Aug 24, 2005

PVP: Blizzard, take heed

Despite my near-constant griping and moaning about PVP, I really do like it. I think it was planned well, and I enjoy it when I'm ready to do it. The only problem is that the Hordies want to PVP when I want to level...

Anyway. It's common knowledge that Hunters aren't quite as strong in PVP, even though they are an excellent class, and pets are often useless during PVP. Warlocks have the same problem. The problem is that they're both classes that are used to having their pet hold their aggro at a distance. As a solo class, they both do very well, but as soon as its time to PVP, there's no way to play it the way the class is meant to.

I've been thinking about ways to solve this for a while, and I think I've come up with one. In PVP, pet taunts should force focus on the pet for five seconds with a diminishing return, since it is an automatic ablility. This gives the hunter or warlock a better chance to stay ranged. I also think it is perfectly reasonable to include this idea since a Succubus can charm you and a mage can sheep you, and this isn't a very different form of crowd control.

Of course, if this were implemented, warriors would want to be able to do it, as well (Sfirot kindly pointed this out.)Warriors have a billion different taunts, so if they were allowed to have all of them have the same effect, they'd become unstoppable PVP tanking machines and probably be overpowered because of it. There is a simple solution here. The taunt that pets use is the same basic taunt used in defensive stance. Make that one the one that forces focus and give it a diminishing return as well, and everyone is happy.

Any thoughts? As a tank it sounds reasonable to me, though most PVP isn't done in defensive stance, which might prove a problem for my plan. And as a warlock, I love the idea of my voidwalker no longer being useless when I see someone coming at me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You know, I think they actually -did- change the warrior one already, I've heard reports that the taunt actually forces them to change targets. :o


And, well.. it wouldnt even need the diminishing return, really.. just set it to 6 seconds timer or so, and it doesnt force them to focus for 5 seconds as it normally does, just instantly changes their target, which would work fairly well in pvp, especially vs melee classes, which is what hunters and warlocks have the main problem with.