The first PvP season of Mists of Pandaria Classic starts today, allowing players to compete for the best PvP gear, items, as well as titles!
Here’s Blizzard’s official blog post about the season:
The first PvP season of Mists of Pandaria Classic is underway! Combatants can now compete for the best PvP gear, items, and titles. Phase 1 of Mists of Pandaria Classic Season 12 delivers two new 10-person battlegrounds and two new arenas to challenge the bravest players in player-versus-player combat, along with changes to intensify the challenge on the road to seasonal victory.
Within Arenas, Battlegrounds, and Rated Battlegrounds, any PvE item above item level 473 is scaled down. PvP items like Conquest Weapons at item level 483 are not affected and keep their full power.
New PvP Arena: Tol’viron and Tiger’s Peak
- Locations: Uldum and Kun-Lai Summit
- Required Level: 90
- Team Size: 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5
The arenas, located in Uldum and Kun-Lai Summit, are designed to challenge your class knowledge, skill, and combat abilities in 20-minute arena matches.
Dampening begins at 0% and increases by 6% per minute, stacking with the ongoing 40% reduction in healing due to Battle Fatigue.
Players can vote on the preferred start time for Dampening by having two members of their team click and channel the Bloodbath Orb for 2 seconds. If both teams click the Orb, Dampening starts right away. If one team clicks the Orb and the other does not, Dampening starts at 3 minutes. If neither team clicks the Orb, Dampening begins at 5 minutes. This is a blind vote, and you will not know how the other team has voted until the gates open. The emote at the start of the match will indicate the results of the vote.
Strike with Power
During active Arena Seasons, the Conquest cap increases each week for all characters. If a player does not reach their cap in a given week, they can save up and earn more Conquest in later weeks. For example, if a new character reaches max level four weeks into the season, their Conquest cap is four times the weekly limit, letting them catch up with other players.
Gladiator and Rank One titles and rewards are available for both 2v2 and 5v5 brackets, with a flat cutoff determining who receives Rank One and Gladiator titles, rather than a percentage-based system. Having multiple alt characters in the Gladiator range does not provide additional slots when calculating cutoffs for an arena bracket. For instance, if you have four Gladiator-ranked characters in 3v3, only one slot counts toward the cutoff—though all four characters still receive Gladiator rewards.
The same rule applies if you have multiple Gladiator characters across the 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 brackets. Each bracket only counts one slot per player toward the cutoff, but every qualifying character receives rewards. Only Gladiator characters receive these rewards, even if the player has non-Gladiator alts in the same bracket.
Find Your Center
Base Resilience provides an innate reduction to damage taken from other players, and scales up based on your character’s level:
- Base Resilience starts at 35%
- Increases to 40% at level 40
- Increases to 45% at level 60
- Increases to 50% at level 70
- Increases to 55% at level 80
- Increases to 63% at level 90
Battle Fatigue reduces healing and shielding by 40% while engaged in PvP Combat.
Brave Two New Battlegrounds
Earn a name for yourself with two new 10-person battlegrounds in Mists of Pandaria Classic.
Temple of Kotmogu
- Location: Vale of Eternal Blossoms, Pandaria
- Required Level: 90
- Team Size: 10-person
Inside the autumnal Temple of Kotmogu, a vicious melee has erupted over artifacts the mogu left behind: treasures older than the bloodlines of human kings and the clans of orcs, orbs of power that have bathed in the energies of Pandaria for ages. Will they bring the might of the mogu to the Horde or Alliance?
The struggle to absorb the power of ancient mogu artifacts begins with each faction’s team bursting through the gates in a rush to claim victory.
Victory in the Temple of Kotmogu is determined by success in capturing and holding four powerful mogu orbs. The four orbs (green, blue, purple, and orange) wait in four corners of the map.
Keep Zen and Grab an Orb!
Once you or your teammates have retrieved the orb(s), hold on as long as you can; continuing to keep an orb will net you a steady stream of points. Alternatively, be sure to protect the orb holders on your team from enemy attack, as they earn a significant amount of victory points if they succeed.
While holding an orb earns your team victory points for as long as it’s controlled, the power radiated by the orb also grants you the aspect of the mighty mogu, enlarging you to make you a clear target for your opposition.
Orb-holders deal and receive increased damage, and the healing they receive is reduced. These effects are minor at first, but they increase quickly over time while the orb-holder lives.
A player can only pick up one orb at a time (though a team can pick up multiple orbs); holding an orb also prevents you from using your mount. If you’re slain while holding an orb, it will be returned to its point of origin inside the temple.
Victory Points
Holding an orb while in different parts of the battleground will net your team differing amounts of Victory Points. Stay in the center of the map to earn the most points, while the surrounding plaza earns slightly fewer, and holding an Orb of Power outside of the temple nets even less. Basically, the farther you are from the heart of the temple, the fewer points you’ll earn.
However, delivering a killing blow to one of your enemies will net your team a significant number of Victory Points, and can swiftly turn the tide of battle.
The first team to 1600 Victory Points wins the battle.
Battleground Buff
- Berserking Buff: Randomly appears in the courtyard and increases damage dealt and taken.
Achievements
As you battle your way to victory, gain achievements along the way:
- Temple of Kotmogu Victory: Win Temple of Kotmogu.
- Temple of Kotmogu Veteran: Complete 100 victories in Temple of Kotmogu.
- Blackout: Kill 100 enemies that are holding an Orb of Power.
- Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: Kill 100 enemies while holding an Orb of Power.
- Powerball: Hold an Orb of Power in the center of the Temple of Kotmogu for 90 seconds.
- I’ve Got the Power: Win Temple of Kotmogu while controlling all 4 Orbs of Power.
- Four Square: Hold all four Orbs of Power at least once in a single Temple of Kotmogu battle.
- Temple of Kotmogu All-Star: Hold four Orbs of Power and kill four enemies who are holding an Orb of Power in a single Temple of Kotmogu match.
- What is Best in Life?: Earn 8,000 Victory Points for your team in Temple of Kotmogu.
- Master of Temple of Kotmogu: Complete all other Temple of Kotmogu achievements.
Silvershard Mines
- Location: Stranglethorn Vale, Eastern Kingdoms
- Required Level: 90
- Team Size: 10-person
Diamonds! Stranglethorn Vale’s Silvershard mines are full of the gleaming gems, and, while they’re pretty to look at, they’re far more important for what they can buy: new blades, ballistae, and battle-gear for the soldiers of the Alliance and Horde. Neither faction wants its opposition digging up diamonds—not when the other option is to spill their enemies’ blood on the rocks and make off with the loot in Venture Co. mine carts!
Silvershard Mines is the site of a race for resources between two teams—Alliance and Horde. Each faction escorts mine carts filled with Silvershard diamonds, and the goblin-engineered self-propelled carts just keep coming.
Keep Track of Your Carts
Carts under your control provide your team with an ongoing trickle of resources. When they reach the mine depot at the end of their track, they offer an impressive volume of resources to the team that intercepts them.
To seize the most diamonds for your team, you’ll need to keep mine carts under control, defend them from the enemy faction, and ensure that you try to break your enemies’ control over any carts they have captured.
Carts automatically proceed along three tracks in the Silvershard mines, and capturing one will earn you the same number of resources regardless of its path. However, longer tracks offer the chance to earn more resources as you go. You can change a cart’s route at track switches, which take a few seconds to activate and can send a cart in a different direction—ideally toward your teammates. You don’t need control of a cart to change its track, so use this to outmaneuver your opponents and disrupt their plans.
Venture Co. mine carts spawn in the center of the map and roll toward one of three diamond drop-off points. No more than three carts are active at once—one per track—so multiple carts can move simultaneously. Be bold and split your efforts to control as many carts as possible. Your team controls a cart when you have more members nearby than the opposing team, accruing resources the entire time. When a cart reaches its destination under your team’s control, you receive a large resource bonus, and a new cart soon appears in the center of the mine.
Be the first team to reach the 1600-point diamond quota for the win!
Battleground Buffs
- Restoration Buff: Randomly appears along the track and restores health and mana.
- Berserking Buff: Randomly appears along the track and increases damage dealt and taken.
Achievements
As you battle your way to victory, gain achievements along the way:
- Silvershard Mines Victory: Win Silvershard Mines.
- Silvershard Mines Veteran: Complete 100 victories in Silvershard Mines.
- Escort Service: Capture 100 mine carts in Silvershard Mines.
- Mine Mine Mine!: Kill 250 enemies while you are defending a mine cart.
- End of the Line: Seize control of a mine cart that is controlled by the opposing team within 20 yards of the depot, and then capture it.
- Mine Cart Courier: Capture a mine cart using each of the 5 sets of tracks in a single Silvershard Mines match.
- Five for Five: Capture five mine carts in a single Silvershard Mines battle without dying.
- My Diamonds and Your Rust: Win a Silvershard Mines battle without letting the enemy team capture a mine cart.
- The Long Riders: Escort a mine cart from its spawn to a depot and capture it without losing control.
- Greed is Good: Gain both the Berserking and Restoration buffs at the same time in Silvershard Mines.
- Master of Silvershard Mines: Complete all other Silvershard Mines achievements.
Prepare yourselves for battle as the struggle between the Horde and the Alliance continues on Pandaria’s mystical shores!