Some of the biggest PVP news ever dropped this Wednesday when data miners discovered that boars are getting a visual update in patch 9.1. Data miners also discovered another potentially huge change when they found gear with item level that scales in PVP. This was met with positive reactions among some pro players especially after the nightmare of BFA’s gearing where mythic plus was a requirement for competitive PVP. We know some of you might be excited about this change but is it enough to save the gearing system?
1:05 PVP ITEM LEVEL IN CHAINS OF DOMINATION
As of Wednesday afternoon, Blizzard confirmed what the data miners discovered. The PVP items in season 2 will have a higher eye level in instanced PVP. This means that all of your gear that you acquire in PVP will be noticeably better than most gear you can obtain from dungeons and raids. The highest eye level from mythic dungeons and the first eight bosses in Mythic Sanctum of Domination will be 252 and with duelist level PVP gear at 259 in instanced PVP. The only thing that matches its eye level are the last two bosses in the mythic raid.
One advantage to this system is that it ensures that PVP gear will be the best in slot for PVP. A similar system was in place during Warlords of Draenor and it made PVP gearing incredibly streamlined. If you want the best PVP gear all you need to do is PVP. On the opposite end of the spectrum, BFA pushed the limit on how extreme PVP gearing could get with the best gear coming mostly from RNG drops in mythic dungeons. This was an incredibly frustrating system for many players as PVE gearing became an essential part of competitive PVP. This new change in 9.1 will help to solidify the role of PVP gear in PVP and make the gearing process more straightforward.
2:17 One potential drawback is that it might hurt PVP participation. Shadowlands had some of the highest participation in years at the start of the expansion. Which was partially motivated by the fact that the best in slot weapons in PVE were initially only obtainable by acquiring 2,400 rating in RBGs or arena. This encouraged raiders to participate in high level arenas as they were looking to get the elite weapons in order to push raid content. Guilds like Complexity Limit had multiple players on their main raid team actively participating in a high rated arena in order to get the best possible gear.
One potential consequence of this change is that there might be no incentive for competitive PVE-ers to queue in the arena and that might hurt participation in the long run. Or am I being a bit pessimistic about it? Are you excited about this new eye level change in PVP?
3:09 One of the biggest issues in PVP gearing right now is the disparity between freshly leveled characters and well-progressed characters in the middle of the season. It is no surprise that the conquest grind can be incredibly brutal. With 2v2 and 3v3 awarding minimal conquest, catching up on gear in the middle of the season is a massive undertaking. Even for rank one players who have heaps of talent to queue with the grind is still a pain. The versatility difference between a fresh 60 and a 226 eye level player is massive and without a better catch-up system, this gap might get worse and worse.
Some players have suggested changes like being able to send honor to your alt or increasing the amount of conquest you gain per win. Either one of these changes would definitely make gearing easier so hopefully Blizzard has some solution for this problem with the patch.
4:03 If you’re tired of grinding Torghast every week this next change is for you as legendary items will now be upgradeable using craftable items. The new item called Vestige of Origins has been datamined and it is a craftable with blacksmithing, jewelcrafting, leatherworking or tailoring. It will allow you to upgrade existing legendary items without needing soul ash. This means that you won’t have to choose between crafting a new legendary or upgrading an old one which is a really welcome change considering there will be new covenant specific legendaries coming in the next patch.