The 4.3 Spot a PvP Change Extravaganza

After this abomination of a season and countless other faults, you’d think Blizzard would be out to impress the PvP community. They constantly spew out this phrase “we care about PvP™”. You’d think then that the preview of 4.3 would have revealed some semblance of hope that they’re actually listening to the concerns of the PvP community. However, if what’s been revealed of 4.3 so far is anything to go by, there’s no hope in sight. In fact, certain changes revealed so far, reveal a continued disregard for PvP.

So it’s time for the Hydramist preview of 4.3 where no real change is likely to occur. Let’s dive right in:

Epic Gems will only be available via PvE:

The way we’re hoping to set it up, and we kind of have this working but things could change before we go live, is when you kill a boss on normal or heroic mode, each player gets a geode, and when they open the geode there’s a chance they may find an epic gem inside…They’ll be somewhat rare. It may take the entire content cycle before someone has replaced every red gem they have, but they won’t be so rare that you won’t see them.

Firstly, I will admit we’re in the early days of 4.3 and Blizzard has ample time to correct this stupid decision. However, the mere fact they completely disregarded the PvP community when first deciding on this issue says enough.

A solution to this could be to mail a number of these geodes to players who cap their conquest points. If you receive more geodes for heroic encounters, then everyone above say 2.2k rating should receive extra geodes as well. If they want to keep these gems rare, they should cap the number of geodes you can receive per week. This way the PvP community wouldn’t feel obliged to do PvE and vice versa. It’d be fair for everyone.

Lessons still not Learnt: Another Freaking Legendary

We’re also adding a new legendary weapon–a pair of daggers for rogues–with a new quest chain involved in obtaining them.

While there’s no problem with Legendaries existing and dropping off the last boss of expansions, past experience tells us what effect these new legendaries will have on PvP. In fact, next season the legendary staff is likely to have more of an impact, never mind the new daggers on top of that. Blizzard has failed to learn the lessons of the past. It’s time to ban these orange items in rated PvP once and for all.

The Gurubashi Arena Port

Darkmoon Deathmatch!

Like any good carnival, the Darkmoon Faire has a shady side. You can leave the skilled labor to the suckers and go for a faster score instead. If you’ve got the minerals, the Darkmoon Deathmatch offers an experience unparalleled since the Gurubashi Arena. Pitmaster Pei has a big old treasure chest just brimming with goodies and Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets that he’ll drag out into the Darkmoon Deathmatch Pit every three hours or so. Everybody wants it, so if you want a piece of the action you’ll just have to jump in and prove that you’re the toughest one in the Pit.

The objective of which will be to alert as many OP guards as possible….

It’s nice they haven’t completely forgotten about PvP in the “new” features department I suppose. Although this is probably the PvP feature that takes the least amount of time and effort to implement. The coding is all done for them over at Gurubashi Arena. All they have to do is a bit of design and change the loot table of the chest.

Balance Changes

While there’s been no mention of balance changes announced at this time, we do know Wind Shear is in for the chop:

Based on my recent conversation with GC, he did mention in particular that a Resto shaman tweak needs to be made. In particular, he’s prepared to get his nasty claws on Windshear.

This was mentioned some weeks ago, but “it’s still a part of the plan”. While it’s too early to discuss balance, if this is the only Restoration Shaman fix they have in mind then they need their heads examining. Restoration Shaman suck in PvE and are great in PvP. The Restoration Shaman Mastery is awesome in PvP and mediocre in PvE on most fights. Hmm, I wonder what you could change Blizzard… Wind Shear! Genius.

In other news, the Feral Druid Flavour of the Month throne will probably be up for grabs next patch, who’s it going to be? Don’t get your hopes up Hunters.

Overall:

Blizzard might as well release the following statement:

After two seasons of absolute tosh and so many retarded blunders it’d take a year to list, Blizzard is pleased to announce a number of changes that will blow the PvP community away (literally) and show that “we care about PvP ™”. In store for you are such exciting changes as a Gurubashi Arena port! The continued existence of Ring of Valor (and most likely a bunch of new bugs to boot). Poorly designed arena gear! A new flavour of the month that’s yet to be revealed. Not only will you be unable to obtain epic gems unless you PvE, another OP legendary will be coming to an arena near you! All this and more in Patch 4.3.

 

So please, if you’ve left WoW for PvP related reasons, do come back and enjoy patch 4.3 where PvP is at the heart of the matter.

They may claim:

…we care and if you PvP regularly you would see that, my apologies.

Yet if they took a second to review their actions of late, they’d see a completely different story.