Can you quickly get a high PvP rating in World of Warcraft? It’s possible – and it has sparked the ambition of MeinMMO demon Cortyn.
Roleplayers in World of Warcraft sometimes enjoy a rather peculiar reputation. Especially in PvE and PvP, their skills are often questioned.
This isn’t entirely unfounded, as many RP fans focus solely on roleplay and are less likely to be found in the endgame – but for many, it’s different. Many RP fans also frequent raid guilds, make their mark in PvP arenas, or push their “Mythic+” keys.
I feel happy every time players give new content a chance in WoW, but I was quite surprised when a fellow player suddenly became interested in rated PvP.
I thought:
“Ah, this will be like always. She’ll manage three or four rounds and then will be done with PvP.”
I thought that because I know it from my own experience. I should have been wrong.
For a week later, she proudly showed me the screenshot on Discord proving that she had just achieved a PvP rating of 2,400, unlocking the title “Grand Marshal”:
To be honest, I wouldn’t have thought it possible.
That someone who hasn’t engaged with PvP at all could achieve a rating of 2,400 within a week, earning the elite title for this season and some visual upgrades, all with a level of ease I hadn’t seen before.
Copying it – or at least trying
This sparked my ambition. I wanted to see how far I could go if I tried.
Since I’ve never enjoyed playing priests in PvP, I switched to my alt character – a demon hunter that I play as a tank.
The most important thing is that since The War Within, there is a “solo queue” – the option to play rated battlegrounds in a special mode where you can sign up alone or with just one other.
The gameplay in these solo-queue battlegrounds differs somewhat from the conventional versions. The same maps are played, such as Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch, or the Battle for Gilneas, but they all have a unique, accelerated gameplay mode.
For when a stronghold in Arathi Basin is captured, that stronghold belongs to the faction that captured it for a guaranteed minute afterwards.
This creates a whole new dynamic in the game that I have always missed in regular battlegrounds. For once a stronghold is captured, you then have a minute to do other things. This raises strategic questions:
Should I try to assist my comrades within that minute and capture another point that will become neutral again?
Or should I rather defend the recently captured stronghold to be able to recapture it right after the minute ends?
Because individual points are guaranteed to belong to one team for a while, battlegrounds also end significantly faster. No match lasts longer than 10 to 15 minutes, which makes defeats or toxic outbreaks in chat bearable since you always know: In a few minutes, I’ll be rid of them all.
At the same time, capturing a control point is significantly faster. “Turning” a flag takes only about 5 seconds, so a long control effect already means the enemy can take the flag. This creates additional tension and necessitates the need to plan these control effects precisely.
Since only 8vs8 is played in these battlegrounds, there is more responsibility on each character – and it seems that most players understood that as well. Unlike in normal battlegrounds, verbal outbursts in chat were rather rare; efficient communication and clear strategies were surprisingly common.
Toxic players: Yes, but also a lot of help
Yes, of course, there are the occasional idiots who insult everyone and consider themselves the chosen PvP god. You’re never entirely spared from that in online games, especially not in WoW’s PvP. Once someone loses their temper, the game is usually already decided. A quick addition to the ignore list helps to have peace in the future.
Tank in PvP: Between “game-deciding” and “seemingly useless”
Being a tank in PvP was quite amusing too. Depending on the battleground, my task was completely different. Sometimes I was a crucial piece of the puzzle – like being the flag carrier in Warsong Gulch – and at other times, my role felt “meaningless”.
In Deepwind Gorge, my task for the entire match was to fight senselessly over the control point in the middle. Together with a healer backing me up, against the enemy tank and their healer. My job was simple: Just prevent the opposing team from capturing that control point, while the enemy tank likely had the same goal.
Since “tank and healer vs. tank and healer” is a fight that will never end unless someone disconnects, I didn’t contribute a single victory point – but that was exactly my task. To bind the opposing tank and healer while they were doing the same.
Nonetheless, there was praise, and the tone was mostly quite friendly. I had a good run, with many teammates giving me tips on which PvP talents worked particularly well against the tank in that round. More than once, someone whispered me after a match to explain specific strategies against certain classes that I hadn’t considered before – like simply throwing hated death knights with “Illidan’s Grasp” far away to avoid engagement altogether.
Conclusion: PvP hunger satisfied, but craving for more – someday
I had a good run, as I managed to win 19 out of 31 matches – a ratio of 19 to 12, definitely positive. For some reason, the system also believes that my rating should be much higher, which is why I only started losing rating after several consecutive defeats.
Could I replicate the roleplayer’s masterful ascent? No, not yet. After 4 days, I am at a rating of 1,939 and will probably crack the 2,000 mark over the course of this weekend. But that’s enough for me. With this, I have unlocked the PvP set, received another charge for the catalyst, and gained some temporary and permanent PvP titles.
Nevertheless, I am quite satisfied, as the matches have been surprisingly fun most of the time. I have found enjoyment in a side of WoW that I had always avoided or had simply “persevered” through because the rewards were too tempting.
Above all, I feared that the solo queue would be extremely toxic. And maybe it is. But I believe that these people are either found at the bottom of the ratings or at the very top. Because my experience was so unexpectedly positive that I already look forward to earning the set again in the next season.
For those who, like me, have previously avoided rated battlegrounds because the experience in normal battlegrounds was already so chaotic and frustrating, you should definitely check out the “solo queue”, which is rated battlegrounds for solo sign-ups.
However, you should definitely equip yourself with PvP gear beforehand – either through Honor or through the crafting system. Because if you enter the battle with normal PvE gear, you might just want to grab a camping chair for your permanent stay at the nearest graveyard.
WoW is played a lot by women anyway – there are several reasons for that.
