My issues with PvP

[Atrayl]

I've been pushing for the Garo mounts this past week. I'm currently on an 18 game losing streak at 7/10 for the silver one. Feels bad man.

Anyway, I've been PvPing in MMOs for 15+ years, and these are my observations of what I think PvP in this game is doing wrong. Keep in mind that this is considering PUG vs PUG, which is the vast majority of PvP that occurs.

1. Healing is too strong/Time To Kill is too high. From what I can tell, SE didn't even try to balance healing for PvP. The numbers seem to be pulled straight from PvE, where healers need to heal through raid boss damage.

A semi-competent healer can heal through 6+ PUGgers attacking them or another player. It should be well known and should have been easy to foresee that expecting the level of coordination from a PUG that it takes to properly counter a healer is unreasonable.

It's an imbalance of responsibility: one healer vs 6+ strangers needing to coordinate burst, CC, and cooldowns. In the case of the Feast, they need to do all of this without the ability to even talk in some cases!

This is the #1 issue that sucks the fun out of PvP for me. Most encounters turn into two walls banging against each other for 10 minutes.

2. Frontlines have too much RNG. Ice and Tomelith spawns contribute too much to the outcome of the game. When the winning team gets 3 Tomeliths close to their base, it's a real punch in the gut.

3. Three-faction PvP doesn't work if people don't understand what tactics they should be using. When #3 keeps attacking #2, then the entire system breaks down and #1 just stays #1 uncontested.

4. Losing points on death creates a "dead zone" where it's not even worth trying to win anymore, because you'll just lose faster. This is most noticeable in Sieze when someone is close enough to winning. You can't even assault their Tome because you'll for sure suffer some sort of causalities in the process, and the points from your deaths will put the enemy over the top anyway.

5. If it isn't already, premades should be matched with other premades whenever possible. A premade on any side is too strong of an advantage given the other points I've made. It's a snowball effect.

6. The available game types and sizes rarely allows for individual players to make a mark on the game. Whereas other MMOs have game types where a player can feel good stealing a node or capturing the flag, Frontlines (especially Shatter) are almost entirely about moving as a group.

[KusoWat]

Can you people please just consolidate to one post

[Atrayl]

Can you people please just consolidate to one post

The character limit is too low.

[Arisato]

The character limit is too low.

Just make the post, then edit it. You'll be able to fit it all in one post.

[Atrayl]

Just make the post, then edit it. You'll be able to fit it all in one post.

Thanks. That's some really silly forum software. Seems like it should be something to easily fix.

[Canadane]

Thanks. That's some really silly forum software. Seems like it should be something to easily fix.

It's most certainly international.

[Urthdigger]

1. Healing is too strong/Time To Kill is too high. From what I can tell, SE didn't even try to balance healing for PvP. The numbers seem to be pulled straight from PvE, where healers need to heal through raid boss damage.

A semi-competent healer can heal through 6+ PUGgers attacking them or another player. It should be well known and should have been easy to foresee that expecting the level of coordination from a PUG that it takes to properly counter a healer is unreasonable.

It's an imbalance of responsibility: one healer vs 6+ strangers needing to coordinate burst, CC, and cooldowns. In the case of the Feast, they need to do all of this without the ability to even talk in some cases!

This is the #1 issue that sucks the fun out of PvP for me. Most encounters turn into two walls banging against each other for 10 minutes.

Try actually playing healer in PVP and come back to say that. While healers ARE strong, they're nowhere near that strong. Tanks can shut them down, and DPS that actually know how to burst can take people out in spite of healers. On top of this, healers can't do much of anything on their own due to a complete lack of offensive ability, and can be squishy when they run out of cooldowns and instant heals making them rather reliant on having a team that actually sticks near them (You would not BELIEVE how many DPS just straight up Leeroy Jenkins when they see a pack of foes)

[Atrayl]

Try actually playing healer in PVP and come back to say that. While healers ARE strong, they're nowhere near that strong.

I just can't agree. Every single Feast I do goes to time with very few people actually dying. Again, we're talking about PUG PvP, where coordination doesn't exist. All a healer has to do is run back to the other healer, and both together are just invincible against a group of 8 who need to miraculously coordinate perfectly to counter a simple healing rotation, because the potency of the heals is just that high.

Tanks can shut them down

Never once seen it happen. The other healer just heals them.

and DPS that actually know how to burst can take people out in spite of healers

Yes, multiple DPS executing a burst perfectly can kill someone with only one healer on them. Two makes it impossible, even all 8 bursting won't do it.

It just simply isn't fun, and I promise you it will not be fun to the majority of MMO PvPers. PvP will never be a strong draw for this game if things remain as they are. And if SE doesn't want it to be, then that's fine. I'm just saying, that if they do want to capture a PvP audience, that this is currently the most imbalanced, frustrating, and unplayable instance MMO PvP that I have ever seen, and the strength of healing vs the lack/difficulty of countering it is the cause.

When you need a group of strangers that cannot communicate with one another to work in sync to counter the effects of one player, then that one player is too powerful.