Sunday, October 2, 2016

RE: PVP Prestige Battle Pets

UPDATE: Apparently it takes 50k Honor to Prestige each time. Season 2 will likely introduce 5 additional prestige ranks (without removing S1 ranks and rewards).

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Yesterday night I started the PVP Honor grind with a few guildmates. To sum up the experience:
  • Arenas are not worth it. The Honor earned is just dismal.
  • Battlegrounds are a little better (if you win, at least).
  • PVP World Quests are the best in terms of Honor and time.

After hours and hours of grinding mainly bgs, I checked my Honor level and it was only 16. I had started the night at level 9. What.

I was incredulous. All of that and I had only earned 7 levels? Needless to say, I then realized that the Grind. Is. Real.

This made me stop and and seriously think about these PVP Prestige battle pets. Not only do I need to grind to Prestige 1, but I need to keep going and max out for this season so that I won't be behind once Season 2 comes out in 7.1. There is a new pet coming in S2 that, as a collector, I need to fulfill my gameplay.

Did I mention that all of this has to be done on Alliance AND Horde? I'll have to endure the grind on not just one character but two, just to collect these pets.

Is this worth it? How will other collectors fair? Why does it have to be this way?


After some long and hard contemplation, I'm on the verge of excluding the Prestige pets completely. It pains me to even consider this, but trying out the grind and then realizing just how long of a journey it is (in quite possibly the most uncomfortable part of the game for me)... I just can't think of what my other options are.

At first, when I first heard about the Prestige pet (singular, not plural) I thought I would be ok. Prestige once and then be done, once on Alliance and then Horde - even someone who's as allergic to PVP as can be like me can manage that, right? But with the news of a second pet being introduced next season...that changes things.

It's incredibly disheartening and discouraging. Anxiety-inducing. Almost rage-inducing.

I'm already pretty lucky and have guildmates who will help, but what about collectors that don't have that luxury?

I don't want to over-generalize, but a good portion of the pet collecting community are just not that into PVP. Collecting is largely a solo-form of gameplay and fighting others is generally not necessary. "Care-bear" is thrown around a lot, but really, some just prefer to avoid certain activities that make the game less enjoyable for them. PVP is one of those activities.

It seems unfair to put collectors in this situation where they must choose between their collection (gameplay) and being coerced into a part of the game that they've chosen to largely avoid.

There are some collectors that love PVP, and that's great that they can collect while PVP'ing. But just like them, there are collectors that enjoy raiding, and some that don't. Some that like professions, others less so. Collectors that prefer making gold, and collectors that don't. And so on.

However, unlike every other aspect of the game, the PVP pets are only for those that PVP. There's simply no other way to collect them. Don't want to raid? That's ok, because the raid-dropped pets will be up on the Auction House in time. Same with many other pets that can initially only be obtained from a single source -- they can be traded and/or caged and thusly made available to many types of collectors.

Perhaps Blizzard wanted to put an emphasis on how special PVP is now, and that's why these pets are so exclusive. Raiding? Psh. That's just an everyday thing now, right? Some raiders will have words with you if that's the case.

So this whole PVP thing feels like a mistake. Adding in a reward that many PVP'ers will probably ignore and not benefit from, and placing that reward in an aspect of the game that collectors (that actually want the pet) try to avoid... it feels very underhanded as if something else is at play here. Like maybe WoW has this new shiny Prestige System that Blizzard wants us, everyone, to get into so that it's a HUGE SUCCESS! And what better way, than to add a pet, because you know collectors will flock to it, right?

Sorry for the sarcasm, I'm pretty upset about all of this.

I don't think Blizzard can take back what they've already implemented, nor do I think they want to. But I implore them to consider the following options for future PVP seasons:
1. Don't include a battle pet reward.

2. Include a battle pet reward, but make it tradeable/cageable so PVP'ers AND non-PVP'ers can benefit.
Option #2 seems to be the best of both worlds - you can reward PVP'ers for their efforts (doubly so since they will be able to make a one time profit from selling the pet if they choose to), and collectors that are actively avoiding PVP won't feel forced into an activity that they don't enjoy.

I hope I'm not alone in feeling this way about the Prestige PVP pets. As opposed as I am towards PVP, I'm open to compromise. I'm sure there's a better way to implement these pets without taking away from the PVP community, and simultaneously not excluding the collecting community.

15 comments:

  1. You're not alone. I don't have any PVP pets. I love my collection, but I will not PVP for it. I look at PVP loot (gear, mounts, toys, pets, etc.) and simply shrug and go "oh well". I understand your frustrations. I'm not in a guild, I've never been much of a joiner so I pretty much write off whatever rewards come from being a guild too.

    If I can't capture it, loot it, or buy it I'm out of luck. But I have decided to be okay with that since the alternative is playing in a way I don't care for. WoW is a game....games are supposed to be fun...if it's not fun, it's work...and frankly I don't need more work to do.

    Thanks for your blog, I'm a first time poster, but I have been reading and enjoying your writing for a while now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Miranda DeZeeuwOctober: "if it's not fun, it's work"

      100% agree. The logical side of me is ok with passing up these PVP pets. The collector side of me on the other hand... x_x

      (Thank you for your kind words!)

      Delete
  2. What about the class hall perk that allows u to instantly complete a world quest once every three days? Do the quests reward enough honor to allow u to get the pets that way? Are the seasons long enough?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Jeffrey K. Funk: The thing is, we don't know how much time left we have on this current PVP season. It's hard to say whether or not you can earn this season's Prestige pets doing only PVP WQs in time before the next set is released.

      And you have to remember, it's not just earning Honor for the pet. We need to Prestige past level 1 and max out Prestige for this season to ensure we're caught up for next season's pet(s).

      Not knowing makes it even more daunting and anxiety-inducing, unfortunately. =\

      Delete
  3. I also agree with you Quint. I do not like to pvp. As far as that goes Blizz has buried quite a few things in activities I don't enjoy. Like you I will deal with most of it to get a pet but this time I'll be opting out. No way am I going to pvp for them. Feels Like School of Hard Knocks, only worse. I guess I can live without a couple of the pets. Can't get those old collector edition ones either... sigh.. my completionist side is in pain! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Sonso: It's really disheartening to hear that collectors will simply have to exclude certain pets, when the entire situation can be solved by just making the pets cageable.

      I don't see why a compromise can't be made so that PVP'ers and collectors (and everyone in-between) can win.

      Delete
  4. OMG, this post is all my feels.....

    ReplyDelete
  5. I know this is a slightly old post now, but i think its worth reassessing the honor grind.

    There's 3 towers per day, at 300 each, and the free for all pvp WQs spawn every 6hrs at 500 each. It works out for me that i can log in around the time that one ffa is about to expire and a new one is due to spawn. This ups my collection rate to 1900 honor per day.

    I also believe the 1-50 Honor cost is a bit less than 50k as the earliest levels aren't all 750 per. Comments on wowhead suggest something like 46750.

    With those settings in play, one prestige level is now just 24.6 days (or you'll be 1150 shy at the end of day 24). I am able to shorten that further on the weekends by being able to snag a third FFA PvP WQ.

    With the WQ completion trait in your class hall now being once every 18hrs, you could use one on an FFA WQ per day, at a time that you might not be able to dedicate the full time to play. In my case that'd be before i go off to work in the morning.

    3 Towers + 0 FFA = 52 days
    3 Towers + 1 FFA = 34 days
    3 Towers + 2 FFA = 25 days
    3 Towers + 3 FFA = 20 days
    3 Towers + 4 FFA = 16 days

    Finally, the Prestige cap for season 1 is 4, not 5, which is 187k Honor.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Red Hawk: You're right, the math in the post was off for the PVP WQs, and not taking into account the "big PVP WQ" (FFA).

      Still takes some time, and quite a bit of dedication to catch all of the PVP WQs that pop up. I've largely stopped at this point since I'm pretty discouraged/demoralized with it all.

      And unfortunately, not all classes have the class hall perk that allows them to auto-complete a WQ each day, so that's not an option for everyone. :(

      Delete
  6. This is a game.
    This is supposed to be fun.
    No pets for me from PVP.


    I want to have fun.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Totally agree. making the pet cageable would have been one good thing, not only for the people that don't enjoy PvP, but also as a means to give PvP players a chance to make some gold. I did politely mention something about the raid pets being cageable and PvP pets not on warcraftpets a while back, which only resulted in the usual huge amount of people downrating my post, which is also the main reason why I never post there. Just too many nasty or bitter people :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Dwarf Wench: Sorry that you didn't have an ideal experience over at WarcraftPets. I've found that the responses from the WarcraftPets community to be largely positive and friendly.

      The responses from the Pet Battle Bnet forum though... well, that's a mixed bag heh.

      Delete
    2. Yeah I love the site and all the work Breanni puts in, its just the attitude of a lot of the posters there that gets me down. The battlenet forums I totally agree with you on though. Only ever looked there once. Never will again :D

      Delete

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