A simple answer to a simple question

#0 - Feb. 23, 2009, 12:15 a.m.

TLDR version: Do the designers/devs of the game expect PvPers to need to do PvE in order to do well in PvP?

The answer to this question is quite important to me and how I plan to invest my time in the game going forward. I would truly appreciate some kind of feedback.

Details:

I am a pretty casual player, and by casual that means I play around 2-3 hours a day but not in one block of time. I have a wife and kids which makes it hard for me to spend a concrete block of time online. I don't find that annoying though since I don't really enjoy PvE as much. Sure, I love doing it with my friends occasionally when I can, but that's for their company more than the actual content.

PvP is what draws me to this game and fits my playstyle and schedule perfectly. I log on, do some pvp be it arena or BG and log out and everyone is happy. When I hit 80 on my DK, I went ahead and did what I always do, PvP. I got all the gear that I possibly could through PvP and crafting. I have around 700 resilience at the moment.

When I do arena or BGs, I like to keep an eye on my performance. Whenever I face someone 1vs1 and I get totally annihilated, I like to armory them. Specially other DKs as that's the fairest encounter I can find. When both I and a DK run into each other, and they drop my health to half very quickly, that's not skill since we do the same thing. 90% of the time, I find out that they are in mostly Naxx gear and most certainly are carrying a naxx weapon. Same thing in arena...

So while I can survive b/c of my class/resilience, I just don't hurt people anywhere near as fast as they hurt me. So it became quite clear to me that unless I run naxx many times to acquire the gear that is necessary to succeed in my favorite part of the game, i will always be on the receiving end of a beating and there is little I can do about it.

So I ask... as a customer that has great respect for Blizzard and their products, going forward in this game, can you succeed in pvp without needing to do pve or be an exceptionally good player?

Thank you for your time and I appreciate the feedback.

Ghostcrawler

#3 - Feb. 23, 2009, 6:58 a.m.

Q u o t e:
They've expressed the view, in a few posts here and there, that they would prefer that players play both aspects of the game, but don't want to force them to participate excessively in an aspect of it they don't enjoy.

They also said that they like the idea of players having to get their weapon upgrades through PvE, but put in PvP weapons for people who are really dedicated to the arena.

I would agree with the first sentence, but not the second.

Ideally, everyone enjoys PvE and PvP, because frankly we think both can be a lot of fun. Realistically, some players aren't going to enjoy some aspects of the game, and we're cool with that. WoW is a huge game and there are a lot of ways to enjoy it.

I think what some players are reacting to is that the current best PvE weapons are not terribly hard to get, and players had an opportunity to get them long before the current Arena season had begun. Ironically, this is the opposite of BC, where at least in the first season, the PvP gear was much easier to get than equivalent PvE gear.

Ultimately, when everything is balanced correctly, it is our desire that the best PvP weapons in the game are available only to the best PvP players, and the same is true for PvE. However, as time goes on, what is "best" changes and the previous season or tier of PvP and PvE gear become more accessible to more players and there are new best in slot items available for the cutting edge.