Developer Blizzard Entertainment has recently announced through a blog post that it has made major changes for the player-versus-player mode for the upcoming "Legion" expansion pack for "World of Warcraft." Based on the company's post, it seems gamers will have to rely heavily on their skills, not their gear and other items, to win in PvP matches.
As explained by Blizzard Entertainment in their Battle.net website, once players enter the PvP mode of "Legion," the stats of their characters' gear including armor and weapons will be greatly reduced. In addition, they will not be able to activate their special items as well as abilities during matches against other players.
"In Legion, as soon as you zone into a PvP instance, the stats on your gear will be nullified, and you'll be given a pre-determined set of stats that's uniquely configured for your specialization," Blizzard Entertainment stated in the blog post. "Furthermore, any set bonuses, enchants, Legendary bonuses or trinket effects will be deactivated."
This is considered as major a deviation from the current gameplay mechanics of "World of Warcraft" which basically allows players with the highest-ranking gear to remain practically invincible. With the new combat system, however, this will all change as it will put all players in the same level.
But, as mentioned by the studio, the new system does not automatically mean that the players' gear will not do anything to for their characters. According to PC Mag, each level of an item corresponds to a 0.1 percent increase in a player's PvP stats.
This means if a certain weapon is at level 20, there will only be a 2 percent increase for the stat of the player using it. Although this system can still boost a player's overall stats, it doesn't put other gamers with low-ranking gear at a disadvantage during matches.
Aside from the new combat mechanic, another major change that will be unveiled in "Legion" is a tier system composed of Honor Levels. Ubergizmo reported that through this new rule, gamers will be able to collect various rewards as they level up by earning Honor points in PvP matches.
It is not yet clear when the "Legion" expansion pack will exactly debut but it is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2016. "World of Warcraft," on the other hand, first came out in 2004 and is currently available for the Microsoft Windows and OS X platforms.
