WOW to introduce PVP levelling? News

14 October, 2008

In a World of Warcraft player-versus-player panel at last weekend's BlizzCon, it was revealed that Blizzard is considering making it possible for players to level up by playing PVP battlegrounds.

Buried deep in WOW Insider's transcript, you'll find this quote: "We also want players to be able to level up in the battlegrounds, kind of mix up levelling PVE and PVP."

The article suggests that playing battlegrounds will reward players with experience as well as the honor points currently dished out, and that this will be boosted with daily quests right the way through from level 10, when battlegrounds begin, to level 80.

It's a departure for WOW, which has traditionally allowed players to play battlegrounds endlessly while keeping a static character level. This has led to widespread "twinking" - the practice of keeping a PVP character at the top of one of the lower level bands (at level 19 or 29, usually), and using a max-level character's money to kit them out with the best gear.

One of recently-released rival Warhammer Online's most well-received features is the ability to level characters entirely in PVP. This latest move is a sign that, in PVP, Mythic's game has Blizzard on the back foot.

The panel also discussed the possibility of a more competitive, guild-based system for battlegrounds, with ranking similar to that for Arena teams: "mixing it up with other guilds to show who's the top dog".

You'll find plenty on more forthcoming changes to WOW PVP - including details of new Arenas in Orgrimmar and Dalaran, and Wrath of the Lich King's new battleground and open-world PVP areas - in the WOW Insider piece.

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stevetuck

14/10/08 @ 10:02

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sieges? achievements? pvp levelling? what�s next.. a melee class with a pet and being able to play goblins as a race?

Dizzy

14/10/08 @ 10:03

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WoW PvP is a broken mess, just let it go Blizzard. Stick to arenas and PvE.

MrChuckles

14/10/08 @ 10:06

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Blizzard becoming a 'me too' developer....WoW!

iokthemonkey

14/10/08 @ 10:23

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Blizzard becoming a 'me too' developer....WoW!

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Seriously. Look at the Lich King feature list: it's basically LOTRO's key features repackaged.

Sildur

14/10/08 @ 10:34

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Hey - if everyone else is going to rip-off WoW why can't Blizzard do the same?

etherfiend

14/10/08 @ 10:37

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worst. idea. ever.

If you want PvP you go to WAR (most are at least trying it), I am a PVE'er, I don't PvP often, I don't like it. PvP players already get stupidly great armour and weapons for nothing more than grinding afk honour (which means bots and the unemployed win there) whereas PvE players have months of repair bills and repeated instance runs to get to gear anywhere close to welfare pvp.

Blizz keep focussing more onto the PvP aspects of the game, and yes it adds longevity to a large number of players, but by adding XP too then you'll end up with no-one in the PvE areas because it's 'easier' to grind xp/honour to level. All but me, and I can't solo instances with a holy priest. :(

Keso

14/10/08 @ 10:39

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Hey - if everyone else is going to rip-off WoW why can't Blizzard do the same?

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Yeah, because everyone knows Bliz invented the MMO... ...

iokthemonkey

14/10/08 @ 10:40

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I am a PVE'er, I don't PvP often, I don't like it.

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Come over to the Dark Side (i.e. LOTRO) - it's focused on PvE and is bloody ace.

Fusey

14/10/08 @ 11:09

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Get the feeling Blizzard has forgotten what a Role Playing Game is suppose to be?

WoW is turning into a stats based Unreal Tournament.

iokthemonkey

14/10/08 @ 11:17

#10

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WoW is turning into a stats based Unreal Tournament.

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Is TURNING into it? I think that happened a long time ago.

Dizzy

14/10/08 @ 11:23

#11

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>WoW is turning into a stats based Unreal Tournament.

Not really. Skill is completely removed from the equation in WoW PvP.

hula hoops

14/10/08 @ 11:24

#12

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I don't know what you are talking about. A long time ago it was possible to gain experience and honor through pvp bg only. This was when the honor ranking as in place.

But this is done by player 'explicitly' handing in tokens in exchange for these honor and experience points.

To make ALL character to automatically gain experience after completing a bg will kill twinking for sure but I don't think Blizzard going to do that.

Twinking has been considered, though not officially by Blizzard, to be another time sink of WoW players. Removing these by force will make many people unhappy.

But then again, Blizzard had made some shocking decision lately, such as PvE->PvP transfer etc. So this might still see the light of day.

iokthemonkey

14/10/08 @ 11:31

#13

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I don't know what you are talking about.

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I think what people are talking about is the shift in emphasis. It seems a knee-jerk reaction from Blizzard in relation to WAR's PvP focus, something that was always a secondary thing in WoW but is now - or so it appears - being pushed as the Next Big Thing. It's a bit too "Me, too!" for my tastes and is also - in my mind - a sign that the devs are, basically, getting lazy. Instead of content, they give you the world to play in and just leave you to repeatedly kill each other over and over, replacing Quests with PvP grind. Sure, some PvE is a grind, too but to just go and kill each other over and over and over smacks of laziness to me.

gaztech

14/10/08 @ 13:26

#14

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Lol

I always thought the day they started copying other peoples ideas so blatently (they've always copied ideas as has every other mmo, never this bad tho) would be the day they fall flat on their arse.

Lemming81

14/10/08 @ 13:48

#15

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Apparently I have to reapeat myself again..

WAR is NOT just PvP. The PvP in WAR comes to the fore because it is the best PvP MMO experience.

It doesn't mean there is no PvE. The PvE is actually FAR FAR BETTER than in WoW. Yes, there aren't many dungeons but more can be added. The world PvE is great. Great story, great ideas, great quests.

Hypercube

14/10/08 @ 15:59

#16

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The real cost of the PvP focus in WAR isn't in lacking PvE content, imho, it's more in the world being more constrained and less open, with the division into tiers, because people have to be constantly funneled together into PvP areas with similar-level opponents.

Amen, brother! The other thing I'm seeing as I level is some of the PQ's being very underpopulated, and therefore impossible to finish. OK, so you can wait until they reset and just grind the first section's normal mobs for influence, but it's a lot more fun to get all the way through it.
Hopefully it was just a quiet time on the server.

Edit: wanted to add that I'm loving the rest of it!

Edited 1 times, most recently on 14/10/08 @ 16:02

sneetch

14/10/08 @ 17:29

#17

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@Sildur
"Hey - if everyone else is going to rip-off WoW why can't Blizzard do the same?"

Just so we're clear; they did. When they made WoW they ripped-off every good idea ever developed in an MMO and added... well... they added... erm, gnomes? Well, regardless they improved everything. They made it slicker. They polished it. They ensured it was well paced. And they stuck a Warcraft theme on it. And it's great.

Edit: whoops, had wrong name on quote.

Edited 1 times, most recently on 14/10/08 @ 17:32

sneetch

14/10/08 @ 17:41

#18

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@etherfiend
"If you want PvP you go to WAR (most are at least trying it), I am a PVE'er, I don't PvP often, I don't like it. PvP players already get stupidly great armour and weapons for nothing more than grinding afk honour (which means bots and the unemployed win there) whereas PvE players have months of repair bills and repeated instance runs to get to gear anywhere close to welfare pvp."

Yep, also PVEers are forced to get groups (which depending on time constraints might just rule them out of a lot of content) while PVPers can get a BG just about any time (at least I nearly always could) to get their epics (and get 100 badges for most decent ones).

The dependency on groups for PVE in games like WoW always struck me as a bit of a pain in the ass. Recently levelled my druid alt to 70 after a spell away from the game, have not been able to get a single instance since then (found there tends to be a bit of a vicious circle here: no-one wants to do non-heroic instances, I can't do heroics without good kit, I can't get good kit without running instances).

Mind you, in general I find it hard to get groups on WoW at all, I'm currently guildless after my absence. Meh, I've largely given up until WOTLK launches, when I'll probably grab a guild and toddle up to level 80.

Mind you, WAR seems much more accessible, immediate and fun (and new of course) so maybe I won't bother.

Sildur

14/10/08 @ 20:31

#19

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I didn't say that Warcraft invented the MMO and I didn't say they were the first to do every feature in MMOs. :)

Sneetch - I have no idea what your point is, but I agree with you - I don't understand why you felt the need to say that though. :)

If everyone's going to copy everyone else, then why not let it happen and let the chips fall where they may! Warcraft still has the most dated engine, yet the creatives and artists involved seem to be able to eek out better results than anyone else.

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