PvP players forced to play every week

How is this any different for PvE players who have to complete raids each week in order to remain competitive and at the top of the raiding scene?

You are far from forced to compete in PvP each week, however if you want to be at the very top of the competitive PvP scene, then it's definitely recommended. The same goes for PvE players, in order to obtain optimal gear for their raid members and as such remain competitive with other top guilds, they need to do their raids each week.

We are addressing the difficulties that players have with entering PvP mid-season in patch 5.3. When patch 5.3 is released the catch-up system will be implemented, which is designed to help out if you were not able to cap your arena points on a regular basis. The system for gearing is also being changed in patch 5.2 to try and assist with the issue of gear disparity in PvP. If you want to find out more about these changes, check out the following blogs:

• PvP Gear in 5.2 and Beyond
• Preparing for PvP In 5.2

20/02/2013 09:50Posted by Ishayu

Actually it is quite different. A lot of top-end raiding guilds raid a TON the first few weeks, then go on farm a little bit later, and then they might start doing alt-runs of boost-runs in the end but at that point there is no expectations that you show up if you don't want to.

In order for every player in a 25 player raid group to get their BiS gear, in an ideal situation where a each of the 6 items dropped by a boss were a BiS upgrade someone needed, PvE players need to kill 63 bosses in a 25 man raid. This is under ideal circumstances too, where everyone only needs one weapon and not a main-hand and off-hand as well as as well as the previously mentioned BiS drops situation, quite regularly drops will appear that have no use to anyone or go to an off-spec.

So all in all, if there are 13 bosses in Throne of Thunder, it will take a 25 man raid of the exact same players every week, 5 weeks of full clearing Heroic mode to gear perfectly under optimal conditions. Don't forget as well that Heroic mode is not easily accessible, or even easy to clear and as such takes some time to get on farm, so that number goes a LOT higher if you account for these reasons as well as those mentioned above. Ii is safe to assume that the time required for gearing a PvE character in BiS items would be about equal to the time needed to do the same for a PvP character.

Given all of this, to be saying that a PvE player doesn't need to clear content every week in order to remain competitive with other top players, is incorrect.

20/02/2013 12:34Posted by Diffuusio

This isn't PvE vs PvP topic. I don't care if PvE players need to work more or less than I do but what I care about the insane gear imbalances atm. How fun is it to fight versus players who don't need to care about anything because they can't be killed and they kill you in matter of seconds?

I recommend that you take a look at my previous post in the thread that mentions how we are addressing gear disparity and mid-season catch-up issues players have in patch 5.2.

20/02/2013 15:54Posted by Crâwthz

Besides, 5 weeks gearing in PvE against 4 months of gearing in PvP which is "minigame" in this game is a joke.

It will take you a lot longer to get fully geared in PvE than just five weeks. In PvP gear upgrades to BiS are assured simply by earning your points, whereas in PvE it is mostly about the luck of the drop, in which you can sometimes go weeks without an upgrade. :(

20/02/2013 15:54Posted by Crâwthz

After the raid has been cleared by 1 guild in the world, what's there to compete about? Server firsts, what a joke. Most servers have 1-3 PvE guilds that "compete".

And on each server there are generally only a few teams that are competing to get rank one on the Battlegroup. There are many guilds out there that compete to simply climb in the world rankings, much like there are Arena Teams that compete every week pushing themselves to try and reach rank one.

The main difference between PvP competition and PvE competition is that PvP gearing happens at the start of the patch and the competition ends at its conclusion, for PvE players it is the competition and the race that comes first and the gearing that happens afterwards in preparation for the next tier.

20/02/2013 13:36Posted by Talen

With PvE, you get the kill and rewards every week. PvP doesn't have just that.

It kind of does, your cap resets each week allowing you beat more players in arena to get more Conquest points and as such, new gear.

20/02/2013 12:49Posted by Gambolputty

Secondly, theoretically you can earn a reward from every boss if you are lucky enough. So gearing in raids is million times faster than for pvp where you have weekly cap.

However gearing and playing in a raid is not just about the individual. Sure, it's possible for one player to get fully geared out in a couple of runs, but what about everyone else? Their performance will be under par. Gearing an individual from a raid in PvE might be reasonably quick, but gearing an entire raid so they perform at an adequate level, isn't.

I am getting tired of people waving PvP problems away with the fallacy but in PvE you...

I am not dismissing it, I am simply stating that it's not required or forced upon you to participate in PvP every week. However if you are wanting to compete at the very top against all others in the game, no matter whether you PvE or PvP, it is definitely a bonus to participate and compete weekly in order to improve your character as much as possible.