Classic - PvP Content Plan

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

My ideal scenario for the implementation of the PvP content plan would be as follows; please feel free to discuss any points made within it or propose your own plans.

The Honour System should be implemented at Lauch; however the release of PvP Rewards and Battle Ground Reputation Rewards should be postponed until later in the patch cycle in order to strike a balance between both PvP and PvE gear and power levels.

Furthermore BG’s themselves and even Battle Masters should be rolled out progressively later in the timeline of Classic, in correlation with the original release of battlegrounds and Battle Masters in vanilla to preserve the longevity of the game.

For many people PvP is the main draw for them to the game and it is not a good idea or reason to remove or detract from what makes the game enjoyable to them; purely to incentive participation in PvE or to accommodate for people who dont want to level up and PvP as fast as possible, if players desire to rank up prior to the release of Rank Rewards player agency should be the dictating factor rather than delaying the implementation of a integral system of the game.

That being said I dont think PvP Rewards should be in at launch as they will detract from the PvE content and have a trivializing effect on raid progression throughout early early content cycles.

Furthermore I do not believe that Battle Masters should be implemented as soon as BGS are rolled-out either; this is due to alot of the world PvP which occurred throughout vanilla time-line taking place specifically because people were queuing up at the BG entrances, their proximity to each other instigated many world PvP battles such as Tarren Mill/Southshore, Ashenvale Raids and Arathi Highland Skirmishes.

So what would my TL;DR optimal PvP proposal be?
(This is predicated on the basis Phase 1 takes 3 months and so no player would ever be in the scenario where they could not buy r14 gear at r14, and simultaneously prohibits pvp gear being used in Early Raid Progression)

Phase 1:

  • PvP - Honour System released (No Rank Rewards & No BGS)
  • Molten Core
  • Onyxia
  • Maraudon

Phase 2:

  • PvP - WSG Released (No Reputation Gear) & PvP Rank Rewards Released (Early-Game Stats)
  • Dire Maul
  • Azuregos
  • Kazzak

Phase 3:

  • PvP - AB released (No Reputation Gear)
  • Blackwing Lair
  • Darkmoon Faire
  • Darkmoon deck drops begin

Phase 4:

  • PvP - AV released & PvP Reputation Gear Released
  • Zul’Gurub
  • Green Dragons

Phase 5:

  • PvP - PvP Gear Recieves Late-Game Stats Update & Battlemasters are released.
  • Ahn’Qiraj War Effort begins
  • Ahn’Qiraj raids open when the war effort dictates
  • Dungeon loot reconfiguration: Tier 0.5 Dungeon gear, Relics, drop rates and location changes

Phase 6:

  • Naxxramas
  • Scourge Invasion

This proposal is purely structured around the announced content release plan as was provided in the Blizzard announcement post.

Some of the reasoning behind the time-line which I have proposed; is based on the mentality that the release of PvP gear should be dealt with on a relative scale to PvE power-levels and that is why as a consistent theme throughout my content release proposal dictates that PvP power should be released prior to PvE.

This goes to the status of the Rank 14 player; Rank 14 is the highest power threshold of any player who is purely equipping PvP gear. and so to this end a rank 14 player should be on par with someone who has maxed out their gear through PvE content in the current tier in order to strike a balance between both PvP and PvE. This is why I proposed that PvP gear is initially implemented prior to the release of BWL as many view it at that stage as a relative power level to someone maxed out in tier 2 items. This is also why I proposed the stat update to PvP gear be implemented at the release of AQ; rather then at the end of it, someone in full R14 gear should be as strong as someone who has full AQ gear rather then being as strong as someone in full BWL gear at that point. A rank 14 player should be able to compete with players of the current content cycle for the entirety of that patch; rather then falling dramatically behind half-way into it.

5 Likes
2

First one! First time

3

Not just any AV. Spooky minefield AV.

1 Like
4

we already got one update to the launch release plan and that took us 6 months. i highly doubt we’re going to get another one.

5

I did take this into account when considering it. This is an exact replica of the content release plan with my proposal integrated into it.

6

Fixed that for you

7

That would be awesome haha

8

Cheater’s edits:

Battlemaster’s in from the start. In Vanilla, the outcry for Battlemasters was very loud and very clear. People hated going to the portals.

Phase 1:

  • PvP - Honour System released
    • Rank lock to rank 11. Only blue PVP gear and the officer mounts are enabled
  • Molten Core
  • Onyxia
  • Maraudon

Phase 2:

  • PvP - WSG Released
    • Reputation gear included
  • Dire Maul
  • Azuregos
  • Kazzak

Phase 3:

  • PvP - AB released
    • Reputation gear included
  • PvP - Final ranks up to 14 are released with early itemization
  • Blackwing Lair
  • Darkmoon Faire
  • Darkmoon deck drops begin

Phase 4:

  • PvP - AV released
    • Reputation gear included
  • Zul’Gurub
  • Green Dragons

Phase 5:

  • PvP - Final ranks up to 14 are released with final itemization in tact
    • Players who achieved rank 14 in Phase 3 are automatically upgraded to Phase 5 itemization
  • Ahn’Qiraj War Effort begins
  • Ahn’Qiraj raids open when the war effort dictates
  • Dungeon loot reconfiguration: Tier 0.5 Dungeon gear, Relics, drop rates and location changes

Phase 6:

  • Naxxramas
  • Scourge Invasion
1 Like
9

I guess in my eyes, I see Battlemasters as the LFR of vanilla, they were the first step towards getting people to afk in cities while they were spoon-fed content. And while this might not be a shared opinion, and while I definitely concede that they are indisputably a part of vanilla in my perfect vision of vanilla they are pushed off as far as possible. I mean look at a current example; private servers, the majority of them feature any serious ranking premade camping the battlemasters in ironforge as they wait for the next queue. If they were queueing in Ashenvale on WSG weekend for example it would be almost primal instinct that they would seek out the other pvpers while they were waiting for the next queue pop, and those contested zones immediately become what they were originally intended to be… contested zones.

Furthermore I considered introducing rank caps, however they were never a part of vanilla; they also provide a false mechanism which limits player agency and I feel this subtracts from the actual ranking culture, intensity and experience I mean if someone wants to go get r14 early on before gear is released more power to them… it just might not be in their best interests at the end of the day.

And finally if you actually look at the itemization of for example WSG rep gear it is insanely good, far stronger then any other comparable gear available at the time, and furthermore it is extremely easy to attain. That is why I proposed the idea that rep rewards be pushed back to the ZG patch as this patch was one of the first implementations of “catchup mechanics” and i feel personally that given the ease at which you can attain these extremely powerful bg rep rewards they should be considered catch-up mechanics.

That being said I do like your proposal and alot of the ideas you have hold alot of merit.

1 Like
10

The ideology behind my release schedule has to do with scale.

The scale at which players can obtain raid gear vs the scale at which players can obtain PVP gear.

At the top ranks of the PVP system, very few people are coming out with high level PVP gear. It’s a smaller stream than raid gear is based on the % of population nature of the ranking system.

Additionally, time must be considered. When rank 11-14 is released, the people hoping to reach it will already be at rank 11, but are still going to require a lot of time to finally hit 14. By that time, the phase in which their release exists should have provided a competitive option for people who aren’t ranking. The only place that isn’t true is the AQ/R14 gear phase. Which is honestly okay in my opinion. Let them have power for awhile.

If there is a situation where a high level PVP ranker obtains a vastly powerful set of gear compared to his peers, then that’s perfect. A person working as hard as is required to reach rank 14 should feel like a king, at least for awhile.

The way Blizzard treated rank 14 gear in Vanilla was “you did it once, so you’re king forever” - the evidence for that is the final gear upgrade to match Naxx gear levels. Anyone who did the original Rank 14 grind had their rank for life, and essentially got a free upgrade whenever the gear sets were revisited.

I agree with that system entirely. Reaching rank 14 is a far far greater achievement than gearing up via raids, and should be rewarded as such.

As far as the reputation gear from BGs, the only one being easy that I remember is AV. Unless I was in a premade, I found WSG and AB reps to be incredibly difficult to raise.

But I also wasn’t very active in PVP back then so I have no idea.

11

What would the Honor System be if there was no Ranks?

12

No. Release BGs, honor system and rewards at launch. I would like to enjoy playing lower level BGs before twinking becomes a thing.

1 Like
13

I definitely agree that Rank 14 should be viewed and treated in that manner; it definitely is no small feat reaching that rank and those who achieve it should be rewarded as such.

I definitely agree that the release of PvP gear should be dealt with on a relative scale to PvE power and that is why as a consistant theme throughout my content release proposal it dictates that PvP power should be released prior to PvE. This goes back to the status of the Rank 14 player, Rank 14 is the highest power threshold of any pure PvPer and so a rank 14 player should be on par with someone who has maxed out the PvE content for the current tier. This is why I proposed that PvP gear was released prior to BWL as many view it at that stage as a relative power level of someone maxed out in that tier, and this is why I proposed the stat update at the release of AQ because someone in R14 gear should be as strong as someone who has full AQ gear rather then being as strong as someone in full BWL gear at that point.

As far as rep gear goes, I have gone through the grind many times on private servers, and it is of my view that it someone wants that gear and is in an active premade they can farm that rep extremely effectively and efficiently.

The proposal is that there would be ranks, but no rank rewards. This allows for players who are avid rankers to begin farming their ranks prior to release and thus provide them content to pursue while waiting for the next phase in release rather then have nothing other then PvE to pursue.

14

Could we not wait until phase 4 to do AV? Jesus you guys…
It came out first anyways.

15

AV weapons and items kind of throws a spanner in the works for early items at 60 though.

Bloodseeker (AV reward) for Hunters is pre-BiS until Rhok’delar, for example. And you can get that as early as level 51 and all you need to do is win one AV.

2 Likes
16

Not gonna happen ol’pal

17

Interesting, I did not know that. I’m mainly thinking about lower levels though, like 10 through 49.

18

lets be real though; no one cares about those auto shot afk loot bandits anywyas.

19

While it would be fun to jump into battlegrounds while leveling, the external factors due to their implementation are just so detrimental to the game in the big picture that its just not feasible sadly. That being said many people view alot of the fun in playing vanilla as the actual leveling experience itself… so every time you level an alt up you will always have that option in the future :smiley:

20

It just means they’ll stop rolling on hunter weapons hopefully