The Story of PvP - What, why, and in the future?

The Story of PvP.

Primary goal: discuss debate and make suggestions how to fix PvP in the long run.

PvP in swtor is very different from other games we might think as similar. So in a Galaxy far away n'all :rolleyes:.

So why is PvP as it is? What Tanks do (Guard), Damage Dealers and their Burst, Healers and the Healing. From What was to why this happened, to what needs to change. It is a story as much as an analysis of current PvP. It is Causal links and what we need to change to make PvP Work. Including Tanking and why Guard is not the solution, and what other things we need to change, in order to make the game and PvP much better.

It explains what was and what is now, from the Smash Monkey to Merc 5.x, Sniper and Fury/Concentration spec as fotm. Why healing actually really sucks and why things are soo messed up in PvP, more than half the time. For easy read: read the post as a gradually evolving process of balancing and re-balancing.


The Analysis.

Baseline.
At the start: Guard is so OP that the only way to deal with it, is to attack a not Guarded target in almost all cases. Any not biased person, playing PvP knows this I think :) This funnels, for lack of a better word, the DDs toward none-DCD and none-guarded targets. Attacking a Guarded target is last resort. This shifts the META toward Defensive Cooldowns or Healing (we come back to that) and the DDs now.. Years later, by not adressing the issue, have become virtually Tanks (when not CC'ed - we get back to that). At the same time Damage has been increased because of Guard, until we have Burst enough to get kills in 4v4 (w. 1 Healer + Tank). Most top tier DDs can do this with no tradeoff to survival. and, quite the contrary actually. Each time damage was buffed so was Healing and DCDs and not evenly spread out, but Healing made healers immortal, so had to be re-balanced. Each time Damage was buffed more unguarded players died to fast and needed more DCDs, which made us need more damage in 4v4s etc. Only things that matter in a Burst-META is Survival. And yeah.. guess what. Snipers, Mercs and Skanks happened.


PvP Healing, CC and Tanking.
Only reason ppl are defeated in 4v4 ranked, is because of 2x CC on healers/tanks target switching etc. etc. If Healers were worth anything at all, and Tanks worth anything at all, a 4v4 with only 2 dps each side, shouldn't be able to score a single kill. Testing this is easy, if the DDs don't CC, they simply do not bring enough damage. PvP Healing - In my opinion, is utter carbage in this game. It sure has high'ish HPS, but not any "Emergency Healing" CDs to actually save ppl, like a 100% heal usable once every minute, a shield effect making ppl take 50% damage for 4-6 secs of the GCD for example (Try imagine a Carnage/Combat Style healer instead, would be epic to heal). Tanks are almost just as bad, sure they can stay alive for long, but their actual abilities to protect teammembers is limited outside Guard (Taunt, Intercede/G. Leap and Oil + CC that all other specs have as well).

When a Tank is CC'ed for 16 secs they are made completely redundant, if their Guard isn't on the "right" target. When a Tank is CC'ed ppl die.. if a DD is CC'ed nothing really happens that can't be undone. Anti CC for tanks is more important to their Role, same goes with Healers, if they are just flat HPS. Problem is balancing around 4v4 combat. Either the Tank is not protecting enough, or the Healer isn't healing enough or the DDs are not damaging enough. PvP outside this Trinity has then ramped up DCDs and the problem in the "baseline" became a reality.


Conclusions.
So guess what, we now have the Tanky (and anti-CC) Burst Damage Dealer META.. So gratz Bioware Devs :) hope you didn't see that coming! We are actually better off now, if we had no healing specs and no tank specs and went head to head in team death match :) then we would not be disappointed.. (just to avoid posts about it, this is irony).

In Regs when ppl constantly break CC or the Tank simply leave his Guard on the Healer. It takes 3-4 dps a very long to kill them and THEN reinforcements arrive at nodes for example and battle resets. Add Stealthers delaying captures for 1 minute solo vs 2-4 ppl. It quickly get more or less boring and uneventful. It start evolving around kinda cheesy none combat tactics. Or become a massive slug fest (death on cooldown) with Snipers, Mercs and Maras etc. at the top.


Where does it leave us?
The point is to make a better game for all right? So, we need to bring PvP Tanking to a level, where we can manage combat without CC'ing everyone ALL the TIME and where Healers can actually make a real difference. In Regz (and to some extend even ranked - AoE fests) running Skanks and High Survival DD save up slots for more damage, because you don't really "need" healers anymore, just CC, DCDs and Guard.

Healing is more or less impossible vs players of equal or higher skill without Guard, because 8v8s have more DDs than 4v4s and the burst just becomes insane. Cross healing saves ppl but just makes it a grind (we really need matchmaking).


Last remarks and real End Goal.
I don't know if this serves any purpose. These are my thoughts atleast. Edited and put together with bits and pieces from different threads, posts and points discussed with friends playing swtor, through the years etc. There might be details or minor flaws in the logic (it is not post grad.) but the overall Idea remains. The future brings?

Tanks need active CDs to actually protect ppl instead of passive Guard.
Healers need actual Emergency Healing CDs to heal ppl and not just be hps.
DDs should not be allowed to be this tanky (breaks the idea of roles).
Burst needs to be lowered to get rid of the CC and 2xStun META.
100% resolve after one 4 sec Hard Stun or 8 sec Soft Stun

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