About WoW and its use in MLG
What World of Warcraft is:
World of Warcraft is an online MMORPG (Massivly Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) and is set in a world of Azeroth, Azeroth has 3 continents, all with more than 10 huge countries, and has another place called the Outland and the Outland has about 7-9 countries.
World of warcraft features 1 main game and then 2 expansions the games are.
World of Warcraft Original game
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
World of Warcraft: The Wrath Of The Lich King
Each expansion pack adds new areas and features to the game along with more dungeons, weapons and the max leve cap raised (which is curently level 80).
Another World of Warcraft expansion will be coming out this year called world of warcraft Cataclysm, which features two new races, Worgen (werewolves) and Goblins. This also includes a new World Boss and Some new places, and they ability to free fly anywhere.
World of Warcrafts use in MLG some clarification,
I thought I’d try to give people a better understanding of what actually occurs during MLG WoW matches, since the most frequently asked question is “Isn’t that game just leveling up and killing dragons? Wouldn’t people who play all day have way better characters? How could WoW possibly work as a tournament game?” I feel one organized placed like this outside of the WoW section (that non-WoW people rarely, if ever, stray to) could help clarify any questions you guys have!
The format: WoW works in a 3v3 fight to the death format. Players use generated characters that all have the same equipment options and level. People are free to create whatever class of character they need to play, so their non-tournament characters do not even come into play.
The basics: Teams almost exclusively use a set up of two damage dealers called DPS (which stands for ‘damage per second’ but is used to describe the type of characters who purely focus on doing damage), and one healer. There are ten different classes total, each with three different lines of abilities to specialize in. Four of those ten classes are healers, and probably seven or so out of those are seen in tournament play as damage dealers (DPS). Teams will often try to put an upclose fighter, a ranged caster, and a healer together to work well together, though a lot of teams also choose to take two melee fighters to get right up in the action and finish games quickly.
Taking cover and crowd controll: A very important part of WoW is knowing when to back off and when to push forward. Maps have big objects like pillars or stones that will break the line of sight of the enemies. If you are behind a pillar, the enemy can’t cast spells through it; however, your healer also cannot cast spells through it. A lot of quick retreats to cleverly escape the opponents often lead to game winning momentum. Also, players have a lot of abilities that can temporarily take other players out of the action. For example, priests can run up near the enemy targets (putting themselves in danger) and use an ability to "fear" everyone in the area, making them basically lose control of their character for a brief time. There are a bunch of ways to avoid and get rid of crowd control, but if you're caught in a bad position too many times, you could be done for.
The strategies: People often wonder “well shouldn’t you just always go for the healer, since he’s supporting the team?” This is true, but the DPS also play a significant role in controlling the fight, through crowd control and by pressuring the other team’s DPS to play defensively, and thus put out less damage. In 3v3, each of the members is a logical target to go on based on their positioning and the flow of the fight. It’s a very fast paced game in that if you’re in a bad position (in the middle of the map with no cover) you can get taken down in literally seconds.
How matches go: Matches can last anywhere from 20 seconds to 20 minutes depending on how the teams play. 20 minute games are far from normal, especially in this season, but they have been known to happen. WoW in this year of MLG is significantly faster paced due to the changes in the new expansion, where any mistakes you make could lead to a death on your team very quickly after.
I offer this brief explanation to answer up any general questions, and am leaving the floor open to you guys! Quite frankly I’ve been pretty impressed by the interest people have been showing about this game recently. I’ve gotten a ton of AIM messages about how to get into it and how it works and everything. It’s great to see FPS lovers branching out to broaden their knowledge, and I’d love to help that as much as possible!
Feel free to post any questions you have about the game, ideally pertaining to MLG WoW instead of just the leveling/killing monsters part of the game. I can answer most basic or advanced questions you guys have. Also don’t hesitate to hit me up on AIM as well. I’m here to bring out the community love and spread some knowledge!
Written by BLiTZ forum user on Mlgpro.com