*By having such a large gear gap, the outcome is disproportionately biased towards the team with greater gear, irrespective of skill. This also strongly discourages new players.
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But pvp gear has no effect in the level 30 - 40 so you could just grind in the lower levels fights untill your ready to do the 50's or maybe even just replace all your gear with crafted pvp stuff, not sure how good the level 55 stuff is when used, need to test that.
I like gear grinds, it gives me something to do and work towards. I don't think people should expect to walk into PvP and immediately be on a level playing field with other people. They have to put some time and effort into it first. FF14 has provided players with two lower PvP tiers to earn marks before they go into the highest tier. There's absolutely no need to walk into level 50 completely gearless, unless you just don't want to practice at all. You need to play in the minors before you can get to the majors.
I think there is room for argument that balance is always going to be an issue but the only way to make it an equal playing fields is to make everyone have everything and that would be dull, sometimes having a competative edge over a group or being at a disadvantage can really make for some interesting matches. I mean i'm pretty sure PVE would be hella dull if we all had to fight dungeon mobs and bosses if they did equal damage, equal defenses, my only compliant with PVP is the chain CC dual summoner/scholar combo.....
I also think one of the main places where gear advantages should be removed is for-fun dueling. It's always more fun to duel in equalized gear and try to see who's more skilled. Otherwise it's less fun and the losing player can always make the excuse "if only I had the same gear..." :(
About PvP "balance."
Do you know what one of the most popular competitive games of all time is? Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
Was that game fair? NO.
Was that game balanced? HELL NO.
But that game had a ten year lifespan, and is widely regarded as one of the best competitive games of all time.
Play the game and adapt. Use your "skills" and put the tools available to you to work.
Christ.
People would rather argue epeen on this than stick to the issue at hand lol
Lack of rewards discourages new players a lot more than a percieved imbalance. Even if they lose, they'll eventually get rewards.
Removing functional rewards / turning all rewards to vanity would be extremely damaging to PvP. Rank keeps people with likely similar gear together.