pvp-balance
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Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR's changing combat in update 2.5
Let's talk about the combat changes coming in Star Wars: The Old Republic Update 2.5. We'll see pretty large sweeping changes to a couple of my favorite classes and some much-needed changes to others. Some of the changes make me question the thought processes of the designers, and some much-needed changes seem to be absent. I don't consider myself a combat design expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I have played every class in SWTOR extensively with the exception of the Bounty Hunter and Trooper classes. But then those two classes aren't seeing any major changes in Update 2.5. Therefore, I don't have much to talk about with them anyway. My favorite class is the Marauder/Sentinel, so the nerfs and upgrades to that class are dear to me. But I also really enjoy the Operative/Scoundrel class as well. This class will see (and frankly, not see) some changes in the upcoming patch. But I believe the class that is affected the most is the Madness/Balance-specced Inquisitor/Consular. Let's start there.
Darkfall Unholy Wars updates the balance of power
It was a couple of weeks ago that the development team behind Darkfall Unholy Wars first discussed the issue. Warriors in the game were just too good, meaning that the class meant as the easiest to first pick up was also the easiest to absolutely crush your enemies with. So the team stepped back, examined the problem, and put together a comprehensive set of changes meant to make all of the game's roles more appealing. The three major changes put into effect were an increase to damage mitigation for non-Warrior armors, more normalized stats for every role, and a slight reduction in Warrior armor against the relevant damage from specialized damage types. The net effect should be that weaker classes now stay up longer and can deal more damage to Warriors, allowing more skilled players to pull ahead in battle. For more details including revamps to the wobble mechanics and individual ability tweaks, take a look at the full list of balance changes. [Thanks to Jane for the tip!]
PAX Prime 2013: Guild Wars 2's Jon Peters on the state of PvP
At this year's PAX Prime, we attended a party hosted by ArenaNet at which the studio demoed the second world of Super Adventure Box. There was a raffle, plenty of drinks, and a lot of ANet people. In fact, I mentioned to ArenaNet's reps that I was really into competitive play, PvP, and e-sports. Not five minutes later, I was introduced to Jon Peters, lead gameplay designer for Guild Wars 2. I was a bit intimidated; I mean, this was the guy who singlehandedly created over 70% of the skills in GW2! But he was surprisingly down-to-earth with our conversation.
Leaderboard: PvP power vs. PvP specialization
One of an MMO designer's biggest challenges seems to be reconciling PvP and PvE in a game with gear progression. Another example of such comes courtesy of Red 5 Studios latest Firefall dev blog, where the team basically says that it's doing away with both PvP gear and tiers because of balance concerns. While the approach that Red 5 is taking is certainly valid, another alternative would be to parcel out PvP progression as a series of specialization choices instead of across-the-board power boosts. For today's Leaderboard, we'd like to know which of these paths you'd prefer, or if you think that MMO PvP is simply a lost cause. Vote after the cut! Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
The state of PvP: Current issues, balance and communication
First and foremost, before we get into the heavy stuff, I wanted to give a brief run-down of the Tol'viron Arena. As you can see from the header image, it's very similar to Nagrand Arena, the 4-pillar arena much beloved of caster teams and tree-huggers everywhere. Again, if you take a look at the header image you can see that there are 2 pillars on one side, and one on the other. The result of this from the games I've had so far is simply that most caster teams prefer the two-pillar side, while melee teams will try to draw casters out. It's much the same play experience as Nagrand Arena, only with slightly fewer options for pillar-humping. The three pillars seem to be equidistant apart, with the two pillars naturally closer to the doors, and quite a run to the single pillar at the start. The runs between the pillars are somewhat longer than in Nagrand, so be aware of your line of sight and distance to healers if you're both on different pillars. This arena seems to only rarely permit a healer to hug one pillar while healing a DPS who is hugging another, range-wise. Be aware! Also, I ran to the wrong side at the start several times. Get your bearings!
Ghostcrawler briefly discusses PvP power and PvP healing
Just a short while ago, everyone's favorite blue crab, Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, posted briefly on the U.S. forums in response to a thread regarding the function of PvP power and PvP healing. This certainly makes for interesting reading and may allay some fears of the PvE community regarding the use of PvP gear in dungeons and raids. Is this testing or speculation? Because PvP Power and PvP Resilience should work anywhere with regard to DPS, but of course only when you are attacking or being attacked by other players. The only thing that doesn't work is PvP Power-fueled healing. At the moment, you only gain the healing benefit when in BGs and Arenas. The reason is because that we don't want PvP gear to be super effective for PvE content (useful is fine, but super effective is not). That design goal is easily met for damage dealers, because they won't benefit from PvP Power when damaging creatures. Unfortunately, there isn't a simple check for us to determine if a healer is healing damage done by PvP or PvE. In an Arena or BG you can make that assumption, but in the outdoor world you may be engaging in world PvP, or you may just be questing. We are considering just letting PvP Power affect healing everywhere but dungeons and raids. That would solve world PvP and only risk unbalancing group questing and world bosses. Even the world bosses probably don't represent a huge game balance risk, given that the option always exists to get tons of players together to zerg them. source So to sum up, PvP power is easily developed to work exclusively in PvP scenarios for DPS and tank specs, as the game can easily tell what you're hitting. Healing is far harder, as you're always healing people wherever you are, so the game has to test for PvP scenarios before employing the PvP power. To me, as a PvPer, the second option that GC mentions sounds far more appealing. For the PvP healing buff were to only apply in Arenas and Battlegrounds seems quite contrary to Blizzard's desire to reignite world PvP. It would also leave PvP-geared healers rather defenseless outside of the Arena and Battlegrounds, were they to be attacked on PvP servers or similar while out farming, etc. I don't think that unbalancing world bosses is a huge price to pay, particularly considering Blizzard's earlier comments regarding the likelihood of world PvP taking place around world bosses. However, I'm sure PvEers will take comfort in the knowledge that Blizzard is taking steps to keep PvP gear from becoming too powerful in PvE scenarios. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Warhammer Online rolls out patch 1.4.6 with major RvR changes
Warhammer Online isn't a strict PvP game, but the energy of RvR is one of the major draws that keeps players interested. That means a lot of balancing to maintain interest and avoid unfair matchups. The latest patch, 1.4.6, is aimed at revising several mechanics to do just that, keeping players on an even footing in Scenarios and open PvP encounters. And it's all being accomplished by switching the focus away from character level and to renown rank. From now on, rather than being divided by character level, scenarios will be divided into brackets based on renown, with players in any given bracket boosted to the same level to keep challenges fair. Other major changes come in the Campaign mechanics, which will now allow players to take down Keep doors with siege engines other than rams and will also allow players below renown rank 80 to benefit from additional level bolstering in Tier 4. Before you go to WAR, you might want to take a look at the full patch notes to digest all the particulars.
RIFT introducing some big PvP buffs in patch 1.7
Maybe you've been a fan of PvP in RIFT from day one. Or perhaps you eschewed it due to the slow rate of rewards and the awkwardness of needing PvP souls to make any real headway. The good news is that the game's upcoming patch 1.7 is taking aim at a variety of PvP issues, starting with a change to the Prestige Rank system. The new system will offer 40 ranks instead of the previous eight; while the time to reach the cap will remain identical, you'll gain new ranks and rewards more frequently, making the overall experience smoother. PvP souls are being outright abolished, with the abilities rolling into the new Attunement Path of War that works just like other Planar Attunements. There's also the addition of the "mercenary" option for queueing, allowing players to fight with the other faction during PvP matches in order to ensure a balanced and full group. All of this combines with across-the-board item improvements to ensure that following the patch release, taking part in PvP should be quite a bit more fun.
Behind the Mask: What does unbalanced even mean?
One of the major criticisms of Champions Online is a lack of game balance. People claim that the phrase "your own hero, your own story" doesn't cover the fact that your hero might be a gimp compared to someone else's. Although archetypes have their own balance issues (even among themselves), this complaint most commonly leveled at the freeform game where there are millions of possible characters. However, I think that most armchair game theorists have a terrible understanding of what "balance" even means. Decades of competitive gaming (yeah, I'm that old) have given me a comprehensive understanding of what the term means, and I think it's worth looking at how CO stacks up.
World PvP, dungeon experiences, and quality of life in Guild Wars 2
Guild Wars 2 is a game that seemingly everyone is anticipating, helped along by the fact that very few people have gotten to play it and even fewer have played it extensively. So it's understandable that incGamers' recent interview with Eric Flannum and John Peters covers a lot of ground, ranging from dungeons to PvP to environmental interactions. While some of the questions posed by the interviewers aren't answered, there's a great deal of information for fans, starting with the clarification that dungeons do not have a specific "story mode." There's a series of events the player experiences with important world NPCs followed by the option to explore the dungeon. PvP is discussed a bit, with the free admission that while players in competitive arenas will be evenly matched, it's possible to be simply outgunned in open combat. The role of guards and other NPCs in the open combats is also clarified; NPCs act essentially as speedbumps rather than serious targets for player consideration. Guild Wars 2 fans should read through both pages of the interview to get a better idea of what's coming in the game as well as another confirmation that a closed beta is due before the end of the year.
Massively Exclusive: Age of Conan's Craig Morrison on Blood and Glory, grind, and the future
Interesting times are just over the horizon for Age of Conan, and whether it's due to the Dreamworld game engine upgrade or the recently announced Blood and Glory PvP servers, Funcom's sword and sorcery epic isn't standing still as it moves toward its third anniversary in May of 2011. On the heels of the PvP ruleset announcement, we sat down with Funcom executive producer and AoC game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison for a chat about ruleset specifics, PvP balance, grind, and what we're likely to see once Dreamworld hits the live servers. Join us after the cut for all that and more.
The Daily Grind: Why don't you like PvP?
When Ultima Online first launched, OSI understood that if you really want to give players a fully featured world, you have to give them the option to fight one another. Of course, that also resulted in players having (and exercising) the option to sneak up on defenseless players and introduce them to the world of recreational amputation. The past decade has seen almost every subsequent game try to find some balance between the dynamic world of PvP and the need to keep Lord New Player away from Geoffrey, Slayer of All and Bane of People Just Trying to Finish a Quest in Peace. But whether you're a dedicated duelist or a life-long carebear, there's got to be something you don't like about PvP. So what does it happen to be? Is it the chance for dramatically unbalanced matches? Is it the pressure of competing with another player without any sort of scripted AI to rely on? Or is it the simple fact that you can't solve all of your problems in Warhammer Online by slaughtering new characters on your Choppa? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Spiritual Guidance: What few shadow priest highlights BlizzCon 2010 could scrape together
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Even weeks when your shadowy messiah, Fox Van Allen, is nursing one heck of a headache -- along with, presumably, everyone else who's still suffering from the non-stop party atmosphere of BlizzCon 2010. Let's start by saying that BlizzCon 2010 was an absolute blast. I met most of the WoW Insider crew, got to smell Mike Sacco's hair yet again, got some amazing swag and got to eat at Jack in the Box no less than five times. The best part, though, was probably meeting Orkchop (pictured above with WoW Insider's moonkin blogger Tyler Caraway, who can only aspire to be as amazing as Orkchop). The dude is an internet celebrity. For real. But enough about how awesome Orkchop is. Let's talk shadow priests, and how awesome they are. Now, I'm not good at sugar-coating things, so I'll just come out with it: BlizzCon 2010 was pretty disappointing in terms of World of Warcraft-related content. The biggest news out of the convention was the new loading screen for Cataclysm. Really. That was the big news. Seriously. And it's just a palette-shifted version of the Sindragosa loading screen. Despite the lack of earth-shattering news, I made sure to take note of all the shadow priest action. There wasn't a heck of a lot of it, but what little ground was covered was hugely important to the future of the spec. The good, the bad and the non-answers -- we'll go over it all after the break.
Aika's lead nation system kicks in without warning
With all of the major updates in Aika's first free expansion, Ashes of Betrayal, it might have been easy to miss the inclusion of an underdog system designed to help the lowest-ranked nation in the game's overarching PvP system. What the development team didn't discuss at the time was the other half of the system -- a mechanic to ensure that the lead nation wouldn't have nearly as much dominance over its opponents. That system was rather forcibly demonstrated to players over the weekend, with a post going live explaining exactly what the system is and how it works. The short version is that when a nation is determined (via automatic processes) to be in the lead, it is no longer capable of forming alliances and is kicked out of any existing alliances. This has met with some resistance from Aika's players both in the news post and in threads on the official forums, as it essentially broke an alliance without warning or any explanation at the time. Some players are viewing the penalties to an arbitrarily determined "lead nation" as crippling a nation while splitting friendly nations apart forcibly. Even if the system itself provides an interesting balance mechanic, it's still leaving a bad taste in the mouths of the game's players, especially in light of earlier incidents when information wasn't immediately available.
Upcoming changes to Wintergrasp, Tol Barad balancing details revealed
Zarhym was active on the forums last night detailing some of the new balancing mechanics in Tol Barad, the Wintergrasp-like zone that will be coming out in Cataclysm. In fact, it's so much like Wintergrasp that Wintergrasp itself will soon be updated with the new balancing mechanics. In brief, the new mechanics are: A minimum cap will be placed on the zone (which must be met by one faction, but not necessarily both). If that number is say, 25, then there might be a battle of 25 v. 5. Maximum cap will still exist. If there are only 50 Alliance players, the system will try to find only around 50 Horde players -- even if there are 200 Horde players queued. The full statements after the break, including helpful examples that should help eliminate a lot of confusion and QQ.
Wintergrasp's hidden balance mechanics revealed, minor changes coming soon
Not long after Zarhym officially announced the Assault on the Ruby Sanctum, he also posted a thread announcing some changes incoming for Wintergrasp. Far more interesting than that, however, is the glimpse into the hidden mechanics behind Wintergrasp that caused the various anomalies that have left players scratching their heads since Wrath's launch, such as the opposing faction gaining the ability to build siege tanks after only one kill. The changes are posted in full below, and keep this note from Zarhym in mind: "[...] although this information may feel very new to you, the actual changes being made in the patch to the current system are relatively minor."
The dangers of PvP-focused games
The trouble with PvP is... well, there are several problems with PvP. The problems of balance are always there, of course, as they are in every aspect of the game. There are the problems of making PvP both accessible to new players and rewarding for veterans, their are issues with keeping people engaged in the game without being gimmicky, there are issues with even such little things as how players get equipment. But as Scott Jennings notes in his most recent column, a lot of the problems with PvP-centric games center around perceptions -- both those of the players, and those of the developers. Developers who make PvP-centric games frequently are players of games themselves, of course, and so when they strike off to make a game with "PvP done right" they can sometimes fall victim to tunnel vision regarding their game. (Jennings cites Shadowbane, Darkfall, and Fury as examples here.) But there's also a problem of perception from the player end, as whether or not a class is overpowered often pales in comparison to whether or not the players believe it's overpowered. From Guild Wars to EVE Online, every PvP game has had to contend with these issues, so it would be well-advised to take a look at the full column if you're at all interested in the design of games.
Tracking the Tournament Realm rankings from the armory
If you're interested in keeping track of the 3v3 Arena Tournament, You can look at Vhiari's breakdowns, sure, and good ones they are. But there's also another resource that should come in handy: The official ladder listings right on the official Armory. By choosing the Coliseum 1 battlegroup, you can see the rankings for the Tournament Realms. The current top 3v3 team, Outrageously Better Pros, Is a Priest/Rogue/Druid team, although the Druid has no games played. Maybe they used to be Priest Mage Rogue, which is a pretty strong combo these days. It should be fun to watch these rankings as the tournament progresses, both to see what class and spec makeups stay near the top, and to see what outrageous and silly names people can come up with for their teams -- without breaking the naming policy, that is. What's interesting to me is that despite the fact that the Tournament itself is 3v3 only, the 2v2 and 5v5 brackets are still in full swing, with quite a few teams. I suppose this is a sign that people really do like the idea of a good solid PvP only realm to duke it out with high powered characters to prove their worth. I have to wonder if Blizzard is watching those brackets as closely as they're watching the 3v3 bracket, or if this is a sign that they may make these arena practice realms more permanent in the future. Either way, all this activity should be fun to watch. Keep your browser pointed to WoW Inside for all the latest Tournament Realm news, including the escapades of our own WoW Insider Arena Team. Here's some arena page trivia too, while we're on the subject: Mike pointed out to me that the blade that Draenei chick on the arena ladder page is holding is known as The Hungering Cold. Its model was used for the Infamous "Sword of 1,000 Truths" in the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft." It currently drops in Naxxramas, so chances are we'll see it again come Wrath of the Lich King.
