I enter arena with my ilvl 362 priest and i see enemy team with health pool 220K, 230 K about 100K more than me. Since i m not a pro or even good enough, I get stomped. However, that was not the case in the past especially in MoP and WoD. Back then my pvp gear was playing a role. Now their PVE gear plays a role.
Is this done by blizzard on purpose? To make all players have fun on all aspects?
Consider what really happened…
-In WoD slowly RNG on pvp gear introduced. We still had vendors and pvp gear was playing a role.
-In Legion templates introduced (to supposedly give a balance already removed by heavy pruning) and pvp vendors gone, all gear was RNG.
-Now, in BFA, templates gone, pvp vendors gone, all gear is RNG.
It s easy to see the focus on PVE players (although PVE vendors gone too) be able to participate and dominate in pvp activities, since in a way, templates seem to have been a lure towards the final today product, PVE gear superiority.
I think it’s the result of accommodating the immediate feedback from the community, without ever being able to settle on a PvP design that pleases everyone.
Every PvP design that has been tried has had some faults. Each time Blizzard have changed the design they’ve simply traded one set of faults for another.
Let’s go down memory lane…
TBC+WotLK
People complain that the rating requirements on gear puts them at a disadvantage versus PvEers who can more easily obtain high-quality gear.
How is it fair that a Black Temple or Naxxramas-geared PvEer has better gear for PvP than a dedicated 1600-rated PvPer?
Cataclysm+MoP
Blizzard tries to fix the faults of TBC and WotLK by introducing Resilience and PvP Power in an effort to establish PvP gear as being superior for PvP.
Players complain that these stats pigeon-hold them into PvP, because no one will invite a PvP-geared player for Firelands or Throne of Thunder since Resilience and PvP Power are useless stats in PvE.
WoD + Legion
Blizzard makes PvP gear similar to PvE gear so players aren’t pigeon-holded into a single aspect of the game. At the same time they put item level caps and other restrictions on PvP activities to ensure that gear doesn’t become a dominant factor.
People complain that the sense of reward and progression in PvP is gone, because fresh alts can be as powerful as a devoted BiS main character, and that after easily acquiring the necessary gear for PvP there isn’t anything meaningful to pursue in PvP.
BfA
Blizzard removes the power restrictions on gear in PvP and emphasizes the progression and sense of reward by making gear rewards more impactful and worth pursuing.
Players complain that PvP is too much of a gear grind, and that the RNG nature of rewards is more detrimental to your success than your own skill is.
That’s sort of how PvP has evolved, roughly speaking.
And if the past is any indication of the future, then in the next expansion Blizzard will probably address the complaints in BfA – and players will find faults with the new design, whatever it may be, just as they have with every design of the past.
You are right. But it is the first expansion i feel,as a casual, i try so much without accomplishing anything. At least in the previous ones (except legion) had a feeling of building and customizing my character toons the way i like. And did it mostly through pvp and some professions (the later also guted as to character progression too). So it remains nothing.
Uuuhm resilience was implemented in burning crusade.
I don’t remember anyone saying that. The biggest theme of complaints all throughout WoD was 1. The mission table and too much time spent in the garrison, as a continuation of the complaints of the overbearing amount of daily quests in MoP.
And 2. Trashran, especially the accolade trinket from WoD s2 which lasted as a grievance 'til the end of the expansion.
Sure. The design over the years has typically swung like a pendulum in terms of how much character customization there has been. Since WoD the pendulum has swung toward less character customization, whereas MoP and prior expansions offered more character customization.
Going by recent statements from Ion Hazzikostas, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pendulum swings back to allow for more character customization in the next expansion. But that’s quite some time away still.
I’m not sure about the sense of accomplishment. As a fellow casual PvPer I definitely feel that Random Battlegrounds and Skirmishes and World PvP and that whole Unrated aspect of PvP is fairly unrewarding right now. The time investment doesn’t really pay off.
On the flip-side I think PvP is more rewarding for those who devote themselves to the Rated aspect. The introduction of reward brackets, the weekly chest, the season mount, and so on, makes for a better package than past expansions offered.
But for the casuals like you and I there’s not much to strive toward. I think the Honor levels and the rewards associated with that was meant to be the carrot-on-the-stick, but it really feels like a monumental grind that’s not worth the time investment.
So yeah, there’s room for improvement here.
while the game is crap I honestly don’t know how you can even be that low ilvl. The game literally throws ilvl 400 stuff at you for being afk in the game.
now if you average at ilvl 385 I could get a little behind it but 360 is like playing the game for 4h after hitting 120
in past expacs you also got stomped until you have gear. The difference is that you at least could afk in bgs pretending to pvp till you got garbage gear to farm arena for better gear. Now you have to play a little afk warfront, wqs and some m+ before you can arena. But once you did it in this season, you are good to go in the next season from the very beginning without the need to farm pve.
the difference between ilvl 385 and 400 is not really that big of a deal in pvp
Well to be completely honest…u mentioned mop. If u were in mop with …lets say 510ilvl (± 40 ilvl below.max like you are here with 360 fighting 400± ilvl ppl) then you would have get literaly oneshoted by 550 prideful geared player …no matter if those 510 were pvp gear or pve. So i think this comparsion is a little bit off.
And yes i think it was way better than how it is now. Where freshly dinged dude with 0 effort and time putted into his character can tank you like a champ without swet.
Have you even played the game back then? Resilience was introduced in TBC and shined in WoTLK, later to be divided into PvP Power and PvP Resilience.
WoTLK was so good in PvP, because you could play around your stats very well. You could find the balance between survivability and damage output (like 1.2k ress, 4k AP, 30% crit or 800 ress, 5k AP, 40% crit), which suits your own playstyle, not to mention the new findings in the lategame (like abusing ARP rating and agility for crit-rate for paladins/warriors/dks, etc.)
Sorry, badly worded on my part. They emphasized Resilience (doubled the damage reduction it provided going into Cataclysm) and introduced PvP Power in Mists of Pandaria.
pvp gearing was super fun in wotlk. Mostly pvp gear was top (except they forgot to disable stupid pve weapon procs, legendarys and pve trinkets)
due to rating requirements on most slots, you were also really looking forward to every 100 more rating you could achieve
there was a reason that wotlk was the prime and I think also in pvp it was the most played expac
People complain that the sense of reward and progression in PvP is gone, because fresh alts can be as powerful as a devoted BiS main character, and that after easily acquiring the necessary gear for PvP there isn’t anything meaningful to pursue in PvP.
that was great 1.8 nerd was a 1.8 nerd, skilled player was a skilled player. eh times.
1.8 nerd was a 1.8 nerd, skilled player was a skilled player. eh times.