How to fix the Ascalon Arenas.

OK, serious question. Please don't think I'm being sarcastic or anything like that.

What, exactly, is the purpose of the Ascalon arena?

First, you're not making a point calling new players noobs.
Second, there are things wrong with griefing low level arenas, because the arena is supposed to be a fairly level playing field, coming in with max armor and weapon and slicing through players with pre searing armor is low.
Third, If this game is for fun the way you claim it, let's make your armor capped at 20 and weapon damage capped at 5-10 and give you 100 less attribute points. It'll be fun to slaughter you in PvP.

It's an object lesson as PvP for the PvE crowd. You know, they like to have advantages over each other and whatnot. The unfairness of the PvE arenas reminds us why the PvP system is set up as it is.

-cynic off-

All the abuse in there today wasn't forseen when they were made. They were supposed to be the training ground, a window into pvp. Unfortunately, most people have seen only the worst pvp has to offer- the people that enjoy a stacked victory over an inexperienced and unprepared opponent.

I doubt anyone actually goes to the Ascalon Arena to farm faction, only to have fun.

Personally I don't buy the whole "Oh gosh I suck I guess I shouldn't PvP" if anything it'd intrigue me, make me want to learn more, try and understand why he was able to beat me so easily. Hell its called the learning process, since when was everyone expected to throw in the towel after a little scrap?

Ummm no. When I first played the arenas and got crushed I didnt play for a while after that. Was probably more due to me sucking than any people with elite skills or Drok armor but still. The bad experiance put me off for a while. I did go back eventually of course but it was because I was bored and had nothing else to do and didnt have enough time for missions.

I never entered arena until I was level 20 with my first character. After I got the taste of arena, I started with my lower levels.

For me, the purpose was to see how well I could do with the armor, skills, and weapons I had at my disposal appropriate for that area. It was always a crapshoot, but could be really fun--just like the level 20 arenas.

For what seems to be many others, it's to farm faction (oooo, +5! be still my beating heart!) whilst "pwning" noobs with their superior max armor and elite "skillz."

I still have faith in what the frog said. Your pwning days are soon to be over, twinkies. Indeed, with the "balance" and "skill over time played" ANet brags about, it is insane that this has not been resolved yet.

I pvped with my first character in every arena many times.

This was before i learned about running...and twinkers...and why i was getting poisoned in ascalon arena (ack! poison arrow!)

I was naive and i couldnt understand why everyone had such cool looking weapons and why i always got slaughtered. I eventually gave up and focused on unlocking more skills to use in PvP because it got too frustrating.

Well you sayd everything that needs to be sayd about this issue, no armor above Ascalon, no golds, no greens and no elites, there's not really much else that can be done to improve the arenas, unless maybe have it a bit tournament like if it's not like that already, meaning that the first round your team fights some team that hasn't won anything or has maybe just won one, match.
You start getting harder teams each time you win, that's only about the random arenas since they're the ones that most people play at, but it would be also sweet to have it in the lower lvl arneas when they're crowded.

But I'm mostly happy with the Arenas like they are except that runners can ruin the fun. :/

One additional suggestion: do not allow any skills beyond what's available in Ascalon and Yak's Bend area. I think that will put everyone on "equal footing".

Good point.

Yes, there are some good ideas in here. Generally, the kind of people who go into the low level arenas with Elites and max armour are those who can't cut it in HA or GvG, and need to unbalance things in order to succeed in PvP.

Even by starting a limitation, for balnce reasions. There still be a diffrence in balance lvl between those who have been to Courthouse (or completed various ascalon side quests)vs those who only explored around Ranik and Sardelac. So beginners would still be stomped by those with experience and strategic skill advantage.

I have posted my sollution to this problem in some earlier threads.
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Remove Yaks and Ascalon in Post (or make them LVL 20 as all the others)

Have a redoable PVP arenas in Pre -Searing (with a suitable lvl hinderance so lvl 2 doesnt get pwned by lvl 16s) -Beginners can then quite fast in the game get a feel about PVP, and the off balance is much less, than in Post. Good for practise.

When reaching Post Searing, Tuturial and practise is then over and done with and only the greatest and most powerfull , choosen by the gods are allowed to meet each other in deadly gladiator games
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Or only allow those with similar requirments meet each other , making no pvp area in pve off limit to some (so for instance people that has been to Yaks bend and are lvl 15, can only meet simmilar counterparts), lvl1s with basic skills can only meet other lvl 1s with basic skills)

problems with this is that it would sometimes be impossible to be able to fight, since no opposing party would be eligable, due to lack suitable participants. Causingong and boring waitng periods (which we sometimes today can experince)

Not to mention that it may be hard to code.
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on a semi off thread remark, It be nice to have a high lvl pvp 16+ arena in pre is also good for the non-leaving community that exist in pre-searing.

when i first started going to the arena with my first character, ya i got pwned didn't stand a cahnce it seemed, BUT ITWAS FUN and a learning experiene i watched and fought and lost and learned and fought again getting better and better. i have had some good fights with ascalon armor going against drok armor, lost most. BUT I LEARNED! If you can't handle losing and left pvp to go on and get more skills GREAT thats exactly what you need cuz you need to do that anyway, and i say good riddance can't handle losing cuz your not good enough and would prolly whine about everything anyway.

Now much later i make a practice of going back with droks armor and killing other ppl with droks armor, i encourage the nubs (new ppl tot he game nothing demeaning) if there doing good tell them so, give them some pointers etc etc. The point is if you can't handle getting your ass kicked horrible you shouldn't pvp yet anyway, cuz there are always gonna be times you get your ass kicked.

Another note it is supposed to be for fun, and a learning exp and something for new ppl to come and see what pvp s all about, don' ya think it would be a wonder seeing all this spectacular wpns and armor that is later in the game and make ya wanna get it yourself? eye opener? I have made some of my best and most reliable freinds in the game pvping in the lower arenas, cuz it IS for fun.

If they nerf it thats fine by me, but it is ok the way it is

Another thing that just came to my mind (though it wouldn't work with the no skills from beyond yak's thingy), is that people who have already played and unlocked now can buy skills in Ascalon. No running needed, except for elites and armor. I personally like that patch, but I see how it can be abused.

My view of the people going to lower lvl arenas to kill rookies, is that they're too nooby themselves to be able to go against others with the same conditions. I'm not gonna be that cynical though. There might be some people who goes there for other reasons.

edit: /signed

Well i got my but kicked in the Ascalon arena and realized they all had Droks armor, so I went and got it. Low level is far different from lv20 PvP.

My n/mo with blood and smiting was really hard to kill. defeated a whole team alone with blood ritual, vampiric gaze, bane sig, symbol of wrath, res, (the life draining spell), and swapped out fainthearted and whatever the blood interrupt is called.

also the Port Sledge trader blood necro weapon

where is the fun in kicking new player's butt? I can't even imaginaly see it. Do you think you are better when you can kill another player who are lower lvl than yourself? Do you think you become a hero among new players? What thell do you think? Fun is not stomping the fingers on someone who climbs a ladder when you are above him, fun is when you 2 stand against eachother on the roof trying to kick eachother down, when you are equaly strong, when the outcome of the battle, fight, competition is unclear, who will go on and who will not, when that is impossible to tell untill the last seconds. Now THAT is fun, adrenline pumping, heart beating so hard it could jump out of your chest any second, any wrong action could be fatal. how's that for a change?

Guild Wars' developers didn't develop low lvl pvp arenas hoping that idiots like you slaughter new players and ruining their PvP experience.

All you faction farmers, why are you farming? is it because you get low faction when you kill someone? the more you farm in low lvl arenas the more reasons Arenanet gets to lower it to an allmost insignificant amount. But hey, we get someone to blame, don't we?

Do you mean Blood Renewal? And Life Siphon or Life Transfer? And Faintheartedness? And Mark of Subversion?

It's sad when a player who doesn't even know his own skill bar can become a He-Man due to a wad of cash and a run.

Err, you could farm faction faster with a mending wammo in regular RA.. and that's saying something.

Anyway, the weapons don't make much of a difference, seeing as a level 10 appropriate collector's weapon is comparable, especially when looking at damage (if you're going to put 7+2 in an attribute at level 10 then you're not going to have much in anything else).

Armor makes a much bigger difference, but it would be extremely simple to lower armor to 30/40/50 (depending on class).

On a final note, the chances of going against a full team of players in droks armor is very slim. It's a random arena, meaning your team will have some players who have been ran, and the other team will have the same.

If you think about it, the newbs would get turned off to pvp when they die so fast to a drok armored sup vig sup sorb victo bladed war, but if you think about it again, it makes them play PvE more till they get good, then they try with a higher lvl toon with more expereince and have probley learned why they died so easy, so they come back to pvp with scorn for the ones who turned them off in the first place, so I think it all should be allowed in the low lvl arenas, cause remember, hell hath no fury like that of a woman(or man) scorned.

-Bane-

hm..well, for the smacktards that prefer to beat up folks in lesser armour than themselves, with poorer skills....
(and i hope that the server gods punish you with armour removing spells/skills in the Factions arenas..'in the name of Honest Arena go'ers. we will punish you!' hehe)

why not have more than one type of arena in low areas...

PvP Fun only...take the door on the left....anything and anyone goes...hump my leg, why dont you?
PvE Fun Only...take the door on the right....anytihng goes...beat me to death with my own arm, sure, sir!

Honest Al's PvP arena...take the middle arch and deposit your armour/wepons/skills in the receptical....
now, take the right-hand door if your PvP only.....the Left-hand door if your PvE only....and the middle if yu dont care who you fight....

speak to the guy in the glowing suit for skills/wepons/armour that is available in your area, then go on in and kick some ass....oh, and your HP? yep, that artifically altered so that everyone gets a fair fight, and SKILL ITSELF is the biggie...

oh, and that little door behind the curtain? ah...thats the mudPit....no armour..no wepons...no skills other than one....'Slap'......
skill name....'Slap'
time to renew...1 second
dammage....1-10 hp, randomly assigned....

Description...
slap is a gesture where one person hits the other with an open hand, with a sound like a wet fish hitting a slab.does very little dammage...
except on certain days of the month..when it is replaced by FishSlap....
FishSlap does exact amount of dammage, but replaced the hand slap action with a large, oversized fish which they smack eachother with...

players can then choose which arena they want to play in....
new players entering arena will talk to Al's girl, Ziggy who explains to them which arena they should try first....

oh, and anyone can access the MudPit arena to watch, by the way ^^