First off, I have to say that while I don’t think it’s perfect, Wintergrasp is a good example of well implemented world PvP. Blizzard learnt from the succcess of Gurubashi arena, as well as the failure of Halaa, and realised that in order to foster world PvP, your best bet is scheduling it. With the regular announcements in Dalaran as well as the world map icon, it is easy for potential participants to determine whether PvP will be happening without potentially wasting their time checking only to find no one there.

Additionally, the presence of Bind to Account items as rewards that require Wintergrasp being held by your faction, as well as PvP enchants and PvP gem recipes ensures that there is an incentive to winning Wintergrasp, beside the good amount of honour you get for the time invested. And, in what I consider a good act of balance, the presence of vehicles allows lower level and under-geared players to have a significant effect on the battle, rather than being relegated to the sidelines by virtue of their gear (how dare these undergeared scrubs be allowed to play this game effectively?!). Vehicles are very much a double edged sword in this respect however, as although they ‘balance’ a poorly geared raid upwards, there is similarly no way of improving the vehicles as they stand and once defenders learn how to focus down vehicles, there becomes less and less that the attacking force can do. However, without the flying machines that we hope to see soon, I can’t pass full judgment on the issue.

Read the rest of this entry »