I canceled my 6-month sub in the summer, and I have 20 days left. When I canceled it I said Blizzard is managing PVP sloppily, and it was the reason I was dissatisfied. Since then they’ve made a set of changes I thought were at least in the right direction, and just yesterday they published their thoughts.
Here are my 2 cents:
And to cut to the chase on that subject: the item level upgrade via rating tiers has to stay in place as it is currently works for the rest of this Season. We’re committed to keeping some consistency around such things in the middle of a Season.
This sounds more logical than it is in practice. You wouldn’t keep moving forward with a building on a bad foundation. In theory, you don’t want to change mid-stream. But this is a competition. You’ve taken away World First clears due to things Blizzard deemed “cheating” despite it being allowed by the game.
Why not do the same for bad PVP design?
Post-Legion PvP, and really the entire game, is different than it was pre-Legion. We’re striving to make a PvP gearing system that balances character progression with fairness, rewarding players who improve over the course of the season with noticeable power increases that can be overcome through skillful play.
This feels contradictory. Just a few comments on this generally:
- Character Progression =! Gear Progression. Character progression can be rank, cosmetics, and achievements.
- Gear is anti-PVP. Gear should never determine the outcome of a match. You want to remove as much as possible from two humans fighting. Gear is low-hanging fruit.
- What rewards players over a season with a power increase is knowledge. The player gets better, they anticipate more, their rank improves. If you want to celebrate that, see bullet #1
Nonetheless, with each passing Season, we’ve heard loud and clear that players think it takes too long to gear up for PvP. As far as we can see, it looks like the best way for us to address that concern immediately would be to add a significant Honor increase (40%) to the Spoils of War buff that is currently in place. So we’re looking into doing that soon.
The honor gear is 100% useless. For one thing, there was a major catastrophe when you allowed S2 gear to have a PVP ilvl, and not S1 gear. So there are essentially 4 gear sets currently in Shadowlands. It’s a mess.
There should be one gear set per expansion.
If you’re hell-bent on letting gear win matches instead of players, then keep the upgrade system, and with each season just release a new set of upgrades. 6 possible in S1, 12 in S2, and 18 in S3 for example. You can at least truncate the power disparity over time without asking people to figure out sets, stats, and 2 ilvls.
Let Conquest buy the items. Let honor upgrade them. Provide more cosmetic options or something if you think people are capping Conquest too quickly.
General thoughts:
-
It’s mind-blowing to me that the same people who once removed PVP vendors because they’re confusing put in this convoluted system and called it a win. The left hand isn’t speaking to the right hand.
-
The power disparity is still insanely wide. You’re saying you know that with a tone that suggests you do not. I want the Devs to stream themselves playing an alt they haven’t touched since BFA, and gearing up - Honor gear first - through Random BGs. Only then are you going to have any idea what you’re talking about.
-
I’m still seeing nothing about RBGs, which have three problems:
- Tank hegemony - either ban tanks period or template them so there are more options. Legacy of the Sleeper mandates only Guardian Druids will carry.
- The LFG interface is less than useless. Stop showing groups, and start showing players. Organizing RBGs is the 4th level of hell and it’s obvious the Devs don’t have to pug them. Probably because you can recruit co-workers. We don’t have that luxury.
- Find some way around having us in a Raid Group while looking for new people. This has been an issue I’ve read on these forums for a year now. Get it together.
-
I get that Solo Shuffle is a pilot program, but unless there are major issues, you should make it a regular game mode. You have an unnatural affection for artificially limiting the ability to engage with content.
-
We need more maps. Both BG and EBG. As I’ve personally stated multiple times, and others likely have as well. WSG was made in 2005 and it’s still a great map. The ROI on BG map is great when you actually put thought and effort into them.
-
Add a hidden “Rank” to Normal BGs so that players are matched by the highest possible ilvl they have equipped this season. Do not allow gear swaps once you’re in a BG.
You can find the post I’m referencing here: PvP Gearing in SL - #8 by Desvin-1200