What's PVP like nowadays?

[swineflu]

I was thinking of dipping my toes back into the game after 4 years or so. Healer main. Is it fun? Worthwhile?

[sarkarin]

Healer main? Bad idea bro. Unless you're a holy priest you die in 1 GCD. I dare say the game can't fall any lower than it's current point but Brian Holinka is in charge and resubbing now would be akin to boarding the sinking titanic. Go check out /worldofpvp on reddit if you don't believe me.

[Bats]

Casual PvP is in the worst state it's ever been. Rated is also awful unless you play a single class and you're REALLY good at it so you can climb the ladder and get gear.

[Luxeley]

First to burst meta which is fine and par for the course for 2s, but not good for 3s. Nuking players in 2-3 seconds, with ZERO chance for counter play, is not a testament for skill. If you're not on pace, you're constantly punching out of your weight class - think featherweight in the ring vs a heavyweight. There's a ridiculous scarcity of healers (or at least good ones). Casual pvp, depending on what class you play, is a complete waste of time cause you're facing off against players 10-20 i-lvls higher. They completely botched up the way you acquire the set bonuses. Once again, RNG works against you, you're at least a solid month behind "LUCKY" players.

On a brighter note - most classes possess a lot of satisfying buttons to press and there is a lot of room for creative gameplay. Power increases are meaningful and impactful which is a great anadote for pvp in general.

On a personal level I like Brian Holinka, he's a great guy. He's very skilled at the macro level of the game, making classes fun to play and somewhat viable. But on a micro level, Holinka knows less about pvp than a prom queen knows about changing a car transmission.

[Thunderbleem]

A little bit of doom and gloom here.

Yes, the game is very bursty at the moment which can be pretty crappy for a healer. But "unless you're a holy priest you die in 1 GCD" is nowhere near the truth. The biggest problem with casual PvP at the moment is the gear system, which has 8 levels of upgrades. So if you aren't able/willing to climb any rating in arena or RBGs, you are going to be at a pretty significant disadvantage to those who do. That having been said, if you can get 1600, or even 1400, for the most part you'll be able to compete in casual BGs and have fun. 1400 is not difficult to get, even for newer players, and gets you the first 3 upgrade levels to the conquest gear. You'll still be at a steep disadvantage to people at 1950+ gear level, but most people in casual PvP aren't that high rated. In fact, at the moment I'd say most people in random BGs are in mostly honor gear, so any conquest gear would put you above the average.

If you're into arena, well whatever rating you play at you should mostly be playing against people of similar gear, so it's fine. You just have to learn the new burst meta which is basically trading cooldowns. That having been said, I don't think arena is a very friendly or fun environment for healers at the moment.

[Gotural]

I think PvP atm is very fun and definitely worthwhile, especially since the latest patch this wednesday.

[Noctiphobia]

Least fun PvP for me since WoTLK. So if you liked WoTLK more than anything later, you'll like it.

[Alithia]

It is the first time that you can get your tier by doing PvP.

[Rucati]

It's pretty fun right now, but it can be a bit frustrating at times. I play a lot of classes, and honestly all of them feel fairly strong right now. The game actually feels balanced in the sense that every class has good comps, though I do think Hpriest/Hpal/Rdruid are the only 3 healers that are particularly viable at the moment.

From the DPS side I really enjoy Warlock, Mage and Monk, they're all really fun right now and have quite a few good comps.

The biggest thing about the current patch is you need to react properly to CDs. If they stun you but don't use any CDs and you trinket then you will 100% die next stun. If you trinket any CC before your opponents pop CDs you basically lose honestly. There's definitely a lot of burst, but it's almost always manageable.

People who don't know how to react to things will die instantly and think the game is horrible, people who know how to properly trade CDs will live much longer and probably find the game pretty fun at the moment.

BFA had mostly 10-15 minute games, season 1 of Shadowlands had mostly 10-15 minute games too I guess, now it seems most games last 5-10 minutes, which is a significantly better pace imo. There's still cheesy one shot things that can happen where a game ends in 30 seconds, but again, as long as you aren't blowing CDs at random that shouldn't really happen.

[saixilein]

as someone who plays pvp for over 12 years now i really dislike the actual/shadowlands pvp. Its mostly just about crit & procluck and oneshot some target.

I really loved to play healer in pvp, but not these days. The Gameplay is so fast, you used one CD wrong and u will lose. Its not fun.

Healer is still fun in RBG, but arena sucks, unfortunately.

[shise]

Really cool and about to get a bit better... wait, that is in Classic ofc!

[Alanar]

WoW pvp always had two modes:

1. Noone dies for hours
2. Everyone dies in a few globals

We are currently at the state of "everyone dies in a few globals". If you like that and can get the gear to support this playstyle then its a good patch. The everyone dies part is heavily gear dependent so if you don't feel you will access such level of gear it will be bad.

This pretty much.

[Kharnath]

Someone mentioned once that if we did bracketed random battle grounds (Ex: Ilvl200 - 210 | Ilvl211 - 220 | etc etc) people would still twink them but even if that is the case would it still not be more equal as opposed to an Ilvl 200 in a BG with an Ilvl270?

I still believe that with brackets and with twinking it would be a more even playing field.

EDIT: Or perhaps some of those complaining about the bracket idea are the ilvl270 guys who want to keep roflstomping the ilvl200 guys?

[Deadite]

I was thinking of dipping my toes back into the game after 4 years or so. Healer main. Is it fun? Worthwhile?

Pretty wierd. Half the streamers seem to be tanking their ratings to 1000 and one shotting people with half their health and then bragging about how awesome they are.

[melzas]

I've been pvping since wotlk and in my opinion SL PvP is best ever. There is point in pushing rating, there is point in doing random bgs and balance is very good.

[Kagthul]

“Total Shitshow” is being generous.

[MrHorner]

Its pretty unbalanced in healing. Right now Holy priest is just OP. There is no reason to play anything else if you want to push. Sure, Holy paladins are fine but lack the power and utility of holy priests.
You know, disc is supposed to do more damage than holy. well not anymore

[Grapple]

Been having a blast on Resto Shaman. feels pretty comparable with Rdruid, Disc, Hpally. Ya holy priest is a bit of a op spec, and Mistweaver is in a bit of a worse spot.

[Schmilblick]

Casual PvP ? oneshot fiesta, new and returning players have no chance.

[Luxeley]

By the time you read this you are DELETED. That about sums it up, unless you're rolling with a geared and skilled Holy Priest.