Diablo 3 PvP Arena Preview

J

John_Keck

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 3, 2010
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379
At BlizzCon this year some lucky people got a chance to play Diablo III’s Arena PVP. Competitive gameplay that requires team strategy, but still has your classic Diablo elements where one skilled guy goes 3v1, nice!

There is some crowd control, but each class has an ability--with a long cooldown--that will break any roots, snares, and other effects. Additionally, each class has an ability that helps them move quickly around the map be it teleporting or sprinting. The spells at my team's dispel worked well together and we could easily kill opponents if we caught them unaware in a stun.
That isn't to say that a single player cannot defeat multiple opponents with careful skill use. Faced with a one-versus-three situation—I was the one—I used the Wizard's spells to defeat all three opponents.
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I had to stop playing Diablo2 because of RSI problems. If the new one can be played just as well by holding down the mouse instead of clicking 30 times a second I'm interested; if not, no game is worth going on disability.
 
This sounds a LOT like WoW arenas.

There is some crowd control, but each class has an ability--with a long cooldown--that will break any roots, snares, and other effects.
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PvP trinket anyone?

Additionally, each class has an ability that helps them move quickly around the map be it teleporting or sprinting.
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Blink/shadow step/warlock teleport/etc....


I played WoW arenas, I liked WoW arenas, but Blizzard has to know that arenas put balance issues under a microscope. Unfortunately the lead designer on WoW (Greg Street, AKA Ghostcrawler) could not resist the desire to continuously screw with everything, which lead to a yo-yo effect where classes would become overpowered and then subsequently nerfed into oblivion.

I would hope that Blizzard is smarter now, but based on my experiences with StarCraft II and the 4.x WoW patches, it seems like the 'new Blizzard' is here to stay.
 
Looks beautiful and ultra boring, never understood the fascination with this type of game.
 
Can't wait for Diablo 3. I've always been a self-proclaimed Blizzard fanboy though.
 
I sure hope that they don't make this like WoW arenas actually in the means that i don't want to see PvP rewards in the game.

Diablo 2 duels were always a for fun kind of thing, and for real pvp thrills you had hardcore, and hardcore ladder, trying to get away from PK's or being one yourself at higher levels was always fun.
 
They better take out health orbs in this "Arena" or it'll be pure carebear garbage.
 
Revdarian said:
I sure hope that they don't make this like WoW arenas actually in the means that i don't want to see PvP rewards in the game.

Diablo 2 duels were always a for fun kind of thing, and for real pvp thrills you had hardcore, and hardcore ladder, trying to get away from PK's or being one yourself at higher levels was always fun.
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They said there are no PVP only items, so I don't think there are rewards.

If anything it'll be gold or something.
 
The missed the best quote, "Will there be a key ring for ears?"

which blizzard said you would not have to store them in your inventory. There was also some joking about only right ears and an option to have both right and left ears...
 
Meh, may pick it up when it's in the barign bin, for 20 dollars, which is the same price I'll be paying for SC 2.
 
This sounds like WoW arenas...why would they want to duplicate that? Arenas are completely pointless, and any more, your arena ratings are about as good a measure of skill as your gearscore is. It's turned into a huge game of rock-paper-scissors with whatever the flavor of the month overpowered class combo is. It was hilarious and extremely telling when all the PVP babies dumped their Paladins/Rogues and rerolled Mages when 4.0 was released a few weeks ago.
 
no wasd controlls? wtf, i dont want to use my mouse and arrow keys for movement.
 
Good to see it's not a name lock/chainlock/desync fest. Though it loses some of the charm with the score board, timer, and crit numbers. It was kind of novel that you could claim you were the best dueler, and only had word of mouth to assert that claim. Now it looks like your stats will be always be recorded, and not just when you ss/fraps every duel.

Lets hope I can recreate my melee sorc.

screenshot041e.jpg
 
tickle_me_emo said:
Lets hope I can recreate my melee sorc.]
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Won't happen. AFIAK, Blizzard changed it this time so you don't actually allocate your stat points yourself. Each level you gain causes your stats to go up a predetermined amount. The point being that they a) want gear to be of more value and b) don't want people misclicking the wrong stat and feeling like they have to start over because their character suddenly couldn't reach it's full potential.
 
FYI, the Blizz dev at Blizzcon says there will be HARDCORE arenas. Have fun with that. :D

For the record, they emphasized that it will not be aimed toward e-sports under any circumstances so balance won't be looked at under a microscope and it won't compromise PvE. PvP and PvE skills can vary from each other, unlike in WoW.
 
Yoshiyuki Blade said:
FYI, the Blizz dev at Blizzcon says there will be HARDCORE arenas. Have fun with that. :D

For the record, they emphasized that it will not be aimed toward e-sports under any circumstances so balance won't be looked at under a microscope and it won't compromise PvE. PvP and PvE skills can vary from each other, unlike in WoW.
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PvP and PvE already vary quite a bit in WoW, thanks to resilience, DR, mana regen, and a number of other factors. The era of people doing well in PvP with PvE gear is over, and there never really was an era of people doing well in PvE with PvP gear.

Arenas will put balance under a microscope, whether Blizzard admits it or not. Rankings and machmaking (which Blizzard has already announced that Diablo 3 Arenas will have) mean that it's going to be competitive. Being competitive means that people will care about whether they win or lose. That means that they care about which classes are overpowered and which are not.

Trust me, I've been through this shitcan several times with WoW. I played 3000+ matches in WoW arenas, was on a team that got to 2450 despite not being flavor-of-the-month, and have been generally buffed, nerfed, and screwed with more times than I can count. Unless the leadership at Blizzard has changed, Diablo 3 arenas will be something that most people want to stay far, far away from.
 
H@RD5 said:
In what way does this look like anything more than boring smash button and repeat game play hell FFXIV would be more fun than this, and it's 3/4's broken!
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Wrong.

For starters you will be able to solo, play as much as you want, go item find alone or with palls and not have to kill a single scarab per minute (or whatever the 2nd or 3rd flying roaches you kill on FFXIV).

FFXIV is seriously the worst comparison possible to D3, apples and... not even oranges, but orange peels that have to be enjoyed in a party.
 
tickle_me_emo said:
Good to see it's not a name lock/chainlock/desync fest. Though it loses some of the charm with the score board, timer, and crit numbers. It was kind of novel that you could claim you were the best dueler, and only had word of mouth to assert that claim. Now it looks like your stats will be always be recorded, and not just when you ss/fraps every duel.

Lets hope I can recreate my melee sorc.

screenshot041e.jpg
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I'm not sure if people will be able to create specialized characters like that anymore now that Blizzard got rid of stat points. Blizzard will automatically be assigning stat points. It's disappointmentI must say.
 
bpizzle1 said:
Won't happen. AFIAK, Blizzard changed it this time so you don't actually allocate your stat points yourself. Each level you gain causes your stats to go up a predetermined amount. The point being that they a) want gear to be of more value and b) don't want people misclicking the wrong stat and feeling like they have to start over because their character suddenly couldn't reach it's full potential.
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For point b, they could have did what did with D2 and that is having the chance to reassign stat points.
 
No more interesting things like the melee sorc in Diablo 3. Between not being able to assign stat points to class specific armor they are just trying to find ways to sap the fun out.
 
Why do we have to prove our competitveness to each other? What happened to to people enjoying PvE? What happened to working TOGETHER?

Does it reflect our society? Some may say yes. Some may say thats crazy.
 
Err, the more they make this game like WoW the less excited I am going to be about it.
 
H@RD5 said:
Sorry no!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCKtBR91KsY

In what way does this look like anything more than boring smash button and repeat game play hell FFXIV would be more fun than this, and it's 3/4's broken!
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First off, its not even out yet, so you can't call it broken.

2nd, its an action/RPG, button mashing at its finest. I remember wanting to shoot my roommate after hearing the contant mouse clicking while I'm trying to sleep.

If you want a real RPG, go get Fallout New Vegas, and stay up till 3AM like I did, knowing you need to be at work by 7AM... But its just one more quest....
 
westrock2000 said:
Why do we have to prove our competitveness to each other? What happened to to people enjoying PvE? What happened to working TOGETHER?

Does it reflect our society? Some may say yes. Some may say thats crazy.
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Doom deathmatch was first. Cooperation in games is much more recent.

Multi PvE is still in the game, but players would scream more if there wasn't a facility for testing your skills/builds against other people.
 
bsoft said:
Arenas will put balance under a microscope, whether Blizzard admits it or not. Rankings and machmaking (which Blizzard has already announced that Diablo 3 Arenas will have) mean that it's going to be competitive. Being competitive means that people will care about whether they win or lose. That means that they care about which classes are overpowered and which are not.

Trust me, I've been through this shitcan several times with WoW. I played 3000+ matches in WoW arenas, was on a team that got to 2450 despite not being flavor-of-the-month, and have been generally buffed, nerfed, and screwed with more times than I can count. Unless the leadership at Blizzard has changed, Diablo 3 arenas will be something that most people want to stay far, far away from.
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One of the lead devs seemed extremely adamant about not letting the PvP component compromise the PvE aspect as much as possible at Blizzcon. He and the D3 team seem to be entirely separate from the WoW and SC2 teams and mentioned that they already got SC2 as their competitive game. There was even a whiner during the Q&A that was pushy about making it viable at an esports level, but was rightfully boo'ed down by the audience after the dev repeated himself... twice.

The dev even admits that not all specs will be viable, given the combinations of builds possible. Trying to figure out the best PvP build for each class is the current intention. It won't be as bad as D2 where entire classes were straight-up unviable, but it won't try to cater to all types of specs evenly either. I hope that they stick too this idea and don't gravitate their resources toward PvP balance too much. And come on, you know the PvP isn't that serious when its there in hardcore mode.
 
Yay, more mind numbing grindfests. Hopefully they got rid of the "magic find runs" so that you can just play and not do things like Mephiso runs.

Spent countless hours in D1 and D2. I just can't go back anymore. If it's just more button mashing, then I just can't go on. As mentioned above, there are other games like Fallout New Vegas, which take RPG to the next level. No more button mashing. Goodbye old era.
 
Parmenides said:
Yay, more mind numbing grindfests. Hopefully they got rid of the "magic find runs" so that you can just play and not do things like Mephiso runs.

Spent countless hours in D1 and D2. I just can't go back anymore. If it's just more button mashing, then I just can't go on. As mentioned above, there are other games like Fallout New Vegas, which take RPG to the next level. No more button mashing. Goodbye old era.
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Every PC game is button mashing in a sense that you have to press buttons to play.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
Every PC game is button mashing in a sense that you have to press buttons to play.
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Emphasis on the word mashing. Where you're spamming clicks on a given monster. The converse would choose your attacks in more tactical manner. It's all about clicking for attack damage, then clicking for loot. All while also repeatedly drinking potions. Over and over again. I suppose it's good to let off steam. You don't have to think much. Less thinking than a shooter or RPG.
 
Rofl-Mic-Lofl said:
Being able to break only one in an Arena when the CCs are very short cooldowns adds another strategic element to the game.
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Perhaps I'm still burned because of the super sin nerf that happened in Aion. Basically there was 1 class that could stun lock (sin) and was balanced to require it. Without it, you were pretty much dead unless you ganked (stab someone while they were already fighting a mob, etc). They put in a mvoe that could break out of stun, and then remove the ability to be stunned for 8 seconds (long enough for you to be killed).
 
Jutsu said:
Err, the more they make this game like WoW the less excited I am going to be about it.
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Same... I'm already thinking law-school will be more important than D3... Thank god the entire staff @ Blizz has contracted Wowitis.

srangara said:
WoW maybe. D2? I don't think so--not without a mod.
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Atma in A1 allows 1 respec in 1.11 onwards.

Parmenides said:
Emphasis on the word mashing. Where you're spamming clicks on a given monster. The converse would choose your attacks in more tactical manner. It's all about clicking for attack damage, then clicking for loot. All while also repeatedly drinking potions. Over and over again. I suppose it's good to let off steam. You don't have to think much. Less thinking than a shooter or RPG.
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That's what made D2 fun. It was a frantic Hack n Slash with an emphasis on lot. There are millions of other RPG's out there that focus purely on tactics.
 
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