I am a veteran classic WoW pvper and I had hopes that SoD PvP would blow up the old meta and open up a new world of opportunities as far as playstyle, spec choices, and balance.
Unfortunately, it seems like the SoD devs aren’t really balancing the game very well in general, but especially PvP balance has become pretty silly and honestly not much fun compared to Classic WoW PvP.
The majority of PvP specs in SoD frontload all their damage, and are very offensively balanced. Hunters can now burst you extremely fast in melee AND at range. Rogues do more damage AND have a ranged stun so you really can’t regain control for about 10sec straight once they open on you. Mages have a variety of powerful new instant casts and procs as well as the old arsenal of control mechanics. Enh Shaman have instant spells once they hit you a few times, Ele can guarantee a 1k+ crit with Lava Burst (which can proc to be instant) and both get 75% max mana every 1min for free. Balance druids only need a few GCDs to kill anybody even at 40yrds. Shadow Preists only need 2 GCDs worth of dots to bring you to about 10% hp even if they don’t do anything else.
Warlocks and Paladins are balanced somewhat more defensively I will admit, which gives them a bit of an advantage. Every single warlock is now meta for pvp and therefore takes forever to kill, while they spam you with instant casts. Paladins are the only class that can decide not to deal with all the over-the-top SoD runes by just bubbling through it while still doing most of their dmg output through spells and abilities.
Warriors, quick side note, are an absolute joke and are hardly even relevant in the PvP conversation. They have minimal if any new mechanics, got basically no defense mechanisms added, and since they require rage to be built before they can do their damage, they lose every encounter before they can participate in it since everyone else’s damage happens right away and is, as aforementioned, massive.
Are there any plans to try and make the PvP balance at least palatable? I love WoW PvP but there’s not much to love about being spammed with unavoidable damage until you die before you’re able to engage with the encounter in any meaningful way, which is how I feel after the vast majority of PvP encounters on all three of my characters.
Anyone else frustrated by this? Is SoD really only worth PvEing in? Seems like PvP fun in SoD is an idea that can only be actualized if you are one of the hybrid classes that spams instant spell death on everybody at max range and requires none of the mechanical engagement or back-and-forth that makes classic WoW pvp so engaging and interesting.
I’m having a lot of fun on my warrior in STV Bloodmoon,
I don’t enjoy BGs, because there are too many people throwing. Other than that, I think SoD PVP is great. idk why people like you, OP, seem to complain about bursty PVP. You can still play Wrath and Retail arenas (or BGs, I guess if you like them), which offer all the balance, and reduced PVP damage you seem to be asking for.
Ignoring the brain-dead criticism of your posting, I think it’s valuable to hear that PVP isn’t doing well on a public forum. Your criticism is valid - and to improve upon it and open a discussion is what everyone should be doing, rather than those who’d deride your opinions solely because of a single sentence.
That said, I’ve discovered (GET IT???) that the devs don’t care about PVP, despite having a team dedicated to it, creating items for it, and controling the honor/ranking system within it. I’m fairly certain they don’t actually care about balancing, as they are more interested in the PVE content.
I know it’s disheartening to hear, but it’s not going to change, or if it does, it’s going to get a lot worse. I’m honestly having a real bad time engaging with the PVP of this game mode for multiple reasons, because crying for balancing between 9 classes is an impossibility - especially when the devs are making hundreds of tiny changes and large sweeping ones that change the entire class.
My suggestion to you is to not engage with it, and enjoy the memories you had of yesteryear. There’s not going to be a quick fix that will make the voluntary game-mode enjoyable.
You haven’t been on the forums long if you wonder if you’re the only one dissapointed. It’s universally being touted as garbage by people who actually play this game for the pvp. We need damage reduction from players/resilience but pve players who this doesn’t effect throw an absolute temper tantrum the moment an inch of content appeals to pvpers.
I would have rather seen runes be all passive than replace all original classic abilities. The most powerful classes have been the ones that have had the most broken OP runes, Rockbiter WEapon notwithstanding. Even that, however, was caused by the Lava Lash rune opening up DW to shaman and letting them benefit from the massive amount of attack power twice.
I 100% agree with the first sentence here. The fact that it’s not how it was in vanilla or 2019 classic is NOT what makes it bad.
But as I said in my opening sentence (hello? ) I was looking forward to a new meta, and I was very much open to change. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t play SoD. The problem was that the new “meta” is essentially “spam your biggest damage spells/attacks/runes until your opponent dies” and doesn’t include almost any kind of back-and-forth or mechanical/defensive/reactive counterplay. There’s very little thought or decision making involved.
And yes, I know that Ranking in Classic is traditionally a lot of AV (and I agree that an updated AV would be dope!). That doesn’t mean there are no meaningful PvP encounters along the way, and if the basis of your understanding of Classic PvP is just AV spam then you may just not have the experience to take part in this conversation, which is fine.
Mainly I am considering the balance of 1v1 and small group PvP, like you’ll find in World PvP, WSG, and AB.
Uh, i in fact think it improved pvp tenfold.
2x world pvp events, greatly reduced grind time for pvp reps to the point BGs are now optional and wpvp viable for ranking and more classes are actually viable in pvp than before.
Anyone that at any given point think classic era pvp isnt bursty is in complete denial, PoM pyro mages, reck bomb paladins, 100% ambush rogue crit, ele shamans, sword warriors, shatter from frost mages and the list goes on. Why would sod not be bursty then?
The reality is that pvp is the same but the meta classes are not and thats what upsets purists.
P1 started out strong and inspirational, but pvp and pve has quickly gone off the rails. It’s not fun to continuously have encounters that last only seconds before you run back to do it again.
Doesn’t seem like the devs are receptive to almost any feedback and just live in their own seperate world.
I’m of the opinion that they are out of their league, like kids gifted a finely running machine from a different era that they have no idea how to operate and even have some disdain for the artistry.
The bloodmoon even MIGHT be ok if it didn’t lag so much. And some classes had their abilities tuned or others had their abilities buffed.
The Ash event is a joke, it’s not even PVP. They need to make us fight more somehow, like force us to cross paths with each other and fight over who attacks what boss…
Then again I think people will start to understand how unbalanced in favor of the horde that their racials and population is.
) I was looking forward to a new meta, and I was very much open to change. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t play SoD. The problem was that the new “meta” is essentially “spam your biggest damage spells/attacks/runes until your opponent dies” and doesn’t include almost any kind of back-and-forth or mechanical/defensive/reactive counterplay. There’s very little thought or decision making involved.