The point of PVP is that it’s just another endgame pillar of WoW. Of course, it’s a severely underappreciated one, due to Blizzard’s negligence. However, there are still some people, like myself, who enjoy it sporadically. I would say it’s pretty niche content compared to PVE, though, which, in my mind, it shouldn’t be. It should be one of the more approachable forms of content in WoW, but balancing issues and terribly inefficient matchmaking algorithms heavily impact its popularity. It also doesn’t help that Blizzard is pretty apathetic towards PVP. They won’t even attempt to fix major problems permeating this form of content. This results in a fairly stagnant, unchanging PVP system that is often exploited by malicious elements within the PVP community. Que syncers and premades come to mind.
It isn’t one or the other. It’s both, and more. Gear definitely compensates for a lot in PVP, but, in my experience, it only does so to a point. In more competitive forms of PVP, like rated PVP, the number of players with endgame PVP gear (conquest gear) will be significantly higher. It is at this point where skill starts to take over, and believe me, it matters. This season, I had started to play an Enhancement Shaman, and despite maxing out my conquest every week and having bought gear, gems, and enchants, I was still getting destroyed. This was because I didn’t have a good handle on my spec, but after a time, I figured it out, and I went from zero to hero. Now, that’s not to say skill is 100% of this equation. How Blizzard buffs or nerfs your class/spec heavily impacts your PVP viability, and it often does so beyond what gear or skill can compensate for.
I love pvp random battlegrounds. I like that it’s spontaneous and somewhat loosely organized. You have goals, but it’s not a tightly structured activity.
I like that I can help my team even if I’m not top dps, through a combo of crowd control, spot heals, holding a base, or aiding a flag carrier.
Pvp is going to keep the game alive for me through changes that might otherwise suck. If I’m not in the mood to go hard I can just hang out in the world in war mode and do some questing or gathering.
Humans are naturally competitive, PvP is just another outlet for it within this game
You have to learn to deal with frustration to PvP in an MMO though because there are hard counters sometimes that, if both players have similar skill, you just can’t get past
I mostly avoid it because there are no “participation trophies” in PvP at all. Sounds childish but i refuse to join content that completely disrespects my time like that. I have too little of it left nowadays
I guarantee you that most gladiator players will kill you in greens even if you’re full conquest. Kalvish could probably kill you in leveling blues.
Gear is important but I guarantee you it’s not the only factor.
Competition and PvP is my type of game. It used to have a ton of point when there was a faction war. Now it’s just a fun side note sadly. Sounds like you’re just a collector who feels forced to do something they don’t like for collection sake… You really should just stick to what you enjoy.
wow pvp has never not been gear dependent, and when they tried to reduce the impact of gear on pvp in Legion after the problem peaked in Mists the gnashing of teeth on the forums lasted the whole expansion.
It’s actually my favorite way to play. Open World PvP anyway. I’m moving away from it come Midnight though. Inner Shadow is now a baseline Talent, so I don’t need to be in War Mode for that sweet 10% DPS buff. And Conquest gearing is a time-gated PITA. At the end of the day, WoW doesn’t have Player Versus Player as much as it does Gear Versus Gear. It would be great if we were all equal. I might actually play alts then.
I’ve tried them all. In terms of liked most to least
Comp stomp
Epic BG
Ashran endless
Standard BG
World PvP
Rated BG
Solo shuffle
Arena skirmish
Rated arena
Just not good at PvP. I was at my best in BFA with corrupt gear and I got to challenger rank which sounds terrible but it’s still better than getting deleted on the start of any match since then.
I wish, one day, we could have a Diablo 2 gear switch option. Like how we have the rotation bar switch to different loadouts
And so I press a button and I can be wearing my PvP gear one second and if I need to go back PvE I press that button again
Like how we switch talents from blood to frost. And my gear rests in my gear slots. Not in my bank and not in my inventory but on my toon.
At least this way as the season progresses or should I want to duel, world PvP, BG, I don’t need to switch my gear from the bank (cause my regular inventory is very full from quests etc). And as I collect PvP gear, it has a place holder.
Asking for too much, but often I forget I’m wearing PvP gear or vice versa
WoW PvP has always been gear based in some form or another. 20 years ago there were classes who could perform well even undergeared but it was incredibly niche and very uncommon.
I would ignore rank. Playing for rank sucks the fun out of everything. Hot take, but you can’t have fun if you’re keeping one eye on your rank
Certainly do what makes you happy, but if you were melee, try ranged. Vice versa.
Getting deleted at the start of a match (assuming you mean Arena) is unfortunately a symptom of the class you play. DKs and Shamans get tunneled. Play a spec that is hard to kill and they’ll leave you alone.
I also think Arena is the old boys club. People who’ve done it a long time, and have the right addons, and know their spec inside and out - you’re not in a place to manage that. That’s why they like it. Because they have more of an advantage. Battlegrounds are more chaotic but they’re more fair. If someone appears to be OP, everyone gangs up to murder that person. It’s harder to dominate. You can stay with the pack and most (not all) of the time your team will at least attack the person attacking you.
PVP to me is the most laid back relaxing part of the game. It’s normal to die, there’s no pre-set chess-like dance moves where if they do A, I do B. In the epic BGs especially, the chat is always fun/funny.
But in BGs, small incremental changes you can make in yourself actually lead to macro changes. If you learn to worry less when being attacked, you’ll see more wins over 100 games. If you look at the map and put yourself where the team needs the most help, you’ll win more over 100 games, and if you CC, cleanse, root, interrupt, or offheal once more each game, you’ll see that you win more over 100 games.
To quote the Joker, “the thing about chaos is - it’s fair” and Battlegrounds to me are a bit like endurance races. The other people don’t matter. You’re just hoping to be better than who you were yesterday.
I still like PvP, but it comes with some frustrations. Mostly in the sense that my faction is often under represented and we get annihilated by pre-mades. I keep joining half finished BGs because half the previous Horde team left and the Alliance is farming everyone at the graveyard.
I’m used to dying a lot in PvP, but it’s the extremes. Druids, Paladins, Monks, DHs, Priests, Mages seem to just destroy everything and have strong self heals or defenses. My class is just a slug and chasing a hunter is pointless.
Arenas seem to be full of 1 person who is playing like Rival/duelist level with their buddy who is probably just starting out. So, I might be able to get the newb, but not the Rival. Additionally, 2s seem to come with a healer hybrid comp rather than two pure DPS like Druid/Mage Monk/Hunter Rogue/Paladin
I have a better shot at Hunter/mage even though that is a nightmare for me as it’s range vs melee and I simply cannot close the distance.
But, like you said, I like BGs. People can figure out who is dominating and get everyone to focus that person. My arena matches are decided within 30 seconds past the gates or really after someone leaves a pillar. And don’t get me started on the number of 1 vs 3 or 2 vs 1 faulty arenas where people never showed up for some reason.
Solo Shuffle was utterly toxic as hell. People would tell me to uninstall once I was outed as the worst player and it happened to others who were outed as the worst player and immediately targeted in the next line up.
I say all this because im trying to help, so i hope ot doesnt come off as condescending.
Pre-mades ruin everything. Agreed. I play for the first win of the day Conquest and i bail. Blizzard should 100% implement honor/conq points for the losing team. And also cross faction to make things harder for pre-mades.
Blitz i find to be a lot more tolerable even if ive met some real “have you played wow before?” players in Blitz.
If youre getting tunneled in Arena, the best thing to do is make a build that makes you as hard to kill as possible even at the cost of DPS. Be a target dummy, and let your teammated murder their weakest player.
I played Resto Shaman in Shiffle for awhile and what i mostly did was survive the tunnel while my dps tee’d off on one poor guy. When i wasnt getting cycloned. My proudest moment was when the enemy swapped to my team and told me i was impossible to kill. Still riding high on that one.
My last comment on Shuffle is that the guy complaining is the worst player.
You have a pretty narrow vision of PvP and probably haven’t fought anyone decent. Do some rated.
Getting gear is easy. Like PvE, the end game is the experience.
Let’s translate this is PvE terms
Every time I do a dungeon, I’m always beating people in green gear in my purple gear. What’s even the point of PvE if my damage is just about my gear…?
So don’t do it.
Most ignorant take I have read on here in awhile.
Gear isn’t even a factor, so why even talk about it? They practically give gear away for free now. You can even use PvE crafted gear now for PvP if you want. It’s beyond a joke that anyone is talking about gear.
???
What are you even talking about. You need like one gem slot. 4-5 gems isn’t holding anyone back. Completely trivial.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. You haven’t done any form of PvP that shows you even know how to play your class.
It’s what makes it fun a lot of us. PvP gets more fun when you’re playing against better players. PvP isn’t fun when you’re playing against players worse than you.
The point of pvp in this game appears to be to induce rage within me
Granted i just do the random rated q’s these days, but my god sometimes the players. Druid bear tank just off a node in gilneas vs spinning. Like why.
But sometimes the game design of the mode just pisses me off. Win 1900 mmr bgb at 1700 get 20 points yea ok. Weird last game gave me 200 cr points but i just happen to be close to the 1800 mog for that win. Surrreee.
