Breakfast topic: Are you going to turn off XP gain in battlegrounds?
by Lesley Smith 
Jul 8th 2009 at 8:00AM
The PTR is an exciting place and there are plenty of fascinating little changes. One of the smallest is also the most important - at least is if you have a twink and a PvP addiction. Once patch 3.2 goes live your beloved twink will finally be able to battle to your heart's content, to slaughter the opposing faction and steal flags/bases without fear of gaining even one tinsy little experience point.
It costs gold of course but it's something which is sure to delight anyone who spends their days in battlegrounds. Twinks get their own special battleground and they can only play against other twinks who've visited Behsten in Stormwind or his colleague in Orgrimmar. It certainly validates twinkdom and a lot of people are going to be very happy.
However not me, of course, my dislike of PvP is almost legendary. But that's not the point. So, twinks everywhere, when patch 3.2 eventually hits are you going to part with your gold, borrowed from your sugar daddy main? Will it make you more likely to spend more time in PvP? Do you wish this lack of XP was extended to leveling in general, not just PvP activities? Speak up, constant readers, and drop your thoughts in the comments box.
It costs gold of course but it's something which is sure to delight anyone who spends their days in battlegrounds. Twinks get their own special battleground and they can only play against other twinks who've visited Behsten in Stormwind or his colleague in Orgrimmar. It certainly validates twinkdom and a lot of people are going to be very happy.
However not me, of course, my dislike of PvP is almost legendary. But that's not the point. So, twinks everywhere, when patch 3.2 eventually hits are you going to part with your gold, borrowed from your sugar daddy main? Will it make you more likely to spend more time in PvP? Do you wish this lack of XP was extended to leveling in general, not just PvP activities? Speak up, constant readers, and drop your thoughts in the comments box.
Filed under: Patches, PvP, Breakfast Topics, Leveling, Battlegrounds
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
superstone Jul 8th 2009 8:06AM
Hell no!
I'm looking forward to trying out the pet classes in PvP because I think they're terribly boring in PvE.
BoneRomancer Jul 8th 2009 8:08AM
I thought this eliminated all experience gains, not just from PvP.
Henry Jul 8th 2009 8:15AM
It does, from ALL gains.
Aykwa Jul 8th 2009 11:04AM
Mostly I like the change, but I'm worried about the effect on queue times for both twinks and non-twinks. In the past, when I've gone through BGs with my twink, I'd guess on average about half the players were twinks, half were not. So what happens if half the players get split into separate queues? Much longer wait times for both. Now maybe there will be more non-twinks who play and that will help somewhat on the non-twink side of things, but even that is not guaranteed to be THAT much of a help. Queue times are already way too long on many battlegroups, I'm afraid that this change will really kill off a lot of twinking because nobody wants to spend 30 minutes with their twink in a queue between every BG. Hopefully it isn't that bad.
shiplore Jul 8th 2009 11:38AM
Well I would guess there would be more of both groups. I stopped PVPing ALL my alts because of twinks...no PVP till 80. Now, with expericence gains and no Twinks one-shotting my green'd alt? I'll PVP for a change of pace.
More people might start twinking, but I imagine more people will "general" PVP while leveling now.
vazhkatsi Jul 8th 2009 1:17PM
seems like an excellent chance to bring my overgeared x7s into a bg and one shot all the people in greens and greys.
JKWood Jul 8th 2009 3:46PM
Here's the thing, though... You don't have to worry about having nothing to do in the queue times. All of a sudden, you can quest while you wait, like the rest of us! I actually do have a twink priest, and some of the best gear I can get is quest rewards. For example, being able to do the quest line to get the Seal of Wrynn would be feasible if I didn't get any experience from it.
You'll be able to get the Explorer title! Complete Noblegarden (I did it on my 17 rogue)! Use your imagination!
I think that, while these changes are being made for PvP balancing reasons, it also makes the rest of the content that much more attractive to a wider spread of the population.
zleepnir Jul 8th 2009 8:09AM
Unless I missed something, the lack of XP _is_ extended to leveling in general.
Neyssa Jul 8th 2009 8:09AM
I do not twink, but I will love this change combined with the new xp-on-bg's system. I always wanted to PVP while leveling, but facing people with 4x the HP compared to me didnt make it fun. So yeah, I like this idea :)
tonedeff Jul 9th 2009 5:50AM
I like pvping, never been that great at it> But while leveling bgs seemed like such a waste of time. I would get nothing out of it. Its no fun being 2shotted by a twink. Atleast now I can fight other alts in all greens AND get some XP.
This will give a nice break while questing threw those levels!
Gothia Jul 10th 2009 6:29AM
You will still die. My leveling characters normally have the best gear and enchants for their bracket. I make sure that they are wearing at least 3 pieces of BoA and a couple pieces of BoE rares. This makes leveling much easier for me and I refresh my gear every 10 levels and I am hoping that the experience gains will be as high as PvE.
The problem with Bg's while leveling is the player that walks in as a level 10 and expects to be competitive. These players not only deserve to get one shot, but are easy targets for players that are building Hk's for PvP gear.
I don't know how they will make this work without excessive queue times, but I will enjoy seeing how many players quit twinking because they can't faceroll in Bg's any longer.
frdmg Jul 8th 2009 8:11AM
I do not agree this is going to make "twink only" BGs. Just because someone turns off the XP, doesn't automatically assume that toon is a twink. Anyone who wants to remain in a BG bracket is going to turn off XP, so in part this is still going to put twinks against non-twinks.
In essence this changes nothing to the BG play. The added XP to them, but also added the ability to turn it off, IMO MOST of the people who BG will still reamin there just as long as they have in the past, only now they will have to pay to remain there.
If everyone thinks that ONLY twinks are going to pay to turn this off, people are sadly mistaken, again, this change does NOT make BGs twink vs twink...the BGs will, more than likely, continue to remain just as they are for the most part. Non-twinks are still going to be in these BGs and getting tore apart by those with twinks.
kv83 Jul 8th 2009 8:15AM
Uhm... Why would anyone turn off the xp you gain in a battleground for another reason than twinking?
People who want to enjoy one or two battlegrounds while leveling will be able to do so without being slaughtered by twinks. With the recent change that you can join a battleground from almost everywhere in the world, that's exactly what will happen.
By the way; I also thought that the xp-gain is for everything, not just for BG's. You might have misunderstood that Lesley
Kaorael Jul 8th 2009 8:18AM
It is a good change for all those that do not care to remain in a bracket, and just want to do some BG during their levelling. All the twinks WILL be turning XP off, so that means you won't have to fight them and can play against others with a similar level or gear as yours.
frdmg Jul 8th 2009 8:20AM
@kv83
I know many people who just love the certain brackets, and yet are not "twinks".
Point being, ANYONE who wants to remain in a bracket is going to turn of XP. This change has been touted as a new "twink vs twink" change, and it will not be such. There are still going to be many, if not for the most part, the same number of low level, "under geared" toons in these BGs.
How many people do you know that only do a BG once or twice..not many I would assume? Fact is, this change does not make these BGs twink vs twink. There is still going to be a constant mix of players.
Neyssa Jul 8th 2009 8:28AM
"I know many people who just love the certain brackets, and yet are not "twinks". "
So what is twink then? I dont think twink means only the overgeared low level character, but exactly, someone who wants to PVP staying lvl19. However, I think if that's what you want, you will gear it up anyways, resulting in the definition of twink (=overgeared low level character).
FiredCylinder Jul 8th 2009 8:34AM
You apparently missed the part where if you do turn off XP, you will only be paired up with other players who have also turned off XP, which would 99% of the time be other twinks.
frdmg Jul 8th 2009 8:40AM
"You apparently missed the part where if you do turn off XP, you will only be paired up with other players who have also turned off XP, which would 99% of the time be other twinks."
No. I did not miss this part. But for those who think this change is only twink vs twink, you are mistaken. You are all making a generalized assumption that only twinks will freeze XP. Anyone who wants to remain in a BG bracket will freeze XP...highly geared or not. To say 99% is a stretch...best of luck if you think you will ONLY be BGing against other twinks.
Codexx Jul 8th 2009 8:48AM
It's all semantics. Not only that, but your argument is flawed. If you want to stay in a bracket, it's either because you're level X9 and need a couple more badges for something and don't want to go back to getting two shotted in the next bracket, or because you're a twink.
Nobody who isn't a twink is going to turn off XP for PvP reasons. Sure, some characters who aren't a twink are going to, on occasion, during special circumstances, play against twinks. But you basically spent a whole paragraph to tell us something entirely pointless and completely obvious in a sense. Does it really matter? Twinks will turn XP off, some others MIGHT too, but the vast majority will be twink vs twink, the only different being one has min/maxed gear and the other doesn't.
This does change everything. It means that no longer will a casual stroll into a BG be met with rogues that one shot your poor level 10 druid. It means that now twinks can play each other, where a challenge is. It also means that they can't go around and stomp all over people anymore just because they spent time getting better gear. Yeah, Twinks tend to always get bittersweet changes like that. This is a fairly major change to BGs, one very often requested, and it's implementation is only a good thing, unless you twink and do it only so you can make yourself feel better by killing people in one shot, in which case you now have to actually use a little skill. Too bad. I feel no pity.
Novead Jul 8th 2009 9:11AM
There might also be those who stays in a bracket because they enjoy that playstyle, and not just because they need marks of honor or whatever. In the brackets above 39, you won't be one-shotted by twinks, so I think it's quite possible you will see non-twinks in locked xp BGs.