Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Dear Blizzard, PvP is a Mess

Dear Blizzard,

PvP in World of Warcraft is an absolute mess.

Players that were not fortunate enough to participate in the first two Arena seasons are now at a distinct disadvantage. E-Z mode epics are no longer attainable for lesser geared players to become competitive. Alas, the tried and true MMORPG rule, exploit early, exploit often (or abuse early, abuse often), is proven once again.

Also, the Arena system is severely imbalanced towards OBVIOUSLY overpowered class and skill combinations. It does not take a rocket scientist to look at the number of each class represented in the top 100 teams to recognize the problem.

Yet, for two full seasons these problems have been ignored and players have been allowed to gain superior quality items with little effort. But now, anyone coming into the system will not have the same opportunity.

The battlegrounds are in no better shape. Warsong Gulch is a bore fest; either ending extremely fast or going for hours on end. Eye of the Storm rarely actually fills with enough players for both teams and usually ends due to lack of players.

Alterac Valley has been designated an AFK zone for Horde players. Patch 2.2.0 was supposed to fix this, but alas your "AFK flagging" system was a broken design that is now punishing honest players while AFKers simply "buff a guard" to collect honor. On top of this, the map in Alterac Valley is still heavily skewed towards the Alliance.

Fortunately, Arathi Basin is somewhat balanced and still fun to play. Unfortunately, all the fucking rewards for battlegrounds absolutely fucking suck compared to the Arena rewards. Would it be so hard to update the fucking rewards?

Sadly, open world PvP is the worst aspect of World of Warcraft PvP. There is almost no point to playing on a PvP server. Rarely do you find any PvP in the open world that is not just someone getting ganked. Ganking is not PvP. Very little honor is gained for open world fighting compared to the immense amount that is given for battlegrounds. Also, most of The Burning Crusade objective-based PvP encounters are boring and exploitable.

Blizzard, you suck at PvP.

Yours truly,

Heartless Gamer

PS. Warlocks really need another way to make players run around helplessly as they die.

12 comments:

  1. I hope it was my lock that ganked you : )

    Do you remember the locks name? Or was it all over too fast?

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  2. I've bitched about WoW's PvP system numerous times myself, but it's not all as bad as you say.

    I almost never have a problem with BGs not filling up, but maybe it's because I'm on a PvP server.

    I generally have a lot of fun in Warsong Gulch (though I used to hate it). It can drag on if both sides start camping. My solution for that is to always be on offense. Or, if I'm carrying the flag, I'll meet the other flag carrier head-on to make sure that at least one of us drops the flag.

    The new AV reporting feature seemed to work great last night, though I'm not surprised at players finding ways to abuse/avoid it. I am surprised that buffing an NPC would count as 'engaging in combat.'

    There are a number of very nice items you can get for honor points. The upgraded trinket for one. They also have epic bracers, boots, rings and necklaces (just be sure to get the "Veteran" versions). Some of the gems are worthwhile as well. This appear to be designed to fit with the arena gear, as they cover the slots that arena items don't.

    "World PvP" is indeed a big joke. The only one that's even a mild success are the towers in the Bones Wastes, but that's 5-15 minutes of action every 6 hours... assuming that you are online and available during that short window.

    The numerous crowd control options are really the bane of the actual fighting. Luckily, the version of the PvP trinket that has resilience can be used every two minutes, which can help immensely, but I still often find myself stunned/feared/horrified/etc to such an extent that I don't get in a single attack or action before I'm dead. Very frustrating.

    WoW PvP is also extremely gear dependent. Having at least some epic gear is almost required to actually have fun.

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  3. Try playing a Shaman that is the only class with a complete lack of crowd control or survivability :P

    I play on a PvP server, but our EotS BG never fills unless it is the holiday weekend and even then we get short changed on half the games.

    I could go on and on and on, but I just wanted to vent a little at work and annoy my co-worker (who plays a paladin).

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  4. So their Anti AFK system is a failure, definitely didnt see that one coming :D

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  5. Right on brother. I second everything you say.

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  6. Resto-Shamans with Earthshield seem pretty hardy in pvp. Then again if your in a battleground chances are you are tired of healing PvE.

    I have a 70 holy paladin and I enjoy pvp healing but I'll admit fighting with my 63 enhancement shaman is more fun.

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  7. Survivability does not mean you are able to spam heal yourself. A resto shaman that gets silenced is dead.

    Survivability is things like vanish and evasion for rogues, or bubble and plate for paladins.

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  8. Anonymous10:12 PM

    Really glad I read this ;) Every once in awhile I get the itch to play WoW. This article scratched that itch. In the end, it is a polished PVE game, and that is it.

    ps - check out Dark Age of Camelot for what PvP needs to be

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  9. I agree... pvp in WoW is disgusting. Especially things like fear, and stun, and anything else that makes someone stop playing the game.

    If you want more of my thoughts on this: Please visit my blog

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  10. Anon, I played DAoC from late-beta all the way until WoW's launch. DAoC was great, but I've tried to go back after playing WoW. WoW just plays so smoothly that it makes it tough to switch. DAoC gave me a few good years, and I would of called it perfect if it wasn't for the ToA expansion :(

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  11. I fix this problem by not doing PVP and raiding :)

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  12. Anonymous3:25 PM

    On my battlegroup the anti-AFK system actually is working...and working well. Horde side (I play Horde) everyone fights now and we're winning a lot more.

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