Khalix
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This lovely topic is just a minor talk about how you would feel in a fight in ED.
Personally, when fighting NPCs, the moment you find out their pattern, they'll be easier to kill. In a 1v1, however, it's different- Different builds mean different playstyles. However, again, once you've seen all possible combinations, you too could create a pattern specifically meant to counter several builds.
In sense, you create your own pattern, but once that pattern is found out, you too can be countered. The thing with PvP games is, there's always an RNG for things such as critical hits, stuns, blocks, deflections, how hard you'd hit or how much damage you'd take. This creates a variation which deviate your pattern slightly or greatly in order to either give you or your opponents a chance to strike back harder. Indeed, these things do create frustrations to anyone who has spent some effort creating their build while formulating a pattern to use against builds. Patterns like using shields when struck with malfunction or energy-draining attacks when an enemy has a powerful skill available.
Another frustration is that players are unpredictable. They may not fall for a devious scheme and instead do something completely out of the box. For instance, a mage intended to force his victim to use a shield after he used malfunction so that he may use assimilation to steal energy and prevent the use of a certain skill. What he did not expect was his victim had an Assault Bot rather than the ubiquitous Infernal Android.
The situation above usually happens in high-level fights where pattern-finding is rather high and expectations of the minimum gear are present. For example, at lvl 30+, you usually expect your opponent to start using generators and that a +15 physical bot is usually an Infernal Android because of a +5 focus build. Indeed, these assumptions are usually fulfilled because it would be what you'd expect, however, again, players are an unpredictable factor.
Another frustration would be the feeling that the RNG hates you. You'd be blocked, deflected or received a critical strikes one-too-much for the intended allowance you created so that these "Unlucky" events can still be recuperated from. Personally, I don't believe in luck and that the RNG is just doing what it's programmed to do: Generate random numbers based on the percentage of a chance occurring. The problem with RNGs and patterns, however, is the fact that since it's random, you simply cannot take it for granted. A 1% chance to do a critical strike may still happen three times from the same person and will cause frustrations because it is simply not expected.
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How about the infamous 2v2 system where you take the unpredictability of 4 different players with different builds, mindsets, patterns and strategies and pit them against each other? The result is usually infuriating by most and avoided by some.
The first and foremost problem is the language barrier. With the advent of translations to support foreign players, the common problem is communicating with your teammate. The thing is, if you cannot communicate, you would only have a rough sketch of what that person would do. Usually, the experience of a player who has known several patterns can at least decipher the rough pattern of his partner's build. The admirable part with foreigners is that they usually memorize a small yet useful set of common words such as "Heal", "Bolt", "Bunker" or "Assim". The thing is, again, the unpredictability. Someone may do something that would jeopardize a game, or refuse to listen to what you say- This doesn't just apply to foreigners, it applies to everyone.
This leads people to "Judge" their teammate's worth by looking at their win/loss. A good win-rate usually means that you don't need to give out advice as you'd expect them to follow a pattern that seems logical for their build. The only time you need to give out advice to your partner is when you think up of a formula to win. A hypothesis that requires your partner's cooperation. Tricks such as "Heal me, I can rage bunker" or "Shield me, they're probably going to use a devastating energy attack" are rather common.
Then there are disconnections in a 2v2 fight... I don't think I need to explain anything here.
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Lastly, we have juggernaut mode.
From the perspective of the two lower-levels, it's a boss fight. Meaning a fight where an exclusive strategy is used to take down a powerful player. The power between levels are clear as one person 6 levels and below the juggernaut cannot win against him/her because of the strength of their weapons and the stat points a juggernaut has in comparison. They cannot reliably hit more than they would have expected when they would have fought someone on par. Cooperation and thinking is important as they cannot simply throw whatever they have at the juggernaut because it would work on someone at their level.
It's usually hard to convince someone so used to a pattern to think differently as the most usual response is to empty their most powerful skill as quickly as possible rather than using a simple trick such as waiting for rage first, then doing it.
On the side of the juggernauts, it's usual for someone used to being a juggernaut to not talk to their opponents at all seeing as they have a great RNG allowance that allows them to cope with the majority of tricks (From my experience, anyway) and the lack of a partner to think up of a strategy usually means they do not require chatting. From his/her view, the lower-leveled opponents he/she faces are dehumanized and are treated like NPCs with a fixed pattern. They can be treated as guaranteed wins provided the Juggernaut has sufficient knowledge and the build for the job so they continue to "Farm" these lower-levels in full knowledge that they are superior.
The only thing juggernauts tend to forget is that they're not invincible- Juggernauts with high win-rates tend to be spoiled with wins so much that they get frustrated when defeated by a seemingly normal build. The only time this happens is when the two lower-leveled players start formulating an effective strategy while the juggernaut is blinded with his/her arrogance and confidence of a sure-victory.
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I'm amazed I managed to write that in just 30 minutes. In truth, this is a brainstorm so I'm only writing about what I thought up of the time. Sharing your mindset would be wonderful, as well.
Note: I have that distinctive feeling no one knows how to react to this thread either because they didn't bother to read, or didn't bother to write something terribly long. In truth, this is how I think in the middle of a fight.
< Message edited by Khalix -- 5/25/2013 8:24:52 >
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