Frequently Asked PvP Questions

[Raansu]

Sorry guys but I'm with Thorgrim on this one. The majority of the pvp community never even wanted Arenas in the first place.

 

Arenas just plain suck.

 

No, it was actually quite the opposite. For the longest time you couldn't go a day without seeing mention of arenas in the pvp forums which is one of the reasons why it was added in to begin with. But like all forum discussions, they all have a flow that goes one way or another. People who wanted arenas got it so they stopped talking about it. People who didn't like it flooded the forums turning the flow into that direction.

 

Oh btw, 8v8 warzones just plain suck!

[malachyg]

Bioware should replace all the devs with

 

Absolutely hilarious. I have begun acquiring PVP gear but now I'm wondering what's the point. SWTOR developers need to expand on the nos. If it's not on your road map, what does your road map actually include in place of it. If it runs contrary to your plans, you need to tell us what said plans actually are.

[cycao]

Hmmm man I've been here for a long time now and I don't remember seeing dozens of threads from PvP'ers begging BW to implement Arenas.

 

They were threads about class balance and cross-server and the usual. Rarely did a positive thread about Arenas pop up. Maybe you were playing a different SWTOR??

 

Take it from someone who has been on the forums daily for the last two years. Back in the day there were a few popular threads.

 

Here are two of the bigger ones I could find. Example A example B

Edited March 21, 2014 by cycao

[ronniehenlau]

I'll post my unsub screenie closer to wildstar.

 

This game will do until then, but I wonder - how big of an impact will this, combined with wildstar, have on subs?

[cycao]

To add on to what I said, many ppl were aware of how Arenas would show how broken class balance is in this game. Balancing around 4s is much harder than balancing around 8s and EAware already has trouble balancing around both the PvEers and PvPers.

 

I know I made it clear to you guys I don't enjoy Arenas at all, but from my experience here I saw most people who were just focused on bigger pvp and class balance around that. Arenas were a minority.

 

I'll agree with this. Arenas being asked for was something being done around launch. Then they released 8's and everything kind of died down but I will say not a ton of people were behind them which is why there was so much backlash when they yanked 8's and replaced them with arenas which caught everyone off guard.

[GNWP]

I think that both points #1 and #2 can be addressed with a gear check. When the player clicks "queue solo" an expertise check is made. If the player does not have 2018 expertise, a popup message appears instructing the player to check their mailbox for their recruit gear set and to equip it. The player cannot enter a queue without 2018 expertise.

 

Not only do I think that bolster should be removed from ranked, but I also think that it should also be removed from regular 55. You can ensure that a new 55 player still has a decent pvp experience by giving them a starter "recruit" set, which can have the stats of e.g. partisan gear currently or conqueror gear (when 2.7 hits). So, a new 55 would be given a tier 3 pvp gear set and then work towards a tier 2 set and eventually tier1. Every time that a new set of gear is released (e.g. brutalizer gear for 2.7), the former tier 2 gear (e.g. conqueror gear) becomes tier 3 and is either mailed to people, available for purchase at a very low cost, or otherwise somehow given to players. Also, when a new tier comes out, the previous tier 3 loses its expertise (to ensure that somebody doesn't queue with gear that is behind the times).

 

From there, it's just a matter of controlling the stat differences between the three gear tiers to ensure that there is not an overwhelming advantage for having tier 1 gear over tier 2 or 3, but still enough of a difference to encourage the acquisition of better gear. No more messy situations with bolster in 55. No more PVE 78s getting massacred due to them having low expertise. No more 46 mainhands, etc.

 

Furthermore, I think that giving everybody a pvp gear set helps with open world situations. PVE players can put on their pvp set, get max expertise, and have a fighting chance.

 

I think that bolster is excellent sub 55. I wouldn't change a thing there.

 

Anyway, thank you very much for this post. Even though most of the answers are "no", it's nice to at least know that you guys are thinking about these things.

 

100% agreed with this post.

Edited March 21, 2014 by GNWP

[foxmob]

I'll post my unsub screenie closer to wildstar.

 

This game will do until then, but I wonder - how big of an impact will this, combined with wildstar, have on subs?

 

does it even matter at this point? I unsubbed because I lost my entire guild and don't like the past and future (announced) changes. Do I actually expect x-server queues if enough ppl unsub? No. I suspect it may lead to another server merger, but since you could point to low player population for my disappointment on most counts, a server merger would just be a band aid over an infected cut: it may keep the skin together longer, but you're still going to die (or, in this case, suffer the same problems as before the band aid).

 

arenas are fine. arenas as the only avenue for rated competition was horrible. my guild fell apart when the death of 8v8 rated was announced.

 

forcing regs to compete in 4v4s without a semblance of matchmaking was also ridiculously unfair.

 

solo queue was an excellent idea, but it was implemented with typical BW half-assery, and ppl were allowed to queue without a point of native expertise on their gear, and now, 6 months later, BW defends that decision by saying they didn't want PVP to be intimidating to new players -- as if rated were the only or the first step of PVP. absolutely insulting response BW. insulting, and you know it.

Edited March 21, 2014 by foxmob

[foxmob]

I think you may be on to something here. Group ranked is not popular, and most people who do solo ranked are only doing so to farm gear.

completely disagree there. no. it's stronger than that. you are wrong. the solo rated system sky-rocketed the second prizes were announced, and even now, it's the only form of rated with a semblance of life on my server. there are some ppl who do it to farm gear and to troll ppl. and I used it to farm gear on some alts BEFORE prizes were announced (mind you, I already had full exp. while farming gear cuz...dur. full exp is ridiculously easy).

 

but no. you are absolutely wrong about using solo just to farm gear after prizes were announced. the prizes did breath legit life into solo.

[cashogy_reborn]

If exclusive prizes were offered for 4s, they would see more life as well.

 

The power of the shiny is not to be underestimated.

[DarthOvertone]

I honestly could not give one **** what happens in this game. I have supported it with a sub since early access and I cannot defend it anymore. It's almost like they're trying to drive away the PvP focused players, not just the hardcore crowd.

 

A lot of us held out mang. I'm still subbed, but gave up on PvP in this game months ago. Just another casual at this point.

 

 

I am disappointed in the PvP community more than anything!! What a bunch of whiners!

 

Blame the victim. Great strategy.

 

Look...the SWTOR PvP community certainly could be better, but the consistent fail on BW's part regarding PvP is not on the players, not by a longshot.

 

 

While I'm not a hardcore PvPer, I enjoy it. I do understand your frustrations(No x-server que), but don't you guys think you're overreacting? Most of the stuff that they have said is"technically challenging" is actually making it into the game. Maybe, sooner or later, cross-server matchmaking will be implemented?

 

Call people crazy, but they're taking BW at their word. BW is usually mum and doesn't communicate anything. For them to come out and say that something is not going to happen...well...it would be pretty stupid to think that it would happen anyway.

 

 

For the same reason no one played 8v8. The population is not large enough on any one server to have a balanced rating system, let alone enough to have more than a few teams. Most servers had 1-3 dominate teams and the "middle ground" teams just never stood a chance, thus they stopped queuing. With cross server queuing the middle of the road teams could manage to find other middle of the row teams because the ELO system would have multiple servers to pull from and they would less likely get matched against a team with an extremely higher rating than them.

 

This is pretty much why Ranked has consistently failed in this game. In a Rating-based format, Matchmaking is everything. BW simply failed to support the population that would support their ELO system.

[JediMasterSLC]

Since ranked dailies and weeklies have been confirmed, would like to point out that there should be separate quests for solo and group ranked, to incentivize both.

[cycao]

Since ranked dailies and weeklies have been confirmed, would like to point out that there should be separate quests for solo and group ranked, to incentivize both.

 

What a good idea so no.

[foxmob]

If exclusive prizes were offered for 4s, they would see more life as well.

 

The power of the shiny is not to be underestimated.

true

 

/5

[Othed]

Hey folks!

 

I thought I might pop in and add some clarification around some of what we said, and why.

 

Our first goal in this post was quite simple, transparency. We completely understand the frustration around quite a few of our answers. We know that some folks want to see the return of Ranked 8v8 Warzones or that they feel cross-server queues will help in some of their current frustrations. I thought it was really important that we took those issues and gave you guys direct answers. It isn't that we don't want to do these things, or even that they will never happen. It is just that they are not something that will be happening in the near-term.

 

When I talk about roadmaps specifically, you should keep in mind I am referring to the next X amount of months, weeks, etc. and it certainly does not mean forever. As someone pointed out, there are quite a few things that have moved from wall of crazy to being in the game.

 

We will always continue to add new content around PvP whenever possible and to continue to create the best PvP environment that we can. If you look back, in the past 3 Game Updates (including 2.7) we had:

• The launch of Warzone Arenas
  
• The ability to solo queue for ranked play
  
• Season 1 rewards
  
• 4 new Warzone Arena maps
  
• A new Huttball map
  

 

I know that this is not everything that everyone wants. To reiterate, we aren't saying "no" to your questions, we are simply just saying "not at this time." I know it may not seem that way, but these two things are different. I know many of your are frustrated and I hope this adds a little bit of clarity to where we are coming from.

 

-eric

 

Hey folks,

 

One thing that I know we have received a lot of varying questions around is the topic of PvP in SWTOR. As many of you have surely seen we are going to have one of our PvP Designers, Alex Modny, on our Thursday Livestream event later on today. As with most of our streams we have quite a few questions which are commonly asked by PvPers. I talked with the combat team about many of your questions and got answers to many of the commonly asked questions. Below you will find those questions/answers.

 

Will we ever be able to choose a specific Warzone to queue for?

 

From the design side, we do like the idea of allowing our players to be able to impact which Warzone they want to queue for, but it is not as simple as letting everyone select which Warzone they want and call it a day. Because of a few reasons (queue population, preventing ‘de facto’ best Warzone, making sure all Warzones are being played, etc.) it would require a fully-fledged design around that new queuing system in order to make sure the system was sustainable (in queue times, etc.). There are no current plans for the near future to implement this feature.

 

Have you considered implementing a Huttball League?

 

We have certainly seen a lot of suggestions around the creation of a Huttball League for sure! Implementing a Huttball League has a special place on our Wall of Crazy but it is not in our current roadmap.

 

Why is Bolster in Ranked PvP? Why not just require a high level of PvP gear?

 

This is a great question, and one we put a lot of thought into when the decision made to keep Bolster in Ranked PvP. As many of you likely know, in the past we had an entry level set of PvP gear called the Recruit set. Wearing this set into a Warzone would put you at an “entry level” for PvP. However, having Recruit gear in the game created two important factors:

 

1. The player needed to know that this is how PvP at max level worked.

2. The player needed to then get the gear and actually equip it.

 

Although this may seem like something which is obvious to many of you who are more seasoned and hardcore PvPers, these factors being missed led to many players first experience being that they got completely stomped in PvP. Although we understand that there are certainly “dues to be paid” when you play PvP, they shouldn’t come right at the beginning of someone’s PvP career. We also want the Ranked population to be as high as possible within the Level 55 bracket so we have Bolster in place so more players can participate in the system.

 

The best solution for this situation was a systematic approach which puts all players on an even footing when they enter the system. We know that some feel the best solution is to simply make everyone have the same gear and stats when in PvP so that it is purely a measure skill and skill alone. However, we feel that as an MMO, gear progression is a major cornerstone of its long term gameplay. We feel that Bolster takes both of those ideas into account and lands as a nice middle ground.

 

It is very unfortunate that Bolster has experienced issues since its implementation which certainly created pain points for our PvP community. However we will continue to work to ensure that Bolster is working as intended! I think we can all agree that having the first time you PvP be a positive experience will go to great lengths to ensuring that those folks stick around and continue to PvP!

 

Will you be implementing Cross-server queuing?

 

We have no plans at this time to implement cross-server queues.

 

Will you be introducing rewards in future Seasons to recognize those players who have achieved the highest of ratings? 1500 seems like a low bar for some players.

 

For starters, we have seen a lot of feedback around this very topic on the forums, please keep it coming. This is a very tricky thing to design around as no matter where you put the breakpoint, someone can potentially feel like they are not getting the rewards they deserve. We took this to heart when trying to decide where best to place the “breakpoint” for reward tiers. For us, giving the Rancor mount to only the top 5% felt like a good breakpoint since that will still make it very rare. We will continue to use player feedback as we make decisions about future seasons rewards, we have no announced changes planned at this time however.

 

Will you be bringing back 8v8 Ranked Warzones?

 

We have no plans currently of bringing back 8v8 Ranked Warzones.

 

Are there any plans of expanding open world PvP?

 

Currently we have no plans of expanding open world PvP, specifically to say we don’t have any plans to introduce any new systems which offer rewards around it. However, we will continue to encourage open world PvP in events and future content. Some examples of this would be the Oricon daily area and the shared questing areas of the Rakghoul event.

 

Are there any plans to address teams having healer hybrids in Arenas fighting against teams without a healer?

 

This is a question of how long we want to wait to pop an Arena match when it relates to hybrids. We could, in theory, create restrictions around matchmaking to pair you only against someone extremely similar to your character in both rating and “spec” layout. However if we did that, it would have very serious effects on how long a queue takes to pop. We had to make a decision to err on the side of having more matches pop than simply trying to mirror the teams exactly. The only option to address this would be to tighten restrictions on matchmaking but this will result in greatly increased queue length, which is not favorable.

 

What about the issue of 3v4 matches in Arenas?

 

This typically occurs due to a player crashing before loading into a match, which creates a situation where one team will have one less player. In this situation, we have made the decision that matchmaking will not backfill that player. This is because by the time we can accurately detect that a player has crashed, and then select a player to backfill in the crashed player’s place, the first round would already be in progress or over. In this case, backfilling would turn a negative situation for 4 players into a negative situation for 5 players, and we are not fond of that idea.

 

On the plus side, our rating system takes the 3v4 into account when awarding rating at the end of the match. The team with 4 will not be rewarded nearly as well for winning as they would if it was a normal match, nor will the team with 3 be punished as severely for losing.

 

Matchmaking will sometimes place the same Advanced Classes on the same teams. An example would be 4 Powertechs against 4 Assassins. Are there any improvements planned here?

 

This is a great question, we agree that this is certainly less than optimal. Matchmaking should certainly be better about how it assigns classes across each team and we will be actively looking to make improvements. No timeline right now on those changes but it is on our radar.

 

Huge rating gaps between players in any given Arena match….

 

Typically this issue occurs when there are not a lot of players in the Arena queue, I think it may help to understand a bit about how our matchmaking works. Matches are based around the original character who is entered in matchmaking and what their rating is. Let’s say a character is 1500 and enters the queue. Matchmaking will start looking for another 7 players to have them play with who are also 1500. At certain time intervals, that rating range is expanded (both up and down) in order to work to fill the match. Over time that range will continue to be expanded, so the “up” and “down” rating from that base player is why you could see a 1200 player and an 1800 player in the same game as they are both 300 rating from the original character in the queue.

 

What about players who “sync queue” to specifically play each other, AKA match fixing?

 

This is an issue which is again due to the amount of players in the queue. If a group of 8 players wanted to fix the queue to play against each other, they may be able to do so at some weird “off time” for their server. However, we have systems in place to detect these types of actions and when Season 1 ends, those players will find themselves without any rewards at all.

 

Do you have any plans to address overpowered Hybrid builds which are present in Arenas?

 

Our history of class balance shows that we attempt to discourage overpowered hybrid builds when and wherever possible. We are constantly balancing classes and will take action if something is not falling into line with class balance. We will continue to monitor these builds and adjust as necessary.

 

Although this may not be a comprehensive list of every PvP question ever asked, I hope that this will do a good job of answering a lot of the core questions PvPers are asking. Thank you all for your continued feedback!

 

-eric

 

We have no plans at this time to implement....... is a NO. You made the community mad and now you are trying to back peddle. X-server que is a massive request. It would allow you have a road map even if its a year after x-server que for half the other questions like Selected Warzone or healer less ranked que. Alot of people would be happy with no new maps and no new gear tier or even half the fluff like player housing (which isn't content it just fluff).

Edited March 21, 2014 by Othed

[Telaan]

You are incredibly polite. How and where did you learn that ?

 

Learn it? It's just something that's blatantly obvious. Go look at the PTS and this forum for examples. When you've got people saying that jugg tanks are the best rated tank and that PTs have no control utility, it's kinda hard to miss.

[cashogy_reborn]

Since ranked dailies and weeklies have been confirmed, would like to point out that there should be separate quests for solo and group ranked, to incentivize both.

 

I asked for that clarification in the stream. Received a 600 second ban.

[Ayedrian]

Eric,

 

Tell your superiors: build cross servers, and they will come.

Consequently failure to build them will likely cause the untimely death of PvP in this game.

 

I believe many PvPers in this community share the feeling I have in that this game has massive potential to be a competitive powerhouse in the world of mmo PvP. We envision a healthy ranked population where all players compete in a single battle group and are rated accordingly. We want multiple queue options so we can play with one or many friends in this ranked system. We want to be rewarded based on our efforts to climb the ladder with items that only ranked players can get like gear and cosmetics and titles. And we want to see a continued effort to balance skills and classes In PvP without having a completely devestating affect on the pve side of things.

 

I know I'm stating the obvious in much of what I've said here. The important part is for BW to realize that investing into x/server is vital to all aspects of this game.

 

I originally subbed with the mindset that this and other PvP necessities would come sooner than later and that I wanted to support that effort. With your confirmation that those plans are still not on the board after all this time I am going to pull my support and cancel my sub. I will resub when you decide to prioritize ranked PvP again and implement these features.

[foxmob]

Eric,

 

Tell your superiors: build cross servers, and they will come.

Consequently failure to build them will likely cause the untimely death of PvP in this game. .

no. they won't. it's not out of the realm of possibility, but it's highly unlikely to bring ppl back at this point. imo, the destruction of 8v8 rated pushed the population beyond the point of no return. that's not to say regs won't continue to pop until the doors close. but if I'm being honest with myself, I think any hope of sustainable grp rated died with that last large grp of unsubs. this one...this one is just another nail in the proverbial coffin.

[Pistols]

You feel powerful now, don't you ?

 

Welcome to my ignore list.

 

Oh noes, not the carebear stare!!!!

[foxmob]

Oh noes, not the carebear stare!!!!

 

OMG! I remember that! lol wow...80s flashback

[Ottoattack]

Eric,

 

Tell your superiors: build cross servers, and they will come.

Consequently failure to build them will likely cause the untimely death of PvP in this game.

 

I believe many PvPers in this community share the feeling I have in that this game has massive potential to be a competitive powerhouse in the world of mmo PvP. We envision a healthy ranked population where all players compete in a single battle group and are rated accordingly. We want multiple queue options so we can play with one or many friends in this ranked system. We want to be rewarded based on our efforts to climb the ladder with items that only ranked players can get like gear and cosmetics and titles. And we want to see a continued effort to balance skills and classes In PvP without having a completely devestating affect on the pve side of things.

 

I know I'm stating the obvious in much of what I've said here. The important part is for BW to realize that investing into x/server is vital to all aspects of this game.

 

I originally subbed with the mindset that this and other PvP necessities would come sooner than later and that I wanted to support that effort. With your confirmation that those plans are still not on the board after all this time I am going to pull my support and cancel my sub. I will resub when you decide to prioritize ranked PvP again and implement these features.

 

That was told to BW 2 years ago. We still do not have it. At this point I think that the plan is to have it by 2018, when the game is left with one server.

[Sangrar]

ok, well, yeah this is depressing.

 

 

not unsubbing as since this is the first mmo I ever played my destiny is now forever intertwined in this game as foretold in the prophecy so I am only leaving when it shuts down forever but realistically it still won't shut down for a while, though this thread has created a huge blow to organized and any kind of hardcore pvp. And what looks like a move to have better pr with subs only did the opposite.

 

anyway, some of the unsub comment pictures read were unflattering to say the least, wow you people curse like New Yorkers in the 40's.

[Suromir]

Y'know Eric you could have just saved yourself a lot of time typing that..and OUR time in reading it..by just simply saying "no plans at this time"

 

since it's just a long winded version of that

[mrekxxx]

so, i don't understand the estimate date when pvp will become free to play... why do we pay for nothing? and they bring it even harder to grind another ****te crappy gear? Edited March 21, 2014 by mrekxxx

[Chrisweaver]

The problem with is that these are FAQ that means your pvp community is looking at these as their main concerns with pvp and believe it will make the game better. For every person that speaks out on the forums there are at least 10 people who think the same way. When you give answers like these it is very disheartening to people have been supporting this game and even defending it against naysayers.

 

It has been a year since the last wz. I am not exaggerating when I say that just hypergate is just about everyone I knows least favorite wz. As much as I love hutball and love the new map I am not willing to wait another year for more wzs. Heck at this point I will take nighttime versions of wzs. Idc but make it different.

 

On Twitch you guys said it would be possible to bring in cross server ques but you would have to move around other projects in order to do so. When I heard this I finally realized you guys don't care about pvp enough. You want us to pay subs so you can work on other projects. Cross server should have already been on that list of things to do before those other projects.

 

I will stay subbed just long enough to get my pvp rewards and test out the new hutball on live servers. But after that I am letting my sub run out. I am buying Titanfall tonight ( so your ea masters will be happy ). I know that a few unsubs are going to kill this game. But just know you lost a huge fan and supporter.

 

Ps. If you are going to say no to everything that is frequently asked about by the community you need to put a light at the end of the tunnel that says you do have more planned for us this year, and mean it.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Chrisweaver