July 13, 2006

Extra thoughts on World of Warcraft's 1.12 patch PvP changes

My previous thoughts on World of Warcraft's proposed patch 1.12 PvP changes

IGN has some more info regarding the new World PvP from upcoming WoW patch 1.12.

From the article we learn that two zones, Eastern Plaguelands & Silithus, will become open to world PvP objectives. Both of which are high level zones (55+) and supposedly this will help cut down the ganking of levelers elsewhere in the world. Unfortunately it won't cut down on ganking at all because ever since Battlegrounds arrived ganking hasn't been worthwhile as a form of PvP advancement. It wasn't really viable before Battlegrounds, but there was a small bit of advancement possible for killing enemy players you encountered.

I've always understood why some players play on PvE servers... because they want to avoid ganking at all costs. It just isn't worth their time. On the flip side I've always understood that some people don't want to play it safe and they choose PvP servers. I choose PvP servers. The whole ganking thing never turned me off because I was usually smart enough to gank back when I had the chance and avoid what ganks I could.

Anyways the point I want to make is that WoW gives players a choice of where to play. PvP or PvE. So the whole idea of ganking should play no part in world PvP at all, but Blizzard doesn't seem to get that. They seem to be trying awfully hard to avoid ganking opportunities with these world PvP objectives. Here is a clue for Blizzard. A level 58 isn't going to beat a level 60 who has been around a while. A level 60 in green/blue gear isn't going to beat a level 60 decked out in MC/BWL gear. Ganking is going to happen simply because its a LEVEL BASED GAME and at level 60 a META-LEVEL BASED GAME.

Battlegrounds are a prime example of WTF is wrong with WoW PvP. The average joe doesn't have a chance in hell at playing with/against players of equal footing. You would think that players off all level/meta-level would get mixed together, but what really happens is the uber epic gear bitches all stack up together to roll over pick up groups. That is why I am hoping the changes to battlegrounds include a ladder system so these fucktard carebears can't play whack a mole with the newbs anymore while gaining the same amount of honor that I would recieve if I kicked the shit out of them.

Blizzard has brought the uber PvP groups out of the Battlegrounds and supplanted them in both of these PvP zones. However, unless the honor gained is SIGNIFICANT you won't see ANYONE outside of bored rogues actually going after these objectives. It looks like all you will get is a buff and I bet that buff disappears on your first death. So what is going to happen when every AQ20 group heading out wants to roll anyone trying to level/quest in Silithus to get their precious +1% foozle buff before raiding AQ20? I believe the answer is ganking.

In Eastern Plaguelands the uber groups will come out for the first week and rape every tower in sight. Alliance will be especially good at the capture the flag simply because paladins are fucking gods at capture the flag/interupting flag captors. This will in effect just turn everyone off of this capture the flag bullshit.

There really isn't more I can say. I wanted to bring a more concise and useful post about what Blizzard could do, but with this information in my hand I can't say anything but Blizzard fucks up again and after the fuck up that the Scourge Invasion was I can gladly say 1.12 won't pull me back to World of Warcraft.

UPDATE: 14 Nov, 2009 - Updated labels, corrected spelling.