Hello,
Wild take here and I know it will never happen, but I think that this could be a way to really juice up PVP participation. I think Blizzard should give PVP the M+ treatment. By that I mean, it is all a participation trophy at this point. The Keystone Master and more recent Keystone Hero achievements used to be somewhat difficult and prestigious. As the years have worn on in M+, it has simply become a participation trophy. Somewhere between 35-45% of the player base, depending on the season, ends up with KSM.
Blizzard should start making PVP move in this direction. Lower the rating requirement for the elite sets to 1400 and lower the rating requirement to get gladiator to like 25 wins at 1800. Allow new people to get into this part of the game by making the rewards less daunting and time consuming to get. Gearing for PVP is much easier these days, so why not boost the participation by allowing rewards to be easier to get. Blizz can still offer top of the ladder titles, which will still set the best of the best apart. Just look at M+ how hard and long people push even though the rewards for Keystone Master and Keystone Hero are so easy to get.
I just want to reiterate that I know this will never happen and is not really a serious post, but some friends and I were talking about this recently and between us we came up with this as something fun and different as we would love to do more in PVP for the rewards but they are extremely, extremely time consuming and gated.
I get the intent but personally Iām tired of the everyone needs to win at everything mentality. Games were more fun before this
1800 for gladiator is an insanely low bar. What would be the point of even playing if thereās nothing to work towards? If all you care about is collecting cosmetics as easily as possible why do you even care about a competitive mode like PvP?
8 Likes
Im not sure on the percentages of players that hit 1400 but elite sets at 1400 would be obnoxiously easy to get. Youāre literally handed 1400 just for playing a single queue session. Even 1800 is certainly not an āeliteā rating.
Adding some rewards from 1500-1700 or 22-2300 or something, i could see if they were more minor rewards but moving the existing rewards is a huge recipe for disaster.
I dont think most people play m+ for rewards. I played it to 2500 and never once cared about keystone master. I cared about bumping that sweet sweet io another ten points and trying to turn it a different color. THAT was my only goal. If raiderio and dps are increasing = m+ fun.
Exactly and people use to PvP for the same reasons.
1 Like
Are you aware of the 95% of world of Warcraft that isnāt PvP? You personally may recall mentioning it in the course of claiming a couple times a month that its intrusion into PvP character progression is awesome
Look Iām not backing down. Korthia for sockets was awesome
I donāt really see anything wrong with a BiS character requiring doing multiple forms of content within the game.
3 Likes
How did 50% of participants lose at korthia
Korthia was the worst content patch in WoWās history my boy youāre buggin
I donāt necessarily disagree with this, however
3 Likes
Idk cuz Iām a winner and I only see other winners. I had Korthia on lock baby thatās show biz
My favorite gaming experience was the years I spent on archeage. PvP was great but the overall gameplay with my friends to get to a very well geared point after 3 years of working on it was a true gaming experience.
The game was based on economy. Your reward for pvping was bonus currency and then youād work on pve stuff for more currency. Gearing never really ended and it created endless content and PvP and just a whole game experience.
Everyone who plays wow hates it and I think itās because we all do our contentās version of raid log. You ever log in unless you have arena qs? Probably not.
Iām pretty sure the equivalent to the M+ treatment wouldnāt be to lower the requirements, but to somehow āsquishā the rating numbers themselves and maybe adjusting the requirements to purchase upgradesā¦ In our PvP case, reducing gear costs. I suppose slightly better MMR inflation and much better healer bonuses would help with the real issues.
Iād like to add that as much as I appreciate Blizzardās variety nowadays, the many new competing releases for WoW modes, combined with the slow pacing of mid-season adjustments are probably the highest contributors to our current stagnation, as they fragment the community (into around ten pieces now? Iāve lost countā¦) and itās clear that more content and tuning being added to the Battle Royale, for example, over the Arena will only exacerbate the issue.
Iām not a huge fan of this style of gameplay, but Iām a completionist at heart
That being said, the legendary axe is a good example of BiS requiring more than just one aspect of the game which I think can be good
I loved BFA s4 PvE fire mage, for example. BiS required the nazājatar essence, the mechagone bracers, the azshara trinket, PvP on-use trinket and then you would get into the nyaālotha gear
Lotta people hated that, tho
Iām personally enjoying doing the world stuff for the expansion meta achievement atm
I still do. I love this stupid game and if i have 3 units in my party frames im happy
This is incorrect, about 20-30% of wow players actively partcipate in pvp/have. Stop conflating arena numbers with wow PVP.
1 Like
Uh, yeah, I can kind of see this angle. I think this whole thing with DF also made it abundantly clear that most people arenāt really interested in just having full bis insta so they could play the game.
Want to know why participation is bad? Itās not that complicated imo. I have a friend that is new to wow from S1DF. He didnāt play S2 and is now back as of a few weeks ago. Heās trying to get into PVP with another friend of his and these are the gripes heās giving me:
- He spends approx 50%+ of the game crowd controlled. Ok, seasoned players can avoid some CC, but some isnāt realistically avoidable without hiding in stealth.
- Aside from in Blitz, he was grossly undergeared for a while till he farmed enough Blitzās and lost enough Solo Shuffles to get full conquest. Getting stomped every game was discouraging him.
- While he has 20+ buttons he has to press, every opponent also has that many. As well as teammates. For newer players that donāt know all the abilities of all the classes, this takes a while to learn. He doesnāt know that when your opponent pops Combustion, that might be a good time to press Barkskin. I do, you do. New players donāt.
- For someone like him that is miles away from climbing rating beyond maybe 1600, what is the incentive other than āget destroyed for experience/practiceā? He wonāt get elite rewards. He already has the conquest gear after a couple weeks in Blitz.
These are barriers for entry into wow pvp that donāt exist nearly as much in pve content. Ilvl and dungeon rating is all that really matters in pve. Can skirt rating by making your own groups. Ilvl can be easily farmed and upgraded if youāre willing to grind.
For experienced players, pvp is very rewarding and fun. Inexperienced players are looking at (likely months) of being miserable getting stomped and getting yelled at in chat until it starts being fun. Personally, I could see where that would deter someone from wanting to get into it.
I donāt like saying this, but I donāt see a world where pvp participation can go up any in this game until major overhauls are made. And Iām not sure itās even possible. I think this game needs another major level shrink and an abilities shrink. Thereās no reason I should have to have almost 40 keybinds on some classes.
1 Like
Part of me wants to agree with this because then after a certain rating I can finally play with people who just enjoy the game and arent in it for a title or reward or somethingā¦
However part of me wants to go the opposite way. I say decrease the rewards and just spend more time balancing or making the game more enjoyable by adding different modes and different maps. Then people would just want to play and dont need a constant set of rewards as a motivatorā¦
Tbh Plunderstorm has shown me how poor this community actually isā¦
Everyone wants some sort of shiny reward ot chocolate barā¦ so much so that they are willing to literally grind out 40 renown levels in a game mode they literally despise.
Tbh more participation isnt always a good thingā¦ sure ques might be shorterā¦ but then you get crap PvErs queing who hate PvP but just want a cool sword for their warrior or somethingā¦