Introduction
A lot of us have been wanting to see a battlegrounds like PVP arena in ESO for a while. There has been a lot of debate on how to implement it while balancing it, reducing exploiting, making it Lore friendly and making it fit into our current alliance war system. Today's suggestion may be a bit wordy, but I'll do my best to segment out the parts so you speed readers can skim through. Keep in mind this is a working suggestion, things can change based on feedback, feasibility, and other ideas that arise. Hopefully this will be the snowball at the top of the hill to get things moving.
Objective (AKA Why am I here?)
Player wise, the main reason for this suggestion is to implement some structured small to large scale battles of player verses player. Some of these can be large, 24v24v24 (72) instances, down to as small as 4v4 (8). These are sort of similar to "Battlgrounds" in WoW, but would have different mechanics, themes, and would not be on a separate PVP loot table. This is something a lot of us were looking from the start of the game and we've heard "we're considering it" time and time again during ESO live updates.
Character wise, you're a champion for your Daedric Prince/Aedric Lord, trying to win their favor. Each Lord has its reasons to want you to succeed as their champion, most of which centers around power struggles and hatred of each other. Even Molag Bal, your main antagonist in the story, would favor you with his blessing for raising brutality and carnage in his name in several of these battle grounds and entertaining him.
A Daedric Prince/Aedric Lord's blessing (AKA The Blessed and the Chosen)
Let’s discuss the blessings, since they are a major reason to compete in this. Borrowing a bit from a
prior suggestion on deity skill lines These battle grounds will introduce a new world skill line for any Daedric Prince/Aedric Lord you worship. You can only worship one at a time, and renouncing them will reduce your progress in the skill tree to zero, but will allow you to change to another.
You can level these blessings for just participating in these fights. If you win your fights the leveling will be much quicker however. Each deity has its own skill line with unique passive and ability line that you can put points in.
Some of these passives can include things like
Hircine passives to speed up your werewolf transformation time*
Peryite helps you do more damage while diseased*
Stendarr helps shield you from Daedra and Undead.*
While you can build influence in this line, different top level abilities are only available if you're top of the leaderboards. I imagine several different "battlegrounds" out there with their own individual leaderboards, so there will be room to dominate at least one of them, however like trials there is an entire server to compete against, unlike campaigns where one or two guilds might farm a campaign for a week. If you don't maintain your lead the ability could be rendered useless until you raise your skills up again.
Some of these abilities may be ultimates like may be things like:
Stendarr's repulsion, that disables any Daedric or undead abilities in its range. *
Mara's Union, which joins any overflow healing to one member to other party members for its duration.*
Sheogorath's weirdening - casts an AOE where all affected have all stamina abilities take magicka and all magicka abilities take stamina*
* - the abilities are more or less SUGGESTIONS at this point, and would still need to be balanced with the game. These may also only apply inside the arenas themselves or in Daedric areas, so that it balances the player base if this was released as a DLC. Please don't start arguing about the mechanics of such abilities just yet, please keep an open mind.
ALTERNATIVE
The skill line passives is generic to a group of deities (the 9 divines, tribunal, yhe hist, khajiit lines, etc.) But champion abilities would still be unique. (ZombieMarkTwain@TF)
Example Daedric Skill line(AKA How over Powered is this?)
Keep in mind this is in no way balanced, just an example. there were a couple other posts like
this one and
this one that started suggestions for skill lines, but as I see it you should have 4 passives (1 locked unless on leaderboards), 3 abilities (1 locked unless on leader boards), and an ultimate (locked unless on the top of leaderboards).
Peryite skill linePassive 1: healing done while under the effects of disease are increased by 15%/30%, 2 skill levels
passive 2: damage increased by 20% when diseased
passive 3:
Passive 4 (leaderboards locked): cause x disease damage ever light or heavy melee hit
Skill 1: gain a damage shield against magicka while also getting diseased.
Morph 1: damage shield as plies to 1 teammate.
Morph 2: damage shield portion lasts longer
Skill 2: sacrifice x health for x stamina morph, unable to selfheal for y time.
Morph 1: no selfheal time is reduced
Morph 2: take less health.
Skill 3 (leaderboards locked): disease cloud, deal x disease damage in an AOE around you.
Morph 1: extra fire damage included.
Morph 2: take back health for each infected
Ultimate (leader board locked): take on all debuffs from teammates.
Morph 1: apply and debuffs to enemies as well in the area.
Morph 2: heal you self x for each debuff taken
Rewards (AKA I want my SWAG!!)
First, I don't see AP being earned through these battle grounds. This is separate from the alliance war and would not have the same impact on it. However, there is still purpose to it:
1. Influence with your Daedric Prince/Aedric Lords - Again, you want to build up your skill line you need to fight, and fight, and fight! in their name. Getting to the top of the leaderboards is your ultimate goal, so don't give up!
2. Experience - For killing enemy players you will get experience like any other PVP area
3. Gold - You will receive gold for killing enemy players in battle grounds in most cases, though the reward may not be as high as PVP and some of your winnings depend if you win the match. Gold would be sent at the end of the round, regardless of if you stayed the entire match.
4. Crafting material and lootables - given the change with the justice system, this will be one of the ways you can find various crafting materials from crates, barrels, and harvest nodes, as a reward for winning the match. The harvest nodes would be the equivalent to a crafting survey of a single type. These items are only lootable though IF you win
5. Gear sets - for participating to the end of a match you will get a daily quest completion. I envision this will be similar to the undaunted sets, where you get a bronze, silver, or gold key and can open a chest from your Daedric Prince/Aedric Lord's area. Gold keys that give "Super Swag Gear" will be available every 20 hours per quest. If you choose to you can get lesser rewards repeatable if you win, or bronze keys if you participate and lose. Corresponding "Super Swag Gear" sets will also come from winning the match and looting chests previously locked around the battle ground.
6. Rare costumes - different vanity items will be available inside the crates, barrels, and vases around an arena
7. Daedric/Aedric styles - different Motifs items will be available inside the crates, barrels, and vases around an arena. These Motifs will give the ability to make different motifs pages that will morph to your Daedric Prince/Aedric Lord's style.
The Battle Types (AKA what are the rules?)
There are a few primary battle types I envision
1. Team death match swap - 4v4 matches on different Daedric islands with points going to teams with the most kills and fewest deaths. To keep things interesting however, the actual rounds are 40 player matches. Each time a team is wiped from an island, they are teleported away to another and face a different team of 4, constantly rotating from one to another. Resurrecting with soul gems is allowed, however it will detract from your score. Though if the person that was killed is killed again, they won't add to the other teams score. This should help keep folks from "gaming" the system and give folks with different builds a different combo to go against. Winners would be the top 3 or 4
2. Capture the flag/reverse capture the flag - this involves taking thing 'x' to point 'y' and not getting killed before you make it. The scaling for this can typically range from 8v8 to 24v24v24, however with larger scale maps I'd recommend adding in 2 flags, forcing teams to be cleaver about how they split their resources. Points in this type of match would be gore killing other players, however the biggest way to earn points would be capturing the flag or killing a carrier.
3. Generals and soldiers (or VIP) - this type involves a "general" that the team votes on or the game tiebreaks and decides randomly that is given boosted stats, possible special abilities, and is a bit tougher than most. Both sides have a general of some kind and it's up to either side to find a way to go in and destroy them. Generals will typically have weaknesses, like being unable to move fast, not able to regenerate health normally, or other weaknesses to offset their strengths. Points are rewarded for killing players, more for killing a general, and the most for claiming the general's body.
4. Boss Rush - This is for larger groups with 8v8, 12v12, and 24v24 battles where your groups need to split between a PVE fight and a PVP battle for different control points. Similar to Alterac Valley in WoW, a series of bosses need to be killed along either side of an island to take over your side in order to take over. Boss fights are locked down when started, players teleporting into a main arena to handle several mid bosses and final bosses equivalent to a dungeon or trial boss, however other PVPers can sneak in and influence the battle using different siege equipment, traps, and triggers that will cause difficulty in the arena. Teams opposing the PVP force can either choose to turtle and keep their side alive, rush all the bosses to make it difficult for the PVPers to catch up, or go into an outright brawl. several advantages will be given to folks fighting on their home turf, but remember the objective is still to kill the last boss, and if you waste all your lives trying to kill one another or rushing in you may not have the numbers to achieve it.
5. King of the Hill - a series of flags/capture points that will start out as neutral. Capturing them will require that you and your teammates stand on a flag and wait for it to be captured by NPC guards arriving. If you die you can spawn back at any prior flag. Now here are some of the kickers. A flag can be neutralized by any player, however they cannot capture it if a connecting flag is not captured. You will receive notices if it's under attack and will be allowed to teleporting back to it up to a certain point, but it will be important to watch the field. In addition, NPC guards needed to secure a point have to reach a location before they can summon more to the through a portal. So these guards can be killed along the way, requiring an escort while someone holds a flag. Points are given for killing guards on their way to a point, by killing guards on the flag, killing enemy players, neutralizing areas, and by capturing areas. Game play may end on certain points if a major spot is captures or if a team captures all control locations on a map.
Note - each of these battle types are simply core mechanics, other conditions can apply to suit the Arena's theme.
Examples of some Theme Arenas (AKA how would this look?)
Hircine's Realm - modeled after the lore, this hunt has two modes. Thanks for the folks in stream for giving me this idea (apologies for not remembering the names of everyone x.x)
1. The Clash (generals and soldiers) - This is a 12v12v12 (up to 24v24v24) fight in a Daedric forest realm. Each team has one member they will dictate as their champion, who will then be given the option of transforming into a werewolf, wereboar, werebear, or werecrocodile for the round and receive boosts in stats equivalent to an emperor. The goal of this match is to stalk and kill the other team’s werebeast. Points are earned by killing other players, killing their beast, having a beast eat a corpse, or skinning a downed werebeast. If killed in this players can release to a way shrine with a small recovery period or they can wait to be ressed with soul gems.
2. The Hunt (mini boss rush) - this is a 4v4v4 (up to 8) fight where one NPC werebeast is released into the arena. This boss can see through invisibility, feeds off the players it kills, feeds off wildlife in the area, and has some nasty abilities. They do not however, regenerate health, and can have their health chipped away at. Given its wild nature, taunts are flaky with this boss, and they can bream it to go after something else or to recover. Points are awarded by killing other players, doing damage to the beast, or getting the killing blow. Respawns are different here as well, where if you're not resurrected with a soul gem you can find yourself locked in a cage on a set timer or until your team mate rescues you, to give more weight toward staying alive.
Nocturnal's Realm - a realm of darkness and stealth
1. Revealing light (reverse capture the flag) - in a dark cavernous expanse, teams are shrouded in darkness and are given bonuses to their sneak, critical, and penetration. Players however must take a shining beacon from their base to the other and place it on their brazed to "light up" their area, reducing their benefit in that area. The player carrying a beacon will have a large glowing area around them similar to a siege shield ability. This will give them a huge bonus against stealth, ranged, and an immunity to knockdowns while holding it. Other teammates in the area will also take less damage from ranged attack. This area though prevents players from going into stealth, and the carrier will be very slow. You get points for killing players, killing carriers, for lighting a brazier, and for helping it be lit.
2. concealing shadows (King of the kill) - on a seemingly tropical island you must create darkness to creep inside. Each capture point you capture will give the effect of a dark miasma, enhancing defenders stealth radius, damage, and reducing the cost to stealth. The objective is to capture each point on the island or score the most in the time given.
Sheogorath's Realm - a place of cheese, lettuce, and madness
1. Sheogorath's mansion (Team death match swap) - In this players are exploring one of Sheogorath's homes, forced to fight one another each time the enter a new room. Random effects, traps, and enemies can show up, adding more madness to the chaotic battles. At the end of each battle winning teams can loot crates, barrels, and drawers for loot, but it will not be as great as the final prize room. After each small battle is done teams will be able to stay or exit a door which will take them to a new room, or they will be able to respawn in a new room.
2. Sheogorath's Field - I could easily see the Sheogorath arena be a ballgame field (aka SWTOR Huttball or Warhammer BloodBowl). He does like to play out of the box, and dropping the contestants into a actual game might just seem crazy enough for him... (Patchgrabber)
Verminias Realm
1. Verminias nightmare labyrinth collection - many paths, many dream-thingies to pick up for the final score, many traps and obstacles in the labyrinth, possibly a few NPC mobs too on occasion, and an enemy team coming im from the other side. And the question - split up to grab more dream thingies before the other team can get to them, or stay together to win the inevitable fights...(Patchgrabber)
Points & Leaderboards (AKA Do I need to hide my report card?)
Now we talked about leader boards, which are going to be point based and connected in with the points you get. Similar to trials leaderboards though, folks tied with points will share their rank. Points will be awarded per matches won to the team and for what was awarded when you joined. What this means:
A 24 man group runs Hircine's Hunt and wins with 50 points, everyone in that group, from the healer to the tank and DPS, will get 50 points if they stayed in the entire match. Half way through the match however, Player A dropped (rage quit) the match and after 5 minutes Player B joined in when the team only had 20 points. Player A will get no points, but will receive consolation gold for the players he killed and still gets the EXP. Player B will get 30 points, to reflect his contribution.
This might *** off some people with bad connections that drop the match, but you drop and don't reconnect or leave, you're not going to get all the spoils. This is done to prevent folks throwing the match and to encourage folks to stick it out till the end.
Now, at the end of the week, we're going to have leader boards for the different matches, however doing a standard "top 10" like we have in Cyrodiil or top "100" in trials doesn't seem to suit group size you're looking at. So, based on the size of the group an Arena is hosting, the "top" number will change.
4vX - top 20
8vX - top 40
12vX - top 50
24vX - top 100
If players are tied at the bottom points system, then they will qualify for being in the "top position" until a score comes up to knock them out.
To qualify for the top position of a given week you will have to play in at least 3 matches.
Now the one thing that I've debated with others on is if the buff should be immediately given and taken away based on the current week's leaderboards or if it should be given for a week for last week's position. I'll leave that up to you folks to debate
ALTERNATIVE
leaderboards are still used to give rewards, however yo get specialized abilities you will need to be at the top of your deity's leaderboards to be their "champion" (Shunravi)
How to Help (AKA Oh great he's asking us to do something)
Let me say that simply agreeing, awesoming, or replying "I want this!" Helps a lot to give visibility. If you want to help a bit more...
This is a BIG suggestion, and really I'm only covering the core framework of it, not so much the details. Most of the stuff here is only balanced at a cursory glance, I'm certain that there will be folks to find ways to exploit it or to get upset about something. So I could use your replies to let ZOS know what you like, hate, and how to get into some of the details of this.
Daedric Prince/Aedric Lord's Blessing
- What skill lines can you see for your different Lords?
- Do you think that the skill lines should only work in a Daedric Realm?
Rewards
- Is this too little to make you want to play?
- Is this too much loot to make you not want to play other parts of ESO?
Battle Types
- What other Battle Types would you like to see?
- Is there something that needs to be balanced in the current Battle Types?
Theme Arenas
- Do you like the current theme arena examples?
- What other theme arenas would you want to fight in?
Points & Leader boards
- Do you feel good with the points being rewarded at the end of the round and being based on the time you entered?
- Is a tiered approach to the size of the fights a good way to determine leaderboards?
- Should we instead separating leaderboards out with battle types, the arena, the Daedric realm, or something else?
- Should the top tier reward to use abilities be instant (like it is with emperor after keeps are captured) or should it be for the prior week (like with trials)?
- Should we have separate non veteran rank leaderboards and arenas?
Casual Vs Hardcore
- Is there enough draw in here to entice casuals and new players in to try their luck?
- Is there enough reward and bragging rights here to entertain a hardcore PVPer?
Grouping
- Should this be cross faction?
- should we allow only random player queuing or allow premade groups to enter?
General
- do you like, sort of like, fear, or hate this idea?
Conclusion (AKA HE'S FINALLY DONE)
Well, I'm not quite done, but this is a long post and I think I need to give folks a breather to give feedback and help fill in some of the gaps. If you like the idea if arenas tied to a Daedric worship line, feel free to like or awesome this post. If you want to suggest new battle types, theme arenas, or Swag then by all means please put a reply in. My head hurts trying to think of all the possibilities. If you feel there is going to be issues with this and feel there needs to be more restrictions or changes I am always willing to hear it, just keep in mind this is a rough architecture, details are not set in stone and it's being done to help push the idea of smaller scale PVP along. If you totally hate the idea of smaller scale or structured PVP like this then probably just hit the LOL button, because our opinions and ideologies probably won't match.
Thanks to the folks that took the time read through this, regardless if you replied!
Thread Movement I plan to start this thread in the alliance war forums to get the opinion of some seasoned ESO PVPers. After a week it should be on the general forums and the a week after on the feedback & Suggestions forum, just to give it exposure to folks.
Edits
2/12/2015
- title change
- edit area added, will try to add in other suggestions as feedback comes in.
- alternative diety skill lines combined
- 2 other arena ideas
- alternative leaderboards
2/17/2015
- moved to the general users forum.