For those of you who don’t know about the honor system for WoW, it basically is a bell curve combined with a seeding system. Basically if you pvp more than everyone else in a given week, then you get a ton of rating points. You need a certain theshold of rating points per rank. Then after that, you decay like a quarter of your existing points. What this amounts to is this: People who want to get to the highest rank have to get in the top 10 consistantly, and High Warlord must be 1st in standings two weeks in a row. Then you get the nightclub on fire syndrome. Everyone wants to be #1 at the same time, so they all pvp and refuse to stop pvping, leading them to artifically escalate the number of Honor that everybody needs to have. Which forces them to pvp more. We call it honor compression over here.
Which translates to: Reyia doesn’t get to pvp because you have a bunch of other assholes who want to stroke their e-peen and clamor for #1. So they end up spending entire days pvpin’, leaving other people out who want to participate. Which is me this weekend.
I spent around 18 hours waiting to pvp (including 6 hours from 6am to 12pm on Sunday morning), and getting passed up because people who were more established and had more connections than I wanted to. I’ve been sitting at 8% of rank 8 for several weeks, though steadily declining, because I cannot get in to a group. On our server, there’s no point to pvping unless you are in a set group. PUGs (pickup groups) suffer from retardation syndome, as everyone in a PUG think’s they’re l33t and don’t need anyone else, and don’t listen to basic strategy, because people think they pwn everyone by themeselves (of course, they still bitch at you when they don’t receieve heals, twice as much if you were either across the map, or dead because they sat their wanking instead of hitting the guy that is hitting the healer). You just get rolled by a team over and over again.
As the set group is the way to go… there are usually 3-4 running. I know most of the people who start them, and i have a good reputation (IMHO) as a priest that makes people win (I’m really not trying to stroke my e-peen… I just know the role of the priest… and happen to do that well… as opposed to people who just want to melt face and not help the team). The game of choice of Warsong Gulch, as you can roll a team at 6-11 minutes (basin gets to around 14-29 minutes, with the average to be around 20 minutes).
The problem is this:
- Priests don’t get very many contribution points as they really aren’t on the front lines pwning stuff. They are escorting the flag and pushing through (imagine a linebacker throwing screens), or a base defender with the flag (again.. a linebacker defending a running back). They are away from most of the pwnage… therefore not getting many CP’s from kills.
- Priests get focused fired down, because the good (and bad teams) know that killing the priest first is a good thing. You don’t get cps when dead.
- The ideal group set-up includes 1, and at most 2 priests on a 10 man team (usually 1/2 priests, 1/2 druids, the rest dps, perferably 2 or more ranged burst dpsers… like mages or warlocks.)
What this means is:
- Since there are usually 2-3, and at most 5 groups running, there is only really demand for 4-6 priests.
- One of the groups is run by a priest, and she thinks that only 1 priest is necessary.
You can see where this is going.
I mean I love PvP. It’s a challenge, but it isn’t a huge 6 hour investment in one big chunk. It’s dynamic content that is a lot of fun. However, the way blizzard has set up the games, the investment vs reward is quite low for a priest. My ultimate goal was rank 11… which is where you got a horse. None of the gear is that good, even if you hit rank 14. Now if you are a melee dps guy, the gear is basically +100% effectiveness. The gear for a priest… well… I would say it makes me around 10%. It just has to do with the way Blizzard rewards smashing things with a stick. Yay.
Basically I’m at rank 8, and totally burnt out on the way shit works if you’re a caster, or heal… Priest’s get the double whammy. They really need to make it rewarding for a support class to play, considering that its hard enough to play when groups only want 1 of you.
I should just roll a fucking warrior. Oh wait. I have one. He’s level 30.
