Since we are asking, could I request a GvG wins counter on ones bio, retrospective of course. The amount of gold donated to Guild Bank (not taxed). Number of groups joined, number of relics captured,  total number of pm's sent, total number of pm's received. Total number of buffs cast, amount of gold sold in FSP market. FSP gained from FSP market. Feel free to make other suggestions folks.
 
Cheers.
 
wil72

What it seems to boil down to is castable can't compete against pots. Why do these folks care about this so much? so they can "defend" their offline players. If they cared so much about knowledge and such, they would be totally into the arena style play where it's all about gear knowledge. It would be great if they would be honest and state it as such. The same complaints made about how you can't compete between pots and castable can be made against no buffs and castable buffs. The only reason it's a big issue is to "protect" their offline friends and keep them constantly buffed versus having that player have to login in every so often to take those so called OP pots.

Seems to me that your concern is indirectly linked to Auto-Refresh, a feature commonly used to automate the casting of buffs. Consider the following scenarios:

1) John logs in every few hours to drink his pots and stay buffed.
2) Jane logs in every few hours to keep John (Offline) buffed.

John remains buffed at the expense of Jane's time, which is fair, but auto-refresh changes everything. However, I'd rather not argue about that here, it's a topic worthy of its own thread.
 

Ok idk how to quote everything but ^^^^^ that post is just an example of PVP ARENA also a PVP part of game which is buff free and requires skill and comes with no xp loss just gold loss which I have also seen posted so if you want a "fair" pvp battle hit up the arena

As far as combat goes, the PvP Arena is indeed the pinnacle point of balance and perhaps regular PvP should learn something from it, no? Sadly, I find that it lacks the competitive thrill of a dynamic, ongoing fight towards a goal like we see in GvG, bounty hunting, or the ladder.

maybe the best solution is to remove buffs of any level entirely from PVP...That way it ceases to be about who has the most fsp or the highest level buffer, but instead returns to who can design the best setups..

 

None of us are entitled to more because we have spent  hundreds of millions in gold or thousands of fsp Self interest needs to take second place here.

Now there's an interesting proposition and I completely agree.
I urge game admins to consider it as a possible solution to our dilemma.

im confused as to how players cant have access to pots?  look at the global reward right now.  the prize is not just for the top 100.  so anyone can get those chest and have a choice of pots to use.  and there are traveling composers and pretty much most guilds have a composer or two.  what pots are you speaking of that only those who pay can get?? even the eggs could have been hunted. also, just cuz you have high pots on doesnt give an automatic win.  the ladder is not for everyone.  those playing take it seriously. hit every hour.  it is not for the faint of heart.  which is what it is for.  thats just my opinion.

My concern is about fairness. I strongly believe that a certain degree of integrity should be maintained for competitive activities. If I'm not mistaken, my own script was banned in titan-hunting, because it gave a tremendous advantage and became a requirement in order to compete against others using it, OP pots are no different.

Even if composing was added as a sub-category on the AH, player-casted buffs would still be cheaper and more accessible. By setting a standard, the entry barrier is lowered and more people can partake in such activities on a level playing field.

I know that some of you have become addicted to your win-button and you're not willing to let it go, after all buying our way through everything is part of the Fallensword culture imo, but let's be real here, those potions have absolutely wrecked pvp into oblivion!

Those insanely high level buffs are completely imbalanced and outclass player-casted ones in both power and duration. The only way to effectively compete against someone else using op pots is to make use of it yourself, otherwise better pray to the RNG god for a very lucky proc.

OP pots are a luxury which not all of us have access to compared to 175/192's that are affordable and can be easily purchased through the buff market. In addition, they raise the entry barrier and limits pvp participation which would explain why the ladder is so dead, even with those new shiny rewards. I played during a time when the the brackets were far smaller and rewards were pitiful yet we still had more players and the competition was fierce.

Based on what I have seen and experienced, those pots certainly DO NOT promote fair, strategic and competitive gameplay. At this point why not add hunting style key-binds to ladder targets so that we can mindlessly '1234'? It's pointless to check active buffs on your opponents if your own stats are passively several times higher than theirs.

Now before I lose my sanity;
I propose that all skills in pvp combat should be capped at 200-250 max.
The longevity of potions along with the fact that some of them cannot be leeched and the few extra levels above player-casted buffs seems like plenty for potions to remain useful while keeping the playing field even. (: