Does anyone want to intelligently discuss the state of competetive gameplay?

Disclaimer: there are 4 paragraphs and a list in this post.

I don't want to spend a long time explaining myself or why the game is the way it is but I really want to talk about the current status of competitive game play with the community because I feel like people care about the game like I do. There are so many people that have been around for ages, and personally even when i'm not "playing" this game i'm still playing it, whether it be on my main or my brothers account or just checking in on the forums or whatever.. I feel like people have seen the good and bad of the game and a lot of them are intelligent enough to have a proper discourse on the specificity of competitive game play instead of what some people would like to reduce to "X IS OP PLZ NERF AM GOOD NOW HAHA SEE I WIN WHEN X IS NERF THAT WHY I LOSE"

I really want to talk about why the game is balanced, but less competitive and strategy oriented. IE draw wins, map wins, and the idea of skill and strategic thinking in matches having less to do than ever with how a game will play out. I am NOT going to talk about, X champion/faction/theme is OP because. I AM going to use examples from popular themes and meta that are strong in comparison to weaker themes and explain my opinion on them and why they add to this climate of "oh look i drew this" "oh ya well i drew this, lol gg" that I think currently exists in the game.

Rundown:
I know that this isn't always the case, but I see the problem this way. I rarely get games anymore where I and the other person are exchanging turns so intensely with strategy and thinking behind the moves that I have to concentrate and am really drawn in by the game (what I come to poxnora and have played all this time for). I'm not just talking about when I lose, I'm talking about when I win as well. Sometimes it's just ridiculous and not at all satisfying despite the other person being a completely competent player and running decent runes. Likewise I see games where one person is playing making very few mistakes and the other player is throwing their runes around willy nilly, yet has such an advantage over the other player that they might as well surrender now or prepare to fight (Go team rocket) for the next hour bringing the game back, and only because they know they are more skilled than the other person, whereas if it were a player of the same skill as them they are screwed regardless. This is the reason I personally surrender in so many games when I know i can probably play longer and bring the game back. it is no fun for me winning a game where the deck is literally stacked against you nor the other way around. This is because I've played matches that are on mostly equal footing from the start and it is extremely evident and much more fun for me when skill and strategy are what is being used as opposed to hard counters that can only be accounted for in rune manager. Unfortunately there are so many hard counters in the game and meta that this seems to be the case with most games.

A list of things I want to talk about the most:
Jab
Sabotage
Elsari Coven
Seism
Global abilities on champions in general
Dispellable Abilities being rampant and core to the game and meta when the ability to do so efficiently is exclusive to certain factions (#1 perpetrator: Void Shield!)
Above but with equipment
Above but with Cleansable conditions
Faction/Font Bonuses
The mess that is "summoned" and counters to "summoned"
Preparation
Discovery
Hp to nora ratios
UD Faction
___________________________________________________________
council is useless.
Obviously I realize that I am not the pinnacle of everything that is PoxNora and balance and that is why I want to have the "discussion" with the community not just rant about things I don't like. I have played for most of the games existence though and think it's in good hands and depending on the response I get I would love to discuss these topics with errbody in future posts. If no one cares then I'll probably just go back to being a recluse and putting together stupid troll bg's in my spare time as I don't really post on the forums as it stands c:

 

wait what faction isnt able to dispel?

 

SL

Cause purge is a joke

 

Yesssss!!! roflcopters, lollerskates, and over 9000 internetz..!
(imma turn into a pumpkin if I don't sleep soon, so imma read the rest of your post tommorrow, bruh!)

 

On deploy effects have increased over the last expansions and, for me, impact the game negatively. A couple of scenarios.

1. You calculate hp and plan a font battle... Opponent deploys a champ and double ping ends you. You can't respond and you can't prevent.

2. You're contending a font against a champ and have calculated your chances. On deploy equipment rips for 20dmg. Again, you cant respond and you cant prevent.

Sabotage and seisim can be given simular examples.

I do think we now have too many if these abilities. They take no real planning and you can't use your skill and experience to prevent them.

 

Best wishes,
Davre

 

if your lacking knowledge of how the games pvp works at the highest levels then its difficult to have a proper discussion on the subject. Also most players only really understand the faction(s) they main if that and many are very bias and ignorant when it comes to the other factions.

 

There is no "the highest levels" anymore.

Warm regards,
Davre

 

its never changed much, the people that didnt quit tend to be the ones that invested most into the game. alot of the best players still play even if alot of people left.

there are still at least 10 people active atm who are just under tiny and devilsrath skill wise. and like 10+ more who arent active atm but still play.

itd be nice to have more players and more higher skill level players to play against but the staff isnt big enough to make the game more attractive, the balancing is poor and there arent enough improvements in other areas.

 

Hobo beat our PBM today. What more does he have to do to prove that he can play "at the highest levels" so that you can take his input seriously?

Sincerely,
Davre

 

1 game doesnt mean anything but idk why im telling you this, i think you already know that...

what defines a good player isnt as simple as their winrate, rank, who they beat, etc. its not complex either but alot of facts people point out when judging a player arent the ones that matter.

anyone can contribute to a pvp balancing discussion but most people arent going to be aware of alot of things when it comes to the games pvp. thats why sokolov has trouble trying to balance the game and why it takes him so long to fix things that many players could fix in like 10 seconds.(unfortunately most of the time he doesnt listen to my advice and people that dont know what they're talking about tell him not to listen to me. Otherwise i could have contributed alot more and the game would be in a better state balancewise. i made thousands of posts on the forums and played thousands of games in the past 2 years in order to learn the game thoroughly.)

like 50%+ of the runes in this game are no where near being useful in competitive pvp and should either be fixed or deleted if they cant figure out how to make them decently strong.(instead they just let them sit in the shoebox)

 

i dont really see how thats any different to spells though, the only difference being is that they dont suffer the same kind of tempo hit as they would from using a 40 nora spell

Ninja'd by sok

 

Hobo draw won. Yipee. Hes not bad tho

 

There are very few global spells, as such you can work against spells with positioning and I actively run anti-spell stuff, as do many people.

When you build your BG, you can't plan to counter jabs. You can potentially counter seism with a disposable relic, but that's an iffy strategy unless you have a relic summon.

If your question was, "do you dislike global effects from all sources?", then yes, yes I do.

Example: I have a key champ with low HP, I think - "He's going to spell his butt into oblivion, best use backfire" - I predict and respond. Dropping a Jab champ bypasses all of this.

Look, I'm not super against this - I'm just engaging with the thread and giving my perspective, but I'm not saying I think it breaks the game.

I simply don't like it so much.

 

I think that is a splendid idea.

It introduces options. Who do you deploy to take the hit? At the same time you get a return with the Vulnerability, even if the Jab is less effective.

It also adds flavour. I can certainly see Swamp Wisp with Sabotageoison - The next champion deployed takes 8 poison damage and is Vulnoison.

 

It would shoebox the dreamcrusher most likely. Just saying