How you can REALLY improve PvP for Newcomers
- Training grounds is a good step forward,
- To make it effective, players need better instructions on objectives while waiting for the gate to open (maybe through an NPC shouting out the objectives in the 2 minute wait or a page in the adventure journal).
- Many players currently don’t (seem) to understand the objectives at all
Streamlining Battleground Mechanics
- BG Blitz and regular battlegrounds differ significantly, causing confusion amongst new players.
- Streamlining mechanics between regular battlegrounds and BG Blitz would make it easier to understand.
- If streamlining isn’t possible, see above paragraph about solutions to give clear instructions to players.
Casual-Friendly PvP Modes
- BG Blitz used to be a non-rated brawl with gear scaling and solo queues.
This casual format made PvP more accessible, but was shifted to a more elitist crowd (rated).
- A dedicated, casual PvP mode against real players is desperately needed. If you queue this mode, gear scales. It should be solo queue to avoid premades.
- This should be a viable option for both Random Battlegrounds and Epic Battlegrounds.
Adressing Premades
- Premades create imbalance in random and epic battlegrounds and solo players are always the victim of this imbalance.
- As stated above under Casual-Friendly PvP modes, create a solo variant of Random Battlegrounds.
- Allow guilds, friends and other pre-made communities to queue, but exclusively against each other. Allow full raids to queue this version, or match groups together if they are short on people.
- If solo players still want to enjoy the benefits of a premade queue, they can still join that queue.
Gear Progression Issues
- Currently, players are forced to use Warmode or rated PvP to obtain viable gear.
- This is because the power gap between Honor gear and Warmode / Conquest gear is immense. This creates an issue where casual players who just want to dip their toes into PvP stand no chance against players with Conquest or Warmode gear.
- If there was a casual battleground experience as stated under Casual-Friendly PvP Modes, this would not be an issue as gear would be scaled.
- Casual players or players who just want to dip their toes into PvP with real players shouldn’t be forced to also have to dip their own toes into open world PvP or rated PvP. They should be free to stick to instanced PvP and this should be a casual friendly, semi-balanced experience for them in order to maintain player interaction and invite new players into this part of the game.
Flag Carrying and Role Balance
- Healers shouldn’t be forced to carry flags; right now in most cases they are the most viable.
- Tanks should be made more viable for carrying the flag, right now some tanks feel absolutely useless.
- Movement abilities should be nerfed when carrying the flag by increasing the cooldown time of movement abilities (reverse Blessings of the Bronze) and by limiting the speed of travel form. Instead of limiting the speed, disabling the ability of druid to shapeshift out of movement impairing effects while carrying the flag is also completely acceptable.
- This is all to promote counterplay, because right now there’s very little counter play against a Vengeance Demon Hunter, Outlaw Rogue, Druid or Mistweaver Monk zooming across the map to cap flags.
Healer Queue Restrictions
- After the healer rework which hopefully makes healer a more fun and engaging spec to play in PvP, healers should not be allowed to queue with friends in solo queue modes (BG Blitz).
- A good composition of a DPS with a healer can control an entire game on specific maps. A devestation evoker and a preservation evoker for example, or a priest paired with an evoker.
- A two-man team in the midst of solo players who have clear coms between each other should not be underestimated.
- A solo queue mode should be a solo queue mode for all specs. If the above solutions are implemented, there’s plenty for healers to queue with friends.
More Clarity
- Right now there’s no clarity in PvP. The tooltips show PvE values and PvE information. There’s no way of knowing what an ability will actually do in PvP.
- It would be nice to have more clarity in how the matchmaking system actually works in order to create a transperant enviroment and take down some rumors about queue syncing or other myths like that.
Graveyard Camping
- Graveyard camping is a big thing in this game.
- Blizzard should make an effort into making it impossible to camp a graveyard.
- Even in Deephaul Ravine where the graveyard is put up high so people can’t be camped, it’s still accessible. Players still find ways to get up.
- If people are getting killed at one graveyard, they should be teleported to another graveyard when next they die. That way there is counterplay against graveyard camping.
- If above situation is not possible, graveyards should be made completely inaccessible to the opposing faction and battlegrounds should be redesigned in order to facilitate this. It should also not be designed as a bottleneck where players are easily camped eitherway.
- Why? This kind of gameplay is both frustrating, infuriating and toxic. Blizzard has a responsibility to the playerbase to make their game fun and safe. Blizzard will ban players for acting out of frustration, yet Blizzard is responsible for most of that frustration.
The Problem with Rated PvP
Rated PvP itself is in a dire need of a rework as well:
- Rewards are uninspiring. Cosmetic rewards tied to achivements should exist across all brackets, casual and rated. Not just at the very top.
- Progression feels punishing. Losing more rating than you can possibly gain makes the system demoralizing and unfair. This might not be the case for those at the top of the ladder, but the lower and mid brackets feel this heavily. It’s not inviting to play rated.
- Queue times waste player time. Long waits make the mode feel unrewarding and only highter participation can fix this.
- The rating system is broken. CR and MMR are poorly designed and even more poorly explained to new players, creating expectations that are unrealistic and end up in let-downs. It should be more simple. You’re 0 rating, you start at 0 rating. Not wherever the ladder is inflated to. In arena, if you win you gain, if you lose, you lose. But those values should never be greater than each other. In battlegrounds, playing the objective and damage should be rewarded. Even if you lose.
Final Thoughts
I’ll admit it’s not easy to suggest these changes, especially since I enjoy playing specs like outlaw rogue, vengeance demon hunter and virtually any druid. PvP has never truly been fair or balanced. Even in Classic, TBC or WotLK, which were amazing eras despite their flaws. Ideally, PvP shouldn’t be watered down into something overly casual. Yet the current problems are undeniable: engagement with PvP has been very low, new players don’t enjoy the experience most of the time and the game is incredibly frustrating to play. Blizzard hasn’t managed to solve them. With the studio leading towards quality-of-life improvements and more homogenized systems, Midnight feels like the right expansion to finally adress PvP in a meaningful and lasting way.
The proposals above would make PvP more accessible across the board:
- New players experiencing battlegrounds for the first time.
- Returning players who’ve avoided PvP but want to try again.
- Players who have always prefered PvE but want to try battlegrounds.
- Casual PvPers who enjoy the mode but struggle to stay competitive.
Better casual PvP doesn’t just benefit newcomers or dabblers. It directly strengthens the rated scene. When players enjoy casual battlegrounds, they’re far more likely to step into rated modes. This creates a natural pipeline: casual enjoyment fuels rated participation which in turn boosts competition and keeps the ladder healthy.
If achievements and and cosmetics are exciting enough, players will keep queueing:
- Premade groups will have real purpose, like chasing achievements instead of farming solo players.
- Rated interaction will stay active even late in the season when participation usually drops.
- Competition becomes healthier, with rewards motivating players to play for fun and prestige rather than frustration.
PvP is not a side activity or a minigame. It has always been one of World of Warcraft’s defining features and no other MMO offers PvP on this scale. Yet right now, PvP is the only aspect of the game that can really drag my mood down.
I have a happy life, family, health, a job, stability. But queueing for PvP makes me feel miserable even when I’m winning.
- Busy players are locked in. At the start of a season, gearing forces you down either the PvP rabbit hole or the PvE rabbit hole. If you have a busy life, you can’t choose both. You can’t just casually do a bg while you’re mainly doing PvE.
- Game design compounds the problem. Constant slows, endless CC chains, confusing diminishing returns and one-shots that delete your health bar in seconds. New players don’t understand it, veterans get burnt out and toxicity thrives. Blizzard designed this enviroment and Blizzard is the only one who can fix this.
Blizzard. It is your responisbility to make PvP not only fun but safe. PvE has received countless casual-friendly improvements over the years. PvP deserves the same treatment. Why should PvP be the only mode in modern World of Warcraft that stays behind in the dark ages? Even Classic has more accessible PvP than modern.
If even two of the changes outlined above are implemented, the PvP community will definately grow and improve over time. PLayers will enjoy casual battlegrounds, premade groups will have meaningful goals and rated play will finally feel rewarding.
World of Warcraft PvP has the potential to be the best and most accessible in the genre but only if BLizzard chooses to make it so.
