Is pvp dead? Can it come back?

[Lenko]

I've played on and off and always had nothing but a bad time whenever I tried pvp in ffxiv.

Is there anything being done for this? Are there any plans to make pvp competitive or playable at all?

[ItMe]

Lol didn't they just have a big PVP overhaul with, like, 5.0 where they almost doubled the number of abilities you have and added new maps?
It's been what I've needed to finally enjoy PVP, sorry to hear it hasn't made it better for you.

[snipski]

I wouldnt say they doubled your abilites they mostly added AOE abillties that are pretty bad unless your doing large scale PVP like Frontlines.

What i have learned from years of PVPing in this game PVP is an aftertought and the PVP devs dont seem to listen well to the playerbase.

They keep making dumb decisions for PVP specially around balancing jobs.

Why do we have to wait for a patch to fix something super broken like healing down stacking wich is a thing in the current PVP it's an easy thing to fix by a hotfix or something like that.

As a rule Jobs should be balanced around Feast wich is the arena based PVP in this game not around Frontlines.
They somewhat managed to balance jobs in the end of Stormblood the FRC event but then they made a complete overhaul once Shadowbringers hit and right now PVP is a complete mess thanks to it.

Also there is just not enough reason to PVP in the game you can get everthing you want from Wolf Marks in a week of doing PVP.
They keep adding special rewards for Feast to keep players doing it, even then it just dies out after a month or so when ppl find out whats meta and not and when Q ends up dying because none play.
You can do so much more other things outside PVP in the game so why even bother, you might have some players who only PVP and dont even do other things in the game but they are a super rare.

[Barachim]

I was never a big fan of PvP and the last time I actually "enjoyed" playing it, was when we had access to our full skill list. The last time I played it, was to unlock the "Metal Gear Revengeance" gear. Haven't bothered with it since.

[Esmoire]

PvP has a reasonably-sized audience compared to other side activities, like for example serious crafters, or Gold Saucer monsters (like me), or people who do ultimates, etc. Frontline queues are <5 minutes in the evening which is pretty good. To call that dead is hyperbolic, and eager to over-simplify the situation either wilfully or out of ignorance.

I think there are fundamental improvements that can be made, and I think we need to change the offerings to have more smaller scale activities (since FL asking for 72 players to queue at once is a bit much and not sustainable past peak hours), but I wouldn't say it's dead. Just not really using a design that does a good job of serving its audience as well as it can. Maybe get an 8v8 mode going, do a daily challenge for RW or have it share one with FL and switch based on the number of people in queue. Have some rotating maps for Feast. Bring back map rotation for FL (which they are doing in a few weeks).

All in all the audience is there and the foundation is there. The limited resources the developer gives to PvP just needs to shift a bit.

[Divinemights]

They just need to revert back to 24 men

[Waaltar]

I've played on and off and always had nothing but a bad time whenever I tried pvp in ffxiv.

Is there anything being done for this? Are there any plans to make pvp competitive or playable at all?

Do you play any other comparable MMO type PVP in other games? Have you ever and did you like it?

[Gula]

Give people a difference in levels again and it would explode. People do PVP to compete, cowards like me who look for a fair fight and balance were not made for how it used to be. But give people a goal to work for with special gear and materia abilities, more people would care guaranteed.

[ItMe]

Give people a difference in levels again and it would explode. People do PVP to compete, cowards like me who look for a fair fight and balance were not made for how it used to be. But give people a goal to work for with special gear and materia abilities, more people would care guaranteed.

Nooooo thanks.
Side content that I need to perpetually keep up on in order to continue doing it or be at an unfun artificial disadvantage?
I'd legit quit PVP. I only play it because I'm free to enjoy it whenever I feel like it.
No other content in FF14 has upkeep and I'd like that to stay out of this game.

[Waaltar]

Yeah it took MMO PvP in general a long time to stop catering to toxic players, and getting rid of giving players gear that made them hard to beat at PVP just because they played a long time was one of the better long term changes in this and most other similar PVP games.

Playing for a long time should make you a better player anyway. If it doesn't then why should gear give you an advantage. When you combined the two things you'd have veteran players who were actually much better than other players AND they'd be wearing their super hero gear. It was ridiculous.

It lead to a sort of clubhouse effect where you'd end up with a small 'clubhouse' of regular pvp players while everyone else avoided it. They were the 'biggest fans of pvp' or so the argument went, so the game companies were 'just making the game for the people who liked it.' The MMO PVP genre probably still hasn't recovered from it even though they changed their ways years ago.