[DEV REQUEST] Please make the Hellhound Obtainable By More than Just the Top 100 PVP

[Nezerius]

Don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds like the exclusivity is fine, so long as it's for an item that you don't want. :P

That's the problem with all of these threads so far. They're saying give them something, just not something that I personally care about. And that's just bogus.

It'd probably have been less of a problem if they hadn't picked a mount model that PvE players have been asking about, ever since it first appeared in Void Ark.

[Gravton]

It'd probably have been less of a problem if they hadn't picked a mount model that PvE players have been asking about, ever since it first appeared in Void Ark.

Do you know of a faster way to get more PvErs into PvP? Making PvP more enjoyable is a BETTER way, but its not faster. Adding a mount to encourage participation has been SE's go to move since the tank mounts. Is there another mount that would make all the PvErs want to take up PvP, more than hellhound? Does it matter that its a hellhound, or would the outrage still exist if it was another mount? I don't see any forum posts of outraged players wanting an earring. The bottom line is most PvErs are ok with an exclusive reward....so long as the reward is lame.

[Frowny]

Do you know of a faster way to get more PvErs into PvP? Making PvP more enjoyable is a BETTER way, but its not faster.

I'm pretty sure that'd also be good for retention.

[ckc22]

I'm against all time-limited non-special event rewards in any context, including PVP.

[Zojha]

Adding a mount to encourage participation has been SE's go to move since the tank mounts.

Except that it doesn't encourage participation, because it's exclusive to a limited amount of people, so the more people compete over the same amount of rewards, the harder it gets and people rightfully won't even bother.
And that's not much unlike the tank mounts, really - they don't get people into the queues where they are needed, because it only counts 8-man duties, so most people just farm coil unsynced instead of actually "playing" a tank. The incentive isn't set right.

Queues are pretty dead at the moment, because all the people who thought they could make it realized they can't and stopped queuing. The reward structure is ineffective to encourage anything but cheating and not playing once you qualify for the rewards in order not to lose your spot. And other PvP rewards aren't much better - they're heavily grind based. 200 Feast wins is 400 matches at a neutral winrate - even if someone thinks the mount looks good, nobody with a mere passing interest in PvP is going to consider that goal within reach. And that's one of the faster and non-exclusive rewards to get from PvP. The only rewards PvP has that most players would consider reachable and even function as incentive are the wolf mark items.

If you add in how many people don't enjoy it and the fact that ranked serves as breeding ground for toxicity, one of the prime reasons why people want to have nothing to do with it in the first place, it's no surprise it's dead.

[Mandudez]

snip

This is spot on. According to minion and mount statistic websites the airship mount is the 4th to last on # owned list. Only the Black Pegasus (potd mount), A12S mount, and mentor roulette mounts have less owners. Besides the mentor mount the other two are newer mounts so those are bound to pass up the airship mount in time. I personally don't know another player that owns it, even the people that helped me with 8v8 feast queues when I was going after mine didn't bother.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Do you know of a faster way to get more PvErs into PvP? Making PvP more enjoyable is a BETTER way, but its not faster. Adding a mount to encourage participation has been SE's go to move since the tank mounts. Is there another mount that would make all the PvErs want to take up PvP, more than hellhound? Does it matter that its a hellhound, or would the outrage still exist if it was another mount? I don't see any forum posts of outraged players wanting an earring. The bottom line is most PvErs are ok with an exclusive reward....so long as the reward is lame.

Except this doesn't actually encourage them to PvP because the exclusivity makes the task feel impossible. These are fresh PvPers going up against an entire datacenter, where only the top 100 players get the Hellhound. For someone just starting out, they'll perceive it an impossibly difficult task and thus, not bother at all. This is only further compounded by the lack of rank depreciation, which hilariously encourages top ranked players to stop PvPing because it'll hurt their chances.

Compare this to say, Overwatch: where the only exclusive content is promotional stuff. Everything else is obtainable through a currency everyone has access to no matter their skill level. That is how you incentivize PvP for new players.

If you add in how many people don't enjoy it and the fact that ranked serves as breeding ground for toxicity, one of the prime reasons why people want to have nothing to do with it in the first place, it's no surprise it's dead.

Another reason? The barrier for entry is incredibly high. The devs are reworking the PvE battle system due to potential skill bloat yet PvP introduces six new abilities you're expected to weave on top of your existing rotation. I can't speak for other jobs, but on Dragoon, it's bloody annoying because I have to rearrange my hotbar so I have better access to these skills, figure out which of my PvE skills are useless and then switch everything back once I'm done PvPing. It's a cumbersome mess I, frankly, cannot be bothered with a lot of the time despite actually enjoying The Feast. An immediate improvement would be to remove these skills entirely or merge their effects into existing skills; exclusive to PvP, of course.

[Stormfur]

This is only further compounded by the lack of rank depreciation, which hilariously encourages top ranked players to stop PvPing because it'll hurt their chances.

I just discovered this and I cannot tell you how much I loathe it already.

[Nezerius]

Do you know of a faster way to get more PvErs into PvP? Making PvP more enjoyable is a BETTER way, but its not faster. Adding a mount to encourage participation has been SE's go to move since the tank mounts. Is there another mount that would make all the PvErs want to take up PvP, more than hellhound? Does it matter that its a hellhound, or would the outrage still exist if it was another mount?

I can't imagine forcing PvErs into competitive PvP being all that much faster than making PvP more enjoyable.
You're right that SE added things like tank mounts to encourage players to do content on tanks, as well as frontline/wolves' den mounts to encourage players to run that. The difference being that for all of those, PvErs could casually play some PvP (or tank stuff, when it comes to the tank mounts) and eventually get to enough wins to obtain those mounts. The hellhound is completely different, as it forces them to compete right away, and that's a turn off for plenty of PvErs.

I think the best way for competitive PvP to still have semi-unique cool rewards, is to have two versions of a mount. A normal version and an armored version, one being obtained in PvE, the other in PvP.

I don't see any forum posts of outraged players wanting an earring. The bottom line is most PvErs are ok with an exclusive reward....so long as the reward is lame.

I don't remember seeing as much of an outrage on the PvP glamour sets from the first two seasons, compared to the current mount/minion, unless that reward wasn't considered unique?