GC quote on mechanics - Blue Tracker

#0 - April 22, 2009, 7:03 a.m.

Q u o t e:
We don’t like for PvE and PvP mechanics to work differently when we can avoid it.

I'm slightly confused as to how separating the two is a bad thing, especially when we've already got a mechanic which works slightly different (reduced cc durations) and that turned out to be great.

now how about damage?

fictional scenario: mortal strike hits too hard in pvp but is fine in pve. you're meaning to tell me you wont reduce the amount of damage it does only against other players? is it impossible to do that?
or if heroic strike does too much in pve and is fine in pvp. reduce its damage against npcs, cant it happen?

i can see self buffs, for instance, needing to be balanced around both with no real substitute for either, thats fine. but the way i see it, you're choosing to neglect a rather simple approach to this dilemma.

Ghostcrawler

#7 - April 22, 2009, 10:37 p.m.

Q u o t e:
You really can't see how this is a bad idea? Imagine the game where every ability had two different effects -- one for players and one for mobs. It would bite ass. The game becomes twice as confusing. The distinction between pvp and pve would become jarring and bad to the point where you might as well be playing two different games. It would also be lazy design and an extremely easy out for the developers. I'm sure it would make their lives a lot simpler in many cases if they could do this but they understand why they shouldn't. The current instances of this in the game seem to be pretty unavoidable.

This is really a lot like all the people saying arena gear should only be usable in arenas and things like that. It' seems like an ok idea at first but it breaks down the persistent world. That's a big no-no in an MMO. I think GC has posted on both these topics in the past and made a much better argument against them than I just did.

No, that's actually a decent argument.

Ghostcrawler

#67 - April 23, 2009, 12:59 a.m.

Ideally PvP gear is superior in PvP but PvE gear isn't terrible if you're missing the PvP gear.
Ideally PvE gear is superior in PvE but PvP gear isn't terrible if you're missing the PvE gear.

This mostly works. You need resilience in PvP, but items pay a stat budget for resilience that is mostly useless in PvE.

There are potential flaws with the system of course. If a class is too defensive, or kills things too quickly, then the resilience is unattractive. If PvE weapons are too easily obtainable (say off of KT) compared to PvP weapons (that take a lot of skilled Arena investment) then the "isn't terrible" crosses over into "why the heck not?" zone.

We like for there to be separate progression paths because frankly we don't want someone who is leet in one aspect of the game to be rewarded with triumph over the other aspect. But it's also nice to be able to use your gladiator gear your first few times in a raid until you've built up a decent amount of PvE gear.

Just saying no, you can't wear that suit in here feels a little heavy handed. It's confusing and arbitrary. It feels overly punishing to a player who has invested a lot of time and effort getting to be a gladiator to then tell them "but you have to wear blues into Ulduar because those purps you have don't cut it."