PvP Changes Coming to World of Warcraft in Warlords of Draenor

As the next installment of World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, gets off the boat and steams towards us at 60 or 100% speed, Blizzard has announced it will be making big changes to the MMO's Player versus Player system.

In a post on Battle.net yesterday, Blizzard spilled the beans on what they plan to do to PvP to improve it. The first and biggest alteration is the complete and total removal of PvP specific stats. Instead, PvP gear will have a 'PvP level' which it will scale to whenever the player using said item enters a PvP situation. These items will have a regular 'base level' which will apply in all other situations.

Alongside this is an overhaul of the rewards system. Rather than the current trickle of Honor and Conquest points, players will receive Strongboxes based on their teams performance; Bronze, Silver and Gold. Blizzard gives the example of Warsong Gulch. If your team captured a flag in the match, players will receive a Bronze Strongbox. If they capture two flags, they will be rewarded Bronze and Silver Strongboxes and if they go on to win the match capturing the flag three times, they will be rewarded with a Gold Strongbox on top. It appears that even the losing team could procure rewards in Warsong Gulch in this way as long as they manage to capture at least one flag. The Strongboxes can contain various different booty, including Honor and Conquest points, but also gear, apparently echoing the ever popular Timeless Isle of current expansion, Mists of Pandaria.

Blizzard are also adding a three-tier system to gear; starter items, Veteran gear and Gladiator gear. The starter set will be earned very quickly, with many Strongboxes dropping this level of item, and will be of a similar level to the current Honor gear. The Veteran gear will drop less frequently from Silver and Gold boxes, and will allow players to step into rated encounters with a little more ease, even later on in a season. Lastly the Gladiator system will remain largely unchanged, with the exception of a minor change to how the Conquest cap works.

Lastly, Blizzard have given us a teaser for the Island, Ashran. Will this be another Isle of Thunder type scenario? Who knows. Blizzard promise to share more details of this mystery location soon.