Dragonflight desirable RBG changes

Dear Developers,

With Dragonflight coming in and regular PvP updates, it is pretty encouraging to see that a lot of efforts are being put into making retail PvP more engaging and exciting. However, RBGs are not being mentioned in any of the updates. I believe and assume many players would feel that implementing the following changes would make RBGs and PvP much more rewarding and exciting overall.

  1. The armory should properly list account-wide and character-wide PvP achievements. If the character home screen can list the M+ rating and iLvL etc. it should also clearly list the current RBG and Arena rating as well. In one of my characters, my win % of EoTS is 187%! Such things need to be corrected

  2. Dragonflight must bring at least one new flag map and two new resource maps for RBGs. Having a 3-node resource game would be unique

  3. There should be 2-3 mounts obtainable with rbg ratings and rbg wins that are NOT obtainable via PvP saddle

  4. All RBG titles should be account-wide and not character-bound, available immediately on a new character. It will make playing Alts much more interesting and prestigious

  5. On an LFG application window apart from iLvL and current rating, a character and account-specific highest rating achieved should be reflected, so that the leader is not required to check external 3rd party websites like check PvP, etc.

  6. RBG titles should be seasonal. Someone who obtained a Sergent or a Grunt or a HOTH/A back in Cata or now has the same title, whereas a Gladiator will have a seasonal prefix. Please bring a seasonal prefix to all RBG titles

  7. RBG-specific gear set cosmetics at 2000+, 2200+, 2400+ and HoTH/A would be icing on the cake… provided we get the above changes

I would request other RBGers to comment and contribute. Together we can revive the declining RBG community and make the game mode much more interesting and rewarding again.

Thanks
Dr. Sunny Duttagupta aka Droho/Eagles/etc.

24 Likes

Most of the PvP content creators on YouTube, talk about tunings and changes concerning 3v3 Arena mode. There is hardly any YouTuber who is taking interest in RBGs. Even Skillcapped hardly ever talks about RBGs. Unless developers take interest in this segment, the game mode will go off. That the titles are the same since Vanilla whereas Arena gets seasonal titles, says it all. I hope the developers take note of this mode.

5 Likes

The balance needs to come in terms of class tuning. At present, the worst part is to wait for hours to find a Guardian Druid for being a tank. Unless other tank classes like Prot Warriors, Vengence DH, and Blood DKs are made viable as FCs, RBGs would never get back on track. This is the major issue regarding RBGs now. It would be a dream if BM Monks and Prot Paladins can even come in the foray.

4 Likes

The interest and participation are just not there. Unless the Big YouTubers and Streamers start talking about RBGs and put a note in threads like this, nothing will ever change. Afterall, the Developers act on what viewers and young age subscribers want and take interest in

4 Likes

RBgs are one of the most exciting thing in WOW and a thing that no other game have, but because of the desinterest of dvs, people stop playing it, and by consequence leave WOW in middle of season.

10 Likes

Great post @Ghatotkach :facepunch: - having spend quite a lot of time in the RBG scene this expac, our community would back these additions and it would be a huge step forward for the RBG community.

However, I think we’re missing a really important 8th point here to improve quality of life for RBG in general - tanks in RBGs.

  1. Remove tanks from RBGs to (a) reduce queue time SIGNIFICANTLY, (b) create less scripted gameplay and (c) allow for more entertaining and improvised matches.

Rationale:

A. Queue Time: Typically when you’re forming an RBG group, tank tends to be the last spot to join as they’re in short demand at the moment - mainly because it’s just not fun to play or play against :slightly_frowning_face:

As a result of a bit of a unrewarding spec, generally it can take anywhere from 25 mins (on a good day) to 1 hour to get someone in. Mix this with the long queue times and you can be sat running laps in Oribos for 1hr+ forming and queueing before actually playing the game.

B. Less Scripted Gameplay: Having the Guardian tank meta in RBGs makes games super scripted. Take a flag map like WSG for instance, most games follows the same script:

:large_blue_circle: Tank stealths to enemy base avoiding DH
:large_blue_circle: Team fight takes place
:large_blue_circle: Team X wins and tank picks flag
:large_blue_circle: Rogue opens on tank
:large_blue_circle: Tank presses incarn and runs back to base
:large_blue_circle: Team Y tank picks when enemy tank is close
:large_blue_circle: Both teams regroup and offensive groups push for enemy tank (usually requiring every CD to kill)
:large_blue_circle: Rinse and repeat :sleeping:

Ultimately, 95% of WSG or TP maps play out like this and subsequently any node map just requires sitting a pretty uncappable guardian (if they know what they’re doing) on the base AFK for 10 mins at a time, leaving fewer options to get your 3rd node.

C. More Improvised Gameplay: Without the scripted element of tanks in RBGs, this just gives a lot more viability to different leggos, specs and comps. E.g. an actual excuse to play warrior leaper legendary and pvp talent to transfer flag or a coordinated effort with leap of faith etc etc.

Granted removing tanks would be a big change but having spoken to many RBG communities, we’ve yet to find any teams that disagree.

Other than that - make RBGs 6-8 person max and add solo queue :wink:.

Sorry for the long reply, but important to get the detail rather than just a unsubstantiated suggestion.

Moozey

9 Likes

Excellent comment and views. I would just say that instead of removing Tanks altogether, we should make other specs viable as well like Prot FC or BDK FC back in Cata. With the Legendaries getting removed, I believe Guardians won’t be an OP choice as FC in DF. We however need more maps and other initiatives from the Devs. So far, there have been so many posts on DF, on Twitter and YouTube, etc, but none as addressed anything regarding RBGs. I hope the Devs take some notice and interest.

4 Likes

Indeed. No other game has this RBG mode of 10v10. If Guild Wars 2 copies this mode into their system or any other MMO, then with their gear independent PvP and other quality of life advantages or cosmetics, etc, WoW will fall behind. Dragonflight is the make-or-break expansion for WoW, at least in terms of RBGs if the Devs and the company care.

3 Likes

agree, u have my thumbs up.

2 Likes

Ever since Dragonflight news has dropped in, there has been tweets about gear cosmetics, class tunings where streamers are talking about the same in terms of raiding and the latest being a Dragon vendor selling Cheese in the new zone! But not a single tweet or post regarding Rated Battlegrounds. This aspect of the game has been totally ignored since over a decade.

The game mode at least need new maps for the love of the game!! Please Developers, have some consideration towards this mode as well. On the original post, Point number 2… please have a look at it. If the Devs do it, I will be more than happy. For the rest of the points, I think they are an elusive dream, but other than point 2, if anything else gets implemented, this game would scale levels and no other MMO will ever get to match WoW PvP ahead… but before that the basics, get us new RBG maps…big time

3 Likes

Good post, in arena when you get glad you get a new mount every season but when you get Hero of the Horde in RBG you get the achievement once that’s it. No reason to go back and get hero again unlike arena.

A seasonal mount would be great give us something more! RBG has been neglected for to long now!

6 Likes

rbgs will stay dead as long as:

  1. we dont have solo queue
  2. tanks are part of the group (mainly due to imbalance and immortality and annoyance of tanks in general)

fix those and you will have tons of people playing rbg

7 Likes

Rated Battlegrounds are the most unique PvP feature of WoW since no other MMO has a 10v10 Rated PvP game mode. I am unsure why the developers have been neglecting rated battlegrounds ever since. I am not sure but the last rated battleground map was brought in legion! It is high time that in Dragonflight, there are at least 2 new rated battleground maps, with one being surely a flag-carrying map like WSG and TP. Imagine, when TP was released…probably in Cataclysm!

Apart from that player incentives need to be there surely for people to participate more. Ingame rewards apart from mounts and titles, like gold for the winners and one month of game time for the top 2 teams could be really motivating.

3 Likes

been begging for this since cataclysm.

2 Likes

It appears that the WoW Development team is just focussed on just developing Raids and Dungeons and in PvP just tune it on the 3v3 mode. Rated SoloQ is a nice change but sadly for Dragonflight, there has not been a single update or comment as far as RBGs are concerned. Imagine yet another Expac with NO NEW MAP for RBGs…

1 Like

I MEAN, old maps are still the bests… seething shore is my leaqst favourite, followed by silvershard, along with most of the epics, due to godamn tanks 1shotting everything, thats not pvp for me.

2 Likes

Actually in Dragonflight, with we going back to two gear levels of Honor and Conquest, the very concept of one shooting will go off RBGs. Higher teams who play regularly with each other will still win just based on skills and experience, but they won’t win just coz a Duelist gear player one shooting someone at basic entry-level gear as such. Also, Seething Shore is no longer in RBGs for a long time. What we need in Dragonflight is one new flag carrying map, to give a welcome change from WSG and TP and another resource map.

Developers can take inspiration from the competition and can think of developing another map in terms of Silvershard Mines, with not movable nodes but rather static nodes which get capped with players inside the diameter. It can just be a three-node map on a triangle. Would be a very interesting concept demanding significant team coordination.

2 Likes

id rather have 1v1 arena 5v5 arena, soloq for rated bg, wpvp events and faction wars, crossfaction bgs to ease qtimes, like wotlk. then having money wasted on another bg, thats probably not gonna be on par with some of the good ones we still have…
WSG, TwinPeaks, Arathi Basin, EyE of the Storm are best
Gilneas and Deepwind Gorge, are fine, gilneas is a bit too much armwrestle, basically 1 objective to contest to win, making the stronger team guaranteed victory almost everytime, there is no such thing as alternative strategies, win ww fight equally 80% winratio in there
Eye of the Storm, should be like the Rated version, with bases that can be stolen, isntead of captured by sitting afk on top of them, lots of people idle watching youtube with 0 sense of danger in couples or 3 man, knowing 1 man cannot steal the base anyway. and “mount up incs” are called and seen from miles, give that time to decide if to defend of abbandon and go next base and go back to watch youtube.
Deepwind is okay, but its a little imbalanced, even tho nobody seems to have noticed, only alliance side has access to Reset, while Horde as Berserking, now, berserking is great, but cd reset ? thats just stronger.
yes, i know you have the reset mid, and my strategy is often to focus my attention only on mid and shrine, since these 2 bases give reset, and i can literally have combustion up everytime if i time things correctly, and defending with all my cds is not hard feat.

1 Like

Yes true, the reset and berserk should be available diagonally opposite on both sides

Also put Honor Level upfront, at least in LFG. Gives people more to look at than just achievs and cr.

1 Like