Original idea:Thoughts on pvp

This won't include my complete thoughts, but some early thoughts for the new league.

I was inspired by the new pvp path to try pvp. I began collecting gear in standard, but never got to play a match. In torment, it's pretty slow. Only like 50 people who have played more than a few times from what I can tell.

Regardless, I've heard quite a lot of complaining about the way matches play out and even more about the builds themselves. Whether it's traps are 1 shot, flicker is op, etc etc.

And of course GGG is to blame:

Hybrid roll gone, pvp damage is wrong, no cutthroat, and a lot of others seem to indicate that GGG actually is to blame.

My thoughts are to solve it through work on both sides.

Players:

90% of complaints are due to being bad. Basically unprepared. I've heard stuff like 800 hp ranger complaining about damage to retard melees running directly at you and complaining you're not letting them just hit you. There's a design space for LLD that exists. If you're inexperienced in PVP (like me), expect that there will be problems for your build and for the mechanics of builds in general to learn, to find solutions for. Just because reality doesn't line up with your hopes of how pvp would play out doesn't mean that it's broken. You could just not like it/understand it.

Gear:

Gear has legitimate complaint at higher levels. I believe that hybrid roll is essential to this but further is probably too much. As it is, I don't mind the lack of hybrid roll, but it will keep a lot of people from playing.

The biggest surprise to people is that pvp is not a fighting game. And it's not. It's more of an arena to test your builds, much like how you build a robot and let it duel in the arena. This is an aRPG after all and if you make all builds start with the same thing, it would be retarded imo. If you want to play a fighting game, go play one. Gear MUST matter in PoE pvp.

GGG:

There are several balance changes I would like to see come into play.

1. Random tilesets. Often the arena determines the matchup and the result. While I realize that loading arenas in between matches slows the pace down, 3 matches on each is simply too much. If you were able to counterpick the stage after a loss, it would be a lot less random, but simply reducing the 3 times you play in an arena in a roll will help this.

2. More objective based pvp. Complexity in pvp is limited. You are basically only killing. In other games such as Mobas, you can kill, but you can also prioritize objectives. With the slew of build possibilities, you get exponentially more build diversity when you need to accomplish different tasks. This also encourages more pvp characters to make.


Combining aspects of these ideas leads me to conclude that a new format is needed to address these concerns. A format with the following rules would be welcome:

1. Start with 1 rare unid of each base item that is the highest possible for level, including specifically one for each aps. For instance, LLD could have elegant sword, antique rapier, and jagged foil for 1h swords. I considered being more class specific on gear, but not sure if this is best.

2. Have a vendor and start with 1 of each orb. Offer 10-30 min to design a build before going into the "event".

3. Offer 1 of each usable gem. Again, could be more class specific or class can give extra of certain gems. Uncertain on this balance.

4. Cutthroat blitz. This is where the magic happens. When you blitz, you lose your gear. Based on your class, a random set of unid rares will be provided after a loss. After a win, you have 5-10 seconds to loot your opponent's gear before the next blitz round.

Let me know what you guys think