This is kind of getting silly…
PvP in Diablo 1 was shoddily designed with the excuses of chaotic friendly fire and animation cancel oriented combat but it worked. Thanks to having only so little variables to balance, developers were able to make things right and it was decent. All three classes had a unique playstyle and can work to counteract each other. Sadly, game integrity in general was a mess and it was so easy to cheat and modify things so it didn’t stood the test of time. At a time it was a simple detail that they didn’t think about.
Diablo 2 rolled in and it arrived with Hostility modes. However, it was impossible to make things right or any sort of balanced with all those variables. There were seven classes with expansion and each of them could don different gear tweaks, equipment and skill point allocations. There’s no hope for it to be any balanced even if they tried. Most they did was making skills slightly differ at versus mode and hoped community itself would figure things out.
By that, Hostility became a difficulty tweak of sorts in a limited difficulty game rather than being part of endgame with proper duels. Only dedicated players were to be able to make things work fairly and they were highly influenced by trading communities.
When there’s no reward or progress in PvP and requirement of gear tweaks is intense, naturally the interest in fair game was low. The PvP in Diablo 2 barebones worked, yet it still stood there as a thrill for community to bond together when something or someone grinded their gears. When people get beaten in a PvP or PK’d they run to the traders which fed the same PvPers or PKers.
Then there comes Diablo 3, the brawl mode in Diablo 3 was an afterthought ultimately. Months later it arrived with a patch and because it was so hard to make things right on a wide open area, it had released with Scorched Chapel only. No wonder it didn’t work or stick around for long.
Developers must have realized that it’s impossible to make things right with 5 classes and for it to work they really had to ditch the match making system for a better algorithm and complex filters. There was an urgent need for player filters, more maps and more content if they meant to separate the PVP and treat it as an endgame. They didn’t have that; too much work for something so little interest and unrewarding.
By the way, please don’t pretend they couldn’t make brawl of D3 any rewarding; they’re developers themselves, remember. They were having proper PvE endgame schemes and plans for it at hand already and their vision doesn’t call for capped difficulty at all. There was no need to make it work like in D1, nor treat this part of the game as a thrill like in D2; hence it was left alone and impractical.
About until three to four years ago, brawl scene in Diablo 3 was working to a degree as well, only full Primal full augment players were able to have a go at it but it was barely functional endgame option for them. Then developers applied a patch that bring overall power of most Sets by 5-10x; within’ that, whole scene simply receded back to never return to old days. There was not a single large enough community that can bring people together or quickly test variables to see what’s fair in PvP.
What they’re doing at Diablo 4 is a good call for everyone as far as I can tell from blogs. Anyone liking the Diablo 3 and dynamic PvE combat, still can enjoy the game as it is while PvPers at the map would make environment interesting. Since there’s a ritual, you’d be bound to have rewards and presence of a kill streaking enemy rumbling along the map, serves you the dilemma of risk and reward easily.
They bailed their promises in Diablo 3 and they are giving hints towards sticking their gums from the start. I see nothing wrong with that.
Wanna know how PVP worked in Diablo 2? It was a rock-paper-scissor game that depend on resources and positioning where you ain’t supposed to bite more than you can chew. Sounded familiar? It was full of strict rules and your build only should be built around them in a dedicated manner.
In Diablo 4, you will have to mind both PvE and PvP aspects of every build while making your character development come to fruition. Doesn’t that sound any deeper than fighting artificial intelligence enemies?
No, there won’t be any ultimate superb awesome uber bojangling PvP build in the game that kills everyone in one shot while one hand is tied to its back. What you’re imagining is a product of your narrow views or watching too much of that one World of Warcraft related episode of South Park.
If some build can counter and dominate every other build in PvP were to exist, then it already can conquer the entirety of PvE content easily as nothing can have a shock value for it. That ain’t gonna happen as balance in PvP depends on capped power levels. Let the design handled by the developers instead of bringing up the worst case sceneries.
Combat grounds in Diablo 4 will have monsters, so your character ought to deal with both monsters on their way to ritual grounds and player enemies roaming there. Builds can differ at varying efficiency at clearing PvE content yet still stand at different points on a PvP tier list, just like there’s a tier list for GR clears in D3. Same thing can easily apply for the Diablo 4; why it couldn’t? Different builds of the same class, can have varying efficiency at PvP and PvE but never best of both worlds.
Let me give an example; build-A of class-1 can be countered by build-B by class-2 in PvP. Let’s say, build-A has an area damage attack (Sorceror?) but has to commit and a loner, as in no pets, while build-B have intense single target damage (Rogue?) by reflex combinations. However their build differ in clearing PvE content as you can catch a glimpse.
That can give build-A an upperhand if they position accordingly near multiple monsters or corrupted towns to lure monster aggression towards build-B character. This is a very simple dynamic that anyone can come up with, if they were to read the damn update blogs.
But is it any fair? Who the hell cares if is it any fair? You’re playing a character raining fireballs, blades, frost novas, flying kicks, rocks, volley of arrows and meteors from the skies against unintelligent beasts and any sword wielding demon or undead because they went mad with power.
You still get to struggle while facing a monster that can negate your damage output or outright counter your positioning in a PvE game. Why do you think it should be super-balanced and fair against you or anyone else now in PvP? There are always variables that you can not control, that’s the backbone of this genre.
I don’t get you; PvP can be treated as a dynamic of environment instead of a super serious duking out and that’s fine. Why do you think anyone doing a ritual can hide their location? Why do you think their location is never given away? Because it supposed to be perfectly balanced where you exchange blows to see who’s victorious? No.
It can give a small thrill to the limited difficulty level when developers go with that. What’s not fine is, you expecting it to be a ranked game like it any matters. Most reward you can get from the cleansing rituals would be cosmetic rewards and perhaps materials for PvP oriented crafted items, that’s all. Player supposed to contemplate the risks here and have fun, not worry about the worst, neither demand a moral code to be embedded into versus encounters.
I say, wait for the next update blog about endgame model. If the endgame model of Keyed Dungeons is stacking up high like Greater Rifts then you can cut hopes for any sort of proper PvP afterall.
So far, there’s no glimpse of people teaming up in PvP grounds, so most likely you won’t get ganks without ambushing players risking some friendly fire damage too. Teaming up in the PvP or competitive scene at the developers’ call. I for one, I welcome any PvP like in Diablo 1 or NoX.
