PVP seems.... Dead

I have been on and off lately but always spend a little time trying to find matches for 28 PVP. It seems everytime I do, it is with the same small twink group of people.

I am trying to figure out why noone plays anymore but it seems like things are just not greatly balanced?

Im not sure if there is a great solution but every match I play now I either completely rock my opponent or I get completely rocked. I dont even think skill is involved much anymore but just more about who is better geared and the whole passive talent rock paper scissors game.

I am not opposed to that but I think a few things should be implemented before OB hits.

I think POE would greatly benefit from 2v2 arenas and remove 1v1s in place of dueling.

Dueling can be accepted anytime anywhere if someone is challenged. All it would do is "act" like the current 1v1 system where it throws you in an arena if accepted. This allows players to choose who they want to 1v1 with.

2v2s would help the imbalance since its not as much a rock paper scissors where gear amps up that difference since there is a high chance out of two players (for instance a team with a RT mara may go up against a evasion duelist (who would normally get rocked) and a witch (who can rock the RT mara) that it will reduce that rock paper scissors game.

I also think a small damage scale for lower levels should be implemented (I think Warhammer had this) where it ramped up lower lvl stats by %s or even in PoEs case just give lower levels a bigger damage reduction instead.

This will promote lower level pvp by not making/forcing the PVP to only happen between twinks (which is currently the case). I know this will get better with OB and time but the difference is HUGE between a 27 and 28 and also twink versus non twink. I dont want to feel like I cannot PVP unless I am at the cap of the PVP bracket and twinked in order to have some fun! I want to be able to que up while in town and play a match or two and a nice break from questing.

Also Battlegrounds would be awesome in this game! Capture the flag, King of the Hill, etc. I think GGG said they will implement these items but I would highly suggest this get worked on even a little before OB hits.

Heck even just take a current 3v3 map and throw an area in it for KOTH. Or even just random flag spawns that only show up on the teams map so the other team almost has to "search" for it. You can even just make it an "item" like the glyphs that come from opening something. A message that appears saying who has the flag, and a "quest" turn in to get a point. Create a "respawn" area that can be away from the flag, or on the flag but with a "timer". Heck or just give each team X amount of lives and instant respawns...

I would also suggest that 1v1 matches are best of 5 (3 wins) and 2v2 matches be best of 7 instead of 9 and the first 4 wins. 3v3s can stay the same since they are larger battles and seem to go quickly.

There are TONS of ideas that could be easily implemented that would make PVP HUGE!

Thoughts?

If you do a 'who's online' function call at any given moment you'll probably notice <1000 players online. That's a very small population of players, when you consider probably only 5-15% of them are <28 and maybe only 45-60% of them are >60. Hell, end-game pvp is so gear dependent that anyone <70~ probably isn't interested in PVPing. They're trying to get gear to PVP well.

Combine that with the fact you'll be waiting a while if you join the queue. Combine that with the fact you may not even have a PVP build or want to PVP, and you have a very, very small potential group of PVPers, who aren't always online to thinking of PVP to begin with.

A larger community will fix most of these issues.

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anubite wrote:

If you do a 'who's online' function call at any given moment you'll probably notice <1000 players online. That's a very small population of players, when you consider probably only 5-15% of them are <28 and maybe only 45-60% of them are >60. Hell, end-game pvp is so gear dependent that anyone <70~ probably isn't interested in PVPing. They're trying to get gear to PVP well.

Combine that with the fact you'll be waiting a while if you join the queue. Combine that with the fact you may not even have a PVP build or want to PVP, and you have a very, very small potential group of PVPers, who aren't always online to thinking of PVP to begin with.

A larger community will fix most of these issues.

Agreed.

"

anubite wrote:

If you do a 'who's online' function call at any given moment you'll probably notice <1000 players online. That's a very small population of players, when you consider probably only 5-15% of them are <28 and maybe only 45-60% of them are >60. Hell, end-game pvp is so gear dependent that anyone <70~ probably isn't interested in PVPing. They're trying to get gear to PVP well.

Combine that with the fact you'll be waiting a while if you join the queue. Combine that with the fact you may not even have a PVP build or want to PVP, and you have a very, very small potential group of PVPers, who aren't always online to thinking of PVP to begin with.

A larger community will fix most of these issues.

Like I said above a larger community will help... some... I think more people play 28 pvp then you think. I know many ppl that have main characters but merciless pvp is even more unbalanced and as you said "end-game pvp is so gear dependent that anyone <70~ probably isn't interested in PVPing" Most players have alts they twink out. I know most of the battles I play right now are not leveling characters. I also have not had a problem with Que times so that was not my concern. My concern is PVP is something that we could do as an alternative to leveling/questing. A larger community will just make this issue more apparent.

Now I bet there will be some fairly matched games, but even think about how many players will que up for <28 pvp. Most of those will be leveling characters. Now take a lvl 26 versus a 22... There is a HUGE difference in ability there. 4 more passive points? That can be huge! Also access to newer tiers of items and different skills?

Or if a twink enters the equation, which I guarantee there will be plenty, it is even more ridiculous considering its a guaranteed loss. The Arena games will primarily be filled with games where its almost a definite winner within the first 3 seconds of the match. Either you will destroy or not.

Would a match making system that gives a rating or keeps track of win-loss help? Most definitely, but then youll bump back into those Que time issues if it is going to be selective about who is matched with who.

Again I really think PoE should take a lesson from WoW here and have brackets every ten levels or so. Also take those lower level players and give them a little damage mitigation from higher levels. That way you take a lvl 22 versus a 27 and its a more fair match considering the damage is balanced out a little. This turns it more skill based then it currently is.

Also, What is wrong with BGs and my 2v2 recommendation? Dueling? Those would be a BLAST. 1v1s are fun. and I am sure coordinated 3v3s can be fun too, but one thing that drew me into PVP in the first place was the DEV diary about it and how it will be a focus of the game, not an afterthought....

I know it was just implemented, hence why I am giving recommendations. I am not saying this game sucks... It is an awesome game and has an awesome future! But that doesnt mean it is perfect and I think Chris would agree there is still ALOT to do...

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clinx1337 wrote:

I think POE would greatly benefit from 2v2 arenas and remove 1v1s in place of dueling.

This.

I don't think they should do away with 1v1.. but they should definitely a better pvp damage reduction scale, the duels last a matter of 3 seconds and its like whoever hits first wins the knock out..no skill involved.
I do think a Larger community would help the situation of pvp being so dead, also think pvp is still new, they need to find ways to balance Lvl 28 and high level pvp without disrupting normal game play..I wish they could Fix it so that you can duel people from other servers (singapoor, europe, america) without switching..

PVP is pretty fun but i think adding some kind of rewarding system or incentive would really get people more interested and willing to put forth time and effort. (right now there is not much of a point considering PVE maps are more fun and better game play)

[PLEASE ADD THIS]
* my suggestion would be to add a "PvP battle card" of a sort, tracking the characters statistics (viewable by all, by right clicking player name)
-battles won/loss
-win/lose ratio
-draws
-kills
-deaths
-kill death ratio
-average match duration
-Strength vs (class) :based on your win/lose ratio vs each class
-weakness vs (class) :based on your win/lose ratio vs each class

I think this would be awesome to have..

you could even go as far as offering rewards for a number of successful battles. (every 50 wins choice of random rare item).. just make it in a way that it would be cool reward once in a while but not worth it for people to actually sit there and try to farm kills for that random item

I would say a different thing. That you can queue with ur 28 twinked toon, and leave and rejoin with any other toon free to play. When somones accept your pvp queue, a gump jumps in your screen asking if you wanna accept it. Then you join the pvp with the toon you queued for, and after the match, your teleported back to your other toon in the place you were before.

PvP queues are low in numbers due to gateway restrictions, and it just sucks to stay in city waiting for somone to click pvp queue not being allowed to play the game while you wait.

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Guilherme84 wrote:

I would say a different thing. That you can queue with ur 28 twinked toon, and leave and rejoin with any other toon free to play. When somones accept your pvp queue, a gump jumps in your screen asking if you wanna accept it. Then you join the pvp with the toon you queued for, and after the match, your teleported back to your other toon in the place you were before.

PvP queues are low in numbers due to gateway restrictions, and it just sucks to stay in city waiting for somone to click pvp queue not being allowed to play the game while you wait.

That first one would be pretty hard to do... I like your second idea. I think your getting at just giving an option which gateway to Que through? I like that idea alot and dont see how that would be hard to do.


As for the post two above, I like what youve said. I tried to think of a cool way to reward PVP without it being too easy to take advantage of. If you do any rewards you cant have it be 1v1 based because then people can que up and essentially quit to farm the rewards. I think Dueling in stead of 1v1 would really help that, along with adding 2v2 and keeping 3v3.

Having a "pvp season" will help with a matchmaking system and keeping track of wins/losses but that will only make lower level players more hesitant to join since its an insta loss for a 22 to go against even a 25 player... there needs to be better damage scaling done there.

Also, even a bet system where players bet items would be cool.

Another system that COULD work is something like a chest spawn at the end of the match for the winner only. It could be the same as just a regular chest found in PVE so it would drop something... So it has some advantage to winning...

Unique Items ruins the pvp level 28, Vols Hammer 1 hit kill almost all players for example

I think random arenas are needed to increase interest among casuals and people like me who have not had time to play much since the last character wipe and thus cannot twink out a lowbie to be competitive in the 1v1s.

Run automated tournaments once an hour with maybe a three minute entry period.

"Random Arena is going to begin in # minutes! Type /arena to enter!"

Have it re-announce every minute until it begins, at which time everyone who joined (I know this would take tweaking as the playerbase increases once OB hits) is teleported into a large battleground where it's every player for his or her self. Last man standing gets a random orb as reward or something along those lines. (we all know bragging rights for winning PvP contests are really reward enough)

Once OB hits and the playerbase goes up to twenty bazillion, you could have tiered arenas based on the number of entrants. Say if you want a hard max of 30 players per arena, and you had 40 entrants, you could start out with 4 arenas of 7 players and 2 of 6, and then once each arena had a victor transport them to the 'championship' arena and have them fight it out to determine the overall winner.

That's my take on the matter. There is absolutely a place for the 1v1s and 3v3s that are already in place, but random arenas would provide a fun, much more casual-friendly introduction to PvP for most people.