I think the OP nailed it - having the same conquest points (and therefore same gear) come from arenas is the problem. Motivation in wow is carrot/stick - and whipping out 5 2v2 matches is much easier and faster to organize.

Yes, it's a problem of motivation. In all honesty, it's that arena points are too easily earned. I can't think of an easier way to get epics in this game right now than arena.

To me, it's just the other way around. I hated the egotistic and chaotic behaviour of most bg-puggers. Finally, there's an incentive for good PVPers to organize and play a bg.

Rated BGs are one of the biggest disapointment I had in cataclysm.

They were first introduced as something people could queue up for on their own as a means to avoid having to go trough the painful process of arena in order to get decent PvP loot.

In the end, it only became another arena, only this time you needed a team of 10+ people to even have a shot at queuing up, a total joke.

Elmouth: "They were first introduced as something people could queue up for on their own as a means to avoid having to go trough the painful process of arena in order to get decent PvP loot."

Normal Battlegrounds already accomplishes this goal.

@loop_not_defined


No they don't. Regular BG's don't reward you anything but EXP points and Honor Points.

If they added Arena Points and a rating system for Regular Battlegrounds, I guarantee you more people would take them seriously and more people would be queuing to do them.

Rated BG's are nothing but big Arena Teams. Nothing more, nothing less - and nothing worth wasting our time on.

Netherscourge, yes, they do. You asked for "decent" PVP loot. Honor Points purchases "decent" PVP loot. Conquest Points purchases "the best" PVP loot. You literally cannot argue that decent PVP loot is only obtainable through Arena/Rated Battlegrounds without killing the english language.

Even then, Normal Battlegrounds still reward you with Conquest Points, only at a much slower rate. Personally, I feel the daily Normal Battleground reward is laughable, but I would argue that Blizzard needs to up the daily reward.

@Elmouth: This. There are people who like the randomness and chaos of BGs, as well as the instant gratification of saying "Hey, I've only got 40 minutes, but I'd like to squeeze some playtime in." But rated BGs really are just large scale arenas. And to make matters worse, those folks who do convince enough people to dip their toes in the water and try it out typically get a bloody nose from the first Vent-enabled premade that comes in and roflstomps them in oblivion for no tangible reward. Instead, why not make a minimum iLevel or resilience level be the gateway to whether you can get in, and allow folks to queue up like they would for a regular BG?

I like the idea of separating players in pvp. It's much like separating normal and hardmode raiding. I'm not sure resilience levels is the way to do it, since people would game the number to get into a lower bracket (here's looking at you former twinks).

exactly "I think part of the appeal of battlegrounds since inception is the lack of planning required."

When I want scheduling conflicts, attendance issues, group class makeup and who goes/who doesn't drama, I raid.

They took away the best thing about BGs - let me go queue and do something before I have to raid/loggoff in 40 minutes.

Obviously, nothing was poorer designed than Tol Barad, but rBG are certainly a disappointment.