I would be the first to admit that, when it comes to PvP, I have neither the experience with it, nor am I a big fan of it. When it comes to MMO’s I have a net experience somewhere just above zero. I don’t actually count console games because I tend to think of them as entirely different creatures. Yes, I played the classics like Mortal Combat and Killer Instinct, and was pretty good at them, much to the chagrin of my younger brother.
It’s an entirely different experience to play PvP in an MMO environment. It sounds like it’s one on one, but outside of the arena, it’s not. There’s an entire herd of people on your side, and a herd on the other, and you’re all pretty much attempting to gang up as many people on one or two others as possible. For the most part, that has never appealed to me.
However, I was willing to give it a shot in CoH. Why? Because I liked all the other aspects of the game, and decided I should try it before denouncing it. Since there’s the option to do missions in the PvP zones, thats what I started out doing (and failed miserably at, to boot). After a while, there was a collection of Heroes teaming up to do some hunting. I’m pretty sure I ran into them by accident when I was investigating this strange ‘bounty’ thing and had wandered over by the villains base. So, here was my scrapper, sucked into a team of, on average, eight, and about to be taken on a whirlwind tour of PvP.
For starters, I have as a travel power Super Jump. Not always the best option for PvP, at least not when half the zone is flying much higher than you could hope to reach. Claw and Regen mean that I attack fast, but not for the highest damage, but at least I can run away and heal fairly fast, right? Well, sort of, when you aren’t the bounty being hunted. Oh, and if you’re on a team that will function somewhat together. You would think it would be the Villains that have a problem with this, but to be frank, they trounced us from one end of the zone to the other. And, oddly, I didn’t mind! I’m still not sure if we actually managed to kill any of them, but I know I got more than a few good hits in before eating dirt, generally, if I could see them.
I did use some of my influence to buy PvP zone special items, like the sensor screen or whatever it is. Supposedly this little gizmo will help you see through all those invisible things. Not that I ever noticed, and considering the number of times I was hit by someone using Hide, I think I know what I’m talking about. Over all, again, I didn’t mind that. Most of the time they couldn’t hit me hard enough to kill me before I bounced away, and if I hit them hard, which I did, then they ran away too. And all was joy. I even ended up having amusing moments with one player from the opposite side which increased my enjoyment of the session one hundred percent. (I still want to say thank you for the compliment on my costume, by the way. Not that I remember the name anymore).
So, for the most part, my enjoyment was good, good enough I earned one of the time badges for that zone, which I believe was Sirens Call, I could be wrong. Needless, as my attention was waning and I was considering the option of leaving or logging off, but at the same time enjoying myself far to much to do so I got the combination you hear the most complaints about. Teleport Foe and Assassin Strike. The thing that bothered me was not that someone had this, because, really, anyone can have TP Foe. I was not even particularly upset when it was used on me.. not the first time. When the individual in question used the same tactic on me about three or four times, waiting for me to walk out of the hospital and yanking me to a nearby rooftop, thats when I got annoyed. Up to even the first time, I was still having fun, and considered it a fair tactic. After the third time I considered it ‘greifing’ and left and vowed that my Stalker would not be getting any form of Teleport. For me, it was digital bullying. And that is all I will say on that.
In the end, I actually did enjoy my time in the PvP zone more then I disliked it. Would I go back to PvP? Yes, I would, in a heartbeat, and especially if I can convince any of my anti-PvP Supergroup to go with me to help teach those Villains (or Heroes) a lesson they won’t soon forget! Or, at least try to. Would I suggest PvP to others? I would suggest trying it. Don’t just whine and complain about this build is better than that build and so on and so forth. If you don’t try it, you have no right to complain about it. Give it a shot, you never know, you might discover that you are a PvP master in a way no one ever expected, or you might discover that the so call ‘ultimate PvP build’ is no such thing. Either way, try to have some fun, don’t let anything bother you, and leave if it stops being fun. We’ll see you next week. @Mialiah
