Gnu wrote:
Does PvP gear have ilvl?
Seems like the simple solution is to have PvP be tiered by ilvl. Would that work?
It does, and it is.
Your starter gear is all craftable, with ilvl 55. Once you get some points (with the most expensive pieces being I think around 8000 marks) you can buy ilvl 70 pvp gear that is on par stat-wise for other ilvl 70 stuff, but with Morale added in as well.
At pvp rank 30, you can purchase i90 pvp gear, which is essentially the Allagan/AF2 of the pvp gear sets. Stat estimations of the i90 stuff put it anywhere from 1.5k-3k more HP than the ilvl 55 gear. Meaning even if Morale levels were equal across all the gear sets, i90 people have a distinct advantage over newbies and i70 people.
Which, hey, great, longer time spent progressing equals more gear. Just like in pve. But the issue with pvp is other people play too, and if people look at the gear differences and the time necessary to get gear (which, for one piece, all wins, with FC buff active, is something like a minimum of 35 or 40 matches) they'll be very turned off given that they'll have crafted and will be roflstomped by people with ilvl 70 or ilvl 90 gear. Like there isn't even a chance. I had a WHM with a nearly full set of ilvl 70 stuff on the third day of the patch, and it was unreal how much damage she could take. I'd see DRG's and MNK's in Allagan/AF2 with zenith relic on this WHM and she'd just take it with nothing more than a regen and a Surecast Medica 2.
This isn't to knock her skill; she knew how to pvp. But the gear advantage was clear. Any time I was with her, I won. Anytime I was against her I lost, unless we had a SCH or SMN with pvp gear (because pets are OP, and a good, geared SCH is truly the highest form of bullsh*t to deal with in pvp).
So the system as it stands now rewards those who play the most and started the earliest. If you start later, chances are you play people who started earlier than you, and the longer you wait to play the more likely they'll have gear you don't, meaning your chances of winning go down even more. This means you basically need to lose your way to gear. A loss every now and then, hell, every other match, is something most people can deal with. But losing more than 90% of your matches? That'll turn people off REAL quick. People play games for enjoyment, to overcome challenges, to feel competent at what they do. As it stands now, going into pvp while the other team outgears you is like taking on a level 50 monster as a fresh 30; there's just nothing you can do. You are statistically outmatched, literally.
I suppose level 30 and 40 cap pvp might be a bit easier, but you still run into the Morale issue. Some kind of matchmaking based on gear might help, but only if enough people of each ilvl are playing. Otherwise, during slow times, or if the population is low, the MM system would likely be forced out of necessity to pair geared players up against ungeared players.
Or maybe it could just put geared players on each team in equal amounts (or as equal as they can get it, which still may not work, such as if you have three geared players in a match, with two on one team and one on the other).
I honestly think they should have just not had pvp gear. Let pve gear be the only gear available, because ilvl 90 stuff is available to everyone, and everybody can get a zenith relic. Some people might take longer than others to get this gear, but at least it's not gated by needing to face statistically superior opponents that almost guarantee you'll lose, taking much longer to get geared up.
That, or just make it so losing side gets half the marks winning side does. So then at worst you need double the matches of someone else. Not ideal, but anything else sorta invalidates what it means to win. The introduction of non-deathmatch pvp will also help, since undergeared people playing smartly can more consistently pull off wins in objective-based stuff than in straight deathmatch. The addition of hazards would help as well. Stunning a key target on a floor trap that deals high unmitigated damage would give undergeared opponents a means of killing their enemies, rewarding strategic play. Acid pits or flame jets or spikes of ice or something environmental that can be used. They'd need to tighten up the engine if they did that tho.
Edited, Jan 1st 2014 2:11am by Quor 
