Is big gear difference really gg in PvP?

So I’ve been talking to a few friends and read up on the topic. It seems like if I do not invest a lot of time into the game to get into the raids and get my toon geared, I might as well just not play. It looks like out-gearing someone with Vanilla numbers gives you an almost certain ability to delete your opponent.

Is this true? Is there any hope for non-raider PvPers? I also see there is some PvP gear, but it seems that unless you invest an extreme amount of time, the odds of acquiring the good gear are quite low.

If you’re average, yes.

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Some info in here says you can beat better gear depending on class/skill. Pvping as a solo player - #9 by Eazily-dragonblight

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Skill > Gear any day

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Some classes rely on gear more than others. For example I wouldnt play a warrior if i didnt think i could get decent gear, however hunters are alright even if in just 5man blues.

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Different classes scale differently, and it also varies based on what exactly the gear disparity is.

For most classes, in most matchups (though some outliers like mage vs warrior exist):

Greens vs BWL gear - Greens gets stomped, it doesn’t matter how good you are.

Blue PVP set vs BWL gear - Can go either way, the BWL geared character has an advantage.

MC gear vs Naxx gear - MC gear gets stomped.

BWL/20-mans vs Naxx gear - Can go either way again.

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You can’t kill the most brain dead of SL Locks without being geared out redic…
To a point where SL Locks are literally banned from participating in PVP tournaments

WoW pvp has always been Gear>Skill in 1.12… maybe in earlier patches before nerfs and such happened … back when world of roguecraft videos were made because of normalized evis damage

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Depends on what class you play. You can kill an average warrior naked as a mage or hunter, for example.

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Simply not true as any practitioner of naked dueling knows. Many a raider were not good at PvP at all. Your opponent needs to be bad enough that you can exploit their bad habits, but given enough skill disparity, it’s entirely possible if it isn’t an unfavorable match up.

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The statement is still true.

It doesn’t matter how good the person in greens is, it matters how bad the geared person is.

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It comes down to individual classes. Rogues and hunters shred practically naked. Warriors need a full set of raid gear to stand a chance, warlocks need to be decently optimized and hybrids like paladin and shaman usually require some gimmick items to do decent damage.

People saying you can beat anyone through pure skill are straight up lying to you. No amount of skill in the game will stop a well geared mage from one shotting you with a pom pyro or a warlock from fear training you to death.

Skill can overcome many things, but in a lot of cases if someone has more than double your stats there’s not much you can do. WoW combat invariably comes down to mathematics.

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It does matter how good you are, and it’s not an absolute statement you get stomped. If your opponent is good then you’re likely not going to make up gear disparity with a little bit more skill. Outplaying other players is mostly about exploiting their bad habits.

Ok, let me evolve my question. What class should I play if I want to stand the best chance against geared players in blues?

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A hunter can kite for days making them a very solid choice. Similarly rogues have amazing tool kits, although they do require a bit more work to excel.

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I stacked my classic warlocks health up to 5400, epic gear helped with that.

Overall i would avoid warrior, warlock, any hybrid, and priest. All of those are incredibly gear dependant.

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The harsh reality is that as the game evolves players in Naxx gear WILL one (or at most two) shot EVERYONE in PvP who are not Naxx geared.

I’m sure someone will post a video of that ONE guy in several MILLION who beats a Naxx geared player, but are you that ONE?

PvP is very gear dependent for the vast majority of players. That is just reality.

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Shadow melts faces and, especially early on, doesn’t need gear to do so.

You kind of have it backwards. With cooldowns, rogues are great. With finesse, hunters are great.

You could get away with bad gear on a druid. Get away, get it? It’s about being able to pick your own fights and being able to run away from a losing battle, you won’t be a killing machine as a druid.

For that reason a rogue is also a decent pick for bad gear, being able to pick battles and stunlocking.

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Even if everyone eventually gets Naxx gear, from what I can tell, the game starts playing pretty differently than T1/T2.

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