Had this in my original write up, but it got edited out. Think the main issue with the PVP system as it currently stands is that it is difficult in the wrong way. It is a sheer test of time and willpower which pits you up against your own faction rather than the opposite faction.
Let’s discard for a moment the scope and what we believe would actually happen and invent the ideal quality based system.
Our ideal system would accomplish these things.
- Encourage playing all three battlegrounds
- Encourage participation
- Encourage playing the objective
- Promote a diverse set of play styles
It would also be in line with the design philosophy from this blue post.
The main goal for the Season of Mastery is provide a WoW Classic experience that brings about “Faster Progression and More Challenging Content”.
And this quote
The core of the system Achieving Rank 14 in original World of Warcraft was always meant to be a prestigious accomplishment that few players obtained. We feel that maintaining that level of prestige is important, and we’ve got to consider how it will play out with the Honor system active from the moment Season of Mastery launches. This is especially difficult, considering how powerful the Honor gear is for many classes.
My suggestion to accomplish this would be a class based ELO or MMR system. This would have rankers competing not against the rest of their faction but just those who are the same class. For classes that can heal I would divide things further and have healing spec and non healing spec rankings (this would promote more healing in battlegrounds, previously a fairly unrewarding task).
The value of this MMR or ELO would be derived from the following stats; win rate, damage done, killing blows, healing done, buffs cast, objectives played. These stats would be weighted differently depending on which class you are playing in a way that made sense. Would also suggest some kind of defender bonus to encourage that behavior.
Each week the person with the highest MMR or ELO for their class would gain the most RP. Once the week is over the RP / ELO resets. A real time leaderboard so you can see how you are stacking up and a breakdown of the equation so it is clear to players how to improve.
This system would change the PVP grind from something that is difficult sheerly because of the massive time commitment to something that still requires a huge time investment but also has elements of skill and encourages people to play the game. I feel like it would help solve a lot of the issues that plague AV as well.