Most PvP Complaints stem from huttball

[kikleon]

Just an idea, maybe I'm completely wrong, but most complaints I see have a basis in huttball.

 

Complaint 1: Operatives have too much burst. First off we can wait to see how the stacking changes affect this, but I feel it may persist. Part of the issue is that Operatives only really have that burst out of stealth. Their damage isn't too bad after the fact but their mobility is lacking + trying to backstab with latency can be painful. The issue is with huttball the team is often divided, either with distance of vertical height or obstacles, so the Operative gets multiple 1v1's going and don't experience their weakness of being peeled when they open on someone.

 

Complaint 2: Sorcs are too powerful/too much utility. Well their high numbers come from standing on a ledge out of range of melee and turretting people. Should they get low on life they can self heal and don't need to break combat to heal themselves so they have fewer deaths. Their heals (if dps specced) aren't good enough to heal yourself through anothers damage, but between LoS and ranged you can easily top yourself off after a fight making it seem like you are unstoppable to another team. Utility is exacerbated due to the penalty of the z axis, air gaps and and hazards. A sorc can sprint through a fire hazard with shield up and take less damage then a tank walking through it with all cooldowns popped due to taking less ticks of damage. The knockback from sorcs takes melee out of the fight until their mobility move is up again. Their pull doesn't just buy the target a few seconds, it gives them complete immunity to melee damage unless the warriors charge happens to be up.

 

Complaint 3: Jug's charge/intercede are too powerful in moving the ball. This is true as well to a point. Charge requires someone to be standing in a stupid spot to be powerful, and both are useless if the other team has a pull. This binary 'OverPowered' / 'Useless' combination makes for poor playing.

 

These are the most common complaints I have seen and each of them are negated in non-huttball pvp. Sorcs knockbacks/pulls/sprints buy them a few seconds for cooldowns to come up or for heals to land, but they don't completely take melee out of the game. Operatives have a tougher time blowing someone up in a stun since people are congregated in 3 (2) area's so there are more people to peel. Their is no 'ball' to cap or hazards that make distance jumping abilities have variable effects.

 

Essentially, Civil War and The shipthingy are about PvP. It is really well balanced overall. It's just huttball which is not about PvP, which is in a unique arena that magnify's certain abilities usefulness, and where half the team doesn't care to win because winning faster gets less medals. Remove huttball, or fix the arena to not have so many ledges/hazards, or I don't really know. Change the scoring from getting the ball to the endline to getting points for duration of time you hold the ball in the other teams endzone? So that you need to get the ball across to the other side and then hold onto it scoring 1 point every x seconds until y points have been earned (y being larger then the current 6, game should push back and forth as defenders have respawn advantage)? I'm not sure but I do feel huttball is causing most of the complaints in a well balanced game.

[Braell]

A good, constructive post. I agree with the points you've made.

 

I would like to add a few more things, but they are specific to the BH-Mercenary in the huttball arena. While I think mercs are in a good spot right now regarding their balance, and could arguably have their damage toned down, I think that they have glaring weaknesses in huttball.

 

As Arsenal: I will start by saying that tracer missile spam just feels embarrassing and I avoid playing arsenal as much as possible due to that reason. As arsenal, we are generally most effective as a stationary turret that spams tracer missile, and have many fewer tools that are useful in huttball when compared to other classes. We are a poor flag carrier due to having have no charge or sprint, and the lack of mobility. Also, we have to rely mainly on our knockback to try and kick people off of the ledges, only for them to charge right back up. We have a stun on a minute cooldown, and a mez on a 45 second cooldown (with talents). I just feel as if it would be better to take another class in our stead which has more on-demand gap closers, snares, or crowd control.

 

As Pyrotech: This spec has promise, and I would honestly like this to be my main pvp spec. However, while pyrotech has amazing mobility, it still has no charge or sprint, and it isn't very bursty, which is kind of important when it comes to dropping a ball carrier. It does have a high consistent damage output, but the damage over time effects can be dispelled, or easily healed through. I've played the spec a number of times and it just doesn't feel very smooth, and I feel as though the heat generation is a lot higher than arsenal's is, so you have to pay attention to your heat resource a lot more.

 

As Bodyguard: This is my favorite spec at the moment and I think it is in a great spot. While you still don't have sprint/charge/whatever, you can pump out good heals while having decent mobility, and if you happen to be in a position where you can free-cast, you can do absurd amounts of healing. You can deliver decent damage in this spec also. Explosive dart on cooldown, unload on cooldown, and death from above on clusters of people will get you a few extra medals over the course of the match.

 

Honestly, I really think that mercenaries should have a leap-type ability that makes use of our jet pack. Something that we can use to either boots to another person, boost up to a higher platform, or simply boost in a specific direction.

[kikleon]

I feel your post fully exemplifies the isues with huttball. Take a class that is more/less balanced in other arenas and it feels weak in huttball because the nature of the warzone means you either need to give everyone multiple knockbacks/charges/sprints/pulls or you have class imbalance.

 

I wish I had recorded it when last night I got knocked around many times in a matter of seconds. Charge up, knocked off, intercede up, pulled down, gripped up (friendly sorc), knocked off again.

Edited January 16, 2012 by kikleon

[Crujido]

Actually, a lot of the issues aren't with Huttball, its that people can't match with a game that takes strategy.

 

Sorcs/sages can pull off outrageous dps due to dots. They heal through the dots as well. People hate seeing a class get top dps or top healing. And if they played the dps sage/sorc, then they wouldn't be crying because its unbelievably squishy.

 

Op/scoundral burst isn't as bad as people put it. People read it's OP and designate every death from an operative as they are OP.

 

 

Huttball is the only one that truely forces you to kill anyone. Alderaan has the joy of AFK farmers sitting down on turrets. Voidstar has the joy of people who rush plant and leave you no time to fight except to match with their times.

[kikleon]

Actually, a lot of the issues aren't with Huttball, its that people can't match with a game that takes strategy.

 

Sorcs/sages can pull off outrageous dps due to dots. They heal through the dots as well. People hate seeing a class get top dps or top healing. And if they played the dps sage/sorc, then they wouldn't be crying because its unbelievably squishy.

 

Op/scoundral burst isn't as bad as people put it. People read it's OP and designate every death from an operative as they are OP.

 

 

Huttball is the only one that truely forces you to kill anyone. Alderaan has the joy of AFK farmers sitting down on turrets. Voidstar has the joy of people who rush plant and leave you no time to fight except to match with their times.

 

A game requiring strategy doesn't mean it is class balanced. If you think sorcs are balanced in huttball, then do you think they need tremendous buffs to be balanced in Alderaan/voidstar? Or do you not see how the unique arena in huttball changes the strength of various classes abilities? I agree the op burst isn't as bad as people say it is, but still contend that the annoyance is that they can't do anything while it is happening. In a team setting other people can assist. This is rarer is huttball due to the map layout and game progress (walking over solo to get to the action on the other side).

 

AFK'rs can happen equally to all sides and all maps. Not sure what your getting at there. Also not sure what you mean by rush placing the bomb. Unless they exploit leaving the area before game starts, they are supposed to plant the bomb, you are supposed to stop them, they stop you through killing you. That is pvp. Heck except for stragglers voidstar can almost be thought of as 3 timed 8v8's back to back to see who can win the fastest as the defenders should repop at the next door each time a door is blown.

[Brandontu]

I like this.