Express mode for PvP

Unknown

I got this idea from Hearthstone, and let me start by saying I hate Hearthstone but I think their arena has a good idea. I have no idea how easy it is to implement it, and it's likely nontrivial but that's why I'm not getting paid to solve the game's problems.

For every PvP event you have the option to select express mode. The team composition requirement is still the same. In express mode the game makes a copy of all your characters with 100% health. They cannot be healed by any method, not even health packs. All healing ability is converted to damage prevention (if you'd have healed for 2000, it instead negates the next 2000 damage) and I haven't thought about what you'd do with regen. You can swap your team between matches. Matchmaking will match you up against the typical team that has X wins and they should start off easy. The team you attack does not suffer anything since they're only there to represent the typical X win team. You play until you lose. At this point, you're given a lowball estimate of what your rating ought to be based on available data. That is, suppose you win 100 games in a row which puts you as the best player in express mode and currently the highest rating guy in the game is 500, you'd be offer to take a 400 rating (because we still want people to play the game) which will replace your rating at the end of the PvP event if your rating is lower than that. Or you can let it adjust but in this case you'd no longer get the case to lock it in. That is, if by the end of the event it's determined that your 100 wins is really nothing special and only gets you 300 rating, that's too bad for you. It's likely to go up in value since winning 100 games in a row without heals seems like it'd solidly put you in the #1 but you never know what may happen. You're limited to 30 boosts of every type on usage for this mode. You can check back on this mode to get the game's estimate of what your express mode score is likely to be at any given time, and it may go up or down depending on how well everyone else did. You get all the progression rewards that'd be associated with your rating this way at the end of the event since your rating is not known until the event ends.

You must select using your score for either bracket placement or season points. To do both requires paying another 1000 HP (otherwise this allows people to bypass the usual shield hopping and stuff with an extremely good score, and while we don't care about that, D3 probably doesn't want to lose the revenue). You can always reattempt this mode for free if you discard your previous score, or pay 5 health packs if you want to keep your previous score while attempting again (in case you do worse than before). This also allows people with weak rosters to simply attempt this over and over again to grind iso8s so they've something to do in an event where they've no chance of placing well. Note that you're still free to do the actual PvP event itself, and the game will always use the higher of your event rating versus the extrapolated rating from express mode. Remember that the rating from express mode is always a lowball estimate, so if the current top score is say 1500, you'd never have a score higher than 1500 offered no matter how many you win. That said, you could be offered by 1300, decide to lock it in, and then this score becomes the top when the guy with 1500 forgots to shield and fall to oblivion. For purposes of PvP match itself, you gain and lose points off your PvP rating, not extrapolated rating, because otherwise you'd just have Kyipgate scenarios as soon as a guy takes say a 1000 rating from this mode and just tells everyone to beat him up!

Unknown

But but but but what about Spiderman?

Unknown

TheUnwiseOne wrote:

But but but but what about Spiderman?

Who? Next week we'll have to BagMan characters in the game, are you talking about one of them?

Unknown

I think this is a fantastic idea. Would change things up a lot and bring some enjoyment to pvp

Unknown

I've some idea of what you're saying but I don't think it was terribly clear or maybe the idea just didn't grab me.

daveomite

I would also like to request an Easy Button.

daveomite

colebavery21 wrote:

I think this is a fantastic idea. Would change things up a lot and bring some enjoyment to pvp

Agreed.

Unknown

I didn't follow any of that. I'll assume it's brilliantand should be implemented immediately.

danikalil

I think the idea is brilliant, but, as it always happens, will get no attention at all from the devs.

Phantron, congratulations. This is very well thought.