A look at PvP in Cataclysm

Time to look back at the state of PvP in Cataclysm, since Mist of Pandaria is looming on the horizon. Let's how we get to keep all the good stuff, and fix all the bad. This was originally a loooooong post on the WoW forums a while back, so it's a little rambly and directed, there were a few issues brought up in the forums that I was responding to but, hey ho. Off we go.

Random Battlegrounds

Battleground objectives aren't really clear to new players. 

When I started doing battlegrounds I had no idea what was going on in most of them, I didn't know what the objectives were, where I was supposed to be going or what I was supposed to be doing. There should be a clear and obvious in game resource that explains the objectives of each battleground. While a map like Battle for Gilneas might be self explanatory just by looking at the map, how is a newbie supposed to figure out what all the dots are on the AV map and which objectives are what? I know some players who've been playing AV for years and still don't know everything there is to know about it.

BGs should have integrated cap timers. 

I don’t think there are many serious BGers who don’t have some external cap timers. I think it would be prudent to at least let players know how long each node takes to capture or how long it remains in purgatory after a steal. This kind of information is invaluable when assessing strategies.

I don’t think there are any two ways around this next one: 

Battlegrounds need role checks. 

Healer imbalances create frustrating and unrewarding experiences for both factions, regardless of outcome.

The Buffing Situation

Rebuffing after death in battlegrounds is little more than an annoyance, but I’m not sure that making buffs sticky in PvP is a viable solution. It feels like a cheap way of ensuring there’s no player error in regards to buffing, but at the same time the faster you can get back into the game the better, nobody wants to be standing around at the graveyard spending globals when your team needs your help. I think we’ve long established that buffing isn’t fun. Whether there’s an elegant solution to this or not I don’t know, I certainly can’t profess to have one.

Where's my Team Deathmatch?

 Let’s face it, a lot of battlegrounds end up in player zergs because people really just like to fight each other! Vehicle based maps and maps with too much focus on static objectives, are, in my experience, the most hated maps. I cite Strand of the Ancients (in which you spend very little time at all engaging the opposite faction, and a lot of your time dispelling/riding/defending vehicles) in particular and also the amount of hatred I seem to encounter for Isle of Conquest, a map that is widely believed to rely on the success of defending the glaives. Team Deathmatch with a set timer and a winner based on score is the perfect solution for those of us who just like to dive in and get down to business.

On a more personal note...

 I absolutely adore Battle for Gilneas. 15 players is, for me, the perfect team size and the nodes are just far enough apart and fun to play around. Co-ordination helps immensely, but as you can often suffer from communication breakdown in random BGs I think BfG is a solid counter to this phenomenon. Workable enough without too much co-ordination, a small number of nodes with easy reach of each other makes for some exciting and fluid PvP experiences. I didn't really like Twin Peaks, but capture the flag style gameplay doesn't appeal to me as much as cap and defend. I think it's much harder to secure wins with a lack of communication in a game that revolves around peeling and assisting.

Rated Battlegrounds

I don’t play rated battlegrounds! But I think they’re an excellent addition to the game for people who enjoy larger team based efforts than arena offers. I really can’t find fault. Choice is always a brilliant thing.

Arena

Crowd Control. 

I’m really uncertain about the notion that there’s too much CC in the game right now. Yes, there is a lot, but perhaps an increase in shared DR could alleviate the frustration some players feel. I think there’s a large skill gap between your 1800 rated players like me and your 2.2k rated + players. I’ve seen better people than me play and even played with some of them and CC avoidance is just another skill that has to be learned in order to advance, it‘s true that some classes and comps can lock you down even with your CC breaking skill and your PvP trinket and after you‘ve faked, but again I don‘t think that‘s anything that extending the pool of shared DR can‘t fix. Whilst I admit that team comp plays a huge part in arena, I think synergy is a more important one, one that can by adjusted with diminishing returns. The obvious comps to target here would be RMP and Lock/Shaman comps and whilst on a personal level I take issue with spamable warlock fears at a 30 yard range, I know that the reason I get caught by so many is a question of skill and awareness. This is a difficult one for me to weigh up in truth. I have felt like I’ve been killed before I can do anything many times, specifically by RMP comps, but I’ve also survived some pretty nasty CC chains and played games of avoidance and max range that have given my team the win. I guess the bottom line here is, what’s fun? And fun isn’t being locked out of actually playing for large periods of time. CC chains should require skill and co-ordination and it’s questionable whether they do right now with some setups.

Legendary Items.

I appreciate that some of you worked very hard to achieve the pinnacles of PvE raiding, but truth be told I don’t think legendary weapons have any place in PvP. The difference between a legendary wielding DPS in PvP and a non legendary wielding DPS is so vast that I think it warrants separation. Like so many others I think that PvP should primarily be a test of skill and reaction, not gear.

Good time to mention resilience then, no?

Resilience is in itself an gateway into PvP, one which PvE does in fact emulate which many PvPers neglect. Yeah you CAN walk into Well of Eternity in levelling greens if you really want to, but you’re going to get squished. Same thing for PvP. You want to go into arena with a 100k health pool and 0 resi? You can. You won’t like the result. I think resilience is a good stat the way it works now, I think the shift to a flat damage reduction was a good choice and that there should be a difference between PvE and PvP gear. PvP should have rewards based around PvP and resilience is a way of making those rewards specific. This way PvPers are never forced to PvE and vice versa. You could make an argument for scaling inbuilt resilience as you level, but then you’re in an odd place with regards to gearing and the optimal gear for PvP content. I do think that resilience should scale better the longer an expansion goes on. This doesn’t have to be a change that’s noticeable in game as a larger resi pool, buffing the amount of damage reduction each point of resilience gives with each tier would solve problems with inflated ilvls and high burst wouldn’t it? Or am I just being incredibly naive there?

Match Length.

 2v2 arena is almost impossible to balance, I understand this, which such a huge array of classes, abilities and play styles it’s never going to be easy, the quickest fix I can think of for 2v2 arena (specifically Healer/DPS vs. Healer/DPS) is to drop the draw timer to a much less excruciating 10 minutes. I’ve puzzled over 2v2 balance a lot and I really can’t come up with a workable solution, I’m glad that I’m not you guys, because this one would keep me up all night. The only other solution to this that I have is to incorporate a similar buff to the flag carrier buff in WSG, where the healer becomes more susceptible to damage as the match draws longer. 45 minute draws are nobody's idea of fun.


Gear disparity.

There’s something very backwards about the way skilled arena players gear up compared to lesser skilled players. Instead of promoting a system in which the less skilled players have a chance to level the playing field by dint of the gearing process, you’ve created one in which the better skilled players are able to out gear those at the bottom of the ladder much faster (higher rating = higher valour cap = faster gearing). Again, a tough one, you don’t want to overly reward players for being less skilful and you don’t want to penalise skilled players for being better than others. This is a another sticking point that I’m not sure there’s an elegant solution for. Removing rating requirements is most certainly a brilliant step in the right direction though, I applaud that change wholeheartedly.

Why don’t I get honour for winning arena when I’m over the conquest cap? 

This is an odd discrepancy between the way PvE works now and the way rated PvP works. Some of us really don’t like battlegrounds all that much, but love arena, a little extra incentive and/or reward for continuing to enjoy the game would be great!

General

Very strange half tier gap between old and new season PvP gear…I’m really not sure what the point in that actually is. Just drop the old conquest gear on the honour vendor and be done with. I don’t think anyone who had full conquest is going to be that upset when there‘s brand new shiny to chase after.

I’ve seen a lot of people suggesting PvP dailies or weeklies. I think that while this seems like a good idea, it might just end up promoting disruptive play. Sending players out of kill the opposite faction at specific camps or quest hubs could just result in a lot of dead quest givers and flight masters. Also there’s a fine line between having enough quests of this nature to keep it fresh and sending players so far across Azeroth that it’s more effort than most people would deem to be worth it. Perhaps if the rewards were worth it, it would be nice to revisit some now useless world PvP objectives and/or Wintergrasp, which I think is still head and shoulders above Tol Barad as a PvP zone. I don't think I really get Tol Barad. Is there a reason I should care about whether we're holding on to some manky looking prison buildings on an island in the middle of nowhere?

I talked a lot. I think I’m done.