Classic has brought me back to thinking about WoW after a long hiatus (Cata was the last time I played properly).
I have fond memories of how great PvP was in vanilla so I may just stick to classic but I also have some pretty cool characters on retail with great transmogs and mounts so I wanted to at least see whether BFA would be worth a shot.
I would really appreciate it if someone could give me a steer as to whether BFA might be for me based on my likes/dislikes!
Likes:
Random Battlegrounds
wPvP (both solo and grouped)
Organised wPvP (Iâm thinking Wintergrasp and Tol Barad here)
Slightly slower-paced combat where the difference between good and bad players is more nuanced and tactical (timing, reading the opponent etc.)
Active PvP community with people willing to group for fun (not just for grinding ratings)
Dislikes:
Arena
Needing to do arena to gear
Huge differences in performance between medium and min-maxed gear (meaning the fun only starts once youâre fully-geared)
Convoluted, RNG-based mechanics for gearing
Too many abilities, ccs, cc-breaks, teleports etc. making combat a noisy flurry of button mashing
I would consider myself semi-casual as I can probably manage c.10 hours a week consistently.
Based on that, what do you think? Would I have a good time with BFA?
Nope, you wouldnât like it. Main reasons to do BfA pvp is for arenas and fast-paced combat. WPvP does exist, but itâs often ruled by gear and youâll get one-shot by someone who plays more often. On top of that, there is rarely a fair 1v1 fight in the open world, youâll have players from either side join in and help their faction. People camp WQ spots with groups to kill players for their weekly call to arms.
Due to flying, people would rather avoid wpvp scenarios rather than take them head on. There are very rarely any 40 vs 40 massive wpvp events, I havenât been a part of one, and even if there was something like that going on, your experience would be diminished by the constant lag that happens whenever more than 40 people do things at one place.
There are some positives too: if you like complete carnage when doing WQâs and people fighting each other around every corner, you could actually enjoy it. I went to one particular cave to do a magni wq, and it was FULL of skeletons. Literally a sea of skeletons inside that cave. It was a bloodbath. And itâs not like one faction dominated the cave either, people just killed each other when fighting over mobs.
In instanced PvP like random BGâs the importance of gear is not that huge. Better gear helps, but even someone who is freshly dinged 120 can kill someone who has mythic level gear in BGâs. It comes down to skill. If you only plan on gearing through PvP, it is very RNG based however, and without stepping a foot into rated PvP, youâll be stuck with scraps. Gearing is easy if youâre willing to do other content, though. Also, azerite pieces tend to break cc very often if you have random dmg proc traits selected.
Well, youâre free to draw your conclusions from my post. I cannot be sure whether or not youâd like it, but to me it seems like there are a lot more things that you wouldnât like than there are things that you would. That being said, there are some positives for you as well.
I come to agree with most of what Papudeath says in their post, itâs pretty correct just one point I need to point out.
Somebody who is fresh 120 will never take down a Mythic geared player unless heavily assisted, infact depending on the class you are likely to get 1-2 hit and frankly will be a liability to your whole team in any random bg you que for at max level.
Unlike previous expansions, PvP is an ineffective way of gearing for BGs, more so if you lack an interest in Arenas. PvE is the dominant way to gear, it offers the best equipment and is faster to obtain.
Random bgs are a strange beast at the moment, itâs incredibly unbalanced depending on the gear you and your team attempt to bring in, itâs actually a far better experience in lower leveled bgs if you want a fair fight without several weeks (at least) of farming content and upgrading your necklace.
That said, itâs still enjoyable but the state of BGs, in my humble opinion, has been far better in previous expansions, albeit very similar because gear is always an issue, I say this because you simply must PvE if you want to be competitive even in a random BG and not a hinderance.
Sounds like wPvP is somewhat dead besides the odd bit of ganking but what you were saying about gear not affecting instanced PvP is interesting. Is there a good BG scene atm?
Also, can you get PvP gear from PvE? I hate arena but have no issue doing a few dungeons or raids to get my gear if needed.
Well, PvP gear and PvE gear are basically the same thing now. The only thing that separates them is where you got them from. PvP gear doesnât give you extra stats or any extra benefit in PvP when compared to PvE, itâs just an alternative way of getting gear.
A lot of people do BGâs, I guess itâs fun content if you enjoy it. If you want to do RBGâs thereâs also a lot of groups for those. Normal BGâs just by themselves wonât really give you any meaningful gear, theyâre mostly for getting your conquest cap each week + some honor. Also some people do them so they can unlock their essences. Iâm not sure what you would qualify as a âgoodâ bg scene, but itâs lively enough.
That all sounds reasonably OK tbh. Gear up quick in some PvE, gear isnât too influential in PvP and there are people running groups in BGs? I could get on board with that.
I notice you didnât mention the âwar modeâ that was advertised when the game released that was supposed to be the new Wintergrasp. Is it not any good?
Oh, thatâs just the open world pvp mode, PvP servers were removed and thatâs the substitute for it. You turn warmode on and itâs like playing on a PvP server, you get some extra rewards for an incentive to turn it on and can use your pvp talents in the open world. Itâs cross-realm.