I cannot sleep so I decided I’ll throw together a post in hopes that maybe we can get some PvP feedback while Shadowlands is still in development and hopefully get some good changes before it’s too late.
I do not have Beta, so if someone wants to post this in the beta forums, go ahead, but I do not think we even have a dedicated Shadowlands PvP forum so… 
Ight, so I want to highlight a few concerns moving into beta, and hopefully open up the floor for debate. Shadowlands seems like it’s going to be a decent expansion PvE (RP) wise, but will be a complete mess for anyone who enjoys PvP.
These are just some main questions I would love to ask the PvP developers and maybe we could see an interview about Shadowlands PvP around the upcoming AWC? Would be nice.
So without further ado…
1.) What is Blizzard’s design goals for PvP in Shadowlands?
- Current Issue: In BfA, classes have relied heavily on essences, passives and Azerite traits to deal meaningful damage. This had lead to a “low skill ceiling” for a lot of classes and has been a huge issue of concern for PvPers.
Most recently, Corruption has taken over a big portion of players’ damage in PvP and has been causing issues with the “meta” making certain specs grossly overpowered. BfA has said to be more of an “organic hands off” in terms of balancing, and that has left the PvP community feeling neglected.
Glaring PvP balancing issues have been ignored for a large portion of the expansion.
- Shadowlands Issue: Now Shadowlands is shaping up to have very similar problem. It is no secret that this game is PvE centric. So with that comes a pretty tough question; Will the role play fantasy/PvE game be more important than PvP balance?
The more content we see from Shadowlands, the more concern PvP balance becomes. Are there plans to address any spells that become to power in low player participated PvP? (iE: 3v3 Arena)
TL;DR
- How do you plan on balancing RP centric abilities in PvP?
- How do you manage so many spinning plates for so many specs?
- What is the PvP design team’s philosophy going into shadow lands?
- Will spells be balanced around PvP first or will more PvP only nerfs be put in place? If so, how will those changes be better communicated?
2.) How do you plan to communicate “PvP Only” changes moving forward in World of Warcraft? (PvP Tooltips!)
- Current Issue: BfA has a lot of “hidden” PvP nerfs that effect trinkets to azertie powers to even talents and spells. There has never been an easy way for new players to find all these hidden changes without extensive third party research.
A lot of players are unfamiliar with all these hidden PvP nerfs and it has never been properly address and can really discourage players from trying out PvP due to extreme lack of knowledge and lack of information provided.
- Shadowlands Issue: Shadowlands is adding in literally hundreds of spinning plates that all need to be balanced in PvP - Arena, RBGs, Bgs, etc… Covenant abilities, legendaries, soulbinds, conduits and whatever else could eventually face more “hidden PvP nerfs” in order for it to be balanced.
How will these situation be handled and how will it be communicated?
Imagine if you would, a player leveling in PvE - picking the covenant they love, going through the campaign enjoying every aspect of it, only for a month from now try to PvP and come to the realization that their covenant, soulbinds, or what have you is nerfed in PvP.
That could end up being a huge issue and again discourage players from PvPing because their covenant is nerfed while another’s is not.
TL:DR
- How do you plan to communicate “PvP only” changes?
- Covenant abilities, soulbinds, legendaries, conduits, etc if something is nerfed in PvP how will the general player know?
- Are you prepared to make PvP only changes in the case something is extremely over power?
- Are you even prepared to disable the usage of a spell, soulbind, or legendary? (Like the paladin ability Lay on Hands)
3.) Gearing in Shadowlands - Will the Vendor actually have BiS stat loot for the majority of character item slots?
- Current Issue: Gearing through PvP in BfA has been extremely poorly received. Specs often find themselves without BiS stats on their PvP gear and many players can contest to the fact that it is easier to gear through Mythic+ than it is to achieve higher ratings in PvP.
Additionally, Sigils and Warlord Trophys are also very scarce when it comes to players improving their rating, along with poor RNG gear loot.
On top of that, players can more easily stack armor to trade items in Mythic+ and can be carried through higher keys than they normally could compete. A PvPr cannot simply play with a 2900 rated player and receive 465 item level gear, as gear is rewarded off their rating.
- Shadowlands Issue: Now Shadowlands is introducing a vendor for PvPrs which is extremely exciting, however, that vendor will mean little to nothing if the stats on the gear do not have every spec’s BiS stats.
If I would like to purchase a red crayon, and you implement a crayon vendor that only sell green crayons… well that vendor is not very useful to me, is he? Yes it is a crayon, and I will take it, but it’s not what I wanted.
TL:DR
- How many BiS stat slots can a PvPr expect to get from the PvP Vendors?
- Is the fact that you cannot trade gear in PvP, like you can in PvE, along with not being able to be carried to higher item level through playing with high rated players enough to offset the ability to select gear with your desired stats?
- Will most specs be able to purchase at least 12/16 item slots with BiS stats for their spec?
- Does the PvP design team truly feel like a full crit/mastery Disc Priest is 95% as powerful as a min/max haste/versa one? (Current itemization issue)
- Is a PvP only stat (PvP Power/Resilience) or item level increase (WoD) on the table to ensure that PvP vendors stay relevant with how much “easier” it is to acquire PvE equivalent gear?
- Does the PvP team feel that the item level rewarded through PvP is equivalent to the time and effort it takes to acquire the same item level from PvE?
Episode 4. Return of the PvP Trinket. Will the PvP trinket actually be BiS for PvP or will an overpowered PvE trinket ultimately take its place?
- Current Issue: PvE trinkets throughout BfA have been cancerous to PvP. Demon Hunters with Intellect trinkets, tank trinkets, to the most recent ones doing 100-150k instant damage.
Trinkets have been a huge issue throughout BfA that often gets overlooked well into a season before any meaningful changes are made, if at all. What is stopping this from happening in Shadowlands?
- Shadowlands Issue: With Shadowlands, Blizzard has removed the PvP trinket option from PvP and in it’s place added the beloved PvP trinket slot.
While this is indeed a great change, this does not guarantee the actual removal of PvE trinkets from PvP. Most recently you can find a legendary that grants the wearer 25% reduction in CC abilities along with a few covenant Soulbinds offering even more.
Sephuz’s Proclamation : Reduce the effectiveness of crowd controlling effects by 25%. Successfully applying a loss of control effect to an enemy, interrupting an enemy, or dispelling any target will increase all your secondary stats by 0 for 15 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.
What is to stop players from going:
Okay, my legendaries aren’t as powerful as this PvE trinket, so I will roll a Human, I will go Venythr, and use Sephuz’s Proclamation. Since these allow my character to negate a lot of CC in PvP, it removes the need for PvP trinkets.
What’s to stop this from forcing the meta into even more “going X Faction, X race, X covenant” and you won’t need to use a PvP trinket?
TL:DR
- Will the PvP trinket slot truly be better than having two PvE trinkets?
- How do you balance the power of a tank trinket vs a PvP trinket?
- What plans do the PvP Devs have in store for preventing a “mandatory” faction, race, covenant, legendary combo that allows players to forgo a PvP trinket all together?
- If you were an Undead, Necrolord, Sephuz’s legendary, Unholy DK you wouldn’t need to use a PvP trinket - Is this situation okay?
- Are there plans to introduce a PvP set bonus on trinkets to ensure they truly are BiS?
5.) Covenants, Soulbinds and Conduits - What is Blizzard’s PvP design team’s plans to balance these all in PvP?
Is a PvP only soulbind, shared across all covenants, along with PvP conduits, an option?
I really want to stress that question. Is there a possibility that a “shadow realm mercenary” could be a classes’ soulbind so that it is easier to make individual adjustments for each spec without effecting the role play fantasy of Shadowlands?
- Current Issue: BfA has shown numerous PvP balancing issues that go without change for prolonged periods of time. We’ve seen this with azerite traits, trinkets and now corruption. PvP has always been on the back burner of balance to the PvE game and as mentioned above can be very convoluted to the average player.
I hate to say this, but to echo a large majority of the community, what makes Blizzard think Shadowlands balance is going to be better than what we have had for the last 2 years in BfA?
- Shadowlands Issue: With Shadowlands, Blizzard is releasing a lot more factors that need to be taken into consideration and balanced accordingly.
Would it not be better to separate the Soulbind and Conduit system completely for PvPers?
TL:DR
- Is there a last resort option to implement a shared class Soulbind, between all covenants, for PvP only?
- What makes the Blizzard design team more confident in the balancing of Covenants, Soulbinds and Conduits vs say Azerite Traits and Corruption?
- How will “ranks” of conduits be adjusted in PvP? (Mage Counter spell getting 8 seconds off after successfully interrupting is an insane PvP buff - How do you balance this?)
Suggestion for Shadowlands:
Move the PvP talents into a PvP only Soulbind, shared across all covenants.
Make Covenant abilities a talent choice, in the talent tree where PvP talents currently are. (select one)
Make PvP only conduits rewarded from PvP actives.
6. L E G E N D A R Y - How does the PvP design team plan to balance legendaries in PvP? Are there plans to disable all legendaries in PvP or make PvP only legendaries?
- Current Issue: Legendary items have always been broken in PvP. Pretty straight forward, legendaries were also deems so powerful in Legion they were finally disabled. (Along with the template)
- Shadowlands Issue: Shadowlands is reintroducing more class flavor legendary items, however, some of the legendary items appear to be weaker than what we’ve seen in previous expansions.
The legendary items seem to be more reused powers from expansions past and nothing has seem extremely busted, but we all know that could very well change.
A huge issue could be that the legendary items do not actually feel legendary in power compared to those we have had access to in the past. So with that feeling, how will legendary items be balanced with taking into consideration both PvP and PvE?
Is Blizzard’s design goal to have more tamed legendary effects on gear since they are craftable now?
Is there a possibility to disable Legendary items in PvP combat or disable a majority of legendary items while making a hand full of pvp exclusive legendary items?
Maybe the forger requires Anima from within Torghast but also Anima from fallen Heroes to craft these particular legendary items?
TL:DR
- Where does Blizzard stand on the actual Power of legendary items?
- What plans are there to balance legendary items in PvP?
- Could legendary items be disabled if they are to powerful?
- Could PvP only legendary items be introduce that require fallen Hero Anima?
7. PvP Rewards. Are there any plans to introduce more rewards to the PvP scene?
- Current Issue: Rewards from PvP seem to be extremely lackluster when item level and stats are not very easily acquired.
Players who are 2400-2700 rating also have very little motivation to push high ratings and RBG players find themselves with stagnant rewards.
- Shadowlands Issue: While it is nice to have a vendor reward better items, the PvP community has not seen much in terms of better rewards for participating in PvP.
Are there any plans to release some PvP only rewards through covenants, or to re-do the rewards from the rating system? A high resolution Grand Marshal/High Warlord set or different mounts from RBGs, duelist, gladiator and rank 1?
TL:DR
- What rewards can players expect from PvP in shadowlands?
- Are there plans to add more mounts to RBGs, duelist, elite, gladiator, and rank 1 ratings?
- Are there plans for a high definition Rank14 set? (Similar to tier6 in Tomb of Sargeras)
- Will players see a reward for gaining 2700 in rated play?
- Why have the 2400 Tabards been just awful for the past 2 expansions?
- Will PvPers get a new weapon enchant in Shadowlands? Will it be account bound?
- Are BoA gladiator mounts a concern for PvP participation?
Misc PvP Shadowlands Questions
These questions do not pertain to simply Arena PvP - although some might- this is just additional questions to ask in more of a Q&A fashion.
- How will players who level through BGs interact with covenants? Is that not an option?
- With Zones not being “connected” like say Kul Tiras, what PvP actives will players have to look forward too, to encourage open world PvP?
- How will covenants “view” those who choose to kill players of the opposing faction, but still in the same covenant?
- Will covenants reward or “punish” PvP?
- Will PvP daily quest areas, like the Towers in Legion, return?
- Are there plans to ensure each zone stays active with PvP content? (If Nerco Lord becomes the BiS PvP covenant, what’s to stop the other 3 zones from being “dead” of player vs player activity?
- Will we see a new arena this expansion?
- Will we see a new BG this expansion?
- Will we see improvements to existing Arenas and BGs this expansion?
- Will we see more weather effects in BGs?
- Will Brawls be expanded on?
- Will PvP Islands become a new brawl?
- Will Skrimishes see Templates implemented?
- Will we see a reskin of Nagrand? (Like… just 8 reskins of Nagrand arena plz)
- Will RBGs turn to 6v6?
- Will we see a PvP hub?
- What will be this expansion’s Gladiator Mounts?
- What will be this expansion’s Hero of the Alliance/Horde mounts?
- Will we see more balancing to racials and factions?
- Will we see more achievements throughout shadowlands?
