Hey guys!
I’ve taken on the task to create a huge feedback thread on things that both me and the community wants to see change with the goal of increasing Arena PvP participation in upcoming Classic expansions.
I’m a fan of the game and I’ve been playing it for 20 years with Classic being my main focus since the release of TBC. I stream Classic Arenas and have the unique possibility to interact with the Arena Community on a daily and I would consider myself to have a well educated opinion on what would be good for the game mode.
I have good knowledge as I’ve played at the very top of the PvP leaderboards for 15 years straight and I’ve had wide success in both AWC & CAT tournaments since 2013. I probably have some of the most Arenas played in the entire world so hopefully that qualifies me as a person that knows what I’m talking about.
This post will be long because I want to be elaborative. I’m passionate about Arenas and I’ve never seen somebody with influence in the community making a post similar to this so instead of me ranting about that “they don’t care about PvP” I’m now trying to be the change that I want to see.
I also want to highlight that this is OUR thread and I want to encourage every single one of you to say your piece about what you think of my suggestions in a CONSTRUCTIVE manner but also what changes YOU would like to see.
I’ve gotten a promise from the Classic Devs that they will read this post and monitor the thread so if you want your voice to be heard then this is our chance, and if you like what I’m suggesting then make sure you communicate that because they wanted me to post on the forums to see what you guys think as well.
Here’s my suggestions:
Two things that I think MUST change.
End of Season Rewards (Titles) returned for 2v2 and 5v5 Arenas:
Before Cataclysm Classic came out the higher-end of PvP players vouched for titles to be removed from 2v2 and 5v5 in order to encourage more people to play 3v3 “the skilled bracket that the game is balanced around” and this turned out to be a great mistake because it’s a change that’s only appealing for the higher-end players but more discouraging for the casual players that has a harder time finding dedicated partners for 3v3 and in this day and age, what truly is the downside to not allowing titles from each bracket? It’s ONLY positive because people love rewards and to have a carrot to chase, and in this case - end of season rewards.
Dampening to start earlier:
Dampening is introduced in MoP and I believe it’s on a 10 minute timer? In the 2v2 bracket this literally feels like a lifetime. The nature of 2v2 is slower paced so I think it’s very important that dampening kicks in after 3 minutes in the 2v2 bracket otherwise you run around with the feeling of that the game hasn’t started until dampening has kicked in and the average player is good enough for games to literally not end without the help of dampening in this bracket. I think a 5 minute timer for 3v3 is appropriate since it’s more action-packed and if two teams play well, the game will go to dampening and that’s fine.
This can single-handedly be the most impactful custom change.
Custom slots for End of Season Reward Titles:
This means that instead of having the traditional 0.1% of the ladder obtaining Rank One Gladiator and the top 0.5% obtaining Gladiator I think there should be a SET amount of spots available per bracket that is eligible for titles and an example of this could be that the top 100 of each bracket will be eligible for Rank One Gladiator and top 250 is eligible for Gladiator.
These goals are reachable for the average player and it would greatly encourage them to play and practice PvP. If you use Cataclysm s10 as an example, only 8 people were eligible for Rank One Gladiator and when people see that then they realize it’s too far out of reach so they don’t bother playing in the first place.
I personally really like this idea and it’s been discussed for months in the Classic Arena Community and I guarantee that it would make a lot more people PvP.
If that doesn’t sound like a good idea then I’d like to propose the Retail Gladiator system where people above 2400 Rating with 50 wins earns Gladiator but the issue with this is that people wait until the MMR has inflated, which means they start late into the season when it’s easier to climb rating and then they grind out their Gladiator title and stop there because there’s no incentive to keep going. The next goal is too far out of reach as the jump from Gladiator to Rank One Gladiator with this system is usually a rating difference between 600-800 while on the contrary if you have custom spots then it’s realistic to reach as the rating difference between Gladiator and Rank One Gladiator is usually between 100-200 rating and you can achieve that by networking, practicing and building team chemistry throughout the season to ensure that they’re a contender for End of Season Rewards and that’s what Arenas should be about in my opinion.
Individuals not taking up several spots:
Something retail does well with the End of Season Rewards is that a Player despite having X amount of characters eligible for the End of Season Rewards till counts as one opposed to taking up five slots if he has five characters eligible. This is a great system and an absolute no-brainer, Classic should adopt it!
PvP Power on s12 Gear:
The s12 PvP gear doesn’t have PvP Power on it and this might cause a huge imbalance. I’d encourage adding it.
Solo Shuffle/Support System:
Finding partners for Arena is one of the biggest issues and obstacles that people are facing today. People spend hours in LFG searching for a teammate just to be met by people lying about their Arena experience and general toxicity and impatience.
The “solution” to this is usually people saying “Just add Solo Shuffle to Classic” and while Solo Shuffle increases participation in PvP (Retail is evidence of that) it usually means people stop trying to play the other brackets just because it’s easier to queue Solo. I’m not against Solo Shuffle but I think creating a system to help people finding teammates would be a much better solution and especially if you’re going with my suggestion of returning titles to 2v2 and 5v5 as well as adding a set amount of spots for End of Season Rewards.
Unfortunately I don’t have a good idea of what a system like that could look like but returning the PvP tab to LFG would be a good start and have that be cross-realm. Why was it even randomly removed in the first place in WoTLK?
Keep in mind that adding Solo Shuffle to Classic would also mean a lot more work and the necessity to come up with new titles and from what I understand, we don’t have the luxury to have that many resources provided for PvP.
Cross faction Arenas:
In my opinion we should introduce every Quality of Life change that would increase PvP participation. Why not allow for cross faction queueing? MoP is a more modern expansion and I think it would be a great change. (Mercenary Mode?)
MMR inflation from the start:
There’s nothing more discouraging for players to feel like you’re not progressing because MMR inflation doesn’t exist from the start or it’s not influential enough. When you’re playing Arenas it should feel like you’re making progress and seeing your rating go up, it’s validating and fun. We’ve seen both on Retail and Classic what happens when there’s no inflation, the average player ends up facing Rank One Gladiators on their usual MMR and that’s discouraging and makes them not want to play because they want to be matched against people within their skill group. This also makes the average player not play until later into the season when the higher rated players are finally within their own MMR range.
On retail we’ve also seen it taking weeks or even months for some of the best players in the world to obtain Gladiator and that’s not a good thing. If it takes that long for some of the best, then what chance does the average player stand? We don’t need to see crazy inflation to the point where people get 3800 rating by the end of the season but it should be there from the beginning and gradually increase.
Disable Class Stacking in Arena:
Class stacking should be disabled for the same reason double healer compositions isn’t allowed. It promotes stale and lame gameplay and for the most part it’s overpowered. Double Rogue compositions in TBC and WoTLK are good examples of this or Double Healer X compositions in both WoTLK and Cataclysm. By the way, you’re still able to respec inside of Arenas in Cataclysm which makes people able to play double healer.
Random side note:
One of the biggest issues in Classic has been that we’ve had to PvE in order to collect our PvP BiS and thankfully that problem goes away with MoP so that change alone is going to encourage a lot more people to play, including people from retail that is already used to a good gearing system because that was likely a big discouragement for them.
Thank you for reading and once again I want to emphasize the importance of discussing everything in a friendly and constructive manner whether you agree with me or not. If we’re being negative and hateful towards each other or the developers then how could we expect them to listen?
Let’s work together and show that we’re a strong and passionate community that is worthy of having our game mode cared for.
Much love guys,
Jon/Minpojke