Feedback request from James Ohlen: PvP

[Amp_]

Remove Expertise.

[Redmarx]

- Keep expertise as is, fresh 50s can simply buy their recruit set in 1.2 for credits which will give them enough expertise to be competitive

 

- Warzones should award a good amount of credits, don't force PVPers to grind PVE dailies for cash, we hate that sort of thing

 

- Add option to remove red text in middle of screen

 

- Allow Columi gear set to be bought for credits same as champion/recruit set, after all why not and it will allow PVPers to use those PVE set bonuses at the cost of downgrading a tier

 

- Class balance on live right now is actually fairly good and the class balance changes for 1.2 are very poorly thought out and should not be implemented until ranked warzone data becomes available from live apart from bug fixes like sorc double casting etc

 

- Read the long threads of feedback on PVP and PTS forums, and listen to your top end PVPers who PVP in premade teams, and not the casual/confused PUG players who get angry at operatives or inquisitors for sprinting in huttball or mercs for using tracer missile, etc.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Redmarx

[Jerro]

No more same faction teams against each other!!

[Torcer]

1. Resolve does not work as intended; roots and snares should be added to the Resolve Bar, and it should not be possible to Stun someone for 8 seconds when the resolve bar is at 99%. Also, there are far too many Stuns in this game, at a minimum, Stun Breaks should have their 2 minute Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds. Stuns and the failure of Resolve as implemented are BY FAR the biggest problem with TOR’s PvP

 

2. Pure Tanking should be viable in PvP. Shields not affecting Force/Tech may work to balance classes on Paper, but in practice player simply gravitate to Force/Tech. The PvP Super commando Armor should be itemized with RESISTS, even if this means removing the 5% damage bonus.

 

3. RvR PvP, with progression, like in DAoC. Give guilds something cool to play towards. Also, Open World and Arena PvP. Variety is the spice of life.

 

4. More Warzones – a lot more Warzones. Also, consider 16x16, and other combinations.

 

5. Add an In-Game VoiceChat option for PUGs. This would make PUGs more fun vs. Premades.

 

6. Cross Server and Server Merges.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Torcer

[Koskilicious]

A lot of the people responding to this thread (haven't read every single post) are people who really have no respect for PVP, or simply don't PVP whatsoever. Unfortunately, a very real aspect of any mmo, is that PVE kids, don't PVP and viceversa. I personally don't see the appeal of repeating the same thing over and over again in a dungeon for a small chance at something dropping that you haven't already looted 10 times. Regardless of the fact that despite BW's best efforts, most PVE content (in every game) is just boring and repetitive.

 

From a very extensive high level PVP background, if I could make one change to SWTOR, it would be to have 4v4 ranked warzones and ranked matches. This entire game is built upon 4 character teams. With population imbalances, it's going to be difficult for a lot of folks who are serious about high level, competitive PVP to put a solid 8 man team on the floor and compete in ranked warzones and objectives.

 

A lot of people want huge, massive world based PVP, but in almost every game preceding SWTOR, those who have tried, have failed. It just doesn't work, causes lag, and other issues. World PVP can't work if it's objective based. It just can't.

 

Almost every single level-minded PVP'er that I interact with daily would love to have smaller based PVP - 4v4 ranked warzones and objectives. 8 man content is still great, but for those that can't get 8 competitive, competent people to communicate and play together, 4v4 would be fantastic and I think really popular. There are 4 classes in the game, there should be more 4v4 content, especially in PVP.

 

Thanks.

[Jzaa]

Realm versus Realm (instanced planet phase ... unbalanced game so 50 V50 80 v 80 ... )

 

Take the best features from DAOC and Warhammer Online and implement them.

 

 

and 4V4 ranked warzone with objectives

Edited March 22, 2012 by Jzaa

[Khaylani]

This is a issue I have had with most mmorpgs for a long time, the heavy reliance on having good gear to be able to compete in pvp, I would make it so that everyone got the same stats(depending on class and other factors of course), and gear was just there for cosmetic reasons, that is the only way I think pvp could begin becoming truly balanced, there really is no good reason for the massive unbalance that gear causes in pvp in my opinion.

 

"Everyone" seems to agree about this, but whenever someone tries to implement it the same people start whineing about the "idiocy" of not having anything to show for PvPing for x days/weeks, or that it shouldn't be possible for a new char to take down an "experienced" pvp char.

 

It's catch 22 imo. Everyone wants to pvp the same way they used to play fps games, but not even those games are played on a level playing field anymore so...

Edited March 22, 2012 by Khaylani

[livinlife]

cutscenes in warzones when u enter 1 thats halfway through wat were u thinking ? i mean apart from loading time add to that a cutscene and a team with less players has to wait while some noob doesn't press space bar and watches a cutscene rofl. While on the topic of pvp i'd rather wait an hour for a full grp than enter with 3 players and just get farmed by a full team come on bioware get your act together plz deserter buff just for ranked games ? all pvp wz's should have a deserter buff!!!!! oh btw giving lvl 10's more heath and increased dmg in way makes up for not having abilities that a lvl 49 has so lvl brackets (10-16,17-20,21-25 etc..) really has to be implemented also or it's a just a farmfest, stop taking the quick method(e.g only 3 wz's another joke), todays gamers r wiser and know more wat they want than 5-10 years ago they would rather more time taken fixing issues instead of releasing a half-***'d product. Imo 1.2 will b make or break for swtor make it count and don't release it till it has fixed some fundementaly big mistakes made already. Just my 2 cents worth

[DarthMaulUK]

Why dont you play your pvp and tell us?

 

Or why dont you play US and see for yourself? Stun stun stun, dots x10, stun stun = death

[DralenBrand]

Fix faction/population imbalance so that we can have quick access to republic versus sith PvP. Republics fighting Republics especially feels silly.

 

We're not sith, you why are we in-fighting again? I like things to make sense in the context of the SW universe, including PvP.

[DeimosAmon]

• Add more finesse/tactics based warzone match types, and multiple map deviations of each type. Huttball is a very interesting concept, where the match isn't inextricably tied to the (DPS/Heal/Protection) potency of any given team. A team that may be worse on paper can win with good map knowledge, teamwork, and tactics. By comparison Alderaan and Voidstar are much more "slam face against wall until wall breaks"(not that they aren't fun, they just favor raw potency more than tactics).
   
   
  
• Give more tank skills PvP side effects like the taunts have, so that tanking in a WZ is a more active experience. With ranked WZs and nerfs to hybrid tank damage, tank classes in tank spec are more or less walking sponges with a few utility skills. Think things like the bonus effect to Flame Burst/Sweep from traiting Combust (a dmg debuff). Some other examples might be shield absorb reduction debuff, alacrity debuff, temporary defensive buff to a friendly. Something to separate players of equal gear by involving a greater degree of skill management.
  

 

(I know that's two, if I had to choose one it'd be the second)

Edited March 22, 2012 by DeimosAmon

[Cauterized]

1. More epic PvP. 8v8 matches doesn't feel like star wars to me. If the Republic and Empire are at war, than why do max level players hang out in only 2 places? Make warzones larger (think alterac valley). Make faction bases and capital cities be accessible to invasions from the enemy. Why can't my empire guild go after the supreme chancellor?

 

2. Reduce CC. Resolve is a nice system, but the bar needs to fill up quicker. And snares need to factor into resolve.

[wavyhill]

If you could make one change to PVP in SWTOR, what would you want it to be?

 

Hmm. The only thing I can think of that the developers might spring for, because it would require relatively few resources, is to reassess and speak to the playerbase on the subject of tanks.

 

On live right now a tank brings two major things to the table, guard and taunts. But only guard requires you to actually be running the tanking stance. So dps specs that belong to a tank hybrid class get a good amount of tank utility without having to be restricted by the lower dps of the tanking stance and tanking spec. I feel that this is patently unfair both to people who want to run in their tanking stance AND to the pure dps classes like the Sniper who lack such utility while having little to no intended damage advantage.

 

Guard is also of somewhat suspect use without a pocket healer because it provides so very little mitigation. Mostly it just makes the tank die faster to unmitigatable damage. Unlike in Warhammer were you could mitigate guard damage with block and parry.

 

Additionally, avoidance stats are of very limited use because of the wide assortment of tech and force attacks that classes have access to that utterly bypass them. To say nothing of the weak mechanics of shield stats the next to unmitigatable damage of internal and elemental attacks.

 

I can think of some ideas to address these issues, like taunts only working when in the tanking stance, being able to avoid/shield guard damage, or baking some force/tech resistance into a high tier tanking talent that scales with avoidance/shield stats and only works against players.

 

Regardless, I think the tanking role could use a good, comprehensive review in PvP. I would like for tank specced and tank geared tanks to truly provide a level of utility and group survivability that offsets their low burst capabilities (of course, that goes hand in hand with nerfing the burst that does exist currently, bloody Shadows). I hope I've provided at least some justification for it.

[Tic-]

realm vs realm, with rewards that are given to the faction for victories, not individuals.

[Waib]

Keep valor requirement but changing a little.

 

If you are rank 60 you are a battlemaster, you are below 60 you are NOT a battlemaster. That's too much of a cap from nothing to evrything.

I'd like valor requirement scaled. For exemple a rank 56 could wear the boots, but you'll need to be rank 62 to wear the torso.

 

The valor is a good system, it should still mean something being a warlord and not a centurion.

[brainsludge]

Delete Opertives

 

Or make it so they only get to keep a single person stunned forever once every ten minutes.

 

It is not fair in PVP. I only get one stunn breaker, so they should only be able to stunn me once.

 

And how can they be so OP that they can 3 shoot a full geared tank, all champion gear.

 

Make it fair

[Nothos]

Less crowd control, you can pick how:

 

a) reduce all stun breaker abilities cooldown's

b) make resolve activate faster

c) make resolve last longer

d) change triage/toxin scan and all similar abilities to remove stuns from others

e) all previous options

[Bennybum]

Keep valor requirement but changing a little.

 

If you are rank 60 you are a battlemaster, you are below 60 you are NOT a battlemaster. That's too much of a cap from nothing to evrything.

I'd like valor requirement scaled. For exemple a rank 56 could wear the boots, but you'll need to be rank 62 to wear the torso.

 

The valor is a good system, it should still mean something being a warlord and not a centurion.

 

this is a pretty good idea I like it

[Woetoo]

Lightside -vs- Darkside teams as an occasional alternative to Republic -vs- Empire.

 

Though someone would need to look if Dark -vs- Light was viable in balance terms.

Edited March 23, 2012 by Woetoo

[Fellow-Canadian]

Full resolve should affect roots.

[Crawelc]

Keep valor requirement but changing a little.

 

If you are rank 60 you are a battlemaster, you are below 60 you are NOT a battlemaster. That's too much of a cap from nothing to evrything.

I'd like valor requirement scaled. For exemple a rank 56 could wear the boots, but you'll need to be rank 62 to wear the torso.

 

The valor is a good system, it should still mean something being a warlord and not a centurion.

 

No it shouldnt, i dont want to troll on this thread at all. You are flat wrong and valor is a joke. They only way it should mean anything is if they took people to valor rank 1 across the board with 1.2. Cheaters cheated and its a shame that it makes your valor rank worthless, BUT IT DOES!!!

[DarthNethus]

James,

 

First off, Thanks for asking this. It shows that you and your team are committed to continuing the growth and improvement of the game... And just as importantly, that you care what your player base has to say.

 

On topic...

 

If I could ask for one thing to be added/fixed/changed/improved in PVP it would be open world PVP, as many others have also stated.

 

See Gamewiz's post below for, pretty much, my exact thoughts.

 

Similar to what is in Warhammer, I would love for PvP "lakes" on each planet, most especially to add some open world PvP dynamics for PvE servers. Some of the best open world PvP I've experienced in my MMO gaming has been on a core server in WAR, hunting other players down in the PvP lakes.

 

However, this change might not be possible without changing a lot of the layout of the planets, so my second most wanted change in PvP is the complete removal of the Expertise stat. PvP stats are a very bad move, and only promote grinding gameplay where gear overshadows skill. People will sit there and worry more about gaining medals in Warzones (to get the end result of more valor and better PvP gear) instead of actually trying to win the match.

 

A level playing field between PVE and PVP gear as well as meaningful open world objectives across zones helps draw all of the community (not just PVPers) into PVP.

 

Thanks again. Cheers!

Edited March 23, 2012 by DarthNethus

[Crawelc]

only take out expertise if we can run HM ops in whatever gear we can get from pvp in your utopia please.

[SuperGrunt]

With a lack of PVP level brackets I think that having Expertise available on an enhancement from the PVP weapons is a bad idea. If you are not going to eliminate Expertise from the game, then please at least make it so that the 10-49 weapons have them built into the weapon and not on a removable mod.

[sugewise]

Open World pvp area with a keep, siege capability and objectives(ex. Large Turrets or ion cannons, that function similar to towers in DAOC), ala DAOC's frontiers!

 

 

People remember DAOC's pvp fondly, I love this game(swtor) and would love to see this in the game. It would make it the perfect mmo for me.