SWTOR Arenas: How it Should be Done

[bradyvickers]

PLEASE ADD ARENA! for some people like me its the only reason that im making a character, incase they add arena. if they dont i will unsub, and i believe that there are many people like me.

[Darkdanjal]

As I do like the ideas of Zybak and I am a subscriber of him, I dont think arena should be the main focus on SW TOR, the is star WARS for crying out loud, large scale PvP should be the main focus at first.

 

Arenas can be nice as Zybak subscribed it his way as he wants to see it and I wouldnt mind see it happen but I rather want Illum to change at first.

 

Gz

 

Darkdanjal

[GreenReafer]

As I do like the ideas of Zybak and I am a subscriber of him, I dont think arena should be the main focus on SW TOR, the is star WARS for crying out loud, large scale PvP should be the main focus at first.

 

Arenas can be nice as Zybak subscribed it his way as he wants to see it and I wouldnt mind see it happen but I rather want Illum to change at first.

 

Gz

 

Darkdanjal

 

I watched the movies there was planty of small fights too. Tired of people using lore as a reason for no Arena in a game.

Then you should only be able to do a flashpoint one time and dailies shouldnt exist cause I didn't see them repeating the same mission over and over in the movies or killing the same guy and mobs over and over using the exact same tactics and path.

[Darkdanjal]

you should read my post better, Im not saying I dont want arena, Im saying it shouldnt be the main focus...

[Radiohex]

A ton of people saying they want to do arenas vs. a ton of people saying those people shouldn't be allowed to do arenas.

 

How is this even a discussion? Put it in.

[AtmaTheWanderer]

How Arenas Should Be Done in Star Wars:

 

By leaving them out.

[KorwinOfAmber]

No, no arena here please. You WoW drones will move on to next game or Pandaria anyway, all while attempting to ruin this one.

[Radiohex]

No, no arena here please. You WoW drones will move on to next game or Pandaria anyway, all while attempting to ruin this one.

 

This sense of victimization you anti-arena people have is so bizarre, when what you are doing is trying to kill a feature that a lot of people really like and doesn't affect you in the slightest, vague claims of it 'ruining' WoW notwithstanding.

 

What it really did is make WoW really popular, and the high standard of class balance that resulted is the reason people are so spoiled as to think 8+ unique classes could ever be remotely balanced overall.

 

But please resume your name-calling and qq.

[Larudior]

I played WoW a lot , loads of bg's , loved hanging outside IF dueling , I got pretty decent at dueling , pretty decent at bg's as well , but what I found to be the toughest and most challenging was arenas.

 

BG's sure it can get really intense and you need to sacrifice yourself etc to interrupt or kill the fc and such.

 

Duels sure it can be tricky to learn how to counter the other classes and beat them.

 

But in arena if you compare it to bg's the spotlight is really on you , screw up and you often will be the cause of your team losing , also if you compare it to duels , the degree of multitasking is higher which adds extra challenge , cause it's not just 1 opponent you need to keep track on , you also need to watch out over your teammates as well.

 

This is some of the things that I think is challenging about arena , with this said I actually didn't do very well , I need more practice and experience , but I don't care I still want it cause I love the challenge it presents.

[Avianpixie]

I have no problems with allowing PvP Arenas in this game.

 

As long as it isn't the only way to obtain high-end PvP loot.

 

I personally like large scale PvP, so i'd stick to Warzones and Ilum and World PvP. But i understand a lot of people, including a large number of my friends, prefer the competitive nature of smaller scale PvP, like Arena.

 

Everyone is entitled to their own enjoyment, be it Warzones, World PvP or PvP Arenas. As long as the rewards are obtained equally and no one is forced into a specific form of play that they don't like, i personally don't see a problem.

[Kolbenito]

-Have no rewards or end of the season titles for arena. Have leaderboards to show the teams and their ratings. Arenas should be played for the sake of competition. Not having end of the season rewards or titles would cut down on the cheating, account sharing, and politics that go on in PvP. I have friends that make tens of thousands of dollars every arena season selling gladiator and rank 1 in World of Warcraft, the only reason anyone pays that kind of money is because they get to keep something after the season is over. Not too many people are going to pay big money for someone to play their account if there is no reward they get to keep. (Again better explanation in the video, can’t seem to get the point across in text)

 

This is your best point and I completely agree. Would be excellent if WoW took this same idea onboard, although doubtful it will happen.

 

I kinda disagree on the 2v2, at one time in WoW it was a decent bracket and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit then. Warrior RDruid, Sword spec was some of the most fun I had in TBC/WotLK

 

The BIG problem I see with swtor is the combat is just unpolished. Can you imagine losing a game because your pummel would not fire? In WoW I play with 125ms latency as a Warrior and could not imagine this happening. In SWTOR I play with roughly the same latency and it happens all the time.

 

Overall I agree though. Endless Warzone grinding will not keep players past the point where they have nothing left to get from commendations.

Edited January 28, 2012 by Kolbenito

[foreverjd]

/bump

[hgjwz]

Overall i agree but i think there needs to be small carrot to get even the casuals to try the arenas at-least. Different looking gear or small titles meaby but that's about it.

 

Also anyone who seems to be against esports i cant understand that. If you look some games like league of legends or starcraft those games player bases pretty much exploded after the esport got big. Esport can be only good thing for a game.

 

So defianetly implement some easy to balance arena system what has some sort of esport value aswell.

Edited January 31, 2012 by hgjwz

[Rayneia]

@ OP,

 

Many of the problems you stated in the video about WoW and their arena lead to my choice to cancel my account and play other games until SWTOR became available. As someone who loved PvP and was addicted to the arena, I quickly began to hate the changes they were making where it was no longer a viable PvP option for those people who just joined to have something we call FUN. Imagine that... only doing it because it was FUN!

 

/sigh....

 

The one change I would make is allow for 1v1 or dueling arena. Yeah, I know people will gripe about class balance problems but I always loved dueling and it would just be a great way to learn your chosen class better and how you can defeat another. It's also great for someone who just wants to login to the game for a bit and see their own personal skills (or the lack of them in my case... )

Edited February 6, 2012 by Rayneia

[Selestian]

I do think SWTOR needs to have some sort of small scale PvP that can be played competitively. Competitive PvP will do wonders for the game and attract more players + be a big time sink for hard core players like myself.

 

It already exists, they are called warfronts. You can access them by clicking on the icon on the bottom right of your minimap.

[Sadix]

It already exists, they are called warfronts. You can access them by clicking on the icon on the bottom right of your minimap.

 

Warzones are not competitive at all.

[Calei]

Small Scale PVP is a nightmare to balance. Blizzard stated that thier biggest mistake was Arenas and if they could change the past, they would have NEVER implemented arenas in WoW. Ever.

 

10 classes, 3 talents tress, 41 talent points. Thats a headache of epic proportions. Big designer mistake.

[ZakPreston]

I totally agree with Zybak except 2 statements:

 

1. As a mediocre 2200+ Rogue in WoW, I'd say that 3v3 arena has it's flaws, like 2 healers and 1 dd or healer, tank and DD. While having 4v4 the optimal combinations are:

• 1 healer, 1 tank, 2 dd -- most balanced setup
  
• 2 healers, 1 tank, 1 dd -- considerable lack of damage output is noticeable
  
• 2 healers and 2 dd -- pretty fine setup, countered by 3dd+heal
  
• 1 healer, 3 dd -- zerg-team, countered by a single enemy tank

I won't say about lame setups like 3 helers and a tank or so, but the system would kind like rock-paper-scissors.

 

2. Second one is about no rewards in arenas:

While a lot of players experience huge lags on decent PCs in WZs, valor and commendation gain from arena would be a great relief. The valor/commandation gain speed shoul be rougly the same as on WZ.

Edited February 7, 2012 by ZakPreston

[kalamitis]

and something more. DO A DEATHMATCH WZ! 100 points, each death is a point minus, first team that reaches 0 loses. Put pillars for LoS and some acid pulls for knockbacks, give some objectives to cap that would only buff up! Like, capturing the buff give you 3% damage, healing increased. Easy to implant, it would be the most loved WZ ever

[Fishnchamps]

I'm replying because I support this.

same for me :-P

[Imer]

I support this too.

[Sizezor]

I support this change, I understand that they didnt originally didnt want arenas, However WZ can only do so much.

 

I 100% Agree with almost everything said here.

[finkfad]

I personally oppose arenas in principle because

 

1. BW will be forced to balance classes on arena outcomes due to the QQ. Then rebalance because 2v2 got out of hand. Then re-rebalance when 4v4 gets out of hand. Then rebalance when 8v8 gets out of hand. Then the PvErs will cry about getting nerfed for no reason other than their class being arena FoTM. Then rebalanced for PvE. Rinse and repeat as required.

 

2. BW will inevitably introduce arena-exclusive rewards like higher-tiered gears to pacify the QQers who starts threads like "thanks for useless arenas", "arenas waste of time", "why arena when you can <insert xxx>" by the thousands.

 

I don't claim to speak for anyone but myself. But I vote no. The idea that arenas can be implemented without gear rewards is romantic, but I doubt it will stay that way for long if there were no gear rewards. And the class imbalance, balance, and re-balance needs no further discussion.

[Xancaster]

i support everything said 110%, i dont think i could play this game like i played WoW without BW introducing arena, without arena i am sure by the third month i would have quit from being bored in pve, lol

[Gyshe]

YouTube video for those who want something to listen to:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzz1EJX3p_Q

 

 

I do think SWTOR needs to have some sort of small scale PvP that can be played competitively. Competitive PvP will do wonders for the game and attract more players + be a big time sink for hard core players like myself. Here are a few things I would do to make a good competitive environment.

 

-Only have 1 arena bracket, 3v3. 2v2 is too individualistic and is very comp vs. comp due to the low amount of options when playing the bracket. 4v4 wouldn’t really work; it would lead to really slow games of 2 healers and 2 dps or really quick healer zergs with 3 dps on one target. 5v5 is too zergy and is never really respected in any sort of competitive environment, it is very comp based because the games are so fast. Balancing the game around 1 bracket would lead to a much more balanced and competitive environment.

 

-Balance the game around 3v3 arena, 99% of the time if something is balanced in small scale pvp it will translate to large scale pvp. If something is overpowered or underpowered in PvE have a bolster or nerf system that raises or lowers damage/healing that only works in dungeons/raids. You can’t balance a game around PvP and PvE at the same time with the same damage and healing multipliers for both. (Better explanation in the video)

 

-Have no rewards or end of the season titles for arena. Have leaderboards to show the teams and their ratings. Arenas should be played for the sake of competition. Not having end of the season rewards or titles would cut down on the cheating, account sharing, and politics that go on in PvP. I have friends that make tens of thousands of dollars every arena season selling gladiator and rank 1 in World of Warcraft, the only reason anyone pays that kind of money is because they get to keep something after the season is over. Not too many people are going to pay big money for someone to play their account if there is no reward they get to keep. (Again better explanation in the video, can’t seem to get the point across in text)

 

-Make functional arena maps, no raised platforms where knockbacks will be annoying, no RNG elements of any kind, no silly mechanics. Make functional maps that will allow for competitive play.

 

Be sure to let me know what you guys think below.

 

Very good points, but the reason most WoW players actually do the arena is because they get the rewards. Im not saying bioware should add similar rewards, but give like a credit reward for the teams that win, or they get some sort of rare crafting item, not a mount and title like WoW. 3v3 is a good size, but what about 1v1 competitively? Could be interesting, but they do have a dueling system for that. Oh well, only time will tell for this concept.