Let's Talk... Hammerdeath Arena!

geonsocal

bump - so, I can remember to.check it out tomorrow

CyrusArya

Vaoh wrote: »

Dueling.... it's honestly not my thing anymore. PvP is simply too imbalanced this patch. You either use the broken OP setups or get slaughtered by them.

I love this feature for testing only. Until Wrobel truly fixes this mess (and the Q1 2017 patch is supposed to be the balance update), I can only congratulate players who find enjoyment in dueling people during our current Heavy Armor/Stamina/Proc meta.

Hammerdeath Arena will see its glory days when PvP is somewhat balanced again

I hear this line of logic thrown around a lot (often by people who chronically lose duels). But if it were actually true, then it's rather interesting that it seems pretty much every single class has such a broken OP set up. Truth of the matter is, the game is not at all balanced around 1v1 combat nor has it ever been. What is optimized for 1vX, small scale, large scale etc might not be for 1v1 and vice versa. And yes some fights will be heavily skewed in the favor of one party. Rock, paper, scissors and all that.

But to say PvP is too imbalanced this patch to enjoy duelling is a weak cop out. If you want do do well 1v1 you can find a build that does well on any class. And no, this doesn't necessarily have to be a duelling build. I am more than satisfied with how my open world specs perform 1v1...if I wasn't I wouldn't run them. If you had actually PvPed, and more specifically, been part of a duelling community since the early days- you would know that this patch is by and far the best for duelling probably ever as far as balance goes. Never before has the champion system done as little hand holding as now, and never have we had such parity between classes and playstyles.

geonsocal

geonsocal wrote: »

bump - so, I can remember to.check it out tomorrow

nice looking spot...bunch of cool details

I appreciated the merchant working there...didn't see another player...

Thogard

ive used it for dueling before with some buddies as we were practicing different builds.

Nighn_9

I've always wondered if we would get a minotaur race because of the one that walks around in the arena... That would be awesome

stuartx13

nice post.

Qbiken

The betting part would get out of hand, I gurantee it :P

geonsocal

seems like it would make a decent guild meet location outside of the guild hall...i don't normally do group stuff, were i to though...

hmmmm, dueling tourney in guild hall > hammerdeath arena?

altemriel

definitelly it needs more promotion, so that people know about it, maybe some event or leaderboards or similar stuff

maboleth

Sorry for necro, but this place should be more promoted, both by ZOS and players - duelers. Wished it had some achievements bound to it. That would make people go there more often.

Tan9oSuccka

I wish dueling clowns would go there, rather than in the bank or on top of crafting tables.

Like children, desperate for an audience. Look at me look at me look at me!!!

ZarkingFrued

DaniAngione wrote: »

Hello, everyone

Today I come here before this great community and ZOS devs/community team to talk about one of the things that - at least for me - was one of the nicest additions to the game in One Tamriel and yet it is so... under used.

Let's talk about the Hammerdeath Arena!

"Hammerdeath Arena? What is this?" you might ask - and no, this wouldn't be surprising at all! Most people - believe it or not - are completely oblivious to its existence. In fact, I mentioned it a couple of times on different Zone channels and Guild channels and I got showered with whispers asking me what I'm talking about. This is a problem because the arena is pretty cool, the NPCs are fun and diverse ('friendly' minotaur champion, werewolf, a spirit with a funny/easter-eggish name, etc...).
So before we start, what is the Hammerdeath Arena for those that do not know it?

Hammerdeath Arena is a new area in Stormhaven, west of Wayrest and a short walk north of Soulshriven wayshrine. It is marked by two crossed swords on the map.
It is a place specially designed for DUELS, with plenty of room for both fighters and spectators, three differently sized arenas and a nice atmosphere.

Here are some pictures of it:

So, what's the deal with the arena?
Well, it is rarely used - if used at all. It is a nice, specific place given to us by ZOS but it's highly neglected. That's everyone's fault, to be honest. We, as players, should spread the word and encourage its use if we want to see it used. But since no one uses, even the players that do know about it will duel anywhere rather than trying to bring people to it - but ZOS could also encourage its use with a lot of nice treats! And this is what this thread is about. The arena could be the most "fair" and democratic answer to a lot of the community concerns right now: lag in cities because of too many duels, people that don't like to be invited randomly for duels but don't want to turn off duel invitation (because they DO duel), etc... Of course, dueling could still take place whenever and wherever - but it would certainly be nice to have a granted place that you can go to satisfy all your dueling pleasures!

Without further ado, then...
What could be changed to make the Hammerdeath Arena more appealing?

This is a list of ideas/suggestions for ZOS to make the arena more appealing to all players! Feel free to like/dislike them and add your own. The point here is to let ZOS know that there are people interested in the arena and that with a couple of tweaks it could be awesome - so show your interest and let's get some attention and love for the arena!

• SPECIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS - One thing that would certaily attract people to the Hammerdeath Arena would be specific dueling achievements. That is: achievements that can only be obtained if fighting in the arena. These could be varied and complex as Cyrodiil's PVP achievements are - with specific achievements for each class that you beat, maybe a damage, healing and blocking achievement, etc... They could grant fancy titles and dyes for the greatest duelists of Tamriel and since dueling is so fast and enjoyable, the numbers could go crazy high - with a 1,000 or even 10,000 duels achievement "Legend of Hammerdeath Arena".
• SPECTATING - Spectating could be a thing, too. Achievements for spectating duels in the arena could be given to not only encourage spectators (which is a nice addition to immersion/atmosphere) but also give you a bit more to do in-between duels. Spectating achievements could be really funny and require all sorts of things, like using emotes on people dueling (like /cheer) or celebrating the victorious character (or even throwing /boo on the losers!). Spectating achievements could unlock new emotes or something like that.
• BETTING - One thing a lot of people have requested since Dueling was announced was the ability to place bets on duels. Perhaps that could be possible - but only on duels held within the arena. Betting is an interesting thing and perhaps it could even allow spectators to bet - like a prompt that goes to the people nearby the duel center, asking them to bet on one of the fighters (or ignore it)
• GROUP SPARS - This would be amazing, if possible. And to encourage the use of the arena, could be an exclusive feature to it (with its own achievements) - the ability to duel in groups, like 2x2, 3x3, etc. Some games can handle that by allowing multiple duels at once. For example, let's say A and B want to duel C and D. A challenges C and D (two duels) and B challenges C and D too (another 2 duels. So there are 4 duels going on simultaneously, allowing for 2 pairs to duel each other. Of course that's not an elegant solution and ESO could certainly have a proper system - but that's up for the devs to devise. It should be really simple, though - perhaps a party leader challenging another party leader - and if both parties have the same number of people - could give a prompt asking if it is a group spar.
• BETTER WAYSHRINE PLACEMENT/MORE ACCESSIBILITY - One thing I've seen some people say about the arena is that it's more complicated to access than simply porting to a city. Which is kind of a lame excuse, since it's literally a 15 seconds ride from the wayshrine to it, but could be pointed out nonetheless. Perhaps pushing the Soulshriven wayshrine a bit north OR adding the ability to teleport to the Arena icon directly (just like we can port into dungeons or The Harborage).
• SOUND & MUSIC - Maybe a bit of tweaking to the atmosphere would help, too. Duels already have fun "boss" music, but perhaps duels inside the Hammerdeath Arena could have some unique new piece of music (once new music is added)? Or maybe give the battles there some "arena crowd" sounds just like the Kvatch arena has, with the public reacting to critical blows, defeats, dodges, etc.
• REMOVE DUEL LIMIT - Another thing that could encourage the use of the arena would be the removal (inside its walls) of the limit on the number of duels in the same area.
• ALLOWS TELEPORTATION FROM START - The arena should be "discovered" for every new character and they should be able to teleport to it from the start, like the first Wayshrine in each faction since One Tamriel went live.
• ADVERTISE IT! - Perhaps a special news article about it, a "screenshot community contest" for duels in the arena, a tutorial tooltip about it when a character leaves Coldharbour, etc... Thing is - make it known! This has been an issue with the Witches Festival (a lot of people didn't know what to do, how to get skulls, etc...) and this kind of thing should be noticed for the upcoming changes and festivals and stuff in general: NOT EVERYONE reads forums or news articles, things must reach them in-game somehow! (Tooltips, neat (lore-friendly) in-game mail, etc...)
• COSMETIC CONTENT - Arena costumes, motifs, etc... Things that could be obtained with the achievement but also by playing. Perhaps a token-thing for duels participated and duels won that you can exchange for a lot of cosmetic goodies, perhaps even "daily" quests to fight and to spectate that provide reward containers with random chances for goodies, potions, etc...
• MODDING API CHANGES - if any of these actually happen, allow dueling mods to take advantage of in-arena specific stats so we can have arena leaderboards and such!

Notice that the idea is to improve and enhance dueling, giving it a lot of depth.
This is NOT meant to be a fully-fleshed "Arena PVP" mode with gear acquisition and stuff, but rather a way to encourage more playstyles and to give TONS of depth to what is usually a regular/standard MMO feature.

Dueling in ESO IS fun. 1x1 combat is enjoyable. These things would be investments in the game's future and I'm sure a lot of it would appease the PVP community greatly.
So think about it with love, ZOS

That's it
Feel free to say anything and, once again, thank you for your time!

I agree with everything this article says!! @ZOS_GinaBruno

HallowedUndead

I am necromancer, Arise decent post! ARISE!!!

SammiSakura

Possibly dragging this post up from the depths again. Have just discovered this place and couldn't figure out what its purpose was until I googled it. This seems like such a good idea, why the heck isn't it being used?!

Meesha1170

I’d like it if there was some dueling themed daily you could do there kinda like how that place in Reaper’s March has the sprinting daily. Some oddball quest that has you duel and potentially win some fun loot.

Dragneel1207

lets make it a hotspot for duels in all platforms.and ppl looking for duels can go there to fight.
No need to spam duels invites.

lelink88

agree

InvictusApollo

There is also an arena on Arteum. I had some duels in there and loved the surroundings.

Beardimus

It's a necro of a necro but i agree. We have our guild dueling comps there.

Remember tho most folks buy and adjust houses to make arenas and they are about to sell a PvP house so its unlikely they will promote a free arena and impact their revenue stream..

Artim_X

My favorite memory of this place is seeing players dueling in all the dueling areas. I watched for a bit and decided to participate. It was a guild event so unfortunately most of the time whenever I would visit the arena there would be no players in sight despite having so many colorful NPCs that are just waiting to tell their stories of battle. I'm hoping ZOS plans on doing something grand with this place (a lot of great ideas have been mentioned on here). I mostly just want to watch people go at it while I drink my mead.

kvlou79

Beardimus wrote: »

It's a necro of a necro but i agree. We have our guild dueling comps there.

Remember tho most folks buy and adjust houses to make arenas and they are about to sell a PvP house so its unlikely they will promote a free arena and impact their revenue stream..

Sell a PvP house? Need more info please

Shadow_Akula

kvlou79 wrote: »

Beardimus wrote: »

It's a necro of a necro but i agree. We have our guild dueling comps there.

Remember tho most folks buy and adjust houses to make arenas and they are about to sell a PvP house so its unlikely they will promote a free arena and impact their revenue stream..

Sell a PvP house? Need more info please

Elinhir Arena, large home, in the style of Kvatch Arena, trap switches, designed for duels. Located in Craglorn next to well Elinhir
Devs show us around most of this house in this episode of ESOlive:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GQktn2l8JQA

Beardimus

kvlou79 wrote: »

Beardimus wrote: »

It's a necro of a necro but i agree. We have our guild dueling comps there.

Remember tho most folks buy and adjust houses to make arenas and they are about to sell a PvP house so its unlikely they will promote a free arena and impact their revenue stream..

Sell a PvP house? Need more info please

I'll have to dig the link out was covered in the ESO live for plans for this year. It's basically an arena like from the newest BG map before wrathstone (the one you ride horses in forget its name) it has traps and levers spectators can pull etc. When I'm on a PC ill find a link

Chaos2088

Unfortunately there are people out there who just like to wind people up, so you would still get people duelling in area's like banks or wayshrines...

Emma_Overload

ZOS doesn't care about dueling. They only introduced it to get people to stop asking for it. That's why there are no rewards or loot or achievements for dueling.

Rex-Umbra

They should add daily dueling quest here or some incentive

fierackas

Should introduce an auto-port to this place as soon as someone accepts a duel.

Vanthras79

There should be some dueling holiday to be commemorated there.
@ZOS_BrianWheeler

nickl413

That arena was hoppin when it was on the beta server. People quickly figured out that it made more sense to duel near a wayshrine or any place more convenient that the arena. Sadly it was rendered pointless before it even went live.

Colecovision

Emma_Overload wrote: »

ZOS doesn't care about dueling. They only introduced it to get people to stop asking for it. That's why there are no rewards or loot or achievements for dueling.

False....