Let's celebrate the New Year properly by taking the time to spend at least an hour a day in January flying around low level zones, ganking lowbies on our mains!
World pvp has made a comeback, and with it, several issues which had been dormant during Cataclysm. One of these issues is low level ganking, which puts players trying to level their characters into situations where they simply have no chance of winning.
Hold up, before you start trolling/flaming me, hear me out! I enjoy playing on a pvp server just as much as anyone, and I welcome the challenge that wpvp brings while leveling a toon. That is to say, I enjoy the thrill of questing on a level 23 horde character (as an example) out in STV, and running into a level 23 Alliance character also doing their quests. May the best player win!
However, I am much more likely to get sneezed on and die by some random level 90 passing by, than I am at ever being able to engage players of my own level. Even if I somehow were to successfully engage some other guy my level, and either win or lose the fight, I still run the high chance of a level 90 coming to find me and camp me until they get bored or I log.
This is a problem which has existed since the very first day of Wow, and no sufficient technology existed back then by which to allow high and low level characters to inhabit the same space without someone getting ganked and camped.
I can hear your reasoned responses being formulated now, before you've even posted them: 'But Baeloro, if you are getting camped by a high level player, why don't you just get your high level friends to come and help you? Or better yet, why don't you just log onto your own high level character and fight back?'
The answer to this is simple: because that would halt the progress being made on my low level character. At anytime of the day, I can get a group of level 90s together and go hunting for other level 90s who are ganking lowbies. It's not hard, it can be fun sometimes, and some of the best pvp has happened in this way.
However, if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't be logging onto my low level characters so I could level them. It's about choices, and as a player choosing to level a character, I should only ever have to worry about dying to players my own level.
My proposed solutions:
1. CRZ phasing option - Give players a toggle in their UI settings which would keep them phased from people on other realms. Especially since the implementation of CRZ, there has just been a huge increase in the number of players present in each zone. While this solution would only prevent ganking from high level players on other realms, it would also serve to give those players who are against CRZ an option out of it.
2. Pvp brackets phasing option - Implement phasing for players according to the level brackets found in BGs. In Vanilla, ganking and wpvp was bad, especially for anyone trying to quest in Hillsbrad Foothills. TM vs SS was prime ganking grounds in addition to insane wpvp between players waiting for AV queues. This solution would partially solve the CRZ problem some people have by making sure the only people from other realms you see, are of your own level, but it would definitely solve the ganking problem.
I think a combination of these two options would be the best solution, but it's understandable if only one of them is feasible/desirable. So with these proposals, I am also suggesting we institute Gank Lowbies January as a way to bring these problems to Blizzard's attention.
If we get enough players out there in full force, ganking anything that moves, while calling a cross faction truce (no 90 vs 90 combat, only lowbie ganking), maybe we can force Blizzard to come up with a solution.
With that, Let's make Gank Lowbie January the best that it can be!!
Happy Holidays,
Baeloro of the Alliance