Our customer support department still has a gigantic email backlog. Last time I checked it was at 1700 emails! We're trying hard to hire additional support staff to get caught up and resume the fast response times that people appreciated in Beta. I believe there are up to seven more support staff starting in the next week or so. Sorry about the delays and thanks for your patience!Remember to submit appropriate builds for S02E03 to the Build of the Week Submission thread . We're going to be picking one in the next day or two.Garena launched the Closed Beta of Path of Exile in Malaysia and Singapore last week. It's going really well! For more information about this partnership, check out this news post Race Season Five started over the weekend. We were blown away by the participation numbers - it's crazy to see eight to ten thousand characters enter an event! We're really looking forward to seeing your thoughts on Descent: Champions when it starts this coming weekend. For a beginner's guide to racing, check out this article





Two issues:



1. Making PvP a viable end-game feature

2. Cross-League PvP (Aux whining and implications on HC's claim to being hardcore)



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1. Several veteran PvP-ers have commented extensively on the subreddit post on this topic (http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1obcmt/pvp_feedback/). Still waiting to get GGG comments on it.

Spoiler

Chris is a fairly frequent reddit user (http://www.reddit.com/user/chris_wilson), and has yet to participate on the thread. As of today, we know nothing about GGG's plans for PvP, other than the fact that Aux is against cross-league PvP, and that Chris has agreed to gear the game's design to suit Aux's needs.



I PvPd in SC during the two weeks between Anarchy and Domination. About 10-20 of us played regularly. 10 of them formed a guild. They've already iterated so much that they should lead the tables. While other groups might form as the ladders are introduced, there simply isn't enough of an interested population.



In Domination, the pvp queues are almost always empty. I'd prefer forum time spent by the devs explaining how they plan on making pvp better for everyone rather than holding a conversation with a vocal minority. Several veteran HC players have also indicated that their PvP queues take 20 mins (if at all) to fill up.





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Hoping for some dev comments on the upcoming PvP system. Would prefer not to go through a CWDT-like iteration. Given the fast pullback on the cross-league issue, it seems to me that the system is in pretty raw-beta form.



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2. My thoughts Spoiler It's clear reading through the comments on the earlier thread that the Hardcore players self-identify as class that plays an utterly defensive playstyle geared to their sandbox, and that they think this playstyle isn't competitive across the game as a whole.



Frankly, I think cross-league PvPing should be allowed, so HC vs SC challenges can be put to the test (DPS vs uber-HP stacking). If Aux & co are concerned about their reputations, the stats can reflect ladders specifically for Nemesis and Domination (and HC/SC) separately, while maintaining an overall ladder and pvp records cross-league.



Aux's comments on gearing are completely baseless. By that logic, anyone who has more should not pvp anyone who has less. Frankly, any HC character that is part of a group of friends and has 20 dead characters before it has a significant gear advantage over any new comer.



Comments on the so-called "Aux petition"



VarthDaver Spoiler Chris wrote:

You win, but you'd better play it so that there are enough players to make the tournaments full on all leagues!





I hope this is a joke, but fear it is not. I made a more lengthy post in response to Aux, but missed this one.



To restate as though it matters:



Lets not kid ourselves, the only way its "fair" is if you remove both acquired gear, and character level from the system.



Anything short of this, and you are going into a less fair realm, one player has Koams drop, another doesn't its not fair, but it is the nature of this style game.



WoW (don't hate), once made a Tournament Realm, where you could basically pick any / all of you gear / gems and talents where everyone was on even footing. I cannot remember what happened with it, but this was the closest to fair you could get.



You could do a similar system to this here, but most people are not really interested in "Fair" in pvp, they want to be dominant.



If the leagues are not playing together, it will only fan the flames of SC vs HC. Our current player base and forum / reddit community constantly insults and degrades the SC community. If PvP does not cross realms, I cannot imagine it will end up any better, and SC PvP will be marginalized as a result. This is the MAJORITY of the player base. You couldn't make a move more destructive to PvP then to marginalized the majority of the player-base.



I wish the community was not as hostile, but it is.



The choice to play hardcore means things are more difficult, no doubt. A HC player topping the PvP ladder should be more difficult. Is this fair? No, but fair has almost nothing to do with PvP when you keep your gear and level, don't kid yourself.



Fr0TheGreat Spoiler w00t now i can sit in que for pvp for 20 minutes a match instead of actually playing other people from different leagues.



Glad you got your way whiners -.-. Would of much rather actually played other people than not play anyone at all.



Next time please don't listen to the random 10 whiners on the forums to make such a stupid change GGG, if this is the direction you're taking the game catering to every person who whines on the forum then pretty soon koams heart will have a 98% drop rate off normal hillock. But I guess they will just whine that its not 100% if you make that change too.

IGN- FrOTheGreat



Maxor Spoiler Completed 1 Challengesherkhan wrote:

"

Completed 1 ChallengeDirati wrote:

This sudden change really saddens me, I have not played Nemesis to be able to complete and level up my Hardcore PVP character that will now not even be able to compete in the tournaments because of the lack of player.



I mean I understand that Standard players will get an edge but bring it on!



I feel like a wasted a month in Hardcore and will have to start everything over in the new league since there is almost no one willing to PVP normally in Hardcore league...





You are not Aux or Kripp, therefore you don't merit a response from Chris.





Also if you ARE Aux and Kripp not only do you get instant responses from Chris you also get the whole game balanced around your play-style.



i am the bitterest of bitter vets lol.

"I shall not slay thee in thy turn but be



Dirati Spoiler This sudden change really saddens me, I have not played Nemesis to be able to complete and level up my Hardcore PVP character that will now not even be able to compete in the tournaments because of the lack of player.



I mean I understand that Standard players will get an edge but bring it on!



I feel like a wasted a month in Hardcore and will have to start everything over in the new league since there is almost no one willing to PVP normally in Hardcore league...



Anuhart Spoiler Completed 3 ChallengesAux wrote:

Let's take a quick look at the current availability of certain levels of items in the Domination marketplace (thanks to poe.xyz.is) and compare them to those on Nemesis. (I will not be going into the differences of HC and Standard in this post as I think it's pretty obvious to anyone who reads Reddit and sees the vast amount absolutely absurd perfectly rolled items for all slots available there for mirroring and other means.)



Quality of Loot - Best for Sale at Time of Posting

2H Swords DPS

Domination: 553 DPS

Nemesis: 518 DPS



Dagger DPS

Domination: 347 DPS

Nemesis: 263 DPS







You are right, of course.

But I just find it absurd that you are even attempting to set a fair benchmark for PvP in a gear based game, in which one just buys their gear.



The best PvPer, gamer, hand-eye-coordinated, skilful, monster-slaying, boss-killing, player-slaughtering Joe-fantastic in the world isn't going to get a look in against a dedicated shopper or RMTer.



And here we are scrutineering this nonsense on the grounds that one guy can buy better items than the next. That is what makes the PvP a farce to begin with (as tournament), you don't fix that.

Pretend challenging hardcore aRPG. GGGuys, your whole design model prevents the game from being what you say you want it to be. "There was a major shift towards solo play. That's why we reduced the new group monster health bonus slightly in this patch."~CW.GGG. Solo? We couldn't have that.

Last edited by TheAnuhart on November 15, 2013 7:45 AM Since Chris did not respond to any non-Aux comments on the previous thread, I'm hoping we get a dev response on PvP issues here.Two issues:1. Making PvP a viable end-game feature2. Cross-League PvP (Aux whining and implications on HC's claim to being hardcore)---1. Several veteran PvP-ers have commented extensively on the subreddit post on this topic (http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1obcmt/pvp_feedback/). Still waiting to get GGG comments on it.---Hoping for some dev comments on the upcoming PvP system. Would prefer not to go through a CWDT-like iteration. Given the fast pullback on the cross-league issue, it seems to me that the system is in pretty raw-beta form.---2. My thoughtsComments on the so-called "Aux petition"VarthDaverFr0TheGreatMaxorDiratiAnuhart Last edited by sherkhan on Nov 18, 2013, 6:48:17 AM