Classic PvP Content Breakdown

[Apatheist]

The items you earn from the PvP Rank Rewards will be the versions from patch 1.12

This could cause problems. The PvP rewards from 1.12 were significantly stronger than raid gear right up until Naxx. Particularly the rank 14 weapons. If people have access to this stuff through BWL and AQ it'll have a pretty significant impact on progression difficulty.

[Tin]

This could cause problems. The PvP rewards from 1.12 were significantly stronger than raid gear right up until Naxx. Particularly the rank 14 weapons. If people have access to this stuff through BWL and AQ it'll have a pretty significant impact on progression difficulty.

They know....

In the third phase, we’ll introduce the first Battlegrounds: Alterac Valley (version 1.12) and Warsong Gulch, alongside with their associated vendors. One thing to note is that there were a couple of updates to these vendors over the course of the original patch releases, so some items won’t be available right away. For example, the Spell Penetration trinkets available from the Warsong Gulch vendor weren’t introduced until Patch 1.9, so we’re currently thinking that we’ll add these in phase 5.

[Apatheist]

They know....

Seems to me that section is talking about the battleground vendors for AV, WSG, etc. Not the PvP quartermasters in Orgrimmar and Stormwind where you purchase PvP rank rewards. The article specifically states that the 1.12 rank gear will be available as soon as you achieve the required rank in phase 2, which is the phase before they open BWL.

They're also unclear whether they're using the earlier ranking system or the one after they increased the percentage of players that could achieve rank 14. I can absolutely see hardcore guilds running premades to farm gear will trivialize everything up to Naxx, groups camping flight paths for free honor, etc.

[MiRai]

The article specifically states that the 1.12 rank gear will be available as soon as you achieve the required rank in phase 2, which is the phase before they open BWL.

If they stick with that release schedule, then, realistically speaking, how many people could be expected to acquire them, per server, and how powerful are the items in comparison to what would be available?

[Apatheist]

If they stick with that release schedule, then, realistically speaking, how many people could be expected to acquire them, per server, and how powerful are the items in comparison to what would be available?

That's the problem. The way the system works it's possible for guilds to rig contribution points by running premades to camp high traffic areas for HK's or doing BG's so they can effectively boost all of their members and give them a turn at rank 14. It happened on several private servers until Nostalrius learned to keep gear itemized at pre-1.12 values.

Anyway, people have already been bringing this up on the WoW forum so I'm sure the schedule will be tuned some more before beta.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

That's the problem. The way the system works it's possible for guilds to rig contribution points by running premades to camp high traffic areas for HK's or doing BG's so they can effectively boost all of their members and give them a turn at rank 14. It happened on several private servers until Nostalrius learned to keep gear itemized at pre-1.12 values.

Yep, and the methods and process for doing this are already well understood by the folks that are planning to take advantage of it.

[theemus]

If they stick with that release schedule, then, realistically speaking, how many people could be expected to acquire them, per server, and how powerful are the items in comparison to what would be available?

If you were getting 13000 realm points a week (standing 1 on a high enough pop server) every week you would hit r14 on week 13 of the honor system.

How many people that can acquire the higher ranks is going to depends on server pop, the calculations are based on the active amount of pvpers on your faction each week.

A % of those players can get the top bracket Realm Points (between 13000 and 12000)
A bigger % can get the second bracket Realm Points (between 12000 and 11000) And so on, the % of players in each bracket increases as you go down, the Realm Points you receive for each bracket are lower the further down you go.

The gear is very strong for most classes, on AQ level.

Compare Conqueror's Spaulders (t2.5 warrior) to r13 Shoulders for a warrior
Conqueror's
- Ilevel 78
- 659 armor
- 16 Agility
- 20 Strength
- 21 Stamina
- 4 Defense
- 1% hit

to r13
- ilevel 74
- 626 armor
- 16 Agility
- 18 Strength
- 23 Stamina
- 1% hit

[Kruschpakx4]

actually the people farming r14 in the very beginning certainly wont have time to raid, but once achievied r14 they might join raiding guilds for aq/naxx progression...and there is nothing wrong with that imo, given that raidgear terrorized arena in the following expansions

The PvP rewards from 1.12 were significantly stronger than raid gear right up until Naxx. Particularly the rank 14 weapons. If people have access to this stuff through BWL and AQ it'll have a pretty significant impact on progression difficulty.

thats interesting, since they didnt give a crap about legendarys ruining competitive pvp in following expansion multiple times. Guess pve players don't like the taste of their own medicine.

[MiRai]

That's the problem. The way the system works it's possible for guilds to rig contribution points by running premades to camp high traffic areas for HK's or doing BG's so they can effectively boost all of their members and give them a turn at rank 14. It happened on several private servers until Nostalrius learned to keep gear itemized at pre-1.12 values.

Anyway, people have already been bringing this up on the WoW forum so I'm sure the schedule will be tuned some more before beta.

If you were getting 13000 realm points a week (standing 1 on a high enough pop server) every week you would hit r14 on week 13 of the honor system.

How many people that can acquire the higher ranks is going to depends on server pop, the calculations are based on the active amount of pvpers on your faction each week.

A % of those players can get the top bracket Realm Points (between 13000 and 12000)
A bigger % can get the second bracket Realm Points (between 12000 and 11000) And so on, the % of players in each bracket increases as you go down, the Realm Points you receive for each bracket are lower the further down you go.

The next question I have is, can someone realistically reach R14 through just world PvP?

If the only demographic we have to base the answer off of are private servers, then we should probably make some estimates for actual retail servers, since private servers are not region locked, nor are they capped at the original population limits. So, assuming we have a North American server, where peak play time is going to be after people get off of work and get home from school, including a population cap of, say, 2500 players, can someone actually reach R14 off just world PvP alone?

I'm genuinely curious because I don't know, but from what I'm reading, people are saying that this isn't possible. They're saying that those who are worried about R14 equipment being available to people before BGs are incorrect in their assumptions, since they are basing their concerns off of private servers with 4000-9000 players that are from every region on the globe and allows for no shortage of targets, 24-7.

In reality, that won't be how it is, so is there still something to be concerned about?

EDIT1: The more I read, some are saying you just need to have gained the most honor that week in order to achieve rank points.

EDIT2: I'm done reading up on this, but I am not entirely convinced that this is going to be a huge issue if they decide to stick with the late-game itemization, since it's probably safe to assume that only one faction won't be able to maintain their top contributor status every single week because there's going to be competition from both factions. Overall, I would prefer for them to use early game itemization numbers, even if it's just for PvP gear, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it even if that doesn't happen.

[theemus]

It's actually possible to have the pvp population on your faction small enough that you can't have someone reach r14, even with bg's available.

I think in the 1.12.1 version you would need 334 players on your faction to get at least 15 honorable kills in a week to allow one person to be in the top bracket.