We discussed this briefly in Legendary Episode 97, and are back to bring you more details about the elusive Brawler’s Guild feature
The Brawler’s Guild is a new feature added in the Patch 5.1 PTR. Essentially, it’s semi-instanced one-on-one PvE content, where players enter an arena and take on bosses by themselves, or with their pets if applicable. It can be found in Stormwind by following a new tunnel down beneath the Deeprun Tram, and in Orgrimmar in the Ring of Valor in the northeastern part of the city. Both areas are instanced, but the Stormwind one is better executed than the Orgrimmar one, given that the entrance to Deeprun is already a portal.
When you first enter the Brawler’s Guild area, you cannot (currently) leave without fighting at least once. In order to fight, you speak to one of the bouncers at each corner of the ring, and they will put you into the queue to fight. Currently, on the PTR, the queue times are a bit of an issue, with the whole server able to access the same Brawler’s Guild room, I was left waiting to fight for almost 20 minutes at times. However, Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym has confirmed that Blizzard are working on rectifying these issues before the feature is released.
The bouncers will then tell you how many people are in line before you, and while you’re waiting you can spectate on others’ fights taking place. The design of this allows you to watch and learn from others’ victories and defeats, as they take on different bosses. The design of the arena is such that those on the outside can’t get in, and those on the inside can’t get out. Players are teleported in and out, and bosses spawn in front of them. However, the players outside the ring can influence the fight, either by throwing flowers to give the fighter a boost, or by throwing rotten fruit which dazes the fighter. The latter is in dire need of a hotfix, as fighters can currently be continuously dazed! Both the flowers and the fruit are purchasable from vendors inside the Brawler’s Guild zones.
Players in the ring and outside the ring can communicate via /say, /yell and via the Brawler’s Guild general chat. This can be used to shout helpful suggestions and encouragement, and also seems to allow players to build friendships with complete strangers. Or, of course, make new enemies!
By winning bouts, players progress through the ranks, starting at rank one and currently working up towards rank eight. It presently seems to take around 5-6 wins to progress up through one rank. With every rank, new bosses are unlocked, and added to the total pool of bosses available. The way it currently works means that a player could fight Bruce the Crocolisk at rank one and again at rank eight and earn ranking for both.
At a higher rank, players are able to purchase items from the Brawler’s Guild Quartermasters which allow them to fight dirty. These items are basically cheats, for example, one gives a huge heal, and one provides a 50% speed boost for a whole minute. They come with a warning: the crowd doesn’t like you fighting dirty! The PTR doesn’t yet seem to have any detriment for fighting dirty, and I can only hope that one is introduced.
It’s a great feature, if you’re able to get onto the PTR, check it out!
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