TL;DR? read the post title
The Proposal:
Add universally standardised gear/ilvl to levelling BGs (Anything under max level).
The reasoning:
Levelling BGs are an absolute disaster. Right from level 10, it’s a totally unbalanced mess.
I don’t expect the classes to balance out because they’re all learning skills differently, and that’s largely unavoidable. But the gear… The gear is INEXCUSABLE.
Any newcomer is going to have the WORST time in a BG. Imagine your first impression of the game is getting full to nearly zero by Aimed Shot and nothing else.
I would never recommend it to anyone, even the most dedicated PvPer in other games, on this basis.
There’s no enjoyment on the winning side of it either. Just spawncamping an essentially defenceless enemy. Pointless. Is that fun? Is that PvP? No. It’s garbage.
Yes, I get it, gearing is part of the game. But not whilst levelling.
It should not be at other people’s expense in levelling PvP.
This could be fixed in one day’s work.
And a Rant:
Every expansion releases and I still am shocked to see they haven’t done this. I am convinced nobody with any sway at Blizzard has EVER played a low level (anything except max level) BG, even once. You’d only need to play one BG to know it needs fixing, and it can be done easily. Heirloom has been the biggest offender for this.
I’ve got recent footage of 4 overgeared people on my team camping the entire Horde in their spawn to the point they all quit playing. Do you think anyone in there was having fun? The 4 dudes were doing PvE rotations on what are essentially unarmed target dummies, the rest of us were idling, and the Horde had all (justifiably) quit playing completely.
I’ve just left multiple (4 and counting) BGs where the average player has 1.5-2m HP, the “other” players have nearly 3-4, and damage to match. 50% or more additional power.
The scores were almost 1500/0. Every time.
I know several people who enjoy both PvP and alts, and unsubscribe largely due to this issue every single expansion.
I like levelling, questing in a BG queue, but every time I enter those BGs I’m reminded of the lack of even basic care Blizzard gives to both the levelling experience and PvP. This is one day’s work. One day, to fix the entire low level PvP experience.
QA:
“But you wont have the right stats”
Do you often optimise your stats whilst levelling your alts? I doubt it for most.
If so, then allow players to choose their PvP stat weights. Let’s say you have 100% points to put in: 30% in Mastery, 20% Haste, 35% Versatility etc. Let the player decide. You can add “Starter builds” for it just like talents have.