Dear Blizzard Entertainment,
Greetings. I am a World of Warcraft player from Mainland China with 10 years of gaming experience, and I still actively play the game today. I am not sure if this forum is the appropriate place to raise my concern, but I sincerely hope to gain your attention.
The out-of-instance PVP balance on Mainland China servers has been completely destroyed, yet players who abuse game mechanics continue to do so relentlessly. I am here to report the most serious and urgent issues that have ruined the PVP environment—issues that have driven away nearly all players who love PVP combat.
As early as the Legion expansion, some players began dual-boxing (operating two accounts at the same time). They use their alt characters to form groups and queue for PVE dungeons or scenarios, while their main characters engage in open-world PVP in a near-unbeatable state. When their main character is on the verge of defeat, they click the confirmation button to teleport into the dungeon or scenario. The alt then leaves the group to requeue, and the main character exits the dungeon queue to continue ambushing other players. If threatened again, they repeat the teleportation trick. This behavior is extremely unscrupulous and frustrating. The core of PVP lies in fairness. Players understand that absolute fairness does not exist, and it is acceptable for some classes to be stronger than others—after all, switching classes can bring a fresh experience. However, players cannot tolerate outright unfair practices: being ambushed with no way to fight back against opponents who are effectively invincible. After teleporting, these players heal to full health in the scenario and reappear at their original location with full health 10 seconds later to ambush again. As a result, fewer and fewer players on all Mainland China servers enable PVP mode. Without two paid accounts, they cannot exploit the dungeon teleportation mechanic to achieve invincibility, leaving them unable to participate in open-world PVP on equal terms. Enabling PVP mode only results in being brutally defeated by dual-boxers and mocked by those who abuse game mechanics. This imbalance has not only reduced the number of legitimate PVP players but also encouraged more players to abuse the mechanics—there is a popular saying in China: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
Currently, the most abused content is the scenarios from the Mists of Pandaria expansion, such as the “Greenstone Village” scenario. I noticed an interesting detail: it seems you are aware that players might exploit this mechanic to gain an unfair advantage. For this reason, players cannot teleport into a dungeon while in combat if they have already entered it before. However, the initial confirmation prompt that appears when queuing for a scenario is an exception—it allows players to click and teleport even during combat. Abusers take advantage of this by requeuing for scenarios repeatedly. Why not fix this loophole completely? Prohibiting characters from entering any scenario while in combat would effectively close this gap. You may not know that Chinese players have a deep passion for open-world PVP and strong loyalty to the game. Before the emergence of this dungeon teleportation exploit, open-world PVP was thriving, with players enjoying battles from morning till afternoon. But now, those players have been thoroughly discouraged by the current environment.
In addition, some in-game quests offer combat teleportation functions that also severely damage the open-world PVP balance. One particularly problematic quest is “Deadly Prey”—the final quest in the “Aiding the Docks” questline located at Cape Point Docks in the northwest of Kul Tiras. Every time this quest is abandoned, the player is teleported to Kul Tiras Docks regardless of their location, map, or whether they are in combat. Abusers create a macro to abandon the quest and use it to escape quickly when facing defeat. Two phrases are widely circulated among PVP players: 1. “If you don’t have an alt account to exploit dungeon teleportation, don’t join PVP groups—opponents will feel superior knowing you can’t achieve invincibility through mechanics.” 2. “If your character has ‘accidentally’ completed the ‘Deadly Prey’ quest, that character is ruined—you might as well create a new one.” Ironically, I have spoken to many players who use these exploits. They openly admit that these tactics are disgusting and agree that they are driving PVP players away. However, they feel they have no choice—since their opponents are using these methods, refusing to do the same would only result in being toyed with and mocked. Moreover, all the gear and skills acquired through legitimate PVP gameplay are nothing but jokes in the eyes of players with this “invincibility” mode.
Another issue plagues instanced PVP: many players use voice chat apps to coordinate team queues. For example, 20 players form 4 groups to queue for epic battlegrounds. They only enter the battleground if all 4 groups receive the queue pop simultaneously.
For the battlegrounds they abandon, other solo-queuing players are completely unaware. Upon entering, these solo players are forced into an uphill battle—25 vs. 40. In a single night, these 4 voice-coordinated groups can create dozens of such unbalanced battlegrounds. While additional players may join mid-battle, it is already too late to turn the tide.
The above is the current state of PVP on Mainland China servers. Today, legitimate open-world PVP players can no longer enjoy the game. These two severe mechanical loopholes have existed for far too long. Even the duels outside Stormwind City have disappeared entirely. Everyone knows that no matter how skilled you are, you will lose against opponents who exploit phasing or dungeon teleportation. That feeling of powerlessness despite your best efforts is slowly killing World of Warcraft. We urge you to fix these issues and other similar exploits, to make open-world PVP fairer, and to encourage more players to enable PVP mode. This will undoubtedly bring back more open-world PVP players—after all, everyone cherishes the feeling of fighting alongside friends in the open world.