No PvP gear
Currently, obtaining gear through PvP does not seem to be planned based on this quote from the wiki:
"Arena points that can be used to buy gear are not currently in the design"
But, there will be PvP gear enchantments based on your performance during a PvP season (6 months).
This means, Pure PvP gear progression, is in the form of unique PvP specific enchants instead of gear. These enchants will be awarded once every 6 months.
Gear, in AoC, broadly speaking, comes from PVE, Crafting and Quests. I will try to convince you why there should be an option to obain some gear in some form through PvP. It does not need to be full sets, nor does it have to be from only arenas.
Gear should not be exclusive to PvE content. It should be possible to aquire some gear through PvP, aswell as crafting, PvE and quests. I will list my arguments for this. Feel free to disagree and point out what I get wrong.
Arguments:
1. Some players, want to focus most of their time doing PvP. Currently, you will be punished gear wise for doing this. This system will severely handicap PvP focused players gear wise in comparison to players that focus on PvE. Since no gear comes from PvP, players that ignore PvP dont lose anything gear wise by ignoring it. In contrast to this, players who ignore PvE, won't be able to aquire gear effectivly creating an unfair situation. This will effectivly force the whole PvP community to play content they dont like. How would you feel, if the only way to get the best gear for PvE was to play PVP arenas? . Many PvP players will quit if they can't progress effectivly by doing their favourite content.
2. By not offering meaningful gear progression in PvP, people will eventually get bored and leave. I do understand that AoC offers meaningful PvP in the form of sieges, guild castles, caravans and arenas. But, if these systems don't reward you with gear, people won't care about them as much. Getting materials from caravans and sieges, is in now way a stable form of progression for most PvP players with limited time. But dungeons and raids is very viable for all types of players.
When you defeat a raid/dungeon boss, no matter how easy it is, you will be rewarded with gear and crafting materials. When you defeat the best players in the world in PvP, you only get meaningful upgrades in the form of enchants, EVERY 6 MONTHS, and crafting materials. This is not that interesting. Reaching high ranks in arenas and PvP requires insane dedication. Easility 5-8 hours a day of pure PvP. It is simply wrong to not offer a gear progression in combination with PvP gamplay that supports the way you wish to play.
3. It does not make a single difference for the game as a whole except making more people happier.
Most counter arguments say that offering gear progression in PvP will make people stay AFK queuing for arenas. This is silly. It's like saying offering PvE gear will make people AFK in instanced dungeons. To earn PvP gear in my system, you still need to play ashes exactly as intended.
Ashes has many forms of PvP that are open world, Caravans, sieges, guild wars, bounty hunting etc. All these activities ALREADY gives you PvP gear progression in the form of unique PvP enchants. The problem is, PvP enchants you get every 6 months is not meaniningful progression. It is boring.
4. By offering gear progression in PvP, you, as a PvE player, don't lose anything. PvPers will be happier, have more goals to work towards and will get rewarded for doing things they love. By not offering gear for PvP progression, PvP players, lose a lot. PVP players will still need to play PVE, and Craft! But they can also work towards a few pieces, for example a weapon or helm. Something matters. Getting rewarded with gear, is one of the most important factors in MMO:s. As with all things in life, stop thinking in black and white. Stuff is more complex than that. Instead of ONLY GEAR FROM PVE!!!. You could have a balance that we will reach with trial and error, patch after patch. We can only win from this. We can only lose from thinking black and white.
There is no reason why a player should not be able to aquire gear from PvE, PvP and crafting. Why lock every piece of gear progression behind PvE/crafting alone?
I am not saying PvP should offer best in slot in everything, but it should offer gear that is competitive with PvE/crafted gear. I don't even need for PvP gear to offer gear in every single slot, but atleast enough gear to make it feel like im doing progress doing what I love.
Solutions:
1. PvP activities should reward you atleast each and every month with different rewards as well as every 6 months for major rewards.
2. Doing PvP activity in any form should unlock recepies that can be used for gear. Especially for a weapon since that is what most people love working for.
3. Your arena rating, should either offer unlockable recepies for gear or COSMETIC variants of gear. This will visualize your progression which is EXTREMLY important for PvP players.
4. The amount of crafting materials you get from sieges, caravans and other relevant PvP activities should be fair. Dungeons and raids should not give exponatially larger amounts of resources.
Why?
A lot of players want to visualize their achivements. PvE players feel proud when they can use their
"Sword of the black dragon" they got from not standing in the fire while spamming 3 buttons and killing "The black dragon" for the 13th time this patch.
The problem comes when PvP players really cant visualize their achivments through their hard work in PvP.
Most PvP players dont want a weapon they got from killing a boss. They want a weapon they earned by being good in PvP, to show other people how far they have come in PvP. However, nothing stops a PvP player from earning weapons in PvE aswell.
Conclusion:
Since it does not harm the PvE community in any way, and since it does not change the way ashes is played in any single way. There should be a way to gain a gear recepies for specific PvP gear.
This gear should be visually different from it's PvE counterpart, and is there to reward and show your dedication to PvP, Exactly like Raid/dungeon gear is there for the same purpose.
