Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
Mostly agree with everything here, I wouldn’t mind opening up to the idea that you use your character and hard earned gear to compete, Ive single handedly experienced beating players with better gear with the use of skill to stay competitive. As long as there is some sort of gear cap say (gear score of 2000) and anything after that is obsolete in the Arena, this prevents the hardcore PvErs who have the better gear and gives the rest of the players a chance to catch up on par eventually making it an evenly matched season
Secondly, I would say it also opens up the game to be experienced and therefore gives players a sense of earning to participate in the Arena, instead of just hitting maximum level and queing straight in. A sense of achievement that they’re ready to compete and start climbing the leaderboard
If we put all that aside and say just discuss E-Sports or an Arena tournament, then yes
It should be a private server with up to 3x max level characters and gear to choose from (seperate to your actual in game character) to compete for the trophy, a special event that only runs for a few weeks. I was fortunate enough to compete in WoW’s third annual 3v3 Arena Tournament Blizzcon held back in 2010 and that was an awesome experience to be apart of.
(Mind you the prize pool back then was $250,000 for 1st place)
It’s now closer to a million dollars with the same WoW Tournament currently running annually
this would be the equivalent of a full pve instances progression path, basically, you are incentivizing people to not be in the open world and just be in an instance 24/7. ashes needs people to be in the open world for the game to work.
on top of that, everybody having the same stats or gear in an arena, doesn't mean its fair. for example, some classes might to stack a certain stat to be good so they will be trash in the arena because they cant do that..and some other classes will be too powerful, like a tank who now has the same attack as a dps.
the only way it would work is if everybody gets every piece of gear available in the game to use in the arena, but then people would not be out in the open ;-;
If you have read any of this thread other than just this page you will see your wrong
Its 1v1, 3v3 & 5v5 Arena is already confirmed in the game.
There’s also confirmed PvE instanced scenarios in AoC as-well
Hence, why I already wrote in order to compete you need keep earning gear to remain viable to continue participating,
Every game needs some sort of end game competitive scenario with a high skill gap to encourage players to sharpen there skills, otherwise it gets boring
Should play the MMO the way YOU want to play it, and so far AoC has supplied that opportunity with its variety of confirmed end game content
Also, please get out of your head that Arena is just spammed 24/7, because it really isn’t otherwise you will start dropping on the ladder.
You always have to go out and grind content to keep yourself going forward (continuously experiencing everything the game has to offer) so that you also remain viable to climb the ladder, then when your team is on and ready you que
I will forever be an advocate for
Skill > Gear
I already knew there was going to be an arena, but neither steven nor the wiki stated that it was going to be equalized. and yes, some instances are confirmed (20%) but we don't know if there will be restrictions or not. also, some dungeons will have opposing parties trying to compete for the final dungeon boss, so the instances wont be purely pve.
you are also contradicting yourself. if you don't need open world character progression to climb in the arena, why would you NEEd to do open world character progression if you are an arena player? don't need to grind, just do arena 24/7 and you are taking a slot of a player who could be out in the world doing stuff for everybody, contributing with the economy, etc. if there was no population limit, then sure go for it.
you also didn't get my point. if you remove gear form arena, it ruins some classes and makes some others way too strong. imagine a rogue who has a lot of in built critical damage, but for him to be viable he needs to invest in critical chance gear and get 50% or higher, so he needs to farm. if you remove that, he wont be very good (lets say everyone has a max crit rate of 10% in the arena). that's why I said all gear should be available then, so people can build however they want.
also, I don't know why people make the argument of skill > gear, when clearly stats are very important. why would pro players pick whatever is the strongest during that month? pro tournament players basically switch characters every month when things get nerfed / buffed. stats clearly matter (gear is stats).
if you think its unfair that people beat you because they have better gear, do you think its also unfair that they beat you because they were born 20 years after you? if the game had existed 20 years before you wouldn't have had this problem. you cant base the outcome of a fight solely in one aspect of the game (either skill or stats / gear). if you do so, the game becomes unfair. you several factors to affect the outcome of the battle to make it fair.
also, players in aoc could just both get the same gear then compete in a non equalized arena. characters cant progress infinitely. get your items then join the arena and then you will be in equal footing as everyone else who got their items too. no skipping farm.
huh? you don't want the farm to be skipped? its hard to read you because you contradict yourself.
if you want the stats to be given to you for the tournaments or the arena, then why did you also say that you need to do ow pvp to be relevant in the arena. this is a contradiction ?_? you either need to farm the gear or you don't...
There’s seasons (6 monthly) already confirmed so this counters your 20years argument, so therefore catch up mechanics is in place
If your basing pro players off recent WoW then yes, have you seen what else has changed? You can literally buy a max level character on WoW for $27, you couldn’t do that back in the day when WoW Arena first came out
What you did was run different compositions, and different talent tree specs, this was evident from WoW 2007 - 2014 (before character boost was available) considering there’s 64 classes in this game I highly doubt that it will be “pro players” swapping out since there will be so many compositions available
I don’t know which Pro Players you are talking about but there was quite a few different compositions that were played in most of the WoW Arena Tournaments as well
Yes for an E-Sports event
Thats nothing to do with the game????
E-Sports Arena Tournament is an annual special event that’s completely seperate
Where the best players compete in a championship
Where’s the contradiction?
“If we put all that aside and say just discuss E-Sports or an Arena tournament”
i thought you meant regular ranked arenas when you said arena tournament, as in a tournament like the l2 olys, since you said e sports or arenas, so you would get the gear given to you in both cases.
Not regular ranked Arenas,
I was in Blizzcons Arena Tournament
Its completely separate to the game and only runs for a few weeks
Again, Not. One. Person.
well I used to queue up for lost ark arenas 24/7 and ignored pve...not at first though. also did it in wow (only in mop tho). etc etc.
anyways not all games have dailies, and if you are only interested in arenas and not farming gear, why would you farm gear and not do arenas?
Surely if you played WoW you know you had to continually keep upgrading gear in order to climb the ladder throughout the season, you had to get money to get enchants, farm gems, reputation gains (from questing & dungeons) to unlock recipes to craft better items, or farm borrowed powers from challenges to make a legendary, get renown to make the BIS weapon (used for both PvE & PvP), there was farming matts to be able to create a unique piece for your class.
There was plenty to do to be able to stay viable to compete or you would fall behind…
Almost every MMO has some sort of daily or weekly that rewards with currency this is essential for the games economy,
in AoC Arena you don’t get gear upgrades
So what does that mean? Have to venture out to Vera bro
EDIT: if no teams are queing at off peak times who are you versing 24/7?
As Pyro^ stated above, I’ll eloborate on both
- Every single MMO has Dailies or some sort of currency making scheme to ensure the economy within the game is flowing. If we are REALLY that adamant about it then I’ll rephrase and say anything to do in game with making gold or money since that is essential for enchants / gems on any new gear etc
- Queing Arena with poor or low tier gear is quite silly so farming gear to do then do arenas is obviously essential. I think we can both agree on that. However, I’ll say most MMOs (WoW / ESO / Tera) I’ll even add Lost Ark here, has buffs / nerfs through an Arena / Raiding season. When this happens your certain team composition you were running is no longer as strong or viable. When this happens you’ll need to farm gear again whether it’s taking on new stats for a different build or different spec or anything. So once again we venturing out to Vera to again farm gear for an ever shifting, ever changing Arena / Raiding season.
- Alternate characters: Ok so we are here now, and for whatever reason we are not enjoying this specific Arena team comp, not enjoying this spec, or Raiding with this particular spec + build isn’t really hitting that sweet spot. Out to Vera we go, we are now farming gear/gems/enchants/mats/stats specific items/reputations for our alternate characters to use in Arena or Raiding. Once over one more time now, what if we want to try a different spec on this alternate character?
- Archetypes: Same as above, as Steven Sharif has stated, picking your Archetype for your Class will be a grindy business, and then if you want to swap out to a different Archetype it’ll take over 1-2 months of just grinding to get that maxed out after swapping over.
*Now, let’s say we are in Arena, buffs and nerfs have come through on specific classes or archetype and we want to roll a different archetype*
Then having to venture out yet another round into Vera to grind and change this archetype that we once loved so much to the new meta or even something different to try out in Arena and/or Raiding.
***These are just a few examples mixed and matched with each other of why we, PvP focused players will need to do in order to stay ahead of the leaderboard, or the Arena Curve rendering sitting there and “queing Arena 24/7” quite useless. I myself would love to venture out and try new builds new specs and new archetypes so will love having access to both aspects of the game. Kudos to AOC for heading in the PvX direction MMOs needed to head in, hand in hand PvE with PvP. 🫱🏼🫲🏽 ***
1. No equipment restrictions therefore even effective pve gameplay is rewarded in arenas
2. Categories which represent open world encounters so 1v1 and gvg (8v8) should be present
3. There should be lvl categories so you can participate meaningfully earlier than in late game.
4. Rewards in Titels and effects which are visible so you are seen as successfull on first glance (like hero auras in L2)
5. Some forms of benefits for the power of the Victor in open world pvp and pve which incetivize you to try but are not too overpowered (like hero skills in L2 but somewhat less powerful)
Such design makes it so that you cannot simply play only arenas and make success in arenas unreachable for regular players who play all aspects of the game. If you only like arenas go play esports. (there may be esport spinoff if the combat design proofs to be such a success)
Irregular cross server arena events to find the best of the best where server leaders compete (like some form of champions league) for the prestige only could be nice but not part of basic gameplay design.
1. Pve restrictions is what helps stop the hardcores from dominating the Arena, hence why most games not only have ranking system to differentiate skill but a hard gear-cap to stop the over abuse and pull it down more to skill. Please google “gear score cap” if you don’t understand, this creates more balance to the gear over the course of a season giving players a chance to catch up and create a more even playing field
2. The Arena is meant for an alternative type of gameplay from open world (hordes v hordes) of people cluster attacking each other
(Refer to previous pages to see more reasons why)
1v1 is already confirmed though so is 3v3 and 5v5, the most popular in almost every game and game genre offering a ranked competitive game mode. It's not only the most convenient way of playing, it keeps a healthy balance of team compositions & numbers in the Arena bracket, considering how much AoC has to offer in this game and end game content the Arena would be minimal teams if you add that big of a bracket and a chaotic mess in game steering away from individual skill and more hiding behind others type of gameplay (also already offered in the mass numbers of game modes available) a 3v3 instanced game mode is to offer something different (already said here multiple times here)
3. Ranked mode should always be maximum level, otherwise the brackets will be diminished, I could go into anti cheats (let’s just say low level accounts using hacks, scripts, botting to abuse these ranked modes) but that’s another can of worms
Having max levelled Arenas offers players to experience the entirety the game has to offer, a better understanding of game mechanics and class designs before choosing to enter the Arena and get into a high skill cap competitive leaderboard
4. Agreed, titles are already offered https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Arenas
Wouldn’t mind throwing in a unique seasonal armoured mount to give more incentive but thats up to the devs to consider
5. If you are trying to unbalance the Arena, then having outside influence, buffs or perks is how you do it.
- Very unfair statement, yet to see how the current in game designs, having an Arena team won’t let you experience everything about the game and compete when your team logs on (other than 1v1), better gear, gems, enchantments etc to progress and stay relevant and push higher rating
- Cross realm should always be available to keep players from versing the (same ol team) that might counter then and instead open up different types of game play to counter different team comps
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Current Member of the Gray Sentinels.
No need to complicate it, just keep it simple
2 teams enter, 1 team walks out
What you described sounds more like a battleground then a ranked Arena mode
Yes, WoW Arena is much more complex however Ive already stated multiple times the ideas I would like throughout this entire thread
Pros and Cons il take from other games that offer a competitive end game Arena bracket
- Mounting in arena (this allows for players to not only show off their hard earned mounts weather it be rewards from PvP/E or the beast marriage system) take away all mount abilities and can’t be in combat to use them
- Stealth detection, after a certain time frame multiple objects spawn to detect all stealth which players can grab to eliminate a hide and seek arena game. Tarisland had an npc mindlessly walking around with a small aoe (not a fan was very easily avoidable
- Game timer (pretty self explanatory)
- Damage buffs increase throughout the duration of the game to prevent long drawn out games (this is similar to wows lesser healer dampening)
- 1 healer/tank per team
- Objectives to kill the other team without respawns and be the last team standing unless they get a cheeky resurrection (very hard to pull off) there is plenty of game modes based off an objective to do hopefully the Arena is a break from all that and simple enough for all players to be able to take part in
- Ranking system (Tarisland literally copied League of Legends ranked) and just did Bronze to Challenger, WoWs ratings weather you climb the leaderboard or drop to be rewarded pending the rating you get or as it used to be where your team was standing at the end of each season.
- Arena participant rewards, WoW has such things as an armoured mount, season exclusive title and tabard to flash which season you excelled in for the top %ers
- No outside buffs, pots or scrolls (this is also in Tarisland as well) if Ashes offers some sort of health pot or mana pot, could always make it a really high cooldown though i do suspect it will be a similar case as what happened in Diablo IV PvP where people just ran away until the health pot cooldown refreshed
- Fair matchmaking system, cross realm server match making as well to keep a healthy Arena bracket including severe penalties for players boosting other players, win trading teams (losing matches on purpose) etc
I just realized you replied to me.
i was talking about gear, which you can only acquire by doing the arena. not things that you can buy from other players. also, not every game with arena requires you to do pve.
while I'm not a wow pro, I remember that the only thing you pretty much had to farm doing pve in terms of gear was the trinket, because the pve trinket was the strongest one last time I played (I haven't played all expansions, just a few).
not every game has dailies or weeklies or needs those to keep the economy going, only the ones you've played.
we don't know exactly what we get from arenas in aoc.
1- no, not every game has dailies and they arent necessary to keep the economy going. that's only the games you've played. ashes wont use the dailies system as stated by steven.
2- that depends on the game. there are games where you can completely sit on arenas 24/7 and you don't need to do anything else besides it and you can get top rank, and there are other games where you still need to go out and farm stuff out in the world. the first type gets boring to me after a while.
3- not everyone wants to play alts and at some point you will have all 8 archetypes at max level, so you won't need to level them anymore. there is always the chance that you get less than 8 character slots, but also you might not even need to make a new char because one of the ones that you already have is a top pick in arena anyways.
4- same as 3
Edit: You won’t get top rank queing 24/7, thing that gets me is I have wrote multiple reasons why that doesn’t work but yet you still don’t get it
Such examples as your team not being online, losing streaks, inflation, patch changes throughout the season, gear changes and updates, class balance changes. Or simply you aren’t playing the best so you get some RnR and reconvene next time (when your team is back online) so between all that, plenty to do other then q spam