MOBA for Diablo 3 PvP?
Posted 3 January 2013 by Rushster
MOBA style PvP an Option for Diablo 3?
Following Jay’s developer update on the state of PvP, Team Deathmatch has been removed and they are “going back to the drawing board” for a replacement for Team Deathmatch.
Now I know not everyone here on Diablo: IncGamers plays WoW but I thought the latest datamining from the WoW 5.2 update, which has just gone live on the PTRs was interesting as it revealed a new Battleground called ”Defense of the Alehouse” which is obviously a play on the title DOTA. The WoW community is now excited at the prospect of a future DOTA/MOBA style Battleground based on the datamined video of the map.
For those who have no idea what MOBA is, it stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena which usually involves two teams of heroes with a player controlling a single character to take out the opposing team’s base/structures. It’s sort of like playing an RTS with no building but there is character levelling and skill progression.
Could the Diablo 3 and WoW teams be bashing heads together and they are now experimenting with new PvP modes in WoW, and possibly Diablo 3? The idea of MOBA style PvP may just work in Diablo 3 but it could take some time for the development team to put together.
Would you be interested in some sort of MOBA style game mode for Diablo 3′ PvP?
No.
But, then again, I don’t play PVP, so I don’t really care what kind they put in the game as long as it’s not open-world.
Open-world pvp, lolwut?
I think he meant old-school hostile. Anytime, anywhere. Because, you know, society doesn’t indulge psychopaths enough as it is.
I would much, much rather have better class balance and improvements than gimmicky Paragon levels or moderately decent Hellfire rings, or lame gear-flaunting PVP BS.
Class balance in D3? Please, NO! Constant nerfs and buff every other week for pvp balance is something you don’t want.
that is because blizzard is really ****ty at balancing games with anything that requires an iota of creativity.
their only method of creating an equilibrium in skill balance is to make everything dull – as if they are afraid people could actually use all skills because of their unique capabilities.
Cleave isn’t popular enough lets buff its damage to make it more akin to frenzy !
Bash isn’t popular enough lets buff its damage to make it more akin to frenzy !
frenzy is very popular ; its mechanics must be very creative desirable ; lets try to make other skills more like frenzy – the correlation between its superior dmg output in a game in which no secondary trait besides weapondmg xxx% is relevant surely has nothing to do with it’s popularity.
this is why Blizzard’s class balance sucks – it’s fricken copy of the WoW-Balance Mindset – its simply too dull and simple to leave room for creative mechanics.
there is no way you can think outside the box, and circumvent Mechanic X with trick Y. because Diablo 3 has NO OUTSIDE THE BOX.
And that is also why PvP was probably just as dull when they tested it internally. most skills lack anything remotely like identity ; which is why it will always be easy for the community to find out which is the most effective way of doing things given a choice between A,B,C,D.
there are no mechanics in the game which grant inherent strengths or weaknesses – It’s all about fighting Fire with Fire ; whoever has the bigger flame will win. (aka as who spend more hours @ mindless grinding / GAH / spend money in RMAH.
Keep in mind, they’re in the middle of working on “Blizzard All-Stars,” a MOBA style game for Starcraft 2. They actually had a playable version at Blizzcon 2011.
If the WoW battleground is MOBA style, that would mean 2 of the 3 series would include a MOBA style game. Certainly wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine them adding it into Diablo as well.
I’ve thought of this, but I honestly do not think the game has the character diversity to work as a MOBA. Not without massive, massive skill fiddling and a system where you could choose one of several pre-set skill sets for each class, whereupon the fact that all these different “heroes” use the same D3 char would be odd, etc.
If they ever plan something like that its certainly expansion material. Dont expect it to be free, the only free pvp option will be the archaic dueling option.
Want to bet?
I’m fairly certain that I would win a bet on the fact that “more PvP than generic dueling” will come out for free.
Lane-pushing games are okay in their own right, I guess, but kind of suck for general PvP because they make you incredibly dependent on teammates, especially in the sense that they punish you for their shortcomings disproportionately. I’m not sure it’s in anyone’s interest to insert that subtype of gameplay into D3.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
Especially since Jay is in love with Greg “Ghost Crawler” Street, if his Twitter is any indication.
I think this style of play would be great fun, but I don,t know how they will balance it given the extreme disparity in gear. Given that they somehow take care of this via matchmaking or premade gear, I think having your character battle alongside an npc army would do a lot to keep skill selection diverse.
That all said, there has to be a reward tied to pvp, else very few will play it long term. Maybe something similar to hellfire ring – lootable crafting materials that drop from npcs that you can use to craft something interesting that is not better than an uber rare, but could be competitive for some other benefit (see hellfire ring!).
Also, I highly doubt we will see anything more than dueling until the expansion hits. Or the other pvp option will be free and released just prior to the expansion. And you will feel compelled to buy the expansion for the new loot to pvp ‘better.’
My impression is that D3′s developement simply used up all its budget, time and manpower. In consequence, the main game probably won’t see any arenas/battlegrounds, separately balanced pvp versions of spells, matchmaking or reward systems. Instead, they’ll just throw a hostile/duel switch in there with some ‘here, now it’s just as good as it was in D2′ comment and eventually admit that they didn’t return with anything worth discussing from their fabled drawing board.
That’s the same simple piecemeal approach they’ve applied dozens of times now for all those features that were boldly announced but never actually made it beyond draft stage. Come to think of it: When the folks, who released D3 in the state it was released, say that a pvp implementation they’ve been working on during the past seven+ months, didn’t meet even THEIR standards, then consider the topic dropped.