How to fix and revitalize war mode, rated, and unrated PvP in WoW

Community General Discussion
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Hello everyone,

As many of you have observed, PvP in World of Warcraft has become increasingly complex and less accessible over the years. The playerbase has continued to shrink and development of PvP has always been with other aspects of the game in mind. WoW’s pvp is unique to most MMOs and that is what made it appealing in the beginning.

But over time, this complexity has created a significant barrier to entry, discouraging new players from participating and leading to a decline in the PvP community’s growth and engagement.

The Current Challenges:

  • Complexity: With 38 specializations and an overwhelming array of abilities (kicks, stuns, CCs), new players find it difficult to engage meaningfully in PvP. This will only intensify in TWW as hero talents will be added and you will have to learn and understand MORE about every single class/spec.
  • Skill Disparity: The vast skill gap between new and veteran players makes PvP daunting and often unenjoyable for newcomers.
  • Gameplay Balance: Overpowered and unbalanced classes and excessive CC abilities have led to frustration among players, making PvP less about skill and more about who can best manage the chaos with things like WEAK AURAS AND ADDONS.

Proposed Changes:

Based on the success of Plunderstorm, I had an idea to rework warmode and PvP in general into a whole new experience.

When you opt into War Mode, your UI would be completely replaced with a revamped UI akin to what you see in Plunderstorm. All 38 class/specs would simply go to a class level.

Each class would have 4-5 core abilities in PvP making it much easier to balance, understand, and learn.

  1. Simplify Abilities: Limit each class to 4-5 core abilities in PvP mode to reduce complexity and make it easier for newcomers to participate.
  2. Streamline UI: Introduce a simplified UI for PvP mode, disabling all addons to focus on skill and strategy.
  3. Dedicated PvP Environment: Because activating War Mode already phases you into a different shard within the game, you can use the technology already in place to create dedicated PvP experiences with unique objectives, separate from PvE content.

You would no longer be able to complete traditional world quests, do regular questing or story campaigns which PvPers really DO NOT care about.

You would have dedicated world quests specifically for PvP, Mining/herbalism quests (fighting for resources), and big battle FFA areas… Where you know there will be a lot of action.

Because the PvP is so much simpler, it would be MUCH MORE fun to go out and WANT to engage in this.

Or, just like always, you can just roam around the world and encounter someone in the wild and do some ole fashion ganking!

Benefits of This Approach:

  • Increased Accessibility: Simplifying the entry into PvP allows new players to join and enjoy PvP without the steep learning curve.
  • Fair Competition: Leveling the playing field by scaling players and focusing rewards on cosmetics rather than gear advantages.
  • Revitalized PvP Scene: These changes aim to breathe new life into PvP, increasing participation and fostering a more vibrant and dynamic community.

I believe these changes could significantly improve the PvP experience in WoW, making it more accessible, enjoyable, and competitive. This would completely change the dynamic of WoW’s dying PvP scene and maybe even entice a whole new generation of players to TRY WOW.

It’s so hard to get people to try wow and seeing the success of Plunderstorm has really opened the possibility of a brand new and exciting approach to how we as wow players approach PvP.

Thank you for reading. Please let me know what you think!

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3 Likes
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Honestly this would really help fix PvP from the slow death it is experiencing.

1 Like
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What would be the point of this?
The vastness of DF zones would make finding people to fight randomly, a chore. If you don’t want the quests, storyline, or pretty much anything non-PvP then I don’t think WoW is the game for you. You should advocating them to expand Plunderstorm, not some Frankenstein, ethereal subworld of modern WoW.

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I mean I would say 90+% of PvPers do not like any of the Quests, Storyline, etc.
So saying that this isn’t the game for you would not be true.

PvP is unique in wow but it is currently seeing the lowest participation probably since it started. The reason for that is that the barrier to entry is way too high. Not only for how overcomplex it has gotten but for the PvE side of things that people dont want to do.

This post isn’t saying to cut out PvE completely, it is just a way to help simplify PvP a bit more, and allow more people to participate. It would really open the game up to a better opportunity to find new players that have never played WoW before.

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I respect the effort you put into putting this post together, and above that your desire to see PvP flourish. But what you’re describing here isn’t revitalizing PvP, you’re talking about gutting it entirely and reanimating the bones. I can’t get behind that. What you’ve described here is basically integrating plunderstorm into the open world, I think it fits better as a game mode than a replacement to PvP. I do however really appreciate what you’re trying to do. As an avid PvP player who rubs elbows with all kinds of players across all forms of PvP not just Arena or RBGs I can tell you there’s a lot more to it’s decline than just Complexity, Skill Disparity, and Gameplay Balance. ( In my Post linked below, I have a tab titled “More Players - Addressing Why Players Left to Begin With” that highlights exactly why there’s such abysmal participation.)

I went into great depth here on my post detailing every single issue with Retail PvP and how to fix them. The primary issue is that Blizzard has neglected it into the ground, most of the issues revolve around a fundamental refusal to address even the most basic of maintenance needs for over 6 years, couple that with the massive drop in player count since BFA and you’ve got what you see now.

I go more in depth on every subject imaginable in the post below. If you’re interested in fixing up the PvP we have and making it more accessible to more players, please drop by now and again and help us keep the post alive. The PvP we have now is great but lacks any semblance of proper oversight which has caused much of it’s base to flee to WoW Classic or other games, and locked out anyone who is inexperienced with WoW PvP.

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Simplifying pvp is the only way to save it.