Time for 1v1 Arena

Community General Discussion
1

For those who do serious 3v3 arena, finding the right partners who fit you both in terms of experience, potential, synergy, and more, is in itself one of the most time-consuming activities you are likely to have in any modern game. Aside from being time-consuming, it is not productive in the slightest.

Most of the WoW community are PvE oriented, and those who do PvP are widely distributed, meaning there are not a whole lot of players either at the bottom, middle, or top, but there’s simply a great distribution. Some are very bad, others bad, some middle, and whatnot. This means if you are highly experienced, finding the right partners for 3v3 can be insanely tedious, time-consuming, and lead you to stop playing the game for a good while.

One of the prime reasons I over the years have only played WoW casually and been unsubbed a lot has been that finding people for 3v3 is a hell of a difficult task, provided you want them to be of your caliber and actually make progress. I have about 3000 rating in 3v3 and it didn’t take me long to get, but most of my time on WoW is spent on actually finding people (even with this high exp). When I do find partners, it can be hard to find time to play together, or they turn out to be boosted and talentless, or have a terrible attitude, etc. It’s simply not worth my time anymore.

Many others feel the same way, and I’ve seen tons of people quit simply because they love 3v3 as that is the most prestigious PvP activity in WoW, yet they cannot find people for it for various reasons.

To altogether remove this issue, I suggest that Blizzard add a 1v1 arena, and give prestigious titles like you do in 3v3, and even balance the game around 1v1. Perhaps converting the eSports from 3v3 to 1v1 would also be a fantastic idea. People will no longer have to waste hours upon hours every day and week trying to simply play their favourite mode in the game. I can imagine how awesome it would be for the sub numbers as well. People can login, play, and have a good time without relying on everybody else.

I understand that 1v1 seems counterintuitive content for an MMO, but keep in mind 1v1 is not solo-content, as it takes two people to do. There’s also streaming on Twitch which would bring the community together. There’s duel practices for people who want to improve their 1v1. If anything, it would make people do more things together.

  • Bring 1v1 to the table.
  • Make it the main PvP-balancing area.
  • Make 3v3 less of a priority, and stop balancing around it. Maybe even remove it and keep 1v1 and 2v2 only.
  • Make classes have way more spells, so 1v1 matches can be incredibly sophisticated and fun. Think Cataclysm duels, a Frost Mage vs Rogue for instance. That was absolutely amazing.

Keep in mind Blizzard, the 1v1 tourney hosted on Twitch in January brought the same amount of viewers on Twitch as your regional tournament this weekend. People love 1v1. It’s awesome. Make it happen.

7 Likes
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Some classes will always have a decent advantage others, and vice versa, 1v1 will just highlight those.

5 Likes
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Terrible idea. WoW balance is comp based, making 1v1 and balancing around would mean making classes copies of 2-3 archetypes at most.

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They won’t do it. It is pointless to suggest anything for PVP, they don’t believe in PVP enough to invest any material amounts into it.

6

There’s nothing more difficult in balancing 1v1 as opposed to 3v3.

7

This, and 10 characters.

1 Like
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Scrap 3v3 and focus on 1v1. Easier, simpler, less resource and time consuming.

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3v3 has more complexity and depth by virtue of having an amalgamation of classes, rather than just 2 pitted against one another.

That means that strategic complexity and the number of tools in 3v3 will allow outplaying to even out many imbalances that might appear on paper.

Perfect balance might be impossible, but complexity can cover/mask that to an extent.

I would like a 1v1 arena just as a pastime, but it shouldn’t be a main focus activity like 3v3, or even 2v2.

1 Like
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1v1 is not balanceable at all by definition unless every class is identical and then what’s the point?

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Nonsense. 1v1 NOW has less complexity, but adding more spells to classes would easily give as much complexity as 3v3. For example, a Frost Mage in Cata had so many spells/utilities that if you put a Cata Frost Mage 1v2 against a BfA Rogue+Mage, the Cata Frost Mage would have more complexity than both and actually melt them.

Adding 1v1 would allow keybinds you otherwise use for your team, like Shield Ally 1 and 2, to be used solely for you instead. That could easily add to complexity.

1v1 can potentially be as complex as 3v3 atm, yet far more fun and sophisticated. And notice it’s not just about what 1v1 and 3v3 offer in terms of gameplay, but sub numbers. People quit over 3v3. They want R1 and other titles, but don’t have the team for it. 1v1 would make you rely on yourself and your own talent only.

2 Likes
12

if you add more spell to class then all class will be the same. nonsense.
if you don’t add more spell and class stay the same, it’s a rock / paper / scissor / lizard / spock game. nonsense again.

I’m a ret: if i’m against a hunter/mage/rouge that can kite me, i’m dead. If i’m against everyone else, they’re dead.
If you can find a way to balance this nonsense without screwing class identity, you got my vote.

13

What exactly is the difference between 3v3 and 1v1 balance? 3v3 is very imbalanced and there’s always a too good and bad class/spec, so it won’t be any different in 1v1, except that in 1v1, you can address the smaller details and actually make a big difference.

You mentioned being kited as Ret. Well, that is easily fixable by say, giving you a spell that increases your healing on yourself the farther away an enemy is. He kites you? No problem, you heal. That’s a good example for a fix.

Oh and what comps can a Ret play in 3v3 now? One. OMEGALUL my friend. Omegalul :slight_smile:

1 Like
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3vs3 is comp balanced. You can find what more suits you and play around it. There’s always going to be a better comp each time depending on class balance, it’s the nature of the game, like there is a harder hitting spec every patch.

Awesome idea, so the average fight will last 25 minutes. I can’t hit him and kill him since he’s kiting but since it’s kiting, i’m healing all the time and i won’t die.
It’s not balanceable, no matter how hard you try.

15

“You can find what more suits you and play around it.”

You’re pretending like 1v1 won’t have ANY balance at all when that is absolute, pure bullsh*t. Go watch Cata duel videos. A Shadow Priest often lost to say, a Warrior, but could do very well against a Mage. A Mage could easily lose to a Hunter, but beat a Warrior. There cannot be PERFECT balance but that doesn’t mean there cannot be a good enough balance for good, competitive gameplay. 3v3 is much more problem ridden as fixing a broken comp possibly means you need to nerf EVERYONE in it, which is much more complicated to deal with. In 1v1, just address the main issues of every spec. Simple.

“Awesome idea, so the average fight will last 25 minutes”

Haha, someone hasn’t played 3v3 I see. Have you heard of dampening?

It’s really funny when someone speaks of balance and thinks 3v3 is somehow easier to balance than 1v1. Holy crap!

1 Like
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3v3 allows specs to be very different because they don’t have to be universal. 1v1 makes specs universal.

Blizzard fail at 3v3 balance, sure, this is a different story.

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“More spells will put 3v3 on par with 1v1”.

Lol no. U add those spells to classes, they also add to the complexity in 3v3.

Comms, synergy and teamplay is always going to be harder to pull off in a mechanically less demanding game like WoW. Any complexity u add to a given class for the purposes of 1v1 will make 3v3 exponentially more demanding to play optimally.

1 Like
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1v1 doesn’t make specs universal as specs are there to offer a different style/way of playing than simply being effective.

In raid fights, the dps all focus mostly on doing damage. Nobody wants the dps specs to be universal, but rather, offer a DIFFERENT WAY to doing damage. Melee style, ranged style, magic style, melee/magic style like Enh, etc. To say every spec must be SAME for good 1v1 balancing is pure nonsense.

@WWhelp

Which is exactly why I said that 3v3 then should be scrapped. Remove 3v3, focus on 1v1 and add complexity to it.

As for communication, you think it’s alright a game about your skill on your class should rely on how well you talk to others? Especially when you may not be good at English or something? I’ve seen people play worse when speaking English than their native tongue because it takes them longer to process English words. That ruins their gameplay.

19

Universal means ready to take on any other spec. This necessarily means having counters to everything. This pretty much settles the design into mostly the same gameplay for each spec.

Now, if you don’t make specs universal by giving them universal tools, you create a situation where spec X always beats spec Y. Or, rather, a hundred of such situations. This transforms the meta and pretty soon all you have is a couple of specs who beat 50% of the remaining ones handily, rarely lose to the rest, and fight it out with each other.

There’s no way to make 1v1 good. It’s either everyone is the same, or you have a meta that excludes 90% and it’s boring again.

2 Likes
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Sure, because we’re still in cata, absolutely relevant as comparison.

There isn’t.
Providing equal skill, SP can heal so he’ll lose agaist a melee but at the same time, he can heal so has the advantages against other caster. Same for the mage, he’ll lose against the hunter since the hunter can have 1) more range 2) better heal and movement to los the mage.

Again, it’s not balanceable unless you gave to each class something to counter the opponent strength and at that point, all class will be the same or worse, some will be just invicible. Try to add more healing or more movement to a ret or a dk to counter kiting, they will be moving battleships. And than what you do to the others to rebalance? More kiting? Nonsense healing?

3vs3 is more balanced. There always going to be a better comp than the others, like there is in 2v2. If you nerf the best, someone else will became better.
The game works this way.

21

“Ready to take on any other spec”

This is almost impossible with different class design, ESPECIALLY in 3v3. What is unique about this to 1v1? Nothing. You already have good comps in 3v3 losing to some other comps simply because other comps are a counter. So what? Nothing in the world is perfect.

What you said is total crap as all you have to do is watch Cata videos and see how most specs had something to offer. I already said why. Firemage could destroy some classes, whereas SP could destroy Firemage, etc. That is WITHOUT Blizzard even TRYING to balance 1v1 back then. Imagine how awesome it would be if they did? :slight_smile: