I'd love to be able to get my regular team into an empty map to discuss strategies and game plans, especially with the tighter 4v4 ranked coming up. Even helping new players unfamiliar with PvP in a practice map would be fun.

 

So, is there any chance can we get some kind of PvP Practice Mode where it's just us in an empty map to figure stuff out?

Edited August 27, 2013 by PetFish

Maybe to help with this, they could make a group duel request.

 

That way teams on the same side can use this to enable the above request.

Would be cool

Get your 4 man premade, queue regular, get 4 man arena pop versus pug group = practice mode.

Practice mode is level 10-54.

 

Enjoy!

 

And, any decent 4-man premades in wzs now should be good in arenas. It's just kill kill kill. It's not complicated.

Get your 4 man premade, queue regular, get 4 man arena pop versus pug group = practice mode.

 

Not the same thing. I'm not talking about having team practices to beat up on pugs, I'm talking about being able to talk strategy and try new "plays" in an empty practice field.

Practice mode is level 10-54.

 

Enjoy!

 

And, any decent 4-man premades in wzs now should be good in arenas. It's just kill kill kill. It's not complicated.

 

Also not the same thing. Anyone can beat up on pugs with a premade. With the new 4v4 ranked coming up it's important to be able to figure things out and especially when playing a team we know about how to play specifically to counter their tendencies.

 

And it *is* complicated... what class abilities do you have? What will you do if you have this and that but not those? How many stealths do we have this time that we didn't have last time?

 

If they want to take ranked seriously at all we need some kind of practice field to work out on.

Also not the same thing. Anyone can beat up on pugs with a premade. With the new 4v4 ranked coming up it's important to be able to figure things out and especially when playing a team we know about how to play specifically to counter their tendencies.

 

And it *is* complicated... what class abilities do you have? What will you do if you have this and that but not those? How many stealths do we have this time that we didn't have last time?

 

If they want to take ranked seriously at all we need some kind of practice field to work out on.

 

Is this game really that difficult for you?

 

I will simplify for you:

Step #1: kill their healer

Step #2: kill their dps

Step #3: kill their tank (if they even brought a tank, which in ranked may not even be viable)

 

"Plays" in an arena? Stealth? Mostly irrelevant in a team deathmatch environment unless you or the other team is planning to hide til the gas comes in.

 

There are obstacles to use for LOS but other than that it's kill their healer and mop up the rest. If you are thinking beyond that, i'm sorry to say you will be very disappointed with arenas.

 

I predict the two most effective arena FOTM groups will be:

1. Jugg tank, sorc heal, carnage mara, engy sniper

2. Veng/immortal hybrid jugg, op healer, 2 engy snipers or 2 carny maras.

 

It would be nice to see the neglected classes get some love, but that won't happen in 2.4.

Why are you being a dick to me?

 

All teams, regardless of what sport they play, like to have practices and this is no different.

 

The game is not difficult for me and I'm just trying to get something together here. What's your problem?

 

I will simplify for you:

Step #1: kill their healer

Step #2: kill their dps

Step #3: kill their tank (if they even brought a tank, which in ranked may not even be viable)

 

Most of the times, the healer has to be cc'd and one of the damagdealers is first to die in arenas.

 

There won't be a practice mode. Regs are practice. If you want to try out some tactics you have to do this in regs.

There you can try out fancy tactics etc.

Why are you being a dick to me?

 

All teams, regardless of what sport they play, like to have practices and this is no different.

 

The game is not difficult for me and I'm just trying to get something together here. What's your problem?

 

He is not being a dick to you. He is simply telling you the truth. Lowbie pvp is where you practice, it is a waist of resources to make an actual practice mode.

Why are you being a dick to me?

 

All teams, regardless of what sport they play, like to have practices and this is no different.

 

The game is not difficult for me and I'm just trying to get something together here. What's your problem?

 

We're not being *****. PVP is not a sport, there are no split-second "plays" that have to be made that require physical coordination, timing, as well as space and placement. That is why sports teams have practices, so they don't have to think about what they are doing, it happens automatically. Besides, they don't practice on an empty field, they practice either against each other (offense vs defense), or against another team.

 

Back in the 19th century, the German army started using wargames to practice strategy and tactics. Their sessions included not only another team, but also what they called "friction" to avoid a bias effect. How can you practice strategy and tactics without an opposing side that is the principle cause of "friction" in a warzone or arena? So yes, regulars are practice mode.

i'm with pet fish here; it's not about who to burn down first or stuff like that (which most of the times won't be the op healer...) but to practice with the terrain, where can you los the enemy but not your healer, where are knockbacks most annoying, what synergies are between the utility stuff of your team and the terrain...

By insinuating that this is "so difficult" for me as if I'm a PvP moron *is* being a dick.

 

Musicians practice during sound check to fine-tune their show for that night even though they've done it a million times. Athletes practice drills first and THEN play against each other, they even have classroom studies.

 

"Waisting" resources on implementing an empty PvP map? Hardly.

 

Huttball has many ways to advance the ball, even dozens, so it would be beneficial to teams to work on them and be able to use one or switch between them during a match if one isn't working well. You can't explain these during a pug match which just ends up being "tank goes into enemy pit to leap up to defenders". That's all pug Huttball is these days.

 

Novare Coast can have a spawn rotation if someone dies trying to get east then west goes and the one that died goes to cover west once re-spawned so the re-spawn doesn't have to wait for the timer and then run all the way back to east. Good luck trying to to get a few pug people to follow this simple concept.

 

I'm all for "winging it" in pugs, it's fun to have chaos and still win, but once getting into ranked I think being able to work on map-specific game plans would be a wonderful feature to have.

 

If you don't like this idea, fine, but please don't sit there and think it has no merit and certainly don't take shots at me like I have no idea what I'm doing or that this is so difficult for me.

I didn't mean to imply you are a loser, and i'm sorry you took it that way. Here was your original post:

 

I'd love to be able to get my regular team into an empty map to discuss strategies and game plans, especially with the tighter 4v4 ranked coming up. Even helping new players unfamiliar with PvP in a practice map would be fun.

 

So, is there any chance can we get some kind of PvP Practice Mode where it's just us in an empty map to figure stuff out?

 

From your original post, a few things are communicated:

- you have a "regular team", implying 4 or 8 people plus fillers that pvp together right now.

- that you want to prepare for team deathmatch ranked arenas.

- that you think that an arena will be goal oriented and/or more than a deathmatch.

 

Conclusions:

- any "regular team" right now has already exceeded the strategy/skill/teamwork required to win arenas, if they are winning 8v8 now.

- arenas are team deathmatch. It is exactly identical to both teams splitting 4/4 on ancient hypergate right now, which happens most often in ranked.

- if you want to scout the arena maps to see where the LOS breakers are positioned in each map, get on the PTS.

 

Retrospect in review of your other posts:

- you want a practice mode for 8v8 maps, a reasonable expectation, though that is what level 10-54 is.

- you either don't know that ranked 8v8 is being removed when 4v4 is added, or you think 4v4 will be objective based.

 

Summary:

- Ranked objective-based pvp is being removed in 2.4

- Your "regular team" will have no issues learning how to win team deathmatch.

- You are way too sensitive about how people perceive you. I don't know who you are or how good you are in the game. You posted, you got a response. I felt my post was very appropriate in regards to what you posted.

 

My intention wasn't to offend you. It was simply to point out that practice is something you do while leveling the many alts and acquiring the minimum gear you need to even consider yourself ready for ranked. Any crew of 4 that has done that together is ready for ranked arenas.

 

That is why bioware is pushing arenas. The game has been centered around groups of 4 for a long time, even in 8v8 games.

Is this game really that difficult for you?

I will simplify for you:

Step #1: kill their healer

Their healer is guarded, has a HoT on himself, and their tank taunts your DPS.

So the healer is only getting 30% of the damage you deal, and he can heal for about twice more HPS than the average attacker's DPS - without that 3-fold reduction.

 

GL!

 

I predict the two most effective arena FOTM groups will be:

1. Jugg tank, sorc heal, carnage mara, engy sniper

2. Veng/immortal hybrid jugg, op healer, 2 engy snipers or 2 carny maras.

PTS shows that the most effective arena comps are:

1. 2x Jugg or Mara Rage, 1x Jugg Immortal, 1x Operative Medic.

2. 2x PT AP, 1xJugg Immortal, 1xOperative Medic.

3. 1x Jugg or Mara Rage, 1x PT AP, 1xJugg Immortal, 1xOperative Medic.

 

Reason? Same in all cases: each is the hardest to mess with or kill in their respective category. Juggs, Maras and AP PT are about a tie for the toughest DPS.

Their healer is guarded, has a HoT on himself, and their tank taunts your DPS.

So the healer is only getting 30% of the damage you deal, and he can heal for about twice more HPS than the average attacker's DPS - without that 3-fold reduction.

 

GL!

 

 

PTS shows that the most effective arena comps are:

1. 2x Jugg or Mara Rage, 1x Jugg Immortal, 1x Operative Medic.

2. 2x PT AP, 1xJugg Immortal, 1xOperative Medic.

3. 1x Jugg or Mara Rage, 1x PT AP, 1xJugg Immortal, 1xOperative Medic.

 

Reason? Same in all cases: each is the hardest to mess with or kill in their respective category. Juggs, Maras and AP PT are about a tie for the toughest DPS.

 

That's kinda where being an experienced group in the current environment will help in arenas. Keeping pressure on their healer while preparing to spike one of their dps will be important.

 

I do believe smashers will remain the FOTM in the new solo ranked queue, but i think in the group ranked queue we will see more effective use of single target spike setups (carnage instead of rage).

 

This will be due to the fact that carnage marauders can completely demolish that tank + healer duo that is so effective against pug noobs (and rage maras too).

 

The 12 second cycle dps throughput on a single target from carnage is substantially higher than smash. And the fact that you can suddenly shred that tank's armor like paper with a synchronized gore + force scream guaranteed crit + massacre and vicious throw spam.

 

Being able to maintain endless predation for the defense and +50% speed buff, alternate rooting ravages so that slippery scouperative can't run away, and other perks will make an organized carnage duo far superior.

 

Just my opinions. We will see when we get there.

The 12 second cycle dps throughput on a single target from carnage is substantially higher than smash. And the fact that you can suddenly shred that tank's armor like paper with a synchronized gore + force scream guaranteed crit + massacre and vicious throw spam.

While it is, there is something smashers have - 150% damage to the tank due to AOE.

It's pretty tough to beat and Rage leaves literally no possibility of error, it's straightforward.

 

Maybe Carnage will compete with Rage, some teams will stack double Carnage or double Rage (1 of each is not so great), but it's not replacing it altogether anytime soon.

I posted this exact thing in regards to 8v8 rated gameplay a while ago (LINK HERE), and it got 0 dev attention. This is NEEDED in game, in my opinion. It would help to promote guilds getting their feet wet and practicing before getting stomped on as well as offer an alternative game-mode to guild-war other guilds or your friends for IRL honor battles haha.

While it is, there is something smashers have - 150% damage to the tank due to AOE.

It's pretty tough to beat and Rage leaves literally no possibility of error, it's straightforward.

 

Maybe Carnage will compete with Rage, some teams will stack double Carnage or double Rage (1 of each is not so great), but it's not replacing it altogether anytime soon.

 

If the tank gets hit by the smash they need to l2p :-) a good tank knows how to fully protect the healer while staying outside the smash radius.

 

But yeah if the tank hugs his healer and they both get smashed, that will hurt.

 

Another note: a crit smash from a carnage mara with 2 points in rage will still hit for around 7500 base value. Ok not as big of a crit, BUT gore gives 100% armor ignore so think about applying that vs jugg or pt tanks.