Numbers are on the decline for wow content in general, particularly pvp. Slowly since shadowlands/bfa. It is hard to get accurate numbers but there is some information out there, highighted by ven, bellular, supa, etc.
In your opinion, what should blizzard do to increase pvp player subs and participation in retail wow?
Glad drake on store mount for 900$
revamp the ranking system
add better reward for the 2s format or hell just combine it with the SS
make 2s only for double dps with some restriction like no double dps that could stealth
just to name a few
As someone who mainly heals, I enjoyed arenas much better when healer mana instead of dampening was the match timer. Also, I liked the long cc chain win condition.
Regardless of my preferences, healers not being fun/attractive option makes queues long. Long queues leads to people quitting.
Agree, a ranking revamp would help things, and waiting to play until there is inflation is kinda bad design.
Dps 2s could be fun, would be hard for some specs though with low survivability.
Maybe a return to classic era pvp with less reliance on healers would be better for the game.
could always put some gimmick in place like a chest like we see in BG
lowering the damage output specificaly in 2s but not in other mode to allow counter-play
there always solution but blizzard like others said are to lazy to put ressource in pvp
AND DOWN GOES VENRUKI.
its hard to keep people playing when blizzard keeps making classes like BM and frost mage disgustingly oppressive and makes everyone other than a mirror feel useless and powerless against them
i would drop the game too if i were new playing against toddler 1 button ABC 123 youtube kids tutorial 1 button spam specs that kill you within just 1 global or trap
mages and their thermonuclear obliteration drone strike funded by the government and beast masters starving zoo animal rampage ripping you apart nullifying any healing you receive
also GET RID OF BM MS LOL they dont need it
The obvious answer is that Blizzard needs actually establish some semblance of balance and stop nerfing/buffing classes in order to maximize profits via level boosts and wow tokens for carry runs. Blizzard literally has a monetary incentive to keep the game perpetually poorly balanced and unfun for most specs.
Imagine how much money Blizzard made off people when 10.0.7 dropped and everyone suddenly wanted to play Ret.
Balance better. Get rid of PTR and hire QA instead. However, those would negatively impact their month to month profits so don’t hold your breath.
One day people will realize that retail is balanced just as poorly as any classic re-release xpac. The sole difference is once every 3 months on retail you get a few changes here and there.
If they simply launched this season and left it alone day 1, it’d be as bad or worse than any classic season released.
Yes, but older versions of the game actually had redeeming qualities. If you disagree, you are wrong. No, I will not elaborate on this.
Preaching this to someone on a classic toon brother
TLDR:
-Prune dps defensives and slows/roots across the board, prune mobility as needed to compensate
-Frequent tuning, they’ve done well with this but tuning should happen regardless of esport events. Tune twice a week or weekly consistently for the first few weeks of a patch
-Make the game more accessible to new players by improving the UI heavily. Add in a customizable DR tracker, add in a way to customize debuffs/buffs (size/position/what you want to show/etc). Overreliance on addons makes the game hard to get into.
-Improving rewards for pvp. Maybe make the elite set a unique pvp set (similar to what WoD did for 1 season), maybe make the enchants look a bit better similar in quality to the tyranny style MoP enchants
They need to do a prune imo. Damage/utility buttons are mostly okay (though some things like sanc would need to go), but they need to prune: DPS defensives, slows/roots and some mobility overall.
Since SL we’ve had so much added to the game it is extremely bloated, DF gave specs/classes so much more than they’ve really ever had and TWW added onto that with hero talents, specifically passive defensiveness and random passive slows. I think this makes the game just feel like theres too much random stuff happening, damage has to be super high in order for any kills to happen because dps have 3-4 defensives to rotate on top of healer CDs. Mobility has just been added to the game constantly to counter slows/roots/cc/etc and for pve purposes.
M+ players during TWW beta were screaming about hero talents adding too much passive defensiveness to the game when what we really needed was a dps defensive prune because the only way they are able to m+ damage threatening is by making it spiky/one shot centric to counter the insane levels of defensiveness most specs have. Applies to pvp as well. Ideally we’d also get in game ways to fix up the UI, add a DR tracker than can be customized and add a way to customize debuffs/buffs in game to get rid of the need for addons. Addons are a big gatekeep imo for new players.
Aside from that, tuning should be a bit more organized and happen more frequently. IE for the first few weeks of a season it should probably happen twice a week, or at least every single week regardless of whatever esports events are going on.
Rewards could maybe be better, but pvp already has more cosmetic rewards than any other end game pillar and they made them even more attainable this expac which was great so I’m not sure what else they could do. Make the enchants look cooler like old tyranny style enchants? Maybe make the pvp elite set unique from pve so it isn’t the same set recolored?
Easy. Open dialog. They won’t.
Outside of that…
I wish. Whenever I queue up it’s just seeing the same people over and over again.
I mean when you’re logging on. Just speaking for myself, some of the people I used to play with I got to know just via proximity.
Maybe there is another way to attack it, but the community feels really fractured now. I’m sure consolidating some of the brackets would also help.
Delete all versions of the game and move everybody and their stuff to a new client with a better engine and more robust servers. Open world with dynamic PvP. Housing is already on the way.
Increase talent, build and mechanic options. Open up all races and class combos. Open up horizontal prog until a tier below current raid. Reduce sub fee but supplement an optional DLC sub.
Finally, earlier and more frequent tuning and changes Communication and feedback loops.
Watch the game rise to unprecedented glory.
Bingo, nice.
I suggested(along with many others) giving people the chance to unlock old elite xmogs.( I’m not opening that can of worms).
Since pvp gear is strictly for pvp (mostly), there is zero incentive for pve focused people (majority of the player base) to even engage with it outside of mogs/mounts.
Which a lot of the problem is kind of self inflicted.
Change the ranking system to league based.