9.1.5 PvP Non-changes

Community General Discussion
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“Lower item-level PvP gear will now scale to a higher item-level in PvP situations than before. This should reduce the power level gap so that new characters can feel that they’re able to compete in Battlegrounds and Arenas more readily.”

-9.1.5 Content Update Notes

9.1 Honor Gear

Honor Gear Item Level iLvl in PvP
Rank 1 177 190
Rank 2 184 197
Rank 3 190 203
Rank 4 197 210
Rank 5 203 216
Rank 6 210 223
Rank 7 216 229

9.1.5 Honor Gear

Honor Gear Item Level iLvl in PvP
Rank 1 177 213
Rank 2 184 216
Rank 3 190 220
Rank 4 197 223
Rank 5 203 226
Rank 6 210 229
Rank 7 216 233

The end result? A 4+ PvP iLvl difference between 9.1 and 9.1.5 Honor Gear.

Yeah Blizz, a literal 1% increase in iLvl is totally going to “reduce the power level gap so that new characters can feel that they’re able to compete in Battlegrounds and Arenas.”

Blizzard’s radio silence on the 9.1.5 PTR Megathread (1.1k replies, 19.0k views) regarding PvP gear was disheartening, but this is just downright disrespectful. This is a smokescreen change, and Blizz believing the PvP community wouldn’t notice such a non-change, and then have the audacity to talk it up as if this is groundbreaking is a /spit in the face.

I understand that this is an RPG game, and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of a grind, but considering PvE & PvP iLvl is now modified separate from each other, there’s literally no reason to have more than a 10 PvP iLvl difference between Honor & Conquest gear, as the game had a similar gear differential for the majority of its lifespan up until Legion, back when PvP participation rivaled PvE.

High-end PvP Gear was never meant for massive power gains, it was always for min-maxing. For the Majority of the games lifespan a fully Honor Geared player had a standing chance against a fully Rated Geared player if they outplayed them. Fast forward to Shadowlands, a fully Honor Geared player gets murdered in a stun before they can even pop trinket.

The current PvP gearing direction taken for Shadowlands shuns new players away from PvP, gatekeeps PvP’rs who actually want to play the game from creating alts, and overall is player gouging long-time fans of WoW’s PvP community.

The changes the PvP community are screaming for would take minimal work, yet it would be so impactful, they can even be done in a hotfix.

Please stop disregarding player feedback until it’s too late just as you’ve done with the QOL changes coming in 9.1.5. We just want to play the game.

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Blizzard is trying to force everyone into rated PvP.
Its not going to work.
My 2 PvP buddies have already quit. Its unlikely they will be back till 10.0

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They also just need to stop rank-gating the gear.

That’s almost certainly because of the boosting. Which wouldn’t be a major gripe for most players (imo) if they didn’t rank-gate gear.

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Did i imagine the other identical thread

Also reposting my beautiful mortal strike enabled by 2100 weapon will repost update on player damage

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It got 404’d for reasons that aren’t clear.

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Mortal strike crit forum mods

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Meanwhile I just killed a honor geared player with a full crit killing spree + full-combo dispatch before my cheapshot ended🤦

Imagine spending so much time, grinding all that honor, just to die in 3 seconds to a 1800 flag sitting Outlaw Rogue :joy::joy::joy:

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I should probably clarify that its not my mortal strike and its my partners but yes :joy:

You should try flaggelation venthyr with outlaw :eyes: it adds a ton of damage due to dreadblades interaction and deeper strategem

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Ok, what about the conquest gear that honor gear is a stepping stone to collecting?

That’s going up quite a bit.

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I’ve been eyeing that so hard, the new dreadblade buff looks so beautiful. I’ve been Kyrian since launch cause it makes me so beefy in Outlaw 1v1’s + a bunch of free crit stat with the Kleia conduit.

Watching an assassination rogue drop all his bleeds/poisons only for me to pop vial and gain 8 second bleed/poison immunity will never not be funny as hell.

I couldn’t bring myself to do the covenant swap / renown grind that we currently have, so waiting until 9.1.5 to try out other covenants. My sub runs dry 2 days after 9.1.5 drops, I was gonna finally level and play my alts if they fixed PvP gear but nothing came for this patch. I really wanted to try out Mage / Shaman this season.

I’ll at least enjoy my dreadblade giga-bursts and watching all my excited Void Elf buddies go blonde/redhead (I’m staying with my beautiful black/grey void dreadlocks though) before I fade out lol :heart:

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Unranked conquest is staying 233

Adding a significant ilvl increase at 1000 rating is nice and all, but the point is that casual pvpers should not have to do any rated content at all to be able to play regular battlegrounds

Pvp as a whole is bad when the bottom of the pyramid is rotting

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I don’t think that’s a point they’ve ever been trying to aim for. The point of a rating system is to match you against people of equal skill and gear level. Random BGs don’t have a rating, so you’re going to always get people that both overgear and undergear you. It’s been this way since the dawn of classic.

Also yes, I know rating is obviously not working that way very well due to boosters and the like, but that’s another topic that they definitely need to address separately. My only point is, random battlegrounds will always give you mixed results by design no matter what, unless they bar people who are too geared from doing them or something.

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Wrong

In cata (except t2 weapons, negligible) mop and wod, casual unrated pvpers had access to the same conquest ilvl gear and were not outgeared in bgs

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You have access to that now too, though…?

You still get conquest from randoms.

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You don’t pvp i take it

Bgs give 233 conquest gear

My conquest gear is 259

If this was cata mop or wod, we would all have the same conquest ilvl

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1800 rating player actually. I just mostly heal them.

I get you, so this is mostly just a complaint about the upgrade system in general. Thought you were saying you wanted honor gear to match conquest gear, which seems bad to me.

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And not to mention that they HAVE NOT BALANCED THE GAME EITHER.

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Not true buddy, from WOTLK through WOD players were able to grind out their Honor Gear and be on par with Arena Point (Conquest Gear) players.

The iLvl disparity between Honor & Conquest Gear was minimal and still allowed Conquest Geared players to get outplayed.

Conquest Gear was for min-maxing. Now Conquest gear is for 1-shotting.

The Conquest upgrades are gated behind rating, and with the 1400-1600 bracket being filled with 259 iLvl boosters this forces players to play the RNG game and pray that they’ll fight someone on their level, or pay for boosts.

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Or at all for mine,

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Oh no absolutely not, i’m fine with honor progressing into conquest

What i’m not okay with is honor gear being irrelevant and a joke, and conquest gear having 30 ilvl discrepancies in itself

I firmly believe that my conquest ilvl should be attainable by players that don’t do arenas

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