Z
    Zach Yonzon

    Zach Yonzon

     

  • The Art of War(craft): Winning Tol Barad

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP. Just like Wrath's introduction of Wintergrasp, Cataclysm implemented an outdoor (non-instanced) PvP zone where the Horde and Alliance fight for control. This place is called Tol Barad, and most of what I'd written from the beta still applies. What I didn't write about then (and what wasn't quite apparent from beta testing) was how imbalanced the zone could be in favor of the defenders. If you're level 85 and play a few battles of Tol Barad, you'll understand what I mean. While I've won more assaults than I've lost, this anecdotal experience belies the fact that the defenders have a distinct advantage -- they only need to keep one point from being captured, while the attackers need to hold all three at once. Because of how the flag is captured, through proximity and numbers (similar to the towers in Eye of the Storm), it is ridiculously easy to ruin an assault by simply zerging one capture point. Mat McCurley's post going through the problems of Tol Barad is a pretty good read and should give you an idea of the problems with the zone and some suggestions on how to fix them. For today, we'll take a look at how we can win in the zone despite the overwhelming odds. A fix is probably due, but until then, we'll all have to do battle under unfavorable conditions. This happens often in war -- so soldier up.

  • Must-have PvP talents for warlocks in Cataclysm, Part 2

    Destruction warlock PvP Just like in PvE, there's a lot of casting involved, although you're probably better off shelving the easily killed imp in favor of a succubus (against melee) or a felhunter (against casters). Emberstorm Not quite as impacting as Bane, but its minute reduction to Incinerate's glacial casting time could come in handy.

  • The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for warlocks in Cataclysm

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP. Whoop! Two weeks into the expansion, and I just have to ask ... are you guys having fun? Because I am. PvP is amazing, even being undergeared. Stamina is up at this point, so even lacking the right gear, combat will last more than a few global cooldowns. Today we'll conclude our talent review series with a look at warlocks and some really cool talents they can pick up to help in PvP. We still have lots to talk about in The Art of War(craft), from Tol Barad to The Battle for Gilneas to Twin Peaks to rated battlegrounds ... oh, Cataclysm is loaded with PvP goodness. Hit the jump to get started.

  • Gearing up your warlock in Cataclysm, part 3

    Although the crit is alright, it's the hit on this BoE item that makes it absolutely desirable. In particular, this item which references Tutankhamun (complete with turquoise scarab icon) makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Honorable mentions: Band of Lamentation or Band of Singing Grass, Lavishly Jeweled Ring, Anthia's Ring, and Band of Rays Barring all the fancy epics, there are great options for hit rings, making the ring slots great places to load up on hit when you would rather have other stats on other gear.

  • Blood Pact: Gearing up your warlock in Cataclysm

    Every week (when the regular warlock writer hasn't been eaten by a prince of hell or something, that is), WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat. If there's anything that surprised me the most out of Cataclysm, it's how fast you replace your gear. While Blizzard made it clear that you would be replacing your Wrath endgame purples with greens as early as the first few quests, I didn't quite expect to replace the Cataclysm blues I got with quest greens in the next zone. In the end, you'll only be wearing your new shinies for a few hours (depending on how fast you level) before replacing them, so looking for gear before level 85 will be somewhat pointless. You're supposed to dump your gear, so don't fall in love with it, even the blues. Especially the blues. The folks at Blizzard want you to graduate to purples. They've made it so easy that they made blues easy to replace. So what do you have to look forward to in Cataclysm? Well, quite a bit. While this is supposed to be a gearing guide, anybody who's quested through the expansion knows that you pick up gear as you go along. On the other hand, it's going to be nice to know what to aim for once you hit the big eight-five. Hit the jump to start looking at purple shinies.

  • Gearing up your warlock in Cataclysm, part 2

    Shadowflame Hood Another tier piece and something I'd actually spend my valor points on. Honorable mentions: Cowl of Pleasant Gloom and Helm of the Typhonic Beast Both of these iLevel 346 items have identical stats including 162 hit rating. The only difference is that the Cowl of Pleasant Gloom has a blue socket and grants crit, while the Helm of the Typhonic Beast has a yellow socket and grants mastery.

  • Must-have PvP talents for warriors in Cataclysm, Part 2

    Protection warrior PvP - Ever since Blizzard made the decision to make all specs viable for PvP, things have just been getting better for protection warriors. With rated battlegrounds in Cataclysm, tanks have a solid place on the battlefield, holding down key points and carrying flags. Shield Slam makes protection warriors one of the select specs that have offensive magical dispels, and with so much mitigation talents, protection will fit right in with the new combat environment of the expansion.

  • The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for warriors in Cataclysm

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP. I tried to get this whole guide done before the Cataclysm broke out. I failed. Now that the expansion's out, we're running a bit behind, so we'll hop right to it. Today we'll look at warriors, those bruisers in plate, who get a wonderful boost in PvP with some basic abilities being usable in multiple stances. In Cataclysm, each warrior spec plays differently from one another -- even fury from arms -- which is a great change for flavor and playstyle. Arms warriors play like disciplined martialists who conserve rage and use it at strategic times while fury warriors are like berserkers who thrive on generating loads of fury and getting enraged; protection has always had a different feel.

  • Cataclysm 101: A guide to PvP changes and challenges

    There are quite a few changes to PvP in Cataclysm. Let's have a look at how the changes in the past few patches will affect the other aspect of World of Warcraft gameplay ... Resilience is different Resilience no longer reduces critical strike chance but instead only reduces damage across the board. As resilience is the premier PvP stat, this impacts gameplay in a major way. First, critical strikes are back on the table. This means that talents contributing to crit are valuable in PvP again. Burst damage from crits will happen more often, and players can opt to stack crit for PvP without it being devalued ... much.

  • The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for shaman in 4.0.3

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP. Gah. A few more days left, and we're only on shaman. This can't be good. Let's get right to it, then. Shaman are incredibly fun to play, especially with the changes that came with 4.0.1. The improvements on the totem interface in the past have made it much easier for shaman to manage their totems. The best shaman utilize their totems in the heat of battle, and one interesting skill to master is knowing not just which totem to put down for a situation but which sets of totems, now that shaman can drop it down all at once. It's a convenience that changes a few things. There is also higher survivability, better mobility, and clearly defined playstyles for all three specs.

  • Must-have PvP talents for shaman in 4.0.3, part 2

    Restoration shaman excel in the battlegrounds because of access to AoE heals and a lot of utility. Ancestral Healing and Ancestral Awakening Though neither talent is particularly intended for PvP, it's notable that crit has a higher value in the new environment.

  • Blood Pact: A brief primer for the Cataclysm warlock

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat. Since Cataclysm falls on our heads next week, I thought it'd be a perfect time to give some leveling ideas to folks who want to roll a new warlock in the expansion. Why would anyone roll a new warlock, you ask? Well, four good reasons: trolls, dwarves, goblins, and worgen. If you aren't inclined to spring for the $25 character recustomization that includes a racial change, you might want to consider rolling a new warlock from scratch. For some people who have never played a warlock before, the new races might be push they need to finally dabble in the demonic arts (with the succubus around, I honestly don't know why you'd need the extra push ... but hey, whatever works!). As of Patch 4.0.3, you can now choose to play a troll or dwarf warlock. If you activate Cataclysm next week, you'll be able to play either a worgen or a goblin, too. If you haven't rolled a new warlock but plan to, it only makes sense to try out the new races. There isn't a lot of lore to explain why dwarves can suddenly become warlocks, but with the Dark Iron matriarch Moira Thaurissan née Bronzebeard sitting in Ironforge, it isn't too much of a stretch to imagine the dwarves trying out all sort of dark and devious things. Trolls, on the other hand, aren't hard to imagine getting involved in the fel arts. Besides, a whole bunch of warlock-like troll NPCs have been running around Azeroth under the guise of witch doctors, anyway.

  • Must-have PvP talents for rogues in 4.0.3, Part 2

    Combat PvP While typically known for more PvE-oriented builds, combat has come into its own in terms of PvP viability. Improved Recuperate Better self-healing and a damage reduction while Recuperate is active? Improved Sprint ... and this is the other.

  • The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for rogues in 4.0.3

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP. Rogues are a class that lends itself extremely well to PvP, and even six years in, rogues pouncing on unsuspecting prey is one of the enduring visions (and fears) of the game. Rogues play entirely differently from most other classes because of their ability -- and need -- to utilize stealth. The only other spec that has a similar playstyle are feral cat druids. Rogues always get a lot of goodies for PvP, and the new world isn't any different. It's a new game, though, and the stunlock as we know it is gone. It's been comatose for a long time, but shared diminishing returns put a final nail stunlock's coffin. There are abilities that steer the rogue to do more fanciful things, though. I mentioned before how Recuperate is such a game-changer, allowing rogues to keep up with other classes in a higher-stamina world. Longer combat also means more opportunities to use all those cooldowns rogues are known for -- but it also means they'll need to time it even better now, because blowing all available cooldowns for one big burst does not necessarily translate to killing an opponent. Anyway, with about a week left to go before Cataclysm goes live, we'd better get this whole thing sorted out, so let's get right into what rogues should pick up for PvP.

  • Blood Pact: Demonology and the art of closing the gap

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat. Demonology is a curious spec. When Metamorphosis first came out, I panned the talent for having abilities that clearly push the warlock to engage in melee. It didn't make any sense to have a squishy caster have abilities like Shadow Cleave, Demon Charge, or even -- gasp -- Challenging Howl. The latter spell has thankfully been expunged from the data repositories of Wowhead, but some of you may remember it as a spell that taunts nearby enemies for 6 seconds. An AoE taunt. For a clothie. Never mind that Metamorphosis pumped up warlock armor to tank-like levels or that it reduced damage ... I always questioned the wisdom of having an AoE taunt followed by high-damage (and consequently high-threat) abilities while in a form that would shortly, inevitably expire. Two years later, the developers finally scrapped all the seriously dumb (but strangely cool) abilities and replaced them with Demon Leap. It serves pretty much the same purpose as Demon Charge, but it looks a lot more awesome and it can save your butt from falling to your death. The stun component has a shorter duration but is now an AoE effect, which is great because it works even better in PvE situations. Metamorphosis retained Immolation Aura, which was probably the best spell among the bunch, so the form wasn't totally stripped of special abilities. The idea is the same -- demonology is a warlock spec that deals its best damage up close. That makes it play completely differently from the other two specs, and there's a whole lot of required mobility.

  • The Art of War(craft): Must-have PvP talents for priests in 4.0.1

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Art of War(craft), covering battlegrounds and world PvP, and Blood Sport, with the inside line for arena enthusiasts. Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Battlemaster Zach Yonzon, old-world PvP grinder and casual battleground habitué, rambles on about anything and everything PvP. Never mind that it's actually going to be 4.0.3 pretty soon, we'll wrap up this series as quick as we can before the whole world crashes down all around us. Today we'll take a look at another hybrid class, the only one with two healing specs. It's going to be interesting to discuss the priest because even though many players consider healing in PvP to be less demanding as far as PvP-specific talents are concerned, it's the selection of key PvP talents that set great healers from the pack. In the battlegrounds, where healers have an easier time screening themselves from focus fire, there isn't a great need to dedicate to a PvP spec or even gear. Still, a good understanding of key abilities will help you perform better on the field, especially under the new paradigm. One great improvement for Patch 4.0.1 geared towards leveling in Cataclysm is the ability of each healing spec to hold their own offensively. While obviously not as powerful as DPS specs, there are clear offensive abilities in each healing tree that's intended to make the leveling experience easier. Consequently, this gives healers better ways to strike back at opponents in PvP. For some players, this can make healing specs more fun and inviting, giving healers an even more active role and opening up some options between healing.

  • Must-have PvP talents for priests in 4.0.1, Part 3

    Without a doubt, when many players wish to just have fun in PvP with their priest, they turn to the shadow spec. In the early days of the game, PvP was pretty much the only area shadow priests excelled at and nobody would want to bring them to raids. Cataclysm is a whole new ball game, though, and with the advent of rated battlegrounds, expect to see a lot of shadow priests on the battlefield.

  • Must-have PvP talents for priests in 4.0.1, Part 2

    Holy priest PvP Holy priests haven't really had the most fun in PvP these past years and it doesn't get much better in Cataclysm. Holy Word: Chastise is an instant cast, ranged spell that disorients its target for 3 seconds. It's a low-damage spell, but the disorient effect lends itself very well to PvP.

  • Blood Pact: The warlock study guide for Cataclysm

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology and destruction warlocks. In a dark and hidden place, the true masters of the arcane arts share secrets and swap stories. For those who disdain the watered-down arts that other cling to like a safety blanket, for those willing to test their wills against the nether and claim the power that is their right, Blood Pact welcomes you and invites you to take a seat. Didn't we mention that the position of the warlock writer here at WoW Insider is something akin to the Defense of the Dark Arts teacher position at Hogwarts? Well, our current warlock Adam has taken a brief leave to attend to dark, sinister forces, which means that in the meantime, you guys are left with me to deliver your weekly dose of felfire and brimstone. That's like leaving the sorcerer's apprentice to clean the workshop all by himself, and well, you all know how that one turns out. Anyway, let's see what we can get away with this week. Let's face it, playing a DPS class is a bit of a chore. It's challenging, certainly, and there's an unspoken need to be competitive, always measured by your performance on the meters. For some players, this is a motivation for playing their class -- diving into loads of data, crunching numbers, and testing against target dummies. It's a lot of hard work. For some players who pick up the warlock class mostly because they like the flavor -- it's still a roleplaying game, after all -- all that can be a little daunting. In fact, there are still many players who aren't hardcore enough to troll forums, read blogs, or pore through spreadsheets to squeeze the most DPS out of their class.

  • The warlock study guide for Cataclysm, Part 2

    Another cool stat you'll need to read up on is mastery. Each spec gets a different benefit from mastery, which means that not all specs benefit from it equally. Affliction warlocks get Potent Afflictions, which increases DoT damage by a base amount and for each point of mastery; demonologists get Master Demonologist, which increases their demons' damage, as well as damage dealt during Metamorphosis; and finally, destruction warlocks get Fiery Apocalypse, which increases fire damage.