Arena

[Kirsae]

Taking two divergent areas of game play and trying to merge them together in one game always seems to screw one side of the other.

There are several things that Blizzard had good intentions on, but failed miserably at:
- Trying to make it an eSport.
- Balancing PvE skills around PvP arena compositions.
- Making PvP arena gear comparable to PvE raid gear, but making it significantly easier to get (at least initially).
- Resilience scaling, further separating PvE and PvP play.

I'm partial to the wide open play of warzones (battlegrounds) and world PvP, and less a fan of the focused arena and rated play for how it's narrow focus affects all other aspects of a game (like it did to WoW). Who knows though, BioWare may eventually implement an arena system (2v2, 3v3, etc.), I just hope they've learned a lesson on how not to do it by Blizzard.

[rektbrah]

I'm afraid its not a valid point, as players don't pick players based on skill. Skill is a secondary consideration, with your group setup being first.

I think you might need to retake mathematics (even if its just the basics), so that you might be better able to tally up your teammates. If you are the one person being clusterfucked, you are likely :

a) A healer
b) Not focusing on moving with your team
c) The only person on your side

And yes, I could be worse I could be a lot worse. Fortunately, I'm not.

Clearly you've never played high rated arena. I don't pick players based on their class; I pick the players I know are good. As does every serious player. There's a reason it's the same group of gladiators every season. Admittedly if a comp is not viable at all, then I wont play it. It's the same in any competitive environment. Would you build a soccer team around the 10 best defenders in the world? No, because no matter how good the defenders are, they wont work up front as well as a striker or through the middle like a midfielder. Sure, they'll beat shit teams but they'll lose to teams who know what they're doing. Think about it, it's a similar scenario.

You're not getting my point with regards to BG's. They're crap and don't showcase your reactions or reward individual effort. It honestly is just focusing someone down. You said it yourself. The only tactic is 'kill da healz' with a few cc's thrown out. If you think it's more skillful than arena you really ought to look at yourself.

[Heironeous]

You really can't focus on having serious PvP available to level 50s when everyone is starting at level 1. And with things like Huttball to keep people sated until they finish a PvP system for brackets I think it'll work out in t-minus 3 months. 6 on the outside. I'm just praying they don't try balancing PvP to PvE and vice versa. That sort of system too often puts both camps at each others' throats. So here's hoping everyone gets what they want for a change. It'd certainly be nice.

P.S. Nerf Sarlacc Enforcers.

[warjin]

Ew really???? I was actually getting excited for SWTOR, but now that they're going to pull a blizzard and give PvE 90% of the attention, im having second thoughts... i already quit WoW since its PvP sucks... maybe GW2 will have some serious PvP... who knows.

Huttball is like your 5v5 in some respects

[Karazee]

Arena: the reason players can't have nice things in PvE. I really hope there's no arena in SWTOR.

[Itisamuh]

If there is arena, I want it to just be a side game. Having a rating and stuff is fine, but it should not give better rewards than BGs. All PvP gear should be equal, to make it as fair and competitive as possible. And this is coming from someone who has been a high level arena player. Even then I thought it was stupid. I want to log on and play the game, often by myself, whenever I want, not have to attach myself to certain players and their schedules to get rewards. And to the guy earlier in the thread, no, arena really does not showcase skill anymore than BGs do. It just showcases balance better, and that is not a good thing.

[Toralin]

Even Blizzard regret even making Arena; I'm glad nothing like that is planned. It's just too hard to equal everything out.

[Lord Kristivas]

So because you don't enjoy it, they should remove arenas from the MMO genre completely? MMO's have very unique combat and arena's are the only way to show skill and get rewarded accordingly.

Also if a mage is OP in arena, they'd be OP in BG's and open world pvp? Or just because it's in a BG they're automatically balanced. Enough with this 'balance' crap. If the game was balanced it would be boring.

Hold on there, chief. Many would argue that Arena is a LOT less about skill, and a LOT more about comp. That being said..

I'm all for arena, as long as it doesn't effect the PVE game. As I said in the other PVP thread, too many people have had their classes nerfed for fucking arena, and it's balls. When you even mention arena, this comes to a lot of minds, and that's why they're so vehemently against it. It's not because they suck, are baddies, or can't pvp. It's because Arena's ruined other games for them. Also, a lot of people with high arena rankings act like douchebags. Not all, but quite a few.

If a mage is OP in arena, in a BG you and 3 friends can run over and smash him in the face. That's the QQ that's raged on the boards for years. "<class that can kill me> is OP. <class I kill easily> is fine." I, however, agree with you. All classes shouldn't be balanced down to the finest number. If a Sniper behind cover is SO fucking good, then you need to play better. If Consular healing is too OP, make him spend all of his Force and then kill him.

I just wouldn't, under any circumstances, say that arena is the best/only judge of skill.

[KvanCetre]

I personally think arenas killed Warcraft PvP. But then again, I never could get interested in 5s.

[Jamber]

Well this is what the lead pvp guy said :

One of the top things on our list for post launch is a rated Warzone system where players can form teams, earn team ratings, earn individual ratings, as well as participate in tournaments, etc.

Yes, postlaunch, as in, after the initial launch. People aren't debating if it'll be done; we know it will, just not at launch.