TL:DR
As the expansion has progressed, player ilvl has to. In PvP, this creates a very large damage difference. Although ilvl scaling allows under-geared players to stay alive longer (since damage is based off percentages) its impossible to keep up with damage. Sometimes the damage difference is 30%+. In past expansions, developers have used different tactics to reduce this gap. But without PvP vendors or a reasonable way to gear through conquest, your only catch up mechanic is Mythic+ 10 or 2400+ arenas which are hard to get into for under-geared players. Blizzard, please consider addressing the issue.
In the beginning of the expansion, I didn't notice a huge power difference in gear (as to be expected), logically because the item levels between top in end raiders and new players wasn't that high.
Now 3 months in, the difference is finally showing up.
I have 359 item level and around 125k health. From my understanding of how item level scales in PvP...an increase of item level increases a percentage of your overall damage to a players health. The health pool doesn't matter, but getting better stats, enhancements, Azerite armor, and trinkets...all weigh in on the percentage of damage you do to a player.
What sucks...I've noticed a lot of 385 fully decked out raiders, with 150K+ health queuing arenas, BGs, and duels, who out dps me by almost 30%. Although the item level scaling allows me to stay alive longer, because it's percentage based damage...but in the end...I simply can't keep up with damage.
Right now...the only way I can catch up is to do Mythic +10 and 2400 rated arenas. (For 385 gear) For me, that's pretty tough. It's less about my overall skill, more about finding people who will queue with you through group finder with low ilvl and radier.io scores.
In the past, both PvP vendors and PvP stat templates solved this problem. In WoD...you could eventually buy top level gear, but slower than 2200 players, to bridge the power gap. In Legion, we had stat templates, which at max gear, only gave you a 10% damage boost.
I realize that a lot of people didn't like stat templates...but damn...could we at least get vendors back? Or could we at least change the scaling to something like MoP where your ilvl increased once in PvP with another character?
This is the honest truth, I'll probably unsubscribe if I can't find a reasonable way to gear through PvP. I'm not saying that as an eff you to Blizzard, or an ultimatum...just my honest feelings. Honestly...trying to grind through dozens of Mythic+s, trying to pug 2400 arena players, or pug Mythic Uldir, isn't reasonable to get 385 gear...just to do some random BGs and skirmishes...to feel like I have a true fighting chance.
Right now...the power gap is a minimum of 30% damage difference. That's pretty big, and hard to just use your skill to beat an opponent. Imagine if we logged onto Overwatch, Starcraft, or HotS and a player had a permanent 30% increase to damage? And to make matters worse...if you just casually play, you can't catch up.
I also recognize power profession is a core principal in a MMORPG. I also realize, this difference doesn't make a huge difference in PvE, because 359 geared players aren't going to probably queue Mythic Uldir, because there is Normal and Heroic modes. In PvP...even if I grind conquest gear...you only get 355 gear...which is a 0 ilvl upgrade. I've already capped out. I just wish we could go back to a system where if you play casually in PvP...you have a chance to beat someone just based on skill and not gear.
The whole MMORPG argument must be ignored when attempting to make a fair and competitive environment and people need to accept it. There is a reason any games played for money are played on a TR where gear difference is reduced as much as possible.
Casual PvP is one thing where it's fun to blow people up, but rated play must be made as fair as possible in order to be taken seriously.
They should just break the rated arenas into it's own game away from live.
Casual PvP is one thing where it's fun to blow people up, but rated play must be made as fair as possible in order to be taken seriously.
They should just break the rated arenas into it's own game away from live.
100% the gear issue is dumb af. Just got a worthless piece for the 3rd week in a row (yaaaaay fun game) But yeah you're right, the ilvl increase is pretty absurd now, and I barely get drops when I do queue and play games. Honestly vendors should of been implemented with a set ilvl for PvP gear like WoD. Nothing was wrong with that system.
Whats odd is an experiment I did last night. Qued a bunch of games, some with 380ish ilvl pve gear and sone with a setup up of greens (same azerite gear though) around 320ish ilvl. One thing was consistent throughout these games. My scoreboard damage. Note I'm not saying my details dmg meter, but the arena scoreboard. I did however live better in the greens and was easier to heal according to my healer. I did this experiment when i noticed the scoreboard dmg and my details dmg being about 1mil on avg different at the end in my 380 ilvl gear. What makes it more odd is it was supposed to "be hotfixed" like 2 months ago...
Long story short your gear doesnt matter and honestly seems to affect you negatively now if you get better gear. Hopefully they fix this because i shouldnt be penalized for having better gear, it is an mmo afterall.
Long story short your gear doesnt matter and honestly seems to affect you negatively now if you get better gear. Hopefully they fix this because i shouldnt be penalized for having better gear, it is an mmo afterall.