Ladies and gentlemen, it has NOT been 1 year yet since my Open Letter follow-up post from January '25, however since there’s literally nothing entertaining to read on this forum and since Midnight xpac release is slowly creeping in, I figured it would be a good call to make an early look back, just in case devs end up reading the forums, instead of evaluating the current state based on a freshly started season with nothing fleshed out, as per Blizzard’s habit. This means that this is officially a 3rd rendition of the original post, with relevant updates.
To those uninitiated - back in 2024 I released an ‚Open Letter‘ to Blizzard, highlighting many of the issues PvP had back then, and tried to offer some solutions. The post ended up with over 4.300 views and 50 likes, which for an EU forum PvP post was effectively unheard of in recent years, and for that I have to thank you, since apparently, it hit the nail on the head with the sum-up and many of you agreed.
So now…
…it is time to rewind AGAIN, remind ourselves of what problems we identified over the course of the time, and see how many were tackled and how.
What I intend to do is the following:
- Summarize the key points of the original letter + the follow-up
- Summarize proposed solutions
- Summarize the current state of each key point
- Shout-out at the end points which remained unmentioned, or have become problematic after the posts were released
The original Letter and the first follow-up will be linked at the end of the post.
So, what did the original letter claim, and what’s the state nowadays?
1.1) Unfriendly UI
Baseline UI fails to deliver information clearly.
- Proposed solution: UI revamp, add-on pruning.
- Current state: Addons are getting pruned, so let’s hope they end up replacing cut-out content with reasonable, customizable baseline substitutes, and that it works properly.
Players require 3rd party add-ons for competitive edge.
- Proposed solution: UI revamp, add-on pruning.
- Current state: We’ll see soon enough.
Non-standardized 3rd party-bloated UI is illegible even to seasoned players.
- Proposed solution: UI revamp, add-on pruning.
- Current state: We’ll see soon enough.
The variance in individual UIs make it unappealing and incoherent for people watching.
- Proposed solution: UI revamp, add-on pruning.
- Current state: We’ll see soon enough, however the game still remains borderline unwatchable and generally unfun to look at from the perspective of a WoW non-player.
1.2) Hard Accessibility
Nothing in the game teaches you how to play the gamemode, or even the game at endgame level in general (rotations, spell classes, outplays etc.).
- Proposed solution: Open spellbook for all classes and specializations, training grounds for given content, more spoon-fed explanations, e.g. from class trainers.
- Current state: We got a class-specific spellbook, however the functionality hasn’t been expanded upon, however there is an alleged training ground concept announced.
Baseline UI fails to mention key aspects of spells, making it incomprehensible, or makes it borderline impossible to comprehend on the go (e.g. spell school, dispellability, small hover-over icons etc.).
- Proposed solution: Proper, more detailed descriptions, UI revamp, training grounds.
- Current state: We’ll see how the training grounds work.
1.3) Learning the Ropes
The lack of comprehensiveness makes it incredibly hard for new players to understand the game or have access to its key aspects.
- Proposed solution: Proper, more detailed descriptions, UI revamp, training grounds, utilization of old class trainers.
- Current state: We’ll see how the training grounds work.
New players need 3rd party assets to learn even the key aspects properly (WowHead, addons, streamers, YouTube guides etc.).
- Proposed solution: Proper, more detailed descriptions, UI revamp, training grounds, utilization of old class trainers.
- Current state: We’re losing addons, and if their functionality is not sufficiently replaced, new players have some really dark times ahead of themselves. We’ll see how the training grounds work though.
Extensive slang within the game aggravates the learning difficulty (DR, kick, DoTs, HoTs, burst, CC, individual spell nicknames etc.).
- Proposed solution: Training grounds, open spellbook for all classes.
- Current state: **While we did get the baseline spellbook functionality, it’s barely sufficient, and hasn’t been expanded upon in the past year.
The game makes it very frustrating for a new player to look up abilities of other classes, or even specializations (no open spellbook).
- Proposed solution: Open spellbook.
- Current state: **While we did get the baseline spellbook functionality, it’s barely sufficient, and hasn’t been expanded upon in the past year. And again, we’ll see how the training grounds work.
1.4) No Incentivization to Play
The scarcity of rewards and the difficulty of obtaining them makes PvP unappealing.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) , more rewards e.g. old PvP Elite set/Gladiator mount recolors or new recolors of those accessible via Vicious saddle/Gladiator mount-type item/quest which reflects the difficulty accordingly.
- Current state: The Gladiator achievement is still borderline inaccessible due to ladder deflation, however the rest of the brackets seems to be in a relatively acceptable state. Better than nothing.
The highest reward for PvP (Gladiator mount) is locked in the highest skill bracket, which however has been overshadowed by other brackets, which do not proactively prepare you for participation in that bracket.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) , reward redistribution OR recolor + new titles introduction.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
Unlike PvE, PvP outdated rewards are no longer obtainable, thus lying in vain as dead assets, even if your current level would allow you to reach them (e.g. Mythic sets + CE mounts vs. Elite sets + old Gladiator mounts).
- Proposed solution: Old PvP Elite set/Gladiator mount recolors or new recolors of those accessible via Vicious saddle/Gladiator mount-type item/quest which reflects the difficulty accordingly.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
All brackets offer effectively the same rewards except for Gladiator mount, however at different rates, artificially dividing the playerbase.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: Nothing changed.
The difficulty discrepancy in obtaining said achievements poses a problem not only between brackets, but also across seasons, failing to show player’s personal skill growth in any given bracket.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: Nothing changed.
2.1) MMR
The inter-seasonal bracket achievement interconnectedness fails to properly showcase intended proficiency (no percentile-based achievements except for R1).
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: Nothing changed.
The season-to-season MMR fluctuation underlines both lack of percentile-based achievements which would set a standard, but also the non-existent sense of progression and improvement as the player improves at the game.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: Nothing changed.
MMR is being proactively bottlenecked and bloated with an intention to ascertain player retention, ineffectively.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) . Also, just don’t, it just kills the playerbase.
- Current state: No longer seems to be the case for the most part, let’s hope it remains that way.
The impossibility to progress where intended artificially squishes overly-proficient players into queues they do not belong to, further impeding the sense of progression and deterring players, as they are unable to consistently reach their goals which they should have, based on their previous experience.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: Nothing changed, still very much an ongoing problem with no solution in sight.
People create more alts to practice or make “backup characters” for playing, further aggravating the problem of meeting unevenly skilled people more frequently.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: Nothing changed, still very much an ongoing problem with no solution in sight.
2.2) Achievements = Unreachable
The lack of percentile-based achievements creates skill disparity in obtaining them, depending on the bracket.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: Nothing changed.
Concrete number achievements fail to take playerbase size and activity into consideration, making them borderline unobtainable in some brackets, while making them trivial in others (e.g. 2v2 elite vs. BGB s1 elite).
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: Nothing changed.
Some classes and/or specs have a marginally easier time achieving certain threshold in a given bracket.
- Proposed solution: Proper, more frequent balancing based on actual player feedback, not just statistics.
- Current state: Laughs in Voidweaver Discopriest and Marksmanship Hunter representation graphs
Even overskilled players are unable to reach certain goals in some cases due to aforementioned aspects such as lack of players, low MMR, long queue times etc.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: While this problem somewhat resolved itself in the casual brackets as the bottleneck was released, 3v3 arenas still very much suffer from grave deflation, regularly sending you into multigladiator lobbies starting anywhere above 1700 cr.
2.3) Elitism and Toxicity – Justified?
The fact that even skilled players have trouble reaching their goals easily makes them more prone to be unwilling to teach new players or to even play with them.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) , more rewards e.g. old rewards recyclation.
- Current state: RSS remains unbearably toxic, old brackets remain extremely elitistic, and BGB ratings are widely considered invalid.
Solo modes introduction killed the LFG tool, however the main PvP reward (Gladiator mount) remains gated behind a bracket that requires pairing with other players, as an MMO game should.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) , reward redistribution OR recolor + new titles introduction.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
The inability to consistently obtain one’s previously achieved goal has a negative impact on mentality, thus breeding toxicity, and also making a very bad name for the gamemode as a result of that, deterring more people from engaging with it.
- Proposed solution: I wish I did not have to copypaste the previous solutions to every single paragraph - by now most has already been said, however my distrust for the company’s performance tells me I know better and that I should keep doing it. Also, more actual humans proactively checking chats of accounts flagged with reports; death threats and other scum is still a regular thing in your game. Do your job. Aaaanyway…
- Current state: Nothing changed.
2.4) You are Losing Money
Boosters are doing a great deal of what should be your job, such as UI organization, proper mechanic explanation, consistent playground etc.
- Proposed solution: UI redesign, open spellbook, more spoon-feeding, percentile-based achievements, training grounds, you know the drill by now.
- Current state: We’re getting Add-on pruning, so we’ll see how that goes, however the rest remains largely unaddressed.
Said boosters are being paid money for what you should be paid for in the first place - one thing is taking money for teaching advanced strategies, which is absolutely justifiable, however explaining core principles should be your job, Blizzard.
- Proposed solution: UI redesign, open spellbook, more spoon-feeding, percentile-based achievements, training grounds, you know the drill by now. Do. Your. Job.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
The presence of boosters also aggravates the MMR imbalance.
- Proposed solution: UI redesign, open spellbook, more spoon-feeding, percentile-based achievements, training grounds, you know the drill by now.
- Current state: Funnily enough, PvP has gotten so insanely unpopular that it’s actually relatively rare to come across boosters, because nobody is even interested.
The artificial disconnect between PvE and PvP not only ruins the playerbase size for both, but also breeds hatred between one another, deterring each from the other.
- Proposed solution: Re-introduction of cross-content gear, alongside with very slight optimizations in the opposing type of content to re-merge the playerbase back together, however not in such a way which would make it imperative to engage in both.
- Current state: Nothing changed. I mean, we can craft gear now, but the off-stats cannot be changed without recrafting and spending gold, which PvPers do not make much of.
You can greatly diminish this loss, but you are either deliberately ignorant, or incredibly incompetent if you fail to see this.
- Proposed solution: Just do your job, listen to the playerbase, read the forums, allow EU to participate in your researches.
- Current state: I can’t wait for Blizzard to fail to balance Devourer DH for 3+ seasons.
3.1) Balance
PvP is absolutely riddled with all sorts of bugs, exploits, specialization performance discrepancies etc. and it takes you months or more to address them, and when you do, it is typically completely disproportionate. (e.g. Voidweaver damage, Marksmanship hunter damage, Fire Mage damage, precog kick overlap, M ind C ontrol disconnect, falling through the ground, Undermine arena pet pathfinding etc.)
- Proposed solution: Proper, more frequent balancing based on actual player feedback, not just statistics.
- Current state: Well something did change – we get so little balancing and communication that nothing really matters anymore and everything feels abandoned.
Introducing very aggressive class/spec redesigns mid-season, ruining the balance, team compositions, strategies etc. midway through the process.
- Proposed solution: Proper, more frequent balancing based on actual player feedback, not just statistics. Also, just don’t.
- Current state: We no longer get massive spec/class redesigns mid-season, because there’s typically 1-2 balancing patches per season, scarcely ever addressing the problems effectively.
Balancing around top performance or on-paper performance creates hardcore discrepancies in reality, making many specs unplayable in the lower skill brackets, ruining the fun of option.
- Proposed solution: Proper, more frequent balancing based on actual player feedback, not just statistics.
- Current state: Nothing changed. There will always be a meta, and the top players will always play said meta, no matter what it is. You do not have to kill the fun for the lower players attempting to diffuse that, because you will not succeed anyway.
3.2) Button Bloat
There is a lot of buttons and mechanics and you cannot access knowledge about without going to 3rd party sites and/or learning from players they exist to begin with - and they oftentimes are not even trackable in the actual game (DR, Frost Mage stun, Hunter MC dispel, duality of BM ferocity pet Bloodlust, line of sight/range etc.)
- Proposed solution: Proper, more detailed descriptions, UI revamp, training grounds, utilization of old class trainers.
- Current state: We’re preparing for gamepad accessibility, so let’s see how that works out.
The game is absolutely cluttered with dozens of micro-CC, mobility crutches, cc duration reduction etc., which turned the gamemodes into an M+ tank-and-spank parody rather than strategy-based gameplay.
- Proposed solution: Proper, more frequent balancing based on actual player feedback, not just statistics.
- Current state: We’re preparing for gamepad accessibility, so let’s see how that works out. Very skeptical about Warrior toolkit, though.
The overabundance of buttons gave birth to problems such as Precognition, which is nothing but a band-aid for a pre-existing problem which was not properly addressed, creating yet another one (e.g. we can still proc Precognition if a player is double-kicked even if one is successful, which happens in RSS frequently).
- Proposed solution: Proper, more frequent balancing based on actual player feedback, not just statistics.
- Current state: We’re preparing for gamepad accessibility, so let’s see how that works out.
3.3) No Communication
Even though seasons last for months, at this point we are getting around 3-5 properly-sized balancing patches per season (and they typically fail to address the actual problems anyway).
- Proposed solution: Proper, more frequent balancing based on actual player feedback, not just statistics.
- Current state: It’s even worse now.
4.1) RSS
RSS killed the old brackets, shifted the center of focus, proliferated the MMR discrepancies, but the endgame reward remained in one of the old brackets.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) , more rewards e.g. old PvP Elite set/Gladiator mount recolors or new recolors of those accessible via Vicious saddle/Gladiator mount-type item/quest which reflects the difficulty accordingly.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
The current RSS 6-round design creates clear favourites in any one queue it puts together.
- Proposed solution: Just put a Gladiator mount into the bracket and turn it into a singular 3v3 round, as it should have been. It will solve most of the problems.
- Current state: This got somewhat reasonably resolved within the scope of possibilities by properly matching the DPS compositions.
The healer MMR is in a disastrous state and not only influences the healers, but also the DPS players that get matched up with unevenly competent healers.
- Proposed solution: Just put a Gladiator mount into the bracket and turn it into a singular 3v3 round, as it should have been. It will solve most of the problems, even this one.
- Current state: Doesn’t seem to be that big of a problem than it used to.
The 3-3 (and 6-0) games are a testament to aforementioned problems.
- Proposed solution: Considering how unfair the 6 round format is by principle, a 3-3 winrate should result in no CR gain, however the player should gain a little bit of MMR for not losing the round.
- Current state: Still problematic for healers.
If somebody leaves a match prematurely, those uninvolved are influenced by losing CR based on their unfinished standing within the lobby.
- Proposed solution: There is no way you do not have some sort of a system which would allow you to notice an account which /afk’d out instead of getting accidentally disconnected. Those need to drop MMR as well as CR.
- Current state: Proper CR distribution seems to work fine now.
5.1) New problems as of 19.1. 2025
BGB aggravates achievement difficulty disparity
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
- Current state: As expected.
Botting still seems to be a problem (not really) .
- Proposed solution: Fix your stuff.
- Current state: You seem to have fixed your stuff.
When you /afk out of a queue in RSS, you still retain your MMR, making the punishment barely existent.
- Proposed solution: Afking out of a lobby should be treated as automatic full loss of the remaining rounds for that specific player, without reprimanding the rest, dropping their CR as well as MMR.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
Something needs to be done about queue dodging, be it deliberate or accidental.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) . Furthermore, track frequent dodgers and reprimand them.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
Queue waiting times at non-above-Elite rating are unacceptable.
-
Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) .
-
Current state: Partially fixed by rather gross imbalance of voidweavers, which is a red herring to the underlying problem.
Premade queue matchers are running rampant in non-rated battlegrounds. -
Proposed solution: Hidden MMR; alternatively, members of a group should be evenly distributed against each other.
-
Current state: Disastrous – unrated battlegrounds of all kinds are virtually unplayable at this point.
Honor level farming needs HUGE pruning.
- Proposed solution: Scalable honor gains depending on your CR (could be just the contributing part towards the level).
- Current state: Reaching the final reward on the Honor Level meter takes literal years, and paired with the fact that random BGs are unplayable and top level queues rarely ever proc and do not award remotely enough makes this farm absolutely gruelling and unenjoyable, plus the fastest way to farm this PvP currency is through PvE mode abuse via Comp Stomp and Warrior Skyhold chest. At least we got a Vicious pot now. Actual comedy gold.
Flag carriers and stealthers hard-carrying BGB outcomes.
- Proposed solution: Management of cooldowns to properly balance the bracket.
- Current state: Some changes were made and while many more should be done (e.g. proper team distribution according to stealthers and stacking healers), a large portion of the most problematic ones disappeared.
The size and amount of pets and other non-playable, clickable assets.
- Proposed solution: UI revamp.
- Current state: We’ll see what Midnight brings.
Mass-reporting and fake reports leading to compromising accounts.
- Proposed solution: Proper resources distribution to handle human interaction instead of blindly relying on automated systems.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
The state of the Rated BG bracket.
- Proposed solution: Just drop a Gladiator mount recolor in, nobody plays it.
- Current state: Nothing changed.
6.1) New or gravely ongoing problems as of 24.11. 2025
People literally wintrade with their own alts in 3v3 for Gladiator.
- Proposed solution: Percentile-based achievements starting on week 3 as player hits threshold (BASED ON SL S2 glad/DF S1 RSS/TWW S1 BGB bloated numbers!) . Also, start doing your job, attribute your resources properly and ban these players.
- Current state: Flat out bad.
The balance in TWW s3 has gotten even worse.
- Proposed solution: Do your job.
- Current state: You’re not doing your job.
The deafening silence from the developers failing to react to the state of the gamemode is ongoing.
- Proposed solution: Do your job. Read the forums, communicate with the community.
- Current state: You’re not doing your job.
The inability to react to the happening in the gamemode and amending the flaws is becoming comical.
- Proposed solution: Do your job. Read the forums, communicate with the community.
- Current state: Marksmanship hunters are out there doing 11 million Black Arrow hits while Voidweaver Discipline priests are catching up with their damage throughput. Your preventative measure to that was 15 % Black Arrow nerf, which was outscaled by adding item level to gear, and Voidweavers are still just as dangerous as they were before, since the nerfs were barely even noticable. The rest of the problems are not even worth mentioning, because you can’t even take care of the worst ones. You’re not doing your job.
The state of the non-rated BGs.
- Proposed solution: Do your job. Read the forums, communicate with the community. It’s been rampant for 2 years at least, and it’s partially due to the outdated Honor farming system.
- Current state: You’re not doing your job.
Once again, we are trying to give you spoon-fed feedback, and you are not listening. Do something about it, or at least tell us explicitly that you do not care, cuz it certainly looks like it, but we are trying not to lose hope and spend our time on this. We are paying money for this.
We are still waiting.
Not as cordially anymore,
Scheixanter, a discouraged casual
Original Letter post: Everything Wrong with WoW PvP – Open Letter
Original pdf with embedded pictures which may not be accessible through links anymore (delete spaces): https:// drive.google. com/file/d/1-T10l7pVf3isGh64mzUb0aJ3jMJgXo92/view?usp=drive_link
Original Follow-up post: Everything Wrong with WoW PvP - ANNUAL FOLLOW-UP!