a fair concern here, bioware: are you making the arena in such a way where...

Arena itself is fine IMO. It is how it is implemented is the key.

There can be no balance in Arena. Some classes will rule, others will not, it is how it is. Since it is a different dynamic if you balance arena you will throw regular PVP and PVE out of balance., or one of them. It seemed to happen over and over and over again in WoW.

So much so, in fact, that my Warlock had 18 fundamental class and ability changes in 5 months...18 folks. It was a nightmare for me. Twice I had to basically relearn my class at MAX LEVEL.

It is the singular reason I do not play WoW today. Ridiculous amount of class changes, constant changes. I couldn't take it anymore...it was too much.

Here is an example...devs for almost every game that allows open world PVP that is unranked do not consider balance with that open PVP. That is the reason why some classes do well against others, and folks accept it.

There is no decay. There is no real cost to death. It is just for fun. AND THERE IS NO BALANCE ISSUES, or more accurately all balance issues are ignored.

That is how Arena should be IMO. It can be ranked, but ranks should be based on performance IMO, not kills. And you could perhaps earn rep, but no direct gear. No decay either....just for fun.

Then Arena would be harmless to the game IMO. Just like open world PVP.

The problem you will run into if arena's are added to this game is that you will get endless cries for "fixes" for class balance.

It doesn't matter if the arenas are for fun or for some form of ranked competition, people will constantly cry that "x" class is under-powered or "y" class is over-powered and they will flood the forums with constant QQ demanding that this imbalance be fixed.

Faced with the onslaught of tears EA will have to tweak "just a little bit" classes. Then that "little bit" becomes "a little bit more". Then a tweak breaks PvE for a class and PvE players of said class inundate the forums with rage over their class getting boned because of PvP.

And the swings will get wilder and wilder as the Dev's try to perfect the balance and we all reap the ruins of classes that are OP one day and UP the next, ad infinitum.

Because as sure as night follows day, there WILL be people who cry out for arena balance of classes.

A very good post, and a very good point to make. Blizzard overhauled WoW with Cataclysm for the PvPers, to bring better balance to arena, killing PvE. It was at that point I left WoW for good, and never looked back.

I would really hate to see that happen here, and hope Bioware will not fall into this trap.

PvP balance is a pipe dream that can never truly be realized in an MMO, unless they make each class exactly the same as each other, and that's never a good idea.

So, Bioware, my suggestion would be, take what the PvPers say with a grain of salt, they are your most fickle and demanding audience, and will always be hopping from MMO to MMO, looking for their ideal PvP, which doesn't actually exist, nor will it ever, unless you play First Person Shooters online.

indeed,what you just describe in your post is my greatest fear and possibly spell doom for certain classes .

^As was the case in WoW. Hopefully TOR learns from the mistakes of those that came before.

i hope and pray that what they mean by "warzone arena" is exactly as it sounds

a new warzone with ZERO objectives, 8v8 and just a straight up deathmatch



if they are going to attempt to copy the wow model (epic facepalm) of small player numbers...., may yoda have mercy on all our souls for the nerd rage Apocalypse that will erupt right after their release

How exactly PvE was killed? Top guilds were still raiding, competing one another. Average level guilds were doing the same. For the latter, all classes and specs were still viable. Everything was happening just like in previous expansions.
Only thing that was killed in Cataclysm was 25-man raids, but that has nothing to do with class balance.

i give it a hour after the patch for "OMG ASSASSIN TOO OP, NERF RITE NAO"

in fact, i believe both operative and Sin will get nerfed first as a premade group of those two classes in 2 v 2 would honestly be OP

As others have said..small team (esp 2v2) doesn't work because by nature certain classes work better than others together.

I did a little bit of arena in WoW with a PvP nut friend of mine..

me - Paladin
him - Deathknight

opponent 1 - Druid
opponent 2 - Hunter

the match went on for 45 minutes....it was 2v2..it SUCKED. I was heal spec'd on my pally..but basically it was me and the deathknight friend chasing the druid around while it healed itself while the hunter pelted us...if we switched to the hunter it was even worse

we finally won but it was the ridiculous..i forget how but we finally managed to interrupt the druid enough and got enough burst dmg to take it down..then the hunter went down fast.

fun? may sound that way...trust me..it wasn't..it was lame as hell..it wasn't some epic battle..it was us chasing them around getting slowed trying to burst enough dmg on the druid to stop it's heals..it was extremely dull.

I never touched another arena match...

i honestly don't see how that's different from now.