Why is Blizzard actively killing PvP in this game, when everything is already in place and it could actually be a great PvP game? I get it — fewer and fewer people are playing PvP, so it hasn’t been a priority for a long time. But have you actually tried playing WoW as a pure PvP player lately?
Let me try to summarize why nobody wants to play PvP anymore — without repeating the usual clichés (like the ones you’ll hear in Skillcapped videos).
I’ve been playing WoW basically since the beginning, with breaks — usually one or two seasons per expansion. Most of the time I focused purely on PvP, but I was never hardcore.
In this expansion, I played the first season with friends doing PvE only — and I have to say, it’s actually a great game. PvE players are well taken care of. There’s clear progression, something to do every day, stuff to improve, a way to grow… awesome.
But in season two, I came back on my own and tried PvP again — just for fun, mostly interested in BG Blitz. I rolled a brand new class and started from scratch.
So what’s the experience like for a “new” PvP player mid-season?
- During leveling, you basically have no access to PvP. Leveling battlegrounds are completely dead — no one queues, there are no meaningful rewards, and you barely get any XP even if you win (if you even can — I didn’t get into a single one).
Why can’t we level partially through battlegrounds? Why can’t we get rewards like we do from random dungeons? This way, everyone hits max level knowing only PvE — no wonder no one ever says “hey, I think I’ll try PvP” if they had zero chance to interact with it before. - Once you hit max level, you can enter battlegrounds — finally! But what awaits you? The gear gap is so insane that you get one-shot by literally everything. There’s no point in trying — you hide behind your team and pray you don’t get nuked by AoE. You’re a massive burden on your team because you contribute nothing, so you lose more often, which means you earn less honor.
Non-rated BGs are essentially a battle of which team has fewer undergeared players. Add in premades and you’re in for a brutal beating.
I understand that you reduced the cost of honor gear and made it more accessible — great! But it’s still two or three miserable days of grinding. - Instead of doing PvP, you can farm blood tokens. How? PvE world quests and again — pray you don’t get one-shot.
Let’s say, after a few days of inhumane farming, you finally get some decent honor gear and a few pieces from blood tokens. You want to try rated PvP. - Boom! You’re undergeared again. The gap is smaller but still big enough that you have no chance. Don’t even think about arenas. In BG Blitz, you’re still dead weight. You don’t win much because you can’t carry your team. Your MMR tanks, you drop to 1200-1300, and now you’re stuck there for a week or two because queues are 30 minutes long.
- After weeks of suffering, you finally collect most of your PvP gear. Whew. But your MMR is in the gutter, so you’re still facing 20-minute queues. Most battlegrounds end in the first fight because your team has a fresh healer who dies in 5 seconds, while the enemy team has a 12th alt veteran WoW player who can tank the sun.
This was an absolutely awful month with very few highlights. I completely understand why no one even tries PvP anymore.
Yes, skill bloat and reward systems are a problem. But to me, the biggest issue is that new players never even get a chance to access PvP properly. And if by some miracle they do, the system immediately crushes them. It punishes new players so harshly that queues across the board are unbearable. No one wants to go through this. And if it stays this way, PvP might as well be considered dead.
And that’s a shame. We have PvP balancing, PvP talents, battlegrounds — everything is ready for a good PvP experience. But the outdated system has effectively killed it.
So what could be improved?
- Show players PvP earlier. Give us a PvP quest at level 10. Let battlegrounds grant XP for kills, and give completion rewards (not just for winning), comparable to random dungeons. Let people experience PvP as they level — not just at max level.
- Create meaningful PvP progression. Give us something of value outside of rating and leaderboards. Something that motivates people to keep playing.
Elite PvP sets used to be red and black — they meant something. You saw someone in red/black and knew they were a badass. Now elite sets come in random colors — paladin in purple, warlock in green — and they’re visually indistinguishable from regular sets. That totally kills the prestige.
If people can’t recognize elite gear, there’s no reason to grind for it. AND We need more than just one elite set per season and mounts for top 0.1%. Why are we giving out cosmetic rewards for free in the Trading Post instead of tying them to real PvP achievements? - Reduce the gear gap. I remember older expansions (I think up to MoP) where you could jump into PvP mid-season, not be dead weight, and still manage to get some kills. Since BfA, that’s basically impossible.
We need a PvP progression path like PvE has — where players know where to go next and how to improve — but without weeks of suffering just to become relevant. - Separate premades. I get it — your philosophy has always been “organized teams should win.” Sure. But this is different. This is an exploit-tier situation where the other team can’t even play.
When you queue into a premade, you know you have zero chance. People leave instantly. It’s a complete waste of time — and no one thinks of that as a “fun” way to spend their evening.
PvP needs more players. That means shorter queues, better matchmaking, and rewards that actually feel prestigious again. PvP needs to make sense in the overall game experience the way it used to.
Right now, PvP is completely unable to attract new players. And that’s tragic, because I’d argue that WoW started as a PvP-focused game. Back in vanilla, you’d raid partly just to gear up and destroy people in battlegrounds.
Sure, that idea is outdated — but the system can be modernized. PvP can still have a real place in WoW.
Right now, though, it feels like it’s getting more and more neglected with each expansion. And honestly? That’s exactly what we’re seeing — most of the major PvP creators have already moved on to other games.
Please bring back PvP. Many of us used to love it.
