If you have a basic subscription, but have not purchased Shadowlands, your characters will be capped at level 50. Unlike most brackets, characters at level 50 only queue into other characters at level 50. This means both level-capped and leveling characters enter the same queues. You can also send level 50 characters from Shadowlands accounts to a non-Shadowlands account.
The 50s is perhaps the most active sub-max level PvP community (along with 20). It has in-game communities with over 500 players. Regularly you will get competitive matches filled with only other level-capped players.
Unlike 60, gearing for 50 is incredibly easy. Because of ilvl-squishing there is not much of a difference between players with a 10-15 item level disparity at 50. Azerite essences/traits/corruption don’t work in battlegrounds, so you don’t have to worry about farming PVE for combat advantages (Unlike SHL legendaries and conduits.) You can buy a set of ilvl 100-113 gear off the AH, hop into BGs, and feel valuable. The only “grind” is getting the legendary cape, but by the time you finish that, you should have a near-BIS character. You can always run Horrific Visions, Nyalotha, and Heroic Darkshore for additional gear, but like I said, power gain from ilvl is extremely small at this level.
(Be sure to grab some covenant spells and any wanted SHL items like WQ trinkets or treasures before you cross over.) If you have questions about the level 50 bracket, there are other guides and forums online.
Hope you have enjoyed my PSA, because I know gearing at 60 sucks.
Even that sounds like way too much effort. I’d rather just play my alts from 50-60 normally, hit the power spike at 56 with some shadowlands greens and enjoy the temporary jaunt from 56-60 and do it over again with another alt.
I’d say You can get and max the cape in under 7-10 hours (depending on your gear and skill.) You can also get carried in Visions, as well as any other content you’d want to gear from. So it’s really not a lot of effort for having a permanent character you can pvp with.
And you don’t even have to gear if you have decent loot leftover from BFA.
I have never seen ilvl 113 gear on the AH that could be equipped by a 50. Only some slots have crafted gear that is at ilvl 100. Some realms have no level 50 crafted gear available.
So not so much advice for level 50’s who have not purchased Shadowlands.
Some gear has bugged tool tips that say they require 54 when they don’t. Make sure to use the “usable” filter when checking for gear. If it says “requires lvl 54” but it showing up with the usable filter on, you can use it. There’s a treasure chest in Revendreth through Threads of Fate that drops BoE ilvl 113 gear you can use at 50.
Also, if you don’t want to buy Shadowlands, you can still gear up through Horrific Visions and Nyalotha carries for minimum effort to min/max. You’ll miss out on some Covenants and SHL pieces you might want, but you’ll still feel like you have an impact on battlegrounds.
Gear is really marginal in power gain at 50 because of how little stats you get per ilvl. For example, I have a 130 mastery/versatility ring I don’t use, because the one socket on my 100s gives me stats I care about more.
You can look at my character to see he’s mostly old BFA pvp gear and Horrific Visions gear. I don’t have the 140 nyalotha gear or high ilvl weapons, but I by no means feel uncompetitive.
My last game had 3 level 50 twinks and 2 synced 60’s on ally side, none on horde and my queue has gone from 15 minutes to an hour so yeah, play 50, break the queues!
You have access to all talent slots at 50. Honor and PvE. You can also get covenant spells. Only thing we lack is normally some passives. There are only a few Honor talents and class spells that are 50+, like Clash.
LvL 50 Qs are pretty dead around 2am-10am EST. Which is prime aussie hours, if that’s where you’re trying to play from.
Horde, because you can merc when you want to. Normally I play whatever side has the instant Qs.
If you want class suggestions, I can say every class has at least one spec that can be exceedingly dangerous. If you feel like you are a good player, pick whatever you want.
However, there seems to be 3 classes that are the most common because they’re dangerous in anybody’s hands.
Hunter: Marksman is the mascot of this bracket. Aimed Shot/Double Tap is a huge threat at 50. Even at low ilvl, these guys can pump. You’ll regularly see at least 2 MMs per BG. Easy to play with high upside. It’s a glass cannon, but more emphasis on the cannon than the glass. This is THE spec for clickers, bad players, and people just starting out.
Priest: Mindgames is easy to pull off in BGs and can quickly change a team fight. Both Healing specs are super tanky and probably the best healers in the bracket. (Bout to get buffed too.) Shadow has a lot of wombo-combo kill potential between Mindgames, Psyfiend MS, burst spells, and AoE CC.
Warlock: I do see some veteran Locks play Affliction, but damn near any Destro freecasting Chaosbolts is a threat. Chaosbolts hurt and by stacking Mastery the Spec is very hard to kill at this level. Destro is like Greater Pyroblast Fire Mage, but casts faster and has survivability. However, there is more of a skill cap to effectively duel against twinks as Destro than there is as MM. You’ll want to understand CC windows, avoiding kicks, and pet management to play Destro to its full potential.
Hey, I’m not saying that everyone who plays the spec is a bad player. I’m saying even bad players can play the spec and have some amount of enjoyment and success.
That’s why you see so many more MM than any other spec. Especially people that hover around 12k hp and never make an effort to gear: they still have fun because the spec itself is OP.
You don’t find a cluster of low hp arms warriors or demo locks in every bg, for example. There are some specs you simply want to stay away from if you don’t really understand positioning, cd trades, DR, the meta game, etc. MM isn’t one of them. The way it does damage is really simple and you can do it farther away than anyone else.
So your saying i should play lvl 50 at lvl 60?If thats the case then Blizz has a big problem that needs to be addressed.Instead of finding ways around the bad decisions by Blizz hold them acccountable and lets get some fixes,
That’s the thing. I think it’s cool when people find alternate ways to enjoy the game instead of being so laser focused on end game. But if you feel you need more than one account to do so…
Shouldn’t have to do this. Guess it is what it is though. However, some classes right now are balanced around these garbage systems that were introduced, so some classes are wildly different without conduits and all that… Yeah this isn’t good. The only thing that kind of is good, is the fact that Fleshcraft doesn’t exist.
Blizzard has big problems in PvP that need to be addressed. But instead they are doubling down.
There is nothing we can do to force them to fix anything. A very large number of players have left, but there seems to be no sign they feel any responsibility toward their paying customers to deliver a product the customers might want to continue playing and paying for.
having a hard time dedicating time playing any bracket where im waiting 15 mins for a bg to pop. que times(of all things lol) have kept me leveling toons through 51-59 for my pvp fix. from 56-59 im a super hero with ah greens and farming sl silver elite mobs for rare loot upgrades. the elites can be farmed every day for their rare loot. if you got killed by a drust behemoth in 51-59 the last few days thats my trinkey procing your face off.
that being said i looted a purple sword in rivendreth from a certain chest and now my 50 rogue is 115 ilvl without any azerite gear,cloak or hoa. making toons can be as fun as playing them if that rng is in your favorz