Team PvP balance, some ideas, and also some explications wanted.
Hello.
So i m not a big fan of team pvp because i think it s ruled by some very simple concepts like "zerg", "/assist q", "!points", "lololol one shot !" etc. Altho, being aware i never tried so hard teaming, i might have missed some obvious joys. On top of that i quite enjoy running with 1 other person that i know well enough so we can be efficient as a pair, but these occasions are very rare and i think team pvp stop being interesting past 2, maybe 3 MAX person working together. Any bigger and it become stupid. So would anyone be kind enough to explain to me what they find fun in "team" (team of 4+ + zergs) pvp and if they feel it have been tought even a bit by the dev and if they was playing it as intended ? Well that was the 1. So untill someone explains why he enjoy team pvp and think FC is doing a good job designing PvP that way, let me continue on what i m thinking about all that on 2.
2 : What is a continuous stream of stupidity is to hear FC and some player saying balance is aimed at team PvP when this is a pale excuse to explain why they are incompetent at balancing anything. "Balancing" team pvp is 10x more complex then balancing 1 vs 1, and even if it would be nice to have a fun & balanced team pvp system in place, it isn't realistic to assume they can do that properly while compensating any unbalance from 1 vs 1 escalating at higher degrees of randomness in a multi-parties pvp scenario. If they really wanna balance team pvp, they need the solid and simple base of a balanced 1 vs 1. Without that, team pvp is just about randomness, /assist q lololol *u splat in 2.34 sec*.
If i m saying this, it's because imo professions in this game aren't speced enough to go toward proper team pvp, atm, except maybe docs (and still, a doc killing someone shouldn't be imo). Any other prof has some alpha, some more dmg over time, some sort of defense, and some sort of CC, with a different repartition of each, right, but it is mostly close to each other.
So here is a suggestion to enhance team pvp experience as i understand it :
Give 2 stance per prof. Set of stances 1 would be our known professions as they are designed today, which is actually designed for SOLO PVP or small team of 2/3 peeps MAX working together. The other stance would give a pure spec'd toolset which wouldn't be able to function at all on its own. The concept would be to design such a big hole in any of these spec'd prof's toolset so that if you meet a solo pvper in normal stance, who has a bit of everything, he would be able to exploit the hole in your toolset and win, no matter how thin its abilities versus that hole are in the 1st place. On the other hand, if you were opposing a team of 6 spec'd prof versus a team of 6 solo prof in stance 1, even if the stance 1 team were working together, it s the team in stance 2 that would win hands down. This spec'd role list could be like that, this is an exemple just to illustrate what i was thinking, it might not be extreme enough :
- Doc : THE healer : insane amount of heal on self enough to not die in 3 sec when called by 4 person or so something like that, and very good heal (other) to fullfill their role. No more init debuff, because in some case it is actually too offensive for their role. Weakness : NO DD AT ALL
- Shield MP : Jack of all trade support prof, defensive role + debuffer : new debuffing pet (instead of mezz pet which CC opponent, which doesn't fit) way better heal pet, very strong self defense (like it is now), more powerfull debuffs in the department they are known for : nanoskill, heal eff, dmg debuff, nanodmg debuff, possibly some other. Weakness : Very weak DDing
- Crat : The CCer : more AoE stuns, more AoE calms, more AoE charm (charming players . . . like 12 man's stuff), more roots, more snares. DEBUFFS : more Init debuff (specially since doc don't have any left). Weakness : Very weak DDing
- Trader : Could be a very versatile debuffer/defensive/offensive boost. Basically he could drain pretty much any stats he want and transfer it to a mate, or himself, or both. He would at the same time enhance his friends like keeper or solja do, and debuff other. Weakness : Weak DDing
- NT : 1 single gimp "ho ****" emergency defense like NM coon and nothing else : no half good evade, no stat reflect, no nbg, no layer etc etc . . . VERY strong ranged DDing (like 2x the dmg they deal today), extended AoE DDing for blobs, maybe a tiny bit of CC (less then today, no spec root for instance, if blind, they shouldn't drain AAO, etc etc)+. They should not be easely debuffable/CCed, the way to take em out would be to kill em. Weakness : SUPER SQUISHY
- Shade : NT's melee counterpart, with even higher dmg dealing then NT, with the same kind of short timed ho **** button in the form of evade this time (short timed huge evade boost, long recharge), and ability to sneak to counter the melee disadvantadge. Should be very very squishy on its own, just like NT. They should not be easely debuffable/CCed, the way to take em out would be to kill em. Weakness : SUPER SQUISHY
- MA : Clearly a strong dmg dealer, that could hammer opponent's evade : only a fixer could think about evading a MA. Benefit of being a Martial Artist . . . Weak defense (weaker then today, possibly keep these evades but removes heals / any absorb they got). Weakness : CCing/debuffs goin thru in 2 sec, NO NR
- Keeper : AVerage DDing, but mostly its role would be to transfer defense from self to other, in the form of a bit of heals, evades, reflects, modest absorb, a bit of layer, etc etc . Jack of all trade defense totem. Weakness : CCing/debuffs (like MA)
- Solja : Keeper's ranged counterpart, with average DDing like keeper has, and a transfer defense role as well, but spec'd : it could transfer to a firendly target a lot of reflect, or a lot of absorb, or a lot of layers, for instance. Weakness : CCing/debuff (like MA)
- Fixer : Spec'd defense transfer to other : massive short timed evade buff (the one defense option that was lacking in solja's panoply). Massive evade on self. Evac/mobility politics extended, they could be able to take their team in the grid for a short period (making em vanish from opponent's screen, literally) in time of danger, teleport in safety as today, give short timed run speed buff (but massives ones). Weakness : No more HoT (spec'd evades alone doesn't save anyone), WEAK DDing
- Enforcer : Don't know ... DDing doesn t fit, tanking doesn't work very well in pvp cause people simply ignore the guy, unlike mob with poor AI . . . If anything, it should be tanking tho i think, but dunno how to practically do it. Brutal thug / gank help in the form of Fr Strength stun is a role i like for enfo tho, so that s at least one aspect of it. Their weakness should be a WEAK DDING tho, in the line of fixer's.
- Enginneer : I d see it as a an average DDer in the spirits of soljas/keeper ; their pet should be ranged maybe ; could fill a role operating weird machines (Cap point in BS, mechs, mines, tower in NW). Weakness : weak/spec'd defense. They could keep their coon or their reflect or a very modest absorb for self.
Toughts ?
