I've posted this on Central, but I'm going to post this here as well.
It's Just a Game? By: Edward LionHunter
PvP: some may hate it, while others will spend endless hours of the day playing it. PvP can be a great experience; you can learn great dueling strategies, gain better sportsmanship, learn the value of teamwork, and most of all, have fun. But what happens when all of this is taken away? What happens when other players abuse the ranking system? What happens when players, well, stop having fun? Puppet teams have been the main cause of all of this.
A puppet team has a wizard (usually Legendary or higher) team up with wizards who are low in level (usually Novice or Apprentince). This is so they can get lower level wizards in matches (usually Adept or Magus) and get faster rank and easier wins.
What is a puppet? A puppet is the lower level wizard in this scenario. Their job is to support the higher level wizard. They blade them, shield them, take off the other team's shields, smokescreen, stun, and just about anything else they can do before they die.
Ocassionally, either the puppet or the “hitter” (the high level wizard) ranks down to as low as zero to increase the chance of getting lower level wizards. These teams win easily against these wizards, as they can critical hit and the other team cannot block it at their level (unless they train for conviction, which still only gives 90 block for four rounds only). Not only do they have this, but they also have higher stats in general: health points, power pip percentage, accuracy, larger/stronger spells, and many other things.
Due to the fact they have a low level wizard on the team and rank down very low, they can earn a lot of rank from these fights. If the opposing team manages to win, they hardly earn any rank, usually only 1-5. This can wipe out the other teams' rank quite quickly; if the lower level wizards loose, the can loose up to 55 points in only two matches, but if they win two matches after, they only gain about 8 rank back, resulting in still loosing 47 points.
Puppet teams have just taken the fun out of PvP. I worry for the new players who come to the arena, trying it out, to only encounter these type of teams. They'll eventually get fustrated, disheartened, and stay away from the arena. I don't want the experience of PvP to be taken away from them just because of these teams. There are just too many puppet teams in the arena. It's rare to find a fair team nowadays.
What also adds to my dislike for these teams (besides their strategy being cheap) is that many are rude to the opposing team. “OMGZ WE'RE PWNING THEM!” some say, or use bad language. I have encountered a team where they openly stated their strategy out loud, because they knew the other team couldn't do anything about it. Why do some players do this? One reason is that they actually enjoy seeing the misery in other players. I have seen someone even say he enjoyed seeing “the noobs suffer”. Some have even called defeating the duelists lower in level than them “baby-killing.”
Some say, “Why not 1v1?” or “Why not level up to Transcended?”. Well, why should we 1v1? These puppet teams shouldn't make us resort to 1v1; we ALL have paid for the game, so we should do what we want. Why do they get to do team PvP and we can't?
Many of the duelists who encounter the puppet teams already have Transcended duelists. Mid-level PvP is especially fun because it is more of a challenge. We don't need to level to Transcended.
There are many things that could be done to resolve this problem. They could allow commander gear to have critical block (but not critical hit, only block), so that the teams facing the puppet teams can have a chance. The commander gear is out-dated for the new spells everyone has gotten. This is obviously only a temporary fix, but it still could be useful.
Another solution is to not allow wizards to rank down all the way to zero. People who loose against the puppets won't loose as much rank if this is done. A simple solution is to stop having rank visable, like how it wasn't long ago. They could still show off a Warlord badge, but that's it. I think puppets began to start when rank could shown, as it motivated others to want their rank as high as possible to show off.
But a solution I really want to be done is for the ranking system to be changed. Fixing puppet teams in general does not seem, in any way, a hinderance. More players can come back to PvP. PvP will become more fair. And most of all, many players, including myself, would be very happy.
And for those who say, “It's just a game.” Yes, it is. Wizard101 is just a game. A game we all play. A game we should all enjoy. A game where it should be fair for all.
I agree 100%. I remember (maybe) pitching and idea out on these forums, but it was lost in the sea of threads, it was that the highest and the lowest level on the team, cant have a gap of more than 10 levels, and rank beings something like 100 (so friends dont have to downrank that much to pvp with other friends). This exploit has gotten so bad, that I have even seen 2 low level pvpers (an apprentice and a novice), like rank captain or commander, against a level 1, rank 0, and a transcended pyromancer. 2 magus's can barely deal with it, but the last time I checked, for 2 level 5-14, its practicaly impossible.
I agree with the points, but I think that KI can change the match-up system so that it is no longer desirable to use a puppet team. For instance, if the highest level is weighted more in the formula, the the puppet team may always find themselves at a disadvantage because they will always get 2 Transcended opponents. This way, there is not much incentive to use a puppet team, although of course a player can still do that.
As for excessive rankdowns, this too is a problem. Making the logoff or disconnect a neutral rather than loss would prevent this easy way of downranking. That is an easy fix.
Another easy fix that perhaps would alleviate the situation is to make Commander gear only wearable at Commander rank.
Other games have tiers whereby you cannot rank down. You can rank up to Captain, for instance, and keep on ranking up. But if you're unable to rank up to Commander, then you are simply a low-ranked Captain and you cannot fall back to the Veteran tier. In essence, there are different leaderboards for Captain and different leaderboards for Commander. People would strive to rank up because otherwise they would not be at Commander tier.
Great ideas everyone! I hope KingsIsle will consider fixing this exploit, or at least send out a message to everyone saying it is wrong. If they don't intend on fixing this exploit, then I wish they would at least say so. It's better than being ignored.
Please KingsIsle. I have been a long time player of this game and would appreciate a response about this. Please.
Great ideas everyone! I hope KingsIsle will consider fixing this exploit, or at least send out a message to everyone saying it is wrong. If they don't intend on fixing this exploit, then I wish they would at least say so. It's better than being ignored.
Please KingsIsle. I have been a long time player of this game and would appreciate a response about this. Please.
I read another posting that may prove that KI is trying to fix this. In the test realm when multiple players were trying to join a ranked match, it stated that their levels were too far apart. So it appears that if you have a large mismatch, it won't allow you to join in on the same team. So get ready for the next update, it may fix the biggest exploit in the game.
I read another posting that may prove that KI is trying to fix this. In the test realm when multiple players were trying to join a ranked match, it stated that their levels were too far apart. So it appears that if you have a large mismatch, it won't allow you to join in on the same team. So get ready for the next update, it may fix the biggest exploit in the game.
Joe.
If this is true, I will be the most happiest player in the Spiral! It would make my day completely if KI can confirm this.
