I’ve been grinding Gems of War for years now, and as a level 2000+ player, I’m starting to feel like the game is actively working against dedicated veterans like me. Don’t get me wrong—I love the core gameplay, the troop synergies, and building that perfect team when it’s plausible. But the PVP system? It’s been stagnant for the last 6 seasons, and it’s making endgame feel more like a chore than a challenge. I’ve just hit 800k VP today, 3 days before season ends. Cool!
1. Matchmaking is a Nightmare for Top-Tier Players
At my level, only about 5% of my opponents are even close to matching me (equal or higher level). The rest are way below, which means I get crushed on rewards.
Result? I earn roughly half the VP per battle compared to what I could if the system pitted me against peers. To hit the same farming goals, I’m forced to double my playtime—logging in for hours just to scrape together what mid-level players get in half the effort.
We’ve seen tiny tweaks, like the March 2024 update giving players over 1500 a bit more VP against lowers, but it’s not enough. It’s like putting a band-aid on a broken leg.
2. No Real Advantages for Grinding to the Top
Mid-level players (1000+) now have easy access to dragons and other tools that let them farm VP in seconds. Meanwhile, us high-level grinders? We’re stuck with the same old battles—no exclusive perks, no faster progression, nothing to reward the thousands of hours invested.
It’s demotivating. Why push past 1000 when it just slows you down in PVP? The system’s punishing loyalty instead of celebrating it.
3. XP Boosts Are a Cruel Joke
For almost 2 years, we’ve gotten these “generous” daily quest XP boosts to encourage leveling up. But here’s the kicker: Once you hit 1000+, there’s zero upside. No PVP bonuses, no extra rewards—just matchmaking that treats you like an outlier and halves your efficiency.
It’s like the game says, “Congrats on the grind! Now suffer.” How is that fair for players still trying to enjoy the content?
My Suggestion: Overhaul the VP Scoring System
We need changes that actually support endgame players:
Dynamic Scaling: If there aren’t enough players above your level (or if you’re the top dog), give bonus VP multipliers against the strongest available opponents. Why always cap at 50 VP? Make it 75 or 90 for the elite mismatches—reward the skill ceiling, not punish it.
High-Level Brackets: Introduce dedicated tiers for 1500+ players with adjusted matchmaking and rewards. Or at least guarantee a minimum VP floor based on player progress, not just enemy level.
Look, I get that PVP needs to be accessible for everyone, but right now, it feels rigged against the players keeping the community alive. Devs, if you’re reading this—please, let’s talk real updates. The Battlegrounds overhaul in 7.3 was a step forward, but seasons since then have just iterated without addressing core frustrations like these.
Since the rework, PvP has consistently been modified to increase/slow down the grind:
Alliance Ranks reset
Introduction of Immortals to slow down instakill attack teams
Introduction of Zuul 3.0 to slowdown Instakill and AoE attack teams
And now they are apparently going to change GaP gnome stats in Blood Frenzy regions to be boosted (they weren’t since the release of Blood Frenzy regions), once again prioritizing something that slows down players/farming.
Jeto is thankfully doing a great job at communicating transparently and improving the CX experience in the forums, but the evidence on design choices speaks for itself.
And that’s without mentioning the suspicious bugs like no longer being able to quit out of looping matches that take ages to end, and not being able to continue after each battle for a couple of seconds or so (which reappears every vault weekend, strangely).
Feels an awful lot like they want to punish players for playing their game.
I’m starting to feel frustrated too. While I like the game, I don’t like seeing veterans leave and I can easily understand why they do. I’m not locked out of kingdom progression the way that some players are, because I barely feel motivated to medal troops and grind explore and this is a personal problem unrelated to recent changes.
I contribute to my guild and that has been the extent of game-play. When I have the energy, my contributions are where they were before I somewhat burned out.
I do not blame me burning out on the devs. However, I am an exception. It still does not feel very motivating to keep playing when high-level players are leaving in droves with every passing year. I’m unable to tell you how many guild members I’ve seen have to leave the game because of increasing demands on time.
Not to mention that another PVP season is about to start and the VP grind is starting to become very tiring, which I assume is a point that’s different for every player. For me, it apparently took me until the level 1700s. I just finished the weekly goals and I only pushed myself to complete them since I’m hoping to get back into Diamond League for the new PVP season.
I should not see veterans increasingly get punished the higher their level is. Granted, my own level isn’t exactly that low anymore myself.
I haven’t bothered with PVP, except to get gold marks for Dragonite. By the time I get Chrysantherax, there will probably be a new set of RNG dragons. This happened shortly after I got Stellarix, but strangely enough, my motivation to keep playing is because I have all 6 dragons required to obtain Chrysantherax. In regards to motivation, I’m probably the only player that can say this. More players have quit over RNG dragons so me staying over one is definitely not as common. Sure, it’s the boss RNG dragon, but the Dragonite grind is still annoying.
Hundreds of levels ago or whatever level I was when these seasons started, I didn’t feel like getting to 560k VP was worth it, let alone 800k. Alliance ranks should not reset. Just my opinion.
Just 150k for me this season ive had enough of the pointless grind and rip off practices. Leveling system is a joke as yout reward for putting the hours in is to have to do more than others. Level 2500 and if I could stay there I would. What’s the point in going higher?
The most frustrating part is that the devs are well aware of how the player base feels, not just the vocal minority, because pvp scored the least favorite in TWO categories on the community survey. It makes no sense that there has been no response and all of the complaints are met with silent indifference
As a 3K+ level player, I can only agree with everything you say about PVP. I just want to add that many of us (including me in the past) also paid a lot of money (Ring of Wonder) to level up faster. For which they are therefore extra penalized when the prizes are awarded in PVP.
Oh right. I didn’t put a dollar since pvp rework and put down deathknight armor, using the one which provides less xp bonus. All those “rewards” are laughable at this moment, including gw ‘xp bonus’
And to make frustration even worse, they have “fixed” paloozas in pvp, which was the only way for me to get these stupid victory points and Alliance ranks.
The GaP nerf is shameful tbh.There isn’t an economy anymore anyway, players awash with dead currency, so that argument is 2016.
PvP nearly 600k VP this time. I have not even pulled the 2nd immortal from burning chests!!! I also was 10 immortal souls short of the featured making L11.
It makes sense to me, for the very reason you pointed out. They finally reached out to the community only to find their pet project was hated.
How many months now have they been shoving PVP full-tilt down our throats, expecting us to pay them for it, and locking progress behind more and more endless grind of it.
Then they see it rank #1 least-favorite game aspect AND #1 least-favorite event.
Must really sting the ego. Not surprising they’d come away pouty and resentful. I can see why they’d drag their feet rather than jump to placate a playerbase that’s quickly gotten sick of, ignored, or rejected their beloved PVP baby.
If that’s what’s going on, it’s completely self-inflicted. The player base has pointed out so many issues with the new PvP system and the dev team dragged their feet at best or did absolutely nothing.
PvP can be somewhat salvaged and done quickly, but at this point I don’t know if the resentment will fully go away. They’re too busy putting out the Guild Wars fires instead though.
What’s sad is that if gnomes gave us full resources like when gnome-a-paloozas were first introduced, the devs would fix it immediately. Now that they’re slowing us down? “Eh, we will fix later.”
Just like shiny keys. How quickly was that fixed? All the devs have shown for years now is when it suits them the fixes get done straight away. Any other feedback get ignored or “passed on” for it to get ignored anyway
