Making a PvP Pitch to the Devs. Need Your Input

Hey PvPers

I'm here to get your opinions on the current state of the PvP game because I wanna bring it up to the Dev team at the next available opportunity. I love PvP, especially in superhero games, and I was really sad to see the mass exodus that came with I13's changes. So I've got a few questions for you all.

First off, what's wrong with PvP in relation to the old system? From what I can tell the current PvP game bears no mechanical resemblance to the PvE game. Nothing seems to make sense so it's really difficult for the new PvPers the Devs tried to accommodate to get into the swing of things. So what aspects of pre-I13 PvP do you think need to be reinstated?

Second, what additions/changes are really needed to make PvP more accessible to new people? Anyone who's PvPed in any game knows that breaking into it is tough. You're bound to get beaten a lot before you start to get the hang of things and rack up victories. That's all well and good but those early strings of loses do make players shy away from the PvP scene. So what do you think should be done to help new players get acclimated without penalizing those who PvP frequently and have already honed their skills (And IO'd out)?

Finally, how can PvP be made more appealing overall? The Devs have done a little work in this department by putting in PvP temp powers and IOs but more needs to be done. Aside from the fun factor, what else should be implemented to attract players to PvP?

Thanks for any input you guys can provide. I know a lot of people say PvP is dead and that the Devs don't care about it but I really wanna try to do something here.

This horse is dead, you want all the answers to the questions you have asked, just look at the 3 stickied threads in this forum. Here I will even link you to them.

An open letter to the Devs, re: PvP

PvP Community Wishlist - Finished Copy

What changes do we need?

All of the things you have asked have been brought up before to the people who could make the changes. They were mostly ignored and the biggest problem now is since there are so very few of us left, the devs just don't want to put the time into fixing the things that are broken, even the smallest of things like getting the show match results button to work again for arena matches that have completed. So change/fixing anything bigger just seems like it will just never happen. The devs would rather add animal emotes, fix little costume things like capes not flapping in the wind correctly when a character flies or make rainbow auras, etc, than put time into PvP fixes but whatever, read through those 3 threads and you will have the answers to most of the questions you have asked.
Another contributing factor is that the majority of PvEr's do not want to, nor will try PvP because their superman clone gets killed by something, and that should not happen to their superman clone because his back story says that he is unkillable.....

My 2 cents on the matter here. I believe the changes, major changes that were made when I-13 hit was to compromise the new Incarnate System and it's contributing abilities. I think somewhat of th new changes can be reversed back to pre- issue 13 to a certain degree or respectful percentage. Also the travel supression should be granted to melee based AT's since they lack range abilities. Swing on an AT and it's travel-supressed. the DR could be reduced as well allowing those who have worked hard to tweaked and maximized their specific toon to shine where credit is due versus "My new-pvp-dog-collar-&-leash-enforced-by-the-developers" so I don't be too almighty.

I'm just saying.

I've read the stickied threads and there's plenty of good stuff in there. I asked because I wanted to get the most current input possible so I wouldn't just be trowing the same old argument if parts of it were no longer valid.

I understand the frustration at the lack of attention and, in some cases, downright dismissal by the Devs. If you really wanna give up then what's the point in continuing to drudge along with PvP the way it is? As someone said in one of those threads, if everyone stops complaining nothing's gonna get done.

like psy said.. we have been arguing about this since.. a couple off week before i13 was live.. and the devs did nothing..

But if you want a real answer here it is..

Get rid of DR

Get rid of Travel Suppresion: and keep it for melee toons .. so if a melee toon hits you.. you get suppressed and the melee toon is suppressed.

Get rid of Heal decay

I liked the mez changes because getting perma held was supper annoying.. but now getting mezzed is ok.. and a dom/troller is still a powerful toon on the field..

I also like the changes to tough applying to all dmg

raising dmg was also nice.. also raising the dmg for slower attacks is great idea.. because in pvp slowing down or stopping is a death sentence..


If they took the first things out, kept the others, and we have our incarnates, then pvp would be alot better..

BUT THIS IS MY OPINION OF COURSE.

In relation to the topic at hand... "Pitch" begins with a "B"

I think they could come at it from a different angle and do quite well, without making serious changes to the game. Was talking with a few people yesterday who say the same things we all hear: "WOW & WHO have great PVP, I wish it was like that here". Never having played either, I asked what was so great about them? The answer: objective-based PVP.

My first thought was that the PVP Zones covered this quite well. They do, in zone play. I maybe missing something, but there are no objective-based option in Arena, right? So add some king of the hill, capture the flag, and other options to Arena and you should have a happier group of PVPers.

As far as the typical issues go...

Travel Suppression: Not a big deal. It exists in PVE, so why not PVP? Slot your unsuppressed movement powers to get that tiny extra edge if you need it.

Heal Decay: Terribad. This is one of the things that would put new players off. You can wear down anyone eventually and badgering someone new to the point of repeated deaths isn't helpful. It takes a concerted effort to keep players alive under fire and that effort shouldn't be punished. Switching targets should be encouraged.

Diminishing Returns: Not sure about this, but it seems to counteract itself. If both offensive slotting and defensive slotting feel equivalent effects, then why bother? It seems like an unnecessary complication. Plus, it hurts buffers and debuffers, which could use more PVP interest.

Mez Changes: Probably good. Short-term guaranteed mez without perma-mez possibility is probably the best possible option for keeping mezzers relevant in PVP.

Resistance Changes: Terribad. Free resists for squishies may make them a little more viable solo, but it voids the helpfulness of buffers. Taken with DR, buffers are useless. I can't even begin to understand what they were thinking by making resists universally applicable. Maybe they didn't want everyone to play Psi? How'd that work out?

Forget any changes to the current pvp system. The immediate problem is that there aren't enough players involved in pvp for the bean counters to justify the devs making changes. To get more players involved they need to goal-oriented pvp. Some sort of capture the flag type of encounter (fix base raids too).

Back when base raids still worked my sg fought another group. Well got 300 kills and they got none. At the end, THEY claimed victory because they had destroyed our generator. A lot of the playerbase in this game would get involve in pvp if there were rewards and objectives that did not solely involve killing other players. If there was a capture the flag type of option, it would serve as more of a bridge between pve and what we generally consider pvp. A certain percentage of those players would probably then transition to zone or arena pvp after learning how to handle themselves in goal oriented matches.

Of course people have requested CTF style pvp for years and its been ignored as well. But at this point, no tinkering with pvp dynamics is going to bring in a viable pvp population. Even if they rolled it back to i12 rules, at best maybe some of the vets that quit over i13 would come back. They need to do something that will get some of the mainstream playerbase on board. If they got more players involved, they could then justify undoing some of the damage they did with i13.