Before we start a little bit about myself. I am not a WoW Veteran or a long-time player i recently re-discovered WoW with Dragonflight. In my teens i played Burning Crusade for around a year and then only some expansions very very casually.
But since i rediscovered the game i got hooked again and really wanted to learn the class of Rogue this time. So i watched a ton of YouTube guides on how to pull this class off, got some coaching lessons and now at the point where i (almost) understand whats going on. So i would describe myself not as a Hardcore Arena player but as a invested casual player who is mostly focussed on PvP. M+ and Raiding is fun for me but i want to gain ranking and compete with other players.
I personally think its alot of fun to:
- Learning the class and getting better every week
- Farm gear and understand the stats what they do
- Watching games on Twitch from the top players and try to adapt it
- Trying new build and talents
This game has so much depth and i think its one of the most complex and fun experiences i had in a long time gaming.
Now to the part where i think it gets more interesting - a potential future for PvP and what features would be necessary for that. I will only focus on the content side of it - because i can’t really say much about Classes & Combs anyways.
My typical day-to-day in WoW looks like this:
- Queue for BGs, Arena Skimirshes and Solo Shuffle
- I met some guys i can play with so if (and only IF) they are only i ask them if they want to do some 2v2
- Standing around in Valdrakken and hitting a Target Dummy
- Every Wednesday doing the weekly farm quests
So mostly i am standing around doing nothing waiting for a Queue to pop, which is of course not fun. I know that there are not enough healers or whatever so the wait time for matchmaking is not avoidable and i dont really have a problem with that.
The following is not a 100% guaranteed solution but just a brain dump from other games that i like combined with the experince of WoW. If you have other ideas or rather think my ideas are pure crap then please go ahed in the thread below.
A Real PvP Area:
Why do i have to stand in the Gladiators Sanctuary and hit a target dummy if it would be theoreticly possible to build a real PvP Zone for us?
- It could have PvP-specific Daily or Weekly Quests that reward PvP Tokens
- It could have PvPvE concepts like in older expensions where you group up and try to kill a boss
- This could be a larger map than something like Ashran for example i am talking like a real zone with real Endgame Level quests but focussed on PvP players.
- Maybe a system where you take control of sectors and get valuable rewards from a vendor.
- It could be included in a evolving storyline where things change in between the seasons and new mechanics are introduced.
- It could have a hall of fame neutral area where the currently top 10 2v2/3v3/Solo Shuffle players are displayed as statues or banners or whatever (with one click you have a companion website where you can watch livestreams from their twitch) - Talkin’ about a connection to the real tournaments going on like AWC
In conclusion if you look at games like Call of Duty or Fortnite for example they also have Seasons but they mix things up all the time so its engaging and fresh all the time. I mean why do we have this vast and beautiful world where stuff is going on all the time but as a PvP Player you see some gathed Battlegrounds or Arenas 95% of the time.
Coming to my second point which is i think even more important.
New Game Modes/Playlists
Battlegrounds and Arenas are cool, enganging and fun but mostly because of the gameplay and not content-wise. Basicly you feel that this game is 20 years old and has not evolved like more modern games. Here are some ideas:
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Extraction Based Mode like The Division 2 Dark Zones (or whatever it was called) or Call of Duty Extraction: You group up as a squad of 3 and try to extract materials, the other 2 squads and a load of endgame mobs are trying to stop you. If you gathered enough ressources you can call an extraction and everyone will be notified and is trying to steal it from you. This could also be the goal of the PvP zone i mentioned above.
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Battle Royal Mode like Fortnite/CoD: You jump into a zone with 10 other squads, you gather some stuff that buffs you up and the map shrinks till the last team survives (everyone should be familiar with that). I know WoW is not really made for something like this and the balancing could be a pain in the *** but why not?
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Micro-Tournaments (Shuffle for Teams): You queue up in a 2v2 or 3v3 and you play knock-out based games against 7 other teams. With every win you move up and at the end a great reward waits for you. Inspiration: The Finals Tournaments.
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Duo/Trio Shuffle: You sign up with a friend for 2v2 and you will be designated to an arena where also x amount of other teams are waiting. Like in the Call of Duty Gulag you can watch the game play out till its your turn. Instead of waiting in Valdrakken i would much rather view other people play.
New Social Features
To compliment all this stuff and connect players even more with each other here are some other ideas for the social stuff.
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Small Guilds/Warbands/Squads: Give the players the possibility to be part of a squad and highlight that for others. Like a Micro-Guild, maybe a guild can also have mulitiple teams - don’t make it confusing but you can show off your wins and your team to others.
The name warbands is used in the new expansion for your Alts where they sit in front of a campfire in your loading screen - why not use it for something better? -
In-Game Arena Ranking/AWC Announcements/Tournaments: Why do i have to go to a website to see the best players in the world and then go to another link to see their talents, gear and stuff. Why not do this ingame and couple it with community tournaments (RP Servers are doing this without a billion dollar company behind it). You could make this part of this hall of fame feature i mentioned before.
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Better Player Search & Team Up: Maybe something like the guild finder i can create a “warband” and invite people to it and get to know them. Also another idea:
We have Public Crafting why not something like Public Training where other more advanced players can give you tipps and tricks or show you the game. I know this i maybe far fetched but if Blizzard would subsizide behaviour like this with rewards i think it could work.
All-In-All i think WoW is in a very good state, i am excited for this new World Soul Saga and the changes they are announcing but i also think PvP Players are not getting enough, if there are clearly good ideas from other Games (within the same game conglomerate - looking at you microsoft) so i am hoping for maybe not everything but more features to keep the experience enganging and fresh.
Hope i didn’t offend anyone with these suggestions, just wanted to get this of my chest because i personally think these would make the experience much better - maybe not for the Super Hardcore PvPlers but for the guys who see this a cool hobby and are somewhat serious about the game.
Criticial Feedback is very welcome and have a nice day!
(i love Blitz)