A new year of ranked is nearly here and some much need changes are required to keep ranked new and exciting

Spectator mode
Team ranked(fix 4v4 first)
New weapons and rewards
Removal of rng
Banning of summons
New arenas such as old brawl hall

These changes promote balance, skillful play, and bring old and new players into it. I also have one more change that would be nice.

Changing the summer pvp champion badge to First Summer Champion for those who reached that rank in the first summer to really give those champions of old the prestige they deserve for getting there in the most competitive season ever and to show your appreciation for those players who have been here for years and will continue to be there for many more

zuto4011a on Jun 8, 2017 wrote:

A new year of ranked is nearly here and some much need changes are required to keep ranked new and exciting

Spectator mode
Team ranked(fix 4v4 first)
New weapons and rewards
Removal of rng
Banning of summons
New arenas such as old brawl hall

These changes promote balance, skillful play, and bring old and new players into it. I also have one more change that would be nice.

Changing the summer pvp champion badge to First Summer Champion for those who reached that rank in the first summer to really give those champions of old the prestige they deserve for getting there in the most competitive season ever and to show your appreciation for those players who have been here for years and will continue to be there for many more

That's a good list, Robert, but I object to a summons ban, as that is a very important power for Witchdoctors.

zuto4011a on Jun 8, 2017 wrote:

A new year of ranked is nearly here and some much need changes are required to keep ranked new and exciting

Spectator mode
Team ranked(fix 4v4 first)
New weapons and rewards
Removal of rng
Banning of summons
New arenas such as old brawl hall

These changes promote balance, skillful play, and bring old and new players into it. I also have one more change that would be nice.

Changing the summer pvp champion badge to First Summer Champion for those who reached that rank in the first summer to really give those champions of old the prestige they deserve for getting there in the most competitive season ever and to show your appreciation for those players who have been here for years and will continue to be there for many more

Robert, while I agree with quite a few of these points, there are some I cannot support in their current state.

1. Summons: While I agree that some players utilize summons to inflate their rank to much higher levels than their skill level would dictate, a blanket ban is not the way to go. Summon spells are an integral part of the witch class, and a ban would require a rework of the entire witch class. I think the nefarious staff and the fall champ weapons could use a rework. I'd be willing to consider restricting the nefarious staff to witch-only (forcing the other nefarious weapons to be class exclusive). The fall champ weapon needs a nerf. Currently, the trees have 3 guaranteed critical strikes at max level (epic, mega, super). They have fewer as level decreases. Instead of stacking the critical hits, the trees should only have one crit strike, but it should upgrade as level increases. For example, level 1-20 would have an epic strike, 21-40 a mega, and 41+ a super. This way the summons retain some of their power without being the offensive and defensive juggernauts they once were. Summon based strats add a degree of diversity that shouldn't be completely removed from the game.

2. Removal of rng: While I agree with the concept, this point isn't specific enough. What specific fixes do you propose? KI cannot take action without specific critiques

3. New arenas: I'd like to see more diverse arenas, but I think the size of the old brawling hall would leave ranged classes at a significant disadvantage when facing rushing melee builds.I think a good compromise would be to have brawling hall's size increased to that of the spar chamber, while keeping the obstacles.

I have no problems with the remainder of your points. Out of curiosity, by new weapons do you mean weapons at hero rank, or champ weapons with different powers (and possibly hybrid champ weapons)?

zuto4011a on Jun 9, 2017 wrote:

Witch doctors arent competitive theyll be bad regardless of whats banned or not but i meant summons gear, its been heavily debated in the pvp community(the people who know pvp better then the devs) and summons are just to cheesy to promote fair play

"Witchdoctors aren't competitive, they'll be bad regardless of whats banned or not......"
So you're going to cut down even a chance on Witchdoctors becoming competitive by getting rid of some of their class powers?
And I'm wondering about those Witchdoctors who have actually made it to champion, how would they feel about you classing them all as bad?
I need to point out that you have a lot of summons gear yourself, not only from champion weapons. Will you forgo using summons in Ranked PVP?
I'm not hating or attacking you, just wondering why you want to ban all summons?

zuto4011a on Jun 10, 2017 wrote:

Cant quote multiple people so ill answer here

SUMMONS- Not a blanket ban, ban on summons gear, the scorpions go twice for every 1 of your turns for example, which is very broken especially when combined with banner, but disregarding that witch summons arent good and should only be used as a last resort, removing these wouldnt affect skilled witch drs anyway

BRAWL HALL- The size of the arena gave ranged players the advantage in the past, no reason it wouldnt now

RNG- A problem that plagues this game is beyond lucky dodges, hits, and crits, that completely ruin strategy, using an example from a day ago, a privateer with 58 strength dodging a blade 3 twice in the same round from an egg shen

WEAPONS- Yes new weapons for champions only, the current winter weapon is 100% useless

And for those saying it isnt skillful to ban these things, i will glady fight you no rules, i shall equip my nefarious staff, beast banner, and moo robe, use scratch, and use discord, and after that you tell me how much fun that was for you, spoiler it wont be fun, it isnt fun to use either, its broken and ruins skillful play, allowing these things is why balance is impossible to achieve

I agree with the majority of your points, but your point about "beyond lucky dodges" I disallow: you know my dodge, and my dodge has been a "saving grace" in most of my matches, even when my opponent uses a debuff, I can generally dodge a talent based attack.
Your example doesn't take into account that Privateer's dodge ( what has strength to do with dodge? )
You can't always depend on powers showing up when needed, my Black Fog is # one in my power slots but doesn't always show up first round ( & often doesn't show up at all or by the time it does it's just too late to do any good. ) If by this you mean doing away with RNG and allowing powers to show in the order you set them, then I'm for it.
But I've competed in real life fencing matches ( historical re-enactments ) and often skill is aided by luck ( or what seems to be luck )
P.S. You just proved what I said about you having most of the summons gear - you've earned that gear from rigorous farming, as have others; how would they react if told they can't use it in Ranked; not because it causes trouble in turns ( like Moo's boots, crown & Faye's charm mask ) but because other players are having a hard time fighting it?
This call for a ban just reminds me of all the "ban-this-power-because-I-haven't-found-away-to-beat-it". Just like Blast of Discord, just like First Mate's Boon, just like Black Fog, and so on down the list.

zuto4011a on Jun 10, 2017 wrote:

Cant quote multiple people so ill answer here

SUMMONS- Not a blanket ban, ban on summons gear, the scorpions go twice for every 1 of your turns for example, which is very broken especially when combined with banner, but disregarding that witch summons arent good and should only be used as a last resort, removing these wouldnt affect skilled witch drs anyway

BRAWL HALL- The size of the arena gave ranged players the advantage in the past, no reason it wouldnt now

RNG- A problem that plagues this game is beyond lucky dodges, hits, and crits, that completely ruin strategy, using an example from a day ago, a privateer with 58 strength dodging a blade 3 twice in the same round from an egg shen

WEAPONS- Yes new weapons for champions only, the current winter weapon is 100% useless

And for those saying it isnt skillful to ban these things, i will glady fight you no rules, i shall equip my nefarious staff, beast banner, and moo robe, use scratch, and use discord, and after that you tell me how much fun that was for you, spoiler it wont be fun, it isnt fun to use either, its broken and ruins skillful play, allowing these things is why balance is impossible to achieve

Summons: Unless the scorpions are different from all other summons mechanically, the turn order should go Blue - Red - All summons, leaving scorps with one turn each "cycle." I'd be fine with removing banner from pvp. I still don't think summon gear needs to be banned if it's nerfed enough. Maybe make all summons from gear have the stats (weapon power, S/A/W, accuracy, dodge) have the stats of a pet of the same level. I think that would give them 100-115 accuracy and dodge, and 120 weapon power at max. In addition, could they be made to be unaffected by team buffs like espirit and zeal? This way they still serve their defensive purpose of neutralizing opposing chains to some extent, while reducing their offensive capabilities.

Arena: I'd still be hesitant to give a brawling hall sized arena. A buck could hypothetically make it across the board by round 2 or earlier, while being out of sight range. With the chains they have nowadays and the fact musket and witch have almost no base strength, this could prove dangerous. Maybe a hair bigger than what it once was, but not the same size as spar?

Rng: Yea, I agree that illogical things happen with crits and dodges all the time, but what specifically do you propose that would fix this without altering the game mechanically? I just don't see how rng can be entirely removed from this game. And as you said, a lot of players can pvp better than some of the devs. We need to help them out with specifics.

You also mentioned scratch. I think he is something that needs to be out of the hands of non-witch classes. Privy and musket are more than competitive without him. Maybe give his buffs to carcarius in pvp only, while Scratch retains them for pve only?

Once again i cannot quote all so i shall respond here

Anecorbie- Blade 3 goes off stats like strength and will which is why i said its crazy someone with half the strength of someone else dodged it twice in a row, and again i never said blanket ban on summons i said summon gear

Matt- Bucks can be there in round 1 right now in current ranked if they go second, and scratches powers are broken, if i bomb with his largest buff on and get a super youre looking at 1200 damage per hit, i also have 110+ will so i crit a lot, thats not balanced, in 2 super hits i could kill anyone that doesnt have health trained and anyone that does has like 500-1000 health left, and to fix rng im not sure how, itd require a full rework of the system but its flawed as it is right now

Matthew525011 on Jun 11, 2017 wrote:

I never said scratch's mojo buffs weren't broken in the hands of a privateer, I 100% agree they need to be inaccessible in pvp for everyone but witchdoctor. Also, I don't think having 100+ strength/agility/will and critting a lot vs people that don't have as much is broken. That's just how the game works. It's a "rock/paper/scissors" type game. In theory, yes, you can get two super big guns with 100% scratch buff and nearly one shot someone, but how often will that be the best, or even a good play? If I throw up a fort or a shield and spread my units out, trying to "yolo" back to back crits on a big guns becomes a pretty bad play. And how often will you actually get 2 crits in a row? Buckler has the worst agility in game, and I can't recall a time when a privy has landed back to back big gun crits on me or my full swashbuckler team.

And on the subject of movement, in the current arena ranged classes have a decent chance of being able to see and slow one or more units unless a large amount of barrels spawn. In brawling hall, those chances go down. You could be right, and it would pan out fine, but I don't like the idea of making smaller arenas, when the current ones are small enough as they are. I'd be ok if the brawling hall was raised in size by a tile or two on each side.

Giving witch dr exclusive access wouldnt be balanced, you dont fix a class by buffing its mournsongs to 2k, and unless your a buck or buckler trying to yolo the bombs is the best plan 99% of the time, and on the topic of the current arena, ive done around 40 matches, almost everytime ive used emmet, and out of all the matches i have NEVER been able to slow the enemy team without running around the boxes because so many spawn, in spar i can almost always do it, and old brawl hall wouldnt be any different