Looking at the PvP stat changes outlined by Ghostcrawler

I'm sure you all have seen the latest Dev Watercooler by the big man (Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street) himself. And I'm sure you will all have noticed the biggest news in there (in my opinion, anyway) is the section about the PvP-related changes to resilience.

Disclaimer: This is not absolute. Just like the changes, it's almost impossible to see how they will play out without trying them for ourselves once the beta comes along. But I want to hear your opinions, both on these changes and on my thoughts. Let's talk it out, people!

First and foremost, I don't know about you, but I am really not digging the names. I reckon a tidy solution might be to sling in a PvP section in the character pane. If Blizzard did it within the character pane, it would just avoid the clumsiness of adding the "PvP" into the actual stat, and (I think) it would make it easy for players to understand what they were looking at.

Of course, Blizzard could call the new stats "Bob" and "Vera" for all it would really matter to their performance!

Base resilience

Now, I do think base resilience is a good idea. My fear, as I mentioned before, is that resilience with this design would scale with level, making the gap between a level 20 and a level 24 player even greater. I'm pleased Blizzard hasn't gone with this.

I do think base resilience will make low-level PvP marginally less annoying. Anyone who's been insta-killed by a rogue in full heirlooms or one-shotted by an Avenger's Shield will welcome this change, but it definitely means that classes you struggled to take down in low-level PvP before will be even harder to take down now. Of course, the above assumes that all else stays equal and that many of my PvP wishes don't come true.

Max-level PvP is where I'm not so sure about the success of base resilience. It will mean that people are somewhat harder to kill, but I don't think this is going to really help as the season progresses. Depending on the fate of our Cataclysm resilience gear and the speed of getting new gear, it will become ever harder for new PvPers to get started.

Instead of advising new players to aim for 4k resilience to get into Arena, I'll be saying they ought to aim for 2k PvP power and 2k PvP defense, replacing figures as appropriate. I don't see this as a big change.

PvP power and PvP defense

PvP power and PvP defense are touted as making it easier for players to transition between PvP and PvE. It seems from what Ghostcrawler is saying that PvP gear will have a lower ilevel than PvE gear of the same tier, and I welcome this. It's a bit silly, in my book, that in my ilvl377 crafted set on my brand new 85 discipline priest, I could wander into the Hour of Twilight heroics.

But the new PvP gear won't sacrifice one of its stats for the PvP power and PvP defense, like it does for resilience now. This means that a player in PvP gear will be more viable in PvE content. That isn't a bad thing, in my opinion, although I'm sure hardcore PvE players will disagree! However, the lower ilevel will mean PvE gear has the edge.

The main reason for that, as I see it, is to remove PvE gear from PvP. Legendaries have caused huge problems this season, as well as proc gear like pre-hotfix Vial of Shadows. Will this change accomplish that goal? We'll have to wait and see. I think it will be important to see how the power stat is distributed. If there's loads of it on weapons and trinkets (things that have procs) and clothing focuses on defense, then it could well work. If it's an even mixture, I can see players' getting to a certain level, then beginning to consider PvE items -- rather like they do now -- if the damage output remains as high from PvE procs as it currently is and PvE DPS requirements scale like they have done. Of course, we will have to wait and see!