Yesterday Blizzard released its poor version of the Herald.

There isn’t really much to see. The Herald in DAoC is fun because it is permanent. From week to week the ranking pages remain more or less consistent, so you can work to get a better position over time. At your own pace. The system is open (accessible) for everyone and it is *persistent*. What you achieve in the ranking system will always remain there. Plus, it is also based on the guild system and alliances, so that the players can compete together, giving a guild an identity and a role in the game.

In WoW this doesn’t happen. The ranking pages aren’t themselves a fun mechanic because they are “volatile”. You can “catass for the victory” one week and show in the charts, but the next week, if you do not catass again and maybe more, you’ll vanish. This removes the identity from the system and makes it accessible only for a tiny fragment of the overall players.

But at least the page was useful to show the players how it’s actually impossible to go anywhere in the ranking system. On my server (Mannoroth) you need to be between the first 571 players only to reach the fifth rank. Which, in my experience, equals to at least fifteen hours to dedicate to BG farming per week.

Now what I’d suggest it to finally discover the true nature of this catass system. You see, these charts miss the most important field: a comparable metrics. In DAoC you see how many Realm Points you have, you see how many of them the player above you has and you know precisely how much effort it will take to gain a position. You know exactly that “x” position is equal to “x” points. In WoW you cannot because the requirements shift weekly depending on the catass performance of your realm and are in large part hidden in an obscure system. Well, this is false. WoW’s PvP system is simply based on “time”. It requires you to dedicate your full time to PvP and then more. Maybe you are curious about the requirements to reach the first ranks. Well, this requirement is rather simple: 24/7 time /played weekly, maybe AFK in an exploited BG (I know a few of the higher ranked players on my server).

That’s my suggestion. Add to the charts the time /played weekly, and we’ll really see how accessible the system is for the casual players.

Enjoy your “Players Vs Time”.