Tried the Arena For the First Time and....

Is there like a level difference cap or something? I was ridiculous, guy said it would be a nice even 3 on 3, I figured we were all around same level, these guys obliterated us like it was nothing, not even fun to play. I am no sore loser if its a somewhat even fight but this was like God vs ants, no point LOL.

Is there like a max level difference because there was no way my team was even close to the other teams power level. It seems like it could be really fun if things were somewhat even.

PVP sucks for the unexperienced in this game. Different rules from PVE and the advent of IO's have made the learning curve very high. You can quickly find that the character that you poured your heart and life force into being a god in PVE is quickly ganked and killed quite easily. While there are nice PVPers, there are also going to be your not nice players that will laugh at you as you complain it isn't fair. Just take it as a learning experience and if you really want to try your hand at PVP, ask around in the proper forums and you will find some nice people willing to help.

Thanks for the advice. It caught me so off guard lol, I was so not ready to be totally owned like that. I am not saying I expected to be some sort of badass, but I at least expected it to be somewhat kind a sorta even, it was just total slaughter for no reason lol. Not even fun and that sucks because it seems like it could be cool.

PvP != PvE

[Flurry] is the best attack. Defense is phail. Stealth doesn't matter. Pets are crap. Every single number you have is lowered, Regen, Recov, Recharge, Acc, Dam, Defense, Resist, etc.

The developers could not figure out how to make powerful people balanced, so they just made sure everyone was equally handicapped and made everything crappy.

Also, the Arena does not Side Kick. So if you were level 30 and they were level 50... well you had no chance to begin with.

Some rudimentary reading material if you're looking into pvp.

Also assume that anyone who asks you to arena, and SAYS it will be fair, is a typical pvp (insert rude words here). If they say it is fair and balanced, odds are, it wont be. As in the situation you talk about.

You have a good attitude too..correct of you not to except to win, or even not to suck. In this game, unless the fight is between two people with the exact same build and slotting, someone will have an advantage. And those arena idiots love to take advantage of that fact, with things like fighting a toon with no end drain protection on an elec thermal.

Get groups of friends together, and try out arena that way. Make sure everyone KNOWS before hand it will be informal, and full of clueless people..and do NOT invite random people, as you saw.

For a host of idiotic and unforeseen reasons (comprising game-engine constraints,
a complete lack of planning for, or understanding pvp by the devs, coupled with
a blatant refusal to listen to folks who actually do understand it), PvP as implemented
in this game has zero connection to PvE in this game, apart from the fact that you
can use the same toon for both - generally with the results you experienced.

Powers work completely differently in both, and even different PvP venues (ie. Zone,
Arena, and Base - when it worked) behave radically differently from each other.

In short, as a new person trying it, all I can really recommend is either:
A> Avoid it completely as the vast majority of players do
Or
B> Dive-in, expect to die constantly (don't get wound up over it), get to know folks,
and gradually figure out how it works (such as it is)...

Best of Luck,
4

See also: Issue 13

The root of this issue (which has been discussed since time immemorial, but I'm bringing up here for the benefit of our newer players) is that the game was originally designed without any PvP at all.

Yes, you heard correctly. An MMO completely built from the ground up with only PvE as the intended mode of play. I won't go into the long and storied discussions of the reasons for this, but suffice it to say it was the brainchild of a certain notorious developer who shall remain nameless and whose in-game namesake is no longer with us (RIP).

PvP was added after-the-fact, based on rather vocal requests for it from the playerbase. But, as a result of it never having been meant to be included in the game's engine in the first place, and patched in as an afterthought, it has NEVER worked as intended...EVER.

Sure, there are some who enjoy PvP in this game, and more power to them...but for the vast majority, the system is and always has been horribly broken in one way or another - despite the bandaid, on top of bandaid, on top of bandaid, ad nauseam - that we've had to try to make it work.

So there you have it. I'm certain some of my rather strong opinions expressed above may draw fire from certain quarters...but before engaging the flamethrowers please bear in mind that all of the above is my opinion only (with the exception of the documented facts) - as always, "Your Mileage May Vary™"

As someone who has no experience in PvP other than in CoH, I gotta say, there was really nothing wrong with it when Siren's Call and Bloody Bay were patched in.

Recluse's Victory was a blast, despite different SGs competing over pill boxes with very few villains to contend with them because Grandville had just been patched in.

You almost have me tempted to try PvP in another game. But, since I don't know what I'm missing, the only things that I see that are wrong are the changes from PvE to PvP. That's just ridiculous and unnecessary. Travel Suppression seems okay - but it's too long.

In a nutshell, Zone PvP should only be for teams of 4 or more. A single player should not be allowed access to a PvP zone.

For 1 on 1 up to 3 vs 3, take to the arena.

That's just my opinion, but I'm by no means an expert.

Still, it is entirely possible that the folks that say PvP is broken are comparing it to another game - which I don't think is comparing apples to apples.

Again, that's just my opinion.

Funny, the arena use to sidekick/exemplar way back when.

Thing was Ridia when the Arena was introduced back in Issue 4, along with Japanese schoolgirls, it was very much a rock/paper/scissors game and if you were the scissors to another player's rock, well you lost everytime. Same was true if you were a melee character fighting a ranged character and they had a faster travel power. Team play was better but a team of hovering blasters on an outdoor map Vs a team of earthbound scrappers still would be very one sided. But for me that was OK. I remember fondly playing my Ice Tank to a draw Vs a regen scrapper or sniping with my teleporting energy blaster until I ran out of endurance.

They introduced the PvP zones with CoV came out. That was when casual PvP became a thing of the past and the worst came out in some players. It's all fun and games until you couldn't get to the zone exit because one or more PvP players simply wouldn't let you go from the hospital to the exit without ganking you. Then they complain on the forums that nobody would play with them.

It's also true that after repeated tweaks to powers in PvP Vs PvE, the devs tried to rebalance the whole shebang to the point that the powers were unrecognizable compared to PvE and for those who finally figured out how to equip and play a PvP character suddenly had to start back at the beginning, relearning how to play.

I joined an Arena match a while back with some folks who were interested in PvP, including one fella who started the match and said he was good at PvP.

So I, thinking that maybe I'd have a good fight on my hands and have a little bit of casual fun, join the match expecting it to be more or less even on all sides.

It wasn't even close. My experience was exactly the opposite of the OP's. I crushed these guys like so many eggshells without really even trying that hard. I even shut off my toggles to make it a little more fair (I was on a Claws/Regen scrapper), and it still didn't help.

Not trying to brag or anything, just trying to illustrate that it is virtually impossible to have an arena match that is a perfectly fair fight on all sides.

What it sounds like is that you got suckered in by a few experienced PvPers with heavily IOed builds that you wouldn't have stood a chance against.

I'll echo what someone above me said. If you want to try out PvP, try it out with some friends first before you start taking on random strangers. It's a safe bet that any random stranger who is eager to PvP with you is either a delusional noob who thinks he's a PvP god, or an experienced PvPer taking advantage of the opportunity to maybe get a few drops off an inexperienced player.

There is a steep learning curve to PvP in this game, and you WILL get owned repeatedly before you start holding your own, it's just the nature of the beast. If you ask around you can probably find some people that will fight you and give you pointers as to what you did wrong after the match.

Contrary to the attitude they have on the forums, most of the PvPers that are still here are willing to teach people who are genuinely interested in learning how PvP works.

If you happen to find yourself on Pinnacle, drop me a line and I'll wipe the floor with you and explain how it happened so it doesn't happen again No, I'm not trying to be mean or cocky, just honest, because that's probably what will happen. You won't learn anything from someone who is going easy on you.