Work In Progress: What's Next for Arena PvP

Love this. Will be very happy to see pop completely separate from pre, gear sodas trinkets and all.

As for home turf mods. While I really enjoy them in pop I think some are gonna cause problems. For example there is a mod to take away healers damage reduction which is something you are saying you want to do anyway. And if you are going to take one mod away then you mind as well take them all away. That or rework them all.

In regards to Home turf Tactical mods: Yes to MODS, No to Trinkets/supply drops/etc

Everything else sounds good on the surface, but need to hear more as we move forward

Looks like major changes coming to PVP, major but very intriguing. Honestly though, considering where Arenas are now I think it's definitely needed. I'm looking forward to seeing this fleshed out further as everyone sees this and chimes in, and as you guys clarify things.

My question is, are there plans to improve the quality of matchmaking as well, or are you confident that the new changes will fix the unbalanced play? It definitely looks like the changed are partially intended to help, but it's one of the biggest problems with Arenas, without significant improvement newbies will still be getting stomped like crazy, just not as dramatically.


BTW, Tunso needs to make more posts like this! Insight into how the devs look at the game's combat (in this case, the dynamics of PVP) is always appreciated, and I thought it was well-written. More of these types of posts from Tunso please!

Also, in regards to consumables, im glad our current ones will be removed...They're just too powerful

My question is, how will new ones be implemented? As drops? Will they need to be bought? Crafted?

Also, what function do you want them to play/how effective do you want them to be? Do you want them closer to electrostatic pulse device Expert or Throwing stars?

they should bring back influence for the new pvp consumables

How will players get rid of shields and Rage mode?

I Like this idea so far. Is still not going to be like the good old days but a lil closer.

Now for the MODS i think all of the mods should stay including HT mods because they are a good help for every role and at least it could be the only thing we get to use from HT itself. Im good if the trinkets are not coming back but the mods are crucial for this matter.

With all the constant and often contradicting changes you guys have tried to "improve" PVP, and eventually leading up to the mass exodus of GU25 when you reset PVP gear, and the current state of PVP where most people won't even bother. I'd say hell...yeah...try anything... you can't possibly break it more.

BTW, Tunso sounds like a smart guy.

OMG. Developers, this is what the PVP community has been asking for. I love absolutely everything in this thread and I really hope you implement everything in here. If you do this I will most certainly come back to the game.

Home Turf Trinkets are a toss to me. There will be people who like having them in the game and there will be other people who despise them. Until players get on the test server and play a few matches with the new PVP system, then this will be decided.

I have one question. Will movement mode debuffs be removed?

Correct, concept of role debuffs will go away. However general debuffing, an important function of being a Controller, will remain. And Tanks will still be able to cleanse those debuffs.

Controllers will heal power, healers will heal health, DPS will do mega damage... what will the Tank's role be in all of this? Will our snap aggro work on other players in PVP? Will we get a mitigation bonus?

I've played for 3 years and I have to admit I was starting to lose interest in this game. Then I read this and wow.. I am honestly, genuinely excited again. I'm skeptical about being able to properly balance something like ice's reflect or rage's damage deferral mechanic without debuffs, but if you can do it, my god it would be amazing.

My recommendations are to remove Home Turf mods, trinkets, and even utility belts from arenas, but let people use anything they want in open world pvp. Reintroduce influence or some other form of currency for taking out hostile players in open world/arena pvp and increase the rewards from bounty posters so people are encouraged to go out and brawl. Keep it simple for arenas and let open world be the crazy alternative where anything goes.

I'd love to see a return to the old pvp progression of 3 sets of gear: cash gear, influence gear, and gear that costs marks. Some progression is good but in general people want to be on an equal footing with their opponents.

Which will give PVPers who play as a controller an actual role in matches. I think this is an awesome idea. If this is done there will be more controllers in PVP arenas.

Just promise there won't be a situation like in the "golden days of pvp" where ice players were completely invincible. (Or some other power set becomes completely unstoppable.)

Keep in mind that while healers and tanks will have added damage stats based on one set of gear and no damage penalty, they will still not perform as well as a dps in damage.

To be effective in their role, they will need to mod into the appropriate method for their role. If they mod as a dps, they will simply not be doing their job effectively and may as well be in dps stance.

Tanks get rid of debuffs with cleanses.

So when in a duel like Healer vs Tank where Healer haves the upper hand is gonna be change drastically? or are we still going to be able to debuff them as a role upper debuff?

Not just for healers tho i meant for like Tank vs Troll and Troll vs Healer as well.
After all that is one of the fun parts of being a Support Role in pvp.

We are looking at how matchmaking works too from all angles, from how the algorithm works, how maps are chosen and even the way queuing happens from an interaction standpoint. Improvements to these are in the works but that's another topic and those will come about later in the future than these.

I love this post...Minus HT mods being removed because I love being able to use terrorize without fear of being knocked down