraft Formula is a great source.

Get the Warcraft Formula

When you first get started in WoW Player versus Player (PvP) combat, you’ll encounter concepts you’re not familiar with, or that are subtly different when used with respect to PvP. Three of these are the local defense channel, the resurrection timer, and the diminishing returns of crowd control and movement impairing spells. Let’s talk about each of them in turn.

The Local Defense Channel

Whenever an NPC in a zone is attacked, a message gets sent to every player in the zone. Normally, you don’t see these messages, but they’re easy to turn on and off. To see zone-specific messages, type /join LocalDefense. To stop the messages, type /leave LocalDefense.

There’s also a world channel that tells you when any zone is attacked. You can control those messages with /join WorldDefense and /leave WorldDefense.

The Resurrection Timer

When your character dies in PvP combat, the resurrection timer controls how long it will take before the character resurrects. The first time you die in PvP, whether while fighting another player or a PvP-flagged NPC, your character can resurrect without a time penalty. For each death after that, you get a time penalty, increasing the length of time that the resurrection timer runs before your character can resurrect. The maximum possible delay before resurrection is 5 minutes.

Note that these penalties only apply when resurrecting normally. The don’t affect your character if they are resurrected by another player or you make use of special items like the Goblin Jumper Cables to resurrect more quickly.

The Diminishing Returns of Crowd Control & Movement Impairing Spells

Crowd control spells (Charm or Stun, for example) are deadly weapons in PvP. Fortunately, they have some additional limitations in PvP situations. If your character gets hit by one of these spells, then hit again with the same spell within 15 seconds of the previous spell wearing off, the length of time the second spell affects your character is reduced by 50%.

If your character gets get hit yet again, the duration of the third spell is reduced by 75%. Get whacked by the same spell one more time, and this fourth casting has no effect. Under no circumstances will any of the crowd control spells last longer than 12 seconds in PvP, regardless of their normal duration. Spells that limit your movement, like Frost Nova and Entangling Roots are affected by the same limitations.

How You Can Learn Even More

This short article covered 3 new/changed concepts that will aid you in kicking tail in PvP. But if you want to dominate PvP combat, or even hold your own against more experienced players, there’s a lot more you should learn. To learn everything you need to know, including the newest strategies & tactics, you need the Warcraft Formula.

Get the Warcraft Formula

Honor Points and PvP Tokens are rewards your character earns from winning in PvP combat. When your character accumulates enough of these, you can use them to buy better gear than you would be able to otherwise. You definitely want to accumulate Honor Points and PvP Tokens. This is how you do it:

Honor Points

You earn Honor Points by killing characters from the opposing faction (Alliance or Horde). More correctly, you will earn honor as long as the character you killed was no more than 8 levels lower than your character. Killing opponents who are more than 8 levels below you is considered poor sportsmanship, and doesn’t gain you honor. So target characters that are higher level than you, your level, or at least within 8 levels below you if you want to increase your honor.

Once you accumulate enough Honor Points you can use them, along with Battleground Marks of Honor, to buy stuff in Stormwind City’s Champions’ Hall or the Hall of Legends in Orgrimmar. Lots of interesting stuff is available, including consumables like potions, gems and trinkets, even high-end armor and weapons.

Another way to earn Honor Points is to turn in one Mark of Honor from each battleground as part of the Horde’s For Great Honor quest or the Alliance’s Concerted Efforts quest. You can also repeat these quests to generate additional honor.

Getting PvP Tokens

Certain areas of the Outland give you PvP Tokens (the Mark of Honor Hold or Halaa Battle Token for example) as rewards for killing characters from the opposing faction. These are like the Marks of Honor you earn in the battlegrounds, except PvP Tokens are only accepted by PvP vendors in the zone the tokens are from. So if your character had Marks of Honor Hold, for example, Honor Hold PvP vendors would accept them but Halaa PvP Vendors would not. PvP Tokens become of little value when you get up to Level 70 or so, as the gear you can buy with them is meant for lower-level characters.

Now you know about how Honor Points and PvP Tokens can help your character get better gear. And you know where to go to earn them. But if you want to dominate PvP combat, or even hold your own against more experienced players, there’s a lot more you should learn. To get the latest advice and tips on PvP, including the most current strategies & tactics, you need the Warcraft Formula.

Get the Warcraft Formula

To start with, players had to wear their PvE gear into the Arena. It was required because there was no beginner level PvP gear at Level 80 to choose from. You couldn’t wear your Season 4 gear in because it was from Level 70 and even crafted gear didn’t measure up for beginners in PvP. For a while, there was a lot of mid-level dungeon gear in there.

After a little time went by, and players were able to grind for honor, they they were able to get pieces of the Savage Gladiator rare gear set. This they could get for honor points and emblems of heroism at Level 80 without having to fight in the Arena. The next level of Gladiator Gear (there were three this time around) was made available through honor points off of Archavon in Lake Wintergrasp and in the Arena.

To get the final level of Gladiator Gear (the Hateful Gladiator), you need to reach a 2150 (now 2050) Arena rating. It can be had through Archavon on 25 man as well as through a combination of Honor and Arena points and will take the majority of Season 5 to gather together.

Season 5 PvP has been a huge success thus far but only for players who can adapt quickly and know what gear to have and when. If you want to keep up with this quickly-changing situation, you need to join the WarcraftFormula today to get the latest information on Season 5 PvP gear, and learn how to improve your standings.

But that all changed when WotLK hit and the game started emphasizing more advanced, real time battles in World PvP with their first real time PvP battle zone in Lake Wintergrasp. The new zone has players going at it in epic battles on the live server and getting rewarded with points that allow them to buy rare and valuable items, including the new Heirloom items that any character in their account regardless of that character’s level can take advantage of.

Learn about all the new changes with the Warcraft Formula. Review it here!

In the end, while there are new PvP objectives and World PvP options in Grizzly Hills as well, you are only going to hear about Lake Wintergrasp, where Blizzard has put into place more options than ever before to get players involved, ensures that the content remains fresh and relevant and to build up a means by which they can grow their PvP options to compete with other MMOs built entirely on PvP, like Warhammer Online.

It’s clear that World PvP is immensely popular. All you have to do is check out how much people are talking about Lake Wintergrasp and how much time their characters are spending there to see it’s true. And that means we’re likely to see many more new World PvP options in future expansions and patches. Building up your skills now will pay huge dividends in the future, especially if you want to start getting the top rewards and achievements.

Do you think you know the secrets to kicking butt at World PvP after WotLK?

Visit TheWarcraftFormula.com today

for the latest information on PvP success at Lake Wintergrasp and elsewhere in WoW