There's a lot I like about this game.  I like the world, I like the combat, hell, I even like the dopamine hits I get from the Las Vegas esque progression, and the constant stream of rewards.  But where I think this game falls flat is how it treats PvP.

As far as I can tell, there is like no gear normalization in PvP at all.  And in a game with such massive disparities in gear power, it basically means the vast majority of who wins PvP fights is going to come down to gear score.  And that's bad for so many reasons.try./

1.  If you have a lower gear score, you're not going to have fun.  You're just going to get one-shotted and that's boring.

2.  If you have a higher gear score, you probably won't have much fun either.  Beating an opponent that has a massive handicap isn't really compelling.  Oh wow, I beat a guy that literally can't hurt me and dies if I sneeze...fun.

3.  PvP COULD be a major avenue of the progression grind to mix up PvE, but it isn't because it's treated as "end-game" content that you basically need to have top-tiet gear to compete in.

4.  Because PvP is endgame content, you can't even experience it until you've grinded for hundreds of hours.  Who knows if you will even like it?  It seems kind of silly to spend hundreds of hours grinding for something you can't even try.

Now I'm not saying ALL PvP should have normalized gear, but structured PvP like arena matches and battlegrounds DEFINITELY should.  Open world PvP and node wars can stay geared, that still gives a huge incentive to gear up PvP wise, AND lets players actually PvP without spending hundreds of hours grinding gear.

It's sad because I think this game has so much going for it, but it always kneecaps itself with its constant obsession with designing everything around milking its  playerbase.

Let us have fun with the game, and we'll play longer.  Whales will still be whales.

It would be nice, and I'm glad some of the community is asking for this.  Personally, I would really like normalized RBF or other structured PvP that you could queue for as part of your progression.

Unfortunately, node wars and siege are too much commitment for my current lifestyle.

Gear should have zero effect in PvP, in any game.

I know I'm going to get downvotes or people are going to strongly disagree on this one. Most likely people with a lot of gear of course. But, in any serious PvP game, gear is absolutely nonexistent.

Imagine if chess was treated like many video games with character progression.

Your ELO would allow you to buy stronger pieces, I guess. To the point that players with lower ELO would be unable to capture even a single of your pawn. And at some point, your Queen would be able to teleport straight away to a checkmate position.

T2 is uncapped

Gear is hardly the biggest issue in PvP nowdays. As stated above there are already caped modes, and you can BA, RBF with trial gear, which is better gear than what the mayority of the players have anyway. Also PA is currently working on arenas with caped gear, in addition to giving away literately full PEN for low effort nowdays.

On the other hand the class balance is still a joke, and the reboot ain't going to change anything so faar.

Just as the engine is still garbage with the constant desync, fpsdps, etc. issues.

This game is a joke for PvP, and not (only) cause the gear, heck this is an mmorpg, gearing is literately it's main aspect.

I didn't vote, but I do strongly disagree.  Remember, BDO is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.  One of the main draws of this genre is PROGRESSION.  Feeling a tangible increase in combat strength, for example, as you play more and learn more about the game derives a HUGE sense of satisfaction from MMO players - hence why some people dedicate so much into the game and their character.

If they removed the PROGRESSION aspect of gearing in BDO, then that pretty much defeats the purpose of this, once marketed as, "Hardcore MMORPG".

What peeves me with these, "I don't want to earn my combat strength, just give it to me" posts is the complete ignorance of this aspect of BDO -> The "long haul" aspect of it.  It seems like people want to take away the grind that BDO has been known for and just want everything for FREE.  And lo and behold, BDO introduces GURANTEED METHODS of progression, but it still isn't good enough?  C'MON!!!

The game's gotten very, very casual lately.  100% Guranteed PEN Boss Gear and PEN Yellow Accessory.  Literal FREE FULL TET Boss Gear + FULL TRI yellow accessories.  The game is giving players a clear path to progression now -- Players don't need to risk gear downgrades on 5% chances, don't need to pre-plan their silver income route, literally just need to grind BMC's and Memory Fragments -- that's it.  The path to progression hasn't been this clear since the game was released.  They also released CAPPED NODE WARS, CAPPED SIEGE, and TRAIL GEAR that is able to compete in RBF.  I see trails in NA RBF all the time.

>> OP, BDO is supposed to releasing Ranked Arena PvP.  I am not sure if it will be equalized, but what makes the most sense to me is they will introduce both equalized gear Arenas and non-equalized.  The non-equalized giving the best rewards.  Equalized so the lowbies can play too.  As it should be.  MMO's are about Progression, Gearing up, and the "climb", if you will.  And I personally hope BDO sticks true to their guns in this department.

There's a title in-game.  It displays "NO ITEM FOR THE LAZY".  I like that title.  Seems very fitting for these "I don't want to earn my way up, just give me combat strenghth for free" posts.  Your post seems to come off that way.

You're projecting. It's an open world PVP MMO with gear progression. If you want full normalized gear that's easy, boring and simple to get go play Guild Wars 2 or WOW arena.

This MMO is not meant to be some equalized instanced MMO, go find one that is if you want that. Work for your progresison like everyone else has to. It's so easy now.

It's not hard at all with income increase and free gear to be decent competitive in open world off the bat.

You have to work for something, you're projecting your OWN disinterest in this system which does not mean the system is WRONG.

This game has been made brain dead easy, and not being able to compete in the top 1% pvp in the first week of playing shouldn't concern you.

I've killed people griefing my rotas in tet accessories and oasis gear. I can assure you if you had the same gear and lost you would pick something else to complain about like CLASS imbalance, or PING.

Tell me, and be honest with yourself. Do you know every class, their SA gaps, their usual engages and movement pattersn etc? Have you really mastered anything that requires time or just blame gear? Gear is easy to get, it doesn't take much AP to eventually one shot any DP, leaving out like c13+ eva which initially is trouble but once again I can assure you peopel you're meeting are not as geared as you think they are.

True, as I often say it, there's no magical phenomenon which only oppose true peaceful beginners to overgeared pvp minded veterans on the grind spots.