I was reading more on the latest PvP news/info released from Blizzard for the coming BFA changes, and I confess Iâ€m even more confused and/or curious about some of the changes.
Power Scaling
Here’s what Blizzard says about the scaling.
The point of the scaling changes is not to make it so levels or gear don’t matter. A player who is higher level than you and/or has a higher iLevel than you are going to have an advantage.
If not to make it so that levels or gear don’t matter when there’s a gap between a 110 and a 120, then what is the point? To make them matter less? Power scaling was the biggest defense people put up when people expressed concern that War Mode be a gankfest. “Don’t worry because a level 110 will be able to beat a 120, so the 120 won’t so readily attack the 110!†Maybe? That’s not what the blue post says, though. It seems to imply it’ll just be slightly less of a complete blowout.
Splitting the Community
WoW hasn’t been a great community game for quite some time, but the changes in War Mode make it feel like they’re truly going to split players into two groups. If you enable War Mode, you won’t queue up for with even group with non-War Mode players. Nearly every aspect of the game will be separate. The only time the two will come together is in the dungeon and raid finder, or when you want to zone into a raid in a pre-made. None of the automated grouping features for quests will pair you with people of the opposite War Mode selection.
Rewards for War Mode
I still find myself at odds with the rewards offered for turning on War Mode. They are quite excessive. Now there’s even more gameplay being added to the mix. There will be air drops like in Battle Royals games where players can go and contest the drop sites, and once a faction secures them everyone can loot them for individualized loot.
While Blizzard says War Mode is in response to them wanting to make it so that players who chose a particular realm don’t feel “locked†into that choice, they’ve also effectively punished PvE players who were happy with their choice. Missing out on a buff, a boost, a gameplay mechanic, et al, are just indirect penalties. I acknowledge is is entirely subjective, and not everyone feels this way — Especially players loving the idea of WoW PvP — but I feel these things, and to me that makes this entirely relevant and meaningful.
How are PvE players missing out? They can just turn on War-mode and participate at any time. It is not all that dissimilar to those “forced” PvP areas in Legion, or any other expansion. What happened in TBC with the Auch Towers on PvE servers? Or Halaa?
Do players not receive a bonus to gold, AP, and other rewards and benefits from having War Mode on?
It’s 10% more XP, or gold at max level. That is effectively how much progress you could otherwise expect to lose getting ganked in the outside world. You also get Honor/Conquest points, but that was always PvP exclusive. There’s also Air Drops which give personal loot… to whichever side wins the fight over it. No real difference between that and what goes on in the Gurubashi Arena right now, even on PvE servers.
Just about the only legit complaint I can see regarding War Mode is that PvP talents are available, and some of those could technically make leveling easier. But if you never play PvP in the first place, there won’t be anything for you to miss.
I agree with Azuriel, if anything this is a way for players that want to completely ignore PVP to do so. Additionally lets say you find yourself normally pvping, every day you enjoy the extra rewards and additional talents, but today, team Joe-Gankertron 9000 decides that they are going to ruin everyone’s fun in area “X”, now as a PVPer I have the choice of going peaceful to finish my dumb world quest in that area. The rewards are going to be better because blizzard wants them to be better, if you have to min/max to do it, bite the bullet and start PVPing, otherwise if you don’t care, don’t PVP.
When I was on Emerald Dream, I never had any problems when I was out in the world doing quests. No one cared that you were in Tanaan Jungle doing all those dumb daily quests. Sometimes it was even nice to beat up on a opposing player that was tagging all of the mobs from you, but most of the time people were leaving each other alone, but then there was the garrison… That was a death trap if you were trying to go level or if you didn’t have flying. I remember getting the hearth stone to my shipyard and I felt that was a godsend as I didn’t have to make the death march to those stupid docks. If I had the ability to just turn off PVP. I would have during that time, I didn’t want to deal with griefers. If there was someone in Tanaan that was just a jerk sapping you all the time, I would happily switch to PVE just to stop playing their stupid game.
I don’t think this will split the community any more than it already has. If anything it will give PVPers a chance to decompress and go off high alert at all times.
I think the War modes are a good thing. I do feel however they could drop in chests for PVEers and and compete against their “improved ai” making a monster faction just vicious and giving PVE players something similar to compete for.
You’re preaching to the choir when you talk about avoiding the gankfest that is WoW’s pathetic world PvP.
I was the guy in Tanaan who literally quit the game at that point and waited for the expansion because I couldn’t play on Emerald Dream and still enjoy the content. That’s the reason I didn’t even bother stomaching the grind to unlock flying in Draenor.
For me, giving players with War Mode on more rewards from their quests just bothers me. I feel like if you turn yours on and I turn mine off, you’ll progress faster than me and have more rewards/power/strength/coin/gain all because I didn’t want to put up with the horrible PvP mechanics in the game.
Knowing I can’t play with people who choose to enable it is just one more kick when I’m feeling down.
If there were no reward other than maybe some pvp talents or a pvp progression system, then I’d be fine. There’s too much worldly gain to make me feel like I’m not missing out and like I’m not being put into a separate community.
That’s certainly how I feel, and I know I’m not alone.
I am all for war mode and I support the rewards that come with it but I cant help to notice that it sounds a little bit like Trammel and Felucca…
Why you even care that someone can progress a little faster than you I don’t understand.
I’d get it if we where taking a massive bonus or a paywall / pay2win, but this really is so minute is really nothing to whine about imo.