Shadowlands had the best PVP system we ever had

PVP Battlegrounds
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You can laugh all you want, but Shadowlands PvP actually did have some of the best systems we’ve seen in years, and that’s just a fact.

At the end of SL, you could queue Solo Shuffle without a healer – tanks filled that role. That meant queues popped instantly and people could just play the game instead of staring at the queue window for 30 minutes because nobody wanted to heal. That alone kept a lot of players engaged who would’ve otherwise just logged off.

On top of that, the progressive gearing system in SL was one of the best incentives PvP ever had. You didn’t just get your gear and log off for the season – you kept working on it. Every 200 rating you gained, you could upgrade your gear further, which meant the entire spectrum of the bracket had a reason to keep pushing and improving. Even low-ranked players had a reason to keep playing, because you could farm Honor in unrated PvP and upgrade your gear step by step. That meant BGs, skirmishes, and unrated matches actually felt rewarding, which kept casuals and new players in the mix instead of dropping out after a week.

People also begged Blizzard for equalized PvP gear to lower the gear disparity, but ironically what we got made the problem worse. In Shadowlands, baseline conquest gear was only 3 item levels higher than honor gear, which meant the gap was small and manageable for new players to catch up. Now in Dragonflight and The War Within, conquest gear is far above honor gear, so new players get stomped harder than ever. The “fix” actually made gearing disparity worse than it was in SL.

The truth is, players rarely appreciate what they have until it’s gone. Shadowlands PvP was the best system we ever had – instant queues, real gearing progression, and incentives for every type of player to keep playing. But instead of recognizing that, the community complained it into the ground, and Blizzard backtracked. We ruined what was working.

So yeah, you can meme about “good things in SL,” but if you actually look at what kept the PvP community active, it wasn’t DF’s design – it was SL’s.

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SL S2 was the best :saluting_face:

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Yeh idk.
Having the best gear locked behind rating excluded a lot of players from even playing BG’s. Unrated players jumping into a BG were just getting insta-squished.

I don’t see why better players (high rated) need to be able to hit harder & take less damage than low/unrated players?
…if you’re already better, why do you need a gear advantage on top of your skill advantage?

Awful system, imo.

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They don’t and it’s good that it was equalized for all leagues later on.

The only good thing about SL gearing was that it was a huge step up from BfA, which had a terrible system for obtaining PvP gear, but that doesn’t mean SL PvP gearing was good in itself, it was just less terrible than its predecessor because it reintroduced PvP vendors.

What we have rn is pretty decent. The only thing I would change is make algari competitor (low rated crafted pvp gear below honor level, the starter kit) obtainable from the pvp vendor instead of from players with crafting professions for a small amount of GOLD, no more than 100 gold per piece, with some really poor pve ilvl and 13 ilvls below honor gear in pvp.

Let’s be real, many players have no idea it even exists and can be bought on the AH and then they join random bgs in heirlooms and are a burden on their team.

I still have my Elite sword from SL season 1 lying around on my bank, that having an ilvl in PvE as high as a weapon from Denathrius in Mythic is kinda hilarious ngl. Idk what they were smoking when they made Elite gear as good in PvE as mythic raid gear.

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SL PVP system was the best.

Actual gear progression, which is core to an MMO.

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sl feelt good for me too in special in pvp

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The balance was horrendous.
PvP gear upgrade was a must, full kitted honor set costing a crapton of honor.
But hey, at least solo shuffle wasn’t that bad.

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SL was peak no skill pvp system where the only way to climb rating was to get carries by other no skill players that had better gear. Literally 0 skill system just for gear progression.

What was it someone with brains said? PvE is for gear progression, PvP is for skill progression. Go play PvE.

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Holy Priests resurrecting their teammates in spirit guardian form was the absoulte peak cinema of the expansion. Arenas with 2-3 (or more ) kills on each side were common. :rofl:
Honorable mention to the stupid night fae pod

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Speak for urself, I climbed to 2.4 in 3v3. no carries, just cus u suck doesn’t mean the rest do.

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Nobody is talking about the gameplay of the expansion, it truly sucked.

We talking about the gearing system.

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I know, look my previous comment before that.
It sucked too.

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Given the enormous power discrepancies we’re already having, such a gearing system will make PvP unplayable for the majority of the players that are still interested in it. The current meta already is a one shot fiesta. It doesn’t need to become even worse.

The current meta isn’t good enough to put a lot of time into either. Imagine being forced to play shuffle or blitz. RBGs are no longer an option, so, BG-minded players will be forced to play either of those modes. Such a system will make PvP incredibly gruelling.

No, thanks.

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For the majority of WoW PvP history, gear was the carrot on a stick locked behind rating. You can argue with this all you want, but after DF/TWW, the PvP participation dropped.

Cause and effect.

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This is a one dimensional way of thinking, and you’re also dead wrong.

Gear for hard rating existed only during TBC, BfA and SL.

There was no gear for rating during Cata, MoP, and WoD, and only a weak version of it during WotLK. PvP participation was just as high. People were practically begging for a WoD style gearing system at the end of SL.

I am, of course, excluding cosmetic recolors.

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And look what happened, that “WOD gearing system” completely killed pvp lmao. SL had the highest pvp participation of all time and short queues in both rated and unrated.

I remember all those complaints at the end of SL, and I was warning people that the changes they wanted would kill pvp because they don’t understand player psychology.

Here are numbers to prove it.

Number of players who reached 2400

SL S2: 5,001
TW S1: 1,478

Keep in mind SL S2 was before SS and Blitz existed, which makes the numbers even more shocking.

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Does this perhaps not count blitz in? Could swear everyone had the forged elite tabard.

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Honestly, if they make a pvp like SL in the future, i will be a premader syncer.

That. was. the. worst. gearing. ever.
Even BfA was better than this awful expansion.

Shadowlands was a job.
Not a game.

I already have a job irl.

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These numbers coincide exactly with global lockdowns.

S3 and S4 were just as dead as the game is right now.

Also, imagine thinking that you can revive PvP by forcing people to play RBGs, blitz and shuffle in their current implementations.

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Oh thats right, there was also huge class imbalance, where if you pick right class you can 0 skill your way up.

Like im sorry to burst your bubble but it was the no skill expansion, where more players than ever got titles, as this dude says: