Are you happy with FFXIV PVP and its current direction? Yes or No?

[Februs]

The only extra effort I can see SE needing to put in is perhaps making new PvP sets somewhat more frequently...

That's the rub right there. SE would have to be FAR more consistent in their PvP updates for this to work.

I agree that it would be nice to be able to use Wolf Mark Gear in PvE, because one of the bigger concerns I had when queuing for Season 1 of Feast was splitting my time between farming up-to-date gear in PvE content as well as trying to get the occasional match done in Feast. The problem is that, currently, SE only puts out one PvP set for every two or three PvE sets. A sanction wouldn't balance correctly with current PvE gear within the full term of a major patch cycle. In the early stages of a patch cycle, PvP gear would sync higher under a sanction than most PvE gear; whereas, late in the patch cycle, it would be much weaker, as SE wouldn't have provided an updated PvP set to keep pace with newer raid/upgraded tome gear. If they were going to do this, it would almost be better if they just dropped the "PvP" aspect of the gear entirely and just made the PvP sets another viable option for gear farming (similar to crafted gear). That could potentially work if the PvP set was given and adequate upgrade to keep pace with Raid/Upgraded gear late in the cycle. The upgrade would also have to be a pretty lengthy grind to get, otherwise PvP players would be outstripping Static Raids Parties in terms of how fast they upgraded. That said, this could work into an upgraded vendor system quite nicely, so long as the PvP vendors provided adequate materia for fusions.

Regardless, even if they did do this, it still wouldn't quite feel right, because it wouldn't really do anything specifically related to PvP content. At this point, I'd still take this option over nothing, because nothing is what we have right now, but I would still have liked to see PvP gear provide at least some type of advantage in PvP content ... Though, that may be impossible. Even with minimal stat increases, people cry about "unfair" advantages; so, I doubt SE would be able to do anything truly PvP related without getting a lot of unjustified backlash from the community. It's really sad, but replacing Morale with re-spec'd PvE gear may be the only viable option that we have in terms of PvP vendor gear.

[Februs]

Super minority opinion here, but I hagent enjoyed PVP since Slaughter. I feel like it was the only mode that actually forced PVP, for the most part.

I actually found I got the most PvP in 72-man Secure, as flag contention ensured almost constant fighting around the edges of the map. Slaughter had a bit too much focus on drones hunting, by comparison. That said, 24-man Secure was almost as bad as Shatter for PvE focused boredom, so it really depends on the circumstances. If they had just placed a fourth flag at the top of the tower, or increased kill credit for murdering people, then it would have been fine, but sadly, they had us kill robots instead. Fun times ...

[Synestra]

Biggest issue with Shatter is not mode itself but players are just playing it wrong, 99% of time majority of players are just fragging in mid while waiting ice pops instead taking that fight to opponents base. And when they do go for base they suddenly forgot those sideroads that allows flanking and tries to bruteforce trought 2 enemy teams and that always ends in failure. Bases actually gives some decent amount of points but those gets ignored most of time in favor of midfield fragging, for example if you cap all bases at beginning you will get same or silghtly less points after first big ice even if you totally skipped it.

Then there are times when big ice is too far away and it would be more benefitting to let other 2 GC's fight over it and grab their bases, but instead your whole alliance goes after that ice getting whooping 40 points in the end and popably instantly losing that due deaths...

Couple all this with diffirent spawn times + lack of map usage(this was issue with seize also)and you have an one big mess of unfun.

[loreleidiangelo]

Just play ranked feast if you wanna kill and limit break all day. At least that requires some skill instead of slaughter where you hide behind your team casting and throwing out caster AOE's all day. Slaughter was worse than shatter.

I was a healer in Slaughter, so your point about my motives is pretty off-base. That said, I'm well aware that Slaughter was pretty disliked by most of the forum PVPers, which is why I admitted that I wasn't expecting favorable responses in the first place.

Seize was pretty boring for me as a healer, and it looks like Shatter isn't much of an improvement. I might give ranked Feast a go in the new season, though my skills are pretty rusty.

[loreleidiangelo]

I actually found I got the most PvP in 72-man Secure, as flag contention ensured almost constant fighting around the edges of the map. Slaughter had a bit too much focus on drones hunting, by comparison. That said, 24-man Secure was almost as bad as Shatter for PvE focused boredom, so it really depends on the circumstances. If they had just placed a fourth flag at the top of the tower, or increased kill credit for murdering people, then it would have been fine, but sadly, they had us kill robots instead. Fun times ...

Sadly, I got into PVP right before Slaughter's debut, so the only queues that popped for Secure were 24-mans, which as a healer just consisted of sitting on our flag and if some randoms showed up to contest it just putting Regen on myself and sprinting in a circle around the flag sleeping and punting the opposition until they got tired of it and left. I've heard 72 Secure was a good mix of PVE and PVP objectives, but I was never able to get into one, and Slaughter killed the mode entirely.

[Beckett]

Kind of? I enjoy PVP in this game, but it simply doesn't have the dev effort put into it that it needs.

[Februs]

Sadly, I got into PVP right before Slaughter's debut, so the only queues that popped for Secure were 24-mans

That's a real shame, because 24 man plays VERY differently to the original 72-man version, especially back in the early days of the game mode.

There were six capture points, instead of 3, which formed a big circle around the outside of the map. Typically, 2 out of 3 Alliances would try and hold down the two peripheral flags to the immediate left and right of their primary base flag, while the last Alliance bounced between the base flag and the upper deck whenever Drones came out. Fighting at the peripheral flags could get intense, because the only way to take them was to completely wipe out the enemy team. Even then, they would often regroup and try to strike back after the fighting died down. Some teams would push for total flag dominance, as well, by ignoring drones entirely to keep a choke hold on all of the flags. The fighting between the three GC's was also very balanced, because the peripheral flags were evenly spaced between the base flags. Grudge cycling still happened, of course, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was in Seize.

I often feel sorry for players who miss out on older content. Secure had it's problems, but it's still sad that you haven't gotten to experience that kind of gameplay.

[Beckett]

I often feel sorry for players who miss out on older content.

I'm getting really tired of the dev attitude of outright replacing old content with new. It obvious in PVE, where new dungeons and raids replace the old, leaving very little reason to ever do old content. At least they try to keep old PVE content relevant, with roulettes that offer actual incentives and with new items.

With PVP, there is absolutely no reason to go back to the old content. In fact, we're actively punished for doing older content in the form of less Tomestone rewards.

I would love to see incentives, possibly in the form of bonus wolfmarks/tomestones, given to the older Frontline modes. Perhaps each week could have a different Frontline that gets the bonus. If Secure were giving the most Wolf Marks and Tomestones for a week, that would ensure that we would actually get people playing that mode. We might even see 72 man matches again!

[UnstablePersonality]

No I'm not, I enjoyed Seal quite a bit...more than shatter, and now it doesn't que at all, If it ever ques again and I get the wins for my field coat (14 more) I'll probably never que pvp again just because the ques take way too long now.

[Zaes]

Bring back cleric stance please and thank you so I can enjoy pvp on SCH again.