Update to World PVP Exclusive Pet In 5.4

As a follow-up to my initial post on the World PVP exclusive pet coming in 5.4, Blizzard has made it clear that PVP mechanics on PVE servers will not be changed. You will still need to flag yourself for PVP in order to participate in PVP. Those that use the Censer of Eternal Agony will not be able to attack those that are not flagged for PVP. So if you don't want to fight, don't mark yourself available for PVP.

On PVP servers, it will be a free-for-all, as usual.

Another thing to add is that there is a new debuff that is applied to those that you kill, Sacrificed to Ordos. When you're under the effects of the Censer of Eternal Agony, any person you kill will receive a 10 minute debuff which prevents you from earning another Bloody Coin from killing them for 10 minutes.

It's not 100% clear if this debuff applies to EVERYONE seeking Bloody Coins, or just the person that made the initial kill.

If it's the former, then guild hosted events for coin "farming" would be out of the question, as each person would only need to be killed once before the entire affair comes to a standstill for 10 minutes. This would effectively put a cap on how quickly anyone can earn coins. At minimum, players would need to spend 17 hours (1 coin per 10 minutes, 5-6 per hour) before earning enough Bloody Coins to purchase the Vengeful Porcupette.

If it's the latter, and only the player that made the kill is unable to earn another coin from their previous target for 10 minutes, then it's not as restrictive. Guild/group farming sessions would still be viable, if at a reduced rate.

I suppose I understand why Blizzard would implement this new mechanic to Bloody Coin farming, as win trading is probably frowned upon. But it just seems like it's going to make things even more frustrating, especially for those uninterested in PVP. Not only will participation in world PVP be mandatory, now there is basically one viable route that players must take to earn coins. Rather than giving us multiple paths to earning coins, such as killing randomly, killing only friends, killing alts, etc., we're now restricted to just killing randomly in order to avoid the debuff and to earn as many coins as possible.

It should be noted, though, that it's technically still possible to kill just one other to farm for coins. It would be exceedingly tedious as you'd have to wait 10 minutes between each kill, with an absolute minimum of 17 hours to earn all 100. Because of how ineffective and unlikely this method is, although the option is still there, it's probably not worth it.

And before anyone adds in that the debuff is to prevent any griefing/over-ganking, PVE servers will not have that issue since players must choose to involve themselves in PVP. There's no way to gank and camp someone if they choose not to flag themselves. For PVP servers, it will already be 'anything goes', and debuff or not, there will be massive ganking, griefing and all around chaos.

So the only reason this 10 minute debuff seems to exist for, is to curb kill-trading to farm for Bloody Coins.

Which I understand for the most part. Doesn't mean I'm exactly happy about the situation, though. Until I experience it for myself, and see how this debuff affects situations such as guild hosted events to help others collect coins, the debuff just seems like a bloated obstacle that's not entirely necessary. Maybe if it were cut in half or reduced to 7 minutes instead of 10? I don't know.

I'm already dreading farming for the Vengeful Porcupette and this just adds to that gloomy outlook. Even if I participate in a guild PVP event, it's possible that the debuff will bring everything to a halt within the first 10-15 minutes. What then? I guess stand around and wait for the debuff to fall off of everyone. I don't know about everyone else, but that doesn't sound very engaging to me.