After hitting level 32 in the game with my (Might/supernatural/force) character I decided to kill some time and entered the PvP area of the stronghold prison. Now my character is built in my opinion as a PvE character exclusively so I knew I would have to be a bit more creative when it came to going against another player.

The opposing team was able to call up reinforcements right away but with solid teamwork by members on my team we were able to take out the prisoners and tackle the other team head to head. Now there were plenty of builds running around especially Ice and Telekenitic that at first were doing what they do best and were able to knock me out with little problems I decided to hang back after a few respawns and examine what was happening. I noticed Teleport and Tunneling were used a bit and ranged champions on the opposing team keeping to the air to stay away. I decided to take on the tunnler since my toon is mainly a might champion.

That's when I decided that the powers that I use to hold aggro in the PvE enviromnent could be used to cause a bit of mayhem and at the same time give my teammates the time they need to push back and take out the opposing enemies weak links. I started with the Telekenitic tunnler first by coming in fast with mightly leap at full charge. I then gave him a taste of demolish to debuff his resistance. At the time he put up his shield bubble but 2 quick hits from my haymaker dropped his bubble very quickly. I threw in another 3 more punches to really test his defenses and noticed that he was working really hard to keep me away but it was too late... I went into my PvE attack routine and to my surprise I took a nice piece of his health bar. While I didn't kill him I knew I can hurt him enough so my teammates who are more inclined to play PvP can finish them off which they did.

I decided to stay for a little more time and thought what else can I do to make my PvE build work in the confines of PvP play. When I saw the tunneler I heard the stories of people complaining about them just tunning away to heal like TP players. I decided to foot stomp right above his head, I don't know if it was intended but either way it was a score for my team but he was taking damage as I kept foot stomping till I ran out of energy. When he popped up again he didn't heal as much as he would have liked... I kept the pressure up by keeping close to him with teleport, punching him into submission until he ran away again.

Well I can keep going on and on about what I experienced in my PvP battles last night but with just a minor few tweaks here and there PvP would shape up nicely. Hopefully more PvE players can take away something more positive out of the PvP matches if they try to consider different tactics with their PvE builds when deciding to play PvP. I hope the developers don't mess with the powers too much because of people who may have trouble with the learning curve when PvP'ing (Which there is a curve).

Pro PvE player all the way!
Very very very casual PvP player.

Now try BASH a few times with that build and come back and tell us how much fun you had.

I think I will. Your post makes it sound like I'll be doing something different than my typical play style. People who play PvP are nothing more than super AI in my eye's. There's always a way to win with the right team or tactics, while some powers make it easier to win I think every power in the game so far has it's uses.

No, I don't think your play style will change. I think your perception of tier 4 PvP will.

It sounds like you had fun in your first stronghold and i'm happy to see that you decided to take stock of things then try and figure out where your powers can fit in for your team. A refreshing read and here's hoping you continue to enjoy t4 PvP.

When did you start getting so negative Bison lol. A lot of the things that are spoiling PvP at present are about to be fixed, TK shield and MR are getting fixed in the next patch as far as i know, CW etc will no doubt be soon after.

Well then... I shall make another post when I try out B.A.S.H tonight.

This resembles my experiences with PvP. I'm all PvE when it comes to my character builds, but I like to dip into PvP for a play session here and there. Honestly, it can be frustrating, but I've had a blast trying out unconventional strategies using my "PvE builds" and my win/loss record isn't all that bad. Yes I've been gangbanged by the Force/Ice combos, and yes I've lost kills to the Teleportation/Tunneling travelers. However, anytime I take a step back, look for the weakest links, and try to encourage some teamwork I have found the PvP experience to be fun and engaging.

Bottom line: You're right on about the learning curve. Let's not get nerf-happy because of it.

Heh, I tried to stay positive as long as I could. I really don't fault the game too much, I think the underlying framework is fantastic. I just think that the combination of producing a few very OP abilities and the free respecs went a long way to damaging high end PvP severely. There's other issues as well, but they're mostly community related and no fault of Cryptic or the game.

Like I said before, I want this game to succeed. I really do. I just don't find myself enjoying PvP much anymore in tier 4. I got my BASH championship and kinda lost the urge to play.

I hear ya. I respecced into CW after testing them when the patch improved them then quickly became jaded with how stupidly easy it was to win, most of the rest of my powers were already what are now considered to be OP ones. Well, they've been that way since the nerfs to ice first started to loom anyway, the toon started out as almost all ice as it was from day 1 of OB. I still mourn that toon and may remake it again at some point.

The only thing that kept me going was bringing alts up into t4 and finding ways to succeed with them, but it would soon get to that time of night where all the FOTM'ers were logging in and eventually i caved into using my main again to deal with them.

I'm back on a new alt and it's almost t4 and it should keep me positive for a little while as it has unearthly single target damage and seems to deal with MR fine especially as a lot are relying on it and going all out offensive in t3, but well see if that lasts. Having to level that one up in PvP as it doesn't have a single skill that hits more than one person at a time and is such a pain in the ass for PvE that i only go back and do lower level quests on it for gear atm lol. Every 2nd or 3rd person that hits me with STC etc etc etc i get tempted to pick up a FOTM power just to go after them non stop and pee (other word filtered) em off but i'm trying my hardest not to :p

The crunch is that i'm still enjoying the PvP but i'm not sure how long it will last, probably longer than it will for most people. TK shield + MR getting fixed next will go a ways to making PvP more enjoyable, especially for casual PvP'ers but it still has a long way to go.