First time ever posting forums, i’ve played since mid legion, without ever going beyond random bgs or even skimishes, only in shadowlands i started trying to get into it, because if there is one thing that has always kept me away from trying to do arenas and competitive pvp in general, that thing is the gear difference and the matchmaking that does nothing to avoid it.
Most of the games i played from 0 to 1.6k in 2s were for at least the 90% of the time against players with 10k/15k+ hp more than me, that sometime could even delete me from existence with my defensives up. I don’t mean that there shouldn’t be an advantage that comes from more time investment that is gearing your char, it’s an mmo, it’s fkin obvious you get rewarded the more time you spend; i just don’t understand why it has to impact some arena matches so much that fks normal concepts like "if enemy pops burst cds you pop defensive cds/cc cds to try to survive ". Until i met a god sent holy priest, with 220 ilvl, that for some reason accepted to play with a 0 exp 200 ilvl warr, that carried me from 1k to 1.6k, i was absolutely convinced that the reason why my healers or me kept dying was only me, that i was supposed to do something more than just intervene enemy burst cds or rally, or cc, or pray jesus. But with this priest that had as much gear as the booster in the enemy team, i finally understood that healers and me are not wet paper and can also do damage.
With this said, i mean that as a new player the gear disparity basically doesn’t allow to improve because you don’t know why you’re dying so fast even if you pop defensives and why you’re doing no damage with bursts; you don’t identify the problem, you don’t improve.
The game obligates you to be almost bis in slot to start learning how to play, because if you’re not the numbers are so low/high you don’t understand the value of your/enemies actions.
As i said already, i don’t think there souldn’t be such disparity, it just shouldn’t last for so long that you need 2k cr gear to actually start playing the game. I don’t know how i would have reached 1.6k without basically being carried, because if the alternative is to farm gold to pay a booster than the system it’s fkin broken, or, as it is intended (i guess), trying to rank up with people of the same ilvl, by going trough hundreds of unfair matches that just makes the majority of new players want to quit. I want to improve myself, my skills, but the system just makes so hard that it makes it not worth.
So i wonder: is this much gear disparity necessary? Shouldn’t a match victory be based for at least the vast majority on pure skill instead of who has the biggest dic- vers?
To reduce the gap i thought this: 226 gear can be obtained at like 1.4k and base honor gear level increased to like 180. As a reward to reach higher ranks there could be cosmetic only rewards like achievs, the title, the elite set transmog. To avoid to invalidate pve progression by making pvp mandatory, the gear will scale down in pve content like in Wod, 226 ilvl to 213, 180 ilvl to 168, this way content like world quests and weekly choregast won’t be a problem, but a pvp player won’t be able to do high keys or raids with pvp gear, so it won’t invalidate pve progression; viceversa, for pve players won’t be optimal for pvp content with mythic raid/m+ gear. This distinction should exist just to not exploit gear progression for pve.
I think that this would solve a great part of the general struggle that is pvp, by shifting (for the most) the problem from a gear based one to a skill based one, by allowing more players to get easier into pvp and also gives more meaning to someone rank. I always wanted to try new classes but just thinking of going trough the clown show that is random bgs and epic bgs as a low geared dude, to get 200ilvl conq gear and then still being incredibly overgeared by 2.1k player that boost they’re friend/client just always turned me down.
Even if you don’t share my solution it doesn’t matter, i hope you at least understand the problem that the vast majority of new players have to deal with. If it’s not a real problem i beg you convince me, it would really help me a lot, thank you.
So no, people do not just play it because they enjoy it (of course I enjoy it as well, otherwise I’d not play it). It’s human nature tho, we need goals and incentives.