DiabloFans

When it comes to my personal experience of PvP from Blizzard, I'm kind of on the fence about whether or not the PvP will be balanced. On one hand, I played WoW, and class combinations, random number generators, and obvious class imbalances has lead me down the path of "Nah, this won't be balanced." But, On the other hand, I also play starcraft, which is much more balanced than WoW is. A lot of factors are much different for both of these games, but I really can not wait to step into the arena in Diablo.

So, my question is, do you think that blizzard is capable of making PvP in diablo balanced?

I think a better question is, do they care? They've already stated they are not going to balance D3 around pvp.

Right, but they said the same thing about WoW as well. Now, with MoP that's one of their main focal points. When people are interested in a topic, and it becomes large or popular, the demand for it's sustainability increases. Eventually, even if they don't balance for it in the beginning, I feel like it's only inevitable for them to balance it out, for the players who do enjoy it.

I honestly don't think they will try to balance out PvP too much. They may make a few tweaks here and there if one class completly annihilates all the others but other than that I wouldn't hold my breath. I think Azidonis hit it on the head - they have already stated they won't balance the game around PvP. WoW is a different matter. Being a MMORPG as opposed to an ARPG makes the focus a fair bit different. As I said in another thread Blizzard seems to be treating PvP in this game as more of an added bonus. Something they added on because some people find it fun. I seriously doubt they will bother trying to make all the classes equal in this regard.

I think by taking more of a "We arn't going to make D3 pvp an E-sport or care about balancing it etc..." approach is Blizzard just saying don't get mad about how unbalanced certain aspect of pvp may be. But that doesn't mean that they are just completely neglecting D3's pvp, and haven't tried to balance it.
My prediction is that pvp at first will feel pretty balanced and casual when people first start getting into it, but then the more you play it the more you'll notice some slight imbalances. However if there is a really obvious imbalance (say Barbs just wreck every other class no problem) they can always tweak their power in a patch.
I will say though that I am a huge fan of pvp, and while I think D3's more fast-paced, just jump in and play a bunch of rounds pvp philosophy will be fun and still pretty good, I do wish pvp was getting more focus and more of an E-sport treatment. But then again I used to pvp all the time in D2 and already from what I've seen D3's pvp is waaaayyy better than D2's.

Quote from Azidonis

I think a better question is, do they care? They've already stated they are not going to balance D3 around pvp.

^^^Truth. But what I am interested in seeing, is if they have separate 'balancing' for PvE and PvP. Like cooldowns, stuns etc.

Blizzard already stated they are not going to balance diablo 3 for pvp http://www.diablofans.com/topic/26728-pvp-in-diablo-3/ they want to focus on PVE so they can release the game. As we all know even for PVE its hard to balance and the new rune/skill system should probably be the last big design change before release at least I hope. Going into PVP balance territory than I dont think the game will ever be release.

Balance doesn't really matter for a game like Diablo. I mean honestly, balance didn't even matter as much for a game like WoW either, which was designed to be Everquest's spiritual PvE successor where raiding was the main focus, not PvP. In a game like Diablo, PvE is an even bigger focus, since Diablo 1 and 2 were never really balanced for PvP at all. It's all about monster slaying. It doesn't matter too much if Witch Doctors are a little better at monster slaying than monks at any given time.

If we end up having OP classes every patch or flavor of the month classes, it would probably help replayability. People will reroll a toon that's op at a given time to explore what that class has to offer.

Quote from asfastasican

Balance doesn't really matter for a game like Diablo. I mean honestly, balance didn't even matter as much for a game like WoW either, which was designed to be Everquest's spiritual PvE successor where raiding was the main focus, not PvP. In a game like Diablo, PvE is an even bigger focus, since Diablo 1 and 2 were never really balanced for PvP at all. It's all about monster slaying. It doesn't matter too much if Witch Doctors are a little better at monster slaying than monks at any given time.

If we end up having OP classes every patch or flavor of the month classes, it would probably help replayability. People will reroll a toon that's op at a given time to explore what that class has to offer.

While I agree to a certain extent, well, picture this. WoW was released with PvE only in mind. Then after the game releases... PvP starts getting very popular. What do ya know, players liked killing other players. So, as the game grew, players started crying for balance.

Fact is, while D2 was out, it was the only game like it, and if not, the only one that stood out. Now, more companies are releasing competitors. And while it's not exactly the same, games like Guild Wars 2 will be a competitor. All I'm saying is, if the game feels fun during PvP, if many players like the combat, unexpectedly, it would be a fools move not to balance the combat in order for players to continue PvPing, and in turn, give them more incentive to play.

God, I hope not. I'm sure some changes will be made, but I do not want a repeat of WoW. Classes becoming the same, abilities changing 3 to 4 times a year, and spec "improvements" felt like Blizzard kept adding bandaids.

They won't leave a character completely gimped, but lets avoid the arms race.

I very much doubt that PvP in D3 will be intentionally balanced, like a lot of people have said already - Blizzard don't care about pvp in D3. They pretty much just have it in to keep people happy. That being said, I think that because high end PvE will rely on careful balance between survivability and damage, I think the knock-on effect on PvP will be beneficial to keeping things "fair". To expand on my point, bosses in Inferno will be tough and somewhat intelligent - kind of like most PvPers But seriously, there are going to be far more parallels in PvP and PvE balance in D3 than there was in D2 or WoW. IMO at least.

I think pvp will be balanced to some point, because when you look at it at the pve part of it, things will get imbalanced at that content too!

since if one class will be "that" much better farming, other classes will whine arbout it, and that will make some kind of balance, so that one class wont overpower the other by far.

So its the pve balance that will affect the pvp balance to some extent, based on the statement that blizz aint gona care much about pvp.
From time to time i think we will se some small buffs/nerfs to abilities etc, cuz of pvp balance issues.
im hoping so atleast cuz i suppose most of us are going to test out pvp so it whould be nice if it had some balance to it

If the talents end up being anything like Diablo 2 they will be balanced around the versatility of each class. In Diablo 2 a Hammerdin could kill specific classes in pvp while a Zealadin could kill others. Same goes for almost every class. While one specific type of that class wasn't effective, a different version of the same class was. I'm just shooting in the dark here but to me that was always part of the allure of Diablo 2 and I would imagine it will return.

I really don't see it happening for a long time. There are certain skills though that I can see getting tweaked with patches with PvP in mind. Horrify comes to mind. This skill is quite obviously a PvP skill, and as state by blizzard there are skills in the game for each class that were included with PvP in mind. So I could see them tweaking those specific skills a bit if there is too big of an out cry. But even that is a really long shot.

The only way I see them balancing PvP would be if after they have released the last expansion for the game, that people are still playing, and the demand for a more balanced PvP system is high. Even then they would have to introduce some kind of ranking system, or other various mechanics that allow for PvP. As it stands now it sounds like you can't do things like War Games in WoW, and choose to fight against another group, which means tournaments will be harder to organize, if not impossible.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if upon release, PvP is cut, and to be implemented in a future patch, because we haven't heard anything about it since blizzcon, and even then we were told very little. Not saying it's for sure, and I think it's more likely for them to be in there, since it's just about creating the arenas and a queue system which seemed to be done already, but it wouldn't be a shock to me if the game released without PvP at all given that they are now trying to work quickly towards release.

I would expect balance changes for PvP with like next expansion or something like that, once game is ''up on feet'' and when they have time for that, since now they're probably just making sure PvE is perfectly balance which is much more important issue atm. But i really hope when that is done and passes a while they'll work more on PvP so we can enjoy in all that grinding we'll all do. I do think later on they'll balance it, PvP is just huge number of players who would stick to game much longer coz of that feature, i mean probably much people who are not really huge fans will stop playing once they finish game few times with different characters, but if you throw in much better PvP with more options/mode that would keep them playing imo.

Why are people still talking about PvP and how Blizzard plans on balancing it? At this current moment, there is no effort to balance anything involving PvP. They have already said that this is a PvE game and that they will only balance it for PvE. There will always be the OP class in PvP and that would only change if another class got buffed above the other class in the balancing for PvE.

It's very naive to think they won't come back to balance PvP in any way shape or form, contrary to what they've said. I imagine they won't do it immediately because they want the game to stand on its own for a while. They may not be adroit at creating sensible balance changes, but I definitely see it happening.