Will More Or Less Play Rated Come Legion

[Cempa]

Legion Developer Q&A - PvP gave us lots of information about what they want PvP to look like come Legion and the message was heard loud and clear: WE WANT HIGHER RATED PARTICIPATION.

Do you think that will happen and why?

Most players play WoW a limited number of hours per day/week and enjoy all parts of the game at various degrees of intensity. Setting yourself a target (gear wise) was always part of WoW and its a cool thing. Legion will weaken PvP awarded gear as compared to WoD for PvE. Seeing how WoW is a fantasy RP PvE game, PvE gear on the other hand will still reign supreme in both areas of the game. (Talking for the majority of the player base or casuals)

While the intent is to force more Rated Game play via extra rewards and faster gearing, at the end of the day the casual player will figure out its far easier and less stressful and probably cheaper (yes paying gold for boosting is a real thing) to buy raid boosts (even Mythic tier).

Raid guilds will quickly discover a huge spike in demand from casuals and I fear the 'higher participation' in rated will be just for that 'first win' and end up being cannon fodder for the actual teams who play rated ..

In other words another expansion of Acti-Blizz dictating to please the minority hardcore while totally shafting the casual player ..

[FelPlague]

well with rated pvp being more skill based instead of gear based now, i see it going up in players who want actual pvp, but down with players who just play 24/7 eventually win, get BIS then like to stomp teams lower geared then them

[Sencha]

Gear no longer matter in Legion PvP.

[Deleted]

Now, I've never played rated battleground or even arenas.
But one thing that has kept me off from trying is PvP gear and racials (Play Pandaren mostly).
I might try some PvP for the artifact appearances and because of gear mattering less. Rated feels much scarier though, I'd imagine the most elitist of people play it, but that might not be how it is.

[Propainn]

well with rated pvp being more skill based instead of gear based now, i see it going up in players who want actual pvp, but down with players who just play 24/7 eventually win, get BIS then like to stomp teams lower geared then them

You know, it's funny...people said the same thing when rating requirements were removed from gear. Nothing changed.

Then they said it again when the stats on elite gear were normalized. Nothing changed.

Want to take another shot at guessing what's going to change this time around?

[Super Kami Dende]

I will be playing Rated now that I don't have to grind for weeks everytime I feel like PvPing just to be on less than even footing.

Being able to just PvP when I want in whatever Gear I have will definitely bring me back to PvP.

- - - Updated - - -

Want to take another shot at guessing what's going to change this time around?

Gear not giving you a 30% advantage if you vs someone not wearing PvP gear that requires grinding to get?

[FelPlague]

You know, it's funny...people said the same thing when rating requirements were removed from gear. Nothing changed.

Then they said it again when the stats on elite gear were normalized. Nothing changed.

Want to take another shot at guessing what's going to change this time around?

well because tons of people are crying about how pvp is ruined because they cant get super geared, then stomp the noobs who arnt geared below them, and the people who are actually skilled but dont have millions of hours to farm, will be more likly to do it.... for example me i used to love rated pvp, but i dont have the time anymore to spend hours raiding and such, then even more hours farming pvp gear ,so now i can rated pvp without being 1 shot by someone 100 ilvl higher then me

[Propainn]

well because tons of people are crying about how pvp is ruined because they cant get super geared, then stomp the noobs who arnt geared below them, and the people who are actually skilled but dont have millions of hours to farm, will be more likly to do it.... for example me i used to love rated pvp, but i dont have the time anymore to spend hours raiding and such, then even more hours farming pvp gear ,so now i can rated pvp without being 1 shot by someone 100 ilvl higher then me

Gearing for PvP has never been easier than it is now, please don't pretend it's some chore. I am perfectly fine with the changes, and actually super excited to not have to farm if I take a season off. But let's not pretend that this is going to make low rated players R1 all of a sudden. Your rating will stay the same until your ability improves. This change will not affect that at all.

[Cempa]

Gearing for PvP has never been easier than it is now, please don't pretend it's some chore. I am perfectly fine with the changes, and actually super excited to not have to farm if I take a season off. But let's not pretend that this is going to make low rated players R1 all of a sudden. Your rating will stay the same until your ability improves. This change will not affect that at all.

What are you talking about man .. you make it sound like you log on and poof got gear! It will still take you just as long to gear up if not longer .. Legion is making it so that PvE raid tier last longer and gives more powerful gear for the great majority of the player base.

[Livevil]

What are you talking about man .. you make it sound like you log on and poof got gear! It will still take you just as long to gear up if not longer .. Legion is making it so that PvE raid tier last longer and gives more powerful gear for the great majority of the player base.

He isnt wrong. Honor gear has never been more easier and more effortless to get. Instead of seeing a rise in rated participation, we actually saw lowest participation ever. Granted, the expansion being completely garbage played a bigger role to that. If wod didnt get people into rated, nothing will.

Seeing as in Legion a longer grind of the honor talents and artifact will be required to get into rated, we can safely say they failed their goal.

[rda]

You know, it's funny...people said the same thing when rating requirements were removed from gear. Nothing changed.

Then they said it again when the stats on elite gear were normalized. Nothing changed.

Want to take another shot at guessing what's going to change this time around?

That's complete BS.

When rating requirements were removed from gear, participation skyrocketed.

I won't comment on what is going to happen to rated PVP in Legion, this thread is already full of usual ignorant idiocies like "the gear is going to matter less in Legion" and I am not feeling like explaining how things really are for the twentieth time. You can read other threads.

For the record, nothing at all in the recent interview on PVP was new. Nothing.

[Mafic]

It is going to be a repeat of WotLK season 1 and 2.

Rated play is going to nose dive participation wise. Trying to force unrated players to rated play or make prestige punishing doesn't work.

[Fenrkyr]

I quit rated PVP (mostly RBGs) as it was just miserable to deal with the PVP "community". Finding a guild that can clear all mythic PVE content AND where you can get a decent rating in RBGs is impossible, so I was left with trying to find a few players here and there that I could consistently group with for RBGs. Nevertheless it was a horrible experience, between the childish jackasses, bitching, mass exodus after each loss, etc, it just wasn't fun. If I could find 10-12 reasonably tolerable people that I could play with consistently I would still run RBGs, but as it stands now I'd rather give myself a Sriracha enema than interact with the toxic PVP community again.

[Turinn]

Rated BG's are so boring. If I wanted a rated environment, I'd play actual complex strategy games, like DotA.

When I play WoW, I want to progress my character. I could care less about how skilled or geared my opponent is - everyone is of equal value to me as a HK. (wait, they removed those, right?)

That's why I won't be coming back to Legion WoW either.

Sad, but Holinka doesn't seem to realize that it's an MMO. 30% better doesn't cut it, nor do PvP only abilities.

[Greenfish25]

Majority of my time spent on wow has been pvping since i started playing the game. i will not be pvping at all in legion. here's the reasons why.

the dislike for PvP started when mop was released. So many 3min CD I win buttons + the Healing cooldowns to match = Stale af game play.

WoD Same thing happend.

the community just seem'd to fall apart in mop imo. in cata and the expansions before it was so easy to network with other players and find people to play with no matter what experience/rating you had. now a days you get try to find partners and they all rage quit after 1 loss the elitist mentality is strong nowadays more so than back in the day. I've tried playing with everyone no matter their experience it's all the same. I've played with 1.6k rated players that rage quit in 1 game all the way up to 2400+ players. and i have quite a bit of experience in pvp by no means am i top top teir but I've got glad a fair few times. and it's still hard to find partners.

god fucking knows what it's like trying to actually improve and get somewhere in pvp nowadays if your just starting out with the majority of people having this mentality.

i'lll be joining an old friends guild and PvEing for the majoirty of my time on wow in legion.

[Toppy]

I see there being less.

Holinka made a big deal about how rated play gives more honor, but I dont see rated players taking part in the prestige system since you cant play competitively while also prestiging. This is something that has been said since we first learned about the talent reset system, though I see Holinka having a post legion interview where he says he had no idea this would happen.

The power gap between someone with full talents and someone without is going to be rather major. Especially on a certain few classes who get a giant boost with higher honor level talents.

There will be more people doing unrated no doubt, but I see much fewer doing rated. Not only because prestige, but because PvE gear and PvP gear are one and the same, but PvE gear is looking like its going to be much simpler to get as far as high ilvl is concerned. Further, the difficulty in raising a side spec due to artifacts will be hurting PvP as well.

[Nynax]

Legion Developer Q&A - PvP gave us lots of information about what they want PvP to look like come Legion and the message was heard loud and clear: WE WANT HIGHER RATED PARTICIPATION.

Do you think that will happen and why?

Most players play WoW a limited number of hours per day/week and enjoy all parts of the game at various degrees of intensity. Setting yourself a target (gear wise) was always part of WoW and its a cool thing. Legion will weaken PvP awarded gear as compared to WoD for PvE. Seeing how WoW is a fantasy RP PvE game, PvE gear on the other hand will still reign supreme in both areas of the game. (Talking for the majority of the player base or casuals)

While the intent is to force more Rated Game play via extra rewards and faster gearing, at the end of the day the casual player will figure out its far easier and less stressful and probably cheaper (yes paying gold for boosting is a real thing) to buy raid boosts (even Mythic tier).

Raid guilds will quickly discover a huge spike in demand from casuals and I fear the 'higher participation' in rated will be just for that 'first win' and end up being cannon fodder for the actual teams who play rated ..

In other words another expansion of Acti-Blizz dictating to please the minority hardcore while totally shafting the casual player ..

They have a 4 other games of Rated pvp and matchmaking experience now + WoW. I think this change is really bringing WoW pvp up to the same level of those other pvp focused games. I actually don't think it will be anywhere near the shit show you are expecting, and players will find a much more fluid pvp experience.

I know I'm going to be happy to dabble in pvp again, now that I know I won't get wafflestomped for two weeks until I'm "geared" (as a raider I always jump into pvp late, once other stuff is on farm and I have time). And then the removal of honor points and focus on actual wins/losses will hopefully turn BG's around and get more casual players to focus objectives instead of kills.

[Toppy]

They have a 4 other games of Rated pvp and matchmaking experience now + WoW. I think this change is really bringing WoW pvp up to the same level of those other pvp focused games. I actually don't think it will be anywhere near the shit show you are expecting, and players will find a much more fluid pvp experience.

I know I'm going to be happy to dabble in pvp again, now that I know I won't get wafflestomped for two weeks until I'm "geared" (as a raider I always jump into pvp late, once other stuff is on farm and I have time). And then the removal of honor points and focus on actual wins/losses will hopefully turn BG's around and get more casual players to focus objectives instead of kills.

You say that but then again their other games are all quiet well known for having rather poor matchmaking (except hearthstone) and none of them are doing all that horribly well from a competitive standpoint.

[Cempa]

There is only one change that would make wow pvp viable. Freedom to play premade and wipe out all casual pvp be it unrated or skirmish. Let players know that if they want to pvp successfully they have to do it organized. Having a pvp LFR doesn't work well.

As for premades: Its a matter of choice. If you have a problem with premades why not enroll in one also. And time is not an issue. If you have time to win 2 games for example you will certainly get 2 wins faster through premade than from running randoms.

As for prestiging: What a poor implementation. Even the end mount reward is a bad recolor of an existing vicious mount. Was it so hard to make a semi-unique mount or simply change the saddles on an existing model and give it a special flag or something?

..and end up with no player population to speak of ..

[Fenrkyr]

Why you think premades would kill the game? I think bads are killing it. I enter game to win 1-2 BGs and end up playing 4 hours because some idiot is afking or worse.

Premade is something you can do with friends or guild or randoms in LFG. No barrier at all and higher chance to get better and win. Player mentality will also be fixed since games will matter more and so more people will say "why not take it to the next level and play RBG or 5v5 or 3v3".

Current model of random BGs is hurting the games. Zerg maps of 15 vs 15 should be 10 vs 10. Capping flags should be by click and not by standing. 40 vs 40 maps should also be broken to 20 vs 20 as well as 40 vs 40.

Above all else give rated to everything a player does. See how much better players get when they feel that a bad rating reflects bad on them. Right now if you only play random BGs and you lose 9 out of 10 noone knows. Make it visible and see how much more people care.

You are relying on a lot of questionable assumptions because you are thinking like a person who takes PVP seriously. I have no data to back this up, but I think it is safe to say the vast, VAST, majority of PVPers are what you would term "casual". They just want to log on, get into some games instantly and have fun. For them, "being good" isn't anywhere near as important as having fun (and getting rating doesn't qualify as fun for these people). By requiring premades or forcing a rating system on them, all you are doing is making it more difficult for them to jump right in and/or forcing a poor social experience upon them. If you think the social experience from PUGing heroic or mythic raids is bad, it is NOTHING compared to trying to get rating with RBG PUGs.

In the past Blizzard had this idea of forcing players to "rise to the challenge" and it has failed miserably. Sure, some of the players who are more invested in the game and/or more competitive my nature will thrive in such a setup, but those types of players are still a minority. The trouble with this line of thinking is that the most hardcore of hardcore players and random Mr. Casual who logs on twice a week both pay the same subscription fee, and the former are far, far less numerous than the latter.