[Classic] - SoD Ashenvale PvP Event Feedback and Solution Suggestion

[Yumuros-thunderlord]

SoD - Ashenvale PvP Event Feedback

I will put a mild disclaimer here, I usually haven’t engaged with Classic PvP and its ranking system in the past. I still believe, despite my prior experience, this event could do a lot better and is currently very disappointing when talking to other players ingame and from my own view.

Overall, it feels a lot like a worse version of Classic Alterac Valley, just that there is not really any PvP attached to it when played optimal (it actually plays like Retail AV - being a boss rush). Being a zone wide event, it could do a lot better if it behaves like Wintergrasp upon entering when it’s up or just be a queue to prevent lag. It would also fix some of the problems I will address later on here.

PvP Event locked behind Progression doesn't work long term

Currently players will trigger the PvP Event by contributing to kills of the opposing faction. Atm. this may work due ot having a good balance of the factions but soon can lead to problems of starting the event (I encountered multiple situations where one faction had 100% and the other barely 50%). Also Layers can really screw you over by just layering you into a layer with less progression - this is also the case during the event.
My general advice would be getting rid of this trigger requirement at all - it doesn’t serve a real purpose and is just annoying for players.

Defending Bases is bad, and multiple groups grief you (Reputation)

The PvP Event currently promotes a PvE Boss rush mentality with no incentive of playing defensive or engaging in PvP combat. As you get no Reputation Reward for defending players are encouraged to only attack. Also if you have multiple groups attacking a boss and your group doesn’t get the boss tag you earn nothing.

Suggestion for a Zone PvP Redesign

General Changes

From now on, the Zone should turn every 2 hours into an open world battlefield, with a brake period of 30 minutes after the battle ended (It would be great if layering is then set in stone during the event to prevent unfortune layering). The kill X opponent to start the event will be removed - it is now timer based. To still encourage PvP in the Zone, Players will be rewarded per day with 150 rep for the Warsong Outriders / Silverwing Sentinels for player kills (5 rep per kill). Killing the opposing Main Outpost Boss Rewards 100 Rep for every player inside the zone who atleast participated in PvP Combat once during the event. The smaller outpost bosses reward 50 rep per Kill for everyone in the zone. After the battle concludes player will be rewarded up to 100 rep for every alive outpost boss to encourage defending bases.

The Zone near the Raid is a PvP Event Free Zone during this time and is excluded of the event.

Obejectiv Changes

Bosses:
Can no longer be lured out and are more likely to reset upon pulling them too far out.
There are two new main boss objectives in Warsong Lumber Camp and Maestra’s Post. This can only be defeated upon getting assistance of a General’s Presence.
Objectives and General:
You now can retake the Outposts to strength your faction again by capturing the opposing faction flag (Bosses will respawn upon recapture, but don’t reward reputation again). This will make defending more important and encourage a wider spread PvP experience.
Upon all three opposing faction outpost bosses being defeated and not being up, your faction will call a general to launch an attack on the main outpost of the opposing faction (following the route on the above picture). Those Generals can die and must be healed, so players are encouraged to defend the opposing faction main attack.

Let me know how you think about the Battle for Ashenvale and what do you think of my redesign suggestion.

Yumuros - Thrall EU

[Valrysha-proudmoore]

I play on the PvE server so I’m unable to give a complete picture to how the event works with the full dynamic of big groups of Horde and Alliance battling it out. Despite this, I can imagine how it works on the PvP realms and my experience was one of initial excitement followed by a realisation that this wasn’t very good. Rushing bosses as a zerg has some MMO appeal although with the whole point of it being a wpvp event, I feel as if it lacks incentivising that pvp properly. Like you said, a PvE ‘all in Drek’ mentality is encouraged and there is no proper reward for defending over just zerging faster than the other team, with maybe tactical incentive to go and frustrate the opponent’s efforts, although the players going out to do this risk losing out on their own rep, so why would they sacrifice these rewards?

I’m hesitant to say I’d like something along the lines of Wintergrasp, in terms of it being a ‘queued’ event. I like the cohesiveness of having it be in the world and then feeling impactful for winning/losing. Wintergrasp doesn’t really accomplish this much.

What I’d like to see was maybe a selection of quests related to the event for players to participate in more ways than just the boss rush. We see these little camps where the bosses are spawned dotted around but as far as I can tell, there’s no way to support them in between battles and no reward for doing so during the battle. Despite this, the NPCs present inbetween the battle are seen wandering around constructing their defensive walls etc.

Why not have little quests that reward a moderate amount of XP for players levelling in the zone, collecting lumber, waking up peons, mend Sentinels, kill opposite faction players, kill opposite faction NPCs, go back to Astranaar/Splintertree to call for reinforcements at specific locations to help bolster the NPC defenses of that specific capture/boss point?

Even a simple example of this could be triggered if your faction loses the battle. As soon as it’s over, a Sentinel Captain in Astranaar or an Orcish Warrior in Splintertree raises their voice and demands vengeance: Go out and slaughter X number of players/(NPCs if on a PvE realm maybe?) to ‘help cut down their numbers for the next assault!’ or something.

I will say that being on a PvE realm doesn’t mean I’m opposed to a world that feels like it’s at war, even through the PvE content rather than pure world PvP, having quests which ‘support the war effort’ and -feel- like you’re contributing to the battle even if it isn’t quite the same as on a PvP realm is important and I feel as if this is lacking in the current Ashenvale event. Hopefully for Stranglethorn, I would love to see a zonewide payload/escort patrol idea from near Booty Bay up until an alliance/horde point. Say it is a shipment of black market weaponry destined for the pirates, both factions want to commandeer the supplies for their own war effort.

[Kaivax]

While all of the changes made to Ashenvale PvP in the first week of Season of Discovery have been included in our hotfixes update, I’ve gone ahead and compiled them here:

• The lieutenant and general NPCs in the Season of Discovery Ashenvale PvP event now have much higher health.
• Generals are now immune to damage until all of their lieutenants have been defeated.
• While no lieutenants are dead, generals and their nearby allies gain 1000% increased damage.
• The Horde general’s chain lightning will now hit up to 40 targets.
• When a player makes any hostile action against an opposing faction Lieutenant (e.g. Keepers of the Grove, Blademasters) or faction leader in the various objective areas, they will receive reputation when that enemy dies.
  • It must be an offensive action (harmful spell, harmful ability, melee attack, or ranged attack) against an enemy to receive reputation.
  • Players will receive reputation even if they are dead or no longer nearby as long as they are still in the zone when the enemy dies.
• Players now receive 200 reputation for killing a Lieutenant and all members of the winning faction will receive 200 reputation when the faction leader dies.
• The winning team will also receive 100 reputation per friendly Lieutenant remaining.
• Players now have 60 minutes to complete the Ashenvale PvP event (was 30 minutes).
• The Trainee’s Sentinel Nightsaber and Trainee’s Outrider Wolf now require Friendly reputation with the Silverwing Sentinels and Warsong Outriders respectively (was Honored).