Disclaimer: Being unable to post in the Shadowlands Beta forums, I am putting this thread here until it is able to move to where it needs to be.
Hi everyone, as you all know we’re going into yet another expansion with several issues, some for PVE & several for PVP with the re-released PVP vendors being brought back into the game. It’s a great stepping stone for Blizzard to get back on track to what PVPers have been asking for for several years. The biggest and one of the most obvious issues as of late is that PVE gear dominates the PVP scene, while this is fine for some, a lot of players remain subscribed to this game for its PVP aspect, and the numbers don’t lie - ever since the removal of certain things that PVP once had, subscription numbers have been dropping in several departments, but I’m here to talk about PVP and hopefully provide my two cents to help the PVP community, and hopefully the longevity of the game as a whole.
PVP vendors, and the existing issue of PVE gear
As you all know the PVP vendors coming back is a very welcome change Blizzard has added, however with the recent PVP testing they have added it’s become abundantly clear that while the numbers are not finalized, the limited options of secondary stats is a large issue. With this system added this means that while PVP gear is obtainable, it will likely be horribly restrictive in what gear is viable, and worth upgrading. As well as the basic issue that Blizzard will have additional tiers to have to make viable due to the release of the mythic dungeon system back in Warlords of Draenor. This means that PVP gear needs to be compete with a lot of “new” systems; mythic 0, mythic + (where the iLvL scales depending on the level of difficulty of the dungeon), LFR, normal, heroic and mythic.
The PVE power creep has been an ongoing issue, and dominates the PVP side of the game. It’s become horribly imbalanced especially with PVE trinkets with the 8.3 release of Ny’alotha and the 460+ iLvL trinkets that are a large impact on a characters personal power.
Covenants & their abilities
For those who are unaware, covenant abilities are class specific abilities that add an extra layer of depth to the game, that also provide a covenant specific ability for all classes. This includes the shield from Necrolords, the teleport with Venthyr, a healing potion from the Kyrian covenant, and finally the shapeshift for increased movement speed obtained from Ardenweald. While these are all fantastic flavor abilities that all have their own use the issue remains - being locked into a covenant and its soulbinds & and conduits.
The biggest issue with the Covenant system is for anyone who mythic raids, or just enjoys being competitive in a raid environment as well as PVPs is going to be further locked behind a choice that will restrict them in being as competitive as they possibly can for whichever content they play. When it comes to mythic raiding it’s no surprise that it’s a numbers game; pick a class that is performing well, and the covenant that has the highest damage output for your class, or not be as optimal as you possibly can and get benched for not picking the best covenant for that raid tier. This is going to be an on-going issue for all of Shadowlands with the current system in place. What is best for PVE will More than likely not be what is your best option to be as viable as you can in a PVP setting. While we are going to have the option to swap covenants, its conduits & soulbinds, the issue remains that being restricted to changing (I believe) conduits once per week is not acceptable. The same issue remains with the covenant of your choice remains the largest issue. It has been stated that while we are able to swap our covenants, each time we do so it will likely be a time gating issue, and will be “harder” to change every time we swap our characters covenant. This is NOT fun gameplay in the slightest!
A possible solution to the very messy system
Covenants: Borrowed power. This is a term that Blizzard has recently fallen in love with. The recent failure of patch 8.3’s “corruption” system is a prime example of how to make what could be a fun system, an abysmal failure. Covenants take this a step further, and more importantly forces the player to not only regularly change covenants for a new flavor ability that is BIS, but is able to bring the subscription number down because people will be fed up with the current Covenant system.
The solution that has been thrown out that a lot of players know about: Bake each covenant class ability into the player’s core gameplay or remove them as a whole. Keep the covenant ability as it is. Let players pick which utility flavor they want. Covenants should be restricted to aesthetics, fantasy, flavor, and covenant armor transmogs. That’s it.
PVP vendors: Instead of relying on a power creep to scale with PVE gear, forcing players into upgrading weapons that might not even have optimal PVP stats why not try the following system that has proven to work? PVP set bonuses. No more lottery gear that isn’t even useful* Bring back the old PVP vendor from MOP. Let us pick our weapon, gear and stats that we want. Give us a 2 piece and 4 piece bonus. Bring PVP power back where that gear set is only activated while used against players. Keep honor gear and scale it according to which Shadowlands PVP season we are in. *To help keep PVP ilvl gear optimal give us back buying more powerful gear with conquest, which is earned from CTA quests, BGs, arenas, RBGs and WPVP (keep the conquest from WPVP kills lower) with a hard cap of conquest we can earn each week, and elite PVP gear that is only obtainable once players have reached a certain rank & have the conquest to earn it. No more gear lottery with PVP. let us buy it like we used to be able to. Remove PVE trinket “on use” abilities while in arenas and in battlegrounds. Bring back reforging since it was such a well received system for both PVE and PVP alike.
Reforging from Cata.
PvP Power and Defense from MoP.
Ilvl floor and PvP gear scaling from WoD.
PvP 4pc, glove, and trinket set bonuses.
All from vendors, with every stat combination, so that those that remain subscribed only for PVP don’t ever have to PvE to enjoy WoW.
