Here's what I wrote:
So battleground players are going to be forced to do arena in order to purchase the basic, blue PVP gear? Okay. But to make it fair, raiders should be forced to do arena for their off-set pieces, and there should be awesome arena epics available only with badges earned from raiding. I could go for that — spread the misery around!
Or, alternatively, Blizzard could implement a system that actually addresses battleground AFK problems instead of simply spreading them to the arenas.
1. Bring back the pre-BC battleground ranking system. Have a set of gear earned purely through this. Then players will not be able to AFK their way to epics in the battlegrounds. Make the gear rewards from this require battleground participation only.
2. Remove honor point requirements from arena gear. Then players will not HAVE to AFK in Alterac Valley just to get their off-set arena pieces.
The way the beta gear system is looking right now, a lot of us battleground-only PVPers will just be AFK dancing our way to PVP blues by losing 10 arena games a week, and there will still be hardcore arena addicts AFKing in AV for the honor they need to buy their pieces. This doesn't actually solve the AFK problem, it just ensures that it becomes a problem for arena as well as the battlegrounds.
I've heard a lot of people say that the pre-BC rank system was really hard. Well, bring it on. I don't mind hard. I do mind being forced to duel in a box just to get the most basic gear I need (blue gear, no less, not even epics!) just so that I can survive for more than two seconds in the battlegrounds. As it stands right now, I am debating just not buying the expansion and staying permanently in the 70 bracket; achievements and new zones would be fun, but all there would be for me to do at level 80 would be to level another toon or dance around in a pretty dress in arenas until I get my blue set. Not interested, honestly.
Forcing battleground PVPers to duel is not going to solve the problems with the battlegrounds, nor is forcing arena players to earn honor for their off-set pieces. All it does is encourage AFK, because who is going to do more than the bare minimum if they are forced to do something they don't like in the first place, just to be able to play the part of the game they do like?
Unfortunately, from Kalgan's responses to complaints in the beta forums, it appears that the developers do not see the problem. They see PVP as PVP, whether it takes place in the battlegrounds or the arenas.
The problem that most of us battleground junkies are having (and I will point out here that there are people who love both battlegrounds and arenas) is that battleground PVP is very different than arenas. They have different feels — objective-based, epic battles versus no-holds-barred death matches — and attract different kinds of people. Some enjoy being part of a large team working toward a goal; others want to test their abilities versus a similar team, figure out the weaknesses of a comp and how to exploit them, or figure out their own weaknesses and how to neutralize them. Some like both.
I, personally, prefer battlegrounds. I play support classes (hunter and shaman) and I'm fine with that. I will never be the hero of a battle. I also like the strategy involved in a well-played battleground; I like how the same thing doesn't work every time; I like the ingenuity required to succeed against a team that outgears and outmans you. I'm not in the least bit interested in small-scale death matches; there's a reason Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin and world PVP are my preferred forms of entertainment.
I know that there are players who live and breathe the arenas, and who are entirely uninterested in the battlegrounds. They want to test their skills, reflexes and ideas in small-scale matches. They have no interest in the battlegrounds — flag capping and tower protecting holds no appeal to them. And I think it is equally unfair to require honor points and battleground marks for these players to get their off-set pieces, just as I think it's unfair to require battleground players to do arena for their sets.
I wish that the developers understood this. Requiring arena for battleground gear is not going to make people try harder for it. It's just going to encourage AFKs in the arenas, making arena ratings and epics meaningless — no matter how hard you work for your arena gear, people will never believe that you didn't just luck out and face AFK teams each week, just as those who work hard for their battleground gear now are written off as AFKers with welfare epics. Instead of fixing battlegrounds, it will ruin arena.
The best way to fix the battlegrounds is to FIX THE BATTLEGROUNDS. Whether this means revamping honor entirely, instituting bans for AFKs, or removing the honor system altogether and reinstating the old battleground ranking system or creating an entirely new system based on HKs, flag/tower caps, and other battleground objectives, FIX THE BATTLEGROUNDS.
Don't alienate a huge portion of the PVP player base just to shut up a few elitists who feel that battleground gear somehow devalues what they raided or arenaed for. Because that's exactly what this move is doing. I know plenty of people who didn't give Warhammer a ghost of a thought until this was announced — and many of them have now canceled their WoW accounts and pre-orders and switched (or so they say).
We're not even asking for epic gear. All we want is basic gear with enough stamina and resilience for us to survive in the battlegrounds and world PVP long enough to be of value.
But unfortunately, the GMs and developers are ignoring all of the threads about this topic in the general and suggestion forums, and those of us who chose not to request a beta invite cannot post to the beta forums where they are paying attention. Well, hopefully by the time I reach 80 the backlash will have reversed this. If not, I'm not sure what I will be doing after I hit the level cap. Or if I'll even be moving past 70 at all.
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