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?

@Spankyhunter @perksnpeeves ... and I think to the average collector the stick is starting to get too long to see the carrot any more

— Wayne Woods (@WayneGWoods) September 26, 2016

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.