200+ days since last post. Has anyone ever done anything with this trainwreck of a "feature?" I can see why the devs did everything they possibly could not to release this. I can also see why there's been little to no talk of improvements in the expansion.

One could argue they've given it practically no support. An option to handicap players or restrict equipment or skills could have gone a long way to making this a viable niche, in my opinion. If you give the players control, they'll mold it into a viable system over time and start organizing their own events. Trying to make it a one-size-fits-all solution resulted in a muddled feature with no target audience.

Even something as ugly and daunting like an endless list of checkboxes on skills allowable with sliders on damage / resistance or min/max HP would probably have been plumbed by some of the more adventurous players. It would only take 3 dedicated players worldwide to come up with a balanced set of skills that everyone else could copy the world over. That playerbase would create their own metagame with their own debates about what's Overpowered and what's Underpowered. They would create leagues strictly based on underpowered techniques. Leagues with only White weapons. Leagues with only Magic weapons. They could run a league that banned Life Steal or ultra-nerfed a class entirely (the Barbs NOT getting the short end of that stick, for once).

Give the players a sandbox and then steal all their ideas for the expansion codifying the most popular formats into the game code itself. It seems like a pretty straightforward idea, but I could understand if the infrastructure of the game wouldn't support it.

TBH I'm not sad it ended up as it is, because I have always felt that PVP had no place in diablo. But I'm in the vast minority on that opinion. :)

Posted by Bort at 10/18/2013 09:43 AM

TBH I'm not sad it ended up as it is, because I have always felt that PVP had no place in diablo. But I'm in the vast minority on that opinion. :)

I think it has a place, but I choose not to dabble.

I have never tried PvP in Diablo III and possibly never will.

I have enjoyed PvP very much in WoW though, I have cultivated this innate hate to kill the players of the other faction.

Posted by Bort at 10/18/2013 09:43 AM

TBH I'm not sad it ended up as it is, because I have always felt that PVP had no place in diablo. But I'm in the vast minority on that opinion. :)

You & me both...! ;-)

Posted by douvinsky at 10/18/2013 09:46 PM

I have never tried PvP in Diablo III and possibly never will.

I have enjoyed PvP very much in WoW though, I have cultivated this innate hate to kill the players of the other faction.

I'm not a big fan, but it's worth an hour of time to get a feel for it. It's also nice revenge against OP Barbs that are severely underpowered in brawling.

Posted by douvinsky at 10/18/2013 09:46 PM

I have enjoyed PvP very much in WoW though, I have cultivated this innate hate to kill the players of the other faction.

I agree. But the entire WOW world is based on the two factions, and the PVP makes perfectly sense if you look at the entire feel/back story of the game.

This on the other hand is a story about a great hero fighting the forces of Diablo. They have no business running around caving in the heads of other heros fighting the same battle.

Never tried PvP. Seemed like too much of a hassle.