“Who will be the winners? Who will be the corpses? Audience, place your bets!” – Baron Deathmark

 

I noticed that quote at the top of the article. Does this imply that there may be some form of spectator mode and/or betting mechanism?

“Who will be the winners? Who will be the corpses? Audience, place your bets!” – Baron Deathmark

 

I noticed that quote at the top of the article. Does this imply that there may be some form of spectator mode and/or betting mechanism?

 

I think it's a reference to the "story" behind the arenas:

 

"Giradda has expanded his gambling empire with a series of deadly Arenas to provide a new form of entertainment and lighten the pockets of spectators galaxy-wide."

 

so yeaaah... I'm going to say no betting/spectator mode.

Will we be able to choose to join EITHER non-ranked arenas OR normal 8v8 as well? I'm not a fan of deathmatches, and I'd like to be able to queue for objective-based games alone.

 

This was already answered previously. The answer, I'm afraid, is no. At least not right now. Non-ranked will all queue together for arenas and other WZs. It could be separated at a later time.

 

I get the impression they are trying to see what the interest in pvp will be going forward. I'm sure if they see high levels of people leaving one match type or the other, they will adjust accordingly.

Edited August 14, 2013 by GatorAndy

Maybe this was mentioned maybe if t wasn't but does noone see anythig wrong with group role? Think of groupfinder where dps sit in que for hours waiting for a pop, now they are gonna have to wait forever to get into a WZ also. The reason i only have a tank a healer at 55 couldnt stand dps que time.

 

Secondly i csn see how repeccing mid game can be expliotable but at the same time iv went into a wz as a dps and there wasnt 1 healer so i respecced to heals. Same thing on tank go in as tank and you see 4 other tanks, so you respec. Maybe make arenas not able to respec but 8v8 sometimes you need to. Just my 2 cents guess we will jave to wait and see

Does the warzone solo q role selector apply to 8v8 warzones?

The update page says its "Giradda currently has three Arenas of Death set up for his pleasure on Corellia, Tatooine, and an Orbital Station; each one presenting a different layout that will require varying techniques and strategies to master."

 

Where it should say Makeb, Tatoonie and an Orbital Station

 

This: So here is the skinny on that. Yes the first picture in the blog post is of the Makeb Mesa Arena and yes there is an Arena located on Corellia. We originally wanted to launch 2.4 with Makeb Mesa Arena but we found a really nasty performance issue that needs to get fixed and polished before we launch it, so Corellia Square will be replacing it!

 

So to clarify, the 3 Warzone Arenas you will be seeing on PTS this Friday are Corellia Square, Orbital Station and Tatooine Canyon.

 

Hope that clears things up!

 

From Dev tracker.

what about overpowered heal+tank?

Does the warzone solo q role selector apply to 8v8 warzones?

 

As far as i understood no. Role selector only applied to solo qued 4v4

I'm happy that hardcore PVPers are getting new rated content - although I have to admit I don't understand the need to completely remove the already existing 8x8 Ranked Warzones.

 

However, as someone who solo queues 99.99% of the time and as of late only does PVP, I'm not looking forward to 2.4

 

If I understand what has been said correctly:

 

1. Normal Warzones and Arenas will be in the same queue. Meaning that instead of giving us the option to choose which map we'd like to play which is something lots of people have been asking for for a while now, you are making things worse by making it even more random if we'll be playing a map with objectives (which some of us like) or a deathmatch which will favor fotm classes even more than now. (I predict the Smasher population will rise to Anakin's midichlorian count levels, come October)

 

2. Still no mention of a fix for Premades vs Pugs. This has been discussed extensively in various threads all over the forum and you guys don't really seem to care about it at all. In fact, you are making things a lot worse by allowing 4 premade players to go up against 4 pug players in Arenas (not talking about ranked ones). At the very least, with the current (and already unfair) system you can HOPE that the rest of the 4 players of the enemy team are useless so you might have a chance. With 2.4 you are effectively increasing the chances of an even worse PVP experience and, basically, telling people who solo queue that you don't care at all about their experience.

 

All in all, I'm pretty disappointed.

 

I will enjoy the PVP we have now until that changes and since it's the only thing I find interesting enough to invest serious time in any more, I will not be sticking around for 2.4.

 

But I do wholeheartedly wish that people will enjoy them just as much as you hope they will.

 

I would hope that most groups of 4 would tend towards group ranked.

New huttball map!!!!!

 

That is all.

Will the two new operations and the Oricon daily area also be put on the PTR this Friday?

I really hope there will be an option to choose weather to queue for arenas or not. I really enjoy the objective based warzones but have 0 interest in a death match. My least favorite map is hypergates because it is too much like death match.

Just to get some clarification, I'd like to know if solo ranked arenas will match people up in the same manner that GF matches people up for FPs. Basically, will there always have to be 1 tank, 2 DPS, and 1 healer? This is a concern to me due to the handful of people that actually play a tank. GF wait times can last up to an hour for anyone that plays a DPS. This not something I want to see with solo ranked arenas. And since roll selection will be based on which tree we are specced into, we can't exactly queue up as a tank to speed up queue times.

 

I'm also curious, what happens if someone rage quits from an arena match? Will there be a quick back fill or could you guys just insure no rage quitting?

 

I think you guys may want to find a way to distinguish between someone disconnecting and quitting so that anyone that quits from a ranked match gets penalized. Or if you guys could at least find a way to ensure that the people that stay don't end up getting punished due to someone else deciding to quit or an ill timed disconnect.

 

 

 

No, but he does look at his keyboard while he goes through his 1-2-3-4 rotation.

 

Just kidding, Musco is actually a joy to have on your Arena team, he holds his own.

 

I don't believe you. I require proof.

 

 

 

I really hope there will be an option to choose weather to queue for arenas or not. I really enjoy the objective based warzones but have 0 interest in a death match. My least favorite map is hypergates because it is too much like death match.

 

I should hope there's an option to not queue up for arenas. It would definitely be nice to be able to choose between objective based PvP and death match PvP.

 

I'm not a fan of AH due to how long it takes for the damned gate to drop after respawning. Get stun raped within the initial counter at mid and get punished with a twenty second time out. Yea, that's always fun.

 

Need an option to select which WZs we want to queue up for period.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Dedrayge

Role is determined by your characters current specialization in the Skill Tree.

 

How is a DPS/Heal hybrid gonna affect the matchmaking?

Hey Alex!!!

 

I commend your courage on coming to the beast's den (lol). I hope you're still alive. XD

 

My question is... Will you guys be adding a "PvP Hub." You know.... a place where PvPers can duel, have access to PvP gear vendors, PvP Mission Stations, GTN, etc etc?

Edited August 14, 2013 by Elogio

This all seems really great but, one thing. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO WATCH OTHER PEOPLE FIGHT. When I think of an arena I also think of SPECTATORS. I think many people would enjoy the idea of traveling to Tatooine and then go to the arena and watch the fights LIVE ( I know I would).

 

Just a Thought

New hutball!! Yesss

What's the downside to leaving 8v8 ranked queue as an option? Sure, most players will ignore it in favor of 4v4 but why not leave it in as is so guilds have options as to what they want to do?

 

Is it technical, UI related, having to implement and track separate rankings? One less thing to add to season 1? Not having to factor 8v8 into class balance changes?

 

I'm not a dedicated pvper though I am curious to which reasons beyond those mentioned in the article went into this decision.

 

Also, will the beginning of season 1 also introduce a ladder page on swtor.com that displays the top ranked characters per server?

Edited August 14, 2013 by Projawa

SPECTATOR MODE would be really great for this to.

"We are sad to see it go but the truth is that because of many factors not enough people played them and we didn’t support them well enough, so they are going away for now. Getting eight friends together and hoping another eight people are doing the same at the exact same time AND your two teams were equally matched was a nightmare for the players. It is possible that Ranked 8v8 Warzones will come back at a later time if we can solve some of the problems with them and if the population is there to support them."

 

We will now be focusing 4v4 Ranked Arenas, but as the blog says that doesn't mean Ranked 8v8 Warzones are off the table forever. But not until we can solve the issues around them.

 

True, they could've been better supported, but the Ranked community will take them in their current state over deletion for any length of time. It may have been difficult to organize matches, but with transfers to PvP servers, the queues pop regularly. It's a case of taking the lesser evil over the greater. Let the hardcore community worry about those logistics because I can guarantee the uproar over their removal will far outweigh the inconvenience of organizing a team. The reasons you are providing are the ones that community will gladly bear. If there are other resource related reasons, then be honest with your subscribers and tell us. Otherwise, the reasons above are not good enough for their removal, especially as they don't affect you in the slightest and only hurt the community you're attempting to help.

As a strictly PVP player, this is some of the worst news I've heard in a long time. I was really excited for arenas, but NOT AS A REPLACEMENT FOR 8v8! I just spent a large sum of money moving my characters to Prophecy of the Five in order to play 8v8 ranked warzones only to hear the next week that those are being flushed down the drain. I understand that a lot of people are not participating in ranked 8v8 warzones, but why remove the option of doing them at all? I just don't understand.

 

In addition, F2P people playing warzones now? Now people are going to have to carry a bunch of people through warzones who have no idea what they are doing whatsoever.

 

I'm assuming for fairness PVE players are going to have any flashpoints and operations that aren't new removed from the game and they will have to queue for operations with F2P people as well even if they have 8 or 16 man groups willing to go.

 

This is a giant slap in the face to the PVP community. Limiting our already limited options is not the way to go.

If Bioware is admitting that one of the major failure points for Ranked Warzones was "lack of support" what do the devs plan on doing differently with arenas that will ensure their success? How do the devs plan on supporting two completely different modes of PvP when they failed to properly support the one mode? Edited August 15, 2013 by KingofGob

As a strictly PVP player, this is some of the worst news I've heard in a long time. I was really excited for arenas, but NOT AS A REPLACEMENT FOR 8v8! I just spent a large sum of money moving my characters to Prophecy of the Five in order to play 8v8 ranked warzones

 

Your best bet: lobby for 8v8 challenge matches. This would allow players to run tournaments, maintain ladders et cetera for 8v8. It should be a simple feature to add. I'm sure challenge matches would be very popular for the crowd that wants to play 8v8 WZs.

 

I doubt you will get BW to keep 8v8 RWZ. Just look at bolster -- tons of people hate it for being buggy and opaque, yet we are stuck with it. On the other hand, you might get them to add 8v8 challenge matches.